To show Nibbana as desirable, as the aim of striving, he describes it as the highest bliss, as the supreme state of sublime peace, as the ageless, deathless, and sorrowless, as the supreme security from bondage. To show what must be done to attain Nibbana, to indicate that the goal implies a definite task, he describes it as the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all acquisitions, the destruction of craving, dispassion (M 26.19). Above all, Nibbana is the cessation of suffering, and for those who seek an end to suffering such a designation is enough to beckon them towards the path. ~ Bhikkhu Bodhi, ‘Introduction to the Majjhima Nikaya,’ pp 31-2, Quoted in Passano and Amaro’s The Island
If chasing pleasure and avoiding discomfort are the guiding principles of life then life will be lived in unhappiness and end in loss. It is hard to think of an alternative. But there is one.
Three approaches to training
The structure of training includes a threshold which forms a goal for practice. It inspires urgency because either you cross the threshold in this life or you risk long, almost infinite wandering and suffering before you have another chance. This leads to an all or nothing practice orientation which not everyone accepts. Some orient their training to the accumulation of merit – doing right and avoiding wrong in this life, so in the future you will meet conditions that are good. Others accept sudden enlightenment, embracing the doctrine that since nirvana and samsara are identical we are all set. Correct or not as a point of doctrine, from a practice point of view, it can lead to complacency and decline. So, what do we do? Hurry? Despair? Persist?
Simile of The Sea-Turtle and The Yoke in The Ocean
“Suppose a man threw into the sea a yoke with one hole in it, and the east wind carried it to the west, and the west wind carried it to the east, and the north wind carried it to the south, and the south wind carried it to the north. Suppose there were a blind turtle that came up once at the end of each century. What do you think? Would that blind turtle put his neck into that yoke with one hole in it? “He might, venerable sir, sometime or other at the end of a long period.”
“Bhikkhus, the blind turtle would take less time to put his neck into that yoke with a single hole in it than a fool, once gone to perdition, would take to regain the human state. Why is that? Because there in the lower realms there is no practising of the Dhamma there, no practising of what is righteous, no doing of what is wholesome, no performance of merit. There mutual devouring prevails, and the slaughter of the weak.” –Majjhima Nikaya 129.24 ( Balapandita Sutta)
Using the idea of Nirvana
Long ago people looked to the North Star to find their way. The North Star was a navigation tool, not the destination.
We need a way to navigate. Drifting, hoping, relying on luck, blame, or the kindness of strangers won’t work. Christopher Columbus imagined his destination. He had some data, old maps, hearsay, guesses, experience, skill and determination. You could say he relied on heuristics. You could say he took a guess. You could say it worked.
We modern people don’t see the North Star. Orienting in the natural world is unnatural for us. We don’t need to. We have street signs and GPS. The night sky is obscured by buildings and light. As we navigate through life our attention is guided by our phone or computer screen. No landscape, no horizon, no mountain or river, field or stream, forest or meadow can replace that. We may consciously or unconsciously crave the experience our ancestors had in the natural world we were born into. We may want to live in a world where everything, everyone and every moment is connected in a grand living panorama of meaning and possibility. The idea of nirvana works like the North Star for some.
Nibbana
…because there is a not-born, a not-brought-to-being, a not-made, a not-formed, an escape is discerned from what is born, brought-to-being, made, formed. – Udana VIII.3 (Patali Village) 8.3
The Buddha blazed the trail to nirvana and showed the way to people who wanted to go. It was not complicated. It was elaborated, across the world, for millennia, for different people, cultures, nations, needs and visions. It is all too much, even for philosophers, scholars and brilliant people. But the path to freedom is there, for all of us.
Meditation
“And what kind of meditation did the Blessed One praise? Here, brahmin, quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, a bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the first jhana … With the stilling of applied and sustained thought, the bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the second jhana … With the fading away as well of rapture … he bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the third jhana … With the abandoning of pleasure and pain … he bhikkhu enters upon and abides in the fourth jhana … The Blessed One praised that kind of meditation.” –Majjhima Nikaya 108.27 (Gopakamoggallana Sutta )
He spoke to bhikkhus, monks, about the jhanas, deep states of concentration. But his advice is not limited to them, or to virtuoso practitioners of meditation. The word nirvana is derived from Sanskrit roots meaning extinguishing or extinction. It describes a flame going out. It is not annihilation. It is the end of the fire consuming our lives: the burning desire for pleasure, gain, fame and praise; the end of the flames of rage that blaze when craving is obstructed, the end of the billowing clouds of smoke from the fire of ignorance that encloses our minds and senses, obscures the truth, disturbs the peace, consumes our lives. Those fires feed on the fuel of our craving. If we withdraw the fuel, the fire goes out. That is nirvana. The North Star for practitioners since the beginning.
The Buddha defined nirvana as the end of the asavas: the end of craving for sense pleasures, craving for existence, ignorance, and attachment to wrong views. This points us to what we need to do. One requirement is to understand what each of the asavas is. That is not obvious using conventional definitions of those words, or hunches about them.
Gradual Path
I do not say that final knowledge is achieved all at once. On the contrary, final knowledge is achieved by gradual training, by gradual practice, by gradual progress. –Majjhima Nikaya – Kitagiri Sutta (70:22-23)
“Just as the great ocean gradually shelves, slopes and inclines, and there is no sudden precipice, so also there is a gradual training, a gradual course, a gradual progression... –Udana V.5 (The Observance Day)
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Post copyright © 2026 Jeffrey Brooks, MountainKarateNC.com, Yamabayashi Ryu, Mountain Karate Dojo, in the mountains of western NC.
photo by Ant Rozetsky via Unsplash
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