Nirvana

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.

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 nirvana. While some of the associated effects of nirvana can be identified, a definition of nirvana 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.

Calling nirvana the 'opposite' of samsara or implying that it is apart from samsara is not technically accurate. They are in fact identical, a point that Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes. 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.

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 nirvana 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.

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 nirvana might be said to be doctrinally unimportant.

Nirvana in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra

However, in certain Mahayana teachings of the Buddha, Nirvana, or "Great Nirvana" in particular (higher than "ordinary" Nirvana), is said to be the sphere or domain ("visaya") of the True Self. In the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra", as well as in a number of other important Mahayana sutras, Great Nirvana is seen as the state which constitutes the attainment of that which is "Eternal, Self, Bliss, and Pure". Maha-nirvana thus becomes equivalent to the ineffable, unshakeable, blissful, all-pervading and deathless Selfhood of the Buddha himself - a mystery which no words can adequately reach and which can only be fully known by an Awakened Being directly.

An important facet of Nirvana in general is that it is not something that comes about from a concatenation of causes, that springs into existence as a result of causes and conditions: it always was, is and will be. But due to the moral and mental darkness of ordinary, samsarically enmeshed sentient beings, it remains hidden from unawakened perception. The Buddha of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra insists on its eternal nature, saying:

"It is not the case that the inherent nature of Nirvana did not primordially exist but now exists. If the inherent nature of Nirvana did not primordially exist but does now exist, then it would not be free from taints [asravas] nor would it be eternally [nitya] present in nature. Regardless of whether there are Buddhas or not, its intrinsic nature and attributes are eternally present ... Because of the obscuring darkness of the mental afflictions [kleshas], beings do not see it. The Tathagata, endowed with omniscient awareness [sarvajna-jnana], lights the lamp of insight with his skill-in-means [upaya-kausalya] and causes Bodhisattvas to perceive the Eternal, Bliss, the Self, and the Pure of Nirvana."

Vitally, according to Mahayana teachings, any being who has reached Nirvana is not blotted out or extinguished: there is the extinction of the impermanent and suffering-prone "worldly self" or ego, but not of the immortal "supramundane" Self of the indwelling Buddha. The Buddha states in the "Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra" (Tibetan version): "Nirvana is deathless ... Those who have passed into Nirvana are deathless. I say that anybody who is endowed with careful assiduity is not compounded and, even though they involve themselves in compounded things, they do not age, they do not die, they do not perish."

Quotations of Buddha about Nirvana