As a Mahayanist, and I know many people disagree with me, my understanding is that nirvana and enlightenment are not exactly the same. As a crude metaphor, nirvana is the medicine that allows travel to the “destination” of enlightenment. (I know, I know, it’s not a place, this is a very crude metaphor). In my admittedly not well-read estimation, it seems to me that Vedanta is a method to provoke nirvana and doesn’t concern itself with other matters. And that’s fine, no shade, it’s all about reducing suffering after all.
Personally, part of the reason I was attracted to the Mahayana was that it helped to place me in context. In a funny sense I was like, “How selfish of me to seek personal freedom in a world that suffers so!” which I understand now is a fetter, after all, I am the world and such.
In a way, the Mahayana took my hand and guided me through the realization that taking the medicine was not selfish. I don’t know if that’s “missing” from the Direct Path, lots of people don’t seem to need it, but it seems to have made a difference for me personally.
James: Before we argue about words we need to agree on definitions. Nirvana is a Sanskrit compound. Nir means “not or without” and vana means flame, which is a symbol of passion or desire if you prefer. The Buddha’s second ‘noble truth’ is “desire is the cause of suffering,” and he concludes that the “flame of desire” need to be “blown out.” And he says that the method of blowing out the flame of passion is the eightfold path, which is basically Ashtanga Yoga, which predates Buddhism. Just as Christ wasn’t a Christian, Buddha wasn’t a Buddhist. The “isms” came later. In fact, Buddhism was known at one time as “Yogacharya Buddhism,” a nod to its roots.
Anyway, ashtanga means “eight” and yoga means something that connects two or more things. Vedanta adds another “noble truth.” It asks, “What is the cause of desire?” and it answers, “Ignorance of our wholeness causes us to want the juicy sexy novel objects generated by our desires.” This is where Vedanta begins. It adds another noble truth. It says that action (paths) don’t remove ignorance; they reinforce it. Only knowledge removes it. So, if I want to blow out my desires…not that that is necessarily desirable…I need a means of knowledge that removes my ignorance.
Vedanta is a means of Self knowledge. Why do I need Self knowledge? Because I am born ignorant of the fact that I am whole and complete unborn existence shining as ever-present whole and complete awareness/consciousness. If I knew that, I wouldn’t chase all sorts of illusory things in the hope that they will complete me. In fact, only the painful desire that causes a person to violate dharma needs to be eradicated for the desirer’s own good. Desire is the life force. The day it stops is the day you die.
Paths exist because people travel to various destinations. There are four factors involved: the one that walks, the path, the destination (which is remote) and the time it takes to get from the starting point to the goal. But, what if a person’s destination is his or her own self? How will a path help? It won’t help because that person is already where he or she is going. So a “pathless path” is required. Pathless path means Self knowledge, because no time is involved getting to one’s destination. The loss of ignorance is the immediate gain of wholeness because the Self is whole and complete.
When I first began seeking, I was attracted to Buddhism because I was an extroverted hi-energy doer. I had accomplished a lot in life, more than necessary actually, and I felt that I could accomplish nirvana. so I went to a Vipassana retreat at Igatpuri back in the day when Goenka was teaching there. I left after three days because I wasn’t willing to spend a lot of time waiting for some kind of experience (nirvana), which I had unwittingly experienced many times.
I tried Kundalini Yoga next and experienced non-duality after a lot of heaving lifting, but the experience ended after three days, so that idea died on the spot. Then, by the Grace of God, I was led to Vedanta or Vedanta came to me, if you will, and suddenly the whole spiritual thing made complete sense because I realized beyond a shadow of a doubt that I had always been the whole and complete unborn Self.
There was a little “click” and the world stopped. It never started again. Its status changed. It was/is no longer real. It doesn’t spin, wiggle, shake or move in anyway. It just sits dead still like a mirage on the desert. It’s there but it has no meaning. It’s beautiful and radiant as it reflects the light that I am. There is nothing but me knowing. I don’t say it, affirm it or claim it. I am awareness is a simple fact. Period. The body functions here as awareness. It and the world in which it lives and moves is out front somewhere, apparently remote. Nobody or nothing is looking over my shoulder. This is what non-duality means. There are not two things here. I shine and the world shines. We are not the same, but we aren’t different either.
I don’t know about Buddhism because Buddhism can be anything you want it to be. Every conceivable dualistic notion is propagated somewhere on the planet as Buddhism. Some claim one Tibetan strain is known as shunyavada (non-dual) Buddhism, but it is burdened with the word shunya, which means emptiness, and needs a bit of tweaking to get to the actual meaning.
Be that as it may, this is not to say that people don’t think Vedanta is a philosophy, which means that anybody can call what he or she teaches Vedanta, but if Vedanta is a means of Self knowledge, there is only one issue…whether you know you are unborn whole and complete actionless awareness beyond the shadow of doubt. Or not. If so, this understanding happened in one way only… Self ignorance was removed. Consider the word vedanta. Veda means knowledge and anta means end. It is a complete, systematic, comprehensive means of Self knowledge that removes ignorance, which spells the end the quest for Self knowledge.
Finally, non-duality means that there is only one Self and it is everything that exists. So, there is no question of “being unselfish.” Everything we do in the name of selfishness or unselfishness is done to please oneself, however one defines the self. Nobody has a gun to your head and commands you to be anything because what you think is up to you, nobody else. Even if you lie to please them, you do so to please yourself. Yes, you pick up a lot of ideas that cause suffering from your parents, friends and family, the schools, religion, society…what have you. But even though that’s on them, it eventually ends up being on you because you experience it. So at some point by God’s grace, you wake and get to work sorting out your values. Anyway, this is another topic for another day.
