No. Though it is true that in an Arhant without vows to continue
the Bodhisattva path he will experience cessation of the mind
continuum for a prolonged period of time (in Mahayana we consider
that Arhats will eventually return to continue his path to
Buddhahood), Enlightenment and Nirvana should not be understood as
simply about the relative cessation of the mind continuum.
You should not understand 'void' or 'emptiness' as being
'absence' or 'nihilism' -- rather what it means is there is no
findable, graspable, inherent, permanent entity called 'self'. Just
in the same way the word 'weather' is simply a conventional
designation for the patterns of clouds, lightning, thunderstorm,
wind, etc etc, a fully interdependently originated phenomena in
which these factors and combinations are constantly changing every
moment, and thus there is no locatable or fixed entity nor thing
called 'weather' -- similarly 'self' has no findable essence
anywhere within nor apart from the everchanging and
interdependently originated five aggregations of form, feelings,
perceptions, volition, and consciousness.
Another analogy is that the word 'car' is simply a conventional
designation of the combination of windows, wipers, engines, and
many other car 'parts'... there is in fact no inherent 'car-ness'
to be found anywhere. You can remove the parts one by one, and you
cannot find a 'car essence' in any of the parts. Nor can you find
any existence of 'car' beyond or outside those parts. The parts are
simply parts, the window is simply window, the engine is simply
engine. There is no car-ness to be found. And if we investigate
further, even the 'parts' are empty. What we call 'car' is simply a
convention/designation for a group of parts connected in an
arrangement to produce a particular function -- there is no
independent or inherent existence to be located anywhere, it is one
whole dependently originated phenomena, it has no independent,
inherent substance or existence.
This can be applied to 'self' and the 'five skandhas' as
well.
You can see:
Conceptions of the Self in Western and Eastern Psychology
and a more experiential investigation of the 'self' phenomena:
What
Is The "Me"?
Finally with regards to Nirvana, actually Nirvana is not apart
from this world. Arhats experience Nirvana even within the world,
that is called 'Nirvana with residue'. The world is experienced as
it is, but no longer with the delusion or ignorance of being a
separate self. He realises the non-dual ultimate
reality.
As Academic and Zen teacher Dr. David Loy says:
"Nothing of saṁsāra is different from nirvāṇa, nothing of nirvāṇa
is different from saṁsāra. That which is the limit of nirvāṇa is
also the limit of saṁsāra; there is not the slightest difference
between the two." [1] And yet there must be some difference between
them, for otherwise no distinction would have been made and there
would be no need for two words to describe the same state. So
Nāgārjuna also distinguishes them: "That which, taken as causal or
dependent, is the process of being born and passing on, is, taken
noncausally and beyond all dependence, declared to be nirvāṇa." [2]
There is only one reality -- this world, right here -- but this
world may be experienced in two different ways. Saṁsāra is the
"relative" world as usually experienced, in which "I" dualistically
perceive "it" as a collection of objects which interact causally in
space and time. Nirvāṇa is the world as it is in itself,
nondualistic in that it incorporates both subject and object into a
whole which, Mādhyamika insists, cannot be characterized
(Chandrakīrti: "Nirvāṇa or Reality is that which is absolved of all
thought-construction"), but which Yogācāra nevertheless sometimes
calls "Mind" or "Buddhanature," and so forth"
Hope all these isn't too confusing.
:-) Thanks ... it does sound confusing ... but if I get what you
are trying to say here is
1) There is no self, soul or any form of entity (car-less) to
start with. Only the 5 skhandas (in this case the windows, wipers,
engines, and many other car 'parts'...).
2) Thus The self, soul or any form of entity exists because the
5 skhandas come together to enable the illusion self, soul, or
entity to become what we are today...
Can i in layman term conclude the concept in such a manner?
cheers