Nirvana Sutra Quotes

if the selflessness of phenomena is analyzed and if this analysis is cultivated, it causes the effect of attaining nirvana. through no other cause does one come to peace.

So too, friend, purification of virtue is for the sake of reaching purification of mind; purification of mind is for the sake of reaching purification of view; purification of view is for the sake of reaching purification by overcoming doubt; purification by overcoming doubt is for the sake of reaching purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path; purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path is for the sake of reaching purification by knowledge and vision of the way; purification by knowledge and vision of the way is for the sake of reaching purification by knowledge and vision; purification by knowledge and vision is for the sake of reaching final Nibbāna [Nirvana] without clinging. It is for the sake of final Nibbāna without clinging that the holy life is lived under the Blessed One.

We can also explore four additional concentrations on impermanence, non-craving, letting go, and nirvana. These four practices are found in Sutra on the Full Awareness of Breathing, a wonderful text from early Buddhism.

The term fraud alludes to a saying of the Buddha which the Mahayanists were fond of quoting: "All conditioned things are worthless, unsubstantial, fraudulent, deceptive and unreliable, but only fools are deceived by them. Nirvana alone, the highest reality, is free from deception." Two classes of facts are here distinguished-the deceptive multiple things on one side, and the true reality of the Absolute on the other.

Some of them taught that all worldly things are unreal, because [they are] a result of the perverted views. Only that which transcends worldly things and can be called “emptiness,” being the absence of them all, is real. Others said that everything, both worldly and supramundane, both absolute and relative, both Samsara and Nirvana, is fictitious and unreal and that all we have got is a number of verbal expressions to which nothing real corresponds.

The Sravaka (literally ‘hearer,’ the name given by Mahayana Buddhists to contemplatives of the Hinayana school) fails to perceive that Mind, as it is in itself, has no stages, no causation. Disciplining himself in the cause, he has attained the result and abides in the samadhi (contemplation) of Emptiness for ever so many aeons. However enlightened in this way, the Sravaka is not at all on the right track. From the point of view of the Bodhisattva, this is like suffering the torture of hell. The Sravaka has buried himself in Emptiness and does not know how to get out of his quiet contemplation, for he has no insight into the Buddha-nature itself. Mo Tsu When Enlightenment is perfected, a Bodhisattva is free from the bondage of things, but does not seek to be delivered from things. Samsara (the world of becoming) is not hated by him, nor is Nirvana loved. When perfect Enlightenment shines, it is neither bondage nor deliverance. Prunabuddha-sutra

We even, at the worst, reach the state for which Buddhism, in the East presents most ably the case: as in the West, does James Thomson (B.V.) in The City of Dreadful Night ; we come to wish for—or, more truly to think that we wish for "blest Nirvana's sinless stainless Peace" (or some such twaddle—thank God I can't recall Arnold's mawkish and unmanly phrase!) and B.V.'s "Dateless oblivion and divine repose." I insist on the "think that you wish," because, if the real You did really wish the real That, you could never have come to exist at all! ("But I don't exist."—"I know—let's get on!") Note, please, how sophistically unconvincing are the Buddhist theories of how we ever got into this mess. First cause: Ignorance. Way out, then, knowledge. O.K., that implies a knower, a thing known—and so on and so forth, through all the Three Waste Paper Baskets of the Law; analysed, it turns out to be nonsense all dolled up to look like thinking. And there is no genuine explanation of the origin of the Will to be. How different, how simple, how self-evident, is the doctrine of The Book of the Law !

As the Prajna-paramita Sutras (Sermons on the Perfection of Wisdom), which were compiled at the end of the first century BCE, explain, the bodhisattvas do not wish to attain their own private nirvana. On the contrary, they have surveyed the highly painful world of being, and yet desirous of winning supreme enlightenment, they do not tremble at birth-and-death. They have set out for the benefit of the world, for the ease of the world, out of pity for the world. They have resolved: “We will become a shelter for the world, the world’s place of rest, the final relief of the world, islands of the world, lights of the world, the guides of the world’s means of salvation.

Count all these sufferings from here to the end of the endless sky which is no sky and see how many you can add together to make a figure to impress the Boss of Dead Souls in the Meat Manufactory in city City CITY everyone of them in pain and born to die, milling in the streets at 2 A M underneath those imponderable skies”—their enormous endlessness, the sweep of the Mexican plateau away from the Moon—living but to die, the sad song of it I hear sometimes on my roof in the Tejado district, rooftop cell, with candles, waiting for my Nirvana or my Tristessa—neither come, at noon I hear “La Paloma” being played on mental radios in the fallways between the tenement windows—the crazy kid next door sings, the dream is taking place right now, the music is so sad, the French horns ache, the high whiney violins and the deberratarra-rabaratarara of the Indian Spanish announcer. Living but to die, here we wait on this shelf, and up in heaven is all that gold open caramel, ope my door—Diamond Sutra is the sky.

We usually think of abundance (arising, realization, buddhas) as positive, and we consider deficiency (perishing, delusion, and living beings) as negative. When we understand Buddha’s teaching in this commonsense way, it seems that we should escape from samsara, which is something bad, in order to reach nirvana, which is something good. We think nirvana is a goal we can achieve in the same way that a poor person can work hard and become rich. We may think that practice is a way to reach nirvana in the same way that working hard is a way to attain wealth. The common understanding of Buddha’s teaching is that since ignorance turns the lives of deluded beings into suffering, we should eliminate our ignorance so we can reach nirvana. If we simply accept that teaching and devote our lives to the practice of eliminating our ignorance and egocentric desires, we will find that it’s impossible to do. Not only is it impossible, but it actually creates another cycle of samsara. This happens because the desire to become free from delusion or egocentricity is one of the causes of our delusion and egocentricity. And the idea that there is nirvana or samsara existing separately from each other is a basic dualistic illusion; the desire to escape from this side of existence and enter another side is another expression of egocentric desire. When we are truly in nirvana we awaken to the fact that nirvana and samsara are not two separate things. This is what Mahayana Buddhism teaches, especially through the Prajna Paramita Sutras; it teaches that samsara and nirvana are one. If we don’t find nirvana within samsara, there is no place we can find nirvana. If we don’t find peacefulness within our busy daily lives, there is no place we can find peacefulness. This is why the Heart Sutra “negates” the Buddha’s teaching; it attempts to release us from dichotomies created in our thoughts. If we understand Buddha’s teaching with our commonsense, calculating way of thinking, we create another type of samsara. Eventually we feel more pain as our desire to reach nirvana creates more difficulty in our lives. This desire to end our suffering is another cause of suffering, and the Heart Sutra presents the Buddha’s teachings in a negative way in order to avoid arousing this desire.

Any bodhisattva who undertakes the practice of meditation should cherish one thought only: “When I attain perfect wisdom, I will liberate all sentient beings in every realm of the universe, and allow them to pass into the eternal peace of Nirvana.” And yet, when vast, uncountable, unthinkable myriads of beings have been liberated, truly no being has been liberated. Why? Because no bodhisattva who is a true bodhisattva entertains such concepts as “self” or “others.” Thus there are no sentient beings to be liberated and no self to attain perfect wisdom. —The Diamond Sutra (4th century Ce)

14. Zen and Nirvana. The beatitude of Zen is Nirvana, not in the Hinayanistic sense of the term, but in the sense peculiar to the faith. Nirvana literally means extinction or annihilation; hence the extinction of life or the annihilation of individuality. To Zen, however, it means the state of extinction of pain and the annihilation of sin. Zen never looks for the realization of its beatitude in a place like heaven, nor believes in the realm of Reality transcendental of the phenomenal universe, nor gives countenance to the superstition of Immortality, nor does it hold the world is the best of all possible worlds, nor conceives life simply as blessing. It is in this life, full of shortcomings, misery, and sufferings, that Zen hopes to realize its beatitude. It is in this world, imperfect, changing, and moving, that Zen finds the Divine Light it worships. It is in this phenomenal universe of limitation and relativity that Zen aims to attain to highest Nirvana. "We speak," says the author of Vimalakirtti-nirdeca-sutra, "of the transitoriness of body, but not of the desire of the Nirvana or destruction of it." "Paranirvana," according to the author of Lankavatarasutra, "is neither death nor destruction, but bliss, freedom, and purity.

First, they have small drops of moisture fall to dampen the dust of desire, and by opening the gateway of nirvana, fanning the wind of liberation, and ridding themselves of the heat of worldly passions, they bring about the cooling quality of the Dharma. Next, raining down the profound teaching of the twelve causes and conditions, pouring it on the ferocious, intense rays of suffering—ignorance, old age, illness, death, and so on—they pour out the unexcelled Great Vehicle, soak the good roots of all the living with it, scatter seeds of goodness over the field of blessings, and everywhere bring forth sprouts of awakening. With wisdom as bright as the sun and the moon, and timely use of skillful means, they make the enterprise of the Great Vehicle prosper and grow, and lead many to attain supreme awakening quickly. Always living in the blessedness of a reality that is fine and wonderful, with immeasurable great compassion, they save the living from suffering.

All in all, The Sutra of the Teaching ofAksayamati lists eight criteria that distinguish expedient and definitive meaning: i) The expedient meaning assists entry onto the path, while the definitive meaning guides disciples to engage in the fruition. a) The expedient meaning deals with the seeming, while the definitive meaning deals with the ultimate. 3) The expedient meaning teaches about afflicted phenomena, and the definitive meaning teaches about purified phenomena. 4) The expedient meaning teaches how to engage in proper actions, and the definitive meaning shows how karma and afflictions become exhausted. S) The expedient meaning causes weariness with cyclic existence, while the definitive meaning demonstrates that cyclic existence and nirvana are undifferentiable. 6) The expedient meaning teaches a variety of terms and definitions, whereas the definitive meaning teaches the profound, true reality that is difficult to see and realize. 7) The expedient meaning gives detailed explanations in accordance with worldly conduct, while the definitive meaning focuses on concise and pithy instructions for cultivating meditative concentration. 8) The expedient meaning teaches about sentient beings, persons, a self, and so on, while the definitive meaning teaches about the three doors to complete liberation, nonapplication, nonorigination, nonarising, nonentity, identitylessness, and such.

Then I thought to myself: “If I merely praise the Buddha-Vehicle, Beings sunk in suffering Will not be able to believe this Dharma.   “And by rejecting the Dharma through unbelief They will fall into the three evil paths. It would be better not to teach the Dharma And quickly enter nirvana.

Then what, Mahamati, is meaning?  With insight substantiated by thought and meditation on what has been heard, the one-flavored path to the city of nirvana, preceded by turning away from dependence on impressions by one’s own intelligence, examining the attainment defined by the particular meanings in the states of the stages in the domain of one’s own first-hand attainment, a great bodhisattva becomes familiar with meaning.

It is exactly these fallacious views that makespeople crave for sentiate existence and worldly pleasure. These people are the victims of ignorance; they identify the union of the five aggregates as the 'self' and regard all other things as 'not-self'; they crave for individual existence and have an aversion to death; they are drifting about from one momentary sensation to another in the whirlpool of life and death without realising the emptiness of mundane existence which is only a dream and an illusion; they commit themselves to unnecessary suffering by binding themselves to rebirth; they mistake the state of everlasting joy of Nirvana to be a mode of suffering; they are always seeking after sensual pleasures. It was for these people, victims of ignorance, that the compassionate Buddha preached the real bliss of Nirvana.

Also, emancipation cuts off all greed, all external appearances, all bonds, all illusions, all births and deaths, all causes and conditions, all karma results. Such emancipation is the Tathagata. The Tathagata is Nirvana. When all beings [come to] fear birth and death and illusion, they take refuge in the Three Treasures. This is like a herd of deer who fear the hunter and run away. One jump may be likened to one refuge, and three such jumps to three refuges. From the three jumps, peace comes. It is the same with all beings. When one fears the four Maras and the evil-minded hunter, one takes the three Refuges [in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha]. As a result of the three Refuges, one gains peace. Gaining peace is true emancipation. True emancipation is the Tathagata. The Tathagata is Nirvana. Nirvana is the Infinite. The Infinite is the Buddha-Nature. Buddha-Nature is definiteness. Definiteness is unsurpassed Enlightenment.

On the 15th of the second month, as the Buddha was about to enter Nirvana, he, with his divine power, spoke in a great voice, which filled the whole world and reached the highest of the heavens.

and the Tathagata have innumerable virtues. We speak of "Great Nirvana." Bodhisattva Kasyapa said to the Buddha: "O World-Honoured One! I now know that there is no ending of things referring to where the Tathagata goes. If the place is unending, life too must be unending." The Buddha said: "Well said, well said! You now protect Wonderful Dharma indeed. Any good men or women who desire to cut off the bonds of illusion and all bonds should protect Wonderful Dharma thus.

Moreover, Mahamati, in future ages those who are wise might ask those who are not what I mean by ‘avoiding views characterized by sameness, difference, both, or neither.’421 And they might answer, ‘Whether form422 and so on are permanent or not or whether they are different or not is not a proper question.’423 Likewise, if they are asked to compare and contrast the characteristics of nirvana and samskara,424 characteristics and what is characterized, qualities and what is qualified, matter and what is made of matter,425 seeing and what is seen, earth and dust, practice and practitioner, they might answer, ‘The Buddha has declared these to be unanswerable.’ “But silence is something such foolish people would not understand. It is because those present lack sufficient wisdom that the tathagatas, the arhats, the fully enlightened ones say these are unanswerable to help them overcome fear. This is why they don’t answer. Also, it is to put an end to the mistaken views of other paths that they don’t respond.

The Buddha told Mahamati, “There are three different levels of srota-apannas and attainments of srota-apannas.436 And what are the three? They are basic, intermediate, and advanced. Those at the basic level are reborn seven more times at the most. Those at the intermediate level are reborn three to five more times before they attain nirvana. And those at the advanced level attain nirvana in this life. “For each of these three, there are three bondages: coarse, intermediate, and subtle. And what are the three bondages? They are belief in a body, doubt, and attachment to codes.437 In terms of differences among these three bondages, whoever reaches the subtlest of the advanced level becomes an arhat.

The Buddha then repeated the meaning of this in verse: 1. “Mine isn’t a nirvana that exists / a created one or one with attributes / the consciousness that projects what we know / the cessation of this is my nirvana 2. This is the cause and supporting condition / whereby thoughts create the body / on this is what the mind is based / on this is what consciousness depends483 3. When the great river quits flowing / waves no longer stir / when conceptual consciousness ceases / the other forms don’t rise.

Given this wide perspective, all the teachings of the Buddha can be established as the supreme cause for liberation, since all sutras of expedient meaning are imbued with the definitive meaning. The Sutra That Unravels the Intention explains this through four examples: Blessed One, for example, all medicinal powders and elixirs are supplemented with dried ginger. Likewise, starting with the lack of nature of phenomena, their lack of arising, their lack of ceasing, that they are primordial peace and by nature perfect nirvana, the Blessed One supplements all sutras of expedient meaning with this definitive meaning.

Therefore, after the extinction of the Tathagata, you should all wholeheartedly embrace, read and recite, explain and copy, and practice it as you have been taught. In any land, wherever anyone accepts and embraces, reads and recites, explains and copies, and practices it as taught, or wherever a volume of the sutra is kept, whether in a garden, or in a woods, or under a tree, or in a monk’s cell or a layman’s house, or in a palace, or in a mountain valley or an open field, in all these places you should put up a stupa and make offerings. Why? You should understand that all such places are places of the Way. They are where the buddhas attain supreme awakening; they are where the buddhas turn the Dharma wheel; they are where the buddhas reach complete nirvana.

To attain nirvana is to reach the Kong (Tao, Buddha) state by chanting the Heart Sutra.

flower (which appears in fancy) before the eye; seeking any inferior standing ground, only as (su-ni-chiio); seeking Nirvana, as a dead sleep; arriving at rest, as the dancing of the six dragons; the state of perfect equanimity, as the one true standing point; the power of endless transformation, as the trees and flowers of the four seasons;--all these things are thus great in comparison only. To hear the law of Buddha is the chief source of joy.

If you know your true nature of no coming, no going; no being, no nonbeing; no birth, no death, then you will have no fear and can dwell in the ultimate dimension, nirvana, right here and now. You don’t have to die in order to reach nirvana. When you dwell in your true nature, you are already dwelling in nirvana. We have our historical dimension but we also have our ultimate dimension, just as the Buddha does.

What is Enlightenment? Samadhi, "the breathless state" is a direct experience of Unity with the All. The experience of Samadhi is blissful beyond all words and explosive; like ten thousand orgasms of love within the entire cranium and body/mind. Samadhi is the eighth and final step on the path of yoga, as defined by Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Their are four such Samadhis which corelate to the four highest chakras. The first Samadhi which is also called Satori in Zen Buddhism in enlightenment of the body. The second Samadhi, Bhava Samadhi is the enlightenment of the heart as infinite love, The third Samadhi has to do with the opening of the rainbow eye and enlightenment of the infinite mind and the fourth Samadhi relates to the crown chakra and is also referred to as Nirvana or the direct blissful experience of infinite Oneness.

The Surangama Sutra chooses, as the best meditation method for the present historic cycle, the one used by Avalokitesvara. It disengages bodily hearing from outward sound, then penetrates still deeper into the void beyond this duality, then beyond ego and its object, until all opposites and dualities vanish, leaving absoluteness. Nirvana follows as a natural consequence. In other words, disengage consciousness from the senses and return to pure Consciousness itself.

The last five hundred years: It is well known from the Scriptures of all schools that after the Buddha's Nirvana the Dharma will progressively decline, and that every five hundred years a decisive change for the worse takes place... "The last five hundred years, when Buddhists will be strong in nothing but fighting and reproving, and the Dharma itself becomes practically invisible.

Ich bin nicht der Geist, der Intellekt, die Gedanken oder das Ego. Ich bin nicht meine Sinnesorgane. Ich bin nicht die Elemente. Ich bin das ewig-reine, glückselige Bewusstsein. Ich bin Siva, ich bin Siva. (Nirvana-satkam, Vers 1)