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Nirvana
is an euphemism ….
for quasi death …. that
eliminates suffering (somewhat
like ‘morphine for an individual’). Nirvana means: neither dead nor alive,
somewhat like a dynamic system in suspended animation, e.g. like a T.V on
standby or a car in neutral Pari’nirvana means: completely dead, e.g. engine shut off. The notion of nirvana as a sort of
suspended animation of a transient non-abiding (hence also transient) self
(or substance or essence) begs an interesting question. If nirvana represents
the ending of suffering/distress (Pali: dukkha) and dukkha is caused a) by
transience (to wit, anicca)
and b) by the lack of an eternal substance/essence (to wit, anatta), viz.
the 3 Characteristics Sutra,
then nirvana must ensue either with the elimination of either transience or
transient substance (or essence) or permanence on both accounts. Sadly the Sakyamuni (to wit, the Scythian recluse) never answered that
question; nor did verbal conjurer Nagarjuna and his
brainless scholastic lickspittles. |