What is Nirvana in Buddhism?

Question

Buddhist practise buddhism in order to reach the state of Nirvana in order to put an end in the cycle of rebirth. Can any buddhist tell me more about Nirvana? Do we still have thinking when we reach Nirvana? Is It a state of nothing?

Answer 1

http://www.buddhanet.net/cbp2_f6.htm <<< on emptiness (void) & enlightenment

The endless cycle of life and death is a flux that can only be stopped by enlightenment, according to Buddhists. Enlightenment leads to Nirvana which means the end of all craving, the achievement of perfect non-attachment and of happiness. Nirvana is not a place or a heaven, it is a state of mind that is available to all living beings in this life. It is a way of living and being in the world that is free of suffering and rich in wisdom, happiness and compassion.

the Buddha’s enlightenment is the direct result of this combination of meditation and wisdom - concentration and insight.

Answer 2

Nirvana is not something that ordinary people like us in the internet know about . Even as a devout Buddhist like me and studying Buddhist text for a few years , i still can't say that i have a very clear idea on what Nirvana is about .

Nirvana is a state of mind which you will be clear once you reach a certain stage of mind such as the stream enterer ( sotapanna )

Answer 3

It is said that the state is a state of NO MIND. It means the mind is STILL, not thinking.
If our mind means everything to us, then Nirvana is the state of nothing.
Really this is one experience every human being on the earth should long for. And there are practical means and ways to do so. And there are real people having real experiences.
If can intrepret things correctlly, NIrvana is a state attained by all the masters like Jesus, Mohmemmed, Moses. Every human being who has an experience of the divine, ultimately reaches to the same state irrespective of their believes.

Answer 4

Alan Watts said, "Nirvana is freedom
from social hypnosis."

There are still thoughts after Nirvana,
but there is no attachment to them.
The thoughts are viewed as one would
view "clouds against a blue sky" (to
borrow words). Suffering is
created due to desires. Typically
there is craving for an experience or
aversion towards an experience. Most
spend their lives running after experiences
they crave, or run after things that they
think will make them happy. But happiness
is just one side of the coin. The other
side is sadness. No one can be just
happy all the time, no matter how
nice his/her life. Eventually comes a time
that he/she realizes that he/she will have
to leave it behind, or the thing/objects
making him happy go away before he does. That is they change, are taken away, or
pass away, as the case may be.
People say that happiness and sadness
are part of life. Without sadness you
cannot appreciate happiness. That is
true at one level. But once you have
been through a lot of suffering, and
you realize that this birth is suffering,
getting old is suffering, getting sick is
suffering and dying is suffering, then
you start looking for something beyond.
So a wise man goes beyond happiness and suffering and tries to seek peace.

Regardless of the part about Vipassana
written by gora6in in his answer to your
question, you may want to try it out
yourself. During the Vipassana course
they not only explain the whole process
of how we perceive things and how
that perception is evaluated and
becomes experience (to be craved or
run away from), and how this goes
on ad-infinitum. By doing Vipassana
(insight), one gains FIRST HAND
insight into this process. This is very
different from reading and imagining
what it must be like. According to
the Buddhist and Hindu thoughts, our
mental imprints are stored and accompany
us from one birth to next. (It is another
matter that Buddhist and Hindu philosophies
differ about WHAT it is that goes on
from one birth to another.) An example
is given of a toy that one winds and
let go. This process is going on all
the time with us. The winding is the
perception, evaluation, craving, aversion
cycle. In Buddha's time the example used was
that of a rope that is twisted and twisted.
When one stops twisting the rope, it
starts to untwist. This is what happens
in meditation. We stop twisting the rope.
Then the process of untwisting begins.
It produces experiences
pleasant and unpleasant, but we learn
to sit through them WITHOUT REACTING
to them. When we learn to do that during
meditation, and we become experienced,
we extend that to our working life.
This is done by means of being aware
ALL the time. That is what gora6in
talks about in the nice story about
awareness.

Not reacting does not mean we suppress our feelings or emotions. You can read more about this at http://www.dhamma.org/art.htm
If it makes sense to you, you can find a
place to take the course by going to
http://www.dhamma.org
It is definitely worth learning some time
during your lifetime when you are able
to invest 10 days time.

Good luck to you.

Answer 5

Nirvana means "blowing out the candle" in the ancient tongue of india. All their lives buddhists work to escape from the cycle of rebirth that causes us to be born again into this world that, as the first noble truth states, is full of suffering. To escape this world we must destroy the ego, or self, that continually returns by exposing it to truth through meditation and following the eight-fold path. Nirvana is the moment when, after chiseling down the ego by meditating your whole life, you finally snuff it out completely. The mystic Osho compared it to the moment when a baby bird that has been taught flight all its life by its parent finally jumps out of the nest and flies. It is the ultimate goal of buddhism, and once you reach it you are enlightened and will not be reborn back into this world.

Answer 6

I am not a Buddhist but born in the place from where Buddhism spread I do have heard About It..

Buddhist regard Nirvana as the ultimate Goal. This nirvana is the state of total dissolution or Nothingness. Buddhist regard this Material existence as the cause of Suffering, and hence to destroy Material existence would be to destroy suffering. So in Nirvana they try to destroy this existence...

But Vedic Literature does not support this. Bhagavad Gita says that apart from this Material existence there is a Spiritual existence where there is no suffering. In fact it regards Nirvana as Suicide.
It explains this way : If you are diseased and are suffering then one way to end your suffering is to Kill you. But there is another way and that is Curing the disease.

Answer 7

Whoops! Your teacher doesn't understand Buddhism very well. For starters, the concept of the salt doll walking into the ocean and dissolving into it ... this is a commonly-used metaphor when teaching yoga philosophy. Unfortunately, yoga and Buddhism are worlds apart. Oh, superficially, one can think they are just about the same. But they aren't. I spent years practicing yoga with teachers ... and now years practicing Buddhism the same way. And the two are very, very different even though they look the same. In yoga philosophy, one's soul is regarded as a spark of God. And when you attain enlightenment, you merge into the bliss of God, just as the salt doll dissolves into the ocean. In Buddhism, you do not disappear. Your likes and dislikes do not disappear either. What changes when you reach Nirvana is that you "wake up". And when you wake up, you relate to the world in a totally different way. Just stop and think of a favorite toy from your childhood that you no longer care anything about ... it just doesn't "move" you anymore, does it? Well, Nirvana is a state in which you are open to everything, experiencing life in all its richness and fullness whether what is happening is "good" or "bad" ... but your likes and dislikes don't move you anymore. If your body is shivering from the cold, you have no aversion for that. If someone insults you, you are not upset. If you see a piece of cake and you see the desire for it, you are genuinely amused at the appearance of this craving and then you release it. Unfortunately, you are going to have to "parrot" back to your teacher what SHE has taught you, even if she IS wrong.

Answer 8

Buddhism- The ineffable ultimate in which one has attained disinterested wisdom and compassion
An ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy

Nirvana - (Hinduism and Buddhism) the beatitude that transcends the cycle of reincarnation; characterized by the extinction of desire and suffering and individual consciousness
enlightenment

Buddhism - the teaching of Buddha that life is permeated with suffering caused by desire, that suffering ceases when desire ceases, and that enlightenment obtained through right conduct and wisdom and meditation releases one from desire and suffering and rebirth
beatification, beatitude, blessedness - a state of supreme happiness

nirvana
In Buddhism, and other Indian religions, the ultimate religious goal characterized by the attainment of perfect serenity, compassion, and wisdom by the eradication of all desires. When nirvana is attained, the cycle of life and death, known as samsāra, is broken and a state of liberty, free from pain and desire, is reached.

Answer 9

Sorry I am no buddhist,but I can tell you that nirvana is the highest realisation of sublime bliss.Now what happens in a state of nirvana is just as asking a salt doll what it will feel when immersed in salt water !

Answer 10

Nirvana is equivalent to entering Heaven.

But I think it doesn't make sense because to achieve it you have to do better in the next life. Unfortunately, when you get reborn, you forget what you have done in yr last life. You may then become worse off in this new life.