On Thursday of last week, we walked to the Rubin Museum of Art and took a tour to learn about the intricacies of Buddhism. The focal point of Buddhism is trying to live a good life in order to reach nirvana– or enlightenment– so that you won’t be tossed into the continuous cycle of reincarnation. The idea is that you won’t need to live another life because you’ve reached your highest potential intelligence and tranquility. Now, the question is: how does one achieve nirvana? I learned that there are technically a few ways to do so. One way to reach it is through extreme experiences. This is very broad and basically includes anything that gives one a feeling of extreme pleasure or enlightenment. For example– and one I was not aware of prior to this tour– having a lot of sex is actually considered an extreme experience, since it feels like an out-of-body experience to most people. Additionally, though, other experiences include climbing to physically high places, such as mountains. It is believed that deities were at one time present on these mountains and that simply being in the same places that they were will expose you to some of their power. But just being at the peak of the mountain itself is powerful, too. To able to look down at where you’ve been and not feel attached to earthly objects  is essentially how nirvana feels. Finally, I learned, surprisingly, that of all the possible realms of life/existence, the human realm is actually the closest to nirvana– even closer than the realm of being born as a demigod. It’s pretty interesting that so many cultures and religions, whether past or present, put such a great emphasis on the potential of the human mind and spirit.