Written by: Diya Bajracharya - 23021, Grade XII
Posted on: 14 February, 2023
Nirvana clearly means the ‘blowing out’ or ‘quenching’ of the worldly mind's activities and associated sorrows. Nirvana is the Buddhist path's goal, and it signifies spiritualistic liberation from world sorrow. Nirvana is a portion of the Four Noble Truths' Third Truth on ‘cessation of dukkha’, and the ‘summum bonum’ of Buddhism and the aim of the Eightfold Path.
Nirvana literally means ‘quenching’ or ‘blowing out’ exactly like when a candle's flame extinguishes. But, what exactly are we blowing out? Is it one's soul, ego, or sense of self? The soul cannot be blasted away since Buddhism denies that such a thing can exist. Although Nirvana surely entails a dramatically modified state of awareness that is free from the fixation of ‘me and mine’, it is also to be pointed out that the ego or one's sense of identity can vanish. ‘The end of greed, hate, and illusion’ is the most basic definition of Nirvana-in-this-life. Nirvana-in-this-life is clearly a psychological and ethical reality. Peace, profound spiritual delight, compassion, and a refined and delicate awareness describe this altered condition of personality. The enlightened mind is free of negative mental states and emotions like doubt, worry, anxiety, and fear.
Buddha discouraged speculation about the nature of Nirvana and instead emphasized the need of striving for it. ‘The lack of desire’ to ‘blowing out’ and ‘cessation’ are all descriptions of Nirvana in early literature. What we can be sure of, however, is that it means the end of suffering and rebirth.
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 is attained. In time, with the development of Buddhist doctrine, other interpretations were given, such as the absence of the weaving of activity of the mind.
