ABSTRACT
Since Buddhism began to be studied in the Western world, numerous studies of nirvana have been undertaken, yet no fully satisfactory clarification of it has been made. This is not surprising if we consider the fact that while for Buddhists it is to reach nirvana, it is for scholars to study what nirvana may be. That is to say, nirvana for Buddhists has always been their highest goal, which can be reached through morality, meditation and wisdom, whereas for scholars it has been a kind of state that can be, though with difficulty, defined and explained in human language. ‘A very different thing’ was the early verdict given by Louis de La Vallée Poussin in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.1
