Nirvana | Setting in Motion the Dharma Wheel

Nirvana in Sanskrit means ‘extinction-quiescence,’ Extinction is the complete cessation of suffering and the termination of the samsaric cycle. Quiescence means that fundamental ignorance and its vexations have been stilled, extinguished, no longer arising. There are two levels of nirvana: nirvana with remainder and nirvana without remainder. An arhat who has realized nirvana with remainder has been liberated from all mental defilements but the body of retribution still remains. The body is still subject to the misfortunes that can befall a body, but this remainder does not have the ordinary person’s vexation from having a body. The arhat still experiences painful events and difficult situations but being completely free from the klesas–desire, hatred, and delusion–the mind does not suffer. Such was the case With many of the Buddha’s disciples who became enlightened.

The second kind of nirvana is nirvana without remainder (parinirvana), where the life cycle terminates with no trace of the five skandhas, and no future retribution. From the perspective of individual liberation, an arhat or a buddha who enters nirvana without remainder will no longer appear in the three realms of existence. From the perspective of the bodhisattva path1 there are certain important differences, but for now I want to focus on how nirvana relates to cessation. Either one of these nirvanas is reached at the fourth fruition2 level of the arhat path, the level of ‘no more learning.’ The three previous stages are all called stages ‘with further learning,’ where there is still a need to practice.

Indeed, talk of liberation can be quite enticing and alluring, but until we become an arhat these lofty states have no relation to us. Talking too much about nirvana can trivialize the path, so let’s continue talking about the path itself.

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