40 CHAPTER TWOrelease. A Pali Sutta (A.X. 93) makes the point that right view is unique in that
it is the only form of view whose development leads to the abandoning of at-
tachment to all views, itself included, and thus to the transcendence of all
asravas. Once these subtlest of attachments are abandoned, nothing would re-
main to bind one to the realm of satyLsara, and thus the mind would attain
mrval).a.
The word nirviit:ta (in Pali, nibbiina) literally means the extinguishing of a
fire. Why the Buddha would use such a term to describe the goal of his teach-
ings has puzzled Western scholars ever since their first encounter with the
concept, largely because they have viewed it in light of their own notions of
what happens to fire when it goes out. Viewed in light of the physics of the
Buddha's time, however, the term is much less puzzling.
Modern etymology derives the word nirviit:ta from verbal roots meaning
"blowing out." Traditional Buddhist etymology, however, derives it from roots
meaning "unbinding." This relates to the fact that fire, in the time of the Bud-
dha, was regarded as being in a state of agitation, dependency, and entrapment
as it burned, then growing calm, independent, and released as it went out. A
number of idioms reflect these notions: to start a fire, one had to "grasp" the
fire-potential latent in the fuel; when a fire went out, it was "freed:' Thus the
term nirviit:ta carried no connotations of"going out of existence." In fact, there
were occasions when the Buddha used ancient Vedic notions of fire-which
held that fire did not go out of existence when it was extinguished, but rather
went into a diffuse, indeterminate, latent state-to illustrate the notion that a
person who has attained the goal is beyond all description. Just as a fire that
has gone out cannot be described as having gone in any particular direction,
so the person who hasattained the goal cannot be predicated as existent,
nonexistent, both, or neither. As for the experience of nirval).a, it is so totally
free from any sort of limitation that the person experiencing it has no means
by which he or she could say that there is a person having the experience.
There is simply the experience, in and of itself.
Thus the word nirviit:ta, in the time of the Buddha, conveyed primarily the
notion of freedom. As experienced in this life, it meant freedom from any at-
tachment or agitation in terms of passion, aversion, or delusion; after death-
when the results of all karma created prior to one's Awakening had finally
worked themselves out, and input from the senses cooled away-it meant free-
dom from even the most basic notions or limitations that make up the experi-
ence of the describable universe. Other names the Buddha used metaphorically
to indicate the goal (there are more than thirty in all) carry similar connota-
tions, implying a subtle experience of utter transcendence and freedom from
change, disturbance, danger, insecurity, or unhappiness of any sort.
The early texts describe some of the Buddha's disciples as becoming arhants
(attaining total release from satyLsara) immediately in a single experience of
Awakening, whereas others attain total release in as many as four stages. In as-
cending order, they may become srotiipanna ("streamwinners"-those who
have reached the "stream" to nirval).a), destined to reach total Awakening in
no more than seven more lifetimes without· ever falling to any of the lower