![[info icon]](./../../../img/question_16.gif "Summary: On the nature of Nibbana.")
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One was staying near Sāvatthī at Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's monastery. And on that occasion the Blessed One was instructing, urging, rousing, & encouraging the monks with Dhamma-talk concerned with unbinding. The monks — receptive, attentive, focusing their entire awareness, lending ear — listened to the Dhamma.
Then, on realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One on that occasion exclaimed:
There is that dimension, monks, where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor staying; neither passing away nor arising: unestablished,[1] unevolving, without support [mental object].[2] This, just this, is the end of stress.
Note
- 1.
- On unestablished consciousness, see SN 22.87 and the discussion in The Paradox of Becoming, chapter 7.
- 2.
- See SN 22.53.
©2012 Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
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Transcribed from a file provided by the translator. Last revised for Access to Insight on 3 September 2012.
How to cite this document (a suggested style): "Nibbāna Sutta: Unbinding (1)" (Ud 8.1), translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu. Access to Insight (BCBS Edition), 3 September 2012, http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.8.01.than.html .
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