Do Buddhas have no lifespan, which at some point ends; so that mean no rebirth - or Buddhas are beings that know the Way to extend lifespan; hence know the deathless element?
You wrote unborn (ajo) do you mean vayu?
Let's start with this extract:
This is the ajo [a √jan] (the "unproducing", the "unmaking", the "uncreating - as per Vedic creed).“There is an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned,” - (atthi, bhikkhave, ajātaṃ abhūtaṃ akataṃ asaṅkhataṃ) - If, monks there were not that unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, you could not know an escape here from the born, become, made, and conditioned. But because there is an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned, therefore you do know an escape from the born, become, made, and conditioned.”
(Ud 8.3)
Obviously, Buddhism is concerned with birth (jati), and how to end that birth.
Who would deny that?
Buddha, as a kshatriya, followed the Vedic creed, while questioning it — something that was quite usual at the time (e. g. the Araṇyaka (forest) and Upanishadic "revolutions" in classical, early Brahminism).
Buddha was a conservative, in that he believed in the early Vedic creed (before the Upaniṣadic era,) of an ajo that was quite severalized from the "creation" (something we also find somewhat, in the later Samkhya philosophy).
But Buddha was also a revolutionary for two reasons:
- First, Buddha didn't go for the "One" in the Rig Veda: "What was that ONE who in the Unborn's image has established and fixed firm these worlds' six regions".
- Secondly, Buddha didn't go for a self in that ONE. Buddha didn't go for a self in the Upaniṣadic Brahmā/Prajāpati/Ka." That is to say, a self or what belongs to a self, in the "world/loka", and paṭiccasamuppāda at large.
Note that what had also roiled the all Brahmanic cast, was that Buddha would not consider a Brahmin by mere birth. That was absolutely unforgivable.
Note that the above doesn't go against the early Theravada's view. (Maybe against the later one).
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Then there is the deathless (amata).
The decrease (khaya can have both the meaning of "decrease", or "destruction") of lust, the decrease of hatred, the decrease of delusion: this is called the Deathless. This Noble Eightfold Path is the path leading to the Deathless.
rāgakkhayo dosakkhayo mohakkhayo — idaṃ vuccati amataṃ. ayameva ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo amatagāmimaggo.
SN 45.7
This, bhikkhu, is a designation for the element of Nibbāna:
the removal (vinaya, on the other hand, has the meaning of "to remove from oneself",) of lust, the removal of hatred, the removal of delusion. The destruction of the taints is spoken of in that way.
nibbānadhātuyā kho etaṃ, bhikkhu, adhivacanaṃ:
‘rāgavinayo dosavinayo mohavinayo’ti. āsavānaṃ khayo tena vuccatī'ti.
SN 45.7
Knowing directly all the world,
The Enlightened One who understands
Opened the door to the deathless state
By which the safety of Nibbāna may be reached;
Sabbaṃ lokaṃ abhiññāya,
sambuddhena pajānatā;
Vivaṭaṃ amatadvāraṃ,
khemaṃ nibbānapattiyā.
The deathless state seems to be more like a stage, that one has overcome. A state that one has won, which allows him to go further towards nibbāna, in this life.
It's hard to say how one would be reborn, if he were to die at that stage, (although it is called the deathless).
But does amata (amṛta) means "deathless" state, or does it mean "godly" state (as in immortal,) like in the literature of the time (RV.) ?
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Then there is nibbāna:
Having nothing, no binding/fettering (an-ādāna [act. ā-√dā]):
That is the island, with nothing on the farther side of it.
That's nibbāna, I tell you,
the total ending of decay (√ jṝ), and who has to die (Sk. martya).
Akiñcanaṃ anādānaṃ,
etaṃ dīpaṃ anāparaṃ;
Nibbānaṃ iti naṃ brūmi,
jarāmaccuparikkhayaṃ.
Snp 5.10
Is nibbāna the "knowledge beyond the breath", that would correspond to the ajo?
Sounds like it is.
(Nirvāna = nis [beyond] √vā [blow] na [knowledge] - beyond assāsapassāsā (the first/birth and last/death saṅkhārā, in the saṅkhārā nidana).
As the sutta above says, you can also notice that "akiñcanaṃ" corresponds to the eighth attainment (higher āyatana).
That is to say, the field of experience of nothingness (ākiñcaññāyatana) - that is to say, more properly, the field of experience of craving for nothing more.
Then, transcending that, one enters the field of neither aquiescence (viz. with these craved experiences), nor with the non-acquiescence (meaning that,they still have acquiescence with what's beyond/nibbāna/ajo) (nevasaññānāsaññāyatana).
Jhāna is not some debilitating "absorption".
Jhāna is not the path to a higher and higher (mushroomy or junky) trip.
That nonsense would be the view of a phony bhikkhu/guru, eager to scoop up all the desperates of this world — keeping them for ever in crass ignorance.
Jhāna is the path to reason, and to the great energy of the clear faculties - void of any kind of (debilitating wordly) pain or pleasures.
Jhāna is also the path to the end of the acquiescence (sañña) for the higher āyatanani.
A person doing jhāna, is one that transcends (samatikkamma,) each āyatana.
In the 5th higher āyatana, one starts to experience without the organs of senses - that is to say with a free unpolluted citta.
Then transcends towards the āyatana of non-internal (anto = antaḥ = antar) space - that is to say, a space that doesn't deflect/bend (añc,) towards the internal.
Note: What does that mean?
In the Chandogya Upanishad, it is said: "Verily, what is called Akasa (space) is the revealer of nāmarūpa".
Therefore, in the 6th ayatana, one "sees" with a liberated citta, from the nāmarūpa nidana point of view. The nāmarūpa that has descended in saḷāyatana nidāna, is not there any longer. The nāmarūpa that dealt with the field of experience of the senses, is no longer operative.
Same thing for ayatana #7th. One transcends towards the viññāṇa nidāna, that is the external (non-internal - ananto) viññāṇa. That is to say, towards an aniddassana (non manifested), non-bending (anañca) towards the nāmarūpa nidāna any longer.
So on and so forth until the cessation of experiences (vedanā), and cessation of acquiescences (sañña) towards those experiences - and this leads to the break on through to the other shore (nibbāna).
"We should have met Jim Morisson; we should have met. I would have explained.
https://rentry.co/m3inp
Jhāna is the journey towards the other shore that is nibbāna.
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Then there is vayu:
Vaya (vayas [AV.],) is just the mental and bodily (nāmakāyā) energy.
It is just what we simply call "losing our life", in the Western world.
This is well explained in Snp 5.6 or 7 (Upasīvamāṇavapucchā):
Upasīva:
One free from passion
for all sensuality
relying on nothingness, letting go of all else,
intent on the highest freedom which still has acquiescence.
Does he stay there free of performing (lit. one who goes free of sacrificing) ?
The Buddha:
One free from passion
for all sensuality
relying on nothingness, letting go of all else,
intent on the highest freedom which still has acquiescence.
He stays there free of performing - (aka "having done, what had to be done").
(NOTE: This is nibbāna when one is still alive (having vayu)
Upasīva:
If, All-seeing Eye, he stays in this circumstance (tattha/tatra),
free of performing (anānuyāyī) for a multitude of rainy seasons,
[Note: I suppose this is a nice way to say that he has died, ]
right there,
would he be perhaps tranquilized (cooled) & released?
Would his consciousness be like that?
The Buddha:
As a flame overthrown by the force of the wind
goes to an end
that cannot be named,
so the sage freed from nāma and khāya (a.k.a. vaya),
goes to an end
that cannot be classified.
(NOTE: This is nibbāna, when there is no vayu any longer).
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To your questions, auto:
I would answer that Tathāgatas (the ones who have thus gone), that are free of vayu (viz. dead - that have given up their last and ultimate assāsapassāsā saṅkhārā) — will not come back (no rebirth) - and have definitly reached nibbāna (the unborn with no rebirth) — having known obviously, the deathless ("godly") state in their life.Do Buddhas have no lifespan, which at some point ends; so that mean no rebirth - or Buddhas are beings that know the Way to extend lifespan; hence know the deathless element?
You wrote unborn (ajo) do you mean vayu?
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