Editing Nirvana (section)

== Buddhism ==
{{main|Nirvana (Buddhism)}}

[[File:Gautama Buddha gains nirvana.jpg|thumb|right|275px|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".{{sfn|Collins|1998|p=191}} 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 (Buddhism)|saṃsāra]]'').<ref name="Meister2009p25"/>{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|pp=589–590}} Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on "cessation of dukkha" in the [[Four Noble Truths]] doctrine of Buddhism.{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|pp=589–590}} It is the goal of the [[Noble Eightfold Path]].{{Sfn|Keown|2004|pp=194–195}}

The Buddha is believed in the Buddhist scholastic tradition to have realized two types of nirvana, one at [[Enlightenment in Buddhism|awakening]], and another at his death.{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|p=590}} The first is called {{Transliteration|sa|sopadhishesa-nirvana}} (nirvana with a remainder), the second ''[[parinirvana]]'' or {{Transliteration|sa|anupadhishesa-nirvana}} (nirvana without remainder, or final nirvana).{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|p=590}}

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">{{cite web|title=nirvana|url=https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9055914/nirvana|access-date=22 October 2014|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|archive-date=16 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516235521/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9055914/nirvana|url-status=live}}</ref> The Buddhist texts identify these "three fires"{{sfn|Gombrich|2006|p=65}} or "three poisons" as ''[[Raga (Buddhism)|raga]]'' (greed, sensuality), ''[[dvesha]]'' (aversion, hate) and ''[[Avidyā (Buddhism)|avidyā]]'' or ''[[Moha (Buddhism)|moha]]'' (ignorance, delusion).{{sfn|Gombrich|2006|p=66}}{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|p=589}}

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,{{sfn|Buswell|Lopez|2014|pp=589–590}}  a fire going out for lack of fuel, abandoning weaving (''vana'') together of life after life,{{sfn|Collins|2010|pp=63-64}} and the elimination of desire.<ref>{{cite book|author=Charles S. Prebish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cILDj-pXQVYC|title=Buddhism: A Modern Perspective|publisher=Penn State Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-271-03803-2|pages=134–135}}</ref>

Liberation is described as identical to ''[[anatta]]'' ({{Transliteration|sa|anatman}}, non-self, lack of any self).<ref>{{harvnb|Collins|1990|pp=82, 84}}: "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">{{cite book|author=Sue Hamilton|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iR-OAQAAQBAJ|title=Early Buddhism: A New Approach : the I of the Beholder|publisher=Routledge|year=2000 |isbn=978-0-7007-1280-9|pages=18–21}} 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>{{cite book|author1=Paul Williams |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v0Rpvycf1t0C&pg=PA61|title=Buddhist Thought|author2=Anthony Tribe |publisher=Routledge|year=2000|isbn=978-0-415-20701-0|pages=61|quote=He makes no mention of discovering the True Self in the Anattalakkhana Sutta. As we have seen, the Buddha explains how liberation comes from letting-go of all craving and attachment simply through seeing that things are not Self anatta. That is all there is to it. One cuts the force that leads to rebirth and suffering. There is no need to postulate a Self beyond all this. Indeed any postulated Self would lead to attachment, for it seems that for the Buddha a Self fitting the description could legitimately be a suitable subject of attachment. There is absolutely no suggestion that the Buddha thought there is some additional factor called the Self (or with any other name, but fitting the Self-description) beyond the five aggregates.}}</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">{{cite book|author=Mun-Keat Choong|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJafx7uO0VsC|title=The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|year=1999|isbn=978-81-208-1649-7|pages=1–4, 85–88|quote=Emptiness is a characteristically Buddhist teaching. The present study is concerned with this teaching of emptiness (P. sunnata, Skt. sunyata) as presented in the texts of early Buddhism. [...] The teaching of emptiness is recognized as the central philosophy of early Mahayana. However, this teaching exists in both early Buddhism and early Mahayana Buddhism, where it is connected with the meaning of conditioned genesis, the middle way, nirvana and not-self (P. anatta, Skt. anatman).|access-date=5 October 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055835/https://books.google.com/books?id=HJafx7uO0VsC|url-status=live}},</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ray Billington|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dACFAgAAQBAJ|title=Understanding Eastern Philosophy|publisher=Routledge|year=2002|isbn=978-1-134-79348-8|pages=58–60, 136|access-date=5 October 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055833/https://books.google.com/books?id=dACFAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}, 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>{{cite book|author=John J. Makransky|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I4qmkptncxQC|title=Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet|date=1997|publisher=State University of NYP
|isbn=978-0-7914-3431-4|page=85}}</ref> not just "destruction of desire" but a separate existent which is "the object of the knowledge" of the Buddhist path.{{sfn|Collins|2010|p=54}}