Biographical Notes |
Author Index | | | Title Index |
What is Nibbana? In the first essay of this booklet Lily de Silva approaches this age-old question from a fresh angle. Rather than speculate about Nibbana as an objective reality, she asks, "What does the attainment of Nibbana mean in terms of the living experience of one who has reached the final goal?" She discovers in the Pali texts four outstanding attributes of this experience: happiness, moral perfection, realization, and spiritual freedom. These she explores one by one, with ample citations from the Buddha's discourses to support her conclusions.
In the second essay she examines the two types of individuals who have realized the ultimate goal, the Buddha and his arahant disciples. She contends that while both the Buddha and the arahants share the same realization of emancipation, the Buddha is distinguished from the arahants by the cosmic dimensions of his mission and the breadth of his enlightenment.