Nirvana (Buddhism)

Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण, ; Pali: ) is "blowing out" or "quenching" of the activity of the grasping mind and its related unease. Nirvana is the goal of many Buddhist paths, and marks the soteriological release from worldly suffering and rebirths in saṃsāra. Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on "cessation of dukkha" in the Four Noble Truths, and the "summum bonum of Buddhism and goal of the Eightfold Path." In the Buddhist tradition, nirvana has commonly been interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires" (in analogy to, but rejecting, the three sacraficial fires of the Vedic ritual), or "three poisons", greed (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (moha). When these fires are extinguished, release from saṃsāra, the perpetual grasping activity of the mind, or the cycle of rebirth, is attained. Nirvana has also been claimed by some scholars to be identical with anatta (non-self) and sunyata (emptiness) states though this is hotly contested by other scholars and practicing monks. In time, with the development of the Buddhist doctrine, other interpretations were given, such as the absence of the weaving (vana) of activity of the mind, the elimination of desire, and escape from the woods, cq. the five skandhas or aggregates. Buddhist Theravada scholastic tradition identifies two types of nirvana: sopadhishesa-nirvana literally "nirvana with a remainder", attained and maintained during life, and parinirvana or anupadhishesa-nirvana, meaning "nirvana without remainder" or final nirvana, achieved on death, a death which is not followed by a rebirth or reincarnation in (according to Buddhist beliefs) the usual way. The founder of Buddhism, the Buddha, is believed to have reached both these states, the first at his Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, and the latter at his death many years later. Most Mahayana authorities have broadly similar ideas, but prefer the terms "abiding" and "non-abiding nirvana" for the two stages. Nirvana, the quenching of the burning mind, is the highest aim of the Theravada tradition.