Nibbidā, Without Finding Disenchantment

In Bhikkhu Bodhi’s essay on the Upanisa Sutta (SN 12.23), he writes this about the Pāli word “Nibbidā”, often translated “disenchantment” or, less to my taste, “disgust”.

the word’s literal meaning [is] “finding out.”

Maybe everyone already knew this. It was news to me. What? “Finding Out?”

DuckDuckGo unearthed a 2003 article by Andrew Olendzki What is Nibbida? who confirmed:

the Pali word nibbida. The word is derived from the prefix nis– (“without”) and the verbal root vindati (“to find”), and so most literally means something like “without finding.”

So how do we get from “without finding” to “disgust”? …

My question exactly, Mr. Olendzki.

There is a story in the texts that usefully illustrates the meaning of this important term. A dog stumbles across a bone that has been exposed to the elements for many months and has been therefore bleached of any residual flesh or marrow. The dog gnaws on it for some time before he finally determines that he is “not finding” any satisfaction in the bone, and he thus turns away from it in disgust. It is not that the bone is intrinsically disgusting; it is rather the case that the dog’s raging desire for meat just will not be satisfied by the bone. He is enchanted by the prospect of gratification as he scrapes away furiously at the bone, but when he finally wakes up to the truth that the bone is empty of anything that will offer him satisfaction, he becomes disenchanted and spits it out in disgust.

(I’m not finding this story. Anyone know the reference?)

the Buddha is suggesting that a thorough investigation of all aspects of one’s experience, the sort of examination that can only be accomplished by intensive insight over an extended period of time, will eventually mature into a deep understanding of the unsatisfactory nature of the conditioned world of constructed experience.

Yeah. Okay. This jives better with my understanding and experience.

So, if you didn’t know before now you do: when the texts say “disgust” or “revulsion”, or even “disenchantment”, the Pāli, what Gotama was highlighting, is that as we pay attention to our experience we can discover that often phenomena we thought would bring unadulterated satisfaction (I’m looking at you, Chocolate), do not in fact provide said satisfaction.

And by paying attention to this over and over, our brain/mind learns to let go of that craving/clinging thing that gets us into so. much. trouble.

(One more reason we should all study Pāli together. ;)

With friendliness!