Nibbāna: The Mind Stilled

It was inspired by an invitation that came from his revered teacher, the late venerable Matara Sri Ñāṇārāma Mahathera, the chief incumbent of the Nissarana Vanaya Hermitage in Meetirigala and an illustrious exponent of Insight Meditation in Sri Lanka. The sermons were delivered once every fortnight before the group of resident monks from August 1988 to January 1991. Thirty three sermons have been published in seven volumes.

Venerable Ñāṇananda had already written four books during the early phase of his monk’s life at Island Hermitage, Dodanduwa. They were Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought,{{cite book

|last=Nanananda

|title=Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought

|year=2012

|orig-year=1971

|publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya

|isbn=978-955-24-0136-7

|url=http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/files/eng/books/other/concept_and_reality.pdf

}}

Samyutta Nikaya – An Anthology (Part 2),{{cite book

|last = Nanananda

|title = Samyutta Nikaya – An Anthology(Part 2)

|year = 2009

|orig-year = 1972

|publisher = Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya

|isbn = 978-955-1255-26-8

|url = http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/files/eng/books/other/samyutta_nikaya.pdf

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724061340/http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/files/eng/books/other/samyutta_nikaya.pdf

|archivedate = 2011-07-24

}}

Ideal Solitude{{cite book

|last=Nanananda

|title=Ideal Solitude

|year=2010

|orig-year=1973

|publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya

|isbn=978-955-1255-31-2

|url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nanananda/wheel188.html}}

and The Magic of the Mind.{{cite book

|last = Nanananda

|title = The Magic of the Mind

|year = 2007

|orig-year = 1974

|publisher = Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya

|isbn = 978-955-1255-09-1

|url = http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/files/eng/books/other/the_magic_of_the_mind.pdf

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110724061400/http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/files/eng/books/other/the_magic_of_the_mind.pdf

|archivedate = 2011-07-24

}}

He came under the tutelage of the late venerable Matara Sri Ñāṇārama Mahathera when he shifted to Nissarana Vanaya Hermitage in 1972.{{cite book

|last=Nanananda

|title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1)

|year=2003

|pages=VII-VIII}}

Nibbāna – the Bliss Supreme (Dhammapada 203) is the determined goal of the "spiritual endeavour" in Buddhism. Bhikkhu Ñāṇananda has followed a line of interpretation that highlights the psychological import of the term nibbāna, drawing out at the same time the deeper philosophical implications. The term nibbāna has been examined in the discourses of the Pali canon. In his analysis, he reinterprets the discourses dealing with the law of Dependent arising (paṭiccasmuppāda) and the Middle Path. He expounds on the topics he has briefly dealt with in 'Concept and Reality' and 'Magic of the Mind'.{{cite book

|last=Nanananda|year=2003

|title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1)

|pages=33ff}}{{cite book

|last=Nanananda|year=2007

|title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.5)

|pages=445ff}} Via media, he has suggested the ‘Relative validity and Pragmatic value of concepts’.{{cite book

|last=Nanananda

|year=1997

|orig-year=1971

|title=Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought

|pages=38ff}}

The sermons were studied in a three-year e-learning program (2017–2018) offered by Bhikkhu Anālayo of the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of Hamburg in cooperation with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies preserved with Bhikkhu Analayo's commentary, transcripts and audio files at https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/resources/lectures/[https://analayo2018.buddhistinquiry.org/ Barre Center for Buddhist Studies].

• vaṭṭa – The hidden vortex or whirlpool: Interdependence between Consciousness and Name-and-Form in the formula of Dependent Arising (paṭiccasmuppāda).
• nāma-rūpa – Name-and-Form: The elusive self-image with its ’Formal-Name’ and ’Nominal-Form’.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.2) |year=2004 |pages=132ff}}{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.5) |year=2007 |pages=533ff}}
• anidassana-viññāṇa – Non-Manifestative-Consciousness.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.2) |year=2004 |pages=134ff}}
• The cinema simile: An illustration of Dependent Arising (paṭiccasmuppāda).{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1) |year=2003 |pages=108ff}}
• satipaṭṭhāna – A scaffolding for the systematic up-building of mindfulness and knowledge.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1) |year=2003 |pages=93}}
• papañca and papañca-saṅkhā – conceptual proliferation and prolific concepts.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.3) |year=2005 |pages=241ff}}
• phassa – Contact: A hybrid between ‘Verbal Impression’(adhivacana-samphassa) and ‘Resistance Impression’(paṭigha-samphassa).{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.2) |year=2004 |pages=218ff}}
• dvayatā – Duality: The antinomian conflict.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.5) |year=2007 |pages=451}}
• The Chess-Game simile: An illustration of duality.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.6) |year=2010 |pages=582ff}}
• antojaṭā- bahijaṭā – The Tangle-Within and the Tangle-without ?{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1) |year=2003 |pages=8ff}}
• dukkha – Conflict: An alternation between ’This-ness’ (itthabhāva) and ‘Otherwise-ness’(aññathābhāva).{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1) |year=2003 |pages=65ff}}
• tathatā – Thusness or Suchness.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.5) |year=2007 |pages=450ff}}
• nibbāna: Extinction more dreaded than fire.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1) |year=2003 |pages=13}}

• The world arises in the six-sense spheres.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.1) |year=2003 |pages=83}}
• The dilemma and the tetra-lemma: The ‘Undetermined Points’ (avyākatavatthūni).{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.5) |year=2007 |pages=490ff}}
• Relative validity and pragmatic value of concepts.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.4) |year=2006 |pages=392ff}}{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.7) |year=2011 |pages=653ff}}
• The Seamstress simile: The ‘two ends and the middle’.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.7) |year=2011 |pages=704ff}}
• The Toolkit: The 37 Participative-Factors of Enlightenment.{{cite book |last=Nanananda |title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol.7) |year=2011 |pages=661ff}}

Drawing inspiration from the dictum "The Gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts" (Dhammapada 354), he has specified that all publications should be distributed free as ‘gifts of Dhamma’. The Free Distribution of Dhamma (dhammadāna-ideal) has been upheld by the Buddha in the following exhortation to the monks:

Monks, there are these two kinds of gifts: the gift of material things and the gift of Dhamma. Of these two gifts, monks, this is supreme (namely): the gift of Dhamma.

{{Blockquote|text=Monks, there are these two kinds of distribution: the distribution of material things and the distribution of Dhamma. Of these two kinds of distribution, monks, this is supreme (namely): the distribution of Dhamma.|source=Itivuttaka 3.5.9}}

• {{Citation | title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. I) | publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya | year=2003 | isbn=978-955-8832-02-8 | url=http://seeingthroughthenet.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Nibbana_Vol_1-1.pdf }}
• {{Citation | title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. II) | publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya | year=2004 | isbn=978-955-9886-42-6 | url=http://seeingthroughthenet.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Nibbana_Vol_2.pdf}}
• {{Citation | title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. III) | publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya | year=2005 | isbn=978-955-1255-05-3 | url=http://seeingthroughthenet.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Nibbana_Vol_3.pdf}}
• {{Citation | title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. IV) | publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya | year=2006 | isbn=978-955-1255-07-7 | url=http://seeingthroughthenet.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Nibbana_Vol_4.pdf }}
• {{Citation | title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. V) | publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya | year=2007 | isbn=978-955-1255-13-8 | url=http://seeingthroughthenet.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Nibbana_Vol_5.pdf }}
• {{Citation | title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. VI) | publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya | year=2010 | isbn=978-955-1255-33-6 | url=http://seeingthroughthenet.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Nibbana_Vol_6.pdf}}
• {{Citation | title=Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. VII) | publisher=Dharma Grantha Mudrana Bharaya | year=2011 | isbn=978-955-1255-34-3 |

url=http://seeingthroughthenet.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Nibbana_Vol_7.pdf}}

• Conceptual proliferation

{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

• [https://seeingthroughthenet.net/ Dhamma Sermons and Books by Venerable Bhikkhu Katukurunde Nananada]
• [http://220.247.247.85:8083/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=147377&query_desc=kw%2Cwrdl%3A%20Nanananda%20nibbana Entry in National Library of Sri Lanka site]
• [http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/display.do?tabs=moreTab&ct=display&fn=search&doc=BLL01015374845&indx=5&recIds=BLL01015374845&recIdxs=4&elementId=4&renderMode=poppedOut&displayMode=full&frbrVersion=&frbg=&&vl(488279563UI0)=any&dscnt=0&scp.scps=scope%3A%28BLCONTENT%29&tb=t&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&srt=rank&tab=local_tab&dum=true&vl(freeText0)=nanananda&dstmp=1523479582441 Entry in the British Library]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110228033719/http://seeingthroughthenet.net/eng/home.php Books and talks by Ven. Nanananda Thera]
• [http://nidahas.com/featured/#heretic Interviews with Ven. Nanananda Thera]

Category:Buddhist philosophy

Category:Buddhist meditation

Category:Buddhist sermons