I am in a debate with someone who threw this at me:

Firstly, as I'm sure you know nirvana is not something that can be achieved or attained. To imply that you can "attain" enlightenment is to imply that it is something that enters the spectrum of space and time...and thus has a beginning and an end. Nirvana/ enlightenment is simply our natural state of being...we all already are enlightened.....we just don't realise it right now.

You ask the purpose of the nirvana state and its effects. Well, firstly there is the obvious liberation from suffering......and secondly is the full realisation of who you are ( the totality of the universe). Both useful things to experience in life.

Just wondering opinions?

I would not ever want liberation from my suffering. It is part of my character and who I am.

I think in truth nirvana is the ability to live with ones-self and be content with who you are.

sounds good to me

Enlightenment does not liberate oneself from suffering. I don't know much about buddhism except for the fact that Buddha didn't become enlightened until he realized that there was suffering in the world, and he felt that pain and suffering through empathy. Achieving enlightenment and achieving nirvana are two totally different things, enlightenment is the realization of one's path in life, the understanding that we are one with the universe and the universe is one with us, that our bodies are merely representations of some higher force that one might call God or Krishna etc. Nirvana is the buddhist state of ascension, that is after one casts away his physical manifestation and exits this world into a place higher (i.e. heaven). The real question is, where do evil buddhists go (or what are they reincarnated as). Yea anyways stop throwing around the whole enlightenment/nirvana thing because it doesn't make any sense, with all due respect, they are two different concepts.

Nirvana is the same old tired bullshit that all of the other religions preach, you do have to do everything they say, but hey, at the end, you get to live in heaven/nirvana/valhalla/burger king.

If people were going to be philosophical about it or make some kind of assumption or argument that actually made any sense as to what Nirvana actually is, the only answer they'd be able to give would be that it's a higher, divine existence. Yes, praise Buddha for his vague bullshit.

It's all a bunch of crap. The closest Nirvana got to being divine was the Grunge band, and they sucked more than a drunken Paris Hilton.

Well, Buddha didn't really become enlightened upon seeing suffering. When Sidartha Goutama ventured out of his castle he saw the representations of death, sickness an d old age. He was blown away. So he left his family and denounced his throne and went looking for answers. He tried many paths. He tried the popular religions of the day, but no answers. It wasn't until he had been fasting with a different teacher for many days that he began to open up. He heard the boat master call out " you you pull the line to taught the net will not close, if you pull the line to loose the fish will escape. You must use the middle way" This opened his mind.
The state of nirvana is beyond enlightenment. Beyond life and death. It is a state of non rebirth. Like what was stated truthfully by Necropolis, we already have everything we need. we are all already enlightened. we just don't have realization of said enlightenment. We are stuck in conceptual ideas. its not that enlightenment is not useful, look at it as more to the idea that enlightenment should not be a goal because it is empty.
Don't aim for anything. A finger pointing at the moon is NOT the moon. Don't get caught up in the path. The path is just that, a way and there are infinate ways.
When asking anything about Buddhism your first and only question should be "who is asking" learn this and everything else will fall into line.
So, stop seeking things, gain great understanding, become enlightened and save all sentiant beings.

HAHA yes yes!! very true. Nirvana is very much bullshit!!! you speak truth. I want to live in a burger king!!!

but, Nirvana is not a place like like the others its a state. a state of non rebirth, so the true bodhisatva must refuse entrance in to Nirvana, so that he may remain to help liberate sentiant beings from suffering. Some will not want to go. If you relate to your suffereing...why change. But if the suffering isnt bothering you..than it is not true suffering.

but you had the better teaching.

this is all bullshit

very wise indeed

a state of mind brought on upon the awareness of complete bliss and unity with the cosmos.

i don't understand the proper eastern concept of nirvana, but westernly it seems to have become more of a sense of divine pleasure, what causes it i really can't say, but there are a wide assortment of chemicals and other reactions in our brain that when presented with certain stimulation release certain, highs and sensations through our body and brain, altering our perceptions of the world.

....nirvana, from my observation; would seem to be one heck of a psychotropic drug that leaves you serenely happy rather than over exerted after you come down from a night of celebrating; the theme is slightly more, ethereal inspired and less about getting drunk and laid, and doesn't require illegal chemicals to get you there.

i love it when people don't understand a state of being spiritual, but they try to sound like experts when they're saying "it's not real" how do they know, if they've never experienced it?

Nirvana, Is a band, they plays some alright music to...

We must remember that the word to achieve is used loosely in the concept of enlightenment indeed it is the destination to all our paths . Nirvana simply put is neither the realisation of nor the escape from suffering it is the realisation that the suffering only exists as part of those who exist with it to attain nirvana is to return to the combined consciense i.e. the one creating force once this "return" has taken place the individual realises his one `nes with all and thusly gains a greater understanding and thus greater control over external situations.