Nirvāna
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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1997
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© The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions 1997, originally published by Oxford University Press 1997. (Hide copyright information)
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Nirvāna (Skt., ‘extinction’; Chin.,
nieh-pan; Jap.,
nehan; Korean,
yŭlban). The final goal and attainment in Indian religions.
In Hinduism, nirvāna is the extinguishing of worldly desires and attachments, so that the union with God or the Absolute is possible. In
Bhagavad-gītā, it seems to be contrasted deliberately with the Buddhist understanding, because it is described as the attainment of
Brahman, and the yogin is described, not (as in Buddhism) as a candle blown out, but as ‘a candle flame away from a draught which does not flicker’ (6. 19). The attainment of nirvāna is thus
mokṣa.
In Buddhism there is no Self or soul to attain any state or union after death. Nirvāna (Pāli,
nibbāna) therefore represents the realization that that is so. It is the condition of absolute cessation of entanglement or attachment, in which there is, so to speak, that state of cessation, but no interaction or involvement. Thus
nibbuta (past participle) is ‘he who is cooled’, i.e. from the fever of clinging and thirst (
tanhā). It does not mean ‘extinction’, a view which the Buddha repudiated (
nihilism). That is why nirvāna can receive both negative (what it is not) and positive (what it is like) descriptions. The so-called ‘Nirvāna School’ of early (5th-cent.) Chinese Buddhism, stressed the positive aspects of nirvāna, and regarded it as an eternal and blissful condition. The final attainment of the state of nirvāna, with no residues remaining (of involvement in the appearance of this world) is pari (complete) nirvāna.
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