What is Nirvana? Nirvana is that state of having no resistance to the Dharma.
We all have resistances to the action of the Dharma within our lives. The Buddha talks of Three Levels of Resistance:
- The first level of resistance is desire.
- The second level of resistance is attachment to forms.
- The third level of resistance is a formless resistance, which you cannot label clearly, but which persists in one’s heart and stands against the flow of the Dharma; we could say: against the flow of the Dao.
We can take this as a formal definition.
From a Pureland Buddhis point of view this is an inevitable situation within this life. We live in a conditioned world, in a material world and so it is inevitable that there are limits and restrictions and that we do not simply float completely into the stream of the Dharma. Not in this life!
Sometimes, of course, a person gets so intoxicated by the Dharma that, in a sense, they imitate this state. They are inflated by the inspiration of the Dharma; and this can be a very wonderful state to be in, but it is also impermanent, necessarily so in this life. You have a great spiritual experience and it is ecstatic for a time. Then it wears off, but still you carry some trace of that amazing experience.
The collective term for these resistances is the “ego”. Buddhist psychology is a study of our resistance to the Dharma. It’s a study of the way that such resistances operate and influence our life.
There are certain signs that one can observe, that one can notice, that tell you that you are in the grip of such a resistance. One of these is that one is using the Dharma for some worldly purpose. Perhaps one is using the Dharma to manage one’s level of stress. Perhaps one is using the Dharma practice to manage one’s loneliness, one’s sense of rejection. Perhaps one is using it as some kind of self-development. All of these things are in a sense, corruptions of the Dharma. Having said that, one should not be too condemnatory, because they are very common, they are normal, they’re what we all suffer from. We are all corrupt in varying degrees in this sense.
Another indicator is the sense of “hurt”, the sense of “affront”, which may manifest as blame, condemnation of others. Where there is hurt, there is ego. I’m talking not about the hurt that you feel when you cut your finger. I mean psychological hurt.
These sort of things give us some leverage on when we are resisting the Dharma; and when we are resisting the Dharma, then we are not in Nirvana; and we are not in Nirvana, so in fact, we are resisting the Dharma all the time, one way or another. But there is a value in observing that this is happening; and sometimes we can do something about some of it. But realizing the extent to which such resistance is ingrained in ourselves is also a basis for compassion, because it tells us that this must be the same, also, for everybody else; and seeing that we are all in the same boat gives us a basis for fellow feeling and for love and compassion for others.
And, even though we’re in this parlous state, still we receive the grace of the Dharma, of the Buddha. It is recognizing this, that even beings such as we receive this great Dharma into our lives, that is the fundamental meaning of Namo Amida Bu.
Namo Amida Bu
Thank you very much
Dharmavidya
David
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