As a word, nirvana is negative. It means “to blow out,” as one would extinguish a fire, and the Buddha often describes it as putting out, cooling, or quenching the fires of self-will and selfish passion. But the force of the word is entirely positive. Like the English word flawless, it expresses perfection as the absence of any fault. Perfection, the Buddha implies, is our real nature. All we have to do is remove the self-centeredness that covers it.
