Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Religious Studies – Anthology
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logic al sense, but they do not b e c o me c ompelling until an aspirant has learned to
ident ify wit h them at a profound level and has integrated them wit h his own life.
Then and only then will he experience the ‘exult at ion,’ ‘joy’ and ‘serenity’ whic h,
according to the Pāli texts, c o me to us when we divest ourselves of e g o t is m,
liberat e ourselves from the prison of self-centeredness, and see the Truths ‘as they
really are.’ Without the medit at ion and moralit y presc ribed by the Buddha, the
Truths re ma in as abstract as a music al sc ore, whic h for mo s t of us c annot reveal it s
t rue beauty on the page but needs to be orc hest rat ed and interpreted by a skilled
performer.
Even though the Truths ma ke rational sense, the texts e mp h a s iz e that they did
not c o me to Go t a ma by me a n s of discursive reasoning. As he sat medit at ing under
the Bodhi tree, they ‘rose up ’ in h im, as from the depths of his being. He
apprehended them wit hin himself by the kind of ‘direc t knowledge’ ac quired by a
yogin who practices the disc iplines of yoga wit h ‘dili gence, ardor and self-control.’
Go t a ma was so absorbed in these Truths, the objec t of his c ont emplat ion, that
nothing interposed it self between them and his own min d and heart. He had
b e c o me t heir human e mb o d ime n t. When people observed the way he behaved and
responded to events, they c ould see what the Dh a mma was like; they c ould see
Nibbāna in human f o rm. In order to share Gotama’s experience, we have to
approach the Truths in a spirit of total self-abandonment. We have to be prepared
to leave our old unregenerate selves behind. The compassionate moralit y and yoga
devised by Go t a ma only brought liberat ion if the aspirant was ready to lay aside all
e g o t is m. It is signific ant that at the mo me n t he achieved Nibbāna under the bodhi
tree, Go t a ma did not c ry ‘I am liberat ed,’ but ‘It is liberat ed!’ He had transc ended
himself, achieved an exstasis, and discovered an enhanc ed ‘imme a s u r a b le’
dimension of his humanity that he had not known before.
What did the new Buddha me a n when he c laimed to have reached Nibbāna on
that spring night? Had he himself, as the word implied, been ‘snuffed out,’
ext inguished like a c andle f la me? During his six -year quest, Go t a ma had not
masoc hist ic ally c ourt ed annihilat ion but had sought enlightenment. He had wanted
to wake up to his full potential as a human person, not to be wiped out. Nibbāna
did not me a n personal extinc t ion: what had been snuffed out was not his
personalit y but the fires of greed, hat red and delusion. As a result , he enjoyed a
blessed ‘coolness’ and peace. By t a mp in g out the ‘unhelpful’ states of min d , the
Buddha had gained the peace whic h c o me s from selflessness; it is a c ondit ion that
those of us who are st ill enmeshed in the c ravings of e g o t is m, whic h ma ke us
host ile t oward ot hers and dist ort our vision, c annot imagine. That is why the
Buddha always refused, in the years following his enlightenment, to define or
describe Nibbāna: it would, he said, be ‘improper’ to do so, bec ause t here are no
words to describe suc h a state to an unenlightened person. The attainment of
Nibbāna did not me a n that he Buddha would never experience any mo re suffering.
He would grow old, get sic k and die like everybody else and would experience pain
while doing so. Nibbāna does not give an awakened person t ranc elike immu n it y ,
but an inner haven whic h enables a ma n or w o ma n to live wit h pain, to t ake
possession of it , affirm it , and experience a profound peace of min d in the mid s t of
suffering. Nibbāna, therefore, is found wit hin oneself, in the very heart of each
person’s being. It is an ent irely natural state; it is not bestowed by grac e nor
achieved for us by a supernatural savior; it can be reached by anybody who