I have been listening to a
talk by Shohaku Okumura on the Mahaparinirvana
Sutra, the teachings of the Buddha at the end of his life. In Sanskrit Maha means great beyond great; Parinirvana is the death of the body of
one who has attained nirvana in his or her lifetime. A verse from the sutra
says:
Then the Lord said to the monks, “Now, monks, I declare
to you all conditioned things are of the nature to decay. Strive on
untiringly.” These were the Tathagatha’s last words.
I have been thinking of
nirvana, perhaps the most important idea in this sutra. In Soto Zen, we chant
the Heart Sutra regularly. One of the
lines is “Far beyond all inverted views, one realizes nirvana.” When I pause
for a moment to think about the words that I am chanting, I am always amazed by
the complexity of just one word. What do I think that nirvana means?
The Sanskrit word nirvana
means “blown out,” as a candle is blown out. In the Indian tradition, nirvana
means complete freedom and liberation from samsara, or the wheel of birth and
death, the wheel of earthly existence. The individual soul, or Atman in Sanskrit, is extinguished and merges
with Brahman, the supreme divine
consciousness (God.) Nirvana can be attained in this lifetime with intense and
lifelong yogic practice.
In pre-Mahayana Buddhist
practice, nirvana can be attained in one’s lifetime, but as in the case of the
Buddha before his death, nirvana is considered incomplete, because he still had
a physical body. Complete nirvana, or Parinirvana, occurs when the five skandas
(body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness) are
dissolved. When the Buddha died, he entered complete nirvana, because he no
longer had body and mind.
The insight I had while
listening to Rev. Okumura’s talk is that in the Chinese version of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, a Mahayana text, there is an important difference in the
meaning of nirvana. In fact, the meaning
of nirvana has almost completely changed. Nirvana is not the cessation of
the skandas, the death of the body and mind. Nirvana is the cessation of
arising and perishing.
As I understand it, then,
complete nirvana can occur in this lifetime, while you still have a body and
mind. Nirvana is not the cessation of conditioned things. Nirvana is a state of
mind, according to Rev. Okumura, in which the idea of arising and perishing
ceases. This state of mind is freedom from suffering.
Now I need to look at my life
and figure out what this means. Well, clearly things arise and cease. That is,
a person is born. I gave birth to my son. And a person dies. The other day I
was sitting next to a corpse, and that person was clearly dead and gone. To
deny that things arise and cease in this world would be absurd.
So what does this cessation
of arising and perishing mean? Rev. Okumura says, “So the time when arising
and perishing, a dichotomy, ceases means we are really right now, right here.”
He gave the example of firewood and ash, from Dogen’s Genjokoan: when firewood is firewood it is 100% firewood; it is not
ash. And ash is 100% ash. So I would relate this to my own life, thinking when
I am alive, I am 100% alive, not dead.
When a body starts failing, it is often said that the person is dying.
But, no! That person is alive until the final breath.
For me, this isn’t just about birth and
death. It means a radical acceptance of what is right now. We accept that
things are born and die, that things come and go. It is the clinging to
perishing that can be so painful. My birth family relationships are gone. My
son has moved 1500 miles away. My body is changed and weakened.
These are facts: things arise and cease.
Nirvana would be cessation of wishing things were different. Acceptance doesn’t
mean denial of events that are sad, such as the loss of a child. It would mean
that at a deep and radical level, we accept the inevitable suffering in our
life. We understand and accept that things arise and cease. This would be equanimity.
This would be peace of mind.
Does this make sense?
