The teachings of the shravakayana – the Four Noble Truths, and so on – were taught to help people free themselves from delusion and get some relief from their suffering. The fruit of this path, nirvana, literally means “to extinguish,” just as one blows out a candle flame. The idea was that you would leave the burning house of samsara once and for all, never to be reborn. But leaving behind one’s delusions and thinking of nirvana as extinction are not yet the authentic liberation. It is the first part of liberation, but it is not the whole picture. The idea of nirvana as extinction is a teaching that uses skillful means to bring people into the path of practice.

The Mahayana proposed an understanding of nirvana, which is not separate from our existence in the world. True nirvana is possible in the here and now when we are able to get in touch with the ultimate dimension of reality. Just as a wave does not have to die in order to live in its ultimate dimension of water, we do not have to “extinguish” ourselves in order to reach nirvana. When we get in touch with our true nature, our ultimate dimension, we are freed from fears of existence and nonexistence. We know that “samsara” and “nirvana” are just distinctions in the realm of the historical dimension, and no such distinction exists in the ultimate dimension. As bodhisattvas, assured of Buddhahood, we ride joyfully on the waves of birth and death, abiding fearlessly in samsara to help guide others to liberation.