Great Nirvana

When the Buddha died, his death was no ordinary death.

For in the eyes of the Buddha sages who knew him, it was seen as the mahaparinirvana. the blowing out of a spiritual life, and the transcendence of a great sage over the endless cycle of birth, life, and death.

In essence, mahaparinirvana is derived from "maha" (great) and "parinirvana" (the death of a truly awakened spiritual master), and means the great final death of the truly awakened. With respect to the Buddha, when the death has arrived for the truly awakened, their death is no ordinary death. In the Buddha's case, flowers bloomed out of season on trees that during the winter monsoon stand dormant.

Thus the nirvana of the Buddha was when his karma blew out the light of transmigration. All his actions on the way to realizing his buddhahood bore the fruit of Nirvana. After this moment in his life, he became the teacher of the Buddhadharma.

What the Buddha taught was dependent arising / dependent origination and the Four Noble Truths, but he followed it up with teachings about the Buddha-dhatu and the Tathagatagarbha. While dependent arising and the Four Noble Truths describe the phenomenon of suffering, its cause and its cure, the Buddha-dhatu and the Tathagatagarbha describe the phenomenon of personal experience and the noumenon of cosmic (transcendent) experience.

What is the Buddha-dhatu? It is the hidden, unconditioned Buddha Nature (Buddha Principle), "Hidden" implies that personal experience occults that spark of Buddha-dhatu in all sentient beings. "Unconditioned" implies further that even though Buddha-dhatu is hidden, it remains pure, real and true.

Quite simply, the Buddha-dhatu is the potential for spiritual awakening to ultimate Reality which is changeless. This potential must be realized, lest the Buddhist who hears the Buddha's teachings be seduced by the lie that there is only one Buddha.

In actual fact, while there may be many Buddhas, there is only one Gautama Buddha.

What is the Tathagatagarbha? It is the hidden, unconditioned Buddha Matrix within which Buddha-dhatu helps the practitioner become truly awakened. Through the aid of Buddha-dhatu, one realizes that one is already awake. Thus the truly awakened are already awake, and she who is already awake is primordially awake. For being awake results from being good, since it is the working of primordial goodness.

Yet Tathagatagarbha is the essence of Dharmakaya, the ultimate level of being. of the Buddha and of all sentient life. With the help of Buddha-dhatu, even you or I may one day be awakened to the reality of primordial goodness. For our original nature is indeed Buddha Nature.

Even so, the pragmatic among the followers of the Buddhadharma may ask, "If originally we are born awakened, then what's the point of the ritual of chanting and meditation?"

When we realize we are originally awaken beings, bodhisattvas in the making, this is because we have heard what the Buddha said, both through hearing his teachings, reading what the Buddha said and comments about what he said, and the practice of chanting of his Name-that-calls.

Personal experience without hearing the Buddhadharma, reading sutras and their commentaries, and Buddha Remembrance would only hide our primordial awakened state.

This is why hearing the Dharma, reading the sutras and their commentaries, and Buddha Remembrance is necessary to realize the cosmic experience that all is Buddha.

For just as Adi-Buddha is reflected in the 108 Buddhas, so too is the Buddha reflected in all sentient beings, including the bodhisattvas.

All it takes to uncover this primordial goodness inherent in all beings is to hear the Buddadharma.

Though, it requires more than merely listening with the ears; to hear the Buddhadharma, one must listen with one's heart. This is known as teaching the heart to be at one with the mind until with practice, one hears with the heartmind.

In conclusion, the Great Nirvana of the Buddha is his transcendence beyond the samsaric cycle of transmigration. Though his body died, his spirit lives on.

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nirvanasutra.net: http://www.nirvanasutra.net
parinirvana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parinirvana
Buddha-dhatu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddha-dhatu

The Personal and the Cosmic Experience According to the Buddha

"[A]ll experienced phenomena are empty (sunya). This did not mean that they are not experienced and, therefore, non-existent; only that they are devoid of a permanent and eternal substance (svabhava). Since they are experienced, they are not mere names (prajnapti)." -- Nagarjuna, Fundamental Verses on the Middle Way

Thus all experienced phenomena are devoid of permanent and eternal substance i.e. experiences are transitory, just as our feelings come and go, and our mood gradually revolves around the moderate centre of calm, the "eye of the storm".

For what is memory's purpose except to help us learn from our mistakes?
Its seeming permanence is an illusion, much like chips of volatile memory in a computer do not retain data when the power is turned off.

Accordingly, emptiness confirms that all experienced phenomenon are experienced and existent, being devoid of eternal substance.

Since they are experienced, they are not labels but actually based on experience.

So if I feel sad (phenomenon), that is experienced as sadness (noumenon). Ergo, sadness is a cosmic quality in the sense that it may be experienced by all sentient beings. Thus in this sense, "cosmic" means "generalized". Likewise, "feeling sad" is what I feel, which is specific to me.

Thus feelings are specific to each sentient beings, while emotions such as sadness may be generally felt by all sentient beings.

However, abstractions of the mind such as Dr Who, an imaginary character in a fiction of a quasi-scientific nature, are experienced phenomenon which only exists in the mind (the sixth sense) but not in the real world.

Instead the actual noumenon of Dr Who would be when a bunch of Whovians share their experience of the phenomenon called Dr Who with each other!

For the cosmic experience of the mind-only phenomenon called Dr Who is the shared experiences of people of like mind discussing Dr Who based on the particular series they've watched.

One could certainly say this is true of the Buddha and even Jesus, though fundamentalists would beg to differ.

On this note I will conclude this article by stating again that Buddhism helps people generalize their personal experiences either through empathy or through sharing with like-minded people their personal experience of phenomena.

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Reference

Mūlamadhyamakakārikā: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mūlamadhyamakakārikā