DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0173
Nibbana
becoming, who is by perfect wisdom emancipate, to him
there does not occur the thought that any are better than
7, or equal to me, or less than 7.” “ Even so,” answered
Gautama, “ do men of the true stamp declare the gnosis
they have attained; they tell what they have gained (attha),
but do not speak of I («//«).”1 The emancipation con-
templated in early Buddhism is from mana, the conceit
of self-reference, the Samkhyan ahamkara. Of him that
has attained we can truly say that nothing of himself is
left in him. Thus we find a dialogue of two disciples;
one has a serene and radiant expression, and the other
asks, “Where have you been this day, O Sariputta?”
“ I have been alone, in first Jhana (contemplation),
brother,” is the triumphant answer, “and to me there
never came the thought: ‘7 am attaining it; 7 have
emerged with it I a
For the effect on life of the experience of Nibbana, we
have the witness of the Brethren and Sisters whose
‘Psalms’ are recorded in the Therd-therz-gdthah To
take the Brethren first: “ Illusion utterly has passed from
me,” says one, “cool am I now; gone out all fire within.”
Another describes the easy movement of the life of the
free:
E'en as the high-bred steer with crested back lightly the
plough adown the furrow turns.
So lightly glide for me the nights and days, now that this
pure untainted bliss is won."
1 Anguttara Nikaya, iii, 359.
2 Samyutta Nikaya, iii, 235. Cf the Sufi conception of Fana alfana,
‘the passing away of passing away,’ when even the consciousness
of having attained fana disappears.
3 Written down 80 b.c., and available to English readers in the careful
and sympathetic versions of C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the
Sisters, 1910, and Psalms of the Brethren, 1913.
119
becoming, who is by perfect wisdom emancipate, to him
there does not occur the thought that any are better than
7, or equal to me, or less than 7.” “ Even so,” answered
Gautama, “ do men of the true stamp declare the gnosis
they have attained; they tell what they have gained (attha),
but do not speak of I («//«).”1 The emancipation con-
templated in early Buddhism is from mana, the conceit
of self-reference, the Samkhyan ahamkara. Of him that
has attained we can truly say that nothing of himself is
left in him. Thus we find a dialogue of two disciples;
one has a serene and radiant expression, and the other
asks, “Where have you been this day, O Sariputta?”
“ I have been alone, in first Jhana (contemplation),
brother,” is the triumphant answer, “and to me there
never came the thought: ‘7 am attaining it; 7 have
emerged with it I a
For the effect on life of the experience of Nibbana, we
have the witness of the Brethren and Sisters whose
‘Psalms’ are recorded in the Therd-therz-gdthah To
take the Brethren first: “ Illusion utterly has passed from
me,” says one, “cool am I now; gone out all fire within.”
Another describes the easy movement of the life of the
free:
E'en as the high-bred steer with crested back lightly the
plough adown the furrow turns.
So lightly glide for me the nights and days, now that this
pure untainted bliss is won."
1 Anguttara Nikaya, iii, 359.
2 Samyutta Nikaya, iii, 235. Cf the Sufi conception of Fana alfana,
‘the passing away of passing away,’ when even the consciousness
of having attained fana disappears.
3 Written down 80 b.c., and available to English readers in the careful
and sympathetic versions of C. A. F. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the
Sisters, 1910, and Psalms of the Brethren, 1913.
119