130. Q. What is Nirvāna?
A. A condition of total cessation of changes, of perfect rest, of the absence of desire and illusion and sorrow, of the total obliteration of everything that goes to make up the physical man. Before reaching Nirvāna man is constantly being reborn; when he reaches Nirvāna he is born no more.
131. Q. Where can be found a learned discussion of the word Nirvāna and a list of the other names by which the old Pālī writers attempt to define it?
A. In the famous Dictionary of the Pālī Language, by the late Mr. B. O. Childers, is a complete list.[[1]]
132. Q. But some people imagine that Nirvāna is some sort of heavenly place, a Paradise. Does Buddhism teach that?
A. No. When Kūtadanta asked the Buddha "Where is Nirvāna," he replied that it was "wherever the precepts are obeyed".
133. Q. What causes us to be reborn?
A. The unsatisfied selfish desire (Skt., trshnā; Pālī, tanhā) for things that belong to the state of personal existence in the material world. This unquenched thirst for physical existence (bhāva) is a force, and has a creative power in itself so strong that it draws the being back into mundane life.
134. Q. Are our rebirths in any way affected by the nature of our unsatisfied desires?
A. Yes, and by our individual merits or demerits.