What is nirvana?

Nirvana is the goal of the Buddhist path. The word is Sanskrit (nirvāṇa); in Pali it is nibbāna. It literally means “extinguishing” or “going out”, like a fire that has run out of fuel.

What the word points to

In the early discourses, a wanderer asks Sāriputta, one of the Buddha’s chief disciples, what nirvana is. He answers that it is the ending of greed, the ending of hatred and the ending of delusion. These three are the fuel that keeps suffering burning. When they are gone, the fire goes out.

So nirvana is not a place, and it is not a heaven. It is a change in the mind: the complete ending of the causes of suffering. The third of the Four Noble Truths, the cessation of suffering, is another name for it.

Nirvana in this life and after death

The texts describe two aspects. A person who has realised nirvana still lives, eats, speaks and feels pleasure and pain, but the mind no longer reacts with craving or aversion. This is sometimes called nirvana “with residue”. When such a person dies, there is no further rebirth, and this is called final nirvana, or parinibbāna.

The Buddha was reluctant to describe what final nirvana is like. He said it lies beyond the ordinary categories of existing and not existing, and he discouraged speculation that does not help practice.

How traditions understand it

All Buddhist traditions treat nirvana as the end of suffering and of the round of rebirth, called samsara. They describe it in different ways. Theravada teachers usually follow the Pali texts closely, as above. Many Mahayana teachers speak of a nirvana that does not abide in either samsara or a separate peace, so that an awakened being keeps working for others. Zen and Tibetan teachers often emphasise that it is not somewhere else, but the true nature of the mind, once delusion is seen through.

How to begin

The path to nirvana is the Noble Eightfold Path: ethical conduct, a settled mind and wisdom developed together. Most people start small, with the precepts and a few minutes of meditation each day, and notice how greed and anger lessen over time.