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What Does Nirvana Mean?

What does nirvana mean?


  • Total voters
    21

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
"Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness."

Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Why?
 

FatMan

Well-Known Member
I agree with your latter part. I always thought Nirvana was a place of extreme peacefulness. I no more look at it as heaven as I do Utopia.
 

Scarlett Wampus

psychonaut
Sunstone said:
"Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness."

Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Why?
I would agree with it. 'The only pain we can avoid is the pain of avoiding pain. You can either have the agony of life or the agony of neurosis.'

While the pain of living comes and goes neurotic pain continues indefinitely in a loop of self-perpetuation until its possible to accept that life can suck sometimes. Although easy to understand in principle we're complicated creatures and attachment goes deep, deep, deep - right back to our earliest experiences which are also part of the society and culture we live in. Neurosis is also part of our nature too. Thus putting an end to attachment extends beyond the individual to the collective and is not something that could conceivably end once and for all unless human existence as we know it were to end.

I think this guy has a helpful view on things.
 

autonomous1one1

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Sunstone said:
"Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness."

Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Why?
Greetings Sunstone. I guess it is appropriate for all us 'non-Buddhist' to respond, lol, but I am sure Mystic or others will straighten us out. I voted for 'other' because I think Nirvana is much more than your statement or the choices for voting. To me it is transcendental and much more akin to Enlightenment.
 

wizanda

One Accepts All Religious Texts
Premium Member
If Nirvana means the breath, wouldn’t that be the core of existence and the light, that enlightenment stems from being God.
If the breath of life comes from God at all times, and God is within oneness, then in understanding that, we also become part of that breath and so be at one.
 

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Sunstone said:
"Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness."

Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Why?
I disagree that it's a "Buddhist heaven," that sounds like someone trying to fit it into their own symbols; and I disagree that it is nothingness, because it speaks to me of somethingness. I find the definition line agreeable: it sounds very much like an acknowledgement, both of the nature of our existence and, as a result, that negativity is unnecessary (even as a polarization of positivity). We should make the best of this world we have.
 

Halcyon

Lord of the Badgers
I agree with the statement. Nirvana isn't a place, but a state of being, it's not like the Christian heaven. It isn't nothingness either because, well, there is no such thing as nothingness.
Nirvana is enlightenment or awakening, being at peace with who you really are, your place within the world and acceptance of change.
 

Ozzie

Well-Known Member
Sunstone said:
"Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness."

Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Why?
I agree. "Overcoming" attachment requires a deep mental operation. This is where terms like:
"letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness"
take meaning in the context of performing that mental operation. The overcoming requires this understanding.

For me personally, the jury is still out on whether Nirvana is a place, a process, or both.
 

Reverend Rick

Frubal Whore
Premium Member
Some traditions teach that the aim of Buddhism is the actualization of nirvana, which is a form of enlightenment which is distinctly spiritual as well as earthly.

Nirvana is neither nihilistic nor inclusive of all knowledge; it is a state associated with righteousness through moderation. Those who have achieved nirvana are free from samsara, or the cycle of death and rebirth.
 

lilithu

The Devil's Advocate
Sunstone said:
"Perhaps the most misunderstood term in Buddhism is the one which refers to the overcoming of attachment: nirvana. It literally means "blowing out," but is often thought to refer to either a Buddhist heaven or complete nothingness. Actually, it refers to the letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness."

Do you agree or disagree with the statement? Why?
No, I don't quite agree. "The letting go of clinging, hatred, and ignorance, and the full acceptance of imperfection, impermanence, and interconnectedness" are necessary for nibbana, but is not the same as nibbana. Nibbana does literally mean "blowing out" or extinguishing, and it refers ultimately to the cessation of samsara. It refers to the Unconditioned. This is not "Buddhist heaven." This is not "nothingness." Nibbana is none of the options that are listed.
 

wizanda

One Accepts All Religious Texts
Premium Member
I saw Buddha in Heaven on the left hand side of God's throne, so where do we get freedom of cycle of life and death.
Where is the highest dimension in the known universe? God!

Heaven is transcendental, it is made of unconditional love and wisdom, Buddha sits in wisdom as an elder...and that should make sense as Buddhi means wisdom.
Dom = place i.e. kingdom, freedom.
 

MysticSang'ha

Big Squishy Hugger
Premium Member
Lilithu is close, methinks. I didn't find anything in the poll relating to how I view nirvana, either.



Enlightenment is the cessation of all craving, but it isn't nirvana. To attain nirvana, one must be completely liberated from the samsaric cycle of birth-death-rebirth and from singular experiences in all the realms from human, to animal, to hell, to heaven, etc......It is nowhere yet everywhere. It is no one person but it is everyone. To say that it is a state of being, a state of existence, or even a state of mind is to bind it and put definitions on it which it is not meant to have.



One could even safely say that Gautama Buddha as an entity doesn't even exist anymore. He has transcended all of his collective karma and has become liberated from all ego-desires.



I hope this makes sense. I myself have a difficult time wrapping this concept around my tiny, wittle head, so I could be very wrong.



Peace,
Mystic
 

wizanda

One Accepts All Religious Texts
Premium Member
Nope you are not wrong, when we say transcendental we mean to have left the fabric of this reality, having been there it is nothing, yet is also pure consciousness….

If you understand this, it is no Christian ideology of heaven with gold and silver and riches, yet that of pure consciousness and what heaven is or its real name oneness.
This consists of two levels before we come to God (unconditional love and wisdom), which may appear a bright light on the outside, yet to look into the depths of God appears nothing, yet also everything.
That is why Buddha and those whom are wise, sit around the throne of God, yet sitting is a statement again, so also remove it.
This is difficult to explain, with and without giving figurative, so you can see what it is I look at in memory, yet to also understand it is timeless and nothing, so perception is with the eye of the beholder.
Which is why I explain in imagery and without, as I asked to see what it truly was in heaven, without my own preconceived ideas.
As are both of those elements of unconditional love and wisdom, which are a fabric of the universe, yet not solid and as such are nothingness, yet everything.
You see, who wants a heaven made of nothing and so million never find the place.
Yet those whom seek to be the breath (nirvana) they are also becoming that unconditional Love and wisdom, and so are happy to find a place, full of equal energies; that are no longer bothered, if they are real in the sense of here or not.
Yet in consciousness is the pure reality.
 

Hema

Sweet n Spicy
The concept of Nirvana actually originated from Hinduism. Buddhism came afterwards. Nirvana in Hinduism is another word for "Moksha" or salvation. When souls break free from the cycle of birth and death and become one with God, this is known as Moksha / Nirvana / Salvation. However, there are people who live in constant God Consciousness, who have all their chakras open and active, such folks attain enlightenment whilst still alive! Such people have attained Nirvana whilst still in the body, whereas the average person attains it after death. People such as these are like Saints, Sages etc. and since they have already attained enlightenment, they can choose when to give up the physical body.
 

Hema

Sweet n Spicy
jeffrey said:
I thought it was a great name for a band!

There's a band in Trinidad called Karma. They sing a mixture of Indian music and other types of music. I don't really listen to them although I loooove Indian music in general.
 

michel

Administrator Emeritus
Staff member
I had to cheat, because I was tempted to say what I thought - which would have been so lacking.
(From www.answers.com)
  1. Buddhism. The ineffable ultimate in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion.
  2. Hinduism. Emancipation from ignorance and the extinction of all attachment.
  3. An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy.
I would have gone for answer 3; the slight different nuances between the Buddhist and Hindu meanings are interesting.
 

wizanda

One Accepts All Religious Texts
Premium Member
Sort of in what you just said, if the breath is one, and all words spoken by God are for a reason, it is in understanding of your role within it, that you can then go.
You can’t blow against the wind.
 

autonomous1one1

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
MysticSang'ha said:
Lilithu is close, methinks. I didn't find anything in the poll relating to how I view nirvana, either.

Enlightenment is the cessation of all craving, but it isn't nirvana. To attain nirvana, one must be completely liberated from the samsaric cycle of birth-death-rebirth and from singular experiences in all the realms from human, to animal, to hell, to heaven, etc......It is nowhere yet everywhere. It is no one person but it is everyone. To say that it is a state of being, a state of existence, or even a state of mind is to bind it and put definitions on it which it is not meant to have.

One could even safely say that Gautama Buddha as an entity doesn't even exist anymore. He has transcended all of his collective karma and has become liberated from all ego-desires.

I hope this makes sense. I myself have a difficult time wrapping this concept around my tiny, wittle head, so I could be very wrong.

Peace,
Mystic
Greetings Mystic. I am a little confused and this is a very interesting subject. It seems to me that my definition of Enlightenment is more like your definition of Nirvana than it is like your definition of Enlightenment. I have always thought of Enlightenment - the being realizes identity with the source of all being. That definitely meets the criteria you mention for Nirvana in my book. I think that the definition comes from some writings about Hinduism - could it be that Enlightenment is different in Buddhism from Hinduism? We have Samadhi from Seyorni, Moksha from Hema, Illumination from YmirGF, Union from the Pope, and Theosis from JamesThePersian that are closely related here, also. To me they are all related to the same realization. How do you view them? I think we are still on topic since each concept helps understand the other and will help understand Nirvana.

EDIT: I see that Hema posted while I was writing this post and related some of the terms. Can we add 'Buddha-Nature' to the list?
 

autonomous1one1

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Hema said:
The concept of Nirvana actually originated from Hinduism. Buddhism came afterwards. Nirvana in Hinduism is another word for "Moksha" or salvation. When souls break free from the cycle of birth and death and become one with God, this is known as Moksha / Nirvana / Salvation. However, there are people who live in constant God Consciousness, who have all their chakras open and active, such folks attain enlightenment whilst still alive! Such people have attained Nirvana whilst still in the body, whereas the average person attains it after death. People such as these are like Saints, Sages etc. and since they have already attained enlightenment, they can choose when to give up the physical body.
Thank you, Hema! How do the two - Enlightenment and Nirvana - differ if both are achieved while one is still alive?
 
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