Nirvana without afterlife
 

What I see nirvana as would be a world free from suffering, everything is completely still, your thoughts and emotions flow by like liquids. But that would be my idea of an afterlife too, but I think if there wasn't an afterlife, if you just die once you're enlightened and that's it. What if you die and that is nirvana in itself, still, nothingness, free from suffering?

Hello and welcome to the group !

We already have a similar thread : "Enlightened, then death...then what ?"

http://www.buddhismwithoutboundaries...hen-what/page6


with kind wishes

Aloka http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

Hi guru,

Some practitioners of Buddha Dhamma do not think it is important or needed the believe of an afterlife... others do...

As Aloka said, "Enlightened, then death... then what?" is an insightful thread that approaches the issue.

If you wish, you can introduce yourself at the "New Member Welcome and Introductions" Forum,

Be welcome,

http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif

Death isn't nirvana. When you are enlightened you do not cease to perceive or feel. When you die you cease to perceive or feel. What is the use of this state?

Nirvana on the other hand is complete cessation of all kinds of mental suffering. Nirvana is peaceful living. Death is when you cease to live. The two cannot possibly be compared.

Thanks, i'll look at the other threads and Deshy, it could just be how to look at
it, in death there's no ego or suffering. I don't think there would be a specific point to any state of mind either and I think i saw a quote saying "life is suffering" maybe that's hinting that death is the only nirvana?

the buddha did not teach "life is suffering". this is a very common misunderstanding

the buddha taught believing death is nirvana is to "overreach"...in other words, to miss the nirvana of the here & now

kind regards http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/grin.gif


How, bhikkhus, do some overreach? Now some are troubled, ashamed and disgusted by this very same being and they rejoice in (the idea of) non-being, asserting: 'In as much as this self, good sirs, when the body perishes at death, is annihilated and destroyed and does not exist after death — this is peaceful, this is excellent, this is reality!' Thus, bhikkhus, do some overreach.

Iti 2.22

What if you die and that is nirvana in itself, still, nothingness, free from suffering? Sounds like nihilism...

One dies to concepts to release suffering. So each sound, even the smallest perception contains awakening, because we free the conditions of comparative judgement.

http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/hands.gifhttp://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/hands.gifhttp://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/hands.gif

I think its like this, normal people die, but a Buddha has already 'died' by renouncing self, then has experienced states of bliss during samadhi meditation, as well as mastery control of the mind and the 32 marks of a superman, so at that point there is nothing else to gain, since all those pleasures are aggregates, liberation is still most desired.

That is why the Buddha is a teacher of gods and man, because a state of heaven would still be subject to self awareness and so it could still cause desires. True heaven is the cessation of desires without any chance of a return desire. At least that is what makes sense to me.