Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c17.s5.1

c17.s5.1

There is comparatively little development in the schools of the conception of release. The *Milindapañha*³ in the older portion insists on the conception of release as cessation of birth, old age, death, and the attendant woes of life; it is held that he who has overcome the tendencies to rebirth is aware of his success in producing cessation of craving leading to it, while those, who have not, still know the excellence of release by hearing of it from those who have experience of it, precisely as the pains of mutilation are known by listening to the moans of the sufferers. In the later portions we have, after an assertion of the non-existence of any true being in the world, a discussion of space and Nirvāṇa as uncaused by any of the recognized causes; there is a cause of the realization of Nirvāṇa, but not of its origin, just as one can go to the Himālayas, but cannot bring them to oneself. Nirvāṇa is uncompounded; it cannot be said to have been produced, or not to have been produced, or to be possible of production, to be past, future, or present, or perceptible by any sense organ. Nirvāṇa exists and is perceptible by the mind; with a pure heart, free from obstacles and cravings the disciple can see Nirvāṇa. Its nature can be explained only by similes, just as wind cannot be grasped, though it most assuredly exists.