The Third Noble Truth (Nirvana – the Cessation of Dukkha)

Nirvana is extremely difficult to define but here goes! It is the experience of the cessation of unsatisfactoriness. Was that too easy? Well, you may be right. It is achieved during the lifetime of a person very rarely. When that person dies s/he may or may not achieve parinirvana which means an end to samsara and rebirths. Parinirvana is the final death of a Buddha (such a one will not be reborn in any conventional form).

It is not annihilation, however, despite what Schopenhauer claimed. Weber also thought that Buddhism was a selfish seeking of annihilation. Siddhartha said that he taught nirvana. Buddhists see it as like the blowing out of a candle (the flame thought to be being extinguished is not representative of existence but reflects the impairment only the causes of unsatisfactoriness; nothing is truly extinguished in achieving nirvana just as the flame merely takes another form of existence).

Awareness of the truth is at the heart of this as the prime cause of suffering is delusion concerning the truth of existence. Awareness in itself is effectively becoming unconditioned (asamskrta). This awareness unleashes the purest of freedoms, not any excursion to any heavenly place or time.

Nirvana may be some supreme level of bliss or joy. Early texts generally say that it exists but it isn’t possible to tell in what sense. It is apparently not an event but a continual and realisable reality of experience. A Buddhist is permitted to aspire (chandas) to it but not to crave (trsna) it, as craving is a desire and nirvana is all about the absence of desire. That’s probably as clear as mud and that’s possibly as it should be. Nirvana is not easy. I'll next get into how Buddhists say we can eventually get there.

The Second Noble Truth (Samudaya – the Arising of Dukkha)

Certain human emotions and intentions (cetana) are said to predispose one to be reborn in particular realms. This is the second of the Four Noble Truths, the arising of Dukkha, corresponding with the common Indian idea of karma. Note that, as with the truth of Dukkha, this truth also had three aspects and that the six aspects may all be regarded as interdependent by Buddhists. The first aspect, Greed and meanness, sometimes represented by the cock in wheels of samsara, may lead to the Ghost realm (it seems they have huge stomachs but pin mouths thus possibly leading to extremes of hunger), anger/hate/murder (often represented by the snake) may lead to hell, ignorance and delusion (often represented by the ox) can lead to the Animal realm (including the realm of dolphins and primates, presumably) and great generosity may lead to the God realm and the attendant bliss, pride and complacency (especially of the devas – gods generally fall from their realms easily so Buddhists agree with the common misunderstanding of Proverbs 16:18 that pride tends to go before a fall). Siddhartha notes that gods have their uses but warns humans not to look to them for ultimate salvation.

Strictly speaking, according to Buddhism the ‘self’ is really some combination of what are called the five (interdependent) aggregates (skandas) and is not reborn as such so Buddhism believes in rebirth but not reincarnation. Nor is there therefore an eternal self and Buddhism (at least generally) also teaches that there was no creator God, only chains of causes and effect such as the ones I get into later (but the point of this is that there really is no I). Thus, ignorance that there is no “I” with real independent interests to champion leads to the two other causes of Dukkha: hate and greed (both on behalf of this non-existent self). The skandas include form (in a state of anger the form might include rushes of blood), sensation (the unpleasant emotion, anger), perception (the “I” might label this aspect of reality with such symbols as the words “I was wronged” or “s/he is a bad person”), volitions (reactions and habits that follow) and consciousness (constituted by the five western senses plus the sense of the mind that can together potentially gain awareness of both themselves at work (being aware) and the four other skanda realities, the blood, the labels, etc.) Buddhists try to be especially aware of, as well as of the impermanence of, all skanda states and to change habits positively. The result expected is wisdom which consists of enhanced awareness of the rest of the world and all of its interdependencies.

Tibetan wheels of samsara show Bodhisattvas living in all of the six main realms. The other feature of many of the wheels that bears on the arising of Dukkha is the 12 links of dependent origination. There is no beginning or end of the chain as it’s a chain. Traditionally they are listed with ignorance first causing karma formation as past links leading to our present and then come (as night follows day as it were) consciousness, mind body combination, six sense bases, contact, sensation, desire, clinging, becoming. The next section is traditionally regarded as our future. Number 11 is traditionally birth and number 12 is old age and death. The links are also regarded as psychological as well as cosmological links. With ignorance as number one you can imagine how becoming aware of reality was viewed as a first priority. Acting with awareness and therefore making independent cetana possible may lead to acting with true agency but the chain can strictly be broken anywhere with the same result that comes next as the third of the Noble Truths: Nirvana (that the end of Dukkha is possible).

What then unified/cohered Buddhism? Was it Indianness?

Its Indian ideas, as developed both in India and further afield, is the first answer. So what are its Indian ideas? The idea of karma is one. The earliest Indian Buddhists attempted to understand and write about Buddhism in a context of Indian ideas. They sought to produce a ‘higher’ dharma (religion), an abhidharma (an overarching philosophy).

No split comparable to the split between religions like Christianity and Islam and Western philosophy occurred in India in a comparable period. Another word for religion in India today besides dharma is darsana which literally means “view” and may also mean any reasoned philosophical view. I will seek to explain how Buddhist philosophy is a version of Indian social and political philosophy in these posts (and also note its connections today to international non-harm and environmentalist movements). In its earliest centuries Buddhism was a ‘view’ that existed along with at least six major orthodox Hindu ‘views’ (i.e. views that accepted the Veda as authorities) and other unorthodox views such as the views of the grammarians, the Jaina, the materialists and the sceptics.

Was Siddhartha a reformer of Hinduism, the religion? There is some truth to this claim but we mustn’t confuse the Hinduism of today with the Hinduism of his time and we must understand what the idea of Hinduism is and was. The major gods of Hinduism today (e.g. Vishnu and Shiva) were not well known in his time, if at all. A major popular Hindu scripture of today, the Bhagavad Gita, introduced Krishna for the first time after the death of Siddhartha. Much of today’s Hindu philosophy hadn’t been developed and the temples, pilgrimage and iconography of today weren’t yet part of so-called Hinduism while Siddhartha lived. Moreover the very idea of Hinduism as one religion is really a 19^th Century British invention.

There can be said to have been two streams within the ‘Hinduism’ that Siddhartha would have known if we can define it as the sum of his indigenous Indian religious milieus.

The Bramana stream (Brahmanism) was a stream dominated by a caste and class of Brahmin priestly families and concerned with propitiation of the gods and the promotion of worldly harmony by rituals. Divine forces or powers (called devas) were said to need this harmonisation by humans. The families handed down this knowledge (Veda) as scriptures. The one that originated earliest was called the Rgveda. Devas could exist in our minds, our bodies, in fires (fire devas were called Agni), in winds, in the moon, the stars and the planets, in fact, anywhere, and in movements that were both actual and arguably metaphorical. The proper regulation of society (done by the Brahmans) was called rta.

The Sramana (Strivers) stream sought a transcendental overcoming of this life. They were the renunciates that most interested Siddhartha. They sought to get away from the rta and from society and its Brahman values and strove for liberation (moksa) from the world itself.

Generally corresponding with this division were two attitudes to the cosmos but especially to the world and the world of humanity, the Pravriti (engagement – turning towards) of the Bramana stream and the Nivriti (disengagement – turning away) of the Strivers. It was also possible, however, to be of the Bramana stream and yet still cultivate Nivriti. It was accepted that these streams and attitudes could all coexist in Indian thought. Both views also survived into Buddhism.

In essence, the first view held that the earth was basically a good thing. It was divinely created and divinely inhabited, after all. The devas had also pronounced that society was good. As a result, humans owed a debt of gratitude from birth as their lives were deemed things of value and they were thus obliged to be good people and contribute to society as required by the priests for the betterment of the world order.

In the second view, the earth was nothing but a thing of repeated death and rebirth, the domain of the ravages of time, decay, suffering, illusions, destruction and other bad things, to be overcome in some way if possible. It naturally dwelt on the idea of reincarnation and its meanings.

The second answer to how Buddhism cohered in its earliest context is its canonical ideas (and those ideas drew on Hindu ones especially of the Nivriti persuasion). Prominent among these is the idea from the three major canons (in Pali, Chinese and Tibetan) that all Buddhists accept: the idea of the Four Noble Truths, samudaya, dukkha, nirvana and marga (path or road), that happen to roughly correspond with the mainly Nivriti ideas of karma, samsara, moksa and yoga.

Karma (samudaya) is the idea that the universe operates under a law of moral cause and effect. The idea is sometimes expressed with a metaphor, actions being seeds for results which are ‘germinated’ when conditions are right. The results may arrive in a future life or in the current life of the actor. Rebirths as punishments such as being born in a hellish realm or as ghosts or unfortunate dumb animals or creatures are features of this view of the cosmos.

Good karma alone was held to not be sufficient to end the reincarnation cycle; it could lead to achievement of blissful godhead or deva-head, though, but even those ended in death eventually, often after millions of years. Buddhist literature details how devas come to die, not aware until the last moment of their impending death (preceded by the fading of flowers around them, the development of body odour and being consequently shunned by other devas equally blissfully unaware that this will one day be their own fate also).

Buddhist thought given to what else could be done to achieve a final end besides good karma led to the conclusion that humanity is best placed of all beings to achieve it: the gods are too self-satisfied, ghosts and those in hell realms are too preoccupied with being tormented and animals are too unintelligent and dumb. It’s thus achieved in part by apprehending a reality not accessible to the other classes of being, becoming aware of reality. Humans thus have, or are at least able to cultivate, agency brought about by this cultivated awareness that allows them the opportunity to eventually overcome their karmic habits and thereby karma itself.

Samsara (dukkha) is the cycle of birth and rebirth itself that karma causes (and its enveloping cosmos that the Nivriti generally despise so). As mentioned, it’s really up to humans to end it, according to Buddhists (by the Buddhist marga).

Yoga (marga for Buddhists) is the name given to any spiritual discipline designed to cultivate the awareness that can ultimately lead to this end of samsara, Moksa or nirvana.

Moksa (liberation from samsara) - Nirvana for Buddhists - is the end of samsara itself for the soul concerned.

So the renunciates already had these ideas down and yoga (marga) and moksa (nirvana) was their goal, too, but of course had subtly different beliefs and hence also subtle differences in their aims.

Buddhists focused on the idea that suffering in some form is what leads to rebirth, karma (samudaya) was its cause, samsara (dukkha) was the experience of it (even when serenely lying on a beautiful beach the reality that we will not always be there is a form of suffering), yoga (marga, or the Buddhist eightfold method or path) was the path to ending it and moksa (nirvana) was its end.

Bad karma is said to be either the result of greed, hate/aversion or delusion and in the related cosmology the place and form of rebirth is believed to be directly related to the balance between these attitudes in the current life. Karma is thus defined by intention so inadvertent killing of an ant, for example, receives a lesser penalty than deliberately killing one (provided due care is taken not to kill ants, of course).