The Buddhist Path to Enlightenment (study)
by Dr Kala Acharya | 2016 | 118,883 words
This page relates ‘Where Nibbana is’ of the study on the Buddhist path to enlightenment. The Buddha was born in the Lumbini grove near the present-day border of India and Nepal in the 6th century B.C. He had achieved enlightenment at the age of thirty–five under the ‘Bodhi-tree’ at Buddha-Gaya. This study investigates the teachings after his Enlightenment which the Buddha decided to teach ‘out of compassion for beings’.
6.6. Where Nibbāna is
Nibbāna is not a kind of heaven where a transcendental ego resides. An eternal heaven, which provides all forms of pleasure desired by man and where one enjoys happiness to one’s heart’s contents, is practically inconceivable. It is absolutely impossible to think that suck a place could exist permanently anywhere.[1]
According to Rohitassa sutta, the Buddha points out where the nibbāna is. It runs as follows:
“In this very one-fathom-long body, along with its perceptions and thoughts, do I proclaim the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world”.[2]
But in Milindapañhā, Ven. Nāgasena answers the question of King Milinda thus:
“There is no spot looking East, South, West and North, above, below, or beyond, where nibbāna is situated. And yet nibbāna is, and he who orders his life aright, grounded in virtue and with rational attention, may realize if whether he live in Greece, China, Alexandria, or in Kosala. Just as fire is not stored up any particular place but arises when the necessary conditions exist. So nibbāna is said not to exist in a particular place, but it is attained when the necessary conditions are fulfilled”.[3]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
MB, p. 128-129
[2]:
AN IV, p. 47
[3]:
Mil, p. 313