The Tree of Enlightenment

earth, water, fire, and air, the sun and moon; unfathomable
and immeasurable. Here we can see the various devices that
Buddhism used to describe nirvana, such as the sort in which
nirvana is likened to something we experience in this world. For
example, occasionally we are lucky enough to experience great
happiness accompanied by profound peace of mind, and might
imagine that we are experiencing a faint glimpse of nirvana. But
a jack fruit is not really like a durian, and nirvana is not really
like anything in this world. It is not like any everyday experience;
it is beyond all the forms and names we might use, and in
terms of which we experience the world.
e point is that, to understand what nirvana is really like,
you must experience it for yourself, just as to know what durian
is really like, you must eat it. No number of essays or poetic
descriptions of durian will ever approach the experience of eating
one. Similarly, we have to experience the end of suffering for
ourselves, and the only way we can do this is by eliminating the
causes of suffering – the afflictions of attachment, aversion, and
ignorance. When we have eliminated such causes of suffering,
then we will experience nirvana for ourselves.
How, then, can we remove these causes of suffering? What
are the means by which we can remove the afflictions that are the
causes of suffering? is is the path taught by the Buddha – the
Middle Way, the path of moderation. You will recall that the
life of the Buddha before his enlightenment falls into two distinct
periods. e time before his renunciation was one in which
he enjoyed every possible luxury; for example, the accounts tell
us that he had three palaces, one for each season, filled with
sources of pleasure to an extent scarcely imaginable in his day.
60