Mugen Roshi will give a presentation to the Zen Peacemakers on April 14, 2026
Cessation/ Nivana is the vital liberating awakening experience in Theravada Buddhism. Cessation is the center, the hub, of the Absolute, the source of all creation and manifestation. It is the ceasing of all mentality and materiality. In this presentation, Theravada and Zen teacher Stephen Mugen Snyder Roshi will present the experiential understanding and impact of Cessation as well as lead a guided meditation into the territory of Cessation.
The sweeping experience and impact of Cessation can only be recognized after Cessation fades, as perception, consciousness, and awareness return. There is a felt sense of alive, unencumbered freshness—a newness of perception, awareness, knowingness, consciousness itself. When conceptual functioning is reactivated, the confident experiential knowing reveals that Cessation was present. Typically, along with the knowing confirmation comes the fruit of this undivided union with Cessation. By “fruit” I mean how awareness and consciousness were altered, changed, or refreshed by complete merging with the unconditioned source of all creation, mentality, and materiality.
One fruit of sustained, repeated merging with Cessation is that the self-identity ceases. It may be replaced with the Absence quality of the Absolute realm. It is the Absence of any conceptual manner of knowing who and what you are. It is direct, filled with every possibility, and made entirely of complete, embracing, welcoming love. In this ceasing of self-identity, absent are the ways you knew you were this person, with these qualities, thoughts, memories, and emotions. The Absolute realm itself fills the vacancy left by our customary self-identity. Our reaction is not a perception of loss or frustration; it is a satisfied whole-body sigh of relief. The Absolute replaces the self-identity. Should there be a turn toward our interiority, rather than landing in the typical sense of self, we find the Absence quality of no-source as what is being referenced. Life then becomes a functioning of all that is unconditioned. The issue of life and death change, too. There is a warmhearted neutrality in knowing the Absence qualities of the Absolute realm will remerge when this particular form of life concludes and is extinguished. In other words, at death this is one possibility where our consciousness will land.
There is potential to have many journeys into the Absolute realm with possible Cessation experiences. Not every journey into the Cessation experience advances one’s consciousness onto the next level or stage of Awakening. While you are working on the personal/psychological/emotional/identity issues of stream entry, for example, you may experience several additional journeys into the Cessation experience. Only when the issues are sufficiently resolved, unblocked, and transparent will the next level or stage of Awakening become available as fruition of Cessation experiences.
— Stephen Mugen Snyder, Demystifying Awakening
Related
- There is also a related two-day mediation retreat called Koan of Cessation.