Experiencing Deathlessness

Mark Wong

 Yo  ca   vassa  satam  jīve
Appassaṃ  amataṃ padaṃ
Ekāhaṃ    jīvitaṃ     seyyo
Passato   amataṃ   padaṃ

Though one should live a hundred years
Without perceiving the Deathless state,
Yet better, indeed is a single day’s of life
Of one who perceives the Deathless state.

Dpd.114
Trans.by K.Sri Dhammananda

Purport :

The Deathless state is the birthless state. Doctrinally, it refers to the cessation of transmigration (saṃsāra). Alternatively, it refers to the state of Nibbāna. It is Buddhist lliberation (Vimutti) . Psychologically, this  utterance of ‘Birthlessness’ (Amata) by Gotama Buddha refers to the mental  experience of Nibbāna in the present life before one’s demise. One dies before one dies. The false self dies and is replaced with the birth of the True Self. The True Self is the pure mental consciousness.  The pure consciousness is the mind of an Arahant or a Buddha.

 Psychologically, Nibbāna is defined as the complete appeasement of the human mind (mana) – the complete silence of the chatter of human consciousness (citta). The human mind or mental consciousness is considered to have been completely appeased on condition that the self-centric ego (ahaṃkāra) is annihilated. The self-centric ego can be obliterated momentarily from tranquility-insight meditation (samatha-vipassanā-bhāvanā). It can only be annihilated totally by wisdom (paññā) of discerning the ultimate Truth of Reality. Wisdom is the key to unlock door to complete freedom or emancipation.

When one has developed the Wisdom (Paññā) of Insight (Vipassanā) into the ultimate Truth of Three Universal Characteristics (Tilakkhaṇas) of the five aggregates ( the five components of body and body of human personality), Nibbāna is sustained permanently even without a formal meditational practice.  The Nibbānic state is gained after the human mind is completely appeased. Nibbāna is actualized through wise execution of  the four foundations of mindfulness (cattāri satipațțhāna). In other words, the appeased one is able to maintain the power of equanimity (upekkhā) perfectly without attachment and aversion. This is the perfect state of birthlessness. In other words , his carnal or false self of ordinary, defiled, finite consciousness (viññānṇa) is extinct. It is replaced with the True Self of pure, infinite consciousness. Mundanely put, birthlessness state is the state of the extinction of self-centric ego.

According to Gotama Buddha, any religiously ignorant worldling may have lived a hundred years of mundane human life. However, being unreligious, he or she does not experience a single day of perfect equanimously deathless mind – the mind of Nibbāna. His or her life  fallible and vulnerable as greed, hatred and delusion are his attributes. He or she may live long devoid of Nibbānic experience. Mundane put, being Nibbānic is  calmness and unperturbility of life. In other words, longevity  is not the ideal measure of  the highest good life . The highest good of life is the direct experience  of Nibbāna even though it is experienced in a single day of  one life. Ethically, Nibbāna is the perfection of wisdom and virtue  as it obliterates the three poisons of life , namely greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha).

Experiencing Nibbāna even momentarily is the actual experience of discerning  the Spirit or Truth of the  Buddha by oneself. Discerning  the Buddha is the direct empirical experience of knowing the Truth of Process Reality of the human perosnality. The Process Reality is the dynamic process becoming expounded as Insubstantiality (Anatta) and Dependent Origination or Co-arising (Pațiccasamuppāda). Discerning  the Buddha is a precious, rare experience of Gnosis – self-enlightenment (bodhi). Discerning  the Buddha or experiencing the Deathlessness is perceiving the Insubstantiality (Anattā) and the Dependent Co-arising (Pațiccasamuppāda) of the five aggregates or the eighteen Elements.

 The five aggregates are form (rūpa), feelings (vedanā), perceptions (saññā), dispositions (saṅkhārā) and consciousness (viññāṇa). The eighteen  elements (dhātus) comprise six sense faculties, six sense objects and six sense consciousness. Annihilating one’s self-identity in the Buddha-mind (Mind of an Arahant or Bodhisattva) is the direct experience  of Anattā. Anattā gives rise to Process Reality of the human personality. Process Reality  is the continuous life  process of continuum of mental  and physical phenomena.