Nirvana Without Remainder Points to Complete Liberation

Nirvana without remainder refers to the complete state of nirvana taught in Buddhism. There is an explanation of nirvana with remainder, in which afflictions have ceased while the body of the five aggregates still remains, and nirvana without remainder, in which even the body has come to an end and no cause for rebirth remains.

The word without remainder means that nothing is left, and the word basis points to what one depends on. It means the ultimate liberation in which afflictions have already been cut off, even the functioning of the five aggregates has ended, and no cause of birth-and-death remains.

In early Buddhism, it is explained that an arhat enters nirvana without remainder at final passing. This does not simply mean death. It means that ignorance, the root of birth-and-death, has been completely extinguished, so no cause for samsara remains.

In Mahayana Buddhism and Seon Buddhism, the teaching goes one step further and reveals that birth-and-death and nirvana are not two. As the teaching says, the nature of mind has never originally arisen and has never perished; ultimate truth goes beyond the distinction called birth-and-death and nirvana.

Therefore, nirvana without remainder does not only mean some distant world. We can learn the meaning of nirvana in the place where we directly see the nature of affliction and confirm the original face before one thought arises. Today, quietly release one attachment you have been holding without remainder.