[Buddha-l] Nirvana

[Hugo]

Hello Ngawang,

On 9/27/05, Ngawang Dorje <rahula_80 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> > and the individual consciousness comes to an end. <
>
> It does not become annihilated. That article ny Bhikkhu Thanissaro answers
> this well.
>
> "If, however, the passion can be removed, there's no more "there" there. One
> sutta illustrates this with a simile: the sun shining through the eastern
> wall of a house and landing on the western wall. If the western wall, the
> ground beneath it, and the waters beneath the ground were all removed, the
> sunlight wouldn't land. In the same way, if passion for form, etc., could be
> removed, consciousness would have no "where" to land, and so would become
> unestablished. This doesn't mean that consciousness would be annihilated,
> simply that — like the sunlight — it would now have no locality. With no
> locality, it would no longer be defined."

Just watch out what do you mean with "consciousness", remember what
Bhikkhu Sati thought about it:

Majjhima Nikaya 38
Mahatanhasankhayasuttam
The Longer Discourse on the Destruction of Craving
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/6774/mn38.htm

excerpt:
Then the Blessed One said: "Sati, is it true, that such an pernicious
view has arisen to you. 'As I know the Teaching of the Blessed One,
this consciousness tansmigrates through existences, not anything
else'?"

"Yes, venerable sir, as I know the Teaching of the Blessed One, this
consciousness transmigrates through existences, not anything else."

"Sati, what is that conscciousness?"

"Venerable sir, it is that which feels and experiences, that which
reaps the results of good and evil actions done here and there."

"Foolish man, to whom do you know me having taught the Dhamma like
this. Haven't I taught, in various ways that consciousness is
dependently arisen. Without a cause, there is no arising of
consciousness. Yet you, foolish man, on account of your wrong view,
you misrepresent me, as well as destroy yourself and accumulate much
demerit, for which you will suffer for a long time."



--
Hugo