Nibbana: The Unborn & Unconditioned in Daily Life?

[Coemgenu]

@Kensho

it’s traditionally believed that the Buddha taught 84,000 paths to enlightenment, based on the various needs, temperaments and abilities of human beings.

In some Mahāyāna Buddhisms, yes.

I’ll steal a quote from @Gabriel_L

@Gabriel_L

The source for the 84,000 figures seems to be these verses from Thag17.3:

Dvāsīti buddhato gaṇhiṃ,
dve sahassāni bhikkhuto;
Caturā­sīti­sahas­sāni,
ye me dhammā pavattino.

I learned 82,000 from the Buddha,
And 2,000 from the monks;
These 84,000
Are the teachings I have memorized.

This notion of the Buddha simply preaching many, many sermons, eventually is transformed by some interpretations of the doctrine of skill-in-means to produce the notion that the Buddha taught 84,000 divergent paths to enlightenment.

From 84,000 scriptures to 84,000 divergent sets of instructions.