Nirvana placed on the ideal type map
Based on this we could now map for instance Buddhist liberation – nirvana – familiar to most people. As Buddha after his liberation still living and preached, he should clearly not be located close to the Meditative Absorption corner. Many Buddhist texts confirm that Buddha dismissed the notion that meditation in itself could lead to liberation. Meditation was rather a tool to clarify and sharpen the mind. Having meditated for a long time, Buddha contemplated his own cognitive and perceptual apparatus. He was investigating his own filtering of reality. By doing this, he found the key: Delight / craving is the root of suffering. Understanding that through the technique of mindfulness’ – the problem of craving disappeared.
So the mindful meditating Buddha, in these texts, should not be placed purely in the corner of Gnostic Comprehension. He is between Meditation and Gnosticism – the middle way. But as we read other Buddhist texts, the liberated person – the awakened one’ – seems to move slightly towards the mysticism corner. Here the living awakened one’ is beyond understanding and conceptual classification. He is as indefinable as an extinguished flame. As a flame has been cut off from its fuel supply (wood) so has the awakened one’ been cut off from his (cravings). They are both blown out’ – which is the meaning of the word nirvana’. This does not mean, however, that he or the flame has disappeared. Instead it means that they have returned to the underlying essence’ of reality (Wynne 2009). This essence, often called emptiness’, is an ontological phenomenon beyond conceptualisation – it cannot be grasped.
Also, quitting showed the people closest to me that I Yoga poses gaiam was committed to living a better and longer life, which would allow those relationships to further Yoga poses gaiam grow, flourish, and endure even the most challenging of circumstances. It also allowed me to show my peers and colleagues that I was extremely disciplined and determined; that I would not conform, nor would I stay within any kind of box. These small victories, which came as the result of one big victory, instilled in me a certain sense of invincibility. I chose to take this feeling as inspiration to become nobler in thought and deed. I then began to see my life as a sort of offering of good intentions . . . which led me back to yoga.
