A. Nirvana that symbolises the most ideal and perfect state imaginable, is another name for Emptiness, or the true-Self. In other words, Nirvana is the state in which we can see and hear without attaching any names to whatever reaches our eyes and ears. Your question should be ‘Who made a mess of Nirvana?’, or ‘Who turned Nirvana into the mundane?’ because everything was originally in Nirvana as part of it before our discrimination.
It is said that we made a mess of Nirvana with illusions we created by discriminating. The fact is not that we spoiled Nirvana but that we covered our eyes with illusions created by us. This leads us to be confused into seeing the Nirvana before us as an Ocean of Suffering and thinking that Nirvana is somewhere else far away. That is why sentient beings are compared to people with eye disease, and the enlightened are those whose eye diseases have healed.
Student: “What is Nirvana?”
Master: “You cannot get out of it.”
Student: “Why can’t I go there?”
Master: “Because you struggle to enter it whilst you are there.”
©Boo Ahm
All writing ©Boo Ahm. All images ©Simon Hathaway
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