Nirvana

• enlightenment and bliss, release from material world

94:8.16Sid­dhartha hardly be­lieved in the im­mor­tal­ity of the hu­man per­son­al­ity; his phi­los­o­phy only pro­vided for a sort of func­tional con­ti­nu­ity. He never clearly de­fined what he meant to in­clude in the doc­trine of Nir­vana. The fact that it could the­o­ret­i­cally be ex­pe­ri­enced dur­ing mor­tal ex­is­tence would in­di­cate that it was not viewed as a state of com­plete an­ni­hi­la­tion. It im­plied a con­di­tion of su­preme en­light­en­ment and su­per­nal bliss wherein all fet­ters bind­ing man to the ma­te­rial world had been bro­ken; there was free­dom from the de­sires of mor­tal life and de­liv­er­ance from all dan­ger of ever again ex­pe­ri­enc­ing in­car­na­tion.

• Amida Buddha teaching of ultimate existence

94:12.3Among these be­liev­ers it is taught that the soul, upon ex­pe­ri­enc­ing death, may elect to en­joy a so­journ in Par­a­dise prior to en­ter­ing Nir­vana, the ul­ti­mate of ex­is­tence. It is pro­claimed that this new sal­va­tion is at­tained by faith in the di­vine mer­cies and lov­ing care of Amida, God of the Par­a­dise in the west. In their phi­los­o­phy, the Amidists hold to an In­fi­nite Re­al­ity which is be­yond all fi­nite mor­tal com­pre­hen­sion; in their re­li­gion, they cling to faith in the all-mer­ci­ful Amida, who so loves the world that he will not suf­fer one mor­tal who calls on his name in true faith and with a pure heart to fail in the at­tain­ment of the su­per­nal hap­pi­ness of Par­a­dise.

• cf: religion not a technique for attaining static and blissful peace of mind

100:3.1Re­li­gion is not a tech­nique for at­tain­ing a static and bliss­ful peace of mind; it is an im­pulse for or­ga­niz­ing the soul for dy­namic ser­vice. It is the en­list­ment of the to­tal­ity of self­hood in the loyal ser­vice of lov­ing God and serv­ing man. Re­li­gion pays any price es­sen­tial to the at­tain­ment of the su­preme goal, the eter­nal prize. There is a con­se­crated com­plete­ness in re­li­gious loy­alty which is su­perbly sub­lime. And these loy­al­ties are so­cially ef­fec­tive and spir­i­tu­ally pro­gres­sive.