Nirvana

Nirvana (निर्वाण; Pali nibbāna) — literally “blowing out” — is the extinguishing of craving, aversion, and delusion, and thus of the fuel of rebirth: Buddhism’s goal and the end of suffering.

Overview

The term’s root (vā, to blow) frames the doctrine: nirvana is not a place and not annihilation of a self (there is, per anatta, no self to annihilate) — it is the fire’s going out when the fuel is spent, a formulation the Aggivacchagotta Sutta makes explicit. The Dhammapada calls it “the highest happiness” (paramam sukham); the schools debated its status — unconditioned (asankhata) and real in Theravada; in Mahayana, nondual from samsara itself (“samsara and nirvana are not two,” the Madhyamaka refrain). Jainism’s cognate term (moksha/nirvana, kevala) names the soul’s release upward; Hindu usage (moksha) prefers the freedom idiom.

Significance

Nirvana is the fourth Noble Truth’s terminus — the Eightfold Path’s destination — and the interpretive crux of Buddhism’s history: is it realized in life (sopadhishesa), or at death (anupadhishesa), or is it the emptiness that was never other than this world?

Verification notes

• Citations are canonical; the “unanswered questions” of the Tathagata’s after-death status are the classic debate frame.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).