Buddhist Concept of Nirvana

Nirvana

Religious doctrine usually includes some form of salvation as a reward for good behavior and for keeping to the tenets of the religion. Each religion treats this general idea in its own way. For the Christian, right behavior lead to salvation from permanent death and promises an afterlife in heaven. In Buddhism, the promise is not of an afterlife but of a reward in this world, a reward in the form of perfect peace through a mind free of craving and unwanted emotion. Nirvana is a state of mind and an achievement in itself, for nirvana is that state of mind to which the adherent aspires. It is considered the highest form of happiness and is achieved only by the most dedicated follower of the Buddha.

The conception of salvation usually relates to the idea of some ultimate value or being, and it can be thought of as an identity with such an ultimate state or being. It is most frequently thought of as a kind of communion with a personal Lord in a heavenly place. There are different means offered whereby the individual may gain liberation or final communion. In those religions where God is a personal object of worship, salvation typically has to be effected by the deity, though the individual may cooperate even if it is only by calling to the divine for salvation. In religions where there is no such personal God, the individual must prepare himself or herself, often through rigorous methods, to be in a position to gain eternal freedom. There are also different emphases in different religions on whether salvation is something that occurs after death or whether it is something that can be attained in life.

In China, Buddhism is the dominant religion. Buddhism has a very different conception of the relationship between man and nature from that of Christianity and a different sense of the meaning of salvation and the route to achieve it. Salvation in Buddhism is an escape from the suffering of this world and is stated as the third of the Four Noble Truths, the extinction of suffering, a turning away that is possible only for the person who has recognized that everything is fleeting, subject to suffering, and without a self and yet who can face everything with serenity even with this knowledge.

For the Buddhist, salvation is found in the state of nirvana, which involves the elimination of all pain and desire. It is essentially a way of escaping from immortality. The Four Noble Truths extend back some 2,500 years and have shaped the way the culture has developed.

The Christian world view developed as an image of this world as a world of woe, with life tending toward salvation in the next. The Hindu and Buddhist world views both tend more toward visions of the correct life in this world, though in India, the Islamic influence creates expectations more like those of Christianity. The three religions also exert different levels of control, with Christianity being more controlling while Buddhism is more an individual religion leaving the individual to seek out his own truth through the practices of the religion. The culture of these three civilizations reflect some of the same differences, though all three claim to seek some form of reconciling of opposites in this world.

Two kinds of truth are found in the teachings of the Buddha, the truth of this world and the truth which is the highest sense. The highest awareness is needed for the release that is salvation in Buddhism, and this is achieved through pratEQ O (O, i) tyasamutpEQ O (O, a) da, the ultimate affirmation. Four soteriological paths are identified in the literature: 1) ascetic practices; 2) the pratimoksa, or monastic discipline; 3) the bodhisattva path; and 4) the Vajrayana, or "diamond vehicle."

PratEQ O (O, i) tyasamutpEQ O (O, a) da is seen as the most important method of the Middle Way, the relationship of humanity to nature, a pluralist view of the inter-relatedness of all the entities which constitute the universe. In the Middle Way, undivided being is ultimately reality, eternal and unconditioned, while immediate, conditioned inter-relatedness is understood in terms of the mundane truth of pratEQ O (O, i) tyasamutpEQ O (O, a) da, or conditioned or dependent origination:

There is thus in the Middle Way a vision of the entire world as a grand system where all specific entities are inter-related, and where also it is possible to be aware of being on one's ultimate nature not divided from the Undivided. This requires that understanding and practice go hand in hand, and reinforce each other.

As the basics of Buddhism were transferred from India to China, the basics of Zen were also transferred form China to Japan. Different branches of Buddhism co-existed. One branch held that the Path was too difficult for ordinary people and that only a monk could undertake to seek the enlightenment of a saint. This approach is called Hinayana and is followed in Burma, Ceylon, and Thailand, though adherents prefer to call this approach Theravada, meaning the Teaching of the Elders. The more popular approach has been that which spread to China and Japan as Mahayana, in which "the saint is not the Arhat who has enough to save himself, but the Bodhisattva who is capable of attaining Nirvana and turns back until all beings are saved." This approach would lead to the development of Zen and to its transfer to Japan, with nirvana in this case being "a positive state expressed negatively. It is awakening for the good life here and now, in medication-and-action, with determination to help other people toward this awakening; though each man must attain it for himself."

The Buddhist conception developed by Buddha in the sixth and seventh centuries A.D. includes the then prevailing Indian conception of transmigration, though Buddha was not happy with the way this conception was voiced by Hindu religious leaders of his time. He denied their conception of the soul as a spiritual substance: "Authentic child of India, he never doubted that reincarnation in some sense was a fact, but he was openly uncomfortable over the way his Brahmanic contemporaries were interpreting the concept."

Buddha only gives a minimal description of his own views on the subject, however. He used the image of a flame being passed from candle to candle: "As it is difficult to think of the flame on the last candle as being in any meaningful sense the same as the original flame, the connection would seem instead to be a causal one in which influence was transmitted by chain reaction but not substance." Buddha also offered his acceptance of karma, and combining this with his sense of transmigration, Smith describes the Buddhist conception of Buddha's views on salvation as follows:

1) A chain of causation exists that threads each life to those which have led up to it and others which will follow. This means that each life is in the condition it is in because of the way the lives were led that lead up to it and that subsequent lives will have a condition based in part on how this life is led.

2) Man's will remains free in the midst of this causal sequence. Up to a point, acts will be followed by predictable consequences, but these consequences never shackle the human will or determine completely what the human being is to do. The human being always remains a free agent, always at liberty to do something to change his or her destiny.

3) While this assumes the importance of causal connections in life, it does not require the notion of a lump of mental substance that is passed from life to life -- this is a reference to the earlier Hindu conception of the soul as spiritual substance. All that can be found passed from life to life are impressions, ideas, feelings, "streams of consciousness," "present moments," and no underlying spiritual substrata.

Smith also offers an analogy to show the ingredients of Buddha's combined views of reincarnation and karma. He says that in the realm of ideas the thoughts that fill the mind are not there by accident but have definite histories: "Apart from the conditioning impact which the minds of my teachers, my parents, and the molders of Western civilization have exerted upon me, they could not possibly have come into being." However, this does not mean that we have to pass on these ideas unchanged, and instead we may alter and add to them. Ideas need not be regarded, though, as entities, things, or mental substances that are in any way physically transmitted.

As noted, there are four paths to achieving salvation under this conception. The ascetic practices involve seclusion of the body and restraint of speech. There are usually thirteen practices listed, and these go back to the time when the Buddha was alive. These practices are meant to purify the mind and make it fit for the "pure life." The monastic approach fosters seclusion of the mind, as with monks and nuns. The path of Bodhisattva sees the practitioner as progressing along an upward-oriented path of ten stages. The first seven stages are subject to spiritual retrogression, while the last three are irreversible. The first seven stages represent the gradual elimination of the "hindrance of defilement," while the last three are the gradual elimination of the "hindrance of the knowable. The Vajrayana is also called the mantra path and is intended to quicken the progress to enlightenment by employing the three avenues of body, speech, and mind through the use of gesture, incantation, and intense concentration.

Salvation in Buddhism is an escape from the suffering of this world and is stated as the third of the Four Noble Truths: "This is the truth of the extinction of suffering: It is the complete turning away from desire, the extinguishing, rejecting, abandoning of desire." This turning away is possible only for the person who has recognized that everything is fleeting, subject to suffering, and without a self and yet who can face everything with serenity even with this knowledge. Salvation in Buddhism leads to a state of nirvana, the extinguishing of pain and desire.

Buddhist practice is intended to achieve Buddhahood, a state called dharmaka-ya, and this is also a state identified by the attainment of nirvana. Sallie B. King says that dharmaka-ya is the culmination of Buddhist practice and not a metaphysical entity as some believe:

The outstanding characteristic of the dharmaka-ya is said to be "all suffering being at rest." Its "flavor" is constituted by nonbacksliding and serene joy (803b). It is clear from the text that these are qualities that apply to persons, not to any transcendental absolute: "If there is someone who trains in the proper practice and seeks to perceive this truth (fa), when he realizes it, he obtains nonbacksliding and serene joy" (803b).

The internal references are to the Buddha Nature Treatise attributed to Vasubandhu and translated by Parama-rtha. The author of that document argues that nirvana is not the end of a process of spiritual cultivation but rather "abides eternally" (805b), yet nirvana can be known in the dharmaka-ya.

Life as it is usually lived is identified as samsara, the endless suffering associated with the cycle of birth and rebirth, and in opposition to this is nirvana, an escape from the cycle. The attainment if certain knowledge and the development of certain practices are deemed necessary "for gaining liberation from Samsara." One of the obstacles to this is deemed cognitive error, or wrong modes of thinking, and there are usually four of these identified, as follows: "(1) taking that which is impermanent to be permanent; (2) taking that which is unsatisfactory to be satisfactory; (3) taking that which is impure to be pure; and (4) taking that which is not a self to be one." Such errors are in turn based on deeper errors about the nature of the self. Griffiths cites the explanation offered in one of the digests, as follows:

Maitreya, all the eloquent discourse spoken by Buddha can be recognized in four ways.Which four? Maitreya, the four are: (1) [Buddha's] eloquent discourse is useful and not useless; (2) it conforms to doctrine, not to its opposite; (3) it destroys the passions rather than increasing them; and (4) it shows the good qualities and advantages of Nirvana rather than those of Samsara.Whoever, Maitreya, discourses eloquently in these four ways, or will so discourse in the future, will be thought of as Buddha by faithful men and women.Considering such a person as teacher, they will listen to his doctrine. Why? Because, Maitreya, everything that is well spoken is spoken by Buddha.

Gautama Buddha in his first "sermon" at Benares taught the Middle Way and told his followers But Gautama, in his first 'sermon' at Benares, preached a Middle Way. His followers that they "were to avoid sensuality, on the one hand, and, on the other, the extremes of asceticism which he himself had practiced in vain. He seems to have shared with his contemporaries a pessimistic valuation of the ceaseless round of Ill, the grim cycle of repeated, frustrating existence in which men felt themselves to be trapped, and the pith of his teaching has often appeared as a diagnosis of cause and effect, linking the suffering of life to man's wayward passions, hot desires, and consequent illusion." In fact, though, Buddha did not allow for pessimism and instead challenged each person to sustained effort, with the promise of a higher good in the form of peace, wisdom, enlightenment, nirvana.

Various commentators on Buddhism had explained nirvana in different ways. One cited by Guang Xing was Fazang, who "explains that a manifestation of the Buddha in the world serves to demonstrate the act of passing into nirva." The word itself appears in different forms, some of which are described by Kenneth W. Morgan in discussing the concept as Nibbana:

Nibbana is the result of the cessation of craving, of selfish desires. It may also be defined as the extinction of lust, hatred, and ignorance. The Pali word Nibbana is formed of ni and vana.Ni is a negative particle and vana means craving or selfish desire. Nibbana therefore literally means the absence of craving. The Sanskrit word Nirvana comes from the root va which means to blow, and the prefix nir which means off or out. Hence, Nirvana in its Sanskrit form means "the blowing out." It is understood to mean the blowing out of the flame of personal desire.

The author also agrees with other observers that nibbana or nirvana has had a negative connotation because it has been misunderstood as "nothingness" or "annihalation." Morgan notes how in some texts there are positive definitions "such as Highest Refuge, Safety, Unique, Absolute Purity, Supramundane, Security, Emancipation, Peace, and the like. Nibbana is therefore not a negative concept because it is the cessation of craving, a 'blowing out,' for it is a blowing out of man's desires, and that blowing out of desires leaves a man free. Nibbana is freedom, but not freedom from circumstances; it is freedom from the bonds with which we have bound ourselves to circumstances. That man is free who is strong enough to say, 'Whatever comes I accept as best.'" As a form of salvation, though, nirvana is a salvation in this world, the achievement of freedom. This does not mean freedom to do whatever one wishes, for that would not be freedom at all but slavery to one's desires:

Freedom means that one cannot be made a slave to anyone or anything, because one is free from personal desire, free from resentment, anger, pride, fear, impatience -- free from all craving. Such a man's binding emotions have been blown out like so many candles. That man is free here on earth. He has reached Nibbana in this world.

Joan Stambaugh notes how the concept of nirvana changed as Buddhism evolved. In early Buddhism, the concept was seen as "as some kind of release or liberation from the cycles of birth and death, or samsara. The growing trend in the development of Mahayana Buddhism was to focus, not on release from these cycles, but on the cycles themselves. The bodhisattva, for instance, does not enter final nirvana (parinirva-a) but returns to the cycles of birth and death in order to liberate other, ultimately all, living beings. It was Na-ga-rjuna who brought about the culmination of this development with his statement that there was no essential difference between samsara and nirvana."

Stambaugh points out that it cannot be correct to say that nirvana is a release from samsara and then have this later comment that samsara is nirvana and that there is no liberation from samsara and no liberation necessary. As she sates, "he fundamental issue at stake here is a philosophical as well as a soteriological one: how to think 'identity,' how to think 'difference.'" Stambaugh herself cannot answer the question raised with any degree of concrete-ness and instead states, "Thus, questions, even when they don't have answers, are crucial. In fact, there are times when a question is the most appropriate way to express or 'utter' the inexpressible."

Christopher W. Gowans notes that while nirvana is attained in this life, there is a second component in nirvana-after-death, part of the escape from the cycle of rebirth. He also notes that when the Buddha described the Third Noble ruth, he depicted a state free of suffering, stating, "Now this, bhikkhus, is the noble truth of the cessation of suffering: it is the remainderless fading away and cessation of that same craving, the giving up and relinquishing of it, freedom from it, nonreliance on it." The Buddha does not use the word "nirvana" in any form in this passage, but Gowans says this is clearly what is meant by the description, as indicated elsewhere:

This is evident in the Buddha's description of a person who, having seen the aggregates as impermanent, suffering and not-self, 'turns his mind away from those states and directs it towards the deathless element thus: "This is the peaceful, this is the sublime, that is, the stilling of all formations, the relinquishing of all attachments, the destruction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibba-na" (M 540). To destroy craving is to attain Nibba-na, and this undermines suffering, which has its origin in craving. Nibba-na is the state of health that is the complete cure of the disease of suffering: 'The greatest of all gains is health. Nibba-na is the greatest bliss' (M 613). Nibba-na is clearly the focal point of the Buddha's teaching. He says he teaches the Four Noble Truths because they lead 'to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to peace, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibba-na' (M 536). We are told that the Buddha 'has attained Nibba-na and he teaches the Dhamma for attaining Nibba-na' (M 330).

The internal references are to The Middle Discourse of the Buddha. Gowans also offers an extensive analysis of the different meanings of the term found in the teachings of the Buddha:

The concept of Nibba-na has several different senses in the Buddha's teaching. In the Itivuttaka, he says there are 'two Nibba-na-elements' - that 'with residue left'and that 'with no residue left.'On the one hand, there is an arahant 'whose taints are destroyed' and who has been 'completely released through final knowledge.' But 'his five sense faculties remain unimpaired, by which he still experiences what is agreeable and disagreeable and feels pleasure and pain.' The Buddha says, 'It is the extinction of attachment, hate, and delusion in him that is called the Nibba-na-element with residue left [sa-upa-disesa-nibba-nadha-tu].' On the other hand, he says, for an arahant 'here in this very life, all that is experienced, not being delighted in, will be extinguished.' This refers to 'the Nibba-na-element with no residue left [anupa-disesa-nibba-nadha-tu]' (U/I 181). An arahant is a fully enlightened person. The distinction is between an arahant who is still alive physically and one who is not, between a person who has attained Nibba-na-in-life and one who has attained Nibba-na-after-death. Each of these persons - or we might say (from our unenlightened perspective) one person first in one state, then in the other - has in some sense attained Nibba-na. For example, in both 'attachment, hate, and delusion' are extinguished. But there are important differences between the two. For instance, the first 'experiences what is agreeable and disagreeable,' while the second does not.