NIRVANA: In their esoteric meaning, the words “God,” “divine,” “Divinity” signify none other than the terms Shunya and NIRVANA, even though they can also refer to the Buddha and the Bodhisattva. That the Buddhist Absolute is not “nothingness” pure and simple is self-evident: “For some, NIRVANA is a state in which there could be no memory of the past and present, it would thus be comparable to a lamp whose oil is used up or to a kernel of grain that one burns or a fire that has gone out, for in these cases there is a cessation of all substrata . . . But this is not NIRVANA, for NIRVANA is not simply destruction and emptiness” (Lankavatara-Sutra, XIII). (GTUFS: TreasuresB, Treasures of Buddhism)
According to an error widespread in the West, the spiritual “extinction” that Buddhism has in view – for generally it is Buddhism that is cited – is a “nothingness,” as if it were possible to realize something that is nothing. Now either NIRVANA is nothingness, in which case it is unrealizable; or else it is realizable, in which case it must correspond to something real. It is too easily forgotten that Paradise – not to mention the uncreated Bliss that is none other than the positive content of NIRVANA – can also be regarded as an “annihilation,” the relationship between formal and non-formal manifestation being analogous to that between manifestation as such and non-manifestation. (GTUFS: TreasuresB, NIRVANA)
NIRVANA (three degrees): It is necessary to distinguish between three NIRVANAs, or three degrees of Extinction, two of which are still in the order of Maya or contingency, while the third, Parinirvana, is the Absolute; if another NIRVANA were the Absolute there could not be a question of a Parinirvana. The first NIRVANA is ontologically that of the Bodhisattva: it is extinction in relation to formal manifestation and corresponds to the degree of the Archangels, Heaven, Existence; we say “ontologically” because the Bodhisattva “lives” at this level even if he has already realized the second NIRVANA, the one which coincides with the state of the terrestrial Buddha, that is to say with extinction in regard to universal manifestation, which corresponds to the degree of pure Being. The third NIRVANA, beyond Maya, is that of the celestial or absolute Buddha: this is Parinirvana, extinction in relation to Being or to Maya and which corresponds to the supreme Self of the Vedantists. (GTUFS: TreasuresB, Mystery of the Bodhisattva)
NIRVANA / Parinirvana: NIRVANA is extinction in relation to the cosmos, and Parinirvana in relation to Being; NIRVANA is thus identified with Being, according to a connection that is more initiatory than properly metaphysical, since a “principle” is here represented as a “state”; and Parinirvana is identified with Non-Being, that is to say with the divine “Quiddity” which, according to Greek theology, “envelops” Being, and which, according to Sufism, “erases all predicates” (munqat al-isharat). (GTUFS: TreasuresB, NIRVANA)