Nirvana (Buddhism)

Nirvana or nibbana (Sanskrit: निर्वाण; IAST: nirvāṇa; Pali: nibbāna) is the extinguishing of the passions, the "blowing out" or "quenching" of the activity of the grasping mind and its related unease. Nirvana is the goal of many Buddhist paths, and leads to the soteriological release from dukkha ('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 all forms of Buddhism, Nirvana is regarded as the highest or supreme religious goal. It is often described as the unconditioned or uncompounded (Skt.: asaṃskṛta, Pali: asankhata), meaning it is beyond all forms of conditionality — not subject to change, decay, or the limitations of time and space. Nirvana is typically seen as being outside the realm of dependent arising (pratītyasamutpāda), representing a truth that transcends cause and effect, as well as all conventional dualities such as existence and non-existence, or life and death. Nirvana is also said to transcend all conceptual frameworks, being beyond the grasp of ordinary human perception.

In the Buddhist tradition, nirvana has commonly been interpreted as the extinction of the "three poisons" of greed (raga), aversion (dvesha) and ignorance (moha). In early Buddhist sources, these are also known as the "three fires" (an analogy that internalizes and inverts the three fires of Vedic ritual). When these three poisons are extinguished, permanent release from saṃsāra, the cycle of grasping, suffering and rebirth, is attained. What this means was interpreted different by the various Indian Buddhist schools. Some like the Vaibhāṣika school, held that Nirvana was a really existent transcendent reality (dravyasat), while others (Sautrāntika) held that Nirvana was merely a name for the total cessation of suffering and rebirth. Nirvana has also been claimed by some scholars to be identical with insight into anatta (non-self) and sunyata (emptiness), though this is hotly contested by other scholars and practicing monks.

Traditional sources distinguish between 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 (attained after the bodily death of a fully enlightened person). Nirvana, as the quenching of the three poisons (and all defilements) and the complete ending of all rebirth, is the most common soteriological aim in the Theravada tradition.

In Mahayana Buddhism, a further distinction is made between the "abiding" nirvana (equated with the nirvana of non-Mahayana Buddhism) and the Mahayanist nirvana which is "non-abiding" (apratiṣṭhita). In Mahayana, the highest goal is Buddhahood, which is seen as a non-abiding kind of nirvana that allows a Buddha is continue to manifest in samsara in order to guide living beings on the path. Thus, a Buddha is not 'stuck' or 'fixed' in a transcendent reality, nor does a Buddha dissolve into a state of cessation, but continues to manifest in the world through countless transformation bodies (nirmāṇakāya), while also retaining a transcendent dimension (saṃbhogakāya).