|
Nirvana
as euphemism The Sanskrit metaphor nirvana,
is a sound (or verbal) bite that tags or references an experience. A verbal
tag representing an experience, hence a metaphor, can be transferred,
transmitted or translated. The experience cannot be transferred but only
emulated. The Buddha Shakyamuni (to wit: the
Scythian recluse) did not at any time give a description of the actual
physical and functional experiences syndrome he tagged as the metaphor nirvana.
Nor did he state, for obvious reasons, that the various intensities of the
experience of nirvana are generic, therefore not
peculiar to Buddhas, perfect or imperfect. The
extremely ambiguous root meaning of the Sanskrit tag nirvana is generally given
as nir
(meaning: no or not) and vana (meaning: blow, as
in the wind or storm blowing). more For an English speaker the untranslated,
hence meaningless and so mysterious tag ‘nirvana’ operates as
euphemism, i.e. as a sugar coated, hence attractive metaphor. The actual
English translation of tag ‘nirvana’ would be the tag/metaphor
‘still’, ‘calm’ or ‘unperturbed’, none of which is mysterious, thus not
attractive. |