Description for Nirvana
In Japanese, it is called “nehan,” and is also written as “nai-on” or “nai-otsu.” It is a phonetic transcription of the Pali word “nibbāna” and the Sanskrit word “nirvāa.” The term originates from the meaning of “blown out,” originally referring to the state where the fire of life is extinguished, i.e., “death,” and was translated as ‘extinction’ or “quiet extinction.” In Buddhism, this term originally referred to the death of Shakyamuni, but later came to be interpreted as “the state of complete extinction of the burning fire of delusion and entry into enlightenment.” Therefore, the phrase “entering nirvana” means not only death but also entry into enlightenment.
Differences in interpretation depending on history and sect
As Buddhism developed, a kind of analysis was added to nirvana, and it was considered that no matter how hard a practitioner might strive, the state they could attain while alive and maintaining a physical body in this world would be an incomplete nirvana (samyak-nirvana or dependent nirvana), and that only after death can one attain complete nirvana (unconditional or unconditional nirvana). In Mahayana Buddhism, the idea that nirvana is a special state of existence was rejected, and nirvana itself was considered to be neither existence nor non-existence, but emptiness (kuu), and its realization was sought in everyday life.
