Written for the AQA syllabus by Upeksacitta (Robert Ellis), member of the Western Buddhist Order and a former Head of RS.
Nirvana (Nibbana in Pali)
What is nirvana?
Buddhists are often careful about saying too much about nirvana. It is discussed as the final goal, but also understood to be a state we cannot fully comprehend. So, it is important to keep it in mind as a source of inspiration, but at the same time to avoid reducing it to a mere 'thing', an object in samsara like our other, more immediate goals.
The primary way in which Buddhists relate to the ideal of nirvana is naturally through the Buddha. The Buddha personally embodies and symbolises nirvana. The Buddha reminds us that nirvana is not a place, but the state reached by a person. The qualities of ultimate wisdom and compassion possessed by the Buddha are also the ones we would expect to possess ourselves if we attained nirvana. The Buddha as a person also gives nirvana its mystery, since he attained that state during his lifetime but then, according to the traditional stories, passed on to a state known as parinirvana, where there is no rebirth. The Buddha refused to state whether he existed or did not exist in the state of parinirvana.
Descriptions of nirvana can be divided into four categories: the negative. the positive, the paradoxical and the symbolic.
Negative descriptions
Negative descriptions are likely to be the most accurate, since language is unable to decribe nirvana, and any positive descriptions are likely to give a partial or even misleading impression of it. Negative descriptions have a philosophical flavour.
An important negative description is attributed to the Buddha in the Udana:
There is, monks, that plane where there is neither extension, nor motion, nor the plane of infinite ether.... nor that of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, neither this world nor another, neither the moon nor the sun. here, monks, I say that there is no coming or going or remaining or deceasing or uprising, for this is itself without support, without continuance in samsara, without mental object - this is itself the end of suffering.
There is, monks, an unborn, not become, unmade, uncompounded, and were it not, monks, for this unborn, not become, not made, uncompounded, no escape could be shown here for what is born, has become, is made, is compounded. But because there is, monks, an unborn, not become, unmade, uncompounded, therefore an escape can be shown, for what is born, has become, is made, is compounded.
The Buddha here continually describes nirvana in terms of what it is not, simply on the grounds that this is the only way the unenlightened can relate to it with any accuracy. Nevertheless, he seems to be affirming its existence. Whether the Buddha here just stating what he believes from his own experience, or whether he also thinks that his followers must believe it, is more debatable: for it seems that anything that we may believe in about nirvana is likely to be misleading.
Positive Descriptions
Attempts to describe enlightenment in a positive way can be sub-divided according to the terms in which they describe it: as feeling or emotion, as knowledge, as will, as consciousness, and as a form (rupa).
As Feeling or Emotion nirvana is described as the supreme bliss or enjoyment, a peace which is beyond all earthly turmoil, as love (maitri/metta) or as compassion (Karuna). The description of enlightenment as an outward-flowing energy of love and compassion is particularly stressed in the Mahayana. But what is the difference between the love experienced by the enlightened and by the unenlightened? Whilst we only love beings whom we mistakenly think of as individuals, an enlightened being loves beings even whilst recognising that they are impermanent, without self, and ultimately empty of form.
As Knowledge (Vidya) nirvana is described as perfect wisdom or insight, as knowledge of things as they really are. This really becomes less a matter of knowing but of seeing, of being without illusions. This does not mean the Buddha is omniscient in the sense of knowing all facts, or that he can never make mistakes because of facts that he does not know. A famous story of a mistake by the Buddha is when he recommended meditation on death to a group of monks who subsequently committed suicide: he seems not to have realised that they were not positive enough to cope with that type of meditation.
As Will, nirvana is described as absolute freedom from all bonds and restrictions. Even things which we might perceive as done under a sense of duty and responsibility to others are done absolutely freely. The enlightened person is normally described as still subject to normal physical restrictions (such as gravity) and freed only in a mental sense: although the reports of miracles performed by the Buddha and of the siddhas (magical powers) attained by great meditators seem to contradict this.
As Consciousness. Enlightened beings are said to experience a pure, blissful, radiant and infinite state of consciousness, free of the defiling habits and tendencies produced by karma. One puzzle in relation to this is that the Buddha still meditated, so perhaps even in a state of enlightenment he needed to renew his mental energies from time to time.
As Form (Rupa) The ideal of enlightenment is expressed by Buddhists in many symbolic forms, including the stupa and the mandala. However the most common is the Buddha-figure or rupa. This makes it possible to relate to the incomprehensible ideas of enlightenment and to inspire oneself to seek it through devotion.
Paradoxical Descriptions
A paradox is an attempt to describe the indescribable by the use of contradictory ideas brought forcibly together. This throws the intellect off the scent, leaving the intuition with a better chance of understanding what is meant. This kind of description of Enlightenment is favoured by the Mahayana, especially the Prajñaparamita and Zen traditions: its aim is to make us more aware that there is in fact no satisfactory verbal description. Nirvana should be attained by means of non-attainment. One should abide in a state of non-abiding. Nirvana is in fact no different from samsara, and samsara the same as nirvana. There is no path and no goal.
Symbolical Descriptions
Symbolical descriptions of nirvana avoid the drawback of leading us into thinking that nirvana is only an abstract idea: they fill it with colour and allow it to speak to the unconscious as well as the conscious mind, though they may be a trap for those who take them too literally. At their simplest these are just metaphors: Nirvana is a Cool Cave, the Island in the Floods, the Farther Shore, the Holy City.
A more complex symbolical description of enlightenment is found in two Mahayana scriptures called the Greater and Lesser Sukhavati-Vyuha Sutras, these describe the 'Happy Land' or Sukhavati, which is said to be a land in which enlightenment can be easily achieved in one lifetime. For this reason, followers of the Pure Land Schools of Japanese and Chinese Buddhism think of their goal as being reborn in the Pure land rather than as attaining enlightenment directly. The descriptions of the Pure Land can be interpreted as an attempt to describe enlightenment in images which will inspire the unenlightened. Sangharakshita provides a summary of it:
Nirvana is expressed not abstractly but in terms of a harmonious disposition of images aglow with supernatural life and movement. Though music and perfumes are not absent, the impression is predominantly one of light and colour. Against a background of radiance millions of rays and beams spring up, intersect, and weave themselves into incredibly beautiful patterns. Rainbows appear and disappear. There is a shining forth as of silver and gold and everything flashes as though with strings and nets of multicoloured gems. Flowers fall like rain. At the centre of this blaze of splendour, its focal point and its crown, sits as Lord of the Happy land the Buddha of the Mahayana, the rays converging into a canopy above his head, the flowers at his feet, and his unnumbered auditors ranged in attitudes of expectancy and devotion on all sides.
Questions to Consider
1. What is unsatisfactory about each of the types of description? Make a list of the difficulties associated with each.
2. What are the advantages of each type of description? Are there any which appeal to you more than the others?
Problems relating to nirvana
In the Questions of King Milinda, a number of traditional difficulties associated with nirvana are explored, in response to questions from the sceptical Greek king. These include how we know nirvana to be good, how it can be caused when it is unconditioned, and whether the enlightened feel pleasure.
Read Buddhist Scriptures p.155-162, making notes on the problems and the solutions Nagasena provides. Also discuss whether or not you are convinced by the solutions he offers.
Further Reading
Cush p.29-33 & 68-9
Sangharakshita Guide p.202-210
Williams Buddhist Thought p.47-52
Past questions
Outline the understanding of nibbana found in Theravada Buddhism, and assess the claim that nibbana cannot be defined with any degree of accuracy.