Budism and Spirtuality

I will discuss in this paper an understanding of Buddhist spirituality. Spirituality in its nature is often difficult to define as it has to do with a person’s particular understanding of their inner life. Buddhist Spirituality suffers similarly in definition, but has even more challenging aspects as it includes concepts and words that most westerns and all beginners have trouble understanding. In order to truly grasp Buddhist spirituality we need to start with some definitions that are contextually understood in order to take away ambiguity. I will spend some time defining many of the basic concepts and then ultimately arrive at a definition of Nibbana as a Non-abiding Vinnana. There are four intertwined concepts that lay the ground work of the struggle that keeps us from arriving at a non-abiding Vinnana. The interaction between Tanha, Upadana, Anncia and Dukkha must be understood before we can go on to understand the deeper ideas of Khandhas, Atta, an-atta and finally understanding Nibbana as a non-abiding Vinnana. When you simply translate the ideas of Buddhist spirituality you can arrive at a simple definition of Nibbana as the “cessation of Tanha, Upadana and Dukkha.” These concepts miss-understood would bring you to ambiguity. Tanha can be translated as “thirst” or “desire,” and while there is an aspect of thirst and desire to the concept of Tanha, it would be incorrect to infer that Buddhist spirituality forbade all thirst and desire. One can easily see that to eliminate all desire from one’s life would not be admirable. If Mary was working in a third world country developing systems to bring potable water to areas that did not have it, and then read about Buddhist spirituality, she might conclude that her desire was a hindrance to her Nibbana development and give up her quest. This would not be admirable, nor would it represent a reasonable interpretation of Buddhist spirituality. In order to understand and delineate acceptable desires from unacceptable...