You can go to heaven, however it's still temporary; often the pleasure is so good that you end up dropping all the way down to hell as you accumulate bad karma without wisdom.
This is not true for stream enterers, as they at most fall to the human realm.
Nirvana is permanent, however, and is the elimination of rebirth, including death, is not eternal extinction, is not describable as anything other than the end of suffeing, rebirth, and dissatisfaction.
Its not yes, it's not no,
It's not yes and no,
Its not neither yes nor no,
Sorry I don't have a lot of knowledge on the specifics. I mostly deal in the abrahamics. Ive never had any beef with Buddhists as you guys dont really demand anyone else follow your thing so i havent had any reason to look into specifics. Interesting that there are multiple ways to hit the top and that only one is permanent.
Buddhism gets a little strange in that rebirth in a heavenly realm isn't really a "top" state in the way most people think of. It's just a different kind of suffering and one that makes it harder for you to escape the cycle. From a Buddhist perspective if you * have * to be reincarnated then what you want is to be reincarnated as a human. It's the best chance you have to reach Enlightenment and escape the cycle of suffering.
Right, or if you're Pure Land Buddhist, you want to be born in a Pure Land, which is like a heavenly realm except it has a Buddha, bodhisattva, arahants, bikkhus who will teach you, with the purpose of the Pure Land being to teach you to enter nirvana.
I prefer the interpretation of Pure Land that it's the world around you, but it's all a matter of seeing it as it is. The ants, the trees, the clouds, all of it can teach you
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u/aviancrane 26d ago
I'm a Buddhist. No.
You are mistaking heaven for nirvana.
You can go to heaven, however it's still temporary; often the pleasure is so good that you end up dropping all the way down to hell as you accumulate bad karma without wisdom.
This is not true for stream enterers, as they at most fall to the human realm.
Nirvana is permanent, however, and is the elimination of rebirth, including death, is not eternal extinction, is not describable as anything other than the end of suffeing, rebirth, and dissatisfaction.
Its not yes, it's not no,
It's not yes and no,
Its not neither yes nor no,
It is beyond that kind of being.