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NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE 1 NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE Since Buddhism began to be studied in the Western world, numerous studies of nirvana have been undertaken, yet no fully satisfactory clarification of it has been made. This is not surprising if we consider the fact that while for Buddhists it is to reach nirvana, it is for scholars to study what nirvana may be. That is to say, nirvana for Buddhists has always been their highest goal, which can be reached through morality, meditation and wisdom, whereas for scholars it has been a kind of state that can be, though with difficulty, defined and explained in human language. ‘A very different thing’ was the early verdict given by Louis de La Vallée Poussin in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. 1 A good starting point to explore the word nirvAOa could be from its etymology. Though there can be other opinions, such as T. W. Rhys Davids’s suggestion in his PED, 2 Western scholars tend to agree on the etymological meaning of nirvana as ‘going out’: the noun nirvAOa 3 is derived from the negative prefix nir plus the root vA (to blow). Its original meaning seems to be, as Ñyaoamoti suggested, 4 ‘“extinction” of a fire by ceasing to blow on it with bellows (a smith’s fire, for example)’. When a smith stops blowing on a fire, it goes out automatically. In this respect, this word nirvAOa should be understood as intransitive: a fire going out due to lack of cause, such as fuel or wind. If we accept this etymological meaning, which is probably pre-Buddhist, what does the term refer to within the early Buddhist tradition? One of the common misunderstandings of nirvana is to assume that it refers to the extinction of a person or soul. This view may be caused by the words nibbuta and nibbuti, which can be used of the person or soul. However, both words are derived not from nir√vA (to blow) but from nir√vK (to cover) and their meaning in these cases is, as K. R. Norman suggests, 5 ‘satisfied, happy, tranquil, at ease, at rest’ for the former and ‘happiness, bliss, rest, ceasing’ for the latter. Moreover, not only does this view lack any textual evidence, 6 it is also the mistaken opinion identified in the early canon as annihilationism (ucchedavAda). 7 9
THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF NIRVANA In the early canon, nirvana was applied to the two most important events in the Buddha’s life: enlightenment and final liberation. 8 The former, technically called ‘nirvana with a remainder of clinging (sa-upAdisesanibbAnadhAtu)’, is the state in which the triple fires of passion, hatred and delusion are extinguished but the fuel, the five aggregates in a metaphorical structure, still remains; the latter, technically called ‘nirvana without remainder of clinging (an-upAdisesanibbAnadhAtu)’, is the state in which there is no more fuel left. 9 E. J. Thomas regarded Jainism as older than Buddhism 10 and said that it is unlikely that the word nirvana, which has been used in both traditions, was borrowed from the latter. However, we cannot be so certain that Jainism predates Buddhism, because the existence of Jainism before the Jina, or Mahavcra, has not been demonstrated and most of the Jain texts that survive are apparently later than the early Buddhist canon. The problem of the Jains’ use of nirvana is that it always refers, as Hermann Jacobi pointed out, to the final liberation: liberated souls will be embodied no more; they have accomplished absolute purity; they dwell in the state of perfection at the top of the universe, and have no more to do with worldly affairs; they have reached nirvAOa (nivKti, or mukti). 11 The Jains’ notion of nirvana was clearly different from that of early Buddhism. 12 However, there is a different use of nirvana in the Bhagavad- GCtA. Although Buddhist influence on the Bhagavad-GCtA is well known, 13 the use of nirvana here gives a clue to what it refers to in early Buddhism. The following verses in the fifth chapter clearly show that it refers not to the final liberation but to Enlightenment: Who finds his happiness within, his joy within, and likewise his light only within, that disciplined man to Brahman-nirvaoa goes, having become Brahman. Brahman-nirvaoa is won by the seers whose sins are destroyed, whose doubts are cleft, whose souls are controlled, who delight in the welfare of all beings. To those who have put off desire and wrath, religious men whose minds are controlled, close at hand Brahman-nirvaoa comes, to knowers of the self. (5. 24–6). 14 The compound, ‘brahman-nirvaoa (brahmanirvAOa)’, recalls Buddhism, not only because the word brahman is used in compounds in Buddhist texts, 15 but also because ‘become Brahman (brahmabhEta)’ is used in the early canon to describe the Buddha or a saint (arahant) who has already attained enlightenment. 16 Thus, although this word seems to have been used in Jainism with the meaning of final liberation, it was later, in the Bhagavad-GCtA, borrowed from Buddhism with the already established meaning of enlightenment. For 10
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Page 8 and 9: FOR DONGJE MY ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE D
Page 10 and 11: CONTENTS List of figures and tables
Page 12 and 13: PREFACE I am glad to be able to tha
Page 14 and 15: ABBREVIATIONS The abbreviations for
Page 16 and 17: ABBREVIATIONS RV Rgveda. SA SaNyukt
Page 18 and 19: INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION In the Ab
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Page 32 and 33: THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY IN THE EARLY
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NIRVANA IN THE THERAVf DA BUDDHIST
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NIRVANA IN NORTHERN BUDDHIST SCHOOL
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Table 5.4 Summary of the doctrinal
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CONCLUSION The term anAgAmin was of
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CONCLUSION passion, hatred and delu
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CONCLUSION The Sautrantikas probabl
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SELECTED SOURCES FOR THE NIRVANA CO
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NOTES Indians; and also because we
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NOTES 13 Huzita (1988: 8). 14 La Va
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NOTES 70 See Dutt (1960: 252-71), L
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NOTES 146 Akanuma (1929: 126). 147
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NOTES 39 yaP sAsravair dharmair vis
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NOTES 5 Harvey (1990: 66-7). 6 DN I
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NOTES 65 Tr. Norman (1992: 120): ac
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NOTES 132 Bareau (1955: 285). 133 B
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NOTES 15 Life faculty is one of the
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NOTES 77 Akb-h pp. 67-8. 78 Accordi
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NOTES 149 SA (TD2 57c8), SN IV 109.
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NOTES 6 SN IV 251-2. 7 The Chinese
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NOTES (1969: 378-82), which was mad
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BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY S
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BIBLIOGRAPHY SECONDARY SOURCES Adik
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Pasadika, Bhikkhu (198
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faculty see indriya fetters see saN
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