The supreme goal of the meditation disciplines. The concept is most characteristic of Buddhism, in which it signifies the transcendent state of freedom achieved by the extinction of desire and of individual consciousness. According to the Buddhist analysis of the human situation, delusions of egocentricity and their resultant desires bind man to a continuous round of rebirths and its consequent suffering (dukkha). It is release from these bonds that constitutes Enlightenment, or the experience of Nirvana.
Liberation from rebirth does not imply immediate physical death; the death of an arhat (a perfected person) or a Buddha is usually called the parinirvana, or complete Nirvana. In the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, the realization of Nirvana is deferred by the bodhisattva (“Buddha-to-be”) while he continues, out of compassion (karuna), to work for the salvation of others.

The Buddha describes the abiding in Nirva?a as ‘deathlessness’ (Pali: amata or amaravati) or ‘the unconditioned’ and as the highest spiritual attainment, the natural result that accrues to one who lives a life of virtuous conduct in accordance with Dharma. Such a life (called Brahmacarya in India) dissolves the causes for future becoming (Skt, Karma; Pali, Kamma) that otherwise keep beings forever wandering through realms of desire and form, the samsara.

There are many synonyms for Nirvana, as shown by the following passage:
World Honored One, the ground of fruition is bodhi, Nirva?a, true suchness, the Buddha-nature, the amala-consciousness, the empty treasury of the Thus Come One, the great, perfect mirror-wisdom. But although it is called by these seven names, it is pure and perfect, its substance is durable, like royal vajra, everlasting and indestructible. (Surangama Sutra IV 207)

Nirvana is conceived somewhat differently within various schools of Buddhism. In the Theravada tradition, it is tranquillity and peace. In the schools of the Mahayana tradition, Nirvana is equated with sunyata (emptiness), with dharma-kaya (the real and unchanging essence of the Buddha), and with dharma-dhatu (ultimate reality).

Nirvana and Samsara

In Mahayana Buddhism, calling nirvana the “opposite” of samsara (the cycle of death and rebirth) or implying that it is apart from samsara is doctrinally problematic. According to early Mahayana Buddhism, they can be considered to be two aspects of the same perceived reality. By the time of Nagarjuna, there are teachings of the identity of nirvana and samsara. However, even here it is assumed that the natural man suffers from at the very least a confusion regarding the nature of samsara.
The Theravada school makes the antithesis of samsara and Nibbana the starting point of the entire quest for deliverance. Even more, it treats this antithesis as determinative of the final goal, which is precisely the transcendence of samsara and the attainment of liberation in Nibbana. Where Theravada differs significantly from the Mahayana schools, which also start with the duality of samsara and Nirvana, is in not regarding this polarity as a mere preparatory lesson tailored for those with blunt faculties, to be eventually superseded by some higher realization of non-duality. From the standpoint of the Pali Suttas, even for the Buddha and the Arahants suffering and its cessation, samsara and Nibbana, remain distinct.
In the experience of all, Nirvana is a state which all six bases (Eye, Ear, Nose, Tongue, Body and Mind) cannot feel.
It is probably best to understand the relationship between Nirvana and samsara in terms of the Buddha while on earth. Buddha was both in samsara while having attained to Nirvana so that he was seen by all, and simultaneously free from samsara.

Gautama Buddha Quotations about Nirvana:

  • “Nirva?a is the highest happiness.” [Dp 204]
  • “Where there is nothing; where naught is grasped, there is the Isle of No-Beyond. Nirva?a do I call it — the utter extinction of aging and dying.”
  • “There is, monks, an unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated. If there were not that unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated, there would not be the case that emancipation from the born — become — made — fabricated would be discerned. But precisely because there is an unborn — unbecome — unmade — unfabricated, emancipation from the born — become — made — fabricated is discerned.” [Udana VIII.3]
  • This said: ‘the liberated mind/will (citta) which does not cling’ means Nibbana” [MN2-Att. 4.68]
  • “The subjugation of becoming means Nirva?a’; this means the subjugation of the five aggregates means Nirva?a.” [SN-Att. 2.123]
  • “Parinibbuto thitatto” -”Parinirva?a is to be fixed in the Soul” [Sn 372]

Source: wikipedia, britannica

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