Nirvana. A transcribed, edited and adapted talk. For dedicated meditators
Given August 2025 in Germany
A transcribed, edited and widely adapted talk. Final afternoons talk of the retreat given on 5 August 2025 at the Waldhaus Buddhist Zentrum, near Andernach, Germany.
The theme for the afternoon talk is nirvana. I am directly offering this talk to those on the retreat deeply and consistently committed to the Buddha Dharma. I believe others will also benefit.
Dharma teachers rarely use the word 'nirvana' in the Dharma Hall, including myself. Realising 'nirvana' can sometimes feel a very distant goal. This brings about a hesitation to use the word. Certain Theravada Buddhist traditions imply that the ‘experience of nirvana’ can be realised in this current lifetime or in a future lifetime.
A regular Buddhist view of nirvana states that nirvana shows in a valuable and important experience that has a significant impact on one's life in the present and the future. Nirvana triggers an irrevocable change. The tradition refers to this experience of Nirvana as transcending the range of mundane experiences.
Nirvana ‘experience’ reveals a full awakening with considerable impact. Some Buddhist teachers state that in this experience all physical and mental phenomena disappear. This perspective is problematic as it implies nirvana depends on the absence of phenomena.
A Range of Valuable Experiences
I will explore a range of valuable experiences. I will designate some of these experiences as spiritual or mystical. Christian saints will refer to experiences, such as a 'mysterium tremendum' in Latin – meaning an incomprehensible mystery of the sacred.
This experience appears to carry more authority in the Latin rather than stating an experience as 'a mystery which is tremendous'. We can connect the range of spiritual experiences with the profound nature of the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings). While these experiences are abundant, they are not sufficient on their own to reveal nirvana . The teachings indicate that the key to unravelling the enigma of life lies in the process of liberating wisdom through observation, discernment and insights, rather than dependence on a specific experience.
Nirvana ends the tremendous mystery, so there is seeing and knowing of liberation of the truth of ‘things’ including freedom from grasping onto rather than than exclusion of the sensory world.
This process involves reflection, meditation, inquiry with oneself and another or others for significant realisations. It is important to recognise the influence of the language of spiritual/religious/social conditioning on our perception of experiences, particularly in relation to the concepts of the path and goal. The path and goal serve as a metaphor, a useful perspective for practitioners. No more and no less.
There are several paths to consider in the Buddha-Dharma tradition. You can give priority to any of them.
Noble Eightfold Path through exploration of all eight links in the path: Right (ethical and fulfilling) Understanding/View, Intention, Speech/Communication, Action, Livelihood, Effort/Application of initiatives, Mindfulness/Awareness and Meditative Concentration.
Path of mindfulness, meditation, reflection, concentration
Path of ethics, awareness, and wisdom
Path of developing what is important and significant, and moving on from that which isn't relevant.
Path of Non-Violence, Love and Compassion
Path of witnessing change, seeing into suffering and seeing through ego of I, me and mine.
As some of you highlighted in the inter-views with me, your relationship to the path does not necessarily remain consistent and steady. As with every retreat, some participants report they have found an extremely beneficial path. Your view may change in time. Other interests and commitments can rule the mind. Some of you return to the annual retreat with the aim of re-establishing the path that you had lost sight of or joined a retreat to establish or explore further a spiritual path in your life.
You may have realised your consciousness finally can develop the practices and tools to expand far beyond the currently confined remit of your daily life.
It is important to note that there is a key element to this. In order to develop a suitable path, it is first necessary to define the objective, such as to end all suffering, freedom from clinging or awakening to ultimate truth. The development of a path becomes an effective strategy for reducing suffering to know the end of the path. This avenue of exploration requires discovery of wisdom.
The development of the path includes love – a placing in the foreground of consciousness a high value on ethics. You also foster compassion for the welfare of others, which also reduces self-preoccupation.
Acceptance and Letting Go
As I outlined during our initial meeting on the first evening, these features of the path are genuinely worthwhile. In psychology, spiritual and religious networks, we hear frequently about letting go and acceptance. Both require much reflection and meditation as they reveal different responses to issues unresolved.
Acceptance and letting go require a transformative understanding. Mental heat around an issue can arise within, whether due to external factors or streams of thoughts and emotions within or due to an external impact.
Do we adopt a mindset of acceptance or letting go? When people become so familiar with this particular pair of words, they lose sight of their original significance. Acceptance and letting go have often become rhetoric lacking any substance to motivate intention. They appear to be the solution to every problem. This shows a blind spot through overuse. The concepts get used habitually and excessively. Rhetoric is not a path that leads to nirvana.
Let us address both concepts with the necessary care and attention to provide a comprehensive understanding of their significance. In the context of the act of letting go, the concepts about the self (I, me and my) become intertwined with the spiritual language of letting go. If I decide to implement either accceptance or letting go as an immediate solution, then your mind will move on immediately from the problem.
I would be interested to know whether you think your mind will take any notice when you tell yourself to acccept or let go right now. If the mind takes no notice of your desire to accept or let go, it has the potential to cause you confusion and you become self-judgemental.
Letting go occurs as a natural, organic outcome of seeing change in conditions for the arising of suffering. The same principle applies with acceptance. Change in your viewpoint with a beneficial understanding requires acceptance of seeing and knowing this change. Your acceptance does not mean a passive response to events but an expression of clarity.
First, you will need to address unresolved issues from the past as a step to move forward. You engage in this preparatory work, including wise counsel on how to proceed. Regard letting go as a natural outcome of understanding, not an act of the will. By skilful reflection on the past, you aim to eliminate any issues that stem from it. This allows you to move forward with a sense of release and resolution. This is a key consideration.
A comprehensive understanding of the issue releases freedom from the grasping, clinging and identification with the unresolved problem. Letting go is not about willpower, or thinking you should, must or ought to let go. Identify the areas where meditation and reflection matter. It is essential to name the issue – fear of what, anxiety about what, anger about what? You may identify the issue as a trauma or an addiction.
The naming process is of paramount importance. If change is gradual, then you may need to make changes in the naming process as you make progress. For example, you have experienced a reoccuring trauma. You now experience occasionally an unpleasant memory of what happened. This shows you have moved on from the trauma. The former impact is fading. The description requires precision otherwise you risk being indecisive, reactive or judgemental. You will not know what to concentrate on to be free from the issue.
Exploring Experiences
Resources exist outside of yourself. A network of people (a Sangha) may have the necessary skills and expertise to assist us in overcoming challenges. They can relate to us in various environments and help us to resolve issues. During these interactions, you remember to examine the underlying issues, their causes and being clear about what needs to change.
It is important to remember that there is no permanent entity inside of yourself called anger, fear or anxiety. States of mind have no substance. A state of mind needs to coalesce in order to manifest in consciousness. States of mind take a form that arises due to conditions, stays due to conditions and dissolve due to conditions. What is formed together, such as a state of mind and sense data, can dissolve temporarily into being formless until the problematic formation rearises.
Nirvana, the unformed, embraces states of mind and the formless, such as space, silence, presence, stillness and expansive consciousness.
Acceptance and letting go require a deep understanding. Heat around an issue can arise in the mind, whether due to external factors or streams of thoughts and emotions within.
In certain situations, it is important to consider the power of reflection in a calm state of mind. This may require mindfulness/meditation practices, active practice, such as long walks, dance, attention to the arts and more. We then examine the necessary changes to unpack the problematic mind. Issues arise and re-arise in a specific time and space.
What time(s) does the issue arise for you?
In what space or location did the suffering occur and reoccur?
At what point are you susceptible to reactivity?
What is the impact affecting your mental clarity?
In the event of a negative mindset and feelings of being overwhelmed, the mind may experience anxiety with much pressure.
Such an infected view forms an exaggeration, denial, producing helplessness, despair and unhappiness. Intense feelings and emotions reveal a key component of suffering. The mind overheats again. Breath exercises, movement, long walks in nature can reduce the burning up inside. Calm and insight into the whole being brings nirvana close to awareness.
The term nirvana literally means without heat. Greed, anger and fear reveal expressions of the heated mind, even if not felt, due to a frozen inner life. As conscious human beings, we experience a range of emotions. These emotions can manifest as agitation and frantic thought. I, me and my get caught up with these experiences preventing us from knowing a true liberation.
There are occasions when a habit recedes temporarily, giving moments of respite when you are not preoccupied with challenging circumstances. They serve as a crucial reminder that a single healthy change shows the deception of an apparent and illusory perpetuity. The arising also confirms a condition for the dropping away of that experience.
Without insights, the experience will remain in the vicinity of consciousness until a condition or two brings the suffering back.
What makes the experience rise again?
What makes it fall again?
Your focus might shift to other matters; a natural and organic process not associated with the heated mind. It is not possible for anyone to be fixated in an unbroken way even for the duration of a 24-hour period, even if we endeavour to do so. That would require immense energy rarely available for such a long period.
It is important to recognise the significance of the decline and absence of suffering, as it allows us to acknowledge the presence of something else. The Buddha's words defined the problematic mind as dependently arising and implicitly dependently passing. Some Buddhists repeatedly claim life is suffering. Such views are not relevant to the issue. If life IS suffering, then suffering could not arise, stay and pass.
What are the Conditions for Arising
What are the necessary conditions for suffering to arise, stay and pass? Here is a straightforward example. An individual smokes without obvious ill effects. "I have some years of grace with smoking,” says the smoker. X-Rays do not ascertain cancer but a persistent cough and other symptoms arises. These are warning signals. Cancer can arise without warning. The smoker suspects the symptoms will lead to lung cancer. The person may delve into psychological factors of the craving to smoke, Recalling these factors may not stop the craving to smoke.
The smoker engages in a simple exercise. A box of cigarettes is on the table with matches and a lighter. You can pick up both tools for smoking. You remove a cigarette from the packet. The smoking addict is still not smoking. The person places it in their mouth. The lighter is in the hand but still does not smoke. Smoking starts with inhaling using a cigarette and matches. If you let go of one of the conditions before inhaling, you cannot smoke a cigarette.
The addiction will then fade away with the ongoing appreciation of meaningful change and renewal of health. You may not realise it, but you taste nirvana in the freedom from the smoking habit. The same principle applies to other unhealthy habits and addictions. Nirvana becomes clear in knowing and seeing a freedom from the habit, a freedom to be and a freedom to act. Taste of nirvana means the taste of a healthy and wise freedom. This is the highest expression of happiness.
Cigarette manufacturers neglect the well-being of their customers. Their primary concern focuses on widespread consumption and maximisation of profit. The removal of a single condition stops smoking in its tracks due to a ritual habit leading to cancer and other ills along with suppression of emotional life.
You also make a small contribution to reducing the obscene profits of the company. Your voice of protest against such companies triggers reflection in other smokers and employees of the companies to reduce their profits even more. If this continues, it will trigger a crisis in values with the cigarette manufacturers.
The same approach facilitates the application of effective strategies for overcoming problematic and habitual thinking. The dissolution process is accompanied by a reduction in the conditions for suffering. In that moment, knowing nirvana becomes obvious - absence of the one who craves and absence of being dependent on the object of craving. The change in the subject or the outer conditions for the object can end the suffering of smoking. That’s the priority. The principle applies everywhere.
This is a crucial point for reflection to end the formations or a single condition of the problematic mind.
Experiences through the senses
It is vital to acknowledge your vast capabilities as a human being. Buddha-Dharma teachings also refer to the forms that come to our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and touch revealed as formation of sights, sounds, smells and so on. Some of these formations can make a genuine impact on us in supportive and harmful ways. We can experience events in significant ways, or their significance emerges at a much later date.
The Buddha referred to the formlessness of the sense of space, a valuable element, internally and externally. Take, for example, the act of gazing up at the night sky. The deserted beach also offers a joyful sense of space. Why does it remain the most popular destination for holidaymakers? A reflection on the seaside may reveal more than initially apparent.
Firstly, we experience the earth elements, sand or pebbles. beneath our feet, We witness the expanse of the water element of the sea or ocean. We experience the heat element on the body, whether hot, cool, cold or windy. The air element also makes its impact on the body, as felt in the act of breathing. The sensation of the breeze on the skin invigorates our being. Space element, day or night, also reveals a certain majesty. This element functions to make instrumental in clarifying the strong presence of the other elements.
Finally, the element of consciousness confirms the five inter-active elements which appear on and around the beach as distinct from each other. The beach location reveals an impressive expression of the natural world. Perhaps the six elements draw us to spending precious time on the beach where we feel in harmony with the elements. On such occasions, our inner life can reveal a boundless expression, devoid of obstructions or concerns. The space element provides an experience of inner space free from tight thoughts or feelings under pressure.
A spacious life supported by clarity and wisdom can accommodate numerous challenges we face.
Significance of Formless Experiences
Human beings have the capacity to experience an expansive perspective extending beyond the limitations of our conventional daily lives. Let us consider our relationship to everyday existence of consciousness and the natural world. Perhaps nirvana abides exceptionally close at hand rather than a distance objective.
The wonder of the remarkable beauty and tactile contact with the natural world show a common factor - the field of experience encompasses precious feelings. It is important to note that the arising of aliveness in consciousness reveals a depth of subtle experience of energy. It fades with the fading of energy yet reveals insights and understanding of the importance of space and consciousness in our lives. In certain instances, the manifestation of this phenomenon can become nuanced, remaining in alignment with the Buddha's teachings.
A formless consciousness shows an expanse with barely any presentation of I, me and my, if at all. A precious sense of aliveness expands to include all phenomena. This phenomenon becomes evident in the cells of the body, the experience of life, and the world around us. These experiences have genuine value in broadening our horizons, taking us beyond the conventional.
The Buddha commented on his experiences of these two formless realms of space and consciousness. He spent a considerable amount of time with two primary teachers of such formless meditation in ancient India. In his transition from one deep experience to another, he acquired knowledge through his training and meditation practice with the teachers. He knew these deep meditation experiences lasted for a period of time before fading. Both his teachers shared their knowledge of such meditations. He respectfully declined their invitation for him to teach such beautiful experiences as neither were sustainable.
The Buddha sought to establish a timeless wisdom, unbound to experiences. This marked the start of another journey. During this period, he spent time in Bodh Gaya, where he meditated for extensive periods under the Bodhi tree. I gave annual retreats in Bodh Gaya for 48 years, giving me extensive experience of the village and sitting under the tree, where I meditated for several nights during my time as a Buddhist monk.
Spiritual experiences can offer precious insights in aesthetically pleasing environments with deep exposure to the elements. In our day-to-day lives, we have become accustomed to living in a world of excess, sometimes including the pursuit of spiritual experiences in forms and the formless or trying to repeat the old spiritual experiences.
Our observations of the external world can reflect our internal structure and vice versa but not always. Memories influence our concepts pertaining to what arises and might arise. All forms arise, fade, decay and pass. New forms in transition replace them. Awareness reveals the forms and formless as mentioned already, confirming awareness as formless too.
Is this awareness a key to nirvana?
We become accustomed to the forms and formless experiences that we erroneously believe to be the true reality. Attraction and aversion also arise confirmed in the forms of mind. In the depth of receptivity, we witness forms as forms without clinging or rejecting. There is no inclination to depend on the judgmental mind, nor rely upon intellectual, metaphysical or our cognitions around form. This presents us with a valuable opportunity not to impose reality upon the forms. Grasping onto forms leads to suffering.
Problematic states of mind gradually diminish as we recognise the futility of escalating experiences, whether in a general sense or in specific contexts. Habitual patterns or reactivity intensify situations and hinder realisation of nirvana. Life encompasses more than forms and experiences. This recognition fosters a profound sense of appreciation for a liberation not bound to the world, nor any experience of it.
Nirvana does not depend on form or formless experiences no matter how profound. Another reminder: an experience arises, stays a while and fades. In the grand scheme of things, there is the seeing and knowing of the emptiness of clinging to experiences, forms or the formless. Nirvana does not depend on any secular, spiritual or mystical experiences for its confirmation. You cannot find nirvana, via an experience.
This seeing and knowing fosters freedom and clarity. The end of grasping of experiences reveals nirvana. There is knowing nirvana directly without being dependent on an experience, no matter how deep.
Nirvana reveals itself in the absence of reliance on the constructions of the world of name and form. Emptiness of name and form makes everything possible. Emptiness confirms nirvana. Nirvana confirms emptiness. Name and form confirm nirvana. Nirvana confirms name and form.
Empathy and Love in the absence of the problematic mind
In the absence of the inflammatory mind, nirvana brings out the best in us, including empathy and love. What does this signify? Empathy directs itself towards all forms of life, including people, creatures and the natural world.
Love reveals as action, mattering far more than kindly thoughts, kindly meditations
Nirvana merits our attention for the freedom, wisdom, insights and love it engenders through the dissolution of troubling views.
Dissolution of clinging to presentations in time and space reveals the non-suffering nature of nirvana. This is a primary reason we take a deep interest in nirvana.
Nirvana reveals the subtle and the immense, such as a dewdrop on the edge of a leaf and the clear water of a vast lake. Both share the same taste of water.
Clear seeing of presentations and experiences confirms nirvana.
May all know nirvana, which accommodates experiences.
May all realise the nature of nirvana as immediately accessible.
May all see and know the unconditioned/unformed/unconstructed.
Thank you for your attention. Let us spend a few moments in silence.
wow.