The nirvana wikipedia page that covers the state of nirvana and its meaning is a completely different nirvana wikipedia page. The nirvana wikipedia page about the meaning of nirvana has only a very brief, and incorrect, description of the Buddhist meaning of nirvana. The nirvana wikipedia page describes the Buddhist nirvana as a “state of perfect peace”, which it is, but it is also so much more.

What the nirvana wikipedia page doesn’t tell you is how Buddhist nirvana came to be and what the ultimate nirvana, parinirvana, is. The Buddha was a very sheltered boy and young man who grew up with everything he ever wanted. As a young adult, Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, began to question his spirituality and whether it was appropriate for a single man to have so much, and he gave up all of his belongings in order to travel on foot and meditate in order to find nirvana, or that state of perfect peace, as it pertained to the Hindu religion that he knew. He soon learned that if he gave up everything, including food, he would die and this is not the state of peace that he was looking for. He decided to accept a meal and learned that nirvana is living with the things that you need, and some of what you want, but not living to excess – a middle ground, so that you could die happily and enter parinirvana, or the true end of life in which you will not be reincarnated (a karma punishment).

The nirvana wikipedia page also doesn’t go into the Hindu meaning of nirvana, which precedes Buddhist nirvana, but is quite different. Nor does nirvana wikipedia tell you about the popular meaning of the word as it is known today, to mean total happiness or a state of complete, stress-free relaxation in meditation where you can lose yourself in a completely carefree state. Some believe nirvana actually consists of leaving your body and taking an astral journey to a beautiful place. It seems that the nirvana wikipedia page could use some updating.