Nirvana

:For the band, see Nirvana (band) and other meanings see Nirvana (disambiguation).

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Nirvana (band) - Nirvana (disambiguation)

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In Buddhism and other Indian religions, nirvāna (from the Sanskrit ???????, Pali: Nibbāna -- Chinese: 涅槃; Pinyin: niè pán), literally "extinction" and/or "extinguishing", is the culmination of the yogi's pursuit of liberation. Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, described the Dharma as a raft which, after floating across a river, will enable the passenger to reach nirvana. Hinduism and Jainism also use the word nirvana to describe the state of moksha, and it is spoken of in several Hindu tantric texts as well as the Bhagavad Gita.

Related Topics:
Buddhism - Sanskrit - Pali - Chinese - Pinyin - Siddhartha Gautama - Dharma - Raft - River - Hinduism - Jainism - Moksha - Tantric - Bhagavad Gita

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Etymologically, nirvana connotes an extinguishing or "blowing out" of a fire or candle flame. It carries further connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace; the realizing of nirvana is compared to a fire gone out when its fuel supply is finished; this fuel being primarily the false idea of self, which causes (and is caused by) among other things craving, consciousness, birth, death, greed, hate, delusion, ignorance. Nirvana, then, is not a place nor a state, it is an absolute truth to be realized, and a person can do so without dying. When a person who has realized nirvana dies, his death is referred as his parinirvana, his fully passing away, as his life was his last link to the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara), and he will not be reborn again. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is realization of nirvana; what happens to a man after his parinirvana cannot be explained, as it is outside of all conceivable experience.

Related Topics:
Self - Consciousness - Parinirvana

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Gautama Buddha sometimes refers to nirvana as 'the deathless', a negative formulation of what Jesus refers to as 'eternal life'. Elsewhere the Buddha calls nirvana 'the unconditioned element' (i.e., that which is not subject to causation). Nirvana is impossible to define directly; it can only be experienced or realized. One may not even be able to say this, since saying this implies the existence of an experiencing subject--which in fact would not persist after full nirvāna. While some of the associated effects of nirvana can be identified, a definition of nirvāna can only be approximated by what it is not. It is not the clinging existence with which man is understood to be afflicted. It is not any sort of becoming. It has no origin or end. It is not made or fabricated. It has no dualities, so that it cannot be described in words. It has no parts that may be distinguished one from another. It is not a subjective state of consciousness. It is not conditioned on or by anything else.

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Calling nirvana the 'opposite' of samsara or implying that it is apart from samsara may not be doctrinally accurate. They are in fact identical according to early Mahayana Buddhism . Both in early Buddhism and by the time of Nāgārjuna, there are teachings of the identity of nirvana and samsara. However, even here it is assumed that the natural man suffers from at the very least a confusion regarding the nature of samsara.

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We can also say that, given the vital importance of the idea of anatta (Pāli; Sanskrit: Anātman), which negates not merely the grasping mind but also any concept of essential substance or permanent self, it is clear that nirvāna is not to be understood as a union with monistic ideal. Since there is essentially no self and no not-self, there is nothing to unite, instead it is an experience of non-separation.

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It should also be noted that the Buddha discouraged certain lines of speculation, including speculation into the state of an enlightened being after death, on the grounds that these were not useful for pursuing enlightenment; thus definitions of nirvāna might be said to be doctrinally unimportant.

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