Buddha says: "If I stood still, I sank; if I struggled, I was carried away. Thus by neither standing still nor struggling, I crossed the flood."
The flood refers to the painful stream of birth and death. This is Nirvana, the "blowing out" of the passions and frustrations of existence. The Buddha asserted that to speculate about the frame of mind of one thus awakened and liberated is to invite confusion and madness.
It is irrational to cling even to the profitable states of mind created by morality and meditation, still less to unprofitable states of mind. One should neither look forward to coming experiences, nor clutch at present ones, but let them all slip easily through one's fingers.
What happens to an enlightened person at death is one of the questions, like that of the beginning and end of the world, which the Buddha said cannot be answered. Nirvana is a state beyond human thought, beyond life and death and reincarnation.
We don't have to worry whether it is unattainable or not, because the journey is the goal.
"Climb Mont Fuji, holy snail, but slowly, slowly!"
In support
ReplyDeleteThe discipline and commitment to in-depth meditation and mental training seems too
much for most. The high level of consciousness requires morally pure life and to some extent withdrawal from worldly life, which is beyond most people’s capacity.
Other views
Glimpses of nibbana happen all the time.
Everyone making progress towards it.
It is attainable in this life even if not full nibbana various levels, e.g. stream enterer,
once returner, never returner