The Inversion of No-Self, Suffering and Impermanence in the Nirvana Sutra: Why?
On Saturday September 29th Dr. Wendi Adamek of University of Calgary presented to us the study on why the idea of the Four Inversions: “permanence, bliss, self, and purity” is one of the central concepts in the Nirvana Sutra, even though the Four Inversions have always been described as human’s failure to see the truth about the world we are in.
Practitioners of Buddhism often focus on “impermanence, suffering, no-self, and impurity” as the method of understanding the world. It is because of these four characteristics we as practitioners should rid of ourselves of the negative behaviours that bounds us to the world. But before Buddha’s passing, to his disciple he used the Four Inversions to describe Buddhahood: “self” is “buddha”, “permanence” is “dharma body”, “bliss” is “nirvana”, and “purity” is “dharma”. By introducing the Four Inversions as something good, Buddha breaks the duality way of thinking and at the same time reemphasize the buddha nature in all of us.
The Nirvana Sutra is often noted as a study of the highest level because it describes many practitioners’ goal of reaching the nirvana and be free of vexes. This is often seems as the unreachable goal and for new practitioners something hard to visualize. But Buddha’s Four Inversions draws a clear picture and empower us to know that in each of us the buddha nature exists, so we all have the bases of attain Buddhahood.