Fourth Hallmark — Nirvāṇa Is Peace
A PREVIEW OF THE DESTINATION
First Floor - Small Vehicle • Module 7
Introduction: Before the Path Begins
Video 1: Fourth Hallmark — Nirvāṇa
Estimated time to complete: 40 minutes
Before the Path Begins
The first three hallmarks described the problem. All conditioned things are impermanent. Clinging to them as though they were lasting, unified, and autonomous produces suffering. And when we look for the fixed identity we have been clinging to, we cannot find it — it is empty. These three hallmarks map the terrain of cyclic existence. But they leave an obvious question unanswered: if the path leads somewhere, where does it lead?
The fourth hallmark answers in four words: nirvāṇa is peace. Before we begin the practical training — ethical conduct, meditation, and the investigative methods that make up the Path section of this floor — it is worth pausing to see what the tradition says about the destination. This is technically a preview of the Fruition, which we will explore in greater depth at the end of the Small Vehicle floor. But it belongs here because it completes the Four Hallmarks as a set and because the Path makes more sense when we know what it is aimed at.
What the video presents may be surprising. Nirvāṇa does not mean what most people think it means — and the three vehicles we introduced earlier turn out to have very different ideas about what “peace” looks like.
What to watch for: The literal meaning of nirvāṇa — “blown out.” The distinction between conditioned peace (which can be stirred back up) and unconditioned peace (which cannot). And the extended ocean analogy: how the Small Vehicle, Great Vehicle, and Diamond Vehicle each understand the relationship between suffering and freedom — and what that means for how we practice.
Video 1: Fourth Hallmark — Nirvāṇa
Duration: 15 minutes
✦ A few Insights:
The ocean analogy does more than illustrate nirvāṇa — it maps directly onto the architecture of this course. The Small Vehicle floor we are currently on teaches us to swim: how to recognize suffering, calm the mind, and investigate the identity we have been clinging to. The Great Vehicle floor explores what it means to become a lifeguard — to turn that skill toward helping others. And the Diamond Vehicle tradition, which the Great Vehicle floor also touches on, ultimately points to something already present and perfect within us that does not need to be learned at all. Each floor of the Palace corresponds to a different relationship with the ocean.
It is also worth sitting with the distinction between conditioned and unconditioned peace, because it has direct implications for the training ahead. Conditioned peace — the dirt settling in the glass — is any temporary peace that we experience, whether through a walk in the forest, a nice meal, or a meditation session. It can be ordinary or genuinely valuable. Whatever it is though, we need to keep in mind that the dirt will eventually be stirred right back up. Unconditioned peace is not the settling of the dirt but its removal. According to the tradition, once the ignorance that drives the clinging is seen through, there is nothing left to be stirred up. The Small Vehicle’s way to achieve unconditioned peace is exactly what the Path section will reveal.
? Questions for Reflection
These are not comprehension questions. They are observation prompts — invitations to notice how these ideas land in your own experience.
1. Which Image Resonates?
The lecture offered three images: reaching an island, becoming a lifeguard, and learning to float. Without worrying about which one is “right,” which one speaks most to where you are right now in your own life? Why?
2. Conditioned and Unconditioned
Think of a time when you felt genuinely peaceful — a quiet morning, the end of a long project, a moment in nature. Was that peace conditioned? Could something have disrupted it? What would a peace look like that nothing could disturb?
3. The Ocean Right Now
The analogy suggests that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are not two different places but two different relationships to the same situation. Can you think of a moment in daily life where a shift in understanding — not a change in circumstances — transformed your experience of what was happening?