Subjective Experiences of Awakening, Part 3, Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu

Greetings, Friendlies. :)

(Part 1, Part 2.)

Quick refresh: we are looking at subjective experiences of awakening. Last time Alan Watts’ This is It. This time Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu’s Nibbāna For Everyone.

Buddhadāsa speaks of a “Nibbāna instinct”, a drive egging us to find relief from the irritation of craving and aversion. [1]

I think B is unique, on the one hand, in framing Nibbāna-ing as an instinct, claiming it to be a most natural expression of being-in-the-world. On the other hand, he frames Nibbāna-ing as a range. There is “little” Nibbāna-ing, a common, familiar experience we have many times a day. And there is the full monty, “Nibbāna due to the ending of all defilements”. * We can be more or less reactive. More or less Nibbāna-fied.

Buddhadāsa understands the word “Nibbāna” to mean “coolness”. In both the most ordinary way, “When the rice porridge is still hot, the cook yells out from the kitchen, ‘Wait a moment, let it nibbāna first’,” and in a high-dhamma way, “the cooling or going out of the fires of defilement”.[2] In a dhamma context it operates across a range, “…to the degree that the defilements are ended, there will be that much coolness, or Nibbāna.”

Sometimes the Nibbāna instinct presents as ethically neutral; when our bodies heal, or when we are in a physiological stasis, “When a fever subsides, a swelling goes down, or a headache goes away, recognize the meaning of Nibbāna as found in those things. When … sleeping comfortably, or eating one’s healthy fill, see the meaning of Nibbāna.”

But the Nibbāna instinct can also lead us to acts on a spectrum of ethical skillfulness. Again, I think he’s unique here in saying that even if reactivity is quenched through gratifying sense desires, this relief is still a type of Nibbāna, “…sensual pleasures cool down the desires of [untaught] people in ways appropriate for them.”

I see the chocolate. Craving arises to eat the chocolate. I eat the chocolate. Craving goes away. Tada! I’m a genius!

If we are acting with greater skillfulness, it is still that same Nibbāna instinct guiding us.

I see the chocolate. Craving arises to eat the chocolate. I deeply relax into my belly. I wait patiently. The craving goes away on its own. Tada. Gotama was a genius.

At one end the Nibbāna instinct eggs us off the couch to track down a glass of water when we are dehydrated; it maintains physiological stasis. At the other end it inspires us to Paṭipadā, to walk a path towards full awakening.

Your thoughts?

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[1] I’m not convinced that the terms “Nibbāna” and “Awakening” are completely synonymous. It seems to me that the Pāli “bodhi-pattī” (awakening) is used to describe a different range of experiences than “nibbāna” does in the suttas. Tabling this for now.

[2] Lobha, Dosa, Moha. Commonly translated greed, hatred, delusion.