Nirvana
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Nirvana
Nirvana is the final or the ultimate state a monk attains after he passes through the initial three paths and became completely free from all becoming. It is liberation from the evils of ordinary life, the disappearance of all remnants of individuality, the feeling of "I" or "mine" or "me". It is a condition in which nothing stirs, nothing moves, nothing changes.
When the Arhat or the holy one passes away, he attain the realm where there is nothing, where there is "neither solid nor fluid, neither heat nor motion, neither this world nor any other world, neither the sun nor the moon."
This is called the cessation of becoming which is "neither arising, nor passing away, neither standing still nor being born, nor dying." It is Nirvana, which is unborn, without source, uncreated and unformed real into which escape is possible for the beings through cessation of craving.
The Buddha did not encourage speculation by the initiates on the condition of Nirvana, because of the purely subjective nature of the experience. But an understanding of Nirvana was considered essential for the monks to attain it finally.
What is actually the state of Nirvana? Is it a passing away into some void, into some nothingness, into some state that is without a center and without a boundary ? If it is liberation, passing away or dying out, then into what? What happens when a person attains Nirvana? Is Nirvana a kind of death from purely mental point of view? These are some of the difficult question we try to answer here.
If we go by the sermon of flame delivered by the Buddha, Nirvana is the extinction of lust, of aversion, of delusion (raga, dvesha and moha), and of the urge to live. We are also told that when Nirvana is attained all becoming comes to an end. The notion of "I" and the "conceit of self-reference" disappears, since all notions of individuality have gone.
We are not sure whether Nirvana is a state of bliss or not, unlike in Hinduism whe...