If we think of nirvāṇa as a fixed point, however subtle or sublime, to which we may attain and of which we may take possession, we are really thinking of it as a glorified ego state. Nirvāṇa is not a sort of spiritual retirement home far from the madding crowd of suffering humanity, where we can settle down to enjoy our well-earned pension. Nirvāṇa is not a destination at which we arrive: it is the life of Enlightenment. It is a way of living, a process of perfectibility to which you can see no end. Nirvāṇa is the way you live, the way you have your being, when you have gone beyond the
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