Buddhism

===Liberation===
{{Main|Moksha|Nirvana (Buddhism)}}
[[File:050_Mucilinda_with_his_Wives_around_the_Buddha_(32999346203).jpg|thumb|An [[Aniconism|aniconic]] depiction of the Buddha's spiritual liberation (''moksha'') or awakening (''bodhi''), at [[Sanchi]]. The Buddha is not depicted, only symbolized by the Bodhi tree and the empty seat]]
The cessation of the ''[[Kleshas (Buddhism)|kleshas]]'' and the attainment of [[nirvana]] (''nibbāna''), with which the cycle of rebirth ends, has been the primary and the [[soteriological]] goal of the Buddhist path for monastic life since the time of the Buddha.{{sfnp|Samuel|2008|p=136}}{{sfnp|Buswell|Lopez|2003|pp=589–590}}{{sfnp|Collins|1998|pp=135–177, 188, 443}} The term "path" is usually taken to mean the [[Noble Eightfold Path]], but [[Buddhist Paths to liberation|other versions]] of "the path" can also be found in the Nikayas.{{refn|group=note|Another variant, which may be condensed to the eightfold or tenfold path, starts with a ''Tathagatha'' entering this world. A layman hears his teachings, decides to leave the life of a householder, starts living according to the moral precepts, guards his sense-doors, practises mindfulness and the four jhanas, gains the three knowledges, understands the Four Noble Truths and destroys the [[Asava|taints]], and perceives that he is liberated.{{sfnp|Bucknell|1984}}}} In some passages in the Pali Canon, a distinction is being made between right knowledge or insight (''sammā-ñāṇa''), and right liberation or release (''sammā-vimutti''), as the means to attain cessation and liberation.{{sfnp|Choong|2000|p=141}}{{sfnp|Fuller|2005|pp=55–56}}

Nirvana literally means "blowing out, quenching, becoming extinguished".<ref name="Collins2010p63">{{cite book|author=Steven Collins |title=Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5pshUYiUVwC |year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88198-2 |pages=33–34, 47–50, 63–64, 74–75, 106 }}</ref>{{sfnp|Cousins|1996|p=9}} In early Buddhist texts, it is the state of restraint and self-control that leads to the "blowing out" and the ending of the cycles of sufferings associated with rebirths and redeaths.{{sfnp|Vetter|1988}}{{sfnp|Gombrich|1997|p=66}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Steven Collins |title=Nirvana: Concept, Imagery, Narrative |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d5pshUYiUVwC |year=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88198-2 |page=31}}, Quote: "This general scheme remained basic to later Hinduism, to Jainism, and to Buddhism. Eternal salvation, to use the Christian term, is not conceived of as world without end; we have already got that, called samsara, the world of rebirth and redeath: that is the problem, not the solution. The ultimate aim is the timeless state of moksha, or as the Buddhists seem to have been the first to call it, nirvana."</ref> Many later Buddhist texts describe nirvana as identical with ''[[anatta]]'' with complete "emptiness, nothingness".<ref>{{cite book|author=Steven Collins|title=Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravada Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8sLMkNn26-gC&pg=PA5|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39726-1|pages=82–84|access-date=10 July 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055833/https://books.google.com/books?id=8sLMkNn26-gC&pg=PA5|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Ray Billington |title=Understanding Eastern Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dACFAgAAQBAJ |year=2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-79348-8 |pages=58–60 |access-date=10 July 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055833/https://books.google.com/books?id=dACFAgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=David Loy|title=Awareness Bound and Unbound: Buddhist Essays|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R5KHnVVjwKQC|year=2009|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-1-4384-2680-8|pages=35–39|access-date=10 July 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055836/https://books.google.com/books?id=R5KHnVVjwKQC|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Refn|group=note|The early Mahayana Buddhism texts link their discussion of "emptiness" (''shunyata'') to ''Anatta'' and ''Nirvana''. They do so, states Mun-Keat Choong, in three ways: first, in the common sense of a monk's meditative state of emptiness; second, with the main sense of ''anatta'' or 'everything in the world is empty of self'; third, with the ultimate sense of ''nirvana'' or realisation of emptiness and thus an end to rebirth cycles of suffering.<ref name="Choong1999p85">{{cite book| author=Mun-Keat Choong| title=The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJafx7uO0VsC| year=1999| publisher=Motilal Banarsidass| isbn=978-81-208-1649-7| pages=1–4, 85–88| access-date=10 July 2016| archive-date=11 January 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055835/https://books.google.com/books?id=HJafx7uO0VsC| url-status=live}}</ref>}} In some texts, the state is described with greater detail, such as passing through the gate of emptiness (''sunyata'') – realising that there is no soul or self in any living being, then passing through the gate of signlessness (''animitta'') – realising that nirvana cannot be perceived, and finally passing through the gate of wishlessness (''apranihita'') – realising that nirvana is the state of not even wishing for nirvana.{{sfnp|Buswell|Lopez|2003|pp=589–590}}<ref>{{cite book|author=Dan Lusthaus |title=Buddhist Phenomenology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QMrKAgAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-97343-0 |page=124 with footnotes 2–3 on pp. 266–267 }}</ref>{{Refn|group=note|Some scholars such as Cousins and Sangharakshita translate ''apranaihita'' as "aimlessness or directionless-ness".{{sfnp|Williams|2005b|page=56, note 23}}}}

The nirvana state has been described in Buddhist texts partly in a manner similar to other Indian religions, as the state of complete liberation, enlightenment, highest happiness, bliss, fearlessness, freedom, permanence, non-dependent origination, unfathomable, and indescribable.{{sfnp|Collins|1998|pp=191–233}}<ref>{{cite book |author=Peter Harvey |year=2013 |title=The Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SfPcAAAAQBAJ |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-136-78336-4 |pages=198–226 |access-date=10 July 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055837/https://books.google.com/books?id=SfPcAAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> It has also been described in part differently, as a state of spiritual release marked by "emptiness" and realisation of ''[[anatta|non-self]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mun-Keat Choong|title=The Notion of Emptiness in Early Buddhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HJafx7uO0VsC|year=1999|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1649-7|pages=21–22|access-date=10 July 2016|archive-date=11 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111055835/https://books.google.com/books?id=HJafx7uO0VsC|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Gananath Obeyesekere |title=The Awakened Ones: Phenomenology of Visionary Experience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BB1Q0aWJpO8C |year=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-15362-1 |pages=145–146 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Edward Conze |title=Buddhism: Its Essence and Development |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PwXCAgAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=Courier |isbn=978-0-486-17023-7 |pages=125–137 }}</ref>{{Refn|group=note|These descriptions of nirvana in Buddhist texts, states Peter Harvey, are contested by scholars because nirvana in Buddhism is ultimately described as a state of "stopped consciousness (blown out), but one that is not non-existent", and "it seems impossible to imagine what awareness devoid of any object would be like".{{sfnp|Harvey|2013|pp=75–76}}{{sfnp|Gethin|1998|pp=74-84}}}}

While Buddhism considers the liberation from [[Saṃsāra (Buddhism)|saṃsāra]] as the ultimate spiritual goal, in traditional practice, the primary focus of a vast majority of lay Buddhists has been to seek and accumulate merit through good deeds, donations to monks and various Buddhist rituals in order to gain better rebirths rather than nirvana.{{sfnp|Coogan|2003|p=192}}{{sfnp|Trainor|2004|p=62}}{{Refn|group=note |Scholars note that better rebirth, not nirvana, has been the primary focus of a vast majority of lay Buddhists. This they attempt through merit accumulation and good ''kamma''.{{sfnp|Gowans|2004|p=169}}<ref name="Merv Fowler 1999 65">{{harvp|Fowler|1999|p=65}} Quote: "For a vast majority of Buddhists in Theravadin countries, however, the order of monks is seen by lay Buddhists as a means of gaining the most merit in the hope of accumulating good karma for a better rebirth."</ref>}}