So, Where the Hell is Nirvana?
Devas in Theravada Buddhist Heaven
Before anything else, a spoiler warning. If you haven’t read my novelette, Where the Hell is Nirvana? I’d highly recommend you do so first before proceeding.
Second order of business, a disclaimer. If anyone wants to come at me for allegedly writing Buddhist blasphemy, allow me to invoke the following passages from the source material, Traibhumikatha (~1340AD), the formative literature for Thai-Buddhist cosmology:
Book Six: Lesser Gods and Angels - Chapter Seven):
‘Some devas overly enjoy themselves with the celestial maidens and forget to consume their food. They die even though they may only have forgotten one breakfast only or one meal.’
‘Some devas in their hearts feel jealousy toward other devas who are better or higher in rank than they are, or more prosperous. They become angry and argue harshly and quarrel with others. […] Because of their anger towards each other, the fire in their hearts will burn all of them to death.’
It’s canon. Some devas will choose sex and drama over their own lives. Don’t cancel me, devout Thai readers. Please know that I based the story as much as I could from the text, except a few satirical elements for narrative purpose.
For folks wondering why I have to be so defensive, let me backtrack a little. Thai Buddhists believe that devas are aspirational paragons of goodness, who usually descends to help the virtuous mortals in their struggles. Not too different from the angels in Christian beliefs, just not as pure or biblically eldritch. Devas should be unquestioningly virtuous, beyond reproach. If they’re not good, what hope have we as mortal humans who live under their guidance? If they’re not worthy, why are they so richly rewarded in their afterlife? Where would be the justice in that?
Hmm. A familiar question for many institutions, I’m sure.
Thai version of Buddhism is ultimately an amalgamation of three religions: Theravada Buddhism, Hinduism, and animism. Most gods and deities you’ll see around spirit shrines and temples are borrowed from the Hindu pantheon through Indian cultural influence of over a thousand years. Devas originated from that origin, subservient orderlies in the chaotic court of divine favours, rivalry and patronages. Hark, bureaucracy. Surely, the ways we exploit red tape on earth must also be done in heaven.
Tavatimsa or Daowadueng Heaven with Lord Indra, Devas and Orbits of Celestial Beings
In this atmosphere of court intrigue, isn’t it more likely for devas to be born entitled and toxic? Especially when you are a being who experiences no hardship, no suffering, surrounded by such hedonistic pleasures that could only be dreamed of by kings of old. You also serve the arbiter of morality, the judge of the underworld, and you reside in the radiance of gods who has the authority to determine what is a virtue or sin. It would be harder not to be corrupt. In the lowest entryway of Catumaharajika Heaven anyway.
When I asked my monk-teacher, ‘Is it possible for deva to achieve Nirvana?’, his answer was inserted into the story, spoken by a bodhisattva. Translating his Buddhist-speak, the gist is “You need both pleasure and pain in your life to understand why desire is ultimately bad. Once you realise that desire is the root of all suffering, then you will be able to take the Buddha’s guidance to relinquish desires”.
With all the context in place, it’s time to ask the real question: So, where the hell is Nirvana?
Let me first explain the importance of the text Traibhumikatha. It is the oldest Thai literature which attempted to systematize the Buddhist beliefs of the time to create a canonical text. It was written by the philosopher-king Maha Thammaracha I (1300 – 1368) of the ancient Sukhothai kingdom, the precursor of modern day Thailand. The book detailed ethics system of Buddhism and karma, moral governance system, the afterlife and even understandings of biology, astrology, geography and cosmology at the time. The section on the different hells is particularly graphic, as you might have seen from the famous Hell Temple in Chonburi (Wat Saen Suk or วัดแสนสุข) making its round on the internet. That section is just as imaginative as Dante’s Inferno:
The World of Hell with Realm of the Hell Ruler and Eight Major Hells
Avici Hell, Eighth Great Hell
Traibhumikatha literally means The Story of the Three Planes of Existence, which includes the Sensuous World, the Corporeal World, and the Incorporeal World. Everything covered in my novelette Where the Hell is Nirvana?, including Mount Sumeru, our human world, and all the heavens and hells that Garmuti went through, these are only the Sensuous World. The denizens of these worlds are still governed by desires. Moving between each of these heavens is determined by your virtuous or sinful actions (karma). This is why each heaven and hell is all about having more pleasure or more pain. But even the highest heaven is one milestone toward the ultimate goal of attaining Nirvana. To go beyond the Sensuous World, it’s about states of minds, rather than karma.
The Corporeal World and Incorporeal World exist so much higher than the Sensuous World, ‘each extending out as far as the walls of the Universe. Here there are crystal castles with decorations a thousand times more magnificent than those of the devas in the merely heavenly domains below’ (Book Seven: The Higher, Non-Sensual Gods - Chapter One). There are sixteen domains in the Corporeal World. The denizens here are no longer called devas, but brahmas. They are serene godlike beings, existing in such meditative state they no longer feel physical sensations. To enter these domains, the deva or human must achieve varying levels of jhana meditation. Some of the domains will survive the cataclysmic Great Fires, the Great Floods and the Great Winds that will end of the universe. When the new universe comes about with another Big Bang, it is believed that a brahma will plant the lotus seed that shall bloom into the requisites of a Buddhist monk such as the alms bowl and the robes so Buddhism may continue in the next universe. But Nirvana is not among the Corporeal Worlds.
Four Domains of the Incorporeal Plane and Higher Eight Domains of Corporeal Plane
The Incorporeal World consists of four heavenly domains which are literally called ‘Level of Boundless Space’, ‘Level of Boundless Consciousness’, ‘Level of Nothing’ and ‘Level of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception’. Brahmas of these domains do not have a body at all, existing as incorporeal minds. In order to ascend here, the faithful must undergo intense meditative practice and the contemplation on anatta, the Buddhist concept of ‘non-self’. Things get understandably vague in this chapter in the Traibhumikatha, but Nirvana is not in these realms either.
Nirvana is something that is completely beyond all the Threefold Worlds. It is considered to be a noble city where ‘even if the treasures of Indra [king of devas] and the Brahmas were to be compared with that of Nirvana, it would be like comparing a firefly with the moon, like comparing a drop of water at the end of a hair to the water in an ocean 84,000 yojana in depth, like comparing a speck of dust with the Mount Sumeru’ (Book Eleven: Nirvana - Chapter One).
The Great City of Nirvana
How to get into Nirvana then? One must achieve ‘supernormal knowledge that destroys the twenty-five materialities, the five kinds of sensations, the twenty kinds of perception, the four kinds of mental coefficients of volition, and the twelve kinds of consciousness. These five groupings are what are called the five aggregates. The supernormal knowledge of the extinction of the intoxicants destroys all the different impurities and leads to the Noble City of Nirvana Supreme’ (Book Eleven: Nirvana - Chapter Three).
According to Traibhumikatha, there is no shortcut.
Garmuti was written as the antithesis of Buddhist values. His very name was meant to represent this. Garm is the Thai pronunciation of the Sanskrit kama (काम) which means ‘carnal desire’. He is as far away from Nirvana as an ant is from understanding calculus. He only managed to enter heaven through the privilege of wealth. He ended up where he did because there was no cheating in the cosmic eye of the Karma Machine, shown masterfully as the Buddha’s gaze in the stunning artwork by Wenjing Yang.
So here’s the Buddhist context that hopefully helps you see the story from another angle. Please forgive me for explaining the joke of this divine comedy.
Thanks to Traibhumikatha, Buddhist Cosmology: The Illustrated King Rama IX Edition. This edition features the immense mural project that took five years of painstaking work by some 45 painters under the supervision of leading art masters, including a National Artist. It’s the source of the images in the article.