Nirvana Day 2011

Shakyamuni and the 500 Arahants, taken by me in January 2011

Next week, on February 15th, marks the day in Mahayana Buddhism¹ when Shakyamuni Buddha passed into the final Unbinding, better known as Nirvana. His conditioned, limited existence had thus been exhausted and he was thus liberated into what he described as the “deathless” beyond conceptions of birth, death, coming and going. This is known as Nirvana Day in Mahayana Buddhism (nehan-e 涅槃会 in Japanese).

I took this photo in my recent trip to Japan, at a Buddhist Temple called Daienji, in the Meguro Ward of Tokyo. Here the Buddha is surrounded by 500 of his fully-awakened disciples, or arahants (阿羅漢, arakan in Japanese), representing his great teachings, and contributions to the world, and the early community who helped carry these contributions forward for future generations.

As this time of year comes around, I often like to reflect on this sutra in Thervadin Pali Canon: the Vakkali Sutta (SN 22.87):

Ven. Vakkali: “For a long time, Lord, I have wanted to come and set eyes on the Blessed One, but I had not the strength in this body to come and see the Blessed One.”

Shakyamuni Buddha: “Enough, Vakkali! What is there to see in this vile body? He who sees Dhamma, Vakkali, sees me; he who sees me sees Dhamma. Truly seeing Dhamma, one sees me; seeing me one sees Dhamma.”

Indeed, this is something for people to reflect upon. It’s easy to get caught up in questions of historiography about whether the Buddha said this, or said that, which texts reflect his teachings better, and so on. But the beauty of Buddhism is that for us the Buddha as a living, historical person pointed the way to a truth that, like the laws of physics, is beyond any one person and can be perceived and verified by anyone willing to look. He discovered the truth on his own, without anyone to help him and hence is a fully-awakened Buddha. As a Buddha he revealed the Dhamma, “turned the wheel once more” in Buddhist terms, taught the way out of the aimless wandering of samsara, and parted.

But it’s tempting to wish that he were still here, to help dispel confusions and problems in the Buddhist community. With him gone, it is like a rug pulled out from under us. But then, in the third chapter of the Lotus Sutra, we see that the Buddha teaches that:

I tell you, Shariputra,
You and the others
Are my children
And I am your father.

For repeated ages you have burned
In the flames of many kinds of suffering.
Yet I will liberate all of you
And enable you to escape the threefold world.¹
(translation by Gene Reeves)

Thus, while the Buddha has passed long ago into final Unbinding (Nirvana), we can see that the Buddha is never really gone. The truth, like the laws of physics, is a part of life, and the Buddha embodies the truth, and thus always seeks to awaken and liberate beings from their own sufferings.

Thus, Nirvana Day is both a day of remembrance, but also a day to express gratitude toward the Buddha, his life and his teachings which are true today as they were then.

Namo Shaka Nyorai

P.S. Although linked above, I wanted to repost this excellent sutra from the Pali Canon, the Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta (MN 72) for a good reference on what Nirvana is and isn’t. Also, note that in Theravada Buddhism, this day is observed according to a different calendar.

¹ Technically it’s the “15th day of the 2nd month” according to the old lunar calendar, still observed in China and such. In Japan, when they adopted the Western Calendar, this became February 15th, and is often adopted in the West too for obvious reasons.

² For reference, the Threefold World is:

The World of Desire:

The Hell Realms

The Realm of Hungry Ghosts

The Animal Realm

The Realm of the Asuras (Titans, Fighting Spirits)

The Human Realm

The six lower Heavenly Realms (e.g. sensual pleasures)

The World of Form:

The middle Heavenly Realms (e.g. one has form, but is free from material desires)

The World of Formlessness:

The higher Heavevly Realms where one is formless and without material desire