In Gotama’s teachings, nibbāna is the permanent equanimous disenchantment with the anxieties & fears created by our untrained way of experiencing the world. The understanding with which we are typically born is the result of a blind, unknowing process of evolution, which has no concern for our feelings. Our “anxieties & fears” include both “good” experiences going away, & fear of “bad” experiences that could happen at any time. Nibbāna is the absence of dukkha, the stress & suffering of the untrained mind trapped in the human existential problem—a mortal being that knows it is mortal, & also believes itself to have a separate, essential self at the core. Believing in the existence of this essential self & the fear of death chase each other like a dog after its tail. The obvious impermanence of everything—especially of living beings—constantly reinforces the cycle of illusion & fear. The illusion has been conditioned by evolution because that increases the likelihood of survival & reproduction, & thus the continued existence of a particular pattern (of DNA). Although we have evolution to thank for our existence, it is merely a random process without the ability to care for us as individuals. Escaping the psychological effects of this problem is the goal of Gotama’s teachings:
pubbe cāhaṃ bhikkhave etarahi ca
dukkhañceva paññapemi dukkhassa ca nirodhaṃ
“All that I teach is dukkha & the ceasing of dukkha.”