The Peak of Peace

The Watercooler
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Nibbana is called the peak of peace (MN143)

I believe this peak of peace is not like a building that one has to construct over time.
The only way to arrive there (by way of speech) is to end all this usual constructing and building up activity in the mind.

The wordly Path is always about building up -activity. One wants to build up a certain state of mind, make it happen, have this, have that. The Noble Path is very different, i believe.

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard
Monks, this body falls apart; consciousness is subject to fading; all acquisitions are
inconstant, stressful, subject to change.
knowing the body as falling apart,
consciousness as dissolving away,
sseeing the danger in acquisitions,
you’ve gone beyond
birth and death. (iti77, Thanissaro)

I believe, gone beyond, refers here to peace. Peace is no aquisition.
If all tendencies of possessiveness end, the natural result is the peak of peace of Nibbana.
No acquisitions. One does not make anything ones own. Also not peace.
That is a natural state of peace.

Having reached the foremost peace,
you bide your time,
composed. (Iti77)

What is said about this peace?

Such a Bhikkhu who has turned away from desire and attachment, and is possessed of understanding in this world, has (already) gone to the immortal peace, the unchangeable state of Nibbâna. (Snp1.11, Fausboll)

I think it is valid to say that the peace of Nibbana is not some aquistion or some build-up state.
Jhana is like a building but the peace of Nibbana is not like a building.
It is the unconstructed peak of peace. It is not that if one removes defilements this peak of peace of Nibbana is constructed. No it is the natural result of it. The supreme noble peace, the pacification of lust, hate, and delusion. (MN140)

It is not that one constructs gold or water when one purifies it. One also does not construct peace when defilements are removed.

I feel there is no need to conceive the peace of Nibbana as ‘something’ or as ‘nothing’, or as ‘substantial’ or ‘not-substantial’ or even as eternal. This is not really relevant for practice, i believe.
Relevant, i feel, is seeing that there is an unmade, a not build up.
Seeing the difference between building up and not building up.

The avijja and tanha driven mind is always occupied in building up, in constructing, producing, making, want to have, possess. But what is build up, will always disintegrate. And Buddha does teach the Path to what is stable, constant and does not desintegrate (SN43)

Building up and constructing, aquisition is not the Path to end suffering… Because all that arises due to building up, will also desintegrate. How can that protect, provide safety? How can that be a refuge?

But the peace of Nibbana cannot be possessed. It can never be an aquisition. I believe this is what it really means when detachment is realised. To be enlightend.

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“Once I had gone forth I set out to discover what is skillful, seeking the supreme state of sublime peace”. MN26

"May even my enemies hear Dhamma at the right time, from those who teach acceptance, praising acquiescence; and may they follow that path! For then they’d never wish harm upon myself or others. Having arrived at ultimate peace, they’d look after creatures firm and frail. Creatures “firm and frail” (MN86)

“Bhikkhus, this supreme state of sublime peace has been discovered by the Tathagata, that is, liberation through not clinging, by understanding as they actually are the origination, the
disappearance, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of the six bases of contact. Bhikkhus, that is the supreme state of sublime peace discovered by the Tathagata, that is, liberation through not clinging, by understanding as they actually are the origination, the disappearance, the gratification, the danger, and the escape in the case of the six bases of contact.” (MN102, Bodhi)

. 'This, monks, the Tathagata understands: These viewpoints thus grasped and adhered to will lead to such-and-such destinations in another world. This the Tathagata knows, and more, but he is not attached to that knowledge. And being thus unattached he has experienced for himself perfect peace,
and having truly understood the arising and passing away of feelings, their attraction and peril and the deliverance from them, the Tathagata is liberated without remainder. (DN1, Walshe)

When the Buddha died… "the Venerable Anuruddha uttered this verse:
‘No breathing in and out - just with steadfast heart
The Sage who’s free from lust has passed away to
peace. With mind unshaken he endured all pains:
By Nibbaa the Illumined’s mind is freed.’ (DN16)

'“A seeker of peace should drop the world’s bait.” (SN1.3)

Having conquered the army of the pleasant and agreeable,
Meditating alone, I discovered bliss,
The attainment of the goal, the peace of the heart.

“Proficient, long trained in concentration,
Honest, discreet, without longing,
The sage has attained the peaceful state,
Depending on which he bides his time
Fully quenched within himself” (SN8.2)

Next days, if i still live, more.

Greetings

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Some more sutta fragment on the peace of Nibbana, the Peak of Peace

He is the vanquisher of all,
the wise one who has untied all knots.
He has reached the supreme peace,
nibbana, inaccessible to fear. (AN4.23)

For those confident in the foremost Dhamma,
in the blissful peace of dispassion;
for those confident in the foremost Sangha,
the unsurpassed field of merit (AN4.34)

There is no fire like passion
No loss like anger
No pain like the aggregates
No ease other than peace (Dhp202)

Crush your sense of self-allure
Like an autumn lily in the hand
Nurture only the path to peace, Nibbana
As taught to the One Well Gone (Dhp285)

The born, become, produced,
made, fabricated, impermanent,
fabricated of aging & death,
a nest of illnesses, perishing,
come-into-being through nourishment
and the guide [that is craving]—
is unfit for delight.
The escape from that
is peaceful, permanent,
a sphere beyond conjecture,
unborn, unproduced,
the sorrowless, stainless state,
the cessation of stressful qualities,
stilling-of-fabrications bliss. (iti43)

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard:
“Monks, there are these three times. Which three? Past time, future time, present time.
These are the three times.”
Perceiving in terms of signs, beings
take a stand on signs.
Not fully comprehending signs, they
come into the bonds of death.
But fully comprehending signs, one
doesn’t construe a signifier.
Touching liberation with the heart,
the state of peace unsurpassed,
consummate in terms of signs,
peaceful,
delighting in the peaceful state,
judicious,
an attainer-of-wisdom
makes use of classifications
but can’t be classified (iti63)

In the next post some more texts on the Peak of Peace of Nibbana (if still alive)

Greetings

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The sutta’s talk in a positive way about Nibbana as the sublime supreme ultimate peace. Next some more texts on the Peak of Peace called Nibbana

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard:
“Monks, formless phenomena are more peaceful than forms; cessation, more peaceful
than formless phenomena.”
Those beings headed to forms,
and those standing in the formless,
with no knowledge of cessation,
return to further becoming.
But, comprehending form,
not taking a stance in formless things,
those released in cessation
are people who’ve left death behind.
Having touched with his body
the deathless property free
from acquisitions,
having realized relinquishing
of acquisitions,
effluent-free,
the Rightly Self-awakened One
teaches the state
with no sorrow,
no dust. (iti73)

This was said by the Blessed One, said by the Arahant, so I have heard:
“Monks, this body falls apart; consciousness is subject to fading; all acquisitions are
inconstant, stressful, subject to change.”
Knowing the body as falling apart,
& consciousness as dissolving away,
seeing the danger in acquisitions,
you’ve gone beyond
birth & death.
Having reached the foremost peace,
you bide your time,
composed. (Iti77)

"Such a Bhikkhu who has turned away from desire and attachment, and is possessed of understanding in this world, has (already) gone to the immortal peace, the unchangeable state of Nibbâna. (part of Snp1.11)

“this I say,” so (I do now declare), after investigation there is nothing amongst the doctrines which such a one (as I would) embrace, O Mâgandiya,'-- so said Bhagavat,–‘and seeing (misery) in the (philosophical) views, without adopting (any of them), searching (for truth) I saw “inward peace”
All the (philosophical) resolutions that have been formed,’–so said Mâgandiya,–‘those indeed thou explainest without adopting (any of them); the notion “inward peace” which (thou mentionest), how is this explained by the wise?’
‘Not by (any philosophical) opinion, not by tradition, not by knowledge, O Mâgandiya,’–so said Bhagavat,–'not by virtue and (holy) works can any one say that purity exists; nor by absence of (philosophical) opinion, by absence of tradition, by absence of knowledge, by absence of virtue and (holy) works either; having abandoned these without adopting (anything else), let him, calm and independent, not desire existence. (part of Snp4.9)

'Let the Bhikkhu be appeased inwardly, let him not seek peace from any other (quarter); for him who is inwardly appeased there is nothing grasped or rejected.
'As in the middle (i.e. depth) of the sea no wave is born, (but as it) remains still, so let the Bhikkhu be still, without desire, let him not desire anything whatever. (part of Snp4.14)

‘I will explain to thee peace, O Dhotaka,’–so said Bhagavat;–‘if a man in the visible world, without any traditional instruction, has understood it, and wanders about thoughtful, he may overcome desire in the world.’
Dhotaka: ‘And I take delight in that, the highest peace, O great Risi, which if a man has understood, and he wanders about thoughtful, he may overcome desire in the world.’ (part of Snp5.6)