Religion: A Path to Nirvana
Nirvana means Moksha: freedom from the repeating cycle of birth, life and death. Buddhism talks a lot about Nirvana. In Buddhism, meditation is given a very high importance in one’s practice to attain Nirvana. According to lord Buddha, “One who wants to achieve Nirvana, has to understand Four Noble Truths which are core teachings of Buddhism. These Noble Truths are the key to attain Nirvana and these four truths are- proper understanding of suffering, cause of suffering, relief from suffering and the way to end Suffering, These are the four Noble Truths by lord Buddha. The Buddha says that there are various forms of suffering birth, aging, sickness, and death which are inevitable in one’s life and also these sufferings are experienced over the period of many lifetimes in the cycle of rebirth called samsara that means ‘wandering’. Aspiring for a state beyond the sufferings and pain, he determined that its cause is negative emotions and the negative actions that motivate these sufferings, must be destroyed. If these causes could be destroyed, they would have no effect, resulting in the eradication of suffering. This eradication was nirvana. Nirvana was not regarded as a place, but as a state of absence, notably the absence of pain and suffering. Exactly what should be considerable in the state of nirvana has been the subject of discussion over the history of the tradition, though it has been described as a bliss which is secure, unchanging and unconditioned.
Buddhist thinkers have distinguished the nirvana from ‘remainder’, a state achieved prior to one’s death, where ‘the remainder’ refers to the mind and body of final existence and the nirvana without remainder is achieved when the causes of all future existence; physical form and consciousness will be vanished. To its conclusion those who walk on the path of Buddha, are facilitated by these states. The Buddha is said to have achieved Nirvana at the age of 35 when got enlightened and he died not to be born again.
