The Living Computer
Photo: Buddhadāsa Indapañño Archives C06296
“If Nibbāna is outside of the khandhas, how can we know it?”
~ Response by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu ~
First one needs to understand that there are two aspects of nature. There are all the things which are saṅkhata (conditioned), concocted things. All the things that can be affected, influenced, conditioned by things, are called ‘saṅkhata.’ And then there is the asaṅkhata (the unconditioned, the unconcocted) – that which cannot be touched, affected, influenced by anything. The five khandhas, this mind-body, are saṅkhata. Nibbāna is asaṅkhata. Nibbāna is that which cannot be conditioned, affected, or influenced – it’s beyond all that. So the problem is, how can the conditioned khandhas come to experience the unconditioned? The answer is that the khandhas – or the mind here we can say – must be no longer concocted or conditioned. When the mind is not conditioned or concocted by anything, then it is able to experience that state which is beyond conditioning. When the mind is conditioned, concocted by things, then it’s oblivious to the reality that is beyond concocting and conditioning. But when we can make the mind unconditioned, when we can free the mind from the conditioning and concocting of that we’re all so used to, then it can experience Nibbāna, the unconditioned. To speak in terms of metaphor, we can say that Nibbāna is everywhere, always. So Nibbāna is omnipresent, but because our mind is covered with ignorance, the mind has no ability to experience or make contact with Nibbāna. Therefore one needs to free the mind of the defilements, free the mind of desire, free the mind of attachment, so that when the mind is thus emancipated from all concocting, then it will be able to experience the reality of that which is unconditioned, namely Nibbāna.
It’s like a window or door. As long as the window is closed, the sunlight cannot come in. All you have to do is open the window, and the sunlight will enter. You don’t have to pull the sunlight in. Just open the window or open the door, and it will enter by itself once we remove that which prevents it from entering.
(From the retreat “The Living Computer,” as translated from the Thai by Santikaro)
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Dhamma Questions & Responses sessions were offered by Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu in 1990-1991 to foreign meditators attending Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage courses.
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