Nirvana (Buddhism)

Nirvana (िनवाण, Sanskrit: nirvāṇa; Pali: nibbana,

nibbāna) is the goal of the Buddhist path.[1] The literal
meaning of the term is "blowing out" or "quenching."[2]
Nirvana is the ultimate spiritual goal in Buddhism and
marks the soteriological release from rebirths in
saṃsāra.[1][3] Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on
"cessation of dukkha" in the Four Noble Truths,[1] and
the summum bonum destination of the Noble Eightfold
Path.[3]
Aniconic carving representing the final nirvana
In the Buddhist tradition, Nirvana has commonly been
of a Buddha at Sanchi.
interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires",[4] or
"three poisons",[5][6][note 1] passion (raga), aversion
(dvesha) and ignorance (moha or avidyā).[6] When these fires are Translations of
extinguished, release from the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra) is Nirvana
attained.
English blowing out,
Nirvana has also been deemed in Buddhism to be identical with extinguishing,
anatta (non-self) and sunyata (emptiness) states.[7][8] In time, liberation
with the development of Buddhist doctrine, other interpretations Sanskrit nirvāṇa (िनवाण)
were given, such as the absence of the weaving (vana) of activity Pali nibbāna (िन बान)
of the mind,[9] the elimination of desire, and escape from the
Bengali িনবাণ
woods, cq. the five skandhas or aggregates.
Burmese နိဗာန်
Buddhist scholastic tradition identifies two types of nirvana: (IPA: [neɪʔbàɴ])
sopadhishesa-nirvana (nirvana with a remainder), and Chinese 涅槃
parinirvana or anupadhishesa-nirvana (nirvana without (Pinyin: nièpán)
remainder, or final nirvana).[10] The founder of Buddhism, the
Japanese 涅槃
Buddha, is believed to have reached both these states.[10]
(rōmaji: nehan)
Nirvana, or the liberation from cycles of rebirth, is the highest Khmer និ ន
aim of the Theravada tradition. In the Mahayana tradition, the (UNGEGN: nippean)
highest goal is Buddhahood, in which there is no abiding in Korean 열반
Nirvana. Buddha helps liberate beings from saṃsāra by teaching (RR: yeolban)
the Buddhist path. There is no rebirth for Buddha or people who
Mon နဳဗာန်
attain Nirvana. But his teachings remain in world for a certain
([nìppàn])
time as a guidance to attain Nirvana.
Mongolian γasalang-aca
nögcigsen
Shan ၼိၵ်ႈ ပၢၼ်ႇ
Contents ([nik3paan2])
Etymology Sinhala වන
Extinction (Nivana)
To uncover
 Moksha, vimutti Tibetan ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།
(mya ngan las 'das
Interpretations of the early Buddhist concept
pa)
As a cessation event and the end of rebirth
As a metaphysical place or transcendent Thai นิ พพาน
consciousness (RTGS: nipphan)
Nirvana with and without remainder of fuel Vietnamese Niết bàn
Anatta, Sunyata Glossary of Buddhism
Synonyms and metaphors
Theravada
Unconditioned
Stages
Visuddhimagga
The mind of the Arahant is nibbāna
Modern Theravada views
Unorthodox interpretations, nibbana as citta,
viññana or atta
In other Buddhist schools
Sthavira schools
Comparison of the major Sthavira school
positions[177]
Mahāsāṃghika
In Mahayana Buddhism
Apratiṣṭhita nirvāna
Paths to Buddhahood
Omniscience
Buddhahood's bodies
Buddha-nature
Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra
See also
Notes
Quotes
References
Sources
Printed sources
Web-sources
Further reading
External links

Etymology
The term nirvana describes a state of freedom from suffering and rebirth,[11] but different Buddhist
traditions have interpreted the concept in different ways.[11][quote 1] The origin is probably pre-
Buddhist,[11][9] and its etymology may not be conclusive for its meaning.[9] The term was a more or less
central concept among the Jains, the Ajivikas, the Buddhists, and certain Hindu traditions, and it may
have been imported into Buddhism with much of its semantic range from other sramanic movements.[11]

Nirvana has a wide range of meanings,[11] although the literal meaning is "blowing out" or
"quenching".[9] It refers both to the act and the effect of blowing (at something) to put it out, but also the
process and outcome of burning out, becoming extinguished.[11][quote 2]

The term nirvana in the soteriological sense of "blown out, extinguished" state of liberation does not
appear in the Vedas nor in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads. According to Collins, "the Buddhists seem to
have been the first to call it nirvana."[12] However, the ideas of spiritual liberation using different
terminology, is found in ancient texts of non-Buddhist Indian traditions, such as in verse 4.4.6 of the
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad of Hinduism.[13]

Extinction
The prevalent interpretation of nirvana as "extinction" is based on the etymology of nir√vā to "blow
out".[14] Nir is a negative, while va is commonly taken to refer to "to blow".[14]

The term nirvana is part of an extensive metaphorical structure that was probably established at a very
early age in Buddhism. According to Gombrich, the number of three fires alludes to the three fires which
a Brahmin had to keep alight, and thereby symbolise life in the world, as a family-man.[5][15] The
meaning of this metaphor was lost in later Buddhism,[5][quote 3] and other explanations of the word
nirvana were sought. Not only passion, hatred and delusion were to be extinguished, but also all cankers
(asava) or defilements (khlesa).[15][note 2] Later exegetical works developed a whole new set of folk
etymological definitions of the word nirvana, using the root vana to refer to "to blow", but re-parsing the
word to roots that mean "weaving, sewing", "desire" and "forest or woods":[18][19]

vâna, derived from the root word √vā which means "to blow":[web 1]

(to) blow (of wind); but also to emit (an odour), be wafted or diffused;[web 1] nirvana then
means "to blow out";[quote 4][21]
vāna, derived from the root vana or van which mean "desire",[19][web 1]
nirvana is then explained to mean a state of "without desire, without love, without wish"
and one without craving or thirst (taṇhā);[19][web 1]
adding the root √vā which means "to weave or sew";[15][19] nirvana is then explained as
abandoning the desire which weaves together life after life.[19][note 3][web 1]
vāna,[15] derived from the root word vana which also means "woods, forest":[15][web 1]
based on this root, vana has been metaphorically explained by Buddhist scholars as
referring to the "forest of defilements",[19] or the five aggregates;[15] nirvana then means
"escape from the aggregates",[15] or to be "free from that forest of defilements".[19][note 4]
The "blowing out" does not mean total annihilation,[9] but the extinguishing of a flame. The term nirvana
can also be used as a verb: "he or she nirvāṇa-s," or "he or she parinirvānṇa-s" (parinibbāyati).[24][quote 5]

The term nirvana, "to blow out",[25] has also been interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires",[4] or
"three poisons",[5][6] namely of passion or sensuality (raga), aversion or hate (dvesha) and of delusion or
ignorance (moha or avidyā).[6] Another explanation of nirvana is the absence of the weaving (vana) of
activity of the mind.[9]
To uncover
Author Paul Swanson states that some contemporary Buddhism scholars have questioned the above
etymologies and whether these are consistent with the core doctrines of Buddhism, particularly about
anatman (non-self) and pratityasamutpada (causality).[26] Matsumoto Shirō, for example, states that the
original etymological root of nirvana should not be considered as nir√vā which means "extinction", but
should be considered to be nir√vŗ, to "uncover".[27] The problem with considering it as extinction or
liberation, is that it presupposes a "self" to be extinguished or liberated.[27] According to Matsumoto, the
original meaning of nirvana was therefore not "to extinguish" but "to uncover" the atman from that
which is anatman (not atman).[28] Other Buddhist scholars such as Takasaki Jikidō disagree, states
Swanson, and call the Matsumoto proposal as "too far and leaving nothing that can be called
Buddhist".[27]

Moksha, vimutti
Nirvana is used synonymously with moksha (Sanskrit), also vimoksha, or vimutti (Pali), "release,
deliverance from suffering".[29][web 2][note 5] In the Pali-canon two kinds of vimutti are discerned:[web 2]

Ceto-vimutti, freedom of mind; it is the qualified freedom from suffering, attained through the
practice of concentration meditation (samādhi). Vetter translates this as "release of the
heart" which means conquering desire thereby attaining a desire-less state of living.[30]
Pañña-vimutti, freedom through understanding (prajña); it is the final release from suffering
and the end of rebirth, attained through the practice of insight meditation (vipassanā).[web 2]
Ceto-vimutti becomes permanent, only with the attainment of pañña-vimutti.[web 2] According to
Gombrich and other scholars, these may be a later development within the canon, reflecting a growing
emphasis in earliest Buddhism on prajña, instead of the liberating practice of dhyana; it may also reflect
a successful assimilation of non-Buddhist meditation practices in ancient India into the Buddhist
canon.[31][30] According to Anālayo, the term uttari-vimutti (highest liberation) is also widely used in the
early buddhist texts to refer to liberation from the cycle of rebirth.[32]

Interpretations of the early Buddhist concept

As a cessation event and the end of rebirth

Most modern scholars such as Rupert Gethin, Richard Gombrich, Donald Lopez and Paul Williams hold
that nirvāṇa (nibbana in Pali, also called nibbanadhatu, the property of nibbana), means the 'blowing out'
or 'extinguishing' of greed, aversion, and delusion, and that this signifies the permanent cessation of
samsara and rebirth.[33][34][35][36][37][quote 6]

According to Steven Collins, a synonym widely used for nirvana in early texts is "deathless" or
"deathfree" (Pali: amata, sanskrit: amrta) and refers to a condition "where there is no death, because
there is also no birth, no coming into existence, nothing made by conditioning, and therefore no time."[45]
He also adds that "the most common thing said about nirvana in Buddhist texts is that it is the ending of
suffering (dukkha)."[46] Gethin notes, "this is not a 'thing' but an event or experience" that frees one from
rebirth in samsara. According to Collins, the term is also widely used as a verb, one therefore
"nirvanizes."[45] Gombrich argues that the metaphor used in the texts of flames going out, refers to fires
which were kept by priests of Brahmanism, and symbolize life in the world.[47] Nirvana is also called
"unconditioned" (asankhata), meaning it is unlike all other conditioned phenomena.
The cycle of rebirth and suffering continues until a being attains
nirvana. One requirement for ending this cycle is to extinguish
the fires of attachment (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance
(moha or avidya). As Bhikkhu Bodhi states "For as long as one is
entangled by craving, one remains bound in saṃsāra, the cycle of
birth and death; but when all craving has been extirpated, one
attains Nibbāna, deliverance from the cycle of birth and
death."[48]

According to Donald Swearer, the journey to nirvana is not a

journey to a "separate reality" (contra Vedic religion or Jainism),
but a move towards calm, equanimity, nonattachment and
nonself.[49] In this sense, the soteriological view of early
Buddhism is seen as a reaction to earlier Indic metaphysical
views. Thomas Kasulis notes that in the early texts, nirvana is
often described in negative terms, including “cessation” The Bhavachakra, an illustration of
(nirodha), “the absence of craving” (trsnaksaya), “detachment,” the cycle of rebirth, with the three
“the absence of delusion,” and “the unconditioned” poisons at the hub of the wheel.
(asamskrta). [50] He also notes that there is little discussion in the
early buddhist texts about the metaphysical nature of nirvana,
since they seem to hold that metaphysical speculation is an obstacle to the goal. Kasulis mentions the
Malunkyaputta sutta which denies any view about the existence of the Buddha after his final bodily
death, all positions (the Buddha exists after death, does not exist, both or neither) are rejected.[50]
Likewise, another sutta (AN II 161) has Sāriputta saying that asking the question "is there anything
else?" after the physical death of someone who has attained nirvana is conceptualizing or proliferating
(papañca) about that which is without proliferation (appapañcaṃ) and thus a kind of distorted thinking
bound up with the self.[51]

In the early texts, the practice of the noble path and the four dhyanas was said to lead to the extinction of
the three fires, and then proceed to the cessation of all discursive thoughts and apperceptions, then
ceasing all feelings (happiness and sadness).[52][53] According to Collins, nirvana is associated with a
meditative attainment called the 'Cessation of Perception/Ideation and Feeling' (sannavedayitanirodha),
also known as the 'Attainment of Cessation' (nirodhasamapatti).[54] In later Buddhism, dhyana practice
was deemed sufficient only for the extinguishing of passion and hatred, while delusion was extinguished
by insight.[16]

As a metaphysical place or transcendent consciousness

Peter Harvey has defended the idea that nirvana in the Pali suttas refers to a kind of transformed and
transcendent consciousness or discernment (viññana) that has "stopped" (nirodhena). According to
Harvey this nirvanic consciousness is said to be "objectless", "infinite" (anantam), "unsupported"
(appatiṭṭhita) and "non-manifestive" (anidassana) as well as "beyond time and spatial location".[55][56]
Rune Johansson's The Psychology of Nirvana also argued that nirvana could be seen as a transformed
state of mind (citta).[57]

Stanislaw Schayer, a Polish scholar, argued in the 1930s that the Nikayas preserve elements of an archaic
form of Buddhism which is close to Brahmanical beliefs,[59][60][61][62] and survived in the Mahayana
tradition.[63][64] Contrary to popular opinion, the Theravada and Mahayana traditions may be "divergent,
but equally reliable records of a pre-canonical Buddhism which is
now lost forever."[63] The Mahayana tradition may have
preserved a very old, "pre-Canonical" and oral Buddhist tradition,
which was largely, but not completely, left out of the Theravada-
canon.[64] Schayer's view saw nirvana as an immortal, deathless
sphere, a transmundane reality or state.[65] Edward Conze had
similar ideas about nirvana, citing sources which speak of an
eternal and "invisible infinite consciousness, which shines
everywhere" as point to the view that nirvana is a kind of In the cosmology of Jainism, another
sramana tradition like Buddhism,
Absolute.[64] A similar view was defended by M. Falk, who held
liberated beings abide in an actual
that the nirvanic element, as an "essence" or pure consciousness, place (loka) associated with
is immanent within samsara.[66] M. Falk argues that the early nirvana.[58] Some scholars have
Buddhist view of nirvana is that it is an "abode" or "place" of argued that originally, Buddhists held
prajña, which is gained by the enlightened.[note 6][68][note 7] This a similar view.
nirvanic element, as an "essence" or pure consciousness, is
immanent within samsara.[66][note 8]

A similar view is also defended by C. Lindtner, who argues that in precanonical Buddhism Nirvana is:

... a place one can actually go to. It is called nirvanadhatu, has no border-signs (animitta), is
localized somewhere beyond the other six dhatus (beginning with earth and ending with
vijñana) but is closest to akasa and vijñana. One cannot visualize it, it is anidarsana, but it
provides one with firm ground under one’s feet, it is dhruva; once there one will not slip
back, it is acyutapada. As opposed to this world, it is a pleasant place to be in, it is sukha,
things work well.[59][note 9]

According to Christian Lindtner, the original and early Buddhist concepts of nirvana were similar to
those found in competing Śramaṇa (strivers/ascetics) traditions such as Jainism and Upanishadic Vedism.
It was not a psychological idea or purely related to a being's inner world, but a concept described in terms
of the world surrounding the being, cosmology and consciousness.[70] All Indian religions, over time,
states Lindtner evolved these ideas, internalizing the state but in different ways because early and later
Vedanta continued with the metaphysical idea of Brahman and soul, but Buddhism did not.[71] In this
view, the canonical Buddhist views on Nirvana was a reaction against early (pre-canonical) Buddhism,
along with the assumptions of Jainism and the Upanishadic thought on the idea of personal liberation.[72]
As a result of this reaction, Nirvana came to be seen as a state of mind, instead of a concrete place.[59]
Elements of this precanonical Buddhism may have survived the canonisation, and its subsequent filtering
out of ideas, and re-appeared in Mahayana Buddhism.[59][61] According to Lindtner, the existence of
multiple, and contradicting ideas, is also reflected in the works of Nagarjuna, who tried to harmonize
these different ideas. According to Lindtner, this lead him to taking a "paradoxical" stance, for instance
regarding nirvana, rejecting any positive description.[59]

Referring to this view, Alexander Wynne holds that there is no evidence in the Sutta Pitaka that the
Buddha held this view, at best it only shows that "some of the early Buddhists were influenced by their
Brahminic peers".[73] Wynne concludes that the Buddha rejected the views of the Vedas and that his
teachings present a radical departure from these brahminical beliefs.[73]

Nirvana with and without remainder of fuel

There are two stages in nirvana, one in life, and one final
nirvana upon death; the former is imprecise and general, the
latter is precise and specific.[74] The nirvana-in-life marks
the life of a monk who has attained complete release from
desire and suffering but still has a body, name and life. The
nirvana-after-death, also called nirvana-without-substrate, is
the complete cessation of everything, including
consciousness and rebirth.[74] This main distinction is
between the extinguishing of the fires during life, and the
final "blowing out" at the moment of death:[75][quote 7]
Buddhist sculpture of the final nirvana of
Sa-upādisesa-nibbāna (Pali; Sanskrit sopadhiśeṣa- the Buddha in greco-buddhist Gandharan
nirvāṇa), "nirvana with remainder", "nirvana with style from Loriyan Tangai.
residue."[75] Nirvana is attained during one's life,
when the fires are extinguished.[78] There is still the
"residue" of the five skandhas, and a "residue of fuel", which however is not
"burning".[75][quote 8] Nirvana-in-this-life is believed to result in a transformed mind with
qualities such as happiness,[note 10] freedom of negative mental states,[quote 9]
peacefulness[quote 10] and non-reactiveness.[quote 11]
An-up ādisesa-nibbāna (Pali; Sanskrit nir-upadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa), "nirvana without remainder,"
"nirvana without residue". This is the final nirvana, or parinirvana or "blowing out" at the
moment of death, when there is no fuel left.[78][quote 12]
The classic Pali sutta definitions for these states are as follows:

And what, monks, is the Nibbana element with residue remaining? Here, a monk is an
arahant, one whose taints are destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be
done, laid down the burden, reached his own goal, utterly destroyed the fetters of existence,
one completely liberated through final knowledge. However, his five sense faculties remain
unimpaired, by which he still experiences what is agreeable and disagreeable, still feels
pleasure and pain. It is the destruction of lust, hatred, and delusion in him that is called the
Nibbana element with residue remaining.

And what, monks, is the Nibbana element without residue remaining? Here, a monk is an
arahant ... one completely liberated through final knowledge. For him, here in this very life,
all that is felt, not being delighted in, will become cool right here. That, monks, is called the
Nibbana element without residue remaining.[89]

Gombrich explains that the five skandhas or aggregates are the bundles of firewood that fuel the three
fires.[22] The Buddhist practitioner ought to "drop" these bundles, so that the fires are no longer fueled
and "blow out".[23] When this is done, the bundles still remain as long as this life continues, but they are
no longer "on fire."[78] Collins notes that the first type, nirvana in this life is also called bodhi
(awakening), nirvana of the defilements or kilesa-(pari)nibbana, and arhatship while nirvana after death
is also referred to as the nirvana of the Aggregates, khandha-(pari)nibbana.[90]

What happens with one who has reached nirvana after death is an unanswerable question.[91][quote 13]
According to Walpola Rahula, the five aggregates vanish but there does not remain a mere
"nothingness."[91] [quote 14] Rahula's view, states Gombrich, is not accurate summary of the Buddhist
thought, and mirrors the Upanishadic thought.[quote 15][quote 16]

Anatta, Sunyata
Nirvana is also described in Buddhist texts as identical to anatta (anatman, non-self, lack of any
self).[94][95][96] Anatta means there is no abiding self or soul in any being or a permanent essence in any
thing.[97][98] This interpretation asserts that all reality is of dependent origination and a worldly
construction of each human mind, therefore ultimately a delusion or ignorance.[97][99] In Buddhist
thought, this must be overcome, states Martin Southwold, through "the realization of anatta, which is
nirvana".[99]

Nirvana in some Buddhist traditions is described as the realization of sunyata (emptiness or

nothingness).[100] Madhyamika Buddhist texts call this as the middle point of all dualities (Middle Way),
where all subject-object discrimination and polarities disappear, there is no conventional reality, and the
only ultimate reality of emptiness is all that remains.[101]

Synonyms and metaphors

A commonly used metaphor for nirvana is that of a flame which goes out due to lack of fuel:

Just as an oil-lamp burns because of oil and wick, but when the oil and wick are exhausted,
and no others are supplied, it goes out through lack of fuel (anaharo nibbayati), so the
[enlightened] monk … knows that after the break-up of his body, when further life is
exhausted, all feelings which are rejoiced in here will become cool.[102]

Collins argues that the Buddhist view of awakening reverses the Vedic view and its metaphors. While in
Vedic religion, the fire is seen as a metaphor for the good and for life, Buddhist thought uses the
metaphor of fire for the three poisons and for suffering.[103] This can be seen in the Adittapariyaya Sutta
commonly called "the fire sermon" as well as in other similar early Buddhist texts. The fire sermon
describes the end of the "fires" with a refrain which is used throughout the early texts to describe
nibbana:

Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full

release, there is the knowledge, 'Fully released.' He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life
fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.[104]

In the Dhammacakkapavattanasutta, the third noble truth of cessation (associated with nirvana) is
defined as: "the fading away without remainder and cessation of that same craving, giving it up,
relinquishing it, letting it go, not clinging to it."[105] Steven Collins lists some examples of synonyms
used throughout the Pali texts for Nirvana:

the end, (the place, state) without corruptions, the truth, the further (shore), the subtle, very
hard to see, without decay, firm, not liable to dissolution, incomparable, without
differentiation, peaceful, deathless, excellent, auspicious, rest, the destruction of craving,
marvellous, without affliction, whose nature is to be free from affliction, nibbana
[presumably here in one or more creative etymology,= e.g., non-forest], without trouble,
dispassion, purity, freedom, without attachment, the island, shelter (cave), protection, refuge,
 final end, the subduing of pride (or ‘intoxication’), elimination of thirst, destruction of
attachment, cutting off of the round (of rebirth), empty, very hard to obtain, where there is
no becoming, without misfortune, where there is nothing made, sorrowfree, without danger,
whose nature is to be without danger, profound, hard to see, superior, unexcelled (without
superior), unequalled, incomparable, foremost, best, without strife, clean, flawless, stainless,
happiness, immeasurable, (a firm) standing point, possessing nothing.[106]

Theravada

Unconditioned
In the Theravada-tradition, nibbāna is regarded as an
uncompounded or unconditioned (asankhata) dhamma
(phenomenon, event) which is "transmundane",[107][note 11]
and which is beyond our normal dualistic
conceptions.[109][quote 17] In Theravada Abhidhamma texts like
the Vibhanga, nibbana or the asankhata-dhatu (unconditioned
element) is defined thus:
Khmer traditional mural painting depicts
‘What is the unconditioned element (asankhata Gautama Buddha entering parinirvana,
dhatu)? It is the cessation of passion, the Dharma assembly pavilion, Wat Botum,
cessation of hatred and the cessation of Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
delusion.’[110]

Furthermore, for the Theravada, nirvana is uniquely the only asankhata dhamma (unconditioned
phenomenon) and unlike other schools, they do not recognize different unconditioned phenomena or
different types of nirvana (such as the apratistha or non-abiding nirvana of Mahayana).[111] As noted by
Thiện Châu, the Theravadins and the Pudgalavadins "remained strictly faithful to the letter of the sutras"
and thus held that nirvana is the only unconditioned dhamma, while other schools also posited various
asankhata dhammas (such as the Sarvastivadin view that space or akasa was unconditioned).[111]

Stages
our planes of liberation
ng to the Sutta Piṭaka[112])

s abandoned rebirth(s)
" [113] fetters until suffering's end

1. identity view up to seven rebirths in

lower
-enterer (Anatman) human or heavenly
2. doubt in Buddha fetters realms
3. ascetic or ritual rules
eturner[114] once more as
a human
 once more in
4. sensual desire
urner a heavenly realm
5. ill will
(Pure Abodes)

6. material-rebirth desire
7. immaterial-
rebirth desire higher
nt no rebirth
8. conceit fetters
9. restlessness
10. ignorance

Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi (2001), Middle-Length Discourses, pp. 41-43.

The Theravada tradition identifies four progressive stages.[note 12][115] The first three lead to favorable
rebirths in more pleasant realms of existence, while the last culminates in nirvana as an Arahat who is a
fully awakened person. The first three are reborn because they still have some of the fetters, while arhat
has abandoned all ten fetters and, upon death will never be reborn in any realm or world, having wholly
escaped saṃsāra.[116]

At the start, a monk's mind treats nirvana as an object (nibbanadhatu). This is followed by realizing the
insight of three universal lakshana (marks): impermanence (anicca), suffering (dukkha) and nonself
(anatman). Thereafter the monastic practice aims at eliminating the ten fetters that lead to rebirth.[117]

According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu, individuals up to the level of non-returning may experience nibbāna
as an object of consciousness.[118][note 13] Certain contemplations with nibbāna as an object of samādhi
lead, if developed, to the level of non-returning.[119] At that point of contemplation, which is reached
through a progression of insight, if the meditator realizes that even that state is constructed and therefore
impermanent, the fetters are destroyed, arahantship is attained, and nibbāna is realized.[120]

Visuddhimagga
The Theravada exegete Buddhaghosa says, in his Visuddhimagga:

It is called nibbana (extinction) because it has gone away from (nikkhanta), has escaped
from (nissata), is dissociated from, craving, which has acquired in common usage the name
‘fastening (vana)’ because, by ensuring successive becoming, craving serves as a joining
together, a binding together, a lacing together, of the four kinds of generation, five destinies,
seven stations of consciousness and nine abodes of being.[121]

According to Buddhaghosa, nibbāna is achieved after a long process of committed application to the path
of purification (Pali: Vissudhimagga). The Buddha explained that the disciplined way of life he
recommended to his students (dhamma-vinaya) is a gradual training extending often over a number of
years. To be committed to this path already requires that a seed of wisdom is present in the individual.
This wisdom becomes manifest in the experience of awakening (bodhi). Attaining nibbāna, in either the
current or some future birth, depends on effort, and is not pre-determined.[122]
In the Visuddhimagga, chapter I.v.6, Buddhaghosa identifies various options within the Pali canon for
pursuing a path to nirvana.[note 14][note 15] According to Gombrich, this proliferation of possible paths to
liberation reflects later doctrinal developments, and a growing emphasis on insight as the main liberative
means, instead of the practice of dhyana.[128]

The mind of the Arahant is nibbāna

A related idea, which finds support in the Pali Canon and the contemporary Theravada practice tradition
despite its absence in the Theravada commentaries and Abhidhamma, is that the mind of the arahant is
itself nibbāna.[129][note 16]

Modern Theravada views

K.N. Jayatilleke, a modern Sri Lankan Buddhist philosopher, holds that nirvana must be understood by a
careful study of the Pali texts. Jayatilleke argues that the Pali works show that nirvana means 'extinction'
as well as 'the highest positive experience of happiness'.[134] Jayatilleke writes that despite the definition
of nirvana as 'extinction', this does not mean that it is a kind of annihilation or a state of dormant
nonentity, for this contradicts the statements of the Buddha that reject this interpretation.[135] Jayatilleke
holds that the early texts clearly proclaim that nothing can be said about the state of the Buddha after
paranibbana (the end of his psycho-physical personality) because "we do not have the concepts or words
to describe adequately the state of the emancipated person." [136] This transcendent reality which our
normal minds cannot grasp is not located in time or space, it is not causally conditioned, and beyond
existence and non-existence.[137] Because trying to explain nibbana by means of logic is impossible, the
only thing to be done is to explain how to reach it, instead of dwelling on what it "is". Explaining what
happens to the Buddha after nibbana is thus said to be an unanswerable.[138]

A similarly apophatic position is also defended by Walpola Rahula, who states that the question of what
nirvana is "can never be answered completely and satisfactorily in words, because human language is too
poor to express the real nature of the Absolute Truth or Ultimate Reality which is Nirvana."[139] Rahula
affirms that nibbana is most often described in negative terms because there is less danger in grasping at
these terms, such as "the cessation of continuity and becoming (bhavanirodha)", "the abandoning and
destruction of desire and craving for these five aggregates of attachment", and "the extinction of "thirst"
(tanhakkhayo)."[140] Rahula also affirms however that nibbana is not a negative or an annihilation,
because there is no self to be annihilated and because 'a negative word does not necessarily indicate a
negative state'.[141] Rahula also notes that more positive terms are used to describe nibbana such as
"freedom" (mutti) and "truth" (sacca).[142] Rahula also agrees that nirvana is unconditioned.[143]

The American Theravada monk Bhikkhu Bodhi has defended the traditional Theravada view which sees
nirvana as "a reality transcendent to the entire world of mundane experience, a reality transcendent to all
the realms of phenomenal existence."[144]

The Sri Lankan philosopher David Kalupahana has taken a different position, he argues that the Buddha's
"main philosophical insight" is the principle of causality (dependent origination) and that this "is
operative in all spheres, including the highest state of spiritual development, namely, nirvana."[145]
According to Kalupahana "later scholars attempted to distinguish two spheres, one in which causation
prevailed and the other which is uncaused. This latter view was, no doubt, the result of a confusion in the
meanings of the two terms, sankhata ('compounded') and paticcasamuppanna ('causally
conditioned')."[145] Thus, even though nibbana is termed "asankhata" (un-compounded, not-put together)
there is no statement in the early texts which say that nirvana is not dependently originated or is uncaused
(the term would be appaticcasamuppana).[145] He thus argues that "nirvana is a state where there is
'natural or causal happening' (paticcasamuppada), but not 'organized,' or 'planned' conditioning (sankha-
rana)", as well as "a state of perfect mental health (aroga), of perfect happiness (parama sukha),
calmness or coolness (sitibhuta), and stability (aneñja), etc. attained in this life, or while one is
alive."[146]

Mahasi Sayadaw, one of the most influential 20th century Theravada vipassana teachers, states in his
"On the nature of Nibbana" that "nibbana is perfect peace (santi)" and "the complete annihilation of the
three cycles of defilement, action, and result of action, which all go to create mind and matter, volitional
activities, etc."[147] He further states that for arahants "no new life is formed after his decease-
consciousness."[148] Mahasi Sayadaw further states that nibbana is the cessation of the five aggregates
which is like "a flame being extinguished". However this doesn't mean that "an arahant as an individual
has disappeared" because there is no such thing as an "individual" in an ultimate sense, even though we
use this term conventionally. Ultimate however, "there is only a succession of mental and physical
phenomena arising and dissolving." For this reason, Mahasi Sayadaw holds that although for an arahant
"cessation means the extinction of the successive rise and fall of the aggregates" this is not the view of
annihilation (uccheda-diṭṭhi) since there is ultimately no individual to be annihilated.[149] Mahasi further
notes that "feeling [vedana] ceases with the parinibbāna of the Arahant" and also that "the cessation of
senses is nibbāna" (citing the Pañcattaya Sutta).[150] Mahasi also affirms that even though nibbana is the
"cessation of mind, matter, and mental formations" and even the cessation of "formless consciousness", it
is not nothing, but it is an "absolute reality" and he also affirms that "the peace of nibbana is real."[151]

Unorthodox interpretations, nibbana as citta, viññana or atta

In Thai Theravada, as well as among some modern Theravada scholars, there are alternative
interpretations which differ from the traditional orthodox Theravada view. These interpretations see
nibbana as equivalent in some way with either a special kind of mind (pabhassara citta) or a special
consciousness called anidassana viññāṇa, "non-manifest" consciousness which is said to be 'luminous'.
In one interpretation, the "luminous consciousness" is identical with nibbana.[152] Others disagree,
finding it to be not nibbana itself, but instead to be a kind of consciousness accessible only to
arahants.[153][154]

Some teachers of the Thai forest tradition, such as Ajahn Maha Bua taught an idea called "original mind"
which when perfected is said to exist as a separate reality from the world and the aggregates.[155]
According to Maha Bua, the indestructible mind or citta is characterized by awareness or knowing,
which is intrinsically bright (pabhassaram) and radiant, and though it is tangled or "darkened" in
samsara, it is not destroyed.[156] This mind is unconditioned, deathless and an independent reality.[157]
According to Bua, this mind is impure, but when it is purified of the defilements, it remains abiding in its
own foundation.[158][159] Maha Bua also publicly argued (in a newspaper in 1972) that one could meet
with and discuss the teachings with arahants and Buddhas of the past (and that Ajahn Mun had done so)
therefore positing that nibbana is a kind of higher existence.[160] Prayudh Payutto, a modern scholar-
monk who is widely seen as the most influential authority on Buddhist doctrine in Thailand, has played a
prominent role in arguing against the views of Maha Bua, strictly basing his views on the Pali canon to
refute such notions.[160]
Ajahns Pasanno and Amaro, contemporary western monastics in the Thai forest tradition, note that these
ideas are rooted in a passage in the Anguttara Nikaya (1.61-62) which mentions a certain "pabhassara
citta".[161] Citing another passage from the canon which mentions a "consciousness that is signless,
boundless, all-luminous" (called anidassana viññāṇa) they state that this "must mean a knowing of a
primordial, transcendent nature."[162][quote 18]

A related view of nibbana has been defended by the American Thai forest monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu.
According to Thanissaro, "non-manifestive consciousness" (anidassana viññāṇa) differs from the kinds
of consciousness associated to the six sense media, which have a "surface" that they fall upon and arise in
response to.[163] In a liberated individual, this is directly experienced, in a way that is free from any
dependence on conditions at all.[163][164] In Thanissaro's view, the luminous, unsupported consciousness
associated with nibbana is directly known by noble ones without the mediation of the mental
consciousness factor in dependent co-arising, and is the transcending of all objects of mental
consciousness.[118] The British academic Peter Harvey has defended a similar view of nibbana as
anidassana viññāṇa.[165]

According to Paul Williams, there is also a trend in modern Thai Theravada that argues that "nirvana is
indeed the true Self (Atman; Pali: atta)".[166] This dispute began when the 12th Supreme Patriarch of
Thailand published a book of essays in 1939 arguing that while the conditioned world is anatta, nibbana
is atta. According to Williams, this interpretation echoes the Mahayana tathāgatagarbha sutras. This
position was criticized by Buddhadhasa Bhikkhu, who argued that the not-self (anatta) perspective is
what makes Buddhism unique.[167] Fifty years after this dispute, the Dhammakaya Movement also began
to teach that nibbana is not anatta, but the "true self" or dhammakaya.[168] According to Williams, this
dhammakaya (dharma body) is "a luminous, radiant and clear Buddha figure free of all defilements and
situated within the body of the meditator."[167] This view has been strongly criticized as "insulting the
Buddha’s teaching" and "showing disrespect to the Pali canon" by Prayudh Payutto (In his The
Dhammakaya case) and this has led to fervent debates in Thai Buddhist circles.[169][160]

Another western monastic in the thai forest tradition, Ajahn Brahmāli, has recently written against all of
these views, drawing on a careful study of the Nikāyas. Brahmāli concludes that the "most reasonable
interpretation" of final nibbāna is "no more than the cessation of the five khandhas."[89] Brahmāli also
notes that there is a kind of samādhi that is attainable only by the awakened and is based on their
knowledge of nibbana (but is not nibbana itself), this meditation is what is being referred to by terms
such as non-manifest consciousness (anidassana viññāṇa) and unestablished consciousness (appatiṭṭhita
viññāṇa).[89]

In other Buddhist schools

Sthavira schools
The later Buddhist Abhidharma schools gave different meaning and interpretations of the term, moving
away from the original metaphor of the extinction of the "three fires". The Sarvastivada Abhidharma
compendium, the Mahavibhasasastra, says of nirvana:

As it is the cessation of defilements (klesanirodha), it is called nirvana. As it is the extinction

of the triple fires, it is called nirvana. As it is the tranquility of three characteristics, it is
called nirvana. As there is separation (viyoga) from bad odor (durgandha), it is called
 nirvana. As there is separation from destinies (gati), it is called nirvana. Vana means forest
and nir means escape. As it is the escape from the forest of the aggregates, it is called
nirvana. Vana means weaving and nir means negation. As there is no weaving, it is called
nirvana. In a way that one with thread can easily be woven while one without that cannot be
woven, in that way one with action (karma) and defilements (klesa) can easily be woven into
life and death while an asaiksa who is without any action and defilements cannot be woven
into life and death. That is why it is called nirvana. Vana means new birth and nir means
negation. As there is no more new birth, it is called nirvana. Vana means bondage and nir
means separation. As it is separation from bondage, it is called nirvana. Vana means all
discomforts of life and death and nir means passing beyond. As it passes beyond all
discomforts of life and death, it is called nirvana.[170]

According to Soonil Hwang, the Sarvastivada school held that there were two kinds of nirodha
(extinction), extinction without knowledge (apratisamkhyanirodha) and extinction through knowledge
(pratisamkhyanirodha), which is the equivalent of nirvana.[171] In the Sarvastivada Abhidharma,
extinction through knowledge was equivalent to nirvana, and was defined by its intrinsic nature
(svabhava), ‘all extinction which is disjunction (visamyoga)’.[172] This dharma is defined by the
Abhidharmakosha as "a special understanding, the penetration (pratisamkhyana) of suffering and the
other noble truths."[172] Soonil explains the Sarvastivada view of nirvana as "the perpetual separation of
an impure dharma from a series of aggregates through the antidote, ‘acquisition of disjunction’
(visamyogaprapti)."[173] Because the Sarvastivadins held that all dharmas exist in the three times, they
saw the destruction of defilements as impossible and thus "the elimination of a defilement is referred to
as a ‘separation’ from the series."[173] Soonil adds:

That is to say, the acquisition of the defilement is negated, or technically ‘disjoined’

(visamyoga), through the power of knowledge that terminates the junction between that
defilement and the series of aggregates. By reason of this separation, then, there arises ‘the
acquisition of disjunction’ (visamyogaprapti) that serves as an antidote (pratipaksa), which
henceforward prevents the junction between the defilement and this series.[173]

The Sarvastivadins also held that nirvana was a real existent (dravyasat) which perpetually protects a
series of dharmas from defilements in the past, present and future.[174] Their interpretation of nirvana
became an issue of debate between them and the Sautrantika school. For the Sautrantikas, nirvana "was
not a real existent but a mere designation (prajñaptisat) and was non-existence succeeding existence
(pascadabhava)."[175] It is something merely spoken of conventionally, without an intrinsic nature
(svabhava).[176] The Abhidharmakosha, explaining the Sautrantika view of nirvana, states:

The extinction through knowledge is, when latent defilements (anusaya) and life (janman)
that have already been produced are extinguished, non-arising of further such by the power
of knowledge (pratisamkhya).[176]

Thus for the Sautrantikas, nirvana was simply the "non-arising of further latent defilement when all latent
defilements that have been produced have already been extinguished."[176] Meanwhile, the Pudgalavada
school interpreted nirvana as the single Absolute truth which constitutes "the negation, absence, cessation
of all that constitutes the world in which we live, act and suffer".[111] According to Thiện Châu, for the
Pudgalavadins, nirvana is seen as totally different than the compounded realm, since it the
uncompounded (asamskrta) realm where no compounded things exist, and it is also beyond reasoning
and expression.[111] One of the few surviving Pudgalavada texts defines nirvana as:

Absolute truth is the definitive cessation of all activities of speech (vac) and of all thoughts
(citta). Activity is bodily action (kayakarman): speech (vac) is that of the voice
(vakkarman); thought is that of the mind (manaskarman). If these three (actions) cease
definitively, that is absolute truth which is Nirvana.[111]

Comparison of the major Sthavira school positions[177]

Classical Sarvāstivāda-
Early Buddhist Sautrāntika Pudgalavāda
Theravāda Vaibhāṣika
Existing Non-
Conception The cessation of A real existent different
separately existence, a
of nirvana the triple fires of A real existent
or the passion hatred
(patiyekka)
(dravya)
mere than samsara [111]
from mere designation
asankhata and delusion.
destruction (prajñapti)
Life faculty
The "fuel" (jivitendriya) and Momentum
or The five The five homogeneous (avedha) of
The five aggregates
"remainder" aggregates aggregates character of the the series of
(upādi) group aggregates
(nikayasabhaga)
The The disjunction Non-arising
Nirvana The cessation of
cessation (visamyoga) from of further The cessation of
with a the triple fires of
of all impure latent
remainder passion hatred defilements (klesa)[178]
defilements (sasrava) defilements
of clinging and delusion
(kilesa) dharmas (anusaya)
The cessation of the
aggregates.
The pudgala (person)

The cessation of cannot actually be

the five
Nirvana
aggregates. Its
The The Non-arising said to
without a cessation disintegration of of further
ontological
remainder of the five the series of life
of clinging
status is an
aggregates aggregates (janman) be existent nor non-
unanswerable
(avyākata).
existent and it is
neither the same nor
different than
nirvana. [179]

Mahāsāṃghika
According to Andre Bareau, the Mahāsāṃghika school held that the nirvana reached by arhats was
fundamentally inferior to that of the Buddhas.[180] Regarding the nirvana reached by the Buddha, they
held that his longevity (ayu), his body (rupa, sarira) and divine power (tejas) were infinite, unlimited and
supramundane (lokuttara).[181][182] Therefore, they held to a kind of docetism which posited that
Buddhas only appear to be born into the world and thus when they die and enter nirvana, this is only a
fiction. In reality, the Buddha remains in the form of a body of enjoyment (sambhogakaya) and continues
to create many forms (nirmana) adapted to the different needs of beings in order to teach them through
clever means (upaya).[181][182]

According to Guang Xing, Mahāsāṃghikas held that there were two aspects of a Buddha's attainment:
the true Buddha who is omniscient and omnipotent, and the manifested forms through which he liberates
sentient beings through his skillful means.[183] For the Mahāsāṃghikas, the historical Gautama Buddha
was merely one of these transformation bodies (Skt. nirmāṇakāya).[184]

Bareau also writes that for the Mahāsāṃghika school, only wisdom (prajña) can reach nirvana, not
samadhi. Bareau notes that this might be the source of the prajñaparamita sutras.[185]

Regarding the Ekavyāvahārika branch of the Mahāsāṃghikas, Bareau states that both samsara and
nirvana were nominal designations (prajñapti) and devoid of any real substance.[186] According to
Nalinaksha Dutt, for the Ekavyāvahārika, all dharmas are conventional and thus unreal (even the absolute
was held to be contingent or dependent) while for the Lokottaravada branch, worldly dharmas are unreal
but supramundane dharmas like nirvana are real.[187]

In Mahayana Buddhism
The Mahāyāna (Great Vehicle) tradition, which promotes the bodhisattva path as the highest spiritual
ideal over the goal of arhatship, envisions different views of nirvāṇa than the Nikaya Buddhist
schools.[quote 19][note 17] Mahāyāna Buddhism is a diverse group of various Buddhist traditions and
therefore there is no single unified Mahāyāna view on nirvāṇa. However, it is generally believed that
remaining in saṃsāra in order to help other beings is a noble goal for a Mahāyānist.[190] According to
Paul Williams, there are at least two conflicting models on the bodhisattva's attitude to nirvāṇa.

The first model seems to be promoted in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra and it states
that a bodhisattva postpones their nirvāṇa until they have saved numerous sentient beings, then, after
reaching Buddhahood, a bodhisattva passes on to cessation just like an arhat (and thus ceases to help
others). In this model, their only difference to an arhat is that they have spent aeons helping other beings
and have become a Buddha to teach the Dharma.[190] This model seems to have been influential in the
early period of Indian Buddhism. Etienne Lamotte, in his analysis of the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa,
notes that this text also supports the idea that after entering complete nirvāṇa (parinirvāṇa), a bodhisattva
is "able to do nothing more for gods or for men" and therefore he seeks to obtain "wisdom similar to but
slightly inferior to that of the Buddhas, which allows him to remain for a long time in saṃsāra in order to
dedicate himself to salvific activity by many and varied skillful means."[191]

The second model is one which does not teach that one must postpone nirvāṇa. This model eventually
developed a comprehensive theory of nirvāṇa taught by the Yogacara school and later Indian Mahāyāna,
which states there are at least two kinds of nirvāṇa, the nirvāṇa of an arhat and a superior type of nirvāṇa
called apratiṣṭhita (non-abiding).[190]

Apratiṣṭhita nirvāna
The classic Mahāyāna Yogacara view posits that there are at least two types of nirvana, holding that what
is called ''apratiṣṭhita-nirvana'' ("non-abiding", non-localized", "non-fixed") to be the highest nirvana,
and more profound than ''pratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa'', the ‘localized’, lesser nirvana. According to the classic
Indian theory, this lesser, abiding nirvana is achieved by
followers of the "inferior" vehicle (hinayana) schools which
are said to only work towards their own personal
liberation.[192] From this perspective, the hinayana path only
leads to one's own liberation, either as sravaka (listener,
hearer, or disciple) or as pratyekabuddha (solitary
realizer).[note 18]

According to Robert Buswell and Donald Lopez,

''apratiṣṭhita-nirvana'' is the standard Mahāyāna view of the
attainment of a Buddha, which enables them to freely return The Buddha's quest for nirvana, a relief in
Vietnam
to samsara in order to help sentient beings, while still being
in a kind of nirvana.[192] The Mahāyāna path is thus said to
aim at a further realization, namely an active Buddhahood
that does not dwell in a static nirvana, but out of compassion
(karuṇā) engages in enlightened activity to liberate beings
for as long as samsara remains.[193][quote 20] Apratiṣṭhita-
nirvana is said to be reached when bodhisattvas eradicate
both the afflictive obstructions (klesavarana) and the
obstructions to omniscience (jñeyavarana), and is therefore
Illustrated Lotus Sūtra scroll, “Universal
different than the nirvana of arhats, who have eradicated
Gateway,” Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra.
only the former.[192]

According to Alan Sponberg, apratiṣṭhita-nirvana is "a

nirvana that is not permanently established in, or bound to, any one realm or sphere of activity".[200] This
is contrasted with a kind of nirvana which is "permanently established or fixed (pratiṣṭhita) in the
transcendent state of nirvana-without-remainder (nirupadhisesa-nirvana)." According to Sponberg this
doctrine developed among Yogacara Buddhists who rejected earlier views which were based on an
individual liberation aimed at a transcendent state, separated from the mundane sphere of human
existence. Mahayana Buddhists rejected this view as inconsistent with the universalist Mahayana ideal of
the salvation of all beings and with the absolutist non-dual Mahayana perspective that did not see an
ultimate distinction between samsara and nirvana.[200] Sponberg also notes that the Madhyamika school
also had a hand in developing this idea, due to their rejection of dualistic concepts which separated
samsara and nirvana and their promotion of a form of liberation which was totally without duality.[200]

Though the idea that Buddhas remain active in the world can be traced back to the Mahasamghika
school, the term apratiṣṭhita-nirvana seems to be a Yogacara innovation. According to Gadjin Nagao,
the term is likely to be an innovation of the Yogacaras, and possibly of the scholar Asanga (fl. 4th century
CE).[201] Sponberg states that this doctrine presents a "Soteriological Innovation in Yogacara Buddhism"
which can be found mainly in works of the Yogacara school such as the Sandhinirmocana-sutra, the
Lankavatarasutra, the Mahayanasutralamkara, and is most fully worked out in the Mahayana-samgraha
of Asanga.[200] In Chapter IX of the samgraha, Asanga presents the classic definition of apratiṣṭhita-
nirvana in the context of discussing the severing of mental obstacles (avarana):

This severing is the apratiṣṭhita-nirvana of the bodhisattva. It has as its characteristic

(laksana) the revolution (paravrtti) of the dual base (asraya) in which one relinquishes all
defilements (klesa), but does not abandon the world of death and rebirth (samsara).[200]
In his commentary on this passage, Asvabhava (6th century), states that the wisdom which leads to this
state is termed non-discriminating cognition (nirvikalpaka-jñana) and he also notes that this state is a
union of wisdom (prajña) and compassion (karuna):

The bodhisattva dwells in this revolution of the base as if in an immaterial realm

(arupyadhatu). On the one hand—with respect to his own personal interests (svakartham)—
he is fully endowed with superior wisdom (adhiprajña) and is thus not subject to the
afflictions (klesa) while on the other hand—with respect to the interests of other beings
(parartham)—he is fully endowed with great compassion (mahakaruna) and thus never
ceases to dwell in the world of death and re-birth (samsara).[200]

According to Sponberg, in Yogacara, the Buddha's special wisdom that allows participation in both
nirvana and samsara, termed non-discriminating cognition (nirvikalpaka-jñana) has various aspects: a
negative aspect which is free from discrimination that binds one to samsara and positive and dynamic
aspects which intuitively cognize the Absolute and give a Buddha "access to the Absolute without
yielding efficacy in the relative."[200]

Paths to Buddhahood
Most sutras of the Mahāyāna tradition, states Jan Nattier, present three alternate goals of the path:
Arhatship, Pratyekabuddhahood, and Buddhahood.[202] However, according an influential Mahāyāna text
called the Lotus Sutra, while the lesser attainment of individual nirvana is taught as a skillful means by
the Buddha in order to help beings of lesser capacities; ultimately, the highest and only goal is the
attainment of Buddhahood.[203][204][205] The Lotus sutra further states that, although these three paths are
seemingly taught by Buddhas as separate vehicles (yana), they are really all just skillful ways (upaya) of
teaching a single path (ekayana), which is the bodhisattva path to full Buddhahood.[206] Thus, these three
separate goals are not really different at all, the 'lesser' paths are actually just clever teaching devices used
by Buddhas to get people to practice, eventually though, they will be led to the one and only path of
Mahāyāna and full Buddhahood.[188]

The Mahāyāna commentary the Abhisamayalamkara presents the path of the bodhisattva as a progressive
formula of Five Paths (pañcamārga). A practitioner on the Five Paths advances through a progression of
ten stages, referred to as the bodhisattva bhūmis (grounds or levels).

Omniscience
The end stage practice of the Mahāyāna removes the imprints of delusions, the obstructions to
omniscience (sarvākārajñatā), which prevent simultaneous and direct knowledge of all phenomena. Only
Buddhas have overcome these obstructions and, therefore, only Buddhas have omniscience knowledge,
which refers to the power of a being in some way to have "simultaneous knowledge of all things
whatsoever".[207] From the Mahāyāna point of view, an arhat who has achieved the nirvana of the Lesser
Vehicle will still have certain subtle obscurations that prevent the arhat from realizing complete
omniscience. When these final obscurations are removed, the practitioner will attain apratiṣṭhita-nirvana
and achieve full omniscience.[quote 21]

Buddhahood's bodies
Some Mahāyāna traditions see the Buddha in docetic terms,
viewing his visible manifestations as projections from its
nirvanic state. According to Etienne Lamotte, Buddhas are
always and at all times in nirvana, and their corporeal displays
of themselves and their Buddhic careers are ultimately illusory.
Lamotte writes of the Buddhas:

They are born, reach enlightenment, set turning the

Wheel of Dharma, and enter nirvana. However, all
this is only illusion: the appearance of a Buddha is
the absence of arising, duration and destruction;
their nirvana is the fact that they are always and at
all times in nirvana.'[209]
The Garbhadhatu mandala of the
Mahavairocana Tantra representing
This doctrine, developed among the Mahāsaṃghikas, where the multiple manifestations of the
historical person, Gautama Buddha, was one of these Dharmakaya, the Buddha Vairocana.
transformation bodies (Skt. nirmāṇakāya), while the essential
Buddha is equated with the transcendental Buddha called
dharmakāya.[210] In Mahāyāna, this eventually developed into the doctrine of the "Three Bodies" of the
Buddha (Trikaya). This doctrine is interpreted in different ways by the different Mahāyāna traditions.
According to Reginald Ray, it is "the body of reality itself, without specific, delimited form, wherein the
Buddha is identified with the spiritually charged nature of everything that is."[211]

Buddha-nature
An alternative idea of Mahāyāna nirvana is found in the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras. The title itself means a
garbha (womb, matrix, seed) containing Tathagata (Buddha). These Sutras suggest, states Paul Williams,
that 'all sentient beings contain a Tathagata' as their 'essence, core or essential inner nature'.[212] The
tathāgatagarbha doctrine (also called buddhadhatu, buddha-nature), at its earliest probably appeared
about the later part of the 3rd century CE, and is verifiable in Chinese translations of 1st millennium
CE.[212] Most scholars consider the tathāgatagarbha doctrine of an 'essential nature' in every living
being is equivalent to 'Self',[note 19] and it contradicts the "no self" (or no soul, no atman, anatta) doctrines
in a vast majority of Buddhist texts, leading scholars to posit that the Tathagatagarbha Sutras were
written to promote Buddhism to non-Buddhists.[214][215] The Mahāyāna tradition thus often discusses
nirvana with its concept of the tathāgatagarbha, the innate presence of Buddhahood.[216] According to
Alex Wayman, Buddha nature has its roots in the idea of an innately pure luminous mind (prabhasvara
citta[217]), "which is only adventitiously covered over by defilements (agantukaklesa)"[217] lead to the
development of the concept of Buddha-nature, the idea that Buddha-hood is already innate, but not
recognised.[218]

The tathāgatagarbha has numerous interpretations in the various schools of Mahāyāna and Vajrayana
Buddhism. Indian Madhyamaka philosophers generally interpreted the theory as a description of
emptiness and as a non implicative negation (a negation which leaves nothing un-negated).[219]
According to Karl Brunnholzl, early Indian Yogacaras like Asanga and Vasubandhu referred to the term
as "nothing but suchness in the sense of twofold identitylessness".[220] However some later Yogacarins
like Ratnakarasanti considered it "equivalent to naturally luminous mind, nondual self-awareness."[221]
The debate as to whether tathāgatagarbha was just a way to refer to emptiness or whether it referred to
some kind of mind or consciousness also resumed in Chinese Buddhism, with some Chinese Yogacarins,
like Fazang and Ratnamati supporting the idea that it was an eternal non-dual mind, while Chinese
Madhyamikas like Jizang rejecting this view and seeing tathāgatagarbha as emptiness and "the middle
way."[222][223]

In some Tantric Buddhist texts such as the Samputa Tantra, nirvana is described as purified, non-dualistic
'superior mind'.[224]

In Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, the debate continues to this day. There are those like the Gelug school,
who argue that tathāgatagarbha is just emptiness (described either as dharmadhatu, the nature of
phenomena, or a nonimplicative negation).[225] Then there are those who see it as the non-dual union of
the mind's unconditioned emptiness and conditioned lucidity (the view of Gorampa of the Sakya
school).[226] Others such as the Jonang school and some Kagyu figures, see tathāgatagarbha as a kind of
Absolute which "is empty of adventitious defilements which are intrinsically other than it, but is not
empty of its own inherent existence".[225]

Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra
According to some scholars, the language used in the tathāgatagarbha genre of sutras can be seen as an
attempt to state orthodox Buddhist teachings of dependent origination using positive language. Kosho
Yamamoto translates the explanation of nirvana in the Mahāyāna Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra (c. 100-220
CE) as follows:

"O good man! We speak of "Nirvana". But this is not "Great" "Nirvana". Why is it
"Nirvana", but not "Great Nirvana"? This is so when one cuts away defilement without
seeing the Buddha-Nature. That is why we say Nirvana, but not Great Nirvana. When one
does not see the Buddha-Nature, what there is is the non-Eternal and the non-Self. All that
there is is but Bliss and Purity. Because of this, we cannot have Mahaparinirvana, although
defilement has been done away with. When one sees well the Buddha-Nature and cuts away
defilement, we then have Mahaparinirvana. Seeing the Buddha-Nature, we have the Eternal,
Bliss, the Self, and the Pure. Because of this, we can have Mahaparinirvana, as we cut away
defilement."

"O good man! "Nir" means "not"; "va" means "to extinguish". Nirvana means "non-
extinction". Also, "va" means "to cover". Nirvana also means "not covered". "Not covered"
is Nirvana. "Va" means "to go and come". "Not to go and come" is Nirvana. "Va" means "to
take". "Not to take" is Nirvana." "Va" means "not fixed". When there is no unfixedness,
there is Nirvana. "Va" means "new and old". What is not new and old is Nirvana.
"O good man! The disciples of Uluka [i.e. the founder of the Vaishesika school of
philosophy] and Kapila [founder of the Samkhya school of philosophy] say: "Va means
characterisitic". "Characteristiclessness" is Nirvana."
"O good man! Va means "is". What is not "is" is Nirvana. Va means harmony. What has
nothing to be harmonised is Nirvana. Va means suffering. What has no suffering is Nirvana.

"O good man! What has cut away defilement is no Nirvana. What calls forth no defilement
is Nirvana. O good man! The All-Buddha-Tathagata calls forth no defilement. This is
Nirvana.
 — Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, Chapter 31, Translated by Kōshō
Yamamoto[227][228][note 20]

In the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, the Buddha speak of four attributes which make up nirvana. Writing on
this Mahayana understanding of nirvana, William Edward Soothill and Lewis Hodous state:

'The Nirvana Sutra claims for nirvana the ancient ideas of permanence, bliss, personality,
purity in the transcendental realm. Mahayana declares that Hinayana, by denying personality
in the transcendental realm, denies the existence of the Buddha. In Mahayana, final nirvana
is both mundane and transcendental, and is also used as a term for the Absolute.[230]

See also
Bodhi
Enlightenment (religious)
Nibbana-The Mind Stilled
Moksha
Nirvana
Parinirvana
Satori
Shunyata

Notes
1. According to Gombrich, the use of the term "three fires" alludes to the three fires which a
brahmin householder had to keep alight, and tend daily. In later Buddhism, the origin of this
metaphor was forgotten, and the term was replaced with "the three poisons.[5]
2. Not only the three fires, but also the extinction of the defilements and tanha are mentioned
as nirvana:[17]
"Calming of all conditioned things, giving up of all defilements, extinction of "thirst",
detachment, cessation, Nibbāna." (Saṃyutta-nikāya I (PTS), p. 136)
"O Rādha, the extinction of 'thirst' (Taṇhakkhayo) is Nibbāna." (Saṃyutta-nikāya I (PTS),
p. 190)
Sutta-nipata: "Where there is nothing; where naught is grasped, there is the Isle of No-
Beyond. Nirvāṇa do I call it—the utter extinction of aging and dying."
Majjhima Nikaya 2-Att. 4.68: "The liberated mind (citta) that no longer clings' means
nibbāna."
3. Even Buddhaghosa, the great Theravada commentator, ignored the original etymological
meaning of the word, and presented an interpretation of nirvana based on the root √vā, "to
weave."[15]
4. Gombrich explains that the five skandhas or aggregates are the bundles of firewood that
fuel the three fires.[22] The Buddhist practitioner ought to "drop" these bundles, so that the
fires are no longer fueled and "blow out".[23]
 5. "Vimoksha [解脱] (Skt; Jpn gedatsu ). Emancipation, release, or liberation. The Sanskrit
words vimukti, mukti, and moksha also have the same meaning. Vimoksha means release
from the bonds of earthly desires, delusion, suffering, and transmigration. While Buddhism
sets forth various kinds and stages of emancipation, or enlightenment, the supreme
emancipation is nirvana, a state of perfect quietude, freedom, and deliverance."[web 3]
6. See Digha Nikaya 15, Mahanidana Sutta, which describes a nine-fold chain of causation.
Mind-and-body (nama-rupa) and consciousness (vijnana) do condition here each other
(verse 2 & 3). In verse 21 and 22, it is stated that consciousness comes into the mother's
womb, and finds a resting place in mind-and-body. [67]
7. M. Falk (1943, Nama-rupa and Dharma-rupa
8. According to Alexander Wynne, Schayer:"referred to passages in which "consciousness"
(vinnana) seems to be the ultimate reality or substratum (e.g. A I.10) 14 as well as the
Saddhatu Sutra, which is not found in any canonical source but is cited in other Buddhist
texts — it states that the personality (pudgala) consists of the six elements (dhatu) of earth,
water, fire, wind, space and consciousness; Schayer noted that it related to other ancient
Indian ideas. Keith’s argument is also based on the Saddhatu Sutra as well as "passages
where we have explanations of Nirvana which echo the ideas of the Upanishads regarding
the ultimate reality." He also refers to the doctrine of "a consciousness, originally pure,
defiled by adventitious impurities."[69]
9. Cited in Wynne (2007) p.99.[69]
10. In the Dhammapada, the Buddha describes nirvāṇa as "the highest happiness",[80] an
enduring happiness qualitatively different from the limited, transitory happiness derived from
impermanent things.
11. According to Peter Harvey, the Theravada-tradition tends to minimize mystical tendencies,
but there is also a tendency to stress the complete otherness of nirvana from samsara. The
Pāli Canon provides good grounds for this minimalistic approach, bit it also contains
material suggestive of a Vijnavada-type interpretation of nirvāṇa, namely as a radical
transformation of consciousness.[108]
12. These four stages are: Stream-enterer (Sotapanna), Once returner (Sakadagami), Non-
returner (Anagami), Worthy one (Arhat)
13. See for example the Jhana Sutta, Access to Insight: Readings in Theravada Buddhism. (htt
p://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an09/an09.036.than.html)
14. 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.)
15. These include:
1. By insight (vipassana) alone [a]
2. By jhana and understanding (see Dh. 372)[124]
3. by deeds, vision and righteousness (see MN iii.262)[b]
4. By virtue, consciousness and understanding (7SN i.13);[c]
5. by virtue, understanding, concentration and effort;[d]
6. By the four foundations of mindfulness.[127][e]
16. There is a clear reference in the Anguttara Nikaya to a "luminous mind" present within all
people, be they corrupt or pure, whether or not it itself is pure or impure.[130] The Canon
does not support the identification of the "luminous mind" with nirvanic consciousness,
though it plays a role in the realization of nirvāṇa.[131][132] Upon the destruction of the
fetters, according to one scholar, "the shining nibbanic consciousness flashes out" of it,
"being without object or support, so transcending all limitations."[133]
17. The Tibetan teacher Pabongka Rinpoche presents the path in three levels (or scopes. The
first stage indicates a level of understanding or ethical conduct for non-Buddhists, and the
second two stages are nirvana and Buddhahood. Pabongka Rinpoche: "The subject matter
of these teachings can be included in the various paths of the three scopes. The small
scope covers the causes to achieve the high rebirth states of the gods and humans: the
ethics of abandoning the ten nonvirtues, etc. The medium scope includes the practices that
will cause one to gain the definite excellence of liberation— such practices as abandoning
[the first two of the] four truths, engaging in [the last two of these truths], and the practice of
the three high trainings. The great scope contains the practices that bring about the definite
excellence of omniscience— such practices as the development of bodhichitta, the six
perfections, etc. Hence, all this subject matter forms a harmonious practice that will take a
person to enlightenment and should be understood as being completely without
contradiction."[189]
18. The Hinayana path is sometimes equated with the modern day Theravada tradition, a
classification which the Theravada-tradition rejects. Walpola Rahula: "We must not confuse
Hinayana with Theravada because the terms are not synonymous. Theravada Buddhism
went to Sri Lanka during the 3rd Century B.C. when there was no Mahayana at all.
Hinayana sects developed in India and had an existence independent from the form of
Buddhism existing in Sri Lanka. Today there is no Hinayana sect in existence anywhere in
the world. Therefore, in 1950 the World Fellowship of Buddhists inaugurated in Colombo
unanimously decided that the term Hinayana should be dropped when referring to
Buddhism existing today in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, etc. This is the
brief history of Theravada, Mahayana and Hinayana."[web 7]
19. Wayman and Wayman have disagreed with this view, and they state that the
Tathagatagarbha is neither self nor sentient being, nor soul, nor personality.[213]
20. The names of the founders of Hindu philosophy, along with Rishaba of Jainism, as well as
Shiva and Vishnu, are found in the Chinese versions of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.[229]
Further notes on "different paths"

a. See Dh. 277, and dhp-277 Access to Insight: Readings in Theravada Buddhism,
Buddharakkhita (1996a) (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.20.budd.html)
In the Paramattha-mañjūsā (the Visuddhimagga commentary), vv. 9-10, it adds the following
caveat regarding this option of "insight alone": "The words 'insight alone' are meant to
exclude, not virtue, etc., but serenity (i.e., jhana), [...] [as typically reflected] in the pair,
serenity and insight [...] The word 'alone' actually excludes only that concentration with
distinction [of jhanic absorption]; for concentration is classed as both access [or momentary]
and absorption [...] Taking this stanza as the teaching for one whose vehicle is insight does
not imply that there is no concentration; for no insight comes about with momentary
concentration. And again, insight should be understood as the three contemplations of
impermanence, pain and not-self [see tilakkhana]; not contemplation of impermanence
alone".[123]
b. See Access to Insight: Readings in Theravada Buddhism, Thanissaro (2003). (http://www.a
ccesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.143.than.html) Verse 262 of this sutta is translated by
Thanissaro as: "Action, clear-knowing, & mental qualities, virtue, the highest [way of] life:
through this are mortals purified, not through clan or wealth.
c. The option expressed by SN i.13 is the basis for the entire rest of the Visuddhimagga's
exposition. It is the very first paragraph of the Visuddhimagga and states: "When a wise
man, established well in virtue, develops consciousness and understanding, then as a
bhikku ardent and sagacious, he succeeds in disentangling this tangle.[125] 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."[126]
d. SN i.53)Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli (1999), p. 7, translate SN i.53 as: "He who is possessed
of constant virtue, who has understanding, and is concentrated, who is strenuous and
diligent as well, will cross the flood so difficult to cross.
e. See Thanissaro (2000) (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/dn/dn.22.0.than.html). Verse
290 of this sutta is translated by Thanissaro as: "The Blessed One said this: "This is the
direct path for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow & lamentation, for the
disappearance of pain & distress, for the attainment of the right method, & for the realization
of Unbinding—in other words, the four frames of reference.""

Quotes
1. Buswell: "It is found in dictionaries as an English word, nirvana, and has acquired a patina
that makes many assume its meaning is obvious. Yet, it is a word about which Buddhists
themselves have never reached agreement.[11]
2. Buswell: "The Sanskrit term nirvana is an action noun signifying the act and effect of
blowing (at something) to put it out, to blow out, or to extinguish, but the noun also signifies
the process and outcome of burning out, becoming extinguished, cooling down, and hence,
allaying, calming down, and also taming, making docile. Technically, in the religious
traditions of India, the term denotes the process of accomplishing and experiencing freedom
from the unquenchable thirst of desire and the pains of repeated births, lives, and
deaths.[11]
3. Gombrich: "I hope it is not too farfetched to suggest that this may have contributed to an
important development in the Mahayana: that it came to separate nirvana from bodhi,
'awakening' to the truth, Enlightenment, and to put a lower value on the former (Gombrich,
1992d). Originally nirvana and bodhi refer to the same thing; they merely use different
metaphors for the experience. But the Mahayana tradition separated them and considered
that nirvana referred only to the extinction of craving, with the resultant escape from the
cycle of rebirth. This interpretation ignores the third fire, delusion: the extinction of delusion
is of course in the early texts identical with what can be positively expressed as gnosis,
Enlightenment.[16]
4. Bhikkhu Bodhi: "Etymologically, the word nibbāna — the Pali form of the better known
Sanskrit nirvāṇa — is derived from a verb nibbāti meaning "to be blown out" or "to be
extinguished." It thus signifies the extinguishing of the worldly "fires" of greed, hatred, and
delusion. But the Pali commentators prefer to treat it as the negation of, or "departure from"
(nikkhantatta), the entanglement (vāna) of craving, the derivation which is offered here. For
as long as one is entangled by craving, one remains bound in saṃsāra, the cycle of birth
and death; but when all craving has been extirpated, one attains Nibbāna, deliverance from
the cycle of birth and death.[20]
5. Rupert Gethin: "Literally nirvāṇa means 'blowing out' or 'extinguishing', although Buddhist
commentarial writings, by a play on words, like to explain it as 'the absence of craving'. But
where English translations of Buddhist texts have 'he attains nirvāṇa/parinirvāṇa', the more
characteristic Pali or Sanskrit idiom is a simple verb: 'he or she nirvāṇa-s' or more often 'he
or she parinirvānṇa-s' (parinibbāyati). What the Pali and Sanskrit expression primarily
indicates is the event or process of the extinction of the 'fires' of greed, aversion, and
delusion."[24]
6. See:
Rupert Gethin: "Literally nirvāṇa means 'blowing out' or 'extinguishing' [...] What the Pali
and Sanskrit expression primarily indicates is the event or process of the extinction of
the 'fires' of greed, aversion, and delusion. At the moment the Buddha understood
suffering, its arising, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation, these fires were
extinguished. This process is the same for all who reach awakening,[i] and the early
texts term it either nirvāṇa or parinirvāṇa, the complete 'blowing out' or 'extinguishing' of
the 'fires' of greed, aversion, and delusion. This is not a 'thing' but an event or
experience.[24][ii]
Paul Williams: "[Nirvana] means 'extinguishing', as in 'the extinguishing of a flame', and
it signifies soteriologically the complete extinguishing of greed, hatred, and
fundamentally delusion (i.e. ignorance), the forces which power samsara."[43]
Paul Williams: "Nirvana is broadly speaking the result of letting-go, letting-go the very
forces of craving which power continued experiences of pleasure and inevitably
suffering throughout this life, death, rebirth, and redeath. That, in a nutshell, is what
nirvana is. It is the complete and permanent cessation of samsara, thence the cessation
of all types of suffering, resulting from letting-go the forces which power samsara, due to
overcoming ignorance (thence also hatred and delusion, the 'three root poisons')
through seeing things the way they really are."[43]
Donald Lopez: "[Nirvana] is used to refer to the extinction of desire, hatred, and
ignorance and, ultimately, of suffering and rebirth."[web 4]
Damien Keown states: "When the flame of craving is extinguished, rebirth ceases, and
an enlightened person is not reborn."[44]
7. Nirvana during life and beyond death:
Donald Lopez states: "Two types of nirvana are [...] described. The first is called 'nirvana
with remainder.' [...] The second type is called 'nirvana without remainder', or final
nirvana."[76]
Peter Harvey states: "The first aspect of Nibbana is described as 'with remainder of
what is grasped at' (sa-updadi-sesa), meaning that the khandas, the result of past
grasping, still remain for him; the second is described as 'without remainder of what is
grasped at' (an-upadi-sesa) (It.38-39).[77]
8. Rupert Gethin: "Like the Buddha, any person who attains nirvāṇa does not remain thereafter
forever absorbed in some transcendental state of mind. On the contrary he or she continues
to live in the world; he or she continues to think, speak, and act as other people do—with
the difference that all his or her thoughts, words, and deeds are completely free of the
motivations of greed, aversion, and delusion, and motivated instead entirely by generosity,
friendliness, and wisdom. This condition of having extinguished the defilements can be
termed 'nirvāṇa with the remainder [of life]' (sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa/sa-upādisesa-nibbāna):
the nirvāṇa that comes from ending the occurrence of the defilements (kleśa/kilesa) of the
mind; what the Pali commentaries call for short kilesa-parinibbāna.[iii] And this is what the
Buddha achieved on the night of his awakening."[79]
9. Freedom from negative states:
Walpola Rahula: [one who has achieved nirvana is] "free from all 'complexes' and
obsessions, the worries and troubles that torment others."[81]
Damien Keown: "Nirvana [...] involves a radically transformed state of consciousness
which is free of the obsession with 'me and mine'."[82]
Rupert Gethin: "Any person who attains nirvāṇa [...] continues to think, speak, and act
as other people do—with the difference that all his or her thoughts, words, and deeds
are completely free of the motivations of greed, aversion, and delusion, and motivated
instead entirely by generosity, friendliness, and wisdom.[79]
10. Peacefulness:
Bhikkhu Bodhi states: "The state of perfect peace that comes when craving is eliminated
is Nibbāna (nirvāṇa)."[83]
Joseph Goldstein states: "It is also described as the deathless, absolute peace,
freedom, and so forth."[84]
Lama Surya Das states: "Nirvana is inconceivable inner peace, the cessation of craving
and clinging."[85]
Walpola Rahula states:[81] "He who has realized the Truth, Nirvāṇa, is (...) joyful,
exultant, enjoying the pure life, his faculties pleased, free from anxiety, serene and
peaceful."[iv]
Damien Keown states:[82] "It is clear that nirvana-in-this-life is a psychological and
ethical reality, a transformed state of personality characterized by peace, deep spiritual
joy, compassion, and a refined and subtle awareness. Negative mental states and
emotions such as doubt, worry, anxiety, and fear are absent from the enlightened mind.
Saints in many religious traditions exhibit some or all of these qualities, and ordinary
people also possess them to some degree, although imperfectly developed. An
enlightened person, however, such as a Buddha or an Arhat, possesses them all
completely."
11. Non-reactiveness:
Phillip Moffitt states:[86] "Nibbana literally means "cooled" and is analogous to a fire
that's no longer burning. Thus, when there is cessation, your mind no longer burns in
response to the arising of pleasant and unpleasant in your life; it isn't reactive or
controlled by what you like or dislike."
Ringu Tulku explains:[87] "Someone who has attained [...] the state of nirvana, will no
longer react within the pattern of aversion and attachment. The way such a person sees
things will be nondualistic and therefore non-conceptual. [...] When this dual reaction is
gone, nothing is haunting or fearful anymore. We see clearly, and nothing seems
imposing, since nothing is imposed from our part. When there is nothing we do not like,
there is nothing to fear. Being free from fear, we are peaceful. There is no need to run
away from anything, and therefore no need to run after anything either. In this way there
is no burden. We can have inner peace, strength, and clarity, almost independent from
circumstances and situations. This is complete freedom of mind without any
circumstantial entanglement; the state is called "nirvana" [...]. Someone who has
reached this state has gone beyond our usual way of being imprisoned in habitual
patterns and distorted ways of seeing these things."
12. Rupert Gethin: "Eventually 'the remainder of life' will be exhausted and, like all beings, such
a person must die. But unlike other beings, who have not experienced 'nirvāṇa', he or she
will not be reborn into some new life, the physical and mental constituents of being will not
come together in some new existence, there will be no new being or person. Instead of
being reborn, the person 'parinirvāṇa-s', meaning in this context that the five aggregates of
physical and mental phenomena that constitute a being cease to occur. This is the condition
of 'nirvāṇa without remainder [of life]' (nir-upadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa/an-up ādisesa-nibbāna):
nirvāṇa that comes from ending the occurrence of the aggregates (skandha/khandha) of
physical and mental phenomena that constitute a being; or, for short, khandha-
parinibbāna.[iii] Modern Buddhist usage tends to restrict 'nirvāṇa' to the awakening
experience and reserve 'parinirvāṇa' for the death experience."[88]
13. Walpola Rahula: "Now another question arises: What happens to the Buddha or an Arahant
after his death, parinirvāṇa? This comes under the category of unanswered questions
(avyākata). [Samyutta Nikaya IV (PTS), p. 375 f.] Even when the Buddha spoke about this,
he indicated that no words in our vocabulary could express what happens to an Arahant
after his death. In reply to a Parivrājaka named Vaccha, the Buddha said that terms like
'born' or 'not born' do not apply in the case of an Arahant, because those things—matter,
sensation, perception, mental activities, consciousness—with which the terms like 'born'
and 'not born' are associated, are completely destroyed and uprooted, never to rise again
after his death. [Majjhima Nikaya I (PTS), p. 486]."[91]
14. Walpola Rahula: "An Arahant after his death is often compared to a fire gone out when the
supply of wood is over, or to the flame of a lamp gone out when the wick and oil are
finished.[Majjhima Nikaya I (PTS), p. 487] Here it should be clearly and distinctly
understood, without any confusion, that what is compared to a flame or a fire gone out is not
Nirvāṇa, but the 'being' composed of the Five Aggregates who realized Nirvāṇa. This point
has to be emphasized because many people, even some great scholars, have
misunderstood and misinterpreted this simile as referring to Nirvāṇa. Nirvāṇa is never
compared to a fire or a lamp gone out.[91]
15. Richard Gombrich, who studied with Walpola Rahula, notes: "[T]here is one point where the
great scholar monk has let us down: his account of nirvana, in Chapter IV, is unclear and, to
my mind, even at points self-contradictory [...] In proclaiming (in block capitals) that 'Truth
is', Rahula has for a moment fallen into Upanisadic mode.[92]
16. In the Yamaka Sutta (SN 22.58), the monk Sariputta teaches that to state that a person who
attains nirvana "does not exist" after death is not the correct view; the correct view is that
nirvana-after-death is outside of all conceivable experience. The only accurate statement
that can be made about nirvana-after-death is "That which is stressful (dukkha; suffering)
has ceased and gone to its end."[web 5]

The Aggivacchagotta Sutta states that the state of being after death cannot be described as
either being reborn after death, not being reborn, being and not being reborn, or neither
being nor not being reborn. The sutra concludes: "Any fire burning dependent on a
sustenance of grass and timber, being unnourished — from having consumed that
sustenance and not being offered any other — is classified simply as 'out' (unbound).
Even so [...] any physical form by which one describing the Tathagata [the Buddha] would
describe him: That the Tathagata has abandoned, its root destroyed, made like a palmyra
stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. Freed
from the classification of form [...] the Tathagata is deep, boundless, hard to fathom, like the
sea. 'Reappears' doesn't apply. 'Does not reappear' doesn't apply. 'Both does & does not
reappear' doesn't apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' doesn't apply."[93][web 6]
17. Walpola Rahula: "Nirvāṇa is beyond all terms of duality and relativity. It is therefore beyond
our conceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, existence and non-existence. Even the
word 'happiness' (sukha) which is used to describe Nirvāṇa has an entirely different sense
here. Sāriputta once said: 'O friend, Nirvāṇa is happiness! Nirvāṇa is happiness!' Then
Udāyi asked: 'But, friend Sāriputta, what happiness can it be if there is no sensation?'
Sāriputta's reply was highly philosophical and beyond ordinary comprehension: "That there
is no sensation itself is happiness'."[109]
18. Ajahn Pasanno and Ajahn Amaro: "The Buddha avoided the nit-picking pedantry of many
philosophers contemporary with him and opted for a more broad-brush, colloquial style,
geared to particular listeners in a language which they could understand. Thus 'viññana'
here can be assumed to mean 'knowing' but not the partial, fragmented, discriminative (vi-)
knowing (-ñana) which the word usually implies. Instead it must mean a knowing of a
primordial, transcendent nature, otherwise the passage which contains it would be self-
contradictory." They then give further context for why this choice of words may have been
made; the passages may represent an example of the Buddha using his "skill in means" to
teach Brahmins in terms they were familiar with.[162]
19. Rupert Gethin: The Mahāyāna sūtras express two basic attitudes towards [the nirvana of
the Lesser Vehicle]. The first [attitude] is that the path of the disciple [sravaka] and the path
of the pratyeka-buddha do lead to a kind of awakening, a release from suffering, nirvāna,
and as such are real goals. These goals are, however, inferior and should be renounced for
the superior attainment of buddhahood. The second attitude, classically articulated by the
Lotus Sūtra, sees the goal of the disciple and the pratyeka-buddha as not true goals at all.[v]
The fact that the Buddha taught them is an example of his 'skill in means' (upaya-kauśalya)
as a teacher.[vi] These goals are thus merely clever devices (upāya) employed by the
Buddha in order to get beings to at least begin the practice of the path; eventually their
practice must lead on to the one and only vehicle (eka-yāna) that is the mahāyāna, the
vehicle ending in perfect buddhahood.[188]
20. From the Mahayana point of view, the nonabiding (apratiṣṭhita) nirvana is superior to the
nirvana of the Lesser Vehicle:
Thubten Thardo (Gareth Sparham) states: "The term "non-abiding nirvāṇa" indicates
that a fully awakened buddha is utterly free from saṃsāra, yet due to compassion has
not entered into a more restricted form of nirvāṇa that precludes continued activity within
the world."[194]
Erik Pema Kunsang states (based on teachings by Tulku Orgyen Rinpoche and Chokyi
Nyima Rinpoche): "The lesser nirvana refers to the liberation from cyclic existence
attained by a hinayana practitioner. When referring to a buddha, nirvana is the great
nondwelling state of enlightenment which falls neither into the extreme of samsaric
existence nor into the passive state of cessation attained by an arhant."[195]
Thrangu Rinpoche states: "The samadhi with the union of samatha and vipasyana fully
developed will free one from the bondage of samsara so one attains a state of
nonabiding nirvana, which is Buddhahood.[196]
The Padmakara Translation Group states: "It is important to realize that the term
[nirvana] is understood differently by the different vehicles: the nirvana of the Basic
Vehicle, the peace of cessation that an Arhat attains, is very different from a Buddha's
"nondwelling" nirvana, the state of perfect enlightenment that transcends both samsara
and nirvana."[197]
Peter Harvey states: "An advanced Bodhisattva who has experienced Nirvana does not
rest content with this. He turns again to samsara in the service of others, which the
Mahayana-samgraha calls his 'non-abiding' (apratiṣṭhita) Nirvana, not clinging either to
samsara or to Nirvana as something supposedly separate from this (Nagao, 1991)."[198]
Rupert Gethin states: "For the Mahayana becoming a Buddha generally involves
attaining what is characterized as the 'unestablished' or 'non-abiding' (apratiṣṭhita)
nirvāṇa: on the one hand the knowledge of a buddha that sees emptiness, is not
'established' in saṃsāra (by seizing on birth as an individual being, for example), on the
other hand the great compassion of a buddha prevents the complete turning away from
saṃsāra. So ultimately he abides neither in saṃsāra nor in nirvāṇa."[199]
Duckworth: The Lesser Vehicle does not result in the practitioner becoming a complete
buddha; rather, the aim is to achieve a personal nirvana that is the total extinction of
existence. The Great Vehicle, however, does result in becoming a complete buddha. A
buddha remains actively engaged in enlightened activity to liberate beings for as long as
samsara remains. Thus, those who accomplish the Great Vehicle do not abide in
samsara due to their wisdom that sees its empty, illusory nature. Further, unlike those
who attain the nirvana of the Lesser Vehicle to escape samsara, they do not abide in an
isolated nirvana due to their compassion. For these reasons, in the Great Vehicle,
nirvana is said to be "unlocated" or "nonabiding" (apratiṣṭhita), staying in neither
samsara nor nirvana.[193]
21. Contemporary translator Jeffrey Hopkins provides the following analogy:"If you put garlic in
a vessel, it deposits some of its odor in the vessel itself; Thus when you seek to clean the
vessel, it is necessary to first remove the garlic.
Similarly, a consciousness conceiving inherent existence, like garlic, deposits
predispositions in the mind that produce the appearance of inherent existence; Thus,there
is no way to cleanse the mind of those predispositions, which are like the flavor of garlic left
in the vessel of the mind,until one removes all consciousnesses conceiving of inherent
existence from the mind. First, the garlic must be removed; then, its odor can be removed.
For this reason, according to the Consequence School, until one has utterly removed all the
afflictive obstructions, one cannot begin to remove the obstructions to omniscience. Since
this is the case, a practitioner cannot begin overcoming the obstructions to omniscience on
any of the seven first bodhisattva grounds, which are called "impure" because one still has
afflictive obstructions to be abandoned.
Rather, one begins abandoning the obstructions to omniscience on the eighth bodhisattva
ground, and continues to do so on the ninth and tenth, these three being called the 'three
pure grounds" because the afflictive obstructions have been abandoned."[208]
Further notes on quotes

i. Vetter, Gombrich, and Bronkhorst, among others, notes that the emphasis on "liberating
insight" is a later development.[38][39][40] In the earliest Buddhism, the practice of dhyana
may have been the sole liberating practice, with bodhi denoting the insight that dhyana is an
affective means to still the fires.[38]
ii. Robert Sharf notices that "experience" is a typical modern, western word. In the 19th
century, "experience" came to be seen as a means to "prove" religious "realities".[41][42]
iii. Gethin cites: Dhammapada-atthakathā ii. 163; Vibhaṇga-atthakatha 433.
iv. Rahula cites: Majjhima-nikāya II (PTS), p. 121
v. Gethin footnote: Also Śrīmālādevī 78–94; and Lankāvatāra Sūtra 63; cf. Herbert V.
Guenther (trans.), The Jewel Ornament of Liberation (London, 1970), 4–6.
vi. Gethin footnote: On the notion of 'skill in means' see Michael Pye, Skilful Means (London,
1978); Williams, Mahāyāna Buddhism, 143–50.

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5. Gombrich 2006, p. 66.
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21. Smith & Novak 2009, pp. 51-52, Quote: Etymologically [nirvana] means "to blow out" or "to
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and this is nirvana..
22. Gombrich 2006, p. 67.
23. Gombrich 2006, p. 67-68.
24. Gethin 1998, p. 75.
25. Smith & Novak 2009, pp. 51-52.
26. Swanson 1997, pp. 119-124.
27. Swanson 1997, p. 124.
28. Swanson 1997, pp. 123-124, Swanson cites Matsumoto Shiro (1989), Engi to ku-Nyoraizo
shiso hihan [Causality and emptiness – A critique of tathagata-garbha thought], Tokyo Daizo
Shuppan, pages 191-192, 195-219.
29. Buswell 2013, p. 547.
30. Vetter 1988, pp. 63-65 with footnotes.
31. Gombrich 2006, p. 96-134.
32. Anālayo, From Craving to Liberation – Excursions into the Thought-world of the Pāli
Discourses (1), 2009, p. 151.
33. Williams, Paul (2002), Buddhist Thought (Kindle ed.), Taylor & Francis, p 47-48.
34. Gethin, Rupert (1998), Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, p. 75.
35. Keown, Damien (2000), Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction (Kindle ed.), Oxford University
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36. Hamilton, Sue, Early Buddhism: A New Approach : the I of the Beholder, p. 58.
37. see Samyutta Nikaya IV 251 and SN IV 261.
38. Vetter 1988.
39. Bronkhorst 1993.
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41. Sharf & 1995-B.
42. Sharf 2000.
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53. Trainor 2004, pp. 80-81.
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55. Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of The Buddha, in "Werner, The
Yogi and the Mystic."
56. Harvey, Peter, The Selfless Mind, p. 200-208.
57. Johansson, Rune, The Psychology of Nirvana, 1969, p. 111.
58. Dundas 2002, pp. 90-92.
59. Lindtner 1997.
60. Lindtner 1999.
61. Akizuki 1990, p. 25-27.
62. Ray 1999.
63. Reat 1998, p. xi.
64. Conze 1967, p. 10.
65. Ray 1999, p. 374-377.
66. Ray, p. 375.
67. Walshe 1995, p. 223, 226.
68. Ray 1999, p. 375.
69. Wynne 2007, p. 99.
70. Lindtner 1997, pp. 112-113, 118-119.
71. Lindtner 1997, pp. 131-132, 110-112, 122-123.
72. Lindtner 1997, p. 129.
73. Wynne, 2007, p. 101
74. Steven Collins, Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism.
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75. Gombrich 2006, p. 68-69.
76. Lopez 2001, p. 47.
77. Harvey 1990, p. 61.
78. Gombrich 2006, p. 68.
79. Gethin 1998, pp. 75-76.
80. Verse 204, nibbanam paramam sukham
 81. Walpola Rahula 2007, Kindle Locations 1095-1104.
82. Keown 2000, Kindle Locations 1016-1025.
83. Bhikkhu Bodhi 2011, p. 25.
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87. Ringu Tulku 2005, pp. 34-35.
88. Gethin 1998, p. 76.
89. Brahmāli, Bhikkhu, What the Nikāyas Say and Do not Say about Nibbāna, BSRV 26.1
(2009) 33–66 Buddhist Studies Review ISSN (print) 0256-2897
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91. Walpola Rahula 2007, Kindle Locations 1059-1073.
92. Gombrich 2009, p. 155-156.
93. Aggivacchagotta Sutta; In the Buddha's Words, p367-369. Bhikku Bodhi
94. Steven Collins (1990). Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism (htt
ps://books.google.com/books?id=8sLMkNn26-gC&pg=PA5). Cambridge University Press.
pp. 82–84. ISBN 978-0-521-39726-1.
95. Genjun Sasaki (1986). Linguistic Approach to Buddhist Thought (https://books.google.com/
books?id=vUBPAzlxJPUC). Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 124–125. ISBN 978-81-208-0038-0.
96. Sue Hamilton (2000). Early Buddhism: A New Approach : the I of the Beholder (https://book
s.google.com/books?id=pE9lwuScpWwC). Routledge. pp. 18–21. ISBN 978-0-7007-1280-9.
97. Sue Hamilton-Blyth (2013). Early Buddhism: A New Approach: The I of the Beholder (http
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84293-1.
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Religion and Anthropology: A Critical Introduction (https://books.google.com/books?id=Pgu
GB_uEQh4C&pg=PA51). Cambridge University Press. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-521-85241-8.,
Quote: "(...) anatta is the doctrine of non-self, and is an extreme empiricist doctrine that
holds that the notion of an unchanging permanent self is a fiction and has no reality.
According to Buddhist doctrine, the individual person consists of five skandhas or heaps -
the body, feelings, perceptions, impulses and consciousness. The belief in a self or soul,
over these five skandhas, is illusory and the cause of suffering." [c] Richard Gombrich
(2006). Theravada Buddhism (https://books.google.com/books?id=jZyJAgAAQBAJ).
Routledge. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-134-90352-8., Quote: "(...) Buddha's teaching that beings
have no soul, no abiding essence. This 'no-soul doctrine' (anatta-vada) he expounded in his
second sermon."
99. Martin Southwold (1983). Buddhism in Life: The Anthropological Study of Religion and the
Sinhalese Practice of Buddhism (https://books.google.com/books?id=R9dRAQAAIAAJ).
Manchester University Press. pp. 209–210. ISBN 978-0-7190-0971-6.
100. Mun-Keat Choong (1999). The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism (https://books.googl
e.com/books?id=HJafx7uO0VsC). Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 1–4, 85–88. ISBN 978-81-208-
1649-7.; Ray Billington (2002). Understanding Eastern Philosophy (https://books.google.co
m/books?id=dACFAgAAQBAJ). Routledge. pp. 58–60. ISBN 978-1-134-79348-8.;David Loy
(2009). Awareness Bound and Unbound: Buddhist Essays (https://books.google.com/book
s?id=R5KHnVVjwKQC). State University of New York Press. pp. 35–39. ISBN 978-1-4384-
2680-8.
101. Merv Fowler (1999). Buddhism: Beliefs and Practices (https://books.google.com/books?id=
A7UKjtA0QDwC). Sussex Academic Press. pp. 91–92. ISBN 978-1-898723-66-0.
102. Collins, Steven, Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative, 2010, p. 63.
103. Collins, Steven, Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative, 2010, p. 82.
104. Thanissaro (1993) (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.028.than.html).
105. Collins, Steven, Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative, 2010, p. 65.
106. Collins, Steven, Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative, 2010, p. 66.
107. Choong 1999, p. 21.
108. Peter Harvey, Consciousness mysticism in the discourses of the Buddha in Karel Werner,
The Yogi and the Mystic; Studies in Indian and Comparative Mysticism." Routledge, 1995,
page 82; books.google.com (https://books.google.com/books?id=p7J-Gy7PSSEC&pg=PA8
2&dq=karel+werner+consciousness+mysticism&lr=&sig=ACfU3U0astQaAHoyFZofP5vJblC
z_wT_DQ)
109. Walpola Rahula 2007, Kindle Locations 1105-1113.
110. See, for instance, the "Snake-Simile Discourse" (MN 22), where the Buddha states:

"Monks, this Teaching so well proclaimed by me, is plain, open, explicit, free of
patchwork. In this Teaching that is so well proclaimed by me and is plain, open,
explicit and free of patchwork; for those who are arahants, free of taints, who
have accomplished and completed their task, have laid down the burden,
achieved their aim, severed the fetters binding to existence, who are liberated
by full knowledge, there is no (future) round of existence that can be ascribed to
them. – Majjhima Nikaya i.130 ¶ 42, Translated by Nyanaponika Thera
(Nyanaponika, 2006) (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.022.nypo.h
tml)

111. Thích, Thiện Châu (1984) The Literature of the Personalists, p. 201-202.
112. See, for instance, the "Snake-Simile Discourse" (MN 22), where the Buddha states:

"Monks, this Teaching so well proclaimed by me, is plain, open, explicit, free of
patchwork. In this Teaching that is so well proclaimed by me and is plain, open,
explicit and free of patchwork; for those who are arahants, free of taints, who
have accomplished and completed their task, have laid down the burden,
achieved their aim, severed the fetters binding to existence, who are liberated
by full knowledge, there is no (future) round of existence that can be ascribed to
them. – Majjhima Nikaya i.130 ¶ 42, Translated by Nyanaponika Thera
(Nyanaponika, 2006) (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.022.nypo.h
tml)

113. The "fruit" (Pali: phala) is the culmination of the "path" (magga). Thus, for example, the
"stream-enterer" is the fruit for one on the "stream-entry" path; more specifically, the stream-
enterer has abandoned the first three fetters, while one on the path of stream-entry strives
to abandon these fetters.
114. Both the stream-enterer and the once-returner abandon the first three fetters. What
distinguishes these stages is that the once-returner additionally attenuates lust, hate and
delusion, and will necessarily be reborn only once more.
115. Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ). Princeton University Press. p. 65.
ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.
116. Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ). Princeton University Press. pp. 37–
38, 62, 850, 854. ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.
117. Robert E. Buswell Jr.; Donald S. Lopez Jr. (2013). The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (ht
tps://books.google.com/books?id=DXN2AAAAQBAJ). Princeton University Press. pp. 37–
38, 62, 65. ISBN 978-1-4008-4805-8.
118. Thanissaro Bhikkhu's commentary to the Brahma-nimantantika Sutta, Access to Insight:
Readings in Theravada Buddhism. (http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.049.than.
html#n-9)
119. Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of the Buddha. In Karel Werner,
ed., The Yogi and the Mystic. Curzon Press 1989, page 91.
120. Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of the Buddha. In Karel Werner,
ed., The Yogi and the Mystic. Curzon Press 1989, page 93.
121. Both the stream-enterer and the once-returner abandon the first three fetters. What
distinguishes these stages is that the once-returner additionally attenuates lust, hate and
delusion, and will necessarily be reborn only once more.
122. Harvey 1995, p. 87.
123. Buddhaghosa andÑāṇamoli, 1999, p. 750, n. 3.
124. See Access to Insight: Readings in Theravada Buddhism , Buddharakkhita (1996b). (http://
www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.25.budd.html#dhp-372)
125. Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli, 1999, p. 1.
126. Buddhaghosa and Ñāṇamoli, 1999, pp. 1,7.)
127. Satipatthana Sutta, DN ii.290
128. Gombrich 2006.
129. Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of the Buddha. In Karel Werner,
ed., The Yogi and the Mystic. Curzon Press 1989, page 100.
130. Peter Harvey, Consciousness Mysticism in the Discourses of the Buddha. In Karel Werner,
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Further reading
Ajahn Brahm, "Mindfulness, Bliss, and Beyond: A Meditator's Handbook" (Wisdom
Publications 2006) Part II.
Katukurunde Nanananda, "Nibbana - The Mind Stilled (Vol. I-VII)" (Dharma Grantha
Mudrana Bharaya, 2012).
Kawamura, Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1981,
pp. 11.
Lindtner, Christian (1997). "Problems of Pre-Canonical Buddhism" (https://archive.org/detail
s/BackCopiesOfBuddhistStudiesReview). Buddhist Studies Review. 14 (2).
Yogi Kanna, "Nirvana: Absolute Freedom" (Kamath Publishing; 2011) 198 pages.
Steven Collins. Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative (Cambridge University Press; 2010)
204 pages.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nirvana_(Buddhism)&oldid=923356975"

This page was last edited on 28 October 2019, at 01:18 (UTC).

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