There are several points in the suttas which suggest that the meaning of
'nibbidaa' is something quite strong:
- there are several similes directly connected with nibbidaa, the one about
a beautiful brahmin youth, boy or girl, freshly bathed, dressed and having
put on their perfume/ aftershave, and then someone comes along and hangs the
rotten corpse of a doy, a snake or a human around their neck.
[eg. AN book of nines, vol.4 p.373, last two stanzas of Sariputta's 'lion's
roar'.] Admittedly it doesn't actually mention the word 'nibbidaa' but I
think it's wouldn't be wrong to explain nibbidaa with this simile, which
occurs several other times too.
- The other simile for how one feels when one understands the nature of
sense contact 'yathaabhuuta.m' is in the puttama.nsa sutta (AN fours) where
it compares phassa, all sense contact, to 'flies landing on the back of a
skinned cow'.
- And another simile, again not explicitly using the word nibbidaa I'm
afraid, is in the verses of Taalaputta Thera, where he says something like,
'when oh when will I come to see all sankhaaras as like a blazing inferno!'
- And again, the normal phrase used in contexts which seem to be about
nibbidaa, unfortunately without including the word, is 'haarayati, attiyati,
jegucchati' - BB's translation is 'horified, ashamed and disgusted'.
- There's also a mention in the 'seven perceptions' (AN) about, 'and either
this will lead to nibbidaa or to upekkhaa', which i take as confirmation
that they are two significantly different qualitities, and of course
upekkhaa is the more mature stage.
Although I don't think any of these passages, and there are more, actually
use the word 'nibbidaa' they obviously refer to a very powerful experience
of disgust, revulsion, even aversion, so I think even 'disenchantment' is
too soft here.
Etymologically I think 'aversion' is quite good, since it literally means
'turning away', although 'turning inwards' would be more accurate, and in
the experience in some ways the negative side of 'aversion, disgust or
revulsion' is present, but it's also usually associated with some kind of
piiti-sukha (joy and bliss), usually down-flowing piiti, and the results of
course are not negative. However, I also wouldn't use 'aversion' in a
translation because of the way it is likely to be misunderstood, but I might
use it when explaining it in more detail.
As in my comments on 'tejo-dhaatu samaapatti', I think we have to be very
careful of assuming as mostly-scholars and relatively in-experienced
meditators, and of course I'm including myself, that the 'soft' or mild way
in which we've experienced nibbidaa is all there is to it. Again, I've heard
from some of the great meditation masters in Thailand that they experienced
what you might call 'nibbidaa' extremely strongly. I remember LP Liem gave
the simile of when someone goes fishing for eels, and they reach down into
their net to pull out an eel, and as they pull it out they realise that they
have got hold of a very poisonous snake, and without hesitation or any
regret they throw it away as far as they can. He says that's what it's like
when you see the true nature of all kinds of existence.
I also have some questions for you about the 'ehi bhikkhuni' upasampada, and
no that isn't a typo!
There is an 'ehi bhikkhuni' upasampada mentioned at least twice in the
Suttas and Vinaya.
The first one could easily have been produduced by an indiscriminate copying
from bhikkhu vibhanga, it is in the definition of a 'bhikkhuni' in
bhikkhunii parajika 1.
The second is slightly harder to explain away and that is in the verses of
Bhadda Theri (Thig 109).
'Bending my knee and paying homage, I made anjali in front of him.
"Come, Bhaddaa", he said to me: that was my full ordination'.
Isthis just a simplification of the situation in verse, or is it just an
inspiring summary of what really happened and actually she was ordained by a
bhikkhu or bhikkhuni sangha with a nyatticatutthakamma, or could this be a
trace of a contradiction to the rest of the story about the bhikkhuni's that
has come down to us, which might well have been 'edited' rather freely at
the second council? (The second council conspiracy theory is not my own
hypothesis, actually I doubt it, but this 'ehi bhikkhuni' point doesn't
fit.)
It's also possible that Mahapajapati Gotami's ordination by the acceptance
of the garudhammas could have been 'classified' as an 'ehi bhikkhuni'
upasampada. Compare for example the occasions when some of the great bhikkhu
disciples were given a short teaching by the buddha, and then it says, 'and
that was his full ordination'. I guess these are probably being 'classified'
as 'ehi bhikkhu' upasampadas.
Does anyone have any other explanations of 'ehi bhikkhuni'?