How To Attain Nibbana (Pt II) — A Roadmap for the Uninitiated

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Interfaith Now

30 min readMay 27, 2021

The intention of this series of articles is to help you get on the path towards attaining Nibbana (enlightenment). If you haven’t already, read Pt I.

In this article, we’re going to unpack the right world-view. This isn’t just an optional assignment for extra credit; without the right world view, it will be impossible to attain Nibbana.

My intention is to give you an overview of the right world-view with evidence to support its premises. Importantly, I have provided links to all the resources that are necessary for you to continue unpacking it all. Take your time with this. Don’t kid yourself; what we’re trying to do here is radical! Read, pause, reflect, rinse and repeat as needed.

The reason why the right world-view is first on the eightfold noble path is that you can’t be on the noble path without it. There is only one noble path and its unique characteristic is that it results in permanent and absolute relief from suffering.

There are many mundane paths that provide varying degrees of temporary relief from suffering. As you’ll see later in this article, these temporary periods of relief can be astonishingly long. In the grand scheme of things though, even those astonishingly long periods of relief are equivalent to a grain of sand as compared to all the sand on earth. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

What is a World-View Anyway?

A world-view is the network of beliefs that inform how you see reality at a fundamental level.

For instance, there is the Materialism which is based on, among other things, the idea that all phenomena are derived from physical matter. Materialists subsequently believe that the individual will cease to exist when the physical body dies. There are also theistic world-views that say God created reality and that ours souls will either go to heaven or hell on the basis of whether we live morally or not.

The numerous combinations of networked beliefs results in all of the potential world-views.

Pascal’s wager says,“If religions are wrong, religious people have nothing to lose. However, If atheism is wrong, atheists have a lot to lose”. A common rebuttal to this argument is “which God is right then?”. This point is an important one — there isn’t exactly a consensus among all religions and they can’t all be correct given that they contradict one another.

The conclusions of any given world-view make perfect sense based on the axioms that they’re predicated upon. As a result, the only way to appreciate the flaws of a world-view is by challenging its assumptions. Doing this requires going beyond the world-view in question. Otherwise, the process will become self-referential and give rise to the appearance of paradox.

In reality, there is no paradox. Rather, they are contradictions that are impossible to resolve so long as you try to resolve them from within that world-view! Do you see the dilemma here?!

This is a very common issue. Consider the hard problem for a moment; how can inert matter create conscious experience? It’s only a ‘hard problem’ from the frame of reference that materialists and much of the scientific community (among others) are operating from. But so long as that’s their frame of reference, it will always remain a ‘hard problem’.

The Novella Flatland by Edwin Abbott beautifully and comically illustrates this point. Flatlanders are two-dimensional, geometrical beings. Because of their two-dimensional nature and the fact that that’s all they’ve ever know, they can’t possibly conceive of three dimensions. Flatlanders are never able to realise that there is anything beyond two dimensions until they challenge the beliefs and assumptions that their entire perception of reality is based upon.

This requires a radical degree of scepticism (there’s a paradox here; a radical degree of scepticism actually requires a radical degree of open-mindedness).

Your belief systems limit your reality to a sub-set of the solution space that does not contain the answer.
Thomas Campbell

Are all world-views equally valid?

Religions and spiritual traditions seem to point to there being ‘more than what meets the eye’. We should be open to this premise being a possibility. However, while there are indeed parallels to be found, these traditions often contradict one another, themselves, and what scientific research indicates is the case.

Clearly, the claims of some religions and spiritual traditions lack credibility; various fields of science state that the earth is 4.5 billion years old. Subsequently, the claim that it’s actually 5000 years old should raise a red flag. If these red flags are numerous and contradictory, it makes it highly unlikely that its corresponding world-view will be correct.

Naive realism is a psychological phenomenon that involves an individual believing that we are all essentially perceiving everything in the same way. One of the profound potential benefits of psychedelics is the shattering of this illusion. It becomes blindingly obvious that our perception of reality allows for an astounding degree of nuance and variation. Further, our world-views inform the meaning we infer from those perceptions and how they get contextualised.

So then, the world-views that unfold out of this premise of there being ‘more than what meets the eye’ is being distorted by many filters (cultural, political, and general ignorance being just a few). The nature of ignorance is such that it only leads to more ignorance. Thus, over time, an incorrect world-view will only become more incorrect;

If you suddenly wanted to learn how to speak Hungarian, that would only be possible if you were to reference accurate, external resources (for instance, people, books, YouTube videos, lectures, and so on). If you were to try learning Hungarian without accurate, external resources, it would simply be impossible. You could devote ten hours a day for the rest of your life to this goal, and you still wouldn’t even be able to say “Hello”.

With that in mind, the true nature of reality cannot be comprehended without reference to an accurate resource. We have to assume that a distorted world-view will not be sufficient in our goal of attaining enlightenment. After all, you can’t reach a destination if the directions are wrong or if a whole bunch of directions are missing. As such, our goal should be to establish which possibility seems to have the least amount of distortion. We do this in part by watching out for contradictions and inconsistencies.

We also have to remember that our capacity to delude ourselves is literally limitless. The mind is an astonishing thing. Many people don’t even begin to appreciate what it’s capable of. There are many astounding experiences and states of conscious available to us. They can be so staggering that unless you’ve established the right world-view, you’ll convince yourself that ‘this is it’ and you’ve attained enlightenment.

Subsequently, we approach this endeavour as if we were a detective; tirelessly compiling evidence and scrutinising it from all manner of different angles. When we receive new information or another theory is suggested, we consider it in relation what we’ve already learned. As such, there’s no cognitive dissonance. On the contrary — we invite new information, perspectives, and theories. However, the effect is that not only does it not undermine the best theory we have, it actually strengthens it.

Recap

We don’t perceive the world as it is. Instead, it’s an interpretation
Information gets distorted over time
Therefore, we should assume that religions and spiritual traditions are distorted interpretations. This isn’t to say that they’re complete B.S., which is why we don’t abandon what appears to be its universal, foundational premise (there’s more to life than what meets the eye)
To understand what’s really going on, an accurate resource is essential
The capacity to delude one’s self is limitless

Why Buddha Dhamma?

What makes Buddha Dhamma so compelling is that it is inter-consistent. No matter what angle you conduct the investigation from, there aren’t any contradictions to be found. The validity of a single statement in Buddha Dhamma is predicated on all of the other statements also being correct.

The more of these statements you validate, the less likely it will appear that Buddha Dhamma is incorrect. You reach the point where you’ve validated enough of these statements and have researched sufficiently enough so that any shred of doubt and scepticism vanishes. Again, it’s the opposite of cognitive dissonance — despite actively engaging in challenging its premises, you don’t see any inconsistencies.

However, you will find issues if you mix and match within Buddhism. For reasons that would require an entire separate series to explain, neither Theravada, nor Mahayana, nor Vajrayana accurately represent the Buddha’s true teachings(check out the resources at the end of the article for links that support this claim).

With that said, here’s a very brief summary:

After attaining Buddhahood, the Buddha taught people how to attain Nibbana by speaking to them. Of those people that he spoke to, some attained Nibbana. Those people who had attained Nibbana were then in the position to explain to others how to attain Nibbana, and so on.

The language that the Buddha spoke (Magadi Prakit) didn’t have a written form, so it was an oral tradition. After the Buddha’s death, a council of Monks (that had attained Nibbana) was formed. Their intention was to organise the Buddha’s teaching so that it wouldn’t be lost.

This endeavour was completed by the third Buddhist council (which goes to show what a significant undertaking it was). This culminated in the Tipitaka (the three baskets). The Tipitaka is comprised of the suttas, the rules for monks and nuns, and the abhidhamma.

The Tipitaka was finally committed to the written form of Sinhala at the time of the third Buddhist council. It was written on leaves, so it had to be rewritten every hundred years. From that moment on, commentaries based on the Tipitaka were produced.

A Vedic scholar by the name of Buddhaghosa was tasked with compiling these commentaries, translating them and turning it into a book. In the process, he incorporated his own Vedic-inspired ideas (especially as it pertains to meditation). The result was the Visudimaggha, which is the central text of the Theravada tradition.

This is just one example of how Buddha Dhamma has become distorted over time, but there are many others. If you think about it, it couldn’t be any other way. It’s one giant game of telephone that’s been going on for thousands of years.

Free-Will Vs. Determinism

There are some very smart people out there who maintain that free-will is just an illusion. One point of contention is that some people are much more fortunate than others. From the deterministic perspective, the fact that a child develops a terminal illness, whereas another person lives a life free from disease, poverty, and violence is simply a result of luck:

“There’s luck, both good and bad, as well as what we make of it. Actually, that’s not quite true. What you make of your luck is also just more luck.”
Sam Harris

In reality, it’s nothing to do with luck. Your actions create your circumstances. In order to appreciate this, we need to start laying some Dhamma foundation. This will involve a few Pali terms, but don’t worry! We’ll just be dipping our feet in:

Sansara

In a nutshell, this is the infinitely long rebirth process that we are a part of. There is no beginning to it and there is no end to it, either (unless you attain Nibbana). As a side-note, consider the etymology of Buddhist; someone who is striving to put an end to the rebirth process (To appreciate why one would want to do that, read the first article in this series).

San is a single word that carries a tremendous amount of meaning. It’s used as a prefix, so understanding it unlocks many other words as well as the ways in which they relate to one another.

San is essentially the term for “good and bad things we acquire” due to our moral and immoral deeds. It should be thought of in relation to the three root causes of suffering: lust/greed, aversion/hatred, and ignorance of Dhamma. Sara means fruitful, so sansara is to wrongfully view san as being fruitful.

Gathi

The qualities, characteristics, and preferences that make you you. It’s the reason why you choose a blueberry muffin over a panini or why you usually stay calm instead of getting angry. The term itself is neutral, although you can have both good and bad forms of it. For instance, you could have ‘violence gathi’. Conversely, you might have ‘charitable gathi’ as well.

Sankhara

We extend the rebirth process by doing san, and that’s what sankhara is. There are three different kinds of sankhara: impulsive thought (mano), conscious thinking (vaci), and bodily actions (kaya).

Impulsive thoughts arise due to our gathi. You have no direct or immediate control over it. Conscious thinking is conditioned by these impulsive thoughts, and bodily actions occur due to our conscious thinking. This process of taking actions informed by san (i.e. sankhara) moulds our gathi.

Example

Over months of interacting with a colleague, you have lots of arguments with them. Every time you see them, you consciously think (vaci sankhara) about why you don’t like them. This conscious thinking moulds your gathi corresponding to that person. As a result, now every time you see them, you immediately have an impulsive thought (mano sankhara) of anger and negativity.

So the more conscious thinking you do (corresponding to your colleague) the stronger your gathi becomes about them. As a consequence, your impulsive thinking about them gets more extreme. If you continue to reinforce this gathi, you could go to the extent of taking a bodily action (kaya sankhara). For instance, you could physically assault them.

This illustrates how the extent to which we can exercise free will over something depends on the strength of its corresponding gathi. The stronger the gathi, the more deterministic things become. At extremes, free-will can still be exercised, but it becomes much more difficult.

We don’t have direct or immediate control over impulsive thinking (mano sankhara), but we DO have control over conscious thinking (vaci sankhara) and bodily actions (kaya sankhara). As such, by considering the consequences of our conscious thinking and bodily actions, we can reduce the strength of our gathi over time (this will be the subject of the next article).

Recap

Impulsive thinking (mano sankhara) does not involve free-will. However, it can be indirectly influenced as described above
Conscious thinking (vaci sankhara) does involve free-will
Bodily actions (kaya sankhara) do involve free-will

Why is this the case?

It’s because the mind and the brain are not the same thing.

The brain processes roughly fifty pieces of sensory information a second. Some of this information is done at the same time and parallel-processed. A lot of this information is processed linearly, though.

While this rate of processing may sound impressive, the mind is incomparably quicker. So much so that upon receiving a piece of sensory information from the brain, the mind processes and organises it almost instantaneously. It then waits around in a sleep-like state until the brain sends it another piece of information. In fact, the mind is so staggeringly fast that the Buddha said it’s very difficult to find an analogy to communicate its speed.

The mind is made up of six sense-bases; five corresponding to each of the sense organs, and the sixth being the ‘seat of the mind’. It is here in the ‘seat of the mind’ where reality unfolds and is experienced.

The brain is a two-way system: it receives signals from the mind and it sends signals to the mind. To illustrate this, let’s look at two examples:

A signal getting sent to the mind

Visual information makes contact with the eye
The eye sends that information as an electrochemical signal to the brain
The brain sends that information to the eye sense-base in the mind
The eye sense-base sends that information to the seat of the mind where it is organised along will all other sense inputs, and then consciously experienced

The mind sending a signal to the brain

Impulsive thought arises in the ‘seat of the mind’ due to your gathi
If the gathi is strong enough, it will give rise to conscious thinking
The intention behind that conscious thinking is sent to the brain
The brain processes that intention and carries out the action of conscious thinking
If the gathi is strong enough, an intention for bodily action will occur due to the conscious thinking
That intention for bodily action will then get sent to the brain
The brain then processes and carries out that intention of bodily action

Is There a Soul?

Well, this is my thought. Fifty thousand years ago, there are not even a million people on the planet. Ten thousand years ago, there’s like two million people on the planet. Now, there’s between five and six billion people on the planet, right? Now, if we all have our own, like, individual, unique soul, right, where do they all come from?
Are modern souls only a fraction of the original souls? Because if they are, that represents a five thousand-to-one split of each soul in just the last fifty thousand years, which is like a blip in the earth’s time. You know, so, at best, we’re like these tiny fractions of people…
Jesse, Before Sunrise

As Jesse cleverly intuits, there’s an issue here. If rebirth is a thing, then how can you explain the population increase?

To address this issue, we have to consider two points;

You don’t just get reborn as a human
You don’t have an eternal, unchanging soul

As we’ll see shortly, there are other realms of existence that you can be born into. The world is much larger than you may have been lead to believe. The human species represents just one of eight possible realms that you can exist in.

Also, you do not have an unchanging soul in the way that Abrahamic religions and Hinduism (among others) depict.

In the previous article, we established that everything that happens does so due to conditions. When the conditions for something are just right, the outcome unfolds. When the conditions change or are removed, change or cessation of that outcome occurs.

We and everything we’re made up of is no different. You are not one individual thing. What’s more, the things you’re made up of are conditioned phenomena that are constantly undergoing change. That’s true for you mentally as well as it is physically.

However, this isn’t to say that there is no self at all. The fact that you can exercise free-will shows that decisions are being made by someone. Rather, the self that you are is dynamic and ever-changing.

Ultimately, there isn’t a self so much as there is the perception of a self. This perception of a self is fuelled by ignorance of Dhamma (i.e. not knowing how reality actually is). When you attain Nibbana, this perception of a self will disappear.

Recap

There is no everlasting unchanging soul
‘No self’ isn’t accurate either
What we are is dynamic and ever-changing
The perception of self goes when one attains Nibbana

The Realms

The Realms of existence reflect the psychological state that any given being happens to inhabit.

So if a person thinks, speaks, and acts like an animal (i.e. impulsively and expresses a disregard for moral values), they’re cultivating the necessary conditions for a lifestream in the animal realm. Likewise, if a person is compassionate and altruistic, always putting others’ needs before theirs, they’re cultivating the necessary conditions for a lifestream in the one of the higher realms.

This isn’t some kind of punishment/reward scheme that’s being carried out by a divine creator. The realm that a being happens to go to is an in-system consequence that can be described by the laws of nature. The extent to which it appears to be mystical is relative to one’s understanding of reality.

To understand the rebirth process clearly, it’s important to know the difference between individual lives and a lifestream. You have individual lives within a lifestream that’s associated with a realm. For instance, you could have an animal lifestream in which you have many individual animal lives. Kamma is what fuels these lifestreams.

If a human lifestream transitions to an animal lifestream, that’s a very significant change. It’s not the case that it’s a human soul trapped inside an animal’s body. That being which was once a human is now an animal. The reason why that’s the case is that while they were still a human, their behaviour, qualities, and characteristics corresponded most closely with that of an animal.

Within a single life, a person changes dramatically. You’re radically different from the person you were when you were seven (both physically and psychologically). If you’re fortunate enough to live for another thirty years, that older, ‘future you’ will be very different from the you that you are now.

Thus, change is occurring within a single life, from life to life, and from lifestream to lifestream. It should be even clearer now that there is no eternal, unchanging soul or self.

Another fly in the ointment of the rebirth process is that you have no idea how you behaved in previous lives. You could be the poster-child for morality in this life but may have committed terrible deeds in a previous life. As a result of this, you cannot let the conduct of this individual life inform where you think you’ll go next.

You may look at a person who has all the advantages one could ask for and watch as they squander them away. They manipulate people around them and are generally mean. And yet, they have everything going for them. You may think that this is evidence in support of a nihilistic universe.

That’s not the case at all. This person got to experience that comfortable lifestyle because of good deeds from previous lives. However, since then, their character has changed for the worse.

Understanding kamma thoroughly can be extremely complicated. With that said, all you need to know for the time being is that good actions (in the form of impulsive thinking, conscious thinking, and bodily actions) result in favourable outcomes. Bad actions will result in unfavourable outcomes.

Your actions sow kammic seeds. When the necessary conditions have been met, the corresponding Kammic seed will come to fruition. For a seed to grow into a tree, it needs to have water, sunlight, space, and nutrient-rich soil. If the seed is stuck under the cushion of your sofa, it won’t become a tree. Likewise, a kammic outcome can only unfold if the conditions are right.

The strongest kamma always gets prioritised. Once the kamma for a being’s current existence gets spent, whichever of their kamma is the strongest determines where they go next. The duration of a lifestream is informed by the kamma associated with it.

When a person dies, they will recall memories from their life. These memories will ‘flash before their eyes’. The first memory they recall will correspond to that strongest kamma. Because they will have cultivated the gathi (character traits) corresponding to that kamma, upon recalling the memory, they will cling to it. This clinging and matching of their gathi with the kammically recalled memory results in a new corresponding lifestream.

For instance, suppose a person dies and then kammically recalls a memory of them helping out people in need. This makes them feel happy, so there’s a match between the memory and their gathi. Therefore, their next rebirth will be in one of the higher realms. This entire process happens damn near instantaneously.

Now, let’s look at the realms:

The Niraya Realms (hell)

Needless to say, this is where the greatest amount of suffering takes place.

I find myself in a difficult position here. On the one hand, I don’t want to fear-monger. With that being said, burying one’s head in the sand will only make matters worse. When I first honestly considered the possibility that hell could be real, it terrified me. That was definitely one of the reasons why I decided to take comprehending Buddha Dhamma seriously.

Once you become a stream-enterer, you’ll never be reborn in any of the lower four realms ever again. That’s because the psychological state of a stream-enterer is no longer a match for the lower four realms.

The human realm has an astonishing amount of variety; on the one hand, it’s possible to have a heavenly existence in which suffering is relatively low. On the other hand, one can be subjected to an existence that is nightmarishly bad. As one’s understanding of Dhamma improves, this becomes a significant clue in support of there being other realms, including hell.

What’s more, it’s possible to develop the ability to see these other realms for yourself and even recall previous lifestreams you’ve had in them (more on that in the resources section).

The Peta Realms (hungry ghosts)

They’re referred to as hungry ghosts because they are incapable of satisfying their needs and desires. They are constantly thirsty and starving. Greed is the dominant state here.

The Asura Realms (demons)

These beings were once in the heavenly realms. They fell down to the Asura realms due to immoral actions. Because of this, they are overcome with hatred and jealousy.

The Animal Realm

This includes everything from microscopic animals all the way up to the largest animals. The suffering experienced as an animal includes a combination of the three previous realms. If you think being an animal wouldn’t be so bad, watch a wildlife documentary for five minutes. Delusion is the dominant state here.

The Human Realm

You are here. This is the realm with the greatest balance between pleasure and suffering.

The Deva Realms

These are ‘heavenly’ realms where there is much less suffering and much more pleasure. This realm is still a part of the Kama Loka (a realm that corresponds to an attachment to sense pleasures), so beings here still have attachments to sense pleasures.

Niraya, Peta, Asura and Animal realms are the unfavourable realms within the Kama Loka. The Human and Deva realms are the favourable realms within the Kama Loka. You access the Deva realms by living morally. It’s worth noting that religions and spiritual traditions across cultures that depict heaven are often, without realising it, referring to the Deva realms.

The Fine material Realms

In these realms, suffering is imperceptible and it’s even more pleasurable. You access these realms by mastering the corresponding states of meditative absorption. You access those states by either suppressing or removing your attachments to sense pleasures. There are still attachments to seeing and hearing, as such both are still possible in these realms.

The Immaterial Realms

This is where you experience the greatest amount of pleasure. You get to these realms by mastering the corresponding states of meditative absorption. At these realms, beings have suppressed attachments relating to seeing and hearing.Subsequently, the only sense left of these beings is the mind.

When you are in one of the lower four realms, it’s very difficult to get out of them. That’s because those beings’ minds are constantly in a state that’s informed by greed, hatred, and delusion. As a result, it’s almost impossible to create the merits necessary to have a human existence.

Think about being in prison; because of the environment that you’re in, it becomes much more likely that you’ll behave in such a way that’ll only serve to increase your sentence. It’s the same with being in the lower four realms.

For an in-depth description of the realms, watch this video.

The Wrong Views

The wrong views are removed by comprehending Dhamma. Initially, the right views may just be considered as possibilities. This is a very good first step and is sufficient enough to comprehend Dhamma and appreciate resoundingly why they are in fact correct. However, if a person strongly agrees with one or more of the wrong views, it will be impossible to get onto the eightfold noble path.

1. There is no value in giving 2. There are no corresponding benefits from making offerings on a large scale 3. Respecting and making offerings to those with higher virtues has no merits 4. Good and bad actions do not lead to corresponding results

These four are similar in essence and relate to kamma. It’s quite easy to see an error in reasoning here. The idea that giving has no benefit contradicts most people’s intuitive sense of things. We can all recall instances of feeling good as a result of doing something for someone.

This is just one benefit of being altruistic, but it doesn’t stop there. By doing good deeds you are establishing the necessary conditions for good things to happen in the future. You can think of this as sowing ‘good-deed seeds’. By developing the tendency to consider other people’s wellbeing, you are nurturing these ‘good-deed seeds’ and increasing the likelihood of them turning into fruit.

When something good happens in your life, you are experiencing the fruit from these ‘good-deed seeds’ that you have sown earlier in this life and in previous lives (the mere fact that you have a human lifestream right now is because of past good deeds). Conversely, bad things happen as a consequence of you having sown ‘bad-deed seeds’ and having the necessary conditions for it to come to fruition be met.

It’s critical to see that no divine beings are involved in the carrying out of these good and bad outcomes. They are simply natural consequences of actions that have been taken. It’s analogous to throwing a stone into a pond and it producing ripples.

Some people try to game the system here. They think that by making offerings, donations and charitable contributions, good outcomes are sure to happen. That is not the case — the intention is critical. Why? Because the mind comes first before everything.

Suppose that two people volunteer at a shelter once a week. The first person does it out of a sense of civic responsibility and a sincere interest in doing anything they can to help. The second person does it because they have political aspirations and think it will improve their standing in the local community.

In the first scenario, the person will be accruing good kamma. In contrast, the second person will be establishing both good and bad Kamma. The second person’s commitment to volunteering at the shelter will be reflected by their intention.

The greater one’s understanding of how the world actually works, the wiser and more selfless their intentions will be.

Recap

intentions shape actions
Intentions, thoughts and actions have consequences
These consequences aren’t deterministic; they only unfold if the necessary conditions have been established
Poor conduct will result in the necessary conditions being established for ‘bad-deed seeds’, which will subsequently result in ‘bad deed fruit’ (i.e. unfavourable circumstances). Likewise, good conduct will result in the necessary conditions being established for ‘good-deed seeds’, which will subsequently result in ‘good-deed fruit’ (i.e. favourable circumstances)

5. This world does not exist

If a person has this wrong view, they believe that reality and all its contents is essentially a hallucination. It’s a rejection of anything in existence having real, objective substance to it. In other words, it’s the view that perceptions are all there is, and there’s nothing that those perceptions are in reference to.

In The Matrix, there’s that famous scene where the kid says, “there is no spoon”. Every time I hear that line, I smile wryly and think to myself “Yes there is, kid!”. Here’s the thing: you are not experiencing the spoon directly; you are experiencing a representation of the spoon. This isn’t to say the spoon doesn’t exist, though! This representation directly corresponds to what’s happening in material reality. Of course, these representations vary from person to person. This is partly due to physiological differences and partly due to mental factors.

There are four ultimate realities; matter, thought, mental factors, and Nibbana. All of existence, from the lowest realms to the highest, are made up of the first three factors. They are called ultimate realities because they cannot be reduced any further. Even at the highest realms of existence where beings just live as the previously described ‘seat of the mind’ (which is many times smaller than an atom), there is still matter. That’s because each sense-base, including the seat of the mind, is made of a unit of matter.

Side note: this is something that many Buddhists get dramatically wrong by maintaining that fundamentally, there is no difference between Sansara and Nibbana.

Don’t mistake Buddha Dhamma as being in favour of Materialism, which argues that physical matter produces consciousness. Dhamma shows that it’s the other way around; mind comes first.

Recap

There is such a thing as physical matter — the world does exist
Materialism is wrong because physical matter doesn’t produce consciousness; mind comes first

6. The Netherworld does not exist

The physical body is animated by a mental body. Upon dying, the mental body exists in the Netherworld. The Netherworld doesn’t occupy a different location; it’s right here and is a part of the human and animal realms. It is possible to cultivate the ability to separate the mental body from the physical body and explore the Netherworld. Further, check out the resources section for evidence in support of the Netherworld existing.

7. & 8. Your mother and father are not special people

Being born as a human is incredibly rare. The Buddha conveyed this by using the following simile;

Imagine that the entire earth has been covered in water, with the result of there being no landmasses anymore (like that planet from Interstellar!). Suppose that floating across this giant body of water is a yoke with a single hole. The yoke will move in the direction that the wind happens to blow it in.

Now imagine that once every hundred years, a turtle rises to the surface and sticks its head above water. The odds of you being born a human are comparable to the odds of the turtle rising to the surface once every hundred years and coincidentally inserting its neck through the single-holed yolk.

That sounds pretty farfetched, right? Well, consider for a moment the fact that for every human being in existence, there are roughly a million ants! There are roughly seventeen million flies for every person. That’s just two species within what can broadly be classified as the animal realm.

There are so many more animals than humans that it’s difficult to comprehend. From this, we can see that there’s a much greater probability of being born an animal than there is as a human.

We spend most of our time in the lower four realms. This is where the most suffering takes place. While we are there, it’s impossible to comprehend Dhamma due to the amount we’re suffering. When we are in the higher realms, we’re so blissed out that we don’t see what the issue is. As such, we aren’t motivated to comprehend Dhamma.

Therefore, the best opportunity we have to comprehend Dhamma is as a human. Subsequently, being a human is an invaluable opportunity that was made possible by your mother and father. You don’t just get randomly assigned to any parents. You have the parents that you have because their qualities and characteristics were a match for that of your own.

Subsequently, it’s not easy for that match of qualities and characteristics to line up. If that match isn’t established in time, the Kamma that’s necessary to support another human existence will burn out (while you’re in the netherworld), and you will then be born in another realm.

As we’ve established, once that happens, it’s statistically likely that you’ll go to a lower realm. If you’re fortunate enough to go to a higher realm, you more than likely still won’t be able to attain Nibbana for a very long period of time. What’s more, there’s no guarantee which realm you’ll go to after being in that higher realm.

This is the suffering that most people aren’t aware of.

So even if your parents were unreliable, abusive and emotionally unavailable (for which I am very sorry), you have this opportunity as a direct result of them creating you!

Parents, including yours, are very special people indeed. They should be respected accordingly.

9. Living-beings cannot be reborn spontaneously

Whereas in the human and animal realms, beings are born by the father impregnating the mother, this process isn’t necessary for other realms. Existences occur as a direct result of Kamma.

Once the Kamma to support a given existence burns out, so too will the life of that being. This happens in the realms lower than the animal realm, as well as in the realms higher than the human realm.

This wrong view really comes down to not understanding that the mind is the forerunner of reality. What’s more, it’s predicated on the mistaken belief that we are the body. The physical body is the thing that makes it possible for ‘us’ to interact with physical reality. It’s an interface.

The most widely held view of birth in the west is that a being is created and it then becomes conscious at some point further down the line. The opposite is actually true. Your mental body exists in the netherworld while it waits for a set of parents that have a close match of qualities and characteristics (gathi) to that of its own. Once that set of parents has been established, the mental body leaves the netherworld and attaches to the zygote that the couple has produced.

In the human realm, we have coarse material bodies due to our attachments to sensual desires (that’s right — the reason you have a physical body is so that you can experience sense-pleasures. Mind-blowing, huh?!).

As you progress into higher realms, the bodies we have become finer and finer. So whereas in the human realm, you have the sense organs transmitting information about the material world to the sense-bases, in the higher realms, you just have the sense-bases. These higher realms aren’t devoid of matter, though because the sense-bases themselves (that your mind is comprised of) are made of the most fundamental units of matter. These units of matter are much, much smaller than an atom.

Recap

Spontaneous births occur in the realms other than the animal and human realms

10. There are no people in the world who have seen for themselves directly that this world and the netherworld exist

By mastering the states of meditative absorption (the jhanas), it becomes possible to recall past human lives. While it’s more difficult, it’s also possible to develop the skill to recall past lifestreams in different realms. It’s also possible to detach the mental body from the physical body and explore the netherworld and other realms (i.e. have an Out of Body Experience). Importantly, in so doing, you can verify in your own direct experience that the world (including the netherworld) exists and isn’t simply imagined or an illusion.

By holding the tenth wrong view, a person considers all this to be nonsense. They might concede that some kind of experience is happening but will attribute it either to imagination or some kind of mental illness.

There are people out there who have developed these skills across the millennia. This is one of the main reasons why religions exist! A mystic or yogi recalls a previous existence in one of the higher realms and communicates this to their followers. A corresponding set of teachings and moral principles is then preached.

In the resources section below, I have listed some videos and books that will help to address this issue, along with the others. A more hands-on approach is possible, though. If you’re really serious about this, you could learn to lucid dream and have OBEs. Many people have experienced the recollection of past lives with Holotropic breath-work as well.

Pursuing these more hands-on avenues isn’t a necessity. With that said, removing the wrong views is. So to that extent, a pragmatic approach should be employed. May your mantra be “whatever gets the job done”.

The Three Characteristics of Nature, Revisited

The subject of the previous article was the three characteristics of nature. Now we’ve taken a look at the big picture of Buddha Dhamma, let’s think about these attributes again:

Anicca

There is nothing in this world that will give you permanent, absolute fulfilment. Now, we can appreciate that it doesn’t simply mean in this individual life. We can also now see that the death of the physical body doesn’t result in an end of existence in the world — only Nibbana does. You have existed for an infinitely long period of time and have been in all of the realms (apart from the Pure Abodes, which only Anagamis can access) many times over. So at no point have you experienced permanent, absolute fulfilment. We know that because otherwise, you would a) still be fulfilled now, and b) be absolutely fulfilled in this moment.

Dukkha

Therefore, despite your best efforts, you will suffer much more in the long run. Of course, this is because you can’t maintain anything to your satisfaction. Things change in unpredictable ways. However, the main suffering that’s being referred to is what is experienced in the lowest realms of existence, which is where most of beings’ time is spent. Comparatively, being a human is like taking a 2 week vacation from work.

Anatta

Therefore, nothing in existence has any real value. So long as there’s the perception that it does, one is just aimlessly wandering. As far as an atheist is concerned, life is short. As a result, everything must seem extremely precious and significant. After all, it’s never been experienced before, and it will never be experienced again. There’s something beautiful about that. Of course, this is in stark contrast to how reality actually operates. There’s literally nothing that you haven’t tried. No matter who you envy, you’ve had what they’ve had and better. And yet, you’re still not even slightly closer to permanent, absolute fulfilment. It’s not simply that you’ve existed for a long time; you never haven’t.

This infinite existence has been overwhelmingly comprised of suffering, punctuated by temporary periods of relative absences of suffering. So then, with all that in mind, existence doesn’t have any real value or substance to it. To quote Alanis Morissette, it’s a “no-smoking sign on your cigarette break”.

Conclusion

There is an objectively true nature of reality. Dhamma is an accurate representation of this true nature of reality and its laws. The only way Dhamma can be comprehended is when a Buddha shares it with the world. Therefore, it is only possible to attain Nibbana with an accurate account of Dhamma, as shared by the Buddha. Inter-consistency and an absence of contradictions is how you know you have established an accurate account.

If you come across ‘Dhamma’ that makes you wish you had a Phd in philosophy, there’s a strong chance that it’s b.s. The Buddha taught Dhamma to uneducated, illiterate peasants. If it was possible for them to comprehend it and gain stream-entry (which we’ll be discussing in the next part of the series), it’s safe to say that you can too. In fact, you should be able to explain it to a seven year old. If someone argues that’s not possible, they haven’t comprehended true Dhamma.

As you progress along the path, you don’t learn entirely new things and unlock previously hidden, Dhammic secrets! You simply understand the same Dhamma with greater degrees of clarity and more depth.

The Buddha didn’t share anything with the world that he hadn’t verified for himself. Likewise, you can verify everything discussed in this series. To that end, I encourage you to continue this investigation by referencing the resources below.

May you attain Nibbana in this lifetime!