Earlier today at the grocery store, I started thinking about how everything was temporary with no true substance and that i am just a stream of thoughts/feelings. I suddenly felt free from the burden of life and felt very euphoric. Is nirvana essentially a perpetual euphoric state since it removes illusion? Also, i don't believe anyone here claims to have reached nirvana..it seems practice with no result. Wouldn't things like sleep deprivation help?
you got a taste of nibbana when you felt uppekha, equanimity happens when we see that all things change, its even more peaceful when it is brought about by meditation, or if you practice renunciation. nibbana is described as unconditional happiness, sublime, ultamite peace. there is no suffering. i think of nirvana and it inspires me to be more dispassionate towards sense pleasures and practice more.
Take care of mindfulness and mindfulness will take care of you.
The Buddha said that the greatest pleasure is perfect peace..... avoiding the extremes of pleasure and suffering.
If you liken it to a pendulum which is always swinging, as long as we haven't reached Nibbana nd are stuck in Samsara, then on one side is pleasure aqnd the other suffering.
A normal person trys to avoid suffering and seeks pleasure...they want to hold the pendulum on the side of pleasure and not allow it to swing, impossible until we reach nibbana.
Nibbana is when the pendulum has stopped swinging and is at rest in the middle.
As we learn more of the Dhamma and understand the truth about suffering (payment for past karma....mostly mental created by our own ignorance) we suffer less.... and we get less attached to the pleasures, knowing they will not last...the pendulum swing starts to slow down and not swing so high on each side....until eventually it stops.
