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nir·va·na (nîr-vä'nə, nər-)  |
[Sanskrit nirvāṇam, a blowing out, extinction, nirvana : nis-, nir-, out, away + vāti, it blows.]
| Antonyms: nirvana |
| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: nirvana |
For more information on nirvana, visit Britannica.com.
| Philosophy Dictionary: nirvana |
In Buddhism, the perfect or beatific state, characterized by the extinction of desires and passions, and the transcending of the separate existence of the self.
| Buddhism Dictionary: nirvāṇa |
(Pāli, nibbāna). The summum bonum of Buddhism and goal of the Eightfold Path. The attainment of nirvāṇa marks the end of cyclic existence in saṃsāra, the condition to which it forms the antithesis, and in the context of which nirvāṇa has to be understood. Saṃsāra is thus the problem to which nirvāṇa is the solution. The word nirvāṇa is formed from the negative suffix nir and a Sanskrit root which may be either vā, meaning to blow, or vṛ, meaning to cover. Both connote images of extinguishing a flame, in the first case by blowing it out and in the second by smothering it or starving it of fuel. Of these two etymologies, early sources generally prefer the latter, suggesting that they understood nirvāṇa as a gradual process, like cutting off the fuel to a fire and letting the embers die down, rather than as a sudden or dramatic event. The popular notion that nirvana is the ‘blowing out of a flame’ is thus not widely supported in the canonical literature. In general, nirvāṇa is described in negative terms as the end or absence of undesirable things, such as suffering (duḥkha), although positive epithets also occur, notably the famous description of nirvāṇa as the ‘Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed’ found at Udāna 8. 3.
It is important to distinguish two kinds of nirvāṇa: the first is the moral and spiritual transformation that takes place in life, and the second is the condition that subsists in the post-mortem state. The former is known as ‘nirvāṇa with remainder’ (sopādiśeṣa-nirvāṇa) and the latter as ‘nirvāṇa without remainder’ (anupādiśeṣa-nirvāṇa) or ‘final nirvāṇa’ (parinirvāṇa) although in the earliest sources nirvāṇa and parinirvāṇa are used interchangeably. The former is attained through the destruction of the defilements known as the outflows (āśrava), and the latter is characterized by bringing to a halt for all time the dynamic activity of the psycho-physical factors (saṃskāra) that compose the human individual. One in the latter condition is free from the effects of karma, but one in the former is not, although no new karma will be produced.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Bodhisattva ideal diminishes the importance of nirvāṇa as a religious goal. This is because the Bodhisattva makes a vow not to enter nirvāṇa until all other beings have entered before him. Nirvāṇa thus becomes a collective endeavour rather than a personal one. As new doctrinal positions emerge, moreover, the concept of nirvāṇa undergoes development and is understood differently according to the philosophical perspective of the main schools. The Madhyamaka, for example, famously conclude that one who perceives emptiness (śūnyatā) as the true nature of phenomena will see nirvāṇa and saṃsāra as co-terminous. The Yogācāra school also teaches that the cessation of dualistic mental discrimination will lead to the realization that the opposition between nirvāṇa and saṃsāra is merely conceptual. Schools such as zen Buddhism also emphasize that for those who are awakened and perceive with insight (prajñā), nirvāṇa saturates every aspect of saṃsāra. Certain texts also elaborate a distinction between two types of nirvāṇa, mirroring the one made in the early sources between nirvāṇa in this life and final nirvāṇa. In the Mahāyāna these are known as localized (pratiṣṭhita) and unlocalized (apratiṣṭhita) nirvāṇa. The latter corresponds to the state of parinirvāṇa, but in the former a Buddha remains ‘in the world but not of it’, free of any attachment to saṃsāra but accessible to help suffering beings.
| Asian Mythology: Nirvāna |
Nirvāna is a Buddhist (see Buddhism) reworking of the Hindu (see Hinduism) ideal of mokṣa (see Mokṣa), or “liberation,” from the cycles of death and regeneration called saṃsāra (see Saṃsāra). It has become commonplace in the West to associate nirvāna with some sort of afterlife (see Afterlife), but, in fact, it is more an ideal or a state. Gautama Buddha (see Gautama Buddha) achieved nirvāna under the Bodhi tree (see Bodhi Tree). Nirvāna is essentially Enlightenment, but spiritual enlightenment or release in this world from the agony of the human condition. By overcoming the illusory powers of human desires, the individual can achieve nirvāna, which means, literally, “no wind” or “extinction” of the sense of self that is, in any case, illusion or delusion. For different sects of Buddhism, the paths to nirvāna are different. For some it can be achieved through discipline and asceticism in this life. For others it is synonymous with immortality. For those who see saṃsāra as life itself, nirvāna is sometimes “the farther shore” or almost a physical afterlife. For most Mahāyāna Buddhists (see Mahāyāna Buddhism) Enlightenment is a way of living in this world, a state of mind. Thus the tradition of bodhisattvas (see Bodhisattvas) developed, in which the nearly enlightened individual remains in this world to help others move toward nirvāna. In this connection, there are several understandings of nirvāna. There are Buddhists who see enlightenment as instantaneous; some who see it as a process taking eons, through various deaths and rebirths; and some who see it as something to be achieved gradually in this life. Among more esoteric Buddhists—especially in Tibet (see Tibetan Buddhism) and Japan (see Japanese Buddhism, Japanese Afterlife), ritual acts can relate the practitioner directly to the reality of the Buddha's Enlightenment, so that the act of worship becomes a sacramental participation in the actual Buddha nature, perhaps a type of temporary mystical union. The Japanese followers of Amida Buddha (see Amida Buddha) speak of the Pure Land (see Pure Land) paradise—in reality a state of being—into which the believer must be reborn before Enlightenment can be achieved. Such enlightenment can result in the individual's returning to this life as a teaching bodhisattva.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: nirvana |
| Psychoanalysis: Nirvana |
The term "Nirvana," first suggested by Barbara Low and acknowledged and used by Freud, is intimately connected with the development of the concepts of the pleasure/unpleasure principle. The concept has a long history, and contributed to Freud's understanding of the infantile wish-fulfilling character of dreams.
In Chapter Seven of The Interpretation of Dreams(1900a), in which Freud conceptualized the mental apparatus, he suggested that, to begin with, the apparatus is directed towards keeping itself as free from stimuli as possible in accordance with the "Principle of Constancy." This principle was already a basic assumption, and had appeared as such in many of Freud's earlier writings—for example in a letter to Josef Breuer (June 29, [1892] 1960a) and in various sections of Part One of the Project for a Scientific Psychology (1950c [1895]), through in quasi-neurological terms. But as Freud indicated in a footnote added in 1914 to the dream book, the concept is explored more fully in his paper on "The Two Principles of Mental Functioning" (1911b).
The Lust/Unlust-pleasure/pain principle is described there as the governing purpose of the primary process. There is a continued striving towards gaining pleasure, and a retreat from anything that might arouse unpleasurable affect. It is precisely the latter that dreams seek to avoid: when the state of rest is disturbed by internal needs, an attempt is made to achieve satisfaction in a hallucinatory manner.
With the emergence of the secondary process, reality is at least recognized, even when disagreeable; and the individual now must seek pleasure in accordance with what is possible in the circumstances in which they find themselves. To put the matter in energic terms: unpleasure was associated with a rise in excitation; pleasure with its reduction and discharge, and, with the acquisition of the reality principle, this discharge of excitation, once sought as a peremptory demand under the influence of the pleasure principle, now has to wait until reality presents the necessary conditions or until those conditions can be brought about. (Pleasure can, of course, always be expressed in fantasy and day dreams, whatever the circumstances.) The search for pleasure, it will be observed, is related to, but not identical with, the "Principle of Constancy" referred to above.
Already, especially in the paper Instincts and their Vicissitudes (1915c), Freud had stated that the relation existing between pleasure and unpleasure on the one hand, and the rise and the "fluctuations of the amounts of stimuli affecting mental life," on the other, was no simple matter, and that the relations were many, various, and in need of elucidation.
In Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920g) Freud reformulated his two classes of instincts and opposed the one, Eros or the Life Instinct, with the destructive or Death Instinct. The aim of the Death Instinct was to get rid of life through the running down of the organism, and therefore of the tensions within it. This "dominating tendency of mental life"—"to reduce, to keep constant or to remove internal tensions due to stimuli"—was called the "Nirvana principle," a term suggested by Barbara Low and here adopted by Freud.
The difficulties and anomalies inherent in these formulations were reconsidered by Freud in The Economic Problem of Masochism (1924c). Re-affirming his adoption of the Nirvana principle, he pointed out that, if the pleasure principle were identical with it, that principle would be "in the service of the death instincts" and would act as a warning against the demands of the life instincts that threatened to disturb the intended course of life. But that view, said Freud, could not be correct. Furthermore, in the series of tensions and their increase and decrease, there were pleasurable tensions (for example, sexual excitation) and unpleasurable relaxations of tensions. Pleasure and unpleasure could not depend on some quantitative factor alone, but on some qualitative characteristics. It might be "the rhythm, the temporal sequence of changes, rises and falls in the quantity of stimulus." Freud added: "We do not know." Whatever the truth of the matter, the Nirvana principle had undergone a modification in living organisms through which it had become the pleasure principle. "Henceforward," he continued, "we shall avoid regarding the two principles as one." And he concluded by saying that the Nirvana principle expressed the trend of the death instinct; the pleasure principle represented the demands of the libido; and the modification of the latter principle, the reality principle, represented the influence of the external world.
It may be worth adding that an optimum level of tension normally gives life its sense of vividness and alertness. Reduction of tension to zero, unless transient, is often pathological, and found, for example, in states of depression, some kinds of depersonalization, and in the anergic forms of schizophrenia.
Bibliography
Freud, Sigmund. (1900a). The interpretation of dreams. Part II. SE, 5: 339-625.
——. (1911b). Formulations on the two principles of mental functioning. SE, 12: 213-226.
——. (1915c). Instincts and their vicissitudes. SE, 14: 109-140.
——. (1920g). Beyond the pleasure principle. SE, 18: 1-64.
——. (1924c). The economic problem of masochism. SE, 19: 155-170.
——. (1950c [1895]). Project for a scientific psychology. SE, 1: 281-387.
——. (1960a [1873-1939]). Letters of Sigmund Freud,1873-1939 (Ernst L. Freud, Ed.; Tania and James Stern, Trans.). London: Hogarth, 1970.
—CLIFFORD YORKE
| Devil's Dictionary: nirvana |
n.
In the Buddhist religion, a state of pleasurable annihilation awarded to the wise, particularly to those wise enough to understand it.
| Word Tutor: nirvana |
Yes, there is a Nirvana; it is in leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem.
— Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese mystical poet, philosopher & painter.
| Wikipedia: Nirvana |
| Translations of Nibbāna |
|
|---|---|
| English: | extinguishing, blowing out |
| Pali: | Nibbāna |
| Sanskrit: | निर्वाण (Nirvāṇa) |
| Sinhala: | නිර්වාණය |
| Burmese: | နိဗ္ဗာန် (neiʔbà̃ neibban) |
| Chinese: | 涅槃 (pinyin: nièpán) |
| Japanese: | 涅槃 (rōmaji: nehan) |
| Tibetan: | mya-ngan-las-'das-pa |
| Thai: | นิพพาน (nibpan) |
| Vietnamese: | Niết bàn |
| Buddhism Glossary |
|
In sramanic thought, Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण, Nirvāṇa; Tamil: நிர்வணா; Pali: निब्बान, Nibbāna; Prakrit: णिव्वाण; Thai: นิพพาน, Nípphaan) is the state of being free from both suffering and the cycle of rebirth. It is an important concept in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
"Nibbāna" is a Pāli word that means "blowing out" — that is, blowing out the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion.[1]
Contents |
Buddha described nirvana as the perfect peace of the state of mind that is free from craving, anger and other afflictive states (kilesa). The subject is at peace with the world, has compassion for all and gives up obsessions and fixations. This peace is achieved when the existing volitional formations are pacified, and the conditions for the production of new ones are eradicated. In Nibbana the root causes of craving and aversion have been extinguished such that one is no longer subject to human suffering (dukkha) or further states of rebirths in samsara.
The Pali Canon also contains other perspectives on nirvana; for one, it is linked to the seeing-through of the empty nature of phenomena. It is also presented as a radical reordering of consciousness and unleashing of awareness.[2] Scholar Herbert Guenther states that with nirvana "the ideal personality, the true human being" becomes reality.[3]
The Buddha in the Dhammapada says of nirvana that it is "the highest happiness". This happiness is an enduring, transcendental happiness integral to the calmness attained through enlightenment or bodhi, rather than the happiness derived from impermanent things. The knowledge accompanying nirvana is expressed through the word bodhi.
The Buddha explains nirvana as "the unconditioned" (asankhata) mind, a mind that has come to a point of perfect lucidity and clarity due to the cessation of the production of volitional formations. This is described by the Buddha as "deathlessness" (Pali: amata or amaravati) and as the highest spiritual attainment, the natural result that accrues to one who lives a life of virtuous conduct and practice in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path. Such a life engenders increasing control over the generation of karma (Skt; Pali, kamma). It produces wholesome karma with positive results and finally allows the cessation of the origination of karma altogether with the attainment of nibbana. Otherwise, beings forever wander through the impermanent and suffering-generating realms of desire, form, and formlessness, collectively termed samsara.
Each liberated individual produces no new karma, but preserves a particular individual personality which is the result of the traces of his or her karmic heritage. The very fact that there is a psycho-physical substrate during the remainder of an arahant's lifetime shows the continuing effect of karma.[4]
While nirvana is "unconditioned", it is not "uncaused" or "independent."[5] The stance of the early scriptures is that attaining nibbana in either the current or some future birth depends on effort, and is not pre-determined.[6] Furthermore, salvation according to the Pali Nikayas is not the recognition of a pre-existing or eternal perfection, but is the attainment of something that is hitherto unattained.[7] This is also the orthodox Yogacara position, and that of Buddhaghosa.[8]
Nirvana is a compound of the prefix ni[r]- (ni, nis, nih) which means "out, away from, without", and the root vâ[na] (Pali. vâti) which can be translated as "blowing" as in "blowing of the wind", and also as "smelling, etc".[18]
The Abhidharma-mahavibhāsa-sāstra, a Sarvastivādin commentary, gives the complete context of the possible meanings from its Sanskrit roots:
Nirvana in sutra is never conceived of as a place (such as one might conceive heaven), but rather the antinomy of samsara (see below) which itself is synonymous with ignorance (avidyā, Pāli avijjā). This said:
Nirvāna is meant specifically - as pertains gnosis - that which ends the identity of the mind (citta) with empirical phenomena. Doctrinally Nibbāna is said of the mind which "no longer is coming (bhava) and going (vibhava)", but which has attained a status in perpetuity, whereby "liberation (vimutta) can be said".
It carries further connotations of stilling, cooling, and peace. The realizing of nirvana is compared to the ending of avidyā (ignorance) which perpetuates the will (cetana) into effecting the incarnation of mind into biological or other form passing on forever through life after life (samsara). Samsara is caused principally by craving and ignorance (see dependent origination). A person can attain nirvana without dying. When a person who has realized nirvana dies, his death is referred as parinirvāṇa (Pali: parinibbana), his fully passing away, as his life was his last link to the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara), and he will not be reborn again. Buddhism holds that the ultimate goal and end of samsaric existence (of ever "becoming" and "dying" and never truly being) is realization of nirvana; what happens to a person after his parinirvāṇa cannot be explained, as it is outside of all conceivable experience. Through a series of questions,
Individuals up to the level of non-returning may experience nirvana as an object of mental consciousness.[10][11] Certain contemplations while nibbana is an object of samadhi lead, if developed, to the level of non-returning or the gnosis of the arahant.[12] 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 nibbana is realized.[13]
Although an enlightened individual's consciousness is a karmic result, it is not limited by usual samsaric constraints.[14] The Buddha discusses in the context of nirvana a kind of consciousness described as:
Consciousness without feature, without end, luminous all around.[15][16]
This "consciousness without surface" 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.[17] In a liberated individual it is directly known, without intermediary, free from any dependence on conditions at all.[18][19] According to Peter Harvey, the early texts are ambivalent as to whether or not the term "consciousness" is accurate.[20] In one interpretation, the "luminous consciousness" is identical with nirvana.[21][22] Others disagree, finding it to be not nirvana itself, but instead to be a kind of consciousness accessible only to arahants.[23][24] A passage in the Majjhima Nikaya likens it to empty space.[25] For liberated ones the luminous, unsupported consciousness associated with nibbana is directly known without mediation of the mental consciousness factor in dependent co-arising, and is the transcending of all objects of mental consciousness.[26][27] It differs radically from the concept in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita of Self-realization, described as accessing the individual's inmost consciousness, in that it is not considered an aspect, even the deepest aspect, of the individual's personality, and is not to be confused in any way with a "Self".[28] Furthermore, it transcends the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sixth of the Buddhist jhanas, which is in itself not the ending of the conceit of "I".[29] Nagarjuna alluded to a passage regarding this level of consciousness in the Dighanikaya (DN 11) in two different works. He wrote:
The Sage has declared that earth, water, fire, and wind, long, short, fine and coarse, good, and so on are extinguished in consciousness ... Here long and short, fine and coarse, good and bad, here name and form all stop.[30]
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 nibbana.[31]
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.[32] The Canon does not support the identification of the "luminous mind" with nirvanic consciousness, though it plays a role in the realization of nirvana.[33][34] 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."[35]
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, nirvana and samsara are said to be not-different in the sense that there is no metaphysical barrier between the two. An individual can attain nirvana by following the Buddhist path. If they were ultimately different this would be impossible. Thus, the duality between nirvana and samsara is only accurate on the conventional level. Another way to arrive at this conclusion is through the analysis that all phenomena are empty of an essential identity, and therefore suffering is never inherent in any situation. Thus liberation from suffering and its causes is not a metaphysical shift of any kind. For better explication of this thinking see two-truths doctrine.
The Theravāda school makes the antithesis of samsara and Nibbāna the starting point of the entire quest for deliverance. Even more, it treats this antithesis as determinative of the final goal, which is precisely the transcendence of samsara and the attainment of liberation in Nibbāna. Where Theravada differs significantly from the Mahāyāna schools, which also start with the duality of samsara and nirvana, is in not regarding this polarity as a mere preparatory lesson tailored for those with blunt faculties, to be eventually superseded by some higher realization of non-duality[citation needed]. From the standpoint of the Pāli Suttas, even for the Buddha and the Arahants suffering and its cessation, samsara and Nibbāna, remain distinct[citation needed].
Both schools agree that Shakyamuni Buddha was in saṃsāra while having attained Nirvāṇa, in so far as he was seen by all while simultaneously free from samsara.
In the Visuddhimagga, Ch. I, v. 6 (Buddhaghosa & Ñāṇamoli, 1999, pp. 6–7), Buddhaghosa identifies various options within the Pali canon for pursuing a path to nirvana,[36] including:
Depending on one's analysis, each of these options could be seen as a reframing of the Buddha's Threefold Training of virtue, mental development[43] and wisdom.
The idea of Nirvana as purified, non-dualistic 'superior mind' can be found in some Mahayana/Tantric texts. The Samputa, for instance, states:
'Undefiled by lust and emotional impurities, unclouded by any dualistic perceptions, this superior mind is indeed the supreme nirvana.'[44]
Some Mahayana traditions see the Buddha in almost docetic terms, viewing his visible manifestations as projections from within the state of Nirvana. According to Professor 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.’[45]
Some Mahayana sutras go further and attempt to characterize the nature of Nirvana itself. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, which has as one of its main topics precisely the realm or dhatu of Nirvana, has the Buddha speak of four essential elements which make up Nirvana. One of these is ‘Self’ (atman), which is construed as the enduring Self of the Buddha. 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 transcendental, and is also used as a term for the Absolute.’[46]
At the time this scripture was written, there was already a long tradition of positive language about nirvana and the Buddha.[47] While in early Buddhist thought nirvana is characterized by permanence, bliss, and purity, it is viewed as being the stopping of the breeding-ground for the "I am" attitude, and is beyond all possibility of the Self delusion.[48][49] The Mahaparinirvana Sutra, a long and highly composite Mahayana scripture,[50] refers to the Buddha using the term "Self" in order to win over non-Buddhist ascetics.[51] From this, it continues: "The Buddha-nature is in fact not the self. For the sake of [guiding] sentient beings, I describe it as the self."[52]
The Ratnagotravibhaga, a related text, points out that the teaching of the tathagatagarbha is intended to win sentient beings over to abandoning "affection for one's self" - one of the five defects caused by non-Buddhist teaching. Youru Wang notes similar language in the Lankavatara Sutra, then writes: "Noticing this context is important. It will help us to avoid jumping to the conclusion that tathagatagarbha thought is simply another case of metaphysical imagination."[53] However, some[who?] have objected to this reading regarding the Mahaparinirvana Sutra in particular, and claim that the Buddha then caps his comments in this passage with an affirmation of the reality of the Self, declaring that he is in fact that Self:
'Due to various causes and conditions, I have also taught that that which is the self is devoid of self, for though there is truly the self, I have taught that there is no self, and yet there is no falsehood in that. The Buddha-dhatu is devoid of self. When the Tathagata teaches that there is no self, it is because of the Eternal. The Tathagata is the Self, and his teaching that there is no self is because he has attained mastery/sovereignty [aisvarya].'[54]
In the Nirvana Sutra, the Buddha states that he will now teach previously undisclosed doctrines (including on Nirvana) and that his earlier teaching on non-Self was one of expediency only. Dr. Kosho Yamamoto writes:
‘He says that the non-Self which he once taught is none but of expediency … He says that he is now ready to speak about the undisclosed teachings. Men abide in upside-down thoughts. So he will now speak of the affirmative attributes of Nirvana, which are none other than the Eternal, Bliss, the Self and the Pure.’[55]
According to some scholars, the language used in the Tathagatagarbha genre of sutras can be seen as an attempt to state orthodox Buddhist teachings of dependent origination using positive language instead, to prevent people from being turned away from Buddhism by a false impression of nihilism. For example, in some of these sutras the perfection of the wisdom of not-self is stated to be the true self; the ultimate goal of the path is then characterized using a range of positive language that had been used in Indian philosophy previously by essentialist philosophers, but which was now transmuted into a new Buddhist vocabulary to describe a being who has successfully completed the Buddhist path.[56]
Dr. Yamamoto points out that this ‘affirmative’ characterization of Nirvana pertains to a higher form of Nirvana – that of ‘Great Nirvana’. The ordinary Nirvana which is normally spoken about might be likened to eating only a little food after a period of hunger: the bliss and peace that ensue are commensurate with that[57]. Yamamoto goes on to state:
‘But such a nirvana cannot be called “Great Nirvana”. And it [i.e. the Buddha’s new revelation regarding Nirvana] goes on to dwell on the “Great Self”, “Great Bliss”, and “Great Purity”, all of which, along with the Eternal, constitute the four attributes of Great Nirvana.’[58]
According to some scholars, the "Self" discussed in the and related sutras does not represent a substantial Self. Rather, it is a positive language expression of emptiness and represents the potentiality to realize Buddhahood through Buddhist practices. In this view, the intention of the teaching of 'tathagatagarbha'/Buddha nature is soteriological rather than theoretical.[59]
However, this interpretation is contentious. Not all scholars share it. Writing on the diverse understandings of tathagatagarbha doctrine as found in the Nirvana Sutra and similar scriptures, Dr. Jamie Hubbard comments on how some scholars see a tendency towards absolutism and monism in this Tathagatagarbha [a tendency which Japanese scholar Matsumoto castigates as non-Buddhist]. Dr. Hubbard comments:
'Matsumoto [calls] attention to the similarity between the extremely positive language and causal structure of enlightenment found in the tathagatagarbha literature and that of the substantial monism found in the atman/Brahman tradition. Matsumoto, of course, is not the only one to have noted this resemblance. Takasaki Jikido, for example, the preeminent scholar of the tathagatagarbha tradition, sees monism in the doctrine of the tathagatagarbha and the Mahayana in general … Obermiller wedded this notion of a monistic Absolute to the tathagatagarbha literature in his translation and comments to the Ratnagotra, which he aptly subtitled “A Manual of Buddhist Monism” … Lamotte and Frauwallner have seen the tathagatagarbha doctrine as diametrically opposed to the Madhyamika and representing something akin to the monism of the atman/Brahman strain, while yet others such as Nagao, Seyfort Ruegg, and Johnston (the editor of the Ratnagotra) simply voice their doubts and state that it seems similar to post-Vedic forms of monism. Yet another camp, represented by Yamaguchi Susumu and his student Ogawa Ichijo, is able to understand tathagatagarbha thought without recourse to Vedic notions by putting it squarely within the Buddhist tradition of conditioned causality and emptiness, which, of course, explicitly rejects monism of any sort. Obviously, the question of the monist or absolutist nature of the tathagatagarbha and Buddha-nature traditions is complex.[60]
Dr. Hubbard summarises his research on tathagatagarbha doctrines with the words:
'the teaching of the tathagatagarbha has always been debatable, for it is fundamentally an affirmative approach to truth and wisdom, offering descriptions of reality not in negative terms of what it is lacking or empty of (apophatic description, typical of the Pefection of Wisdom corpus and the Madhyhamika school) but rather in positive terms of what it is (cataphatic description, more typical of the devotional, tantric, Mahaparinirvana and Lotus Sutra traditions, and, it should be noted, the monistic terms of the orthodox Brahmanic systems)'[61]
According to Paul Williams, the similarity to the monism of atman/Brahman thought is explained when the Nirvana sutra presents its Self teachings as an attempt to win over non-Buddhist ascetics:
It is tempting to speak of Hindu influence on Buddhism at this point, but simply to talk of influences is almost always too easy ... Having said that, of course the Mahaparinirvana-Sutra itself admits Hindu influence in a sense when it refers to the Buddha using the term 'Self' in order to win over non-Buddhist ascetics. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to think in particular of the transcendental Self-Brahman of Advaita Vedanta as necessarily influencing Buddhism at this point. It is by no means clear that the Self which is really no-Self of the Mahaparinirvana-Sutra is at all comparably to the Advaita Brahman, and anyway these Tathagatagarbha sutras are earlier than Gaudapada (seventh century), the founder of the Hindu Advaita school ...[62]
The sutra also states that the Buddha-nature is really no-Self, but is said to be a Self in a manner of speaking.[63] In another section of the same sutra, it is stated that there are three ways for a person to "have" something; to have it in the past, to have it in the present, and to have it in the future. It states that what it means by "all beings have Buddha-nature" is that all beings will in the future become Buddhas.[64]
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Jainism Portal |
In Jainism, it means final release from the karmic bondage. When an enlightened human, such as, an Arhat or a Tirthankara extinguishes his remaining aghatiya karmas and thus ends his worldly existence, it is called parinirvana. Technically, the death of an Arhat is called nirvana of Arhat, as he has ended his wordly existence and attained liberation. Moksha, that is to say, liberation follows nirvana. An Arhat becomes a siddha, the liberated one, after attaining nirvana.
Nirvana in Jainism means :-
Jains celebrate Diwali as the day of Nirvana of Mahavira. Kalpasutra gives an elaborate account of Mahavira’s nirvana. [66]
| “ | The aghatiya Karma’s of venerable Ascetic Mahavira got exhausted, when in this Avasarpini era the greater part of the Duhshamasushama period had elapsed and only three years and eight and a half months were left. Mahavira had recited the fifty-five lectures which detail the results of Karma, and the thirty-six unasked questions (the Uttaradhyana Sutra). The moon was in conjunction with the asterism Svati, at the time of early morning, in the town of Papa, and in king Hastipala's office of the writers, (Mahivira) single and alone, sitting in the Samparyahka posture, left his body and attained nirvana, freed from all pains.” (147)
In the fourth month of that rainy season, in the seventh fortnight, in the dark (fortnight) of Karttika, on its fifteenth day, in the last night, in the town of Papa, in king Hastipala's office of the writers, the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira died, went off, cut asunder the ties of birth, old age, and death; became a Siddha, a Buddha, a Mukta, a maker of the end (to all misery), finally liberated, freed from all pains. (123) That night in which the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira died, freed from all pains, was lighted up by many descending and ascending gods. (125) In that night in which the Venerable Ascetic Mahavira, died, freed from all pains, the eighteen confederate kings of Kasi and Kosala, the nine Mallakis and nine Licchavis, on the day of new moon, instituted an illuminations on the Poshadha, which was a fasting day; for they said: 'Since the light of intelligence is gone, let us make an illumination of material matter!'(128) |
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Uttaradhyana Sutra provides an account of Gautama explaining the meaning of nirvana to Kesi a disciple of Parsva. [67]
| “ | There is a safe place in view of all, but difficult of approach, where there is no old age nor death, no pain nor disease. It is what is called Nirvâna, or freedom from pain, or perfection, which is in view of all; it is the safe, happy, and quiet place which the great sages reach. That is the eternal place, in view of all, but difficult of approach. Those sages who reach it are free from sorrows, they have put an end to the stream of existence. (81-4) | ” |
^ Kawamura, Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1981, pp.11.
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| Translations: Nirvana |
Nederlands (Dutch)
nirvana, zevende hemel
Français (French)
n. - nirvana
Deutsch (German)
n. - Nirwana (Seligkeitszustand im Buddhismus), völlige Ruhe des Geistes
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) νιρβάνα
Português (Portuguese)
n. - nirvana (m)
Español (Spanish)
n. - nirvana
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - nirvana
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
涅盘, 天堂
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 涅盤, 天堂
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 涅槃, 解脱, 脱却, 至福, 極楽
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) النرفانا : السعادة القصوى
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - נירוונה, בבודהיזם: אושר מושלם ושחרור מהגורל ע"י הכחדת האישיות
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