Many of the Pali language Buddhist scriptures use a word translated as "nibbana", which appears to describe the same word/concept. |
Many of the Pali language Buddhist scriptures use a word translated as "nibbana", which appears to describe the same word/concept. See [this article] for a (Therevada) Buddhist's commentary on "nibbana/nirvana". |
:Serious students of Buddhist texts seem to prefer "nibbana", although "nirvana" is often listed as a (transliteration of the) Sanskrit version. A more detailed definition is [here], with several uses of "nibbana" [here], and a talk on "nibbana" [here]. Finally, a Google search for [nirvana nibbana Pali Sanskrit] found over a hundred links which seem to equate the two terms. |
:From [notes of a World Philosophy class]: "The Mahayana scriptures were written in Sanskrit not Pali (which is the language of the Theravada scriptures). This accounts for the differences in spellings: Nirvana instead of Nibbana, Sutra instead of Sutta, etc." Many sources equate the two terms, as in this [Google search]. :The use of "nirvana" in English may have occurred because of the greater popularity of Sanskrit over Pali in early Western accounts of "Eastern religions/philosophy". (Sanskrit is also important in Hindu scriptures.) Some of the most popular early books on Buddhism had a strong bias towards the Mahayana school. (For instance, some books used the pejorative term "Hinayana" to refer to the Theravada school.) Old text, to be deleted: :Serious students of Buddhist texts seem to prefer "nibbana"... [remaining text deleted by author] |
:My apologies. Further study revealed that you are correct. |
Many of the Pali language Buddhist scriptures use a word translated as "nibbana", which appears to describe the same word/concept. See [this article] for a (Therevada) Buddhist's commentary on "nibbana/nirvana".
Do "nirvana" and "nibbana" actually denote the same thing? In English, "nirvana" seems to have won out. But what about the words in other forms of Buddhist text in many other languages, in different alphabets yet again? Do the standard transliterations of these terms in Chinese translations of earlier Pali and Sanskrit texts use the same transliteration for each, for example?