Nirvana, the image and its meaning

Something has come to an end

Imagine a world in which nobody ever makes you angry. A world in which you have no fear of anything. A world in which you lack nothing that's necessary right now. A world without craving, in which you are impatient for nothing, without either greed for things you want, nor aversion for things you don't want. A world in which you can look, unfazed, at all life holds, its changes and surprises, its comings and goings. A world in which you live experiencing whatever each day may hold. And a world in which you experience a deep and abiding happiness.

That isn't some make-believe world. That world is real, and it's the world in which each of us lives, right now. Perhaps you don't recognise it. Many of us don't recognise it. We're too busy trying to create our own version of the world we want to live in that we can't see that life is already perfect.

The world I described has a name. The early Buddhists, including the people who composed the Sixteen Steps, called it Nirvana. On this webpage we explore what they meant by that name.

The flame that goes out for lack of fuel

Nirvana (in Sanskrit: nirvāṇa; in Pāli: nibbāna) means "the ceasing to burn" or "going out" of a flame.^{[Footnote 1]} When no more fuel remains to be burned a flame simply goes out.

There's a revealing couplet that's quoted several times in the Saṃyutta Nikāya. It helps to explain the imagery that lies behind the language used by the early Buddhists, both their choice of the word nirvana (nibbāna), and the word jhāna. It uses a verbal forms of those two words.

"Just as an oil lamp depends on both oil and wick that it may burn (jhāyeyya),
when oil or wick come to an end, left without sustenance, it goes out (nibbāyeyya)."^{[Footnote 2]}

Here we have both the practice that consumes the remaining fuel (jhāna), and the result of that practice (nirvana).

What is nirvana?

A text from the Samyutta Nikāya (SN 38.1) portrays two people in conversation. One is the Buddhist teacher Sāri-putta, one of Gotama's personal disciples. The other is not a Buddhist, but belongs to another sect in ancient India, the "Wanderers", and he asks what the Buddhists mean when they talk about nirvana.

Having sat down, Jambu-khādaka the Wanderer asked Sāri-putta, They say, "Nirvana, nirvana," friend Sāriputta. "Now friend, what is nirvana?"

"That, friend, is the ending of desire, the ending of anger, and the ending of delusion. That's what is called nirvana."

"And further, friend, is there a path or a way to experience nirvana for oneself?"

"There is a path, friend, and a way to experience nirvana for oneself."

What has come to an end?

What is it that has come to an end, or has gone out? In this last text, our passions, our reactivity, has simply ceased, gone out, or disappeared. Nirvana refers to a psychological state, a state of mind, one free from reactivity. This is a state we can experience. Anapana practice leads to such a state.

Over the centuries nirvana has been interpreted in a number of ways within the Buddhist tradition. Nirvana soon became understood as the ending of saṃsāra, or the ending of some cycle of rebirths. What these texts show is that there was a much simpler way of understanding it at the earliest stage in the Buddhist movement. Nirvana then was a psychological issue, not a religious issue.

Something is not conditioned

What it is that has ended, according to these early Buddhist texts, is being conditioned. They reflect a world-view in which everything that arises is conditioned by what has given rise to it. So each of us is conditioned by our birth, our genetic inheritance, the circumstances in which we've grown up, all the experiences we've passed through in life. There are reasons why we've developed as we have, why we think the way we do, and why we react as we do.

But is everything conditioned? Do we always have to react in certain ways, or can we step out of our conditioning? Consider this "inspired utterance" (udāna).

"There is, mendicants, what is not born, not become, not made, and not conditioned. If there were not what is not born, not become, not made, and not conditioned, an escape from what is born, become, made and conditioned would not be known here. But, mendicants, because there is what is not born, not become, not made and not conditioned, then an escape from what is born, become, made and conditioned may be known." ^{[Footnote 3]}

What is this mysterious something that is neither born, become, made or conditioned? The Pāli tradition is clear that these four expressions are synonyms for nirvana. In fact, this udāna has been set within a short sutta which claims,

At that time the Blessed One was teaching, rousing, enthusing and delighting the mendicants with dharma-talk concerning nirvana.^{[Footnote 3]}

If nirvana is a state of mind, as we saw above, then it's a state which is free from conditioning. Or, you could say, in which we are free from prior conditioning.

It's a state of mind you may have experienced on occasions. If ever you've broken free from some 'justified anger' and no longer wanted to 'get even', no longer wanted 'retribution', or even 'justice', or whatever, you'll know that it feels good. You can forgive. If you've ever broken free from some compulsion that was costing you dearly, you'll know that such freedom feels good. You can say No. You don't have to follow the way you've been conditioned, you can break free.

The way to nirvana

Mindfulness of the body, that is, the practice of Jhāna

SN 43.1 Kāya-gatā-sati Sutta - "A Teaching on Mindfulness of the Body"

Finally, here is a third short sutta, in its entirity. What it teaches is the way to this unconditioned state of mind, nirvana.

Given at Sāvatthi.

Mendicants, I will teach you both the unconditioned, and the path leading to the unconditioned. Listen to this.

What is the unconditioned? That, mendicants, is the ending of desire, the ending of anger and the ending of delusion – that I say is the unconditioned. And what is the path leading to the unconditioned? Mindfulness of the body. That, I say, is the path leading to the unconditioned.

In this way, mendicants, you have been taught by me the unconditioned, and the path leading to the unconditioned.

Mendicants, whatever should be done by a teacher seeking the welfare of their hearers out of compassion, that I have done for you. Here are trees, here are empty huts. Practise jhāna, mendicants, don't be negligent, don't be regretful later. This we exhort you.^{[Footnote 4]}

The path to the unconditioned state of mind, to nirvana, is mindfulness of the body. And the final exhortation here, to practise jhāna, is the way mindfulness of the body was practised in early Buddhism. Anapana practice appears to reflect this practice. Its first six steps are all concerned with mindfulness of the body in one way or another. Steps 5 and 6 lead us into the first two stages of jhāna practice. The reference to trees and to empty huts is to two of the places often associated with Anapana or Jhāna practice in the early Buddhist writings.

The Pāli Dhamma-pada - "Verses on the Teachings"

A similar claim is made by a verse in the Dhamma-pada. This is a much-loved compliation of verses, known from versions from many parts of the Buddhist world. Compilers of different versions seem to have been free in their selection of verses to include, and in how they were organised. The title means something like "Verses on the Teachings". Here is verse 23 from the Pāli Dhamma-pada.

They who practise jhāna constantly,
with ever steady effort;
Those wise ones touch nirvana,
the incomparable peace. ^{Footnote 5}

Footnotes

1. The Dictionary of Pāli gives three meanings for the word nibbāna:

the ceasing to burn, going out
freedom from care or passion, a sense of bodily well-being; ease, happiness
the ceasing to burn, going out (of the fires of passion, etc.)

The first of these is the literal meaning, applicable to flames and fires. The second and third are metaphorical meanings, transferred to human experience.

2. Found in SN 22.8, SN 36.7, SN 36.8, SN 54.8

3. Udāna 8.3, a work in KN.

4. SN 43.1 The Kāya-gatā-sati Sutta.

5. The Dhamma-pada v. 23, a work in KN.