The aim of Buddhism is for each being to obtain bodhi or awakening, and thus become a buddha. A buddha is someone who has obtained bodhi. Someone who strives to obtain bodhi is called a “bodhisattva.” The final awakening for which Buddhists should aim is called Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi or “unsurpassed, perfect, and complete awakening.”

Awakening is also described as mokṣa, which means liberation or freedom. It means to be liberated from a transmigratory mode of being and not reborn in the world of existence. While Indian thought generally saw the source of liberation as the physical body, Buddhism saw liberation as being mental because one is liberated from mental afflictions and reaches a free state of mind.

This state was called nirvāṇa: a peaceful liberated state in which the flames of delusion are blown out. Nirvāṇa literally means “to be blown out.” When Śākyamuni passed away, it appeared that the fire of his life had been blown out, which led people to describe the extinction of body and mind as nirvāṇa. Two teachings subsequently appeared. The first was “nirvāṇa with remainder,” a nirvāṇa in which while living one extinguishes delusion and the body remains. The second is “nirvāṇa without remainder,” a complete nirvāṇa in which delusions have been extinguished and one has fully left behind the restrictions of existence. In Mahāyāna Buddhism, there is also said to be the “nirvāṇa of non-abiding,” in which even though one has obtained enlightenment and is not stuck in the world of life and death, for the benefit of sentient beings one remains in the world of life and death, and does not enter a nirvāṇa separate from the world.