Nirvana (Buddhism)

Nirvana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण, '; Pali: ') is "blowing out" or "quenching" of the activities of the worldly mind and its related suffering. Nirvana is the goal of the Hinayana and Theravada 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", or "three poisons", greed ('' raga''), aversion ('' dvesha'') and ignorance ('' moha''). When these ''fires'' are extinguished, release from the cycle of rebirth ('' saṃsāra'') 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'', or the liberation from cycles of rebirth, is the highest aim of the Theravada tradition. In the Mahayana tradition, the highest goal is ''Buddhahood'', in which there is no abiding in nirvana. Buddha helps liberate beings from ''saṃsāra'' by teaching the Buddhist path. There is no rebirth for Buddha or people who attain nirvana. But his teachings remain in the world for a certain time as a guidance to attain nirvana.

Meaning and etymology

The origin of the term ''nirvana'' is probably pre-Buddhist. It was a more or less central concept among the Jains, the Ajivikas, the Buddhists, and certain Hindu traditions.

It generally describes a state of freedom from suffering and rebirth. 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.

The term may have been imported into Buddhism with much of its semantic range from these other sramanic movements. However its etymology may not be conclusive for its meaning. Different Buddhist traditions have interpreted the concept in different ways, and the term has had a range of meanings over time.

Extinction and blowing out

One literal interpretation translates ''nir√vā'' as "blow out", interpreting ''nir'' is a negative, and ''va'' as "to blow"., giving a meaning of "blowing out" or "quenching". It is seen to refer to 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.

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''."

The term ''nirvana'' then became 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. The meaning of this metaphor was lost in later Buddhism, 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''). 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":
* ''vâna'', derived from the root word ''√vā'' which means "to blow":''Possible ancient meanings of nirvana''
Victor Langheld,
** (to) blow (of wind); but also to emit (an odour), be wafted or diffused; ''nirvana'' then means "to blow out";
* ''vāna'', derived from the root ''vana'' or ''van'' which mean "desire",
** ''nirvana'' is then explained to mean a state of "without desire, without love, without wish" and one without craving or thirst ( taṇhā);
** adding the root ''√vā'' which means "to weave or sew"; ''nirvana'' is then explained as abandoning the desire which weaves together life after life.
* ''vāna'', derived from the root word ''vana'' which also means "woods, forest":
** based on this root, ''vana'' has been metaphorically explained by Buddhist scholars as referring to the "forest of defilements", or the five aggregates; ''nirvana'' then means "escape from the aggregates", or to be "free from that forest of defilements".

The term ''nirvana'', "to blow out", has also been interpreted as the extinction of the "three fires", or "three poisons", namely of passion or sensuality ('' raga''), aversion or hate ('' dvesha'') and of delusion or ignorance ('' moha'' or '' avidyā'').

The "blowing out" does not mean total annihilation, 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'').

To unbind

Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu argues that the term nibbāna was apparently derived etymologically from the negative prefix, nir, plus the root vāṇa, or binding: unbinding, and that the associated adjective is nibbuta: unbound, and the associated verb, nibbuti: to unbind. He and others use the term unbinding for nibbana. (Ṭhānissaro argues that the early Buddhist association of 'blowing out' with the term arose in light of the way in which the processes of fire were viewed at that time - that a burning fire was seen as clinging to its fuel in a state of hot agitation, and that when going out the fire let go of its fuel and reached a state of freedom, cooling, and peace.)

Cessation of the weaving of the mind

Another interpretation of nirvana is the absence of the weaving (''vana'') of activity of the mind.

To uncover

Matsumoto Shirō (1950-), of the Critical Buddhism group, stated that the original etymological root of ''nirvana'' should be considered not as nir√vā, but as nir√vŗ, to "uncover". 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). Swanson stated that some Buddhism scholars questioned whether 'blowing out' and 'extinction' etymologies are consistent with the core doctrines of Buddhism, particularly about ''anatman'' (non-self) and ''pratityasamutpada'' (causality). They saw a problem that considering nirvana as extinction or liberation presupposes a "self" to be extinguished or liberated. However other Buddhist scholars, such as Takasaki Jikidō, disagreed and called the Matsumoto proposal "too far and leaving nothing that can be called Buddhist".

Relationship with other terms

Release and freedom from suffering; moksha, vimutti

''Nirvana'' is used synonymously with ''moksha'' (Sanskrit), also ''vimoksha'', or ''vimutti'' (Pali), "release, deliverance from suffering".John Bowker (1997), ''Vimutti'', The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
/ref> In the Pali-canon two kinds of vimutti are discerned:
* ''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.
* ''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).

Ceto-vimutti becomes permanent, only with the attainment of pañña-vimutti. 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. 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.

Relationship with enlightenment and awakening

Peter Harvey has written that Buddha attained enlightenment, or awakening at age c.35, and final nirvana on his death. The Theravada School sees nirvana as being attained in the non-returner stage of the four stages of enlightenment.

Relationship with ecstasy and bliss

Nirvana is not necessarily related to ecstasy or bliss, although some commentators see such experiences as part of nirvana.

Popular Western usage

L. S. Cousins said that in popular usage nirvana was "the goal of Buddhist discipline,... the final removal of the disturbing mental elements which obstruct a peaceful and clear state of mind, together with a state of awakening from the mental sleep which they induce."

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.

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." He also adds that "the most common thing said about nirvana in Buddhist texts is that it is the ending of suffering ('' dukkha'')." 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." 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. 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."

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. 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” (''nirodha''), “the absence of craving” (''trsnaksaya''), “detachment,” “the absence of delusion,” and “the unconditioned” (''asamskrta'').Jones, Lindsay, Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 10, p. 6628. 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. 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.

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). 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''). In later Buddhism, dhyana practice was deemed sufficient only for the extinguishing of passion and hatred, while delusion was extinguished by insight.

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". Rune Johansson's ''The Psychology of Nirvana'' also argued that nirvana could be seen as a transformed state of mind (''citta'').

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, and survived in the Mahayana tradition. 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." 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. Schayer's view saw nirvana as an immortal, deathless sphere, a transmundane reality or state. 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 Absolute. A similar view was defended by M. Falk, who held that the nirvanic element, as an "essence" or pure consciousness, is immanent within samsara. M. Falk argues that the early Buddhist view of nirvana is that it is an "abode" or "place" of prajña, which is gained by the enlightened. This nirvanic element, as an "essence" or pure consciousness, is immanent within samsara.

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

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. 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. 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. As a result of this reaction, nirvana came to be seen as a state of mind, instead of a concrete place. Elements of this precanonical Buddhism may have survived the canonisation, and its subsequent filtering out of ideas, and re-appeared in Mahayana Buddhism. 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.

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". Wynne concludes that the Buddha rejected the views of the Vedas and that his teachings present a radical departure from these Brahminical beliefs.

''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. 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. This main distinction is between the extinguishing of the fires during life, and the final "blowing out" at the moment of death:
* ''Sa-upādisesa-nibbāna'' (Pali; Sanskrit ''sopadhiśeṣa-nirvāṇa''), "nirvana with remainder", "nirvana with residue." Nirvana is attained during one's life, when the fires are extinguished. There is still the "residue" of the five skandhas, and a "residue of fuel", which however is not "burning". Nirvana-in-this-life is believed to result in a transformed mind with qualities such as happiness, freedom of negative mental states, peacefulness and non-reactiveness.
* ''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.

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.

Gombrich explains that the five ''skandhas'' or aggregates are the bundles of firewood that fuel the three fires. The Buddhist practitioner ought to "drop" these bundles, so that the fires are no longer fueled and "blow out". When this is done, the bundles still remain as long as this life continues, but they are no longer "on fire." 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.''

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

''Anatta'', ''Sunyata''

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

Nirvana in some Buddhist traditions is described as the realization of '' sunyata'' (emptiness or nothingness). 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.

Synonyms and metaphors

A flame which goes out due to lack of fuel

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 nlightenedmonk … knows that after the break-up of his body, when further life is exhausted, all feelings which are rejoiced in here will become cool.

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. 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.

An end state, where many adverse aspects of experience have ceased

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."

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 resumably 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.

In the Theravada School

Unconditioned

In the Theravada-tradition, ''nibbāna'' is regarded as an uncompounded or unconditioned (''asankhata'') dhamma (phenomenon, event) which is "transmundane", and which is beyond our normal dualistic conceptions. In Theravada Abhidhamma texts like the '' Vibhanga,'' ''nibbana'' or the ''asankhata-dhatu'' (unconditioned element) is defined thus:

‘What is the unconditioned element (''asankhata dhatu'')? It is the cessation of passion, the cessation of hatred and the cessation of delusion.’

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). 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).

Stages

The Theravada tradition identifies four progressive stages. 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''.

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.

According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu, individuals up to the level of non-returning may experience ''nibbāna'' as an object of consciousness. Certain contemplations with ''nibbāna'' as an object of samādhi lead, if developed, to the level of non-returning. 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.

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.

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.

In the ''Visuddhimagga'', chapter I.v.6, Buddhaghosa identifies various options within the Pali canon for pursuing a path to nirvana. 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''.

The mind of the Arahant is ''nibbāna''

A related idea, which finds no explicit support in the Pali Canon without interpretation, and is the product of contemporary Theravada practice tradition, despite its absence in the Theravada commentaries and Abhidhamma, is that the mind of the arahant is itself ''nibbāna''. The Canon does not support the identification of the "luminous mind" with nirvanic consciousness, though it plays a role in the realization of nirvāṇa. 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."

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'. 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. 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." 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. 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.

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." 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'')." 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'. Rahula also notes that more positive terms are used to describe nibbana such as "freedom" (''mutti'') and "truth" (''sacca''). Rahula also agrees that nirvana is unconditioned.

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."

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." 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')." 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''). 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."

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." He further states that for arahants "no new life is formed after his decease-consciousness." 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. Mahasi further notes that "feeling ''vedana''.html"_;"title="Vedanā.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Vedanā">''vedana''">Vedanā.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Vedanā">''vedana''ceases_with_the_parinibbāna_of_the_Arahant"_and_also_that_"the_cessation_of_ ''vedana''.html"_;"title="Vedanā.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Vedanā">''vedana''">Vedanā.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Vedanā">''vedana''ceases_with_the_parinibbāna_of_the_Arahant"_and_also_that_"the_cessation_of_Ayatana">senses_

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