Buddhism from the old canon

To end suffering from the standpoint of the Pali Nikayas presupposes certain things, one important one being that we are fundamentally independent of our psychophysical body. An aside, this independence in the Mahayana canon is Buddha-nature. All beings have this independent nature but havent yet realized it.

It would be wrong to imagine that the psychophysical body is, in some mysterious way, inherently pain free and potentially connected with nirvana. This is not the case in the Nikayas. The psychophysical body (khandha) is suffering (D. ii. 305). Every part of it is impermanent from its material shape to consciousness. The constant refrain in the Nikayas is always: what is impermanent such as material shape (rupa) is suffering (S. iii. 45). There is no exception to this.

Faced with the problem mans only escape from suffering is to detach, or the same, unbind himself from the psychophysical body by seeing that which precisely transcends it. This direct acquaintance with what transcends the psychophysical body is called nirvana. It is the beginning of the noble eightfold path which functions in an expansionary way for the path taker, who can eventually become fully awake like the Buddhanot partially awakeas is the case with a stream winner who has just seen nirvana, attaining right view.


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