Tuesday, October 15, 2013

What Is Nirvana?


When all that we are not has been eliminated, what remains is nirvana. Nirvana cannot be described; the experience of not-self cannot be described. Sometimes peculiar statements are made about what these mean when writers and philosophers try to describe a condition which is beyond subject and object, knower and known. This is where the Buddha adopted a practical outlook: if you want to know nirvana there is only one way, and that is for you to find out for yourself. There is no other way.

---The Essence of the Dhammapada, by Eknath Easwaran---

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