nirvāṇa

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.