Today we celebrate, not celebrate, maybe celebrate, celebrate Buddha's, Shakyamuni Buddha's Parinirvana, it's called Parinirvana, which is called the Great Decease or Buddha's Great Death. So, in order to say a little bit about what parinirvana is, might be, I need to talk about what nirvana might be. There are many opinions about what nirvana is. the various schools of Buddhism, although there's some agreement, there's also a lot of divergence in agreement as to what is meant by nirvana.

[01:12]

Buddha himself, Shakyamuni Buddha, apparently didn't explain what nirvana is because it's beyond explanation. So when you talk about nirvana, we have to talk around nirvana, you know, talk about what it isn't rather than what it is. So if you talk about, if you understand something about what it isn't, then it's the negative way of talking about the way, what it is. This is very common way to explain things in Buddhism, for the simple reason that when you come right down to it, basically nothing is. So, Buddhadharma is the study of how you take everything apart to see what it isn't.

[02:23]

And then when you realize what it isn't, then you have some glimpse as to what it is. But what it is is experiential and not explanatory. So I'm going to talk around nirvana a little bit. so we can catch a glimpse of what most of the schools of Buddha Dharma, how they see it. But I'm not going to get into any of the arguments or controversies about it. Nirvana means literally Sanskrit or Pali word meaning nibbana, actually, to blow out or extinguish. Like a light, you know, and it's out.

[03:30]

So, a lot of the translation that has been done into western languages translates parinirvana as extinguished or as and gives rise to a nihilistic idea of what parinirvana means, or even nirvana. So we have to look at some of the commentaries. Usually nirvana, according to Shakyamuni Buddha, means the absence of greed, hate, and delusion, basically.

[04:37]

sounds simple. It's not that simple. But the absence of greed, anger, or hate and delusion is the basis for nirvana. So here we have our first negations. The three roots of evil, so to speak, are greed, hate and delusion. And the three roots of nirvana, or release, is absence of greed, hate and delusion. These are called the three wholesome roots, which actually are no roots at all. It's merely the absence of something, of hindrances. So greed, if you take these three down to their more essential meaning, greed means grasping.

[05:49]

And anger or hate means aversion. And delusion means confusion. Confusion in the sense of not knowing, thinking one thing thinking reality is one thing when it's another, being confused about it. So, aversion or grasping and aversion are fundamentally the two hindrances to understanding our life. If we try to hold on to something in this ever-changing world, then this is called grasping and it leads to suffering.

[06:57]

The second noble truth of the four noble truths is the reason that beings suffer, basic reason, is through grasping. grasping at something which cannot be held, trying to hold something which can't be held, trying to retain something which can't be retained, and trying to make something out of something which has no basis for being. Aversion is just the other side of grasping. Grasping and aversion are just two sides of one desire. Aversion is pushing away, not allowing something to happen, not being able to absorb or to accept what's inevitable.

[08:09]

So not to be able to accept what is inevitable also leads to suffering. So the two sides of desire, which are grasping and aversion, are the basic causes of our suffering. And the reason is confusion or delusion. So greed, hate and delusion are called the three problem areas of our life. The three poisons, actually. And our life spins or turns on this axis of greed, hate and delusion. This is the axis on which the world turns. Oh, it also turns on good deeds. But this also can be part of delusion, in the sense that good and bad alternate with each other, and neither one is really permanent.

[09:26]

So actually, all of our life can fit into these three categories. And Buddha says nirvana is the absence of grasping, aversion and delusion. Greed, hate and delusion. Wanting something to be, wanting to have that which we can't have and not wanting to have that which we don't want. pulling, grasping, holding on, and pushing away. Simple. And not understanding what it is that we're doing or why we're doing it. So nirvana is called release.

[10:32]

Blowing out actually means more like release. Once you're free from the three poisons, you're no longer bound by the conditions of the world. Various Buddhist schools had different understandings of what that means by being not bound. Some schools of Buddhism felt that nirvana was to completely cut yourself off from the world. If you completely cut yourself off from the world, then nirvana would be the result. But other schools of Buddhism felt that being free from greed, hate, and delusion doesn't mean to be cut off from greed, hate, and delusion, but within the realm of greed, hate, and delusion, to be free from greed, hate, and delusion.

[11:52]

This is more Mahayana understanding. not to separate the two, but one is to be found within the other. Release or freedom is to be found within the world rather than to escape from it. So nirvana, you know, also has the connotation of escape. So escape can mean various things. It can mean running away, or it can mean freedom, or freedom without running somewhere. Because actually, when you think about it, there's no place to run to. There's really no place to go, no matter how far you go. As the bumper sticker says, I am always here.

[12:55]

No matter where I go, I'm always here. So this nirvana is also bound up with and associated with the three marks of life. according to Buddhadharma, which is anatta, anika, and dukkha. Anatta means that beings have no inherent existence. It's called no self. What we think of as our self is really not our self. We just name it our self or feel that this is my self. But basically, beings have no self, no inherent self, because everything is in constant flux.

[13:58]

So nirvana is called the birthless and the deathless. And this is a very important understanding in Buddhism. Even though we talk about birth and death, we're just talking about a certain arising and a certain non-arising, a certain occurrence in space and time, which we, from our viewpoint, name birth and death. But since nothing is permanent and everything is changing, which is the second mark, the first mark is There is no separate existence, which is myself. And the second mark is, everything is changing. Nothing is permanent. So in a world where nothing is permanent, whatever arises has no substantial reality.

[15:09]

It doesn't mean that things are not real. We have to understand that it doesn't mean that things are not real. It's real, which means not substantial. Reality doesn't necessarily mean this. It does mean that, but it means not substantial. When we think about reality, we think about what's substantial. This is real. This is real. But actually, real, substantial, means no self. So what seems substantial, what seems real, is actually not substantial and only has a limited reality. as individual existence.

[16:16]

So, instead of some substantial reality, Buddhadharma understands that everything is connected to everything else, and no being has inherent existence. And what is continuous is change. So in order to find our true life, we have to find our true life within change. That's our true existence, is change and constant becoming. So in Buddhadharma, we don't say there's a beginning and an end. Things go on from beginningless beginning to endless end. So Buddha can say the unborn and the undying.

[17:22]

There's no special birth and no special death. That everything is intimately interrelated. All things are intimately interrelated and connected even though we don't observe them that way. because we observe everything from the viewpoint of our partiality. And when we observe things from the viewpoint of our partiality, we only see out of one eye, so to speak. And we can't see the whole picture. You can see this when you see how your kids act. Your kids are acting from the partiality of their understanding. So they say, it's not fair. This is the common complaint of kids. It's not fair, but when we grow older, we also think it's not fair, but we realize that fairness is a view from our partiality.

[18:33]

Not that we shouldn't make things fair. We want things to be fair. And we should try to be fair. But everything happens according to causes and conditions. Life rolls on, so to speak. What we call life rolls on according to a combination of causes and conditions. And each one of us is born into a certain environment which we have to meet with our intentions. And the way that we meet our life with our intention is the way we turn the wheel of the Dharma. And if we meet life through greed, hate, and delusion, or through grasping, aversion, and confusion, then we don't have much of a chance.

[19:45]

Because what we create through our intention meeting the causes and conditions and environment of our life, is how we create our life. So, in Buddhadharma, our life is called self-created, even though we don't see it that way, because we say, well, look at all the forces acting on me, and the accident of birth. If I had my druthers, I'd rather have it a different way. But circumstances are only a very small part of our life, although they seem overwhelming. Our real life takes place on the stage of how we meet circumstances, no matter what they are. Circumstances are just the furniture of our life, the scenery of our life, so to speak.

[20:54]

So how we, what our intention is and how we meet circumstances, how we deal with circumstances is what we call our life. It doesn't matter what the circumstances are. Some of us have really hard circumstances and others have pretty easy circumstances. Some people are born into really easy circumstances and others are born into really difficult circumstances. But everyone has an opportunity to be themselves within those circumstances. You know, we somehow draw our ticket, you know, and our ticket's, oh, destination. And that's it. And we have to be able to accept that first. First thing is to be able to accept that and to be able to respond to the circumstances in order to create ourself.

[22:09]

And we're not always up to it, but life is suffering, right? So, when we respond to our environment with a selfish mind, selfish grasping mind and a mind of aversion and confusion, then we really create a lot of suffering for ourself and for others. And at some point in our life, we decide this isn't right. This is not right. How can I deal with this? And then we start to look around for a way to deal with it.

[23:12]

what's the right way to go? How can we act in such a way to find some relief from suffering? And so we try all kinds of things and we have a big pack of bandages and band-aids and mercurochrome, but they don't work. They just kind of help us a little bit. But they don't, and sometimes they just get us deeper and deeper into it. So in order to deal with it, to find the way out, we have to find a way to practice that one, embodies reality, and two, is possible. I remember Suzuki Roshi saying about our situation, somebody would ask him, well, do I have to stop doing something in order to practice?

[24:25]

He'd say, well, look, as long as you like it, as long as you really like it, you should do it, whatever it is that you're doing. But at some point, you kind of get a little tired of the stuff that you're doing, even though you may feel that you like it. We get very used to doing things, and it's hard to stop our habit energy. So, no self, everything changes, and suffering. These are the three marks of human life. And we suffer because basically we grasp at life and we push away anything that is unpleasant. We grasp at what we want and push away whatever is unpleasant.

[25:28]

Nirvana is called the end of suffering. We don't talk so much about nirvana, actually, in Zen. It comes up sometimes, and Dogen uses it. He says the great Shobogenzo Nehan Myoshin, the eye of nirvana, and he means zazen. Deep zazen is nirvana. By zazen we mean no grasping, no aversion, and no delusion. The meaning of zazen is no grasping, for one, not holding on to anything.

[26:39]

Two, not pushing anything away. And three, not being confused about it or deluded about it. And this is what we learn in Satsang. We don't hold on to any particular state of mind. Zazen, we don't enter Zazen with any kind of expectation. First, when you sit in Zazen, there's no expectation. That's the first rule. If you have some expectation, then you'd be disappointed. That's delusion. And second rule is that you don't avoid anything. When discomfort and pain and emotions come up, you just let them come.

[27:47]

And you just learn how to be with them. When your legs are screaming at you, you just find out how to let it be that way. Suffering and pain are not the same, although they're associated with each other. Pain is just what it is. Suffering is how we deal with it. And suffering is very hard to deal with. even Buddha had suffering. So this is the fundamental principle of zazen is

[28:51]

No expectations and no grasping onto any particular mental state or joyful state or painful state, but just to let everything come and go as it comes and goes. And to be flexible and open enough to let everything be. and it can be quite a struggle. In this sense, it's quite a struggle. My old teacher used to say, Sazen is the battleground of the mind and the heart. It doesn't have to be a battleground. But sometimes it turns out that way, especially in the beginning when you're really struggling to maintain your place, to just be, to just sit still.

[30:01]

And there's nothing to do. There's no one to help you. and you can only find your way by yourself. But there is a way, but you have to find it by yourself. So nirvana, we don't call it nirvana, but we know Siddhartha is nirvana. But actually nirvana is found within zazen. If I say you should sit zazen in order to find nirvana, then you have a little carrot there, which is a little too much. We just sit zazen to sit zazen. This is called being free of everything.

[31:10]

Parinirvana, that term is used for Buddha when he died. It means the complete release, no more becoming. No more rebirth in the realm of greed, hate and delusion. And the reason for no more rebirth in the realm of greed, hate and delusion for Buddha is because his understanding is that there's no birth and death. So there's a nirvana called nirvana with remainder, which means in the world while one is alive.

[32:22]

It means freedom, complete freedom from greed, hate, and delusion, and birth and death. And parinirvana is called the great decease. of someone who has attained nirvana. Does anybody have a question? One question only. I didn't mean just one question from you, I mean, we don't have much time. If Buddha is no longer cycling in the realm of greed and delusion, what's he doing?

[33:24]

What's he doing? See, like, this is very important. People used to ask Buddha, does the Buddha exist after death or does the Buddha not exist after death or does the Buddha both exist and not exist after death? All the questions that you can think of. And he never answered them. He said, these are not the right questions, because if there's no Buddha, what can he be doing? This presupposes that there's someone. But two things to remember, or one thing with two aspects, is the two extreme views are annihilation and eternalism. And people fall into these two views.

[34:25]

If it's not eternal, then it's annihilation. And if it's not annihilation, then it's eternal. Which is it? And most of the questions are based on, is life eternal or is it annihilation? Buddha said, my way is the middle path. It's not annihilation and it's not eternal. He says, Life rolls on, but there's no one who is there, who experiences it. Life is experienced, but there's no one who experiences it. There is suffering, but there is no sufferer. Although there is suffering, there is no sufferer.

[35:29]

Although there is experience, there is no experiencer. This is Buddhadharma. And he says, the greatest arrogance is I exist. So what is it that goes on? What is it that's moving and becoming and being? If you say eternal, then that means there's something that exists forever. That's the theory of a soul. And if you say annihilation, that means that after this life, that's it. So the nirvana, or the putting out the light, blowing out the light of nirvana, is not the same as annihilation.

[36:35]

It means cutting off the roots of greed, hate and delusion. But there's lots of misunderstanding about it. And it's a deep subject. And we don't have any more time for it. Thank you.

[37:08]

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