Are there any body who achieved Nibbana currently (in the current world)

Question

Are there any body who achieved Nibbana currently (in the current world). If so give one or two names, please.

Answer 1

There's nobody in the current world. The current world is one of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, thinking. Nibbana is devoid of any of those.

Answer 2

The Pali scriptures describe 4 levels of enlightenment, which equate to 4 levels of Nibbana.

The Nakhasikha Sutta states in the 1st level of enlightenment the vast majority of the previous suffering has been ended & extinguished.

Many Buddhist practitioners have tasted Nibbana (freedom from suffering). However, I suspect those that have reached the highest Nibbana are not many.

In Thailand, monks would say Ajahn Maha Bua & Ajahn Chah (both now deceased) reached the highest Nibbana. You can watch these videos:

• Ajahn Chah - Bio 43 - Talking about enlightenment

• Ajahn Chah - Bio 44 - How attained was Ajahn Chah?

I think Ajahn Brahm is close to the highest Nibbana.

The Buddha said if people practise the 8 fold path in the right way, people will know Nibbana.

This article, 'Nibbana for Everyone', may be helpful.

Answer 3

I think this question has a great potential for misunderstanding the concept of Nibbana. Why is it important to know? There is no way to know if Nibbana is just another silly concept like God except you have experienced what this word is pointing to. If there is the claim that somebody else is 'enlightened' it doesn't really change the fact that you simply don't know if this is true.

Answer 4

No one would carry placards announcing that they are on the Path. If there are any who have fulfilled the practice of the Path, then certainly even today there could be Arahants in the world. But if any one loudly publicizes his/her attainment of Arahantship, then there arises some doubt about it. This is because such public announcement is not in keeping with Arahants, for they are totally self-effacing. The ones who are in the Path knows, when a level of Path and Fruition is achieved, but he/she would never share it with a lesser person. If a lay- person makes such an announcement it could be due to some sort of misunderstanding of the doctrine.

In the Pali Canon, an Arahant is one who has attained the final goal of Buddhist practice -- the Nibbāna, The term arhant is one of the epithets of a Buddha, and is used to refer to an enlightened disciple of Gautama Buddha. An Arahant is one who has completely destroyed greed, hatred and delusion. Usually the term ‘enlightenment’ is used to denote one who has attained arahantship. Such a person is called an enlightened person. The Path Fruition has four levels. They are Sotapatti (Stream-Winner), Sakadagami (Once-Returner), Anagami (Never-Returner), and Arahatta (The Worthy Ones).

A sotapanna is usually referred to as a ‘stream entrant’. Sotapatti is the first stage in the Path of spiritual progress to Nibbana. The ‘Sota’ is used in Pali in diverse senses. It denotes also craving, the ear, the Noble Eightfold Path etc. In this context the term ‘sota’ is used to denote the Noble Path. It is also designated as the Dhamma-sota – the stream of doctrine. A person who reaches this dhamma-sota is called a sotapanna. When one attains sotapatti stage, Sakkaya ditthi or soul-view view gets eradicated as a sotapanna understands the true nature of the five aggregates.

A sotapanna obtains the Right view, the first feature in the Noble Eightfold Path and this is the understanding of the Four Noble Truths. Consequently a sotapanna gets rid of both doubt and clinging to rites and rituals. A Sotapanna has to establish himself in Right View and further develop the four establishments of mindfulness. A Sotapanna person still has craving. If we call a sotapanna an enlightened one, how are we going to describe an Arahant? In order to understand the nature of a Sotapanna one could read the Sammaditthi sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya.

When one becomes an once-returner (sakadagami), the two fetters - sensual desire (kamaraga) and enmity (patigha) get eradicated. To attain anagamihood one has to cultivate Right Concentration and develop jhanic attainments. The Buddha very well knew that all cannot attain Arahantship. The Buddha viewed this world as a lotus pond where there are fully blossomed lotuses as well as buds of different stages of maturity. According to their knowledge the Sotapannas and the Anagamins are divided into further categories.

The Mahaparinibbana sutta says that as long as the bhikkhus in this dispensation follow the Noble Eightfold Path, the world will not be empty of Arahants. So there are Arahants who walk this earth though we may never know.

Answer 5

The effusive fruition of the great and wonderful dhamma has become known by countless persons alive today. It is your privilege and duty to find them and test them and be affected by them in order to answer your question for yourself.

Anyone can deny and question the profundity of realization or Nibbana being present in another person, reality is up to you. Nibbana is up to you. How many may have walked casually by the Buddha without a second glance? How many submitted themselves to his presence and instruction? How many benefited?

If you must find the answer to your question it will be a solo journey, the opinions of others can only take you so far.

Warmly, NightSkySanghaGuy

Answer 6

"Are there any body who achieved Nibbana currently (in the current world). If so give one or two names, please".

The easiest answer to the above question is to say 'Not known'. However, please consider the following. The name Lord Buddha (Bhagava Buddho) gave to his teaching is Dhamma-Vinaya. Dhamma cannot be understood because it is based on: Dukkha Ariyasacca. Dukkha (dukkham) cannot be translated into English. See the following quote from the entry, Dukkha in the PED.

B. (nt.; but pl. also dukkhā, e. g. S i.23; Sn 728; Dh 202, 203, 221. Spelling dukha (after sukha) at Dh 83, 203). There is no word in English covering the same ground as Dukkha does in Pali. Our modern words are too specialised, too limited, and usually too strong. Sukha & dukkha are ease and dis-ease (but we use disease in another sense); or wealth and ilth from well & ill (but we have now lost ilth); or wellbeing and ill-ness (but illness means something else in English). We are forced, therefore, in translation to use half synonyms, no one of which is exact. Dukkha is equally mental & physical. Pain is too predominantly physical, sorrow too exclusively mental, but in some connections they have to be used in default of any more exact rendering. Discomfort, suffering, ill, and trouble can occasionally be used in certain connections. Misery, distress, agony, affliction and woe are never right. They are all much too strong & are only mental (see Mrs. Rh. D. Bud. Psy. 83 -- 86, quoting Ledi Sadaw).

Ariyasacca is usually given the English Equivalent 'Noble Truth'. The term 'noble truth' is not in Oxford Dictionaries. That means it is not an English word.

No one understands the Dukkha Ariyasacca, therefore they cannot understand Nibbana. Therefore the question is meaningless.

Answer 7

In Udana 7.2, Ven. Sariputta (the Arahant) tried to teach Ven. Bhaddiya without realizing that he too was an Arahant.

The Buddha saw this and exclaimed the verse, describing Ven. Bhaddiya:

He has cut the cycle, has gone away to freedom from longing. The dried-up stream no longer flows. The cycle, cut, no longer turns. This, just this, is the end of stress.

This shows that the Buddha could recognize who is an Arahant, but not another Arahant (who does not possess psychic powers).

In addition, in the Bhikkhu Patimokkha, there is a rule forbidding monks from confessing their factual attainments to lay people:

Should any bhikkhu report (his own) superior human state to an unordained person, when it is factual, it is to be confessed. - Pācittiya 8

Hence, it is impossible to identify arahants (those who attained highest Nibbana) or draw up statistics.