Nibbāna analogy with the men in the mall

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    • #46034
      Jittananto
      Participant

       I thought of an analogy with Nibbāna. Five men are looking for an item in a mall.  The mall had 31 shops. They walk around in circles for a very long time in the mall. Each of these 31 shops proposes various items to them. None of these items met their three requirements: An object that will always be to their liking, that will make them forever happy, and that will be under their absolute control. Four realize such an object doesn’t exist in this mall. Those four left the mall on different occasions except the last one.

       

      The first man will exclude four shops from his list. Even if he knows he’s leaving, he searches a little bit in the other 27 shops. The second one will search in 26 shops and leave. The third one will search in 20 shops and leave. The fourth realizes that it is already useless to search in this mall. He leaves immediately. The fifth is lost in the mall and thinks he will eventually find this object.

       Complete Nibbāna in this analogy is when we realize it is useless to search in the mall. We end up leaving (parinibbãna).

    • #46042
      Lal
      Keymaster

      It is a very simple analogy, Gad. 

      However, the process is much more complicated. Basic ideas are discussed in “Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27).”

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      • #46043
        Jittananto
        Participant

        Thank you for the link !!

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