IN chapters 3 and 4 we discussed suffering and its arising. Let us now try to understand the meaning of the Cessation of Suffering (dukkha-nirodha) which is known as Nibbana (Sanskrit Nirvana). The etymological meaning of the latter is given as ni + vana, freedom from craving, a departure from craving, or nir + va, to cease blowing or to be extinguished.

Though the Pali and Sanskrit etymological meanings may help us to understand the term, they do not help us to realize the bliss of Nirvana. Realization, as we shall see in the next chapter, comes through Virtue (sila), Concentration (samadhi) and Wisdom (panna). Nirvana is a dhamma, an experience, that cannot be explained because of its subtlety. It is known as the Supramundane (lokuttara), the Absolute, the Unconditioned (asamkhata). Nirvana is to be realized by the wise, each one individually.

Let alone Nirvana, a simple thing like the taste of sugar cannot be made known to one who has no previous experience of it by advising him to read a book on the chemistry of sugar. But if he puts a small lump on his tongue, he will experience the sweet taste and no more theorizing on sugar is needed.

`What is Nirvana?' is a question that a Buddhist or a non-Buddhist may prefer to ask at the outset. This is not a question of today or yesterday. Clever answers may be given and Nirvana explained in glowing terms, but no amount of theorizing will bring us one whit nearer to it, for it is beyond words, logic and reasoning (atakka¬vacara). It is easier and safer to speak of what Nirvana is not, for it is impossible to express it in words. Nirvana is ineffable and incommunicable. In our attempt to explain it we use words which have limited meanings, words connected with the cosmos, whereas Nirvana, the Absolute Reality, which is realized through the highest mental training and wisdom, is beyond any cosmic experience, beyond the reach of speech.  Then why write about it? It is to prevent misconceptions about the Buddhist concept of Nirvana.

The Buddha says:

'It occurred to me, monks, that this Dhamma I have realized is deep, hard to see, hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, beyond mere reasoning, subtle and intelligible to the wise. But this genera¬tion delights, revels and rejoices in sensual pleasures. For a generation delighting, revelling and rejoicing in sensual pleasures, it is hard to see this conditionality, this dependent arising. Hard, too, is it to see this calming of all conditioned things, the giving up of all substance of becoming, the extinction of craving, dispassion, cessation, Nibbana. And if I were to teach the Dhamma and others were not to understand me, that would be a weariness, a vexation for me.' 1

This is a clear indication from the Buddha himself that the extirpation of craving (Nirvana) is hard to see, hard to understand.

In his explanation of the Third Noble Truth, in his first sermon, the Buddha says: 'This, monks, is the Noble Truth of the Cessation of Suffering: the complete cessation (nirodho), giving up (cago), abandoning (patinissaggo), release (mutti) and detachment (analayo) from that very craving.' 2

Though in this definition the word Nibbana is not mentioned, ‘complete cessation of craving' implies Nibbana. Elsewhere this is made clear by the Buddha. 'Verily, Radha, the extinction of craving (tanhakkhayo) is Nibbana.' 3 Replying to a deity he says: 'The abandoning of craving (tanhaya vippahanena) is Nibbana.' 4 Then in the words of the Venerable Sariputta: 'The subduing and abandoning of passionate desire (chandaraga) for these Five Aggregates of Grasping: that is the cessation of suffering.' 5

It is clear from the above that nirodha or Nibbana is the cessation, the extinction of craving (tanha). As we have seen in the preceding chapter, craving is the arising of suffering which ceases only when its origin, craving, ceases. With the giving up of craving one also gives up suffering and all that pertains to suffering. Nibbana, therefore, is explained as the extinction of suffering.

It may be noted that though negative terms are often used to define Nibbana, they do not imply that Nibbana is mere negation or annihilation of a self. After all negation does not mean an absolute void, a vacuum, but simply the absence of something. An Arahat who has realized Nibbana is free from craving. Craving no more exists in him, and this is not mere nothingness, or annihila¬tion of self, because there is no self to be annihilated.

It is also evident from the texts that positive terms like Khemam (Security), Suddhi (Purity), Panitam (Sublime), Santi (Peace), Vimutti (Release), are used to denote the Unconditioned Nirvana. Nevertheless, the real significance of these terms is restricted to the known experiences of the sentient world. All positive definitions are from our experience of the phenomenal world. A worldling's conception of things is samsaric, that is, belonging to existence or becoming. So all his conceptions concerning Nirvana also are in terms of becoming, and therefore, he cannot have a true picture of Nirvana. All his thoughts, concepts and words are limited, condi¬tioned, and cannot be applied to the Unproduced, Unconditioned, Uncompounded Nirvana.

Conventionally we speak of positive and negative terms; they are, like everything else, relative; but Nirvana is beyond both positive and negative and is not related to anything conditioned. The Buddha has used the terms of  the world knowing their limitations. Regarding the question, what is Nirvana? let us hear the words of the Buddha:

'There are, monks, two Nibbana elements (Nibbana dhatuyo). What two? The Nibbana element with a basis remaining (saupadisesa) 6 and the Nibbana element without a basis remaining (anupadisesa). Which, monks, is the Nibbana element with a basis remaining? Here, monks, a monk is an Arahat, one whose taints (asava) are destroyed, who has lived the life, done what was to be done, laid down the burden, attained Arahatship by stages, destroyed completely the bond of becoming, one who is free through knowing rightly. As his faculties have not been demolished he experiences what is agreeable and disagreeable, he experiences pleasure and pain. The five aggregates remain. It is his extinction of lust, hate and delusion, monks, that is called the Nibbana element with a basis remaining (saupadisesa nibbanadhatu).

'And which, monks, is the Nibbana element without a basis remaining (anupadisesa nibbanadhatu) ?

'Here, monks, a monk is an Arahat, one whose taints are destroyed, who has lived the life, done what was to be done, laid down the burden, attained Arahatship by stages, destroyed completely the bond of becoming, one who is free through knowing rightly. All his feelings not being welcomed, not being delighted in (anabhinanditani), will here and now become cool: it is this, monks, that is called the Nibbana element without a basis remaining.

`These, monks, are the two Nibbana elements.' This fact the Blessed One declared:

`Thus this is said:

These two Nibbana elements are explained
By the Seeing One, steadfast and unattached:
When one element with basis belonging to this life
Remains, destroyed is that which to becoming leads; 7
When one without that basis manifests
In the hereafter, all becomings cease.

The minds of those who know this unconditioned state
Are delivered by destroying that to which becoming leads:
They realize the Dhamma's essence 8 and in stillness
Delighting, steadfast they abandon all becoming.' 9

A being consists of the five aggregates or mind and matter. They change incessantly and are therefore impermanent. They come into being and pass away, for, `whatever is of the nature of arising, all that is of the nature of ceasing' . 10
 
Lust, hate and delusion in man bring about repeated existence, for it is said: without abandoning lust, hate and delusion, one is not free from birth.. . 11

One attains arahatship, that is deliverance even while alive, by rooting out lust, hate and delusion. As stated above this is known as the Nibbana element with a basis remaining (saupadisesa nibbanadhatu). The Arahat's five aggregates or the remaining bases are conditioned by the lust, hate and delusion of his infinite past. As he still lives his aggregates function: he, therefore, experiences the pleasant as well as painful feelings that his sense faculties entertain through contact with sense objects. But since he is freed from attachment, discrimination and the idea of selfhood, he is not moved by these feelings. 12 

Now when an Arahat passes away his aggregates, his remaining bases, cease to function; they break up at death; his feelings are no more, and because of his eradication of lust, hate and delusion, he is not reborn, and naturally there is then no more entertaining of feelings; and therefore is it said: `his feeling will become cool (sitibhavissanti)'.

This idea is expressed in the Udana thus:

`The body broke up, perception ceased,
All feelings cooled, all formations stilled,
Consciousness disappeared.' 13

This is known as the Nibbana element without a basis remaining (anupadisesa nibbanadhatu).

From the foregoing the position of the Arahat, the Consummate One, is clear. When a person totally eradicates the trio, lust, hate and delusion, that leads to becoming, he is liberated from the shackles of samsara, from repeated existence. He is free in the full sense of the word. He no longer has any quality which will cause him to be reborn as a living being, because he has realized Nibbana, the entire cessation of continuity and becoming (bhava-nirodha); he has transcended common or worldly activities and has raised him¬self to a state above the world while yet living in the world: his actions are issueless, are karmically ineffective, for they are not motivated by the trio, by the mental defilements (kilesa). He is immune to all evil, to all defilements of the heart. In him there are no latent or underlying tendencies (anusaya) ; 'he is beyond good and evil, he has given up both good and bad ' 14 : he is not worried by the past, the future, nor even the present. He clings to nothing in the world and so is not troubled. He is not perturbed by the vicissitudes of life. His mind is unshaken by contact with worldly contingencies; , he is sorrowless, taintless and secure (asokam, virajam, khemam). 15 Thus Nibbana is a 'state' realizable in this very life (dittadhamma¬-nibbana). The thinker, the inquiring mind, will not find it difficult to understand this state, which can be postulated only of the Arahat and not of any other being, either in this world or in the realms of heavenly enjoyment.

Though the sentient being experiences the unsatisfactory nature of life, and knows at first hand what suffering is, what defilements are, and what it is to crave, he does not know what the total extirpa¬tion of defilements is, because he has never experienced it. Should he do so, he will know, through self-realization, what it is to be without defilements, what Nirvana or reality is; what true happiness is. The Arahat speaks of Nirvana with experience, and not by hearsay, but the Arahat can never, by his realization, make others understand Nirvana. One who has slaked his thirst knows the release he has gained, but he cannot explain this release to another. However much he may talk of it, others will not experience it; for it is self-experience, self-realization. Realization is personal to each individual. Each must eat and sleep for himself, and treat himself for his ailments; these are but daily requirements, how much more when it is concerned with man's inner development, his deliverance of the mind.

What is difficult to grasp is the Nibbana element without a basis remaining (anupadisesa-nibbana), in other words, the parinibbana or final passing away of the Arahat.

An oft-quoted passage from the Udana runs:

`Monks, there is the unborn, unoriginated, unmade and un¬conditioned. Were there not the unborn, unoriginated, unmade and unconditioned, there would be no escape for the born, originated, made and conditioned. Since there is the unborn, unoriginated, unmade and unconditioned, so there is escape for the born, origina¬ted, made and conditioned. 16

`Here there is neither the element of solidity (expansion), fluidity (cohesion), heat and motion, nor the sphere of infinite space, nor the sphere of infinite consciousness, nor the sphere of nothingness, nor the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, neither this world nor the other, nor sun and moon. Here there is none coming, none going, none existing, neither death nor birth. Without support, non-existing, without sense objects is this. This indeed is the end of suffering (dukkha).' 17

It is clear from the above that this parinibbana (the ultimate Nibbana) is a state where the five aggregates: form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness, and all that per¬tains to the aggregates have ceased. This, therefore, is a state where relativity has no place. It is beyond and outside everything that is relative. It is neither the effect of a cause, nor does it as
cause give rise to an effect. It is neither the path (magga) nor the fruit (phala). It is the Absolute, the Unconditioned, the Uncom¬pounded.

Suffering and its arising (cause) which is craving is mundane (lokiya), but Nirvana not being in the world, stands outside con¬ditioned things and, therefore, beyond cause and effect. All things mundane are relative, but Nirvana being that which has no rela¬tivities is Absolute.

In a very important discourse (Dvayatanupassana-sutta) 18 wherein the Dependent Arising and the Four Noble Truths are enume¬rated, the Buddha addressing the monks says:

`What the world at large considers Truth (idam saccamti upanijj¬hayitam) has been viewed as falsehood by the Noble (Ariya) through their consummate comprehension, whilst the Noble hail as Truth what the world deems falsehood,' and further says:

'Nibbana is no he (no state unreal)
For it is known as truth by the Noble Ones.
But since they realize that truth
Desireless they pass away.’ 19

This is not the only instance where the Buddha used Truth as a substitute for Nibbana, for we find the following:

`Reality, monk, is a name for Nibbana.' 20 

`In reality they are released
Destroying craving for becoming.’ 21

As stated in an equally important discourse (Dhatuvibhanga¬-sutta) 22 the Arahat who is absolutely calm within (the threefold fire of lust, hate and delusion fully extinguished, blown out within, 'paccatam yeva parinibbayati') when experiencing a pleasant, un¬pleasant or neutral feeling, knows that it is impermanent, that it is not clung to with the idea of my and mine; that it is not experienced with feelings of enjoyment (with passion).

`Whatever feeling he experiences, be it pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, he experiences it without being attached to it, without being bound to it (visam-yutto). He knows that with the dissolution of the body (after the life principle has come to an end) all feelings, all experiences will become cool, will be tranquillized (sitibha¬vissanti) just as an oil lamp burns dependent upon oil and wick and through the coming to an end of its oil and wick it goes out for lack of fuel. Even so when a monk experiences a feeling that the body has come to an end, he knows, "I experience a feeling that the body has come to an end", and when he experiences a feeling that life has come to an end he knows, "I experience a feeling that life has come to an end", and he knows, "with the breaking up of the body and the coming to an end of life, all feeling, not being delighted in here and now, will become cool". Therefore, monk, a person thus endowed is endowed with this supreme wisdom, because the knowledge of the destruction of all suffering (dukkha) is the supreme noble wisdom.

`This deliverance of his, founded on Truth, is unshakable. False is that which is unreality; that which is reality (not false), Nibbana, is Truth (tam saccam). Therefore, monk, a person thus endowed is endowed with this supreme Truth, because the Supreme Noble Truth (paramam ariya saccam) is Nibbana, which is reality (not false).'

In the Ratana-sutta 23 it is said:

`Their past is dead, the new 24 no more arises,
Mind to future becoming is unattached,
The germ has die 25, they have no more desire for growth
Those wise (and steadfast ones) go out as did this lamp.’ 26

This is the position of the Arahat who has passed away (parinibbuto). His path, like that of birds in the sky, 27 cannot  be traced. It is therefore wrong to say that the Arahat or the Buddha entered Nibbana, because it is not a place or a state or a `heaven' where beings continue to live eternally. Nibbana has no location. The final passing away of the Buddha or the Arahat is expressed in the texts as parinibbuto, parinibbayi, meaning fully passed away, fully extinct, which is a clear indication that it is the cessation of becoming (bhavanirodha)--the journey's end. Now what that is--what happens to the Buddha or the Arahat after his passing away—cannot be theorized, cannot be defined. There is no measure, no dimension. It is an `unanswered', `undetermined' question (avydkata). The highest (ultimate) Truth is inexpressible and undeclared (anakkhata).

When Upasiva questioned whether one who passed away ceased to exist, or lasted for ever in bliss, the Buddha's answer was cate¬gorical:

`Of one who's passed away there is no measure,
Of him there's naught whereby one may say aught;
When once all things have wholly been removed,
All ways of saying, too, have been removed.' 28

In the absence of an Atta (Atman), Soul or Self, what attains Nibbana, or who realizes Nibbana is a baffling question. Let us first try to understand who or what this so-called being is. A being is a conflux of mind and matter. It is a process that undergoes change not remaining the same for two consecutive moments, and herein, there is no permanent something: the complete cessation of this process--this flux of physical and psychological categories--is known as Parinibbana (fully blown out or passed away). No 'I' Self or Soul enters Nibbana, is eternalized or annihilated in Nibbana.

The question of what attains or who realizes Nibbana arises be¬cause of the strong notion of 'I', ME and MINE (ahamkara, mamimkara) in man, and all the questions are round this 'I'; but there is no `I' or Self behind our actions, mental, verbal and physical. There is no doer of a deed. There is no thinker of a thought. Nibbana is, but not the man (being) who realizes it. Phenomena alone flow on. In conventional language we speak of man, woman, I; me and so forth, but in the ultimate sense no such individual exists. Only a process comes into being and a process ceases. `What¬ever is of the nature of arising, all that is of the nature of ceasing.' 29

The five aggregates of grasping form the `being'. Craving which is the arising (cause) of suffering arises in the five aggregates of grasping. The cessation of craving is also within these aggregates. Thus a process comes into being, and a process ceases, and there is no permanent Self or `I' that produces the aggregates and finally extirpates them, much less an external agency. Here there is a becoming and a cessation of becoming. This is the right view.

The Buddhist Nibbana is called the Supreme Happiness (paramam sukham) and as we have seen above, this happiness is brought about by the complete calming, the utter ceasing of all sensations. Now this saying, indeed, baffles us completely, we who have experienced so many pleasant feelings with our sense faculties.

The Venerable Udayi, a disciple of the Buddha, was confronted with this very problem. The Venerable Sariputta addressing the monks said: `It is Nibbana, friends, that is happiness; it is Nibbana, friends, that is happiness.' Then the Venerable Udayi asked: `But what, friend Sariputta, is happiness, since herein there is no feeling?' `Just this, friend, is happiness, that herein there is no feeling.' 30 This saying of the Venerable Sariputta is fully supported by the following one of the Buddha: `Whatever is experienced, sensed felt, all that is suffering' (yamkinci vedayitam tam dukkhasmim ti) 31

The essential steps of the path to the removal of suffering--to Nibbana--are pointed out by the Buddha. It is the way of careful cultivation of the mind so as to produce unalloyed happiness and supreme rest from the turmoil of life. The path is indeed very difficult, but if we, with constant heedfulness, and complete aware¬ness, walks it watching our steps, we will one day reach our destina¬tion. A child learns to stand and walk gradually and with difficulty. So too have all great ones, in the march to perfection, moved from stage to stage through failure to final success.

`Mindful of the yogis of the past
And remembering their ways of life,
Even though today be but the after-time 32
One may yet attain the Peace perennial.’ 33

1. M. 26: S. i. 136. 

2. S. v. 421. 

3. S. iii. 190.

4. S. i. 39. 

5. M. 28.

6. Upadi here means the five aggregates.

7. Bhavanetti, a synonym for tanha, craving or thirst.

8. Dhamma-sara here means arahatship.

9. Iti. pp. 38, 39.

10. M. iii. 280: S. v. 423: S. iv. 47, 107; Vinaya Mhvg.

11. A. ii. i. 6.

l2. Cf. Arahat Sona's statement: 'sights, tastes, sounds, smells, touches ... do not cause the steadfast one (tadino) to tremble. His mind stands firm and fully free.' A. iii. 377.

13. Ud. viii. 9.   

14. Dhp. 39.  

15. Sn. Mangala-sutta 11

16. Ud. viii. 3.

17. Ud. viii. 1. Also Cf. Sarasutta, Devata Samyutta.

18. Sn. 

19. Sn. 758.

20. S. iv. 195: 'yathabhutam vacanam ti kho bhikkhu nibbanassetam adhi¬vacanam'.

21. Iti. ii. 12: 'yathabhute vimuccanti-bhavatanha parikkhaya'. Reality, yathabhuta = nibbana, see Commentary.

22. M. 140.

23. The Jewel Discourse, Sn. 14.

24. The past and the new kamma are meant here.

25. Here germ means the rebirth consciousness.

26. It is said that as the Buddha spoke these words he saw the flame of a lamp go out.

27. Dhp. 92, 93.

28. Sn. 1076. Compare this with the Buddha's reply to Vaccha: 'To say that he (an Arahat) is reborn does not fit the case; to say that he is not reborn, does not fit the case.' M. i. 486. Discourse 72.

29. M. iii. 280; S. iv. 47, 107. 

30. A. iv. 414. 

31. S. ii. 53.

32. i.e. after the passing away of the Buddha.

33. 'Saritva pubbake yogi--tesam vattam anussaram
Kincapi pacchimo kalo--phuseyya amatam padam.' Thag. 947.