This paper examines the Buddhist concept of nirvana as the highest form of salvation and happiness, tracing its origins in the Four Noble Truths and the teachings of the historical Buddha. The paper explores the etymology of the term, the four soteriological paths—ascetic practices, monastic discipline, the Bodhisattva path, and the Vajrayana—and the distinction between nirvana-in-life and nirvana-after-death. It also considers how the concept evolved across Theravada, Mahayana, and Zen (Ch'an) Buddhism, addresses common misunderstandings about nirvana as mere annihilation, and reflects on the philosophical tensions between nirvana and samsara as articulated by thinkers such as Nāgārjuna.
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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 leads 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 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 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 perpetual existence in suffering. The Four Noble Truths extend back some 2,500 years and have shaped the way Buddhist culture has developed.
The Christian worldview developed as an image of this world as a world of woe, with life tending toward salvation in the next. The Hindu and Buddhist worldviews both tend more toward visions of the correct life in this world, though in India, Islamic influence creates expectations more like those of Christianity. The three religions also exert different levels of control: Christianity is more prescriptively controlling, while Buddhism is more an individual religion, leaving the individual to seek out his own truth through the practices of the religion. The cultures 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 in the highest sense. The highest awareness is needed for the release that is salvation in Buddhism, and this is achieved through pratītyasamutpāda, 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."
Pratītyasamutpāda 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 that 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 pratītyasamutpāda, 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 it is also possible to be aware of one's ultimate nature as 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 from China to Japan. Different branches of Buddhism coexisted. 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 meditation-and-action, with determination to help other people toward this awakening; though each man must attain it for himself."
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.
As noted, there are four paths to achieving salvation under Buddhist teaching. The ascetic practices involve seclusion of the body and restraint of speech. There are usually thirteen practices listed, which 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 practiced by monks and nuns.
The path of the Bodhisattva sees the practitioner 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 accomplish 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.
Buddhist practice is ultimately intended to achieve Buddhahood, a state called dharmakāya, which is also identified with the attainment of nirvana. Sallie B. King argues that dharmakāya is the culmination of Buddhist practice and not a metaphysical entity as some believe:
"The outstanding characteristic of the dharmakāya 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 Paramārtha. 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 dharmakāya.
"Buddha's teachings on karma and transmigration"
"Etymology, positive meaning, and freedom in nirvana"
"Nirvana's evolution across Buddhist schools"
The concept of nirvana is itself difficult to grasp, and the Buddha found it impossible to describe to one who had not experienced it. It has been described in more general terms, but not so that one could understand what it is without first shedding the self, a difficult task in itself. Adherents can explain what this means but cannot describe how it manifests itself or what insights it brings to one who has not attained this level of understanding.
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