A Starting Point

Nirvana defined by dictionary.com is:

• 1a. Buddhism The ineffable ultimate in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion.
• 1b. Hinduism Emancipation from ignorance and the extinction of all attachment.
• 2. An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy.

I believe that nirvana must mean the ultimate experience someone can achieve throughout their lives. An experience that sums up the core of human emotions into a bread basket and explodes upon an individual; where they are at a greater understanding and realization of the meaning of life. But the question I pose is how to achieve nirvana, is an individual to always walk the right path never to fully understand the complexity behind the less meaningful way of life? Does the individual who experiences the most, who understands the world deserve to achieve nirvana if they preformed the less moral judgement but have learned from it? Or does the individual who had to flush his head down the toilet to realize they were wrong deserve nirvana because they experienced feelings no other individual else should?
To sum up the top paragraph, there are three types of individuals seeking to find nirvana:

1. Individuals With high morals
2. Individuals in the middle ground
3. Individuals with low or no morals 

***I guess sub categories for all of these could exist like a bell curve, with the majority of the*** ***population somewhere between individuals in the middle ground.***

 

How these individuals receive these morals becomes by pure chance, a luck of the draw, like picking names out of a hat to form teams. So it would really would be wrong if we excluded any group from seeking nirvana, because kids don't ask to be molded into to the lower bracket.

But how does one achieve nirvana, is nirvana a word, and a word alone. Or did someone experience it, and can that experience can be duplicated, and achieved by other individuals. To my knowledge, I have yet to find or speak to an individual who has truly found nirvana. I guess to sum the ultimate experience of nirvana then, I must define the ultimate experience individuals go through out their lives. Hate, love, sad, guilt, beauty, lonely, happy, confidence, self-worth, etc. The list can go on for a while. Hopefully Once you can fully understand these words, then maybe finding nirvana might be possible.

My roommate Dan brought up a few great points about nirvana that I would like to discuses. Dan was asking a question about the achievement of nirvana:

• Does everyone achieve nirvana in some way shape or form? Because doesn't everyone have at the very least , that one defining moment in their lives that shows them that life is a little more than what they are seeing day to day?

Or

• Is nirvana a single place or thing that only certain people will ever see that shows them how things really are?

Lets examine the first statement: A defining moment of achievement that opens the eyes of the beholder to reveal a aspect of life unseen by an individual. I see this set of individuals on the right path to achieve nirvana, although I have no idea if what they were reaching for would ultimately lead them to find nirvana. Once I hit parenthood maybe I will understand the first statement more.

My roommates second statement I defiantly agree with, that nirvana would have to be a defined place, or state of being that shows individuals how things really are. However, a defining moment could begin to open the eyes of an individual if they were seeking or now are seeking a enlightened path. In order to discover this enlightened path, one must experience a vast majority of what the world has to offer and also understand it. This defining moment can help an individual experience and understand more about the world.

I also like Dan's comment about his version of nirvana.

• I feel like if I hit nirvana, I wont even be thinking of thinking. Not to be thinking of nirvana, the universe, or life.

To not think, some would call it not existing but in Buddhism and Hinduism they believe we must break the circle of life, for all that exists in the world will be reincarnated. A greater question that I'll have to take up tomorrow would have to be:

• If we understand everything that exists, then we can begin to realize that existing is not everything. Can we experience death in life or non-existence?

For now I believe nirvana becomes the infinite understanding of life, along with with an high mental state that allows us to experience the ultimate experience. To find a corner in a circle. Thank you Dan for your input.

What a question to ask... To not exist or exist.. To answer questions that are unanswerable, or to know the wrong and find truth in it. Existing, from my current standpoint is everything, and to not exist becomes impossible in our current existence. Can we divide a thought in half just like a physical things that exist in the world?

To answer honestly, I don't know, a thing that is blue, everyone knows. But if I said my thought was bl and left the other portion of my thought over here ue, you would have no clue what bl, or ue would mean.  But we do also have objects that came together through a group of individuals. Complex electronics like the computer have a motherboard, nic card,  video card, input components, ectera that make this idea whole.  Is it too farfetched to think the color blue came about in some sort of similar way?

To conclude on tonight's quest for nirvana, I must understand the basic human emotions that drive individuals to achieve goals. One such goal humans strive for is nirvana, and the emotions that evolve to reach nirvana must be documented (so in my next posts I will be questioning the basic human emotions people experience in achieving nirvana)