Monday, March 2, 2009

Want to attain Nirvana in this Life? The Way to Do It.

Nirvana is escape from the bad karma of your past. As long as you live and experience things without transcending negative thoughts like greed, jealousy, racism, hatred and anger, you’ll earn good or bad karma. And Hindu and Buddhist preachings say that when bad karma outweighs good karma in a certain life, you’ll be born again to undergo suffering. The cycle works till good karma for you overtakes bad karma and you transcend and attain Nirvana.

Lord Buddha lent meaning to Nirvana through an exemplary transformation of his own life. Buddha (“Awakened one" or "Enlightened one" in Sanskrit), was born sometime between 563 BCE and 483 BCE in India. He was a prince who led a luxurious life, but somehow he wasn’t very happy with that kind of a lifestyle. So suddenly left home one day at the age of 29 and wandered around his kingdom trying to understand his subjects and their sufferings. He ate frugal meals and detached himself from worldly things.

He later meditated to find out the eternal truth. And once he came out of his 45 day meditation, he was the “awakened one”. Thereafter he went about teaching dharma of the ultimate truth to people around the country.

So what can you do to attain nirvana?
All teachings whether eastern or western have common fundamentals. They teach people to do away with evil thoughts. They tell people to overcome negative feelings of every kind. They ask you to “love thy neighbor”. They pray that you be detached to worldly desires, including money and fame. They ask those who have to give the have nots.

Simple thoughts, but they are very difficult to follow.

What prevents you from attaining nirvana?
Our religion, beliefs, upbringing – are all hurdles to nirvana or gaining good karma. The road to self discover is key to find good karma. Soul searching leads to serious questioning of the self and it’s motives.

Meditate. Meditate. Meditate.
When you attempt to find truth beyond the mundane life. You see some startling truths. That life is not all about winning in the rat race, indulging in luxury or partying.

Life is sublime when you’re able to stop “reacting” due to your “mind conditioning” and begin to “act”. Suddenly you begin to see things in a different perspective. Not with your usually jaundiced eye. You are able to see beyond this life. You are able to realize your real self.

Then peace and happiness reigns in you. And you earn so much good karma through your good actions that you are able to attain nirvana. The blissful state of nirvana.

Famous People about Nirvana – Nirvana Quotes
Nirvana is not the blowing out of the candle. It is the extinguishing of the flame because day is come.
Rabindranath Tagore

There are two methods of attaining Nirvana, one selfish and the other unselfish, but the word selfish here would designate really unselfishness among us. It refers to the refinement of selfishness in that a person is working by unselfish acts to obtain that which, in the end of all analysis, is selfish, because it is for the benefit of the person involved. But it was never taught that a man could attain Nirvana by working for his own selfish advantage as his motive, and he does not gain it at the expense of anyone; therefore his selfishness in obtaining Nirvana, being at no one's expense, is of a very different quality from what we ordinarily call selfishness. As a matter of fact it is stated that at a certain point of development the highly spiritualized person may in a moment pass into Nirvana through an instantaneous personal desire to gain that state.
H.P. Blavatsky

Your mind is nirvana.
Bodhidharma

The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being. And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally but also physically and spiritually.
Greg Anderson

By giving, merit grows, by restraint, hatred’s checked. He who’s skilled abandons evil things. As greed, hate and folly wane, Nirvana’s gained.
Digha Nikaya

Divine qualities lead to nirvana, the demonic [qualities] are said to be for bondage. Do not grieve, O Arjuna, you are born with divine qualities.
Bhagavad Gita

The stages of the Noble Path are: Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Behavior, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.
Lord Buddha, the path to nirvana

2 comments:

  1. Raj,

    Being aware of negative thoughts is essential, but understanding how the mind gets to do what it does is also important. Few of us realize that the critical, judgmental mind is structured to initially protect us. The set up is that when we grow up in circumstances that have us relying on our Inner Critic, we end up strengthening it. As a psychotherapist, I have found it exceedingly helpful to teach people about how the voice of the Inner Critic originated and strategies for countering it. Thanks for sharing your blog with me - Jane @ "The Doctor's In" blog http://janeshure.com/blog/

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  2. nirvana never an escape from the bad karma of your past and its neither the reward you get for any good deeds from your past .. its a much much bettet and superior concept to define which i find myself improper ..

    but I would like to share with you what I feel about the nirvana..

    nirvana is the ultimate state of detachment characterized by Ananda.. where your soul dissolves to the paramathma .. Ananda by the word meaning seems to share its meaning with the word happines.. ananda is actually a state of neutrality of mind.. and the supreme state paramananda is defined as a state in which one is not excited by emotions neither happy nor sad.. This neutrality is the true essence of nirvana.. to be unreactive to be pure .. to dissolve your soul in paramathma.. the essentiality that one should have to attain nirvaana is knowledge and meditation .. meditate tink ... think meditate .. make your views make your conclusions.. critisice those as if you are your own enemy.. Formulate better ideas superior thinking of forgrtting forgiving and giving .. non attachment.. the real form of ahimsa is not to count something as your own .. Attachments leads to distress.. so ehen we preach and practice such superior Ideals one will start walking to the path of nirvanaa

    Thank you
    Arun kumar B
    me.my.only.boss@gmail.com

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