What is Nirvana
Nirvana
What then is Nirvana? In orthodox Buddhism it does mean a disintegration,
not of the soul - for that does not exist - but of a mental compound
or stream of associations or samskaras which we mistake for ourself.
In illusionist Vedanta it means, not a disintegration but a disappearance
of a false and unreal individual self into the one real Self or
Brahman; it is the idea and experience of individuality that so
disappears and ceases, - we may say a false light that is extinguished
(nirvana) in the true Light. In spiritual experience it is sometimes
the loss of all sense of individuality in a boundless cosmic consciousness;
what was the individual remains only as a centre or a channel
for the flow of a cosmic consciousness and a cosmic force and
action. Or it may be the experience of the loss of individuality
in a transcendent being and consciousness in which the sense of
cosmos as well as the individual disappears. Or again, it may
be in a transcendence which is aware of and supports the cosmic
action.
But what do we mean by the individual? What we usually call by
that name is a natural ego, a device of Nature which holds together
her action in the mind and body. This ego has to be extinguished,
otherwise there is no complete liberation possible; but the individual
self or soul is not this ego. The individual soul is the spiritual
being which is sometimes described as an eternal portion of the
Divine, but can also be described as the Divine himself supporting
his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual
which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego
and our false separative sense of individuality, realise our oneness
with the transcendent and cosmic Divine and with all beings. It
is this which makes possible the Divine Life. Nirvana is a step
towards it; the disappearance of the false separative individuality
is a necessary condition for our realising and living in our true
eternal being, living divinely in the Divine. But this we can
do in the world and in life.
*
The feeling of the Self as a vast peaceful
Void, a liberation from existence as we know it, is one that one
can always have, Buddhist or no Buddhist. It is the negative aspect
of Nirvana - it is quite natural for the mind, if it follows the
negative movement of withdrawal, to get that first, and if you
lay hold on that and refuse to go farther, being satisfied with
this liberated Non-Existence, then you will naturally philosophise
like the Buddhists that Shunya is the eternal truth. Lao Tse is
more perspicacious when he spoke of it as the Nothing that is
All. Many of course have the positive experience of the Atman
first, not as a void but as pure unrelated Existence like the
Adwaitins (Shankara) or as the one Existent.
