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This article is about the philosophical concept. For the American grunge band, see Nirvana (band). For other uses, see Nirvana (disambiguation).
Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण; Pali: Nibbāna; Prakrit: णिव्वाण, Nivvāṇa; Vietnamese: Niết bàn; Chinese: 涅槃, Mandarin: nièpán, Cantonese: nihppùhn; Japanese: nehan (涅槃?); Korean: 열반, yeolban; Thai: นิพพาน, nibpan; Tibetan: mya-ngan-las-\'das-pa; Mongolian: asalang-aca nögcigsen; Burmese: nate ban edAmef); is a Sanskrit word that literally means "to cease blowing" (as when a candle flame ceases to flicker) and/or extinguishing (that is, of the passions). It is a sramana philosophical concept, used by the Jains and the Buddhists, to describe the enlightenment and liberation of their respective teachers.
Nibbāna is a word used by the Buddha to describe the perfect peace of the mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflictive states (kilesa). This peace, which is in reality the fundamental nature of the mind, is revealed when the root causes of the afflictive states are dissolved. The causes themselves (see sankhara) lie deep within the mind (that part of the mind that Western psychology calls the unconscious) but their undoing is gradually achieved by living a disciplined life (see eightfold path). In Nibbana the root causes of craving and aversion have been extinguished such that one is no longer subject to human suffering (dukkha) or further states of rebirths in samsara. Buddhist scholar, Prof. Herbert Guenther, states of Nirvana: "The notion of Nirvana is a transcendental postulate, which can only be proven psychologically/subjectively, not scientifically. Yet all highest and final goals lead towards it; indeed, it appears even to constitute the very commencement of the entire spiritual life ...With the reaching of Nirvana the Path has come to its end and reached its goal. The Self-realisation which was striven after and which here becomes Reality, signifies the ideal personality, the true human being." (Guenther, The Problem of the Soul in Early Buddhism, Curt Weller Verlag, Constanz, 1949, pp. 156-157). The Buddha in the Dhammapada says of nirvana that it is "the highest happiness". This happiness is rather an enduring, transcendental happiness integral to the calmness attained through enlightenment or bodhi, than the happiness of blindful entertainment. The knowledge accompanying nirvana is expressed through the word bodhi. In Jainism, it means final release from the karmic bondage. When an enlightened human, such as, an Arhat or a Tirthankara extinguishes his remaining aghatiya karmas and thus ends his worldly existence, it is called nirvana. Technically, the death of an Arhat is called nirvana of Arhat, as he has ended his wordly existence and attained liberation. Moksa, that is to say, liberation follows nirvana. An Arhat becomes a siddha, the liberated one, after attaining nirvana.
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The Buddha explains nirvana as "the unconditioned" (asankhata) mind, a mind that has come to a point of perfect lucidity and clarity due to the absence of volitional formations. This being is described by the Buddha as "deathlessness" (Pali: amata or amaravati) and as the highest spiritual attainment, the natural result that accrues to one who lives a life of virtuous conduct and practise in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path. Such a life dissolves the causes for future becoming (Skt, karma; Pali, kamma) that otherwise keep beings forever wandering through the impermanent and suffering-generating realms of desire, form, and formlessness, termed samsara.
Nirvana in sutra is never conceived of as a place (such as one might conceive heaven), but rather the antinomy of samsara (see below) which itself is synonymous with ignorance (avidyā, Pāli avijjā). This said:
Nirvāna is meant specifically - as pertains gnosis - that which ends the identity of the mind (citta) with empirical phenomena. Doctrinally Nibbāna is said of the mind which "no longer is coming (bhava) and going (vibhava)", but which has attained a status in perpetuity, whereby "liberation (vimutta) can be said".
It carries further connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. The realizing of nirvana is compared to the ending of avidyā (ignorance) which perpetuates the will (cetana) into effecting the incarnation of mind into biological or other form passing on forever through life after life (samsara). Samsara is caused principally by craving and ignorance (see dependent origination). 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 parinirvāṇa, 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. Buddhism holds that the ultimate goal and end of samsaric existence (of ever "becoming" and "dying" and never truly being) is realization of nirvana; what happens to a person after his parinirvāṇa cannot be explained, as it is outside of all conceivable experience.
In Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta the Buddha likens nibbana to the cessation and extinguishing of a fire where the materials for sustenance has been removed:
Profound, Vaccha, is this phenomenon, hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.
There is that dimension where there is neither earth, nor water, nor fire, nor wind; neither dimension of the infinitude of space, nor dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, nor dimension of nothingness, nor dimension of neither perception nor non-perception; neither this world, nor the next world, nor sun, nor moon. And there, I say, there is neither coming, nor going, nor stasis; neither passing away nor arising: without stance, without foundation, without support [mental object]. This, just this, is the end of stress.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, calling nirvana the "opposite" of samsara or implying that it is apart from samsara is doctrinally problematic. According to early Mahāyāna Buddhism, they can be considered to be two aspects of the same perceived reality. 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.
The Theravāda school makes the antithesis of samsara and Nibbāna the starting point of the entire quest for deliverance. Even more, it treats this antithesis as determinative of the final goal, which is precisely the transcendence of samsara and the attainment of liberation in Nibbāna. Where Theravada differs significantly from the Mahāyāna schools, which also start with the duality of samsara and nirvana, is in not regarding this polarity as a mere preparatory lesson tailored for those with blunt faculties, to be eventually superseded by some higher realization of non-duality. From the standpoint of the Pāli Suttas, even for the Buddha and the Arahants suffering and its cessation, samsara and Nibbāna, remain distinct.
In the experience of all, nirvana is a state which all six bases (Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body and Mind) cannot feel.
It is probably best to understand the relationship between nirvana and samsara in terms of the Buddha while on earth. Buddha was both in saṃsāra while having attained to Nirvāṇa so that he was seen by all, and simultaneously free from samsara.
Sarvastivādin commentary, Abhidharma-mahavibhāsa-sāstra, gives the complete context of the possible meanings from its Sanskrit roots:
The nature of nirvana assumes a differently aspected Mahāyāna focus in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra or Nirvana Sutra, which alleges to be the final of all Mahāyāna sutras, delivered - the sutra indicates - by the Buddha on his last day of life on earth. Here, as well as in a number of related "tathagatagarbha" sutras, in which the Tathagatagarbha is equated with the Buddha\'s eternal Self or eternal nature, nirvana is spoken of by the Mahāyāna Buddha in very "cataphatic", positive terms. Nirvana, or "Great Nirvana", is indicated to be the sphere or domain (vishaya) of the True Self. It is seen as the state which constitutes the attainment of what is "Eternal, the Self, Bliss, and the Pure". Mahā-nirvāṇa ("Great 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, according to the Nirvāṇa Sutra, can only be fully known by an Awakened Being - a perfect Buddha - directly.
The Buddha of the Mahaparinirvāṇa Sutra gives the following definition of the attributes of nirvana, which includes the ultimate reality of the Self (not to be confused with the "worldly ego" of the five skandhas):
The attributes of nirvana are eightfold. What are these eight? Cessation (nirodha), loveliness/wholesomeness (subha), Truth (satya), Reality (tattva), eternity (nitya), bliss (sukha), the Self (atman), and complete purity (parisuddhi): that is nirvana.
He further states: "Non-Self is samsara (the cycle of rebirth); the Self (atman) is Great Nirvāṇa."
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 an act of creation or an agglomeration of causative factors: it was never created; it always was, is and will be. But due to the moral and mental darkness of ordinary, samsarically benighted sentient beings, it remains hidden from unawakened perception. The Buddha of the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra insists on its eternal nature and affirms its identity with the enduring, blissful Self, 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 (āsravas) 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 (kileśas), beings do not see it. The Tathāgata, endowed with omniscient awareness (sarvajñā-jñāna), lights the lamp of insight with his skill-in-means (upāya-kauśalya) and causes Bodhisattvas to perceive the Eternal, Bliss, the Self, and the Pure of nirvana.
Vitally, according to these Mahāyāna 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, comprised of the five changeful skandhas, but not of the immortal "supramundane" Self of the indwelling Buddha Principle [Buddha-dhatu]. Spiritual death for such a nirvana-ed being becomes an utter impossibility. The Buddha states in the "Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa 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."
In the Visuddhimagga, Ch. I, v. 6 (Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli, 1999, pp. 6-7), Buddhaghosa identifies various options within the Pali canon for pursuing a path to nirvana,A number of the suttas referenced below as well as Buddhaghosa himself refer not explicitly to nirvana but to "the path of purification" (Pali: Visuddhimagga). In Visuddhimagga, Ch. I, v. 5, Buddhaghosa notes: "Herein, purification should be understood as nibbana, which being devoid of all stains, is utterly pure" (Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli, 1999, p. 6). including:
In the Visuddhimagga, Ch. I, verse 2, Buddhaghosa comments that this tangle refers to "the network of craving." In verse 7, Buddhaghosa states that develops consciousness and understanding means "develops both concentration and insight." (Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli, 1999, pp. 1, 7)
Depending on one\'s analysis, each of these options could be seen as a reframing of the Buddha\'s Threefold Training of virtue, mental developmentIn the Nikayas mental development generally suggests the attainment of jhanic absorption; however, as indicated above in the note regarding the "insight alone" option, in some contexts it can refer to attaining "access" or "momentary" concentration without full absorption. and wisdom.
Nirvana in Jainism means :-
Jains celebrate Diwali as the day of Nirvana of Mahavira. Kalpasutra gives an elaborate account of Mahavira’s nirvana. Jacobi, Hermann; Ed. F. Max Müller (1884). Kalpa Sutra, Jain Sutras Part I, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 22. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
| “ | The aghatiya Karma’s of venerable Ascetic Mahavira got exhausted, when in this Avasarpini era the greater part of the Duhshamasushama period had elapsed and only three years and eight and a half months were left. Mahavira had recited the fifty-five lectures which detail the results of Karma, and the thirty-six unasked questions (the Uttaradhyana Sutra). The moon was in conjunction with the asterism Svati, at the time of early morning, in the town of Papa, and in king Hastipala\'s office of the writers, (Mahivira) single and alone, sitting in the Samparyahka posture, left his body and attained nirvana, freed from all pains.” (147)
In the fourth month of that rainy season, in the seventh fortnight, in the dark (fortnight) of Karttika, on its fifteenth day, in the last night, in the town of Papa, in king Hastipala\'s office of the writers, the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira died, went off, cut asunder the ties of birth, old age, and death; became a Siddha, a Buddha, a Mukta, a maker of the end (to all misery), finally liberated, freed from all pains. (123) That night in which the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira died, freed from all pains, was lighted up by many descending and ascending gods. (125) In that night in which the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira, died, freed from all pains, the eighteen confederate kings of Kasi and Kosala, the nine Mallakis and nine Licchavis, on the day of new moon, instituted an illuminations on the Poshadha, which was a fasting day; for they said: \'Since the light of intelligence is gone, let us make an illumination of material matter!\'(128) | ” |
Uttaradhyana Sutra provides an account of Gautama explaining the meaning of nirvana to Kesi a disciple of Parsva. Jacobi, Hermann; Ed. F. Max Müller (1895). Uttaradhyayana Sutra, Jain Sutras Part II, Sacred Books of the East, Vol. 45. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
| “ | There is a safe place in view of all, but difficult of approach, where there is no old age nor death, no pain nor disease. It is what is called Nirvâna, or freedom from pain, or perfection, which is in view of all; it is the safe, happy, and quiet place which the great sages reach. That is the eternal place, in view of all, but difficult of approach. Those sages who reach it are free from sorrows, they have put an end to the stream of existence. (81-4) | ” |
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