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Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2025 5:35 pm
“Many European thinkers interpreted nirvana as “nothingness” and saw Buddhism as a form of nihilism. But in the Pali Nikayas, nirvana is identified not with “nothing,” but with the “extinguishing” of afflictions (kleshas, ashayas), the “eradication” of egocentric views (sakkaya-ditthi), the cessation of multiplying verbal-mental constructions (prapancha), as well as with a state of calm (samatha), peace (shanti), and ultimate concentration (samadhi).
The nirvana that the Buddha spoke of is not a god, not an impersonal absolute, and not a substance (Buddhism fundamentally does not recognize substances). Nirvana is a state of freedom and of impersonal or transpersonal fullness of being.” There is no shift toward personalities or individuals, and you don’t perceive anything happening as directed toward your personal self — this is actually very important. If we try to explain it somehow to the mind, to your own mind, in a way it can grasp, then it turns out that when you interact with society, no matter how society behaves, you cannot... That is, you are so wise that you don’t shift to judging each person as an individual — you can’t assess them as a personality. You perceive it all like a drop of water. You can’t judge that drop, give it a name, and condemn only it — your attitude toward people becomes the same. For you, they are simply drops of rain — it’s just rain, it’s just nature, part of God. And likewise, when people behave inappropriately in society, you cannot hold anything against them, because you do not shift into perceiving them as individual personalities. And likewise, when they did something directed at you, you cannot feel anger, resentment, or indignation, because you do not perceive yourself as a personality. Only when you see yourself as a personality — and a personality is an artificially created, so to speak, outer shell of yourself, as who you are — that is the ego. And when that ego is struck, it hurts you, because your ego-system is being dismantled through those people. But if you have no ego, then you are no one. If you have no personality, then no matter what people do, you cannot be offended, cannot feel wronged or hurt by what they think of you, because they cannot grasp you. Well, in other words, they cannot do anything to you if you are not there. So this very state of being — the desire to be a personality and to perceive and label others, to shift into personalities — is actually a departure from nirvana, it is a retreat into suffering. And liberation from these personalities — the personalities of others, the personality of oneself — that is nirvana.
The nirvana that the Buddha spoke of is not a god, not an impersonal absolute, and not a substance (Buddhism fundamentally does not recognize substances). Nirvana is a state of freedom and of impersonal or transpersonal fullness of being.” There is no shift toward personalities or individuals, and you don’t perceive anything happening as directed toward your personal self — this is actually very important. If we try to explain it somehow to the mind, to your own mind, in a way it can grasp, then it turns out that when you interact with society, no matter how society behaves, you cannot... That is, you are so wise that you don’t shift to judging each person as an individual — you can’t assess them as a personality. You perceive it all like a drop of water. You can’t judge that drop, give it a name, and condemn only it — your attitude toward people becomes the same. For you, they are simply drops of rain — it’s just rain, it’s just nature, part of God. And likewise, when people behave inappropriately in society, you cannot hold anything against them, because you do not shift into perceiving them as individual personalities. And likewise, when they did something directed at you, you cannot feel anger, resentment, or indignation, because you do not perceive yourself as a personality. Only when you see yourself as a personality — and a personality is an artificially created, so to speak, outer shell of yourself, as who you are — that is the ego. And when that ego is struck, it hurts you, because your ego-system is being dismantled through those people. But if you have no ego, then you are no one. If you have no personality, then no matter what people do, you cannot be offended, cannot feel wronged or hurt by what they think of you, because they cannot grasp you. Well, in other words, they cannot do anything to you if you are not there. So this very state of being — the desire to be a personality and to perceive and label others, to shift into personalities — is actually a departure from nirvana, it is a retreat into suffering. And liberation from these personalities — the personalities of others, the personality of oneself — that is nirvana.