How can we enjoy everyday nirvana?

Dear friends,

The three marks of existence are the three concepts that are true for everything. In many Buddhist lineages, the three marks of existence are Impermanence, Non-self, and Dukkha (suffering). In fact, I used this model when writing about the three marks in my book, Things I did When I Was Hangry:  every thing is impermanent, nothing has a separate self, and every thing is marked with suffering. (For the Three Marks/Seals of Existence, scroll to the end of the blog.)

Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) disagrees. He says that the three marks are impermanence, non-self, and nirvana. In The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching (p 20), he says:

It is not difficult to see that a table is impermanent and does not have a self separate from all non-table elements, like wood, sun, furniture maker, and so on. But is it suffering? A table will only make us suffer if we attribute permanence or separateness to it. When we are attached to a certain table, it is not the table that causes us to suffer. It is our attachment…:In several sutras the Buddha taught that nirvana, the joy of completely extinguishing our ideas and concepts, rather than suffering, is one of the Three Dharma Seals. 

Thay’s teaching is that nirvana is the moving beyond all concepts, specifically moving beyond these eight concepts: Birth, Death, Permanence, Dissolution, Coming, Going, One, Many. We can use our contemplation on the first two marks of existence - impermanence and non-self to provide the insight we need to release these eight concepts and touch nirvana. For me, this is the heart of Thay’s teaching.

As I write this, I am sitting outside in the spring sunshine. My neighbor is playing his clarinet on his front porch and the lovely sounds carry to where I am sitting. The last of the pink blossoms from the tree behind me are falling on me and around me, and there is a very gentle cool breeze. My little dogs are here with me enjoying the day as well. And I am enjoying writing this and connecting with all who may read it one day.

Using the insight of impermanence, I can see that this day is the only day that I can enjoy this set of pleasurable conditions. I know my dogs, the tree, and I are all aging and we only have a handful of years left together. Very soon it will be too hot to sit in the sun and the trees will no longer be flowering, etc. With the insight of non-self, I can see that everything I am experiencing is based on causes and conditions over which I have minimal control. And yet I am here and this moment is real and beautiful.

I can choose to dwell on the suffering that awaits me (wishing for permanence) or my lack of control (wishing for a self), or I can accept that this is the way the world works (the marks of existence) and that each moment is a miracle of life that I get to experience.

Nirvana is not something to look for in the future. As a Dharma Seal, it is present in every one of the Buddha’s teachings. The nirvana-nature of the candle, the table, and the flower are revealed in the teachings, just as their impermanent and nonself nature are…

Nirvana teaches that we are already what we want to become. We don’t have to run after anything anymore. We only need to return to ourselves and touch our true nature. When we do, we have real peace and joy.  (The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching, p 130-131)

Paradoxically, though nirvana is beyond forms and concepts, the only way for us to touch it is through forms and concepts and the letting go of concepts.

In his book, Enjoying the Ultimate, Thay tells us that there are two obstacles to nirvana: afflictions (like craving, hatred, jealousy, etc.) and the knowable (wrong views such as believing we are separate and permanent). 

Because we are part-time Buddhas, we only need to remove as much of the afflictions and wrong views as we can in any moment, and we will experience that much nirvana. “If we can transform ten percent of the afflictions and the obstacles of the knowable, we shall have ten percent nirvana. If we can transform ninety percent, we shall have ninety percent nirvana.” (Enjoying the Ultimate, p xiv)

Jack Kornfield shares his description of nirvana as a release from attachment to the changing conditions of the world, a resting in consciousness itself, the deathless. He goes on to say how the Advaita teacher Nisargadatta describes being in the state of nirvana:

Nisargadatta joyfully explained, “I see, hear and taste as you do, feel hunger and thirst; if lunch is not served on time, even impatience will arise. All this I perceive quite clearly, but somehow I am not in it. There is awareness of it all and a sense of immense distance. Impatience arises; hunger arises. Even when illness and death of this body arise, they have nothing to do with who I am.” This is enlightenment as a shift in identity.

Dwelling in nirvana is not the same thing as being in denial, and it isn’t a declaration to stop doing the work to protect ourselves and others. It doesn’t suggest that we or others should simply “deal with it.” My understanding of nirvana is that is a practice that can deepen our understanding of the world and reduce our habit of creating more suffering. It can show us how to let go of all the stuff that gets in the way of deeply caring for others and ourselves. Sister Peace (who teaches about everyday nirvana in this video) describes inviting the experience of nirvana into her life by going out to be “arrested by a flower.”

When thinking about impermanence and nonself, I’ve used the image of our form as a whirlpool that exists because of causes and conditions. The whirlpool is real - we can perceive it - but we can't separate it from the water around it because water keeps flowing in and out of the whirlpool. We touch nirvana the moment we understand that even though our form may be the temporary whirlpool, our true self is the water itself.

===

The Three Marks of Existence (sometimes called the Three Dharma Seals) are the basic characteristics of our world. Understanding them helps us see the truth about life and transform suffering.

The three marks are:
(1) annica — impermanence
(2) anatta — non-self
(3) nirvana — the joy of letting go of concepts.*

*Thich Nhat Hanh teaches nirvana as this third mark, though other teachers often refer to the third mark as dukkha, or suffering. Because nirvana and suffering are two sides of the same coin, “No mud, no lotus”, we can see that nirvana is as much of a mark of existence as suffering.