“.. is it possible that we may get confused between nibbana and asanna state?”
- Yes. This is a good question.
- I know some people who got into trouble by trying to “get rid of perceptions” willfully, by force.
- For example, one dangerous technique is to remove all thoughts that come to one’s mind. If this is done for a long time, one could lose memory (and perception, i.e., become asañña). They will even forget to eat or cannot recall where the bathroom is! They are reborn in the “asañña realm.”
- Memory is intrinsically related to perception (saññā). Our goal is not to be fooled by saññā, not to lose saññā! See “Fooled by Distorted Saññā (Sañjānāti) – Origin of Attachment (Taṇhā).” P.S. As we have discussed, Arahants still taste honey to be sweet or a particular woman to be attractive; but their minds are not fooled by such “distorted perceptions.”
- The Buddha said to stop IMMORAL thoughts, not ALL thoughts. There is a big difference between the two. Furthermore, he encouraged cultivating moral thoughts (One interpretation of Anāpāna is “āna” AND “āpāna”; see, “6. Ānāpānasati Bhavana (Introduction)“.
- Many people wrongly advise that one needs to remove ALL THOUGHTS from one’s mind to attain Nibbāna. Once, a Deva expressed the same idea to the Buddha: “Isn’t Nibbāna attained via removing all thoughts?”. The Buddha replied, “No. Nibbāna is realized by removing greedy, hateful, and ignorant thoughts”. That account is in the “Manōnivarana Sutta (SN 1.24).”
