ulitmate reality

 Ultimate Reality or Nibbana - from a famous debate between a monk, Nagasena, and King Milinda (Menander) sometime between 160-153 BCE

    “Reverend Nagasena, you are continually talking about Nibbana. Now is it possible to make clear the form or figure or age or dimensions of this Nibbana, either by an illustration or by a reason or by a cause or by a method?”

    “Nibbana, great king, is unlike anything else; it is impossible.”

    “This, Reverend Nagasena, I cannot admit, – that if Nibbana really exists, it should be impossible to make known its form or figure or age or dimensions, either by an illustration or by a reason or by a cause or by a method. Tell me why.”

    “Let be, great king; I will tell you why.”

    “Is there, great king, such a thing as the great ocean?”

    “Yes, Reverend Sir, there is such a thing as the great ocean.”

    “If, great king, some man were to ask you: ‘Great king, how much water is there in the great ocean? And how many living creatures dwell in the great ocean?’ If, great king, some man were to ask you this question, how would you answer him?”

    “If, Reverend Sir, some man were to ask me: ‘Great king, how much water is there in the great ocean? And how many living creatures dwell in the great ocean?’ I, Reverend Sir, should say this to him: ‘The question you ask, Master man, is a question you have no right to ask; that is no question for anybody to ask; that question must be set aside. The hair-splitters have never gone into the subject of the great ocean. It is impossible to measure the water in the great ocean, or to count the living beings that make their abode there.’ That is the reply I should give him, Reverend Sir.”

    “But, great king, if the great ocean really exists, why should you give him such a reply as that? Surely you ought to measure and count, and then tell him: “There is so much water in the great ocean, and there are so many living beings dwelling in the great ocean!”

    “It’s impossible, Reverend Sir. That question isn’t a fair one.”

    “Great king, just as, although the great ocean exists, it is impossible to measure the water or to count the living beings that make their abode there, precisely so, great king, although Nibbana really exists, it is impossible to make clear the form or figure or age or dimensions of Nibbana, either by an illustration or by a reason or by a cause or by a method. Great king, a person possessed of magical power, possessed of mastery over mind, could estimate the quantity of water in the great ocean and the number of living beings dwelling there; but that person possessed of magical power, possessed of mastery over mind, would never be able to make clear the form or figure or age or dimensions of Nibbana, either by an illustration or by a reason or by a cause or by a method.”

This is the first part of a famous dialogue between the monk Nagasena and Menander, a Greek king who reigned between 160-153 BCE. A fuller version (Milndapanha 315-323 -abridged, E.W. Burlingame trans.) is posted on the Member Practice Board. http://citta101.com/practice/index.php