Samsara and Nirvana are inseperable!

Speaking Tree Sunday Paper (ToI)23.01.2011

After wandering several months, a young man reached the cave where a monk resided. Offering respectful prostrations, the young man said “I’ve been meditating for twelve years now and nirvana continues to elude me. Please help me, wise master”. The monk, offering the tired traveller some tea, settled down and calmly replied “That’s not surprising at all since you are trying to chase something outside that which has always been within you! You’ll never succeed.”

Nirvana to many is something that we will ‘attain’ after we die by doing good in this life. Nothing can be further from the truth. Two reasons contribute to this. One, there is nothing to ‘attain’ but to simply discover. And two, nirvana is inextricable from samsara. Let’s explore these thoughts.

According to Buddhist tradition, nirvana points towards cessation of suffering. Just as there are many reasons that make us happy in different ways, likewise there are many kinds of suffering and therefore many factors that contribute to this state. Most of us, however, tend to associate suffering arising from physical deformity, poverty, old age, chronic illness, dying and such visible forms. While these sufferings are either natural or karmic in nature there are other forms of suffering which are entirely caused and accumulated by our ownselves. Emotion, or shenpa in Tibetan, is one such. There are innumerable kinds of emotions and all emotions bring suffering in some form or the other. All things that have the quality of being uncertain, indefinite or unpredictable are causes of suffering. Weather, for instance, is one such we all may have experienced. Love too can bring suffering. Lets say you lovingly gift your dear one an expensive perfume presuming s/he will like the aroma and s/he actually does not like it, it brings instantaneous suffering. Broadly, we can bring types of emotions to something that makes us happy and some which brings us sadness. We tend to cling on to those things which bring us happiness and when that goes away or we don’t get it, it brings us suffering. Likewise, we shun the things that make us sad and when this situation befalls upon us, we suffer again. We constantly live in a world of duality. We compartmentalize our thoughts into things we like and dislike. We inadvertently even train our minds that way! In short we constantly stand in judgement of people, situations, stimuli, conditions and so on. And in doing so, allow the thoughts generated in our minds to shackle us thus causing us to suffer. While we may boast about our freedom of sorts on one hand, when it comes to our responses we are so strait-jacketed, so enslaved.

So how does one break free? In two simple ways. One, to realize the nature of our wisdom mind (not to be confused with intellect) which is inherently empty yet radiant and constantly train ourselves in realizing this state through sustained meditative practice. Two, to stop clinging to or judging the occurrence of phenomena with our pre-conceived mind. This is not to say that we become indifferent to people or situations but merely view them in equanimity. While both these methods need effort, the results they bring for us can be remarkable if we do it based on Dharma teachings, proper guidance and a dedicated motivation.

Having sufficiently mastered this, we can quite easily find nirvana within this very samsaric existence.

May the compassionate light of the Three Jewels be with you!

The author is a Pune based Dharma practitioner. Also on www.speakingtree.in