Nirvana, opposite of?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by uEih, Nov 24, 2007.

  1. uEih Registered Member

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    I have a question i wanted to know. Nirvana is when a person is free from all desires. So what exactly is the opposite of Nirvana? Is it Samara?
     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Samsara.
     
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Death
     
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  7. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    and also birth, old age and disease

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  8. uEih Registered Member

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    So let me get this correct, basically whoever believes in Nirvana doesn't believe in Samsara? I'm just a little confused. I wanna know who opposes Buddhism and Nirvana.
     
  9. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    It has nothing to do with belief. Samsara is the cycle of birth and death. Nirvana is the breaking free from the cycle of birth and death, also called enlightenment. Samsara is integral to the Buddhist worldview, it's not like God and the Devil, or good and evil.
     
  10. lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    If you want to examine the opposition to nirvana you have to look at it a little differently

    literally nirvana (a sanskrit word) means no variety

    the idea is that variety is the cause of suffering, thus one has to give up thinking about and performing activity. IOW absolute existence is formless and the process of spiritual progress is simply giving up

    those who oppose this idea say that nirvana refers to material variety - IOW absolute existence is not formless but bereft of material variety. The process of spiritual progress is the acceptance of spiritual activity (from such acceptance, material renunciation is a natural consequence)

    The advocates of this latter school could be deemed as opposing "nirvana"
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2007

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