Since Nirvana is regarded as the cessation of existence [ bhavanirodha ] or the end of Samsara, then it is viewed as annihilation by some thinkers. The Buddha himself was accused of preaching annihilation. To clarify his position, the Buddha says :
" In the respect, one may rightly say of me that I teach annihilation that I propound my doctrine for the purpose of annihilation, and that I herein train my disciples, for certainly I do teach annihilation - the annihilation, namely of greed, hatred and delusion, as well as of manifold evil and unwholesome things."
What we can say here is that Nirvana is not self - annihilation, since there is no self to annihilate. If at all, it is the annihilation of ignorance [ avijja ], of the false ideal of self.
Followers of the Buddha, however , hold different views on the ontological status of Nirvana. The Sautrantika , for example, contends that Nirvana does not have a positive reality. It is nothingness [ abhava ]. Just as space [ akasa ] is the absence of a solid body or anything tangible, so also Nirvana is the absence of causes that are responsible for rebirth. The Sauntrantika's position appears to be nihilistic.
Unlike Sautrantika, the Vijnavadin maintains that Nirvana has a positive reality. The realization of Nirvana eliminates the unreality of the phenomenal world. What remains after the realization is Store - consciousness or Alayavijnana. The Store -consciousness is the absolute, ultimate source of the phenomenal world. The realization of Nirvana is nothing but the rediscovery of the Store - consciousness. Vijnanadin states that Nirvana - is the Alayavijnana where a revulsion takes place by self realization. Here the conception of Nirvana as self - realization is analogous to the Uppanisadic conception of Mokasa as the realization of Atman.
Rejecting the nihilstic conception of Nirvana, the early Buddhism maintains that Nirvana is not a nonexistence. That is Nirvana to be a transcendental entity, independent existent. The Kathavatthu conceives Nirvana as an external, unchange able state, which exists by itself.
In the Visudhimagga, Budhaghosa reject the view that Nirvana is nonexistent. According to him, the mere fact that an ordinary man does not apprehend Nirvana. It does not prove that Nirvana does not exist. That is not so because it is appropriate to it [ the way of virtue, concentration and wisdom ]. Nirvana is so subtle that a Noble One' eye [ ariya -cukkhu ] alone can see it. Nirvana is uncreated and hence free from aging and death that Nirvana is permanent [ nicca ]. Thus Nirvana is not a nonexistence, rather it is positive, permanent reality.
The commentary of Visudhimagga explains that, the Buddha proclaims the external existence of Nirvana in the ultimate sense. If the unconditioned i.e. Nirvana, were non - existent, then no escape from the conditioned i.e. five aggregates, would not be possible.
Thus Nirvana as conceived in early Buddhism is not non - existent or utter annihilation. It is the realm of being which transcends the phenomenal world. Nirvana is the unconditioned [asankhata], as opposed to the conditioned [ sankhaata ] i.e. phenomena. Negative terms like " unconditioned " and " uncreated " do not cannot nonexistence. It is described in negative terms because it can not be described. It is described in positive terms. Nirvana is indescribable and uncharacterizable. It is not like anything we find is our experience of the phenomenal world, as we saw, negative statements like " neti, neti - not this, not this " were also employed by the Uppanisdic thinkers to described the reality of Atman.
It is interesting that, not only describe the reality, if Nirvana indescribable but also the destiny of the liberated person. The question as to whether the person, who has attained Nirvana, continues to exist after death can not be answered either positively or negatively. Such a question regards as undetermined -problem [avykata - panha ]. The Buddha gave no specific answer to any of these questions. One of the reason for the " silence " of the Buddha is that the question exist or non - exist are misleading because they have a spatio - temporal connotation and hence are inapplicable to Nirvana which is beyond apace and time. The Buddha keeps silent in this respect of approah is similar to that of Wittgenstein's famous statement ;
" What we cannot speak about, we must pass over in silence. "
By THE BUDDHA'S Core Teachings
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