Nirvana

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Nirvana,Template:Refn in the Indian religions (Jainism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Sikhism), is the concept of an individual's passions being extinguished as the ultimate state of salvation, release, or liberation from suffering (duḥkha) and from the cycle of birth and rebirth (saṃsāra).<ref name="Meister2009p25">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="EB=Nirvana">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In Indian religions, nirvana is synonymous with moksha and mukti.Template:Refn All Indian religions assert it to be a state of perfect quietude, freedom, and highest happiness; liberation from attachment and worldly suffering; and the ending of samsara, the cycle of existence.<ref name="Flood">Gavin Flood, Nirvana. In: John Bowker (ed.), Oxford Dictionary of World Religions</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, non-Buddhist and Buddhist traditions describe these terms for liberation differently.<ref name="Loy 1982 pp. 65–74">Template:Cite journal</ref> In Hindu philosophy, it is the union of or the realization of the identity of Atman with Brahman, depending on the Hindu tradition.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn In Jainism, nirvana is also the soteriological goal, representing the release of a soul from karmic bondage and samsara.<ref>John E. Cort (1990), MODELS OF AND FOR THE STUDY OF THE JAINS, Method & Theory in the Study of Religion, Vol. 2, No. 1, Brill Academic, pages 42–71</ref> The Buddhist concept of nirvana is the abandonment of the 10 fetters, marking the end of rebirth by stilling the "fires" that keep the process of rebirth going.<ref name="Loy 1982 pp. 65–74"/>Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

EtymologyEdit

The ideas of spiritual liberation, with the concept of soul and Brahman, appear in Vedic texts and Upanishads, such as in verse 4.4.6 of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The term nirvana in the soteriological sense of "blown out, extinguished" state of liberation appears at many places in the Vedas and even more in the post-Buddhist Bhagavata Purana, however populist opinion does not give credit to either the Vedas or the Upanishads. Collins states, "the Buddhists seem to have been the first to call it nirvana."Template:Sfn This may have been deliberate use of words in early Buddhism, suggests Collins, since Atman and Brahman were described in Vedic texts and Upanishads with the imagery of fire, as something good, desirable and liberating.Template:Sfn Collins says the word nirvāṇa is from the verbal root Template:Transliteration "blow" in the form of past participle Template:Transliteration "blown", prefixed with the preverb Template:Transliteration meaning "out". Hence the original meaning of the word is "blown out, extinguished". (Sandhi changes the sounds: the v of Template:Transliteration causes Template:Transliteration to become Template:Transliteration, and then the r of Template:Transliteration causes retroflexion of the following n: Template:Transliteration+Template:Transliteration > nirvāṇa).Template:Sfn However the Buddhist meaning of nirvana also has other interpretations.

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."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

OverviewEdit

Nirvāṇa is a term found in the texts of all major Indian religions – Hinduism,Template:Sfn Jainism,<ref name="Glasenapp1999p234">Template:Cite book</ref> Buddhism,Template:Sfn and Sikhism.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn It refers to the profound peace of mind that is acquired with moksha, liberation from samsara, or release from a state of suffering, after respective spiritual practice or sādhanā.Template:Refn

The liberation from Saṃsāra developed as an ultimate goal and soteriological value in the Indian culture, and called by different terms such as nirvana, moksha, mukti and kaivalya. This basic scheme underlies Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, where "the ultimate aim is the timeless state of moksa, or, as the Buddhists first seem to have called it, nirvana."Template:Sfn Although the term occurs in the literatures of a number of ancient Indian traditions, the concept is most commonly associated with Buddhism.<ref name="EB=Nirvana" /> Some writers believe the concept was adopted by other Indian religions after it became established in Buddhism, but with different meanings and description, for instance the use of (Moksha) in the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita of the Mahabharata.Template:Sfn

The idea of moksha is connected to the Vedic culture, where it conveyed a notion of amrtam, "immortality",Template:Sfn Template:Sfn and also a notion of a timeless, "unborn", or "the still point of the turning world of time". It was also its timeless structure, the whole underlying "the spokes of the invariable but incessant wheel of time".Template:Refn The hope for life after death started with notions of going to the worlds of the Fathers or Ancestors and/or the world of the Gods or Heaven.Template:Sfn Template:Refn

The earliest Vedic texts incorporate the concept of life, followed by an afterlife in heaven and hell based on cumulative virtues (merit) or vices (demerit).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> However, the ancient Vedic Rishis challenged this idea of afterlife as simplistic, because people do not live an equally moral or immoral life. Between generally virtuous lives, some are more virtuous; while evil too has degrees, and either permanent heaven or permanent hell is disproportionate. The Vedic thinkers introduced the idea of an afterlife in heaven or hell in proportion to one's merit, and when this runs out, one returns and is reborn.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Krishan1997p17">Template:Cite book;
Template:Cite book</ref> The idea of rebirth following "running out of merit" appears in Buddhist texts as well.<ref>Template:Cite book
{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This idea appears in many ancient and medieval texts, as Saṃsāra, or the endless cycle of life, death, rebirth and redeath, such as section 6:31 of the MahabharataTemplate:Sfn and verse 9.21 of the Bhagavad Gita.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="ykrishanp24">Yuvraj Krishan (1988), Is Karma Evolutionary?, Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research, Volume 6, pages 24–26</ref>Template:Refn The Saṃsara, the life after death, and what impacts rebirth came to be seen as dependent on karma.Template:Sfn

BuddhismEdit

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File:Gautama Buddha gains nirvana.jpg

Traditional mural painting depicting Gautama Buddha entering parinirvana, Dharma assembly pavilion, Wat Botum Wattey Reacheveraram, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Nirvana (nibbana) literally means "blowing out" or "quenching".Template:Sfn It is the most used as well as the earliest term to describe the soteriological goal in Buddhism: the extinguishing of the passions, which also gives release from the cycle of rebirth (saṃsāra).<ref name="Meister2009p25"/>Template:Sfn Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on "cessation of dukkha" in the Four Noble Truths doctrine of Buddhism.Template:Sfn It is the goal of the Noble Eightfold Path.Template:Sfn

The Buddha is believed in the Buddhist scholastic tradition to have realized two types of nirvana, one at awakening, and another at his death.Template:Sfn The first is called Template:Transliteration (nirvana with a remainder), the second parinirvana or Template:Transliteration (nirvana without remainder, or final nirvana).Template:Sfn

In the Buddhist tradition, nirvana is described as the extinguishing of the fires, which are also said to cause rebirths and associated suffering.<ref name="EB_nirvana">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Buddhist texts identify these "three fires"Template:Sfn or "three poisons" as raga (greed, sensuality), dvesha (aversion, hate) and avidyā or moha (ignorance, delusion).Template:Sfn Template:Sfn

The state of nirvana is also described in Buddhism as cessation of all afflictions, cessation of all actions, cessation of rebirths and suffering that are a consequence of afflictions and actions,Template:Sfn a fire going out for lack of fuel, abandoning weaving (vana) together of life after life,Template:Sfn and the elimination of desire.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Liberation is described as identical to anatta (Template:Transliteration, non-self, lack of any self).<ref>Template:Harvnb: "Like all other things or concepts (dhammā) it is anattā, 'not-self. Whereas all 'conditioned things' (samkhāra – that is, all things produced by karma) are 'unsatisfactory and impermanent' (sabbe samkhāra dukkhā . . . aniccā) all dhammā whatsoever, whether conditioned things or the unconditioned nibbāna, are 'not-self (sabbe dhammā anattā). [...] The absolute indescribability of nirvana, along with its classification as anattā, 'not-self, has helped to keep the separation intact, precisely because of the impossibility of mutual discourse."</ref><ref name="suehamilton18">Template:Cite book Quote: "The corrected interpretation they offered, widely accepted to his day, still associated anatta with nirvana. What it means, it was now states, is that in order to achieve liberation you need to understand that you are not, and nor do you have, and nor have you ever been or had, an abiding self."</ref> In Buddhism, liberation is achieved when all things and beings are understood to be with no Self.<ref name="suehamilton18" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Nirvana is also described as identical to achieving sunyata (emptiness), where there is no essence or fundamental nature in anything, and everything is empty.<ref name="Choong1999p85">Template:Cite book,</ref><ref>Template:Cite book, Quote (p 59-60): "We may better understand what anatman implies if we examine Nagarjuna's concept of the void: shunyata or emptiness. Nagarjuna argued that there is no such thing as the fundamental nature, or essence, of anything. (...) In a word, all is emptiness, shunyata; instead of essence, there is a void. (...) everything is empty."; Quote (p 136): "What we can say, whichever branch of Buddhism we may have in mind, is that the state of nirvana, to which all Buddhists aspire, is like samadhi, a non-dual state. (...) the Buddhist concept of enlightened mind – bodhichitta – refers to a state beyond desire (dukkha) whereby the one who seeks nirvana has achieved shunyata, the emptiness or void described on pages 58–9."</ref> Yet, in Theravada Buddhism it is also seen as the only unconditioned existent,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> not just "destruction of desire" but a separate existent which is "the object of the knowledge" of the Buddhist path.Template:Sfn

HinduismEdit

The most ancient texts of Hinduism such as the Vedas and early Upanishads do not mention the soteriological term Nirvana.Template:Sfn This term is found in texts such as the Bhagavad GitaTemplate:Sfn and the Nirvana Upanishad, likely composed in the post-Buddha era.Template:Sfn The concept of Nirvana is described differently in Buddhist and Hindu literature.Template:Sfn Hinduism has the concept of Atman – the soul, self<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book; Quote: The atman is the self or soul.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> – asserted to exist in every living being, while Buddhism asserts through its anatman doctrine that there is no Atman in any being.<ref name=5sourcesanatta>[a] Anatta Template:Webarchive, Encyclopædia Britannica (2013), Quote: "Anatta in Buddhism, the doctrine that there is in humans no permanent, underlying soul. The concept of anatta, or anatman, is a departure from the Hindu belief in atman ("the self").";
[b] Steven Collins (1994), Religion and Practical Reason (Editors: Frank Reynolds, David Tracy), State Univ of New York Press, Template:ISBN, page 64; "Central to Buddhist soteriology is the doctrine of not-self (Pali: anattā, Sanskrit: anātman, the opposed doctrine of ātman is central to Brahmanical thought). Put very briefly, this is the [Buddhist] doctrine that human beings have no soul, no self, no unchanging essence.";
[c] John C. Plott et al (2000), Global History of Philosophy: The Axial Age, Volume 1, Motilal Banarsidass, Template:ISBN, page 63, Quote: "The Buddhist schools reject any Ātman concept. As we have already observed, this is the basic and ineradicable distinction between Hinduism and Buddhism";
[d] Katie Javanaud (2013), Is The Buddhist 'No-Self' Doctrine Compatible With Pursuing Nirvana? Template:Webarchive, Philosophy Now;
[e] David Loy (1982), Enlightenment in Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta: Are Nirvana and Moksha the Same?, International Philosophical Quarterly, Volume 23, Issue 1, pages 65–74</ref><ref>[a] Template:Cite book
[b] Template:Cite book,</ref> Nirvana in Buddhism is "stilling mind, cessation of desires, and action" unto emptiness, states Jeaneane Fowler, while nirvana in post-Buddhist Hindu texts is also "stilling mind but not inaction" and "not emptiness", rather it is the knowledge of true Self (Atman) and the acceptance of its universality and unity with Brahman.Template:Sfn

MokshaEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} The ancient soteriological concept in Hinduism is moksha, described as the liberation from the cycle of birth and death through self-knowledge and the eternal connection of Atman (soul, self) and metaphysical Brahman. Moksha is derived from the root Template:Transliteration (Template:Langx) which means free, let go, release, liberate; Moksha means "liberation, freedom, emancipation of the soul".<ref name=mmw>मुच Template:Webarchive Monier-Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary, Germany (2008)</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In the Vedas and early Upanishads, the word mucyate (Template:Langx)<ref name=mmw/> appears, which means to be set free or release – such as of a horse from its harness.

The traditions within Hinduism state that there are multiple paths (Template:Langx) to moksha: Template:Transliteration, the path of knowledge; Template:Transliteration, the path of devotion; and Template:Transliteration, the path of action.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Brahma-nirvana in the Bhagavad GitaEdit

The term Brahma-nirvana appears in verses 2.72 and 5.24-26 of the Bhagavad Gita.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> It is the state of release or liberation; the union with the Brahman.<ref name="Flood" /> According to Easwaran, it is an experience of blissful egolessness.Template:Sfn

According to Zaehner, Johnson and other scholars, nirvana in the Gita is a Buddhist term adopted by the Hindus.Template:Sfn Zaehner states it was used in Hindu texts for the first time in the Bhagavad Gita, and that the idea therein in verse 2.71–72 to "suppress one's desires and ego" is also Buddhist.Template:Sfn According to Johnson the term nirvana is borrowed from the Buddhists to confuse the Buddhists, by linking the Buddhist nirvana state to the pre-Buddhist Vedic tradition of metaphysical absolute called Brahman.Template:Sfn

According to Mahatma Gandhi, the Hindu and Buddhist understanding of nirvana are different because the nirvana of the Buddhists is shunyata, emptiness, but the nirvana of the Gita means peace and that is why it is described as brahma-nirvana (oneness with Brahman).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

JainismEdit

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File:Kalpasutra Mahavira Nirvana.jpg

Kalpasutra folio on Mahavira Nirvana. Note the crescent shaped Siddhashila, a place where all siddhas reside after nirvana.

The terms moksa and nirvana are often used interchangeably in the Jain texts.<ref>Template:Cite book: "Moksa and Nirvana are synonymous in Jainism". p. 168</ref><ref>Michael Carrithers, Caroline Humphrey (1991) The Assembly of listeners: Jains in society Cambridge University Press. Template:ISBN: "Nirvana: A synonym for liberation, release, moksa." p. 297</ref>

File:Photo of lord adinath bhagwan at kundalpur.JPG

Rishabhanatha, believed to have lived millions of years ago, was the first Tirthankara to attain nirvana.

Uttaradhyana Sutra provides an account of Sudharman – also called Gautama, and one of the disciples of Mahavira – explaining the meaning of nirvana to Kesi, a disciple of Parshva.<ref name="Jacobi 1895">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Refn

There is a safe place in view of all, but difficult of approach, where there is no old age nor death, no pain nor disease. It is what is called nirvāṇa, or freedom from pain, or perfection, which is in view of all; it is the safe, happy, and quiet place which the great sages reach. That is the eternal place, in view of all, but difficult of approach. Those sages who reach it are free from sorrows, they have put an end to the stream of existence. (81–4) – Translated by Hermann Jacobi, 1895{{#if:|{{#if:|}}
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SikhismEdit

The concept of liberation as "extinction of suffering", along with the idea of sansara as the "cycle of rebirth" is also part of Sikhism.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Nirvana appears in Sikh texts as the term Nirban.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Singha2000p148">Template:Cite book</ref> However, the more common term is Mukti or Moksh,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> a salvation concept wherein loving devotion to God is emphasized for liberation from endless cycle of rebirths.<ref name="Singha2000p148"/> In Sikhism Nirvana is not an after life concept but a goal for the living. Furthermore, Sikh nirvana/mukti is achieved through devotion to satguru/truth who sets you free from reincarnation bharam/superstition/false belief.

ManichaenismEdit

The term Nirvana (also mentioned is parinirvana) is in the 13th or 14th century Manichaean work "The great song to Mani" and "The story of the Death of Mani", referring to the realm of light.<ref>Willis Barnstone, Marvin Meyer The Gnostic Bible: Revised and Expanded Edition Shambhala Publications 2009 Template:ISBN page 669</ref>

ReferencesEdit

External linksEdit

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Nirvana

Contents

EtymologyEdit

OverviewEdit

BuddhismEdit

HinduismEdit

MokshaEdit

Brahma-nirvana in the Bhagavad GitaEdit

JainismEdit

SikhismEdit

ManichaenismEdit

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

NotesEdit

CitationsEdit

Works citedEdit

Further readingEdit

External linksEdit