Aspects of Mahayana Buddhism and its Relation to Hinayana c7.s3.t10.19

c7.s3.t10.19

Prof. Poussin has endeavoured to show that the Nirvāṇa of the early Buddhists is not annihilation; it is a state which may well bear comparison with the paradise of the laity but it is free from the implication of a life in paradise, i.e., unlike the life in a paradise, it is eternal (dhruva), it is beatitude, but without any sensation even of bliss.¹ It is beyond merit and demerit, a quiescent state which is obtainable in this life by saints when they establish themselves in the samādhi of saṃjñāveditanirodha (cessation of ideas and sensations). In this state as the thought is completely stopped, the saint feels only by his body the supreme bliss. He however warns us not to identify the supreme state of bliss with the Vedāntic Parabrahman, for the Buddhists had not yet arrived at that conception. His reason for holding this opinion is, chiefly, that the early Buddhists were not interested, to any appreciable extent, in metaphysical speculations, but were rather busy with myths. Hence, their conception of Nirvāṇa was not of a metaphysical nature but just the utmost possible extension of the conception of paradise.