What is nirvana in Buddhism and how does it relate to everyday enlightenment? This is one of the more central points of the philosophy so understanding it is key to grasping it.

Here are the 2 main points that will help you understand this concept.

#1) All life is suffering…

And…

#2) by giving up attachment you end suffering

The path to giving up attachment is becoming “enlightened”. What does this have to do with nirvana? This is the state of mind you enter when you’ve become enlightened. The obvious question after this is…

What is enlightenment?

It is when you learn “the truth” about life.

And what is the truth?

In a condensed form…all life is meaningless because everything is connected. Buddhists believe that everything comes from one energy source, and because of that nothing is separate from each other.

Since everything is “one” nothing is really good or bad because it’s all the same.

Everything is devoid of meaning

When you understand this you get to stop suffering because you realize that nothing has any meaning apart from that which you give it. This is because…

Suffering is caused by attachment

Therefore when you give up attachment, you end suffering. This in a nutshell is everyday enlightenment and what nirvana in Buddhism is. Think about it…most people spend a lot of time wishing they were rich and they had a better life than they do.

The more they think about it the more they suffer because they are not content with their current state of affairs. If, however, they realize that it isn’t preferable to have more or less they could stop suffering from their lack.

Enlightenment is NOT just head knowledge…

According to the philosophy it’s one thing to understand these points…and quite another to actually experience the interconnectedness of everything firsthand.

How do you EXPERIENCE it?

The most standard path is through many years of meditation. This could be through a guided meditation prayer other self help treatment methods, but the main purpose is to help you to “feel at one” with everything else.

From there you will more or less stop experiencing life separately from everything else. You will still experience it separately to some extent until you die but not nearly as much as you used to.

What happens when you die in a state of nirvana?

You then earn the right to stop returning to earth through endless reincarnations. The philosophy teaches that everyone continually reincarnates until they reach enlightenment.

Once you have achieved it then you no longer have to return. You then will reunite with the one energy source you came from and you as a separate self will basically cease to exist.

Are there dangers of enlightenment?

To many people it sounds great because they get to stop suffering, but a lot of people who’ve used meditaion techniques for years have also reported losing the passion of life too.

After all, its’ pretty hard to get too enthused over a meaningless existence with the ultimate end of losing your self existence.

To sum up…

So what is nirvana in Buddhism and everyday enlightenment. It’s the realization (whether real or delusional) that everything is meaningless…which can be a good or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

Is Buddhism TRUE OR NOT? Discover the answer by clicking here…

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at 4:47 pm and is filed under meaning of life.