All language subtitles for Discovering Buddhism Module 09 - Samsara and Nirvana

Discovering Buddhism

Samsara and Nirvana

We normally think things
exist the way they appear,

that impermanent things are permanent,

and that we can find happiness

through trying to control the
external world to satisfy our desires.

It's a pretty bleak situation,
and it's called samsara.

Samsara is the agitated, dissatisfied
and confused state of mind

most of us experience all the time.

Which results in the uncontrolled
cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

Just as there is dark and light, if
there is samsara then there is nirvana.

That's the state of
complete mental peace.

Nirvana is not an external
heaven or paradise,

but rather a state of mind
totally free of all limitations

and no longer controlled
by destructive emotions.

Join us in looking more deeply at
Samsara and how we're caught in it,

and Nirvana, and how
we are liberated by it.

MOTIVATION

Samsara and Nirvana.

On the one hand, samsara or cyclic
existence is suffering and its causes.

On the other end of the spectrum,
there's nirvana: complete freedom,

complete liberation from
that suffering and its causes.

Our current situation is that we're
in cyclic existence, in samsara.

And where we want to go is
nirvana, complete freedom.

But there's no way that we can get
there without an intention to do so,

without a strong motivation.

So before listening to
the teachings, right now

generate a strong
motivation in your own mind

to learn as much as
possible about both samsara,

our current situation, and
nirvana, where we want to go,

in order to be able
to achieve that freedom

for the benefit of all sentient
beings as quickly as possible.

TEACHERS

Born in Sweden, Venerable Karin Valham met
the Dharma at Kopan Monastery
in 1974 where she ordained.

For over twenty years she has inspired
thousands of westerners with
her teachings on Buddhism at Kopan.

So maybe I like to explain
a little bit more about,

to get the real idea what samsara
means, the depth of samsara,

so that one can begin to
feel compassion for oneself

and feeling what is the
meaning of renunciation.

The thought renouncing samsara

so first of all we have to
know exactly what samsara means

to generate the wish
to overcome samsara.

So samsara what it really means.

And there is one
explanation that includes

we call three levels of suffering,
three kinds of suffering.

So I like to explain this first.

The first one is called
the suffering of pain,

that includes all the ordinary
pains, physical pains, sickness, hurt,

and our mental problems of
the suffering of separation,

dissatisfaction, depression,
anxiety, fear, worry.

That's usually only that level
of suffering that we are aware of

you know in our daily life,
that we are trying to overcome,

but samsaric suffering has
much more to it than that.

The second level of samsara we
call the suffering of change.

And the suffering of
change is much more subtle,

and difficult to comprehend.

It's all about how the pleasures
that we seek in samsara,

the temporary pleasures, are in
fact all in the nature of suffering

because they change into
dissatisfaction, and eventually pain.

So we say although
we called it pleasure,

in fact it's in the nature of suffering.

We give it the name pleasure
but somehow when we analyze it

we can see that eventually it always
turns into suffering or misery.

The third kind of suffering that
explains samsaric existence is

all pervading suffering,
or pervasive suffering.

Pervasive because it's
covers all of our existence;

our body, and our mind, it's in the
nature of this all pervasive suffering.

So everything within our
ordinary body and mind

is a product of suffering
and creates more suffering,

so it's in the nature of suffering.

So when we understand
these levels of suffering

we can look at samsara and see
the faults of samsaric existence.

There is nothing within samsaric
existence that gives us satisfaction

or happiness or is uncontaminated.

If we meditate on it

we can start to develop
disgust with samsaric suffering.

Especially when we realize that
we have the potential to be free.

Professor Janice Willis is a scholar and teacher
of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism
at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.

She met the Dharma in 1967 and
has been practicing and teaching for 35 years.

She has been published widely in the areas
of Buddhist philosophy, sacred biography,
women in Buddhism and Buddhism and race.

Her latest project is a memoir entitled
Dreaming Me: An African American Woman’s Spiritual Journey.

So, for Buddhists, samsara is
but a way of looking at the world,

that is associated with
attachment and self-cherishing

and the desire that things
be as we wish them to be.

And since this whole notion of the
world being as we wish it to be,

since our wanting the world to
remain a certain way, cannot be met,

is always subject to failure,

because the true nature of
the world is impermanence

and changing-ness all the time,

those desires to keep it permanent
will inevitably lead to suffering.

The Buddha taught four noble truths.

There is suffering, there
is a cause of suffering,

there's the cessation of suffering,

there's a path leading to
the cessation of suffering.

The Buddha said, from
his own experience,

after he'd meditated six years

and performed these incredibly
rigorous meditations,

he said, I've discovered this
truth, there is suffering.

And I've also discovered
that it's possible to end it.

And so, after he had taught
for forty-five years in India,

And so, after he had taught
for forty-five years in India,

looking back on what he'd
accomplished, he said,

'I've taught only two things,
suffering and its end.'

Now, if you wanted to capture
Buddhist doctrine as a whole,

what you'd say and
what you have to look at

and all that you have to look
at, are those Four Noble Truths.

Ok, so if we take them one by one now.

There is suffering, duhka.

The Buddha said, what
constitutes suffering is

almost anything we can
imagine, birth is suffering,

death is suffering, aging is
suffering, old age is suffering,

pain, grief, lamentation is suffering.

The second noble truth says,
there is a cause of suffering.

There is desire, craving,

and this is the most palpable
cause of our suffering.

But it's only the most palpable cause.

We desire things to be permanent.

We desire to get what we want.

We desire to get away
from what we don't want.

And so that desire is one of the
things that keeps samsara in motion.

The root cause is our own ignorance
about the way in which we exist

and all other things exist.

We try to hold onto some
things being permanent

that is by its nature impermanent.

That leads to frustration.

So ignorance is the
basic cause of suffering.

The optimistic part
about Buddhism is that

after showing us various methods for
eliminating the cause of suffering,

it offers, in the third noble
truth, the end of suffering.

And in Buddhist texts of the early
school that cessation is called nirvana.

In teachings of the so-called later
school that end is called Bodhi,

or complete enlightenment.

And this was the state that
the Buddha himself attained.

And, attaining the
cessation of suffering

doesn't put someone
in a different place,

doesn't put them in a different body,

doesn't put them in a different world.

It changes their view.

They give up the attachment to a
self as a fixed permanent existent.

Changing that idea, giving up
that idea, abandoning that idea,

they find themselves
with a new view of things.

And that new of view of the
world is what nirvana is.

It's not something else; it's
not something apart from us.

We have that potential
within us, to see it that way.

If our ignorance is
what causes suffering,

then our own insight and our own
wisdom is what will cause it to cease.

So nirvana, as the third noble truth
is held out, as the possible end.

It is an end to suffering,
and such a thing exists.

The fourth noble truth says

there is a path leading to
the cessation of suffering.

And that path provides a means
for us to realize directly,

the end of suffering.

So that you yourself,can see, you
know try it on, try the method on.

See what, whether it's beneficial or
not, and if it is, then keep practicing.

Now this puts the responsibility for
our practicing all these various paths,

but primarily the responsibility
for gaining insight,

right on our shoulders,
it's not anywhere else.

We have the ability to
not only locate the cause,

the root cause, of suffering,
but to eliminate it.

We have that responsibility ourselves.

It's not to be found
in the outside world.

It's not put in the hands of anyone
else, any deity, or any guru,

any teacher, it is totally up to us.

The Buddha himself said in a scripture,

that ' were it up to me,
then samsara would be empty'.

If I could do it for you,
then samsara would be empty.

But I can only show you the way,
you yourself have to practice.

You yourself have to try it out.

You yourself have to investigate.

You yourself have to sit on
that cushion and meditate.

Endless horrible things of samsara,

endless wonderful things of nirvana,

drawn by the mind.

- Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
has lived in India as the exiled

Head of State and Spiritual Leader of the Tibetan people
since the Chinese occupation in1959.

His Holiness, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
is one of the most renowned
and beloved spiritual leaders in the world

and has traveled over 46 nations as a major proponent
of human rights and world peace.

So in any case, the point is that
when we think about liberation

we should not have the notion
that it exists outside somewhere

as a kind of physical
plan or physical domain.

Rather, liberation has to
be understood in terms of

one's own quality of
mind or state of mind.

And we spoke about the
presence of natural nirvana,

the natural purity in all of
us which serves as the basis

and on that basis when
all the obscurations

and the afflictions are eliminated,

that is the true nirvana,
that's the true liberation.

And when you go deeper
in your understanding

of the nature of liberation or moksha,

then we can understand it

in terms of the ultimate
nature of one's own mind,

the ultimate nature of
one's own mind at a stage

when all the afflictions are eliminated.

That is the liberation.

That is moksha.

So we find that actually in the
final analysis, it is our ignorance

and a fundamental misconception
of the ultimate nature of reality

that lies at the root of
our samsaric existence,

that lies at the root of
our unenlightened existence.

Therefore, if it is the ignorance

and misconception of the
fundamental nature of reality

that creates the
unenlightened existence,

that means it is by
cultivating the correct insight

into true nature of reality,

which will begin the process of
undoing this unenlightened existence,

which will begin the
process of liberation.

Therefore, as the Tibetan masters say,

that when in ignorant
state we are in samsara,

when insight or when the
knowledge is developed, generated,

then we are liberated.

So this samsara and
nirvana is distinguished

on the basis of whether we
are in the state of ignorance

or whether we are in
the state of knowledge.

And so what we find here is

that the ultimate antidote for
eliminating fundamental ignorance,

which is the root of cyclic existence
is the wisdom realizing emptiness,

wisdom cognizing emptiness.

And the emptiness, the
ultimate nature of that mind

when all the obscurations
have been eliminated,

that emptiness of mind, that
quality of mind is nirvana,

that's the final nirvana.

So therefore, we can say that

which causes us to be
caught in unenlightened existence

relates to our ignorance of the
fundamental nature of reality,

emptiness.

So from the Buddhist point of view

this would be explained
in the following way,

that in the physical world there
is an ever-present continuum

at the subtle most level
of a physical continuum.

We spoke about this earlier,
which is space particles.

And then when it interacts,

comes into contact with
sentient beings' karma,

karma acts as a condition

which then give rise to various
permutations of the physical reality

so that eventually a macroscopic
world comes into being

that can actually have direct effect

upon sentient beings'
experience of pain and pleasure,

happiness and suffering.

So it is on these
lines that the Buddhists

would explain the whole evolution
and dissolution of universe.

So this is very clear if you look
at the traditional Buddhist teachings

So this is very clear if you look
at the traditional Buddhist teachings

on the twelve links of
dependent origination.

Which gives the picture
of the process of evolution

within the cycle of existence.

We find that the individual's
existence in samsara,

unenlightened existence,

is explained in terms of this
twelve inter-locking chain.

And here it is very clear
that there is no concept

of there being some kind
of central unifying figure

which is like the creator of everything

and then everything sort
of revolves around it.

Rather the whole evolution
is explained in terms of

inter-locking sets of twelve chains.

So the point of inter-locking
is that when, for example,

one cycle of twelve
links is in progress,

before that entire cycle finishes,

another cycle is already set in motion.

So that while, for example,

when you are already
experiencing the consequences

within one of twelve chains, already
ignorance and the karmic actions

and so on which is part of another
cycle is already set in motion.

So in the teachings on the twelve links,

the Buddha teaches us that
the two sets of twelve links,

cycle of chain of twelve links,

one is the evolution of an individual
within the unenlightened existence

starting from ignorance, karmic
volitional acts, consciousness and so on.

Then he also explains to us another set,

another cycle where
the cycle is reversed

which then gives us the reversal process

where the process of
enlightenment is explained.

So by eliminating, by
bringing to an end ignorance

then by preventing volitional acts,

consciousness is prevented and so on.

So the reversal process of unenlightened
existence is also explained.

When there is no ignorance,
all the links of existence
do not arise.
- Lord Buddha

STUDENTS

What does SAMSARA and NIRVANA
mean to you?

So I think the twelve links
is a fantastic teaching

in terms of getting some fresh respect
for the law of cause and effect.

Because if you really think that each
moment of ignorance is going to produce,

or will possibly produce a cause
for one's next rebirth in samsara,

that's pretty heavy.

That's pretty scary.

It's going to make, I found for myself

that it definitely made me
respect a little bit more

my choices and my actions.

And then I think the other thing,
of course, especially for Westerners,

is that the picture of the
twelve links is very powerful

because it all begins with the
picture of the little old lady

or the little old man with their
stick because they're blind.

That's very challenging because we like
to think we're in control of our lives

and we're somehow this powerful,

dynamic being walking through
the landscape that we have chosen,

making decisions.

You know, we are in the driving seat,

and we're kind of successful at that.

Then you see the picture and we think,

'That's some kind of Tibetan thing.'

Then when you think about ignorance

and how it's essentially
leading us by the nose

into this mud of harming
ourselves and others,

and continued dissatisfaction,

and yeh we are pretty much
like the blind little old lady,

tottering towards a precipice.

Completely unknowing what
her steps are leading towards.

So I think it's a very helpful image.

But again, the twelve
links can help you see that

that actually is a direct benefit
that you're giving yourself

and a direct benefit
that you're giving to others

because every moment that
you're consciously choosing

not to act out of strong ignorance is
a moment towards your own enlightenment

and a moment, therefore, to
be able to benefit others.

Every moment you think of
that, it loosens that sense of

'I'm at the center of the
world and you exist for me.'

Well, no, I don't think
that's true and actually,

I'm just existing in
dependence upon other beings,

in dependence upon causes and effects,

in dependence upon this label 'me.'

So I think that's another way
we can use the twelve links

to give us a not only a more
enjoyable time in our daily life

through remembering interdependence

but also trying to use
that as a way to get closer

to some understanding of selflessness.

Selflessness and interdependence are
two sides of the same coin, aren't they?

So I think for all of those reasons,

a very helpful practice
to try to reflect upon.

In fact, I must do it more.

If one is fixated on "I",
karma will be created,

and due to that karma,
one will again be reborn.

- Arya Nargajuna

Please dedicate the positive energy generated
by listening to these teachings,

so you can quickly attain Enlightenment
for the benefit of all beings.