One thing I find philosophically unsatisfactory about the Buddha’s teaching (from the Pali Canon, Ol’ Skool Buddhism) is that there is an end to Samsara, as elucidated in the third noble truth, but yet there is no beginning. The Buddha claimed that one cannot find a beginning to Samsara. He never gave an answer, and considered the question a waste of time.
If there’s an end, surely there must be a beginning. Yet he teaches that Samsara “is without discoverable beginning.” Samyutta Nikaya 15:1 II. Philosophically speaking, anyone can see this a problem.
I began thinking about it, because I was reflecting on the Buddha’s overall view of human existence. We can sum it up as this: existence itself is a mistake caused by desire/thirst with a heaping of ignorance. This is a tough pill to swallow, partly because one has to ask one’s self in all sincerity — is this life really just a mistake? Is all of existence nothing but suffering?
On one hand, the Buddha’s analysis holds up well when considering the lot of living beings. All living beings are in a state of almost constant stress. What do I mean? I mean, they are always seeking something. Beings are always trying to maintain their existence and this is a problem. They must regulate their environment to stay comfortable or at least within the bounds of remaining alive (not freezing or overheating), they have to eat, which is a constant chore, and they have to fear being eaten. (It’s amazing to me that Christians can maintain that God is all-loving and still look at this world where all beings are subject to so much suffering, including humans. If one were to objectively look at the world and then posit a creator of this world, a kind and loving creator would not be one’s first guess!)
But, once again, we have to ask ourselves: even though my life has a lot of stress, and all humans’ lives are stressful, would we really prefer nonexistence?
This brings me to the Buddha’s conception of Nibbana. Nibbana is not a blissed-out heaven with “wide-eyed virgins” (you have to be a Muslim for that… no wonder it’s the world’s fastest growing religion!) and a constant supply of microbrews and a Play Station 3. It’s an “extinquishing” of all desire. Thanisarro Bhikku translates nibbana as the “unbinding.” The image from the Pali Canon is that of a flame being extinquished. The fuel of the flame is desire/thirst interacting with our body and mind.
“Several times in the canon the question is raised as to whether a liberated person exists after death or not… the Buddha said that is with the fully liberated person the same as with a fire. As long as it is burning, we know what fuel it consumes, but when it has gone out, no one can say in which direction it has disappeared to. In the same way, with one who has attained to ‘all round extinction’, the fuel (i.e. the five groups) has been consumed, and he is as deep, immeasurable and unplumbable as the great ocean. (The Historical Buddha, p. 152)
Well, when the flame goes out, “one” is gone. Gone to the “other shore?” Well, I don’t know but gone nevertheless. The flame analogy is great, because there is nothing existing independently in this metaphor. The fire requires the fuel, air, and wood to burn. They are all required to maintain the flame’s existence. They come together and something unique is begun, in a sense. The flame. Then, when the conditions are absent, so is the flame. This is what we can look forward to entering nirvana. And this precisely why I don’t find it all that appealing. Nor can I accept that life is mistake fueled by desire and stupidity.
However, one may as well respond: the truth hurts.
Or better yet, as Jack Nicholson so adequately put it: “You can’t handle the truth.”
