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means happiness and good fortune in the next life, in the
sense of rebirth in fortunate circumstances, in circum-
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stances of happiness, prosperity, health, well-being,
success and so on. And this can be as a human being on
this earth or it can be in the heavens. We can liken it to
the heaven that the Semitic religions speak of. The goal
of Buddhism initially means happiness and prosperity in
this life and next. But the goal of Buddhism is more
than just that and it is here that Buddhism differs from
the Semitic religions because not only does Buddhism
promise happiness and prosperity in this life and next,
Buddhism also offers liberation  Nirvana, the total,
absolute and permanent cessation of suffering. This is
the ultimate and final goal of Buddhism.
When we speak of Nirvana, we encounter certain
problems of expression because when we are speaking
of an experience, the exact nature of that experience
cannot be communicated. It has to be experienced
directly. This is true of all experiences whether they be
the experiences of the taste of salt, sugar, chocolate or
whatever. All these experiences cannot be exactly
described. I often ask people here in Singapore in order
to make this point. Imagine I have just recently arrived
in Singapore and I have not eaten a durian. How would
you describe to me the taste of a durian? Would it be
possible to describe accurately the taste of a durian if I
have not eaten one myself? We can describe it by means
of comparison or simile or by means of negation. So, for
instance, you might say that a durian is slightly sour,
that it has a mealy texture. You might say a durian is
something like a jackfruit or you might say a durian is
not like a banana. So we have a similar kind of problem
when we come to try to describe Nirvana. We find that
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the Buddha and Buddhist teachers have used these kinds
of devices to describe Nirvana.
The Buddha described Nirvana as supreme
happiness, as peace, as immortal. Similarly, He has
described Nirvana as uncreated, unformed, as beyond
the earth, as beyond water, fire, air, beyond the sun and
moon, unfathomable, unmeasurable. So we have two
approaches to the description of Nirvana. One is the
positive approach where we liken Nirvana to something
which we experience in this world where, say, when one
experiences intense happiness accompanied by pro-
found peace of mind one can imagine that one is
experiencing a faint glimpse of Nirvana. But a jackfruit
is not really like a durian. Similarly, we can say that
Nirvana is not like anything in this world, is not like any
experience that we have from day to day. It is uncreated.
It is beyond the sun and the moon. It is beyond all these
names and forms which we are used to thinking in terms
of, through which we experience the world. The point of
all these is that to understand what Nirvana is really like
one has to experience it for oneself. To know what a
durian is really like, one has to eat it. No amount of
essays, no amount of descriptions of durians will even
approach the experience of eating one. One has to
experience the end of suffering for oneself and the way
that one does it is through eliminating the causes of
suffering  the defilements of desire (Raga) ill-will
(Dosha) and ignorance (Avidya). When one has totally
eliminated these causes of suffering, then one will
experience for oneself Nirvana.
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How does one remove these causes of suffering?
What are the means through which one can remove the
defilements that lead to suffering? This is the path
taught by the Buddha. It is the Middle Path, the path of
moderation. You will recall that the life of the Buddha
before His Enlightenment falls into two quite distinct
periods. The period before renunciation was a period
when He enjoyed all the luxury possible. For instance,
we are told that He had three palaces, one for each
season. He experienced luxury to an extent which we
can scarcely imagine. This period of luxury was
superseded by six years of extreme asceticism and
self-mortification when He abandoned the essential
amenities of life, a period in which He lived in the open,
wore the poorest garments and fasted for lengthy
periods. In addition to these privations, He experienced
the suffering of torturing His body through various
practices of self-mortification  sleeping on beds of
thorns and sitting in the midst of fires in the heat of the
noon-day sun. Having experienced the extremes of
luxury and privation, having reached the limits of these
extremes, He saw their futility and He discovered the
Middle Way that avoids the extremes of indulgence in
pleasures of the senses and self-mortification. It was
through realizing the nature of the extremes in His own
experience that He was able to arrive at the Middle Path,
the path that avoids the two extremes. As we shall see in
the subsequent weeks, the Middle Path is capable of
many profound and significant interpretations, but most
importantly and most essentially, it means moderation
in one s approach to life, in one s attitude, in all things.
We use the example of the three strings of the lute to
illustrate the Middle Path. The Buddha once had a
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disciple by the name of Sona who practised meditation
so intensely that he could not progress in his meditation.
He began to think of abandoning his life as a monk. The
Buddha, who understood his problem, said to him,
 Sona, before you became a monk you were a
musician . Sona said that was true. So the Buddha said,
 As a musician which string of the lute produces a
pleasant and harmonious sound. The over-tight string?
 No, said Sona,  The over-tight string produces an
unpleasant sound and is moreover likely to break at any
moment.  The string that is too loose? Again,  No,
the string that is too loose does not produce a tuneful
sound. The string that produces a tuneful sound is the
string that is not too tight and not too loose. So here the
life of luxury is too loose, without discipline. The life of
mortification is too tight, too tense, too likely to cause
the breakdown of the mind and body just as the
over-tight string is likely to break at any moment.
Specifically, the path to the Buddhist goal is like a
medical prescription. When a competent doctor treats a
patient for a serious illness, his prescription is not only
physical, it is also psychological. If one is suffering, for
instance, from heart disease, one is not only given
medication. One is also asked to control one s diet and
to avoid stressful situations. Here too when we look at
the specific instructions with regard to following the
path to the end of suffering, we can see that the
instructions refer not only to one s body  actions and [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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