aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu (a.e.mossberg) (03/18/90)
In <14549@phoenix.Princeton.EDU> crm@romeo.cs.duke.edu (Charlie Martin) writes: >I dont think this is the right question; there is no goal, it's all >*lila*, a game or a play. >Nirvana comes from the root for "to extinguish", and means the end of >the ego, the part of you that calls itself "I". In Buddhism, nirvana is >"desirable" because the one who attains is liberated from the cycle of >samsara, the wheel of birth and death, having to work late to get a >delivery finished, the desire to obtain a paycheck, and taxes. A Buddha >disappears at the end of the current lifetime, never is reincarnated, >and otherwise gets the week off. Release from the human realm and oneness with the eternal. "When you reach the highest form of samadhi, you realize there are hundreds more beyond that." - Patanjali, 400 B.C. aem -- a.e.mossberg / aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu / aem@umiami.BITNET / Pahayokee Bioregion The Vietnam War claimed 46,121 US soldier's lives. Guns at home were responsible for the deaths of 84,644 civilians in the same period. - NI, 9/88