Peaceful Warrior Beginners to Buddhism may ask what comprises Buddhist practice. They may also ask what the goal of Buddhism is. Most of the other major world religions have a final destination such as Heaven which their followers strive for. The goal of Buddhism is the end of suffering. Some teachers also add that Buddhism is the vehicle which gets us to the goal, and once we reach our destination, we no longer need the vehicle. In this way, Buddhism is the raft which gets us across the river. Once we are on dry land on the other side, we can leave the raft behind. There is a famous saying that life is a journey not a destination. In the same way, Buddhism is the name given to the path and practice which leads to the end of suffering.

There is a word which the Buddha used to describe the end of suffering, that is Nibbana (also sometimes written Nirvana). Nibbana cannot be described by words, it is something to be experienced by each one of us. Words can only tell us what it is not and where not to find it. I suppose some people think of Nibbana like Heaven. It is not quite like Heaven because it is not a place somewhere else. Nibbana is everywhere, even in the space inside the atoms which make up our body. Also Nibbana is something which you can experience in this very life. The Buddha realised Nibbana at the age of 35 and then proceeded to devote the rest of his life to showing other people the way that he did it. The Buddhist teachings say that everything in the universe falls under the law of cause and effect except two things, space and Nibbana. The Buddha encouraged his followers to attain Nibbana quickly to escape from the incessant law of cause and effect which leads to our suffering.

As an analogy, imagine an untidy room cluttered with many useless objects so that we can barely move around without tripping over something. Now we begin to clear up this mess by throwing things out of the window. With every object that gets thrown out, we feel a little better as spaces start to open up inside the room. There will come a time when we won't be able to throw anything else out the window and all we have left is space. No matter how hard we try, we cannot throw space away. The same applies to the room of our minds. Normally, our minds are filled with such useless clutter that we can barely have a moment's peace. The Buddha says that all the content of our minds is fabricated by causes and conditions. So we begin to throw these fabrications out the window, unwholesome things first (especially that OCD!). There will come a time when we will have thrown out everything possible. This is emptiness, this is Nibbana.

In order to reach Nibbana, we have to overcome what the Buddha called our defilements. These defilements are like large armies arrayed against us in our minds. They block the way to peace and the end of suffering. We have seen how two of these armies are those of craving and aversion. Another defilement that we have to be aware of is the army of delusion. It is through the mask of delusion that we see our cravings as our "necessities" and our anger and aversion as our "justification". Thus our enemies are disguised as our friends. OCD is like a gifted general in this army of delusion. It is a supreme tactician and seems to know where our weak points are at every moment. It marshals its forces in such remarkable ways that we always seem to be in reaction mode. The untrained mind is weak. With such vast armies in front of us, how are we going to prevail?

A long while ago, I asked in this blog why people today honour a man who lived 2,500 years ago in a remote corner of the world. It is because this man spent the majority of his life establishing a training method that enables ordinary people like you and me to face and conquer these enemies within us. He is our trusted advisor in the matters of our spiritual well-being. Nibbana, or the end of suffering, is not something which is given to us as a gift by some higher power. It is through our own diligent efforts to defeat our defilements that we attain Nibbana, nothing else. We will gradually begin to understand that we have no true enemies out there, whether people or conditions. The only true enemies are the ones which are inside our minds. In the next few weeks, we shall explore the path that the Buddha taught to enable us to experience Nibbana in the here and now. So we arrive at the third of the Four Noble Truths:

"Suffering has an end (Nibbana)"
The Noble Truth of the Cessation of Dukkha (Skillful Effect)

If a man should conquer in battle a thousand and a thousand more, and another man should conquer himself, his would be the greater victory, because the greatest of victories is the victory over oneself; and neither the gods in heaven above nor the demons down below can turn into defeat the victory of such a man.

The Buddha

This Buddha statue shows the peaceful smile of the Buddha who had attained the bliss of Nibbana. The Buddha statues around the world serve to remind us that we too can attain Nibbana by practicing according to the Buddha's instructions.  ¶ 11:02 AM