84000 Glossary of Terms

Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.

ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདའ་བ། | Glossary of Terms

  • ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདའ་པ།

  • ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདའ་བ།
  • ཡོངས་སུ་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།
  • ཡོངས་སུ་མྱན་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ།
  • yongs su mya ngan las ’da’ ba
  • yongs su mya ngan las ’das pa
  • yongs su myan ngan las ’das pa
  • yongs su mya ngan las ’da’ pa
  • parinirvāṇa
  • Term
Publications: 31

This refers to what occurs at the end of an arhat’s or a buddha’s life. When nirvāṇa is attained at awakening, whether as an arhat or buddha, all suffering, afflicted mental states (kleśa), and causal processes (karman) that lead to rebirth and suffering in cyclic existence have ceased, but due to previously accumulated karma, the aggregates of that life remain and must still exhaust themselves. It is only at the end of life that these cease, and since no new aggregates arise, the arhat or buddha is said to attain parinirvāṇa, meaning “complete” or “final” nirvāṇa. This is synonymous with the attainment of nirvāṇa without remainder (anupadhiśeṣanirvāṇa).

According to the Mahāyāna view of a single vehicle (ekayāna), the arhat’s parinirvāṇa at death, despite being so called, is not final. The arhat must still enter the bodhisattva path and reach buddhahood (see Unraveling the Intent, Toh 106, 7.14.) On the other hand, the parinirvāṇa of a buddha, ultimately speaking, should be understood as a display manifested for the benefit of beings; see The Teaching on the Extraordinary Transformation That Is the Miracle of Attaining the Buddha’s Powers (Toh 186), 1.32.

The term parinirvāṇa is also associated specifically with the passing away of the Buddha Śākyamuni, in Kuśinagara, in northern India.