The History of Buddhist Thought c18.29

c18.29

The literal meaning of *nirvāṇa* does not help us. It means “blowing out” as of a lamp, and the verb is used literally of the extinguishing of a light, but this is not a prominent notion in the treatment of the subject, and the meaning has been modified by its being connected with another verb, for the participle is formed from *nir-vṛ* or *ni-vṛ*, meaning tranquil, happy, ceased, and *parinirvṛta* in its technical sense is " having attained nirvāṇa ". In any case it does not assert the annihilation of the individual. Buddhist polemics are continually directed against two views, that of permanence (*sassata*) and that of annihilation (*uccheda*). They are prominent in the *Brahmajāla-sutta*, and are elsewhere attributed to the teachers Pakudha and Ajita Kesakambalin respectively (pp. 72, 73). The Buddhist attitude to these views is expressed in the list of undetermined questions (*avyākṛtavastūni*) :