A Brief Guide to Nirvana

Contents

• Pros & Cons of Nirvana
  • Advantages of Nirvana
  • Disadvantages of Nirvana
• Common Objections to Nirvana
• What Scripture says about Nirvana
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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Advantages of Nirvana

• One is free from suffering.

Disadvantages of Nirvana

• One has to free oneself from suffering. This is not so easy.

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Common Objections to Nirvana

• Isn't Nirvana just an escape?
  

  Yes, but it is an escape from the root cause of suffering, not just from the bad feelings that result. To get to Nirvana you must free yourself from the desires that lead to striving to get things for yourself.
  
  Late twentieth century America, by contrast, may be the most escapist society that has ever existed on the face of the earth, but the escape is by constant distraction, not by people freeing themselves from their own desires.

What Scripture says about Nirvana

"What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." The Letter of James, Chapter 4, verses 1-3

Comment: Scripture attributes evil (and its consequent suffering) to desire, which it also calls passions.

Scripture quote from the Illustrated Catholic Bible on CD-ROM, Harmony Media, Inc.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

• What is Nirvana?
  

  It's where good Buddhists go, if they can get there. The concept is that suffering is caused by desire, and desire in its turn is caused by illusion. You can get to Nirvana if you free yourself from illusion and desire. This is a big project. It is as far away from the world of American television and entertainment (and the Internet) as it is possible to get.

• Can a person who got to Nirvana, get to Heaven?
  

  Heaven is not an illusion, and you have to want to go there. I think people who got to Nirvana would have trouble believing Heaven was real. If they could believe it, they would be model citizens, because they would not be out to get something for themselves at the expense of others.

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