Difference between Nirvana and Moksha

[biased]

What is the difference between Moksha and Nirvana?

 

[DreadFish]

The simple answer would be that they are roughly synonymous. I guess each one has slightly different connotations based on the different tradition's beliefs of what freedom from samsara actually implies and involves. Moksha means "release" and nirvana means "extinguishing" like the blowing out of a candle flame.

The word nirvana has been used by Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism to describe the state of release but, its mostly used by Buddhists and Jains. I haven't really read the word moksha used much in a Buddhist or Jain context, but that doesn't mean that it's exclusively a Hindu term. They are different words that refer to similar ideas of release from the cycle of death and rebirth.

I think this site explains it decently:

In Hinduism the present life is considered to be the result of many lifetimes of past desires, actions and the results of those actions. The results of these previous actions are unfolding at every moment. Some actions are mature and bearing fruit at the present moment, other actions are laying as "seed" waiting to mature at a future time. All that we have done in the past creates who we are in the present and all that we do in the present is creating who we will be in the future. In this way, there is great cycle of desire, action and reaction that drives the wheel of life, and as a result, all beings are forced to remain within this world in order to experience the fruit of their desires and actions. Desire and action are said to be the source of reincarnation. Beings continue to "rotate" through endless lifetimes in this physical world. Sometimes in heaven (nice places), sometimes in the middle regions (medium places) and sometimes in hellish realms. This rotation through endless lifetimes is the process of reincarnation called samsara in Sanskrit. The ultimate goal of life in Hinduism is to break this cycle of reincarnation, to escape samsara. Breaking this cycle is done through the process of yoga, and freedom or liberation from the cycle of rebirth is called moksha.

A slightly different version of moksha is nirvana. Literally the word nivana means "extinguishing" and in this case it means extinguishing one's material existence. Sometimes one's desire which leads to action and reaction is compared to a flame. "The blazing fire of material life," is an expression often heard. Extinguish or "put out" one's material existence and one has achieved liberation. This is nirvana. The word nirvana is more used in Buddhism than it is in Hinduism.

Source

 

[Ablaze]

They are more or less equivalent, although in the West, the Sanskrit term mokṣa (Pali: mokkha) has come to be associated with Hinduism, while its synonymous Sanskrit term nirvāṇa (Pali: nibbāna) is now widely associated with Buddhism.

However, mokṣa/mokkha is just as relevant to Buddhism as it is to Hinduism.

For instance, the Pāṭimokkha (a major Buddhist text in monastic training) incorporates the Pali term mokkha and roughly translates to "The Path Toward Release." There are 183 occurrences, in total, of the term mokkha in the Vinaya Piṭaka, the canonical basket on the code of discipline for Buddhist monks and nuns, while the same term occurs 357 times in the Sutta Piṭaka, the canonical basket of discourses attributed to the Buddha and his disciples. Comparatively, the term nibbāna occurs only 10 times in the Vinaya and a whopping 915 times in the Suttas.

Briefly, the term mokṣa (mokkha) tends to imply the attainment of a positive state of release, while nirvāṇa (nibbāna) is seen as a negation of suffering, a "coolness" and an "unbinding" of sorts, often conveyed through the image of a flame that is extinguished, having no longer been fed by fuel, though not in the sense of annihilation.

Although they typically occur in slightly different contexts, both terms are roughly synonymous and equally relevant, at least to the Buddhist tradition.

 

[chinu]

What is the difference between Moksha and Nirvana?

The word Moksha is used for "liberation" from matter and time, and the word Nirvana used for "state of affair" which one gets after liberating from matter and time.

They are one the same things, indeed.