Do you attain Nibbana in this very life or after death?

[SarathW]

Do you attain Nibbana in this very life or after death?
Actually my real question is whether we experience woeful state or Brhama world in this very life itself.
If not why?
Again the question is if we experience Nibbana in this vary life why not other mental states such as woeful states and Brahama states.

[Dhammavamsa]

Brahma state can be experienced within this life when a person can fully develop Jhanas on Brahmavihara meditation. I remember in the scriptures said one dwells like a Brahma God when meditating in those 4 qualities with success.

I still believe Enlightenment is available here and now in this life. But the monk must become an Anagami and capable of penetrating the 4 Jhanas and further higher meditative planes etc and beyond. It is not just book wisdom or some quasi-spiritual experience. Again, such meditative powers, virtues and perfect understanding were not within modern age laymen's ability, what more can be said about the Arahantship?

Personally I do believe that we have a certain amount of merits and certain level of past lives Paramitas at hand, and that's why we can come to know and appreciate Buddha Dhamma. Not all people appreciate Buddhism. Once my rich relatives' son with great fortune, mocked Buddha like saying:" LOL what a beggar." Even when explained, still think that Buddhism is for the escapist or weakling. Some people just don't have the click for Buddha's teachings.

For myself, the purpose of this life is to further build up our virtues, get rid of our bad temperament, further develop our mind. The best shot for me as a lay follower is Sotapanna and Sakadagami (which involves a lot of striving and control).

[cappuccino]

Actually my real question is whether we experience woeful state or Brahma world in this very life itself.

my college was a ghost town


I suppose that was ghost karma

[pegembara]

You attain liberation in this very life.

Liberation from the five khandas.

"Now this, monks, is the noble truth of stress:[1] Birth is stressful, aging is stressful, death is stressful; sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are stressful; association with the unbeloved is stressful, separation from the loved is stressful, not getting what is wanted is stressful. In short, the five clinging-aggregates are stressful.

"What gains total release from the five khandhas?"

"The heart, of course, & the heart alone.
It doesn't grasp or get entangled.
No more poison of possessiveness,
no more delusion,
it stands alone.
No saññas can fool it into following along
behind them."

"When they say there's death, what dies?"

"Sankharas die, destroying their effects."

The Ballad of Liberation from the Khandhas
https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/tha ... allad.html

Nibbāna cannot be experienced in the same way that, say,
visual objects or sounds can be experienced, through the
senses. It is not a sensual object. Therefore it cannot be
included in any category of sensate (or sense-based)
pleasures, not matter how extraordinary. it is nonsensate
happiness, not based on the senses.

However, the peace and happiness to be found in nibbāna is
superior to both the happiness of renunciation as well as that of
sense pleasures. It also is quite distinct from all of them in
nature. The happiness of nibbāna occurs upon the cessation of
mind and matter. It is the peace of the extinction of suffering. It
is independent of contact with the six kinds of sense objects. In
fact, it arises because there is no contact at all with sense
objects.

People whose idea of happiness is to take a vacations, go on a
picnic and swim in a lake, people who use their free time just to
attend parties or barbecues, these people may not understand
how happiness could arise when there is no experience at all.
As far as they are concerned, there can be beauty only when
they have eyes to see it, a lovely object to look at, and the
consciousness to be aware of sight, and similarly with the other
senses. They might say, “If there is fragrance but no nose and
no consciousness of smell, where can I find delight?” They may
find it impossible to imagine how anyone could contrive of such
a horrid thing as nibbāna. They might reason that nibbāna is a
kind of secret death, something really horrendous. Human
beings become intensely frightened at the prospect of
annihilation.

In This Very Life. The Liberation Teachings of the Buddha.
http://vipassanasangha.free.fr/=PDF/int ... df#Nibbana

[cappuccino]

They might reason that nibbāna is a
kind of secret death, something really horrendous. Human
beings become intensely frightened at the prospect of
annihilation.

annihilation would be terrible


hence it cannot be the goal