Nirvana is depicted as a place outside creation: where there is no physical or material substance, no elements of the earth, no dancing or drinking, no emotion or movement, no sun or light. The goal of salvation (“the end of stress”) is to get there. When set in contrast to God’s redeemed world, nirvana starts to look a lot like the darkness outside the new creation. A lot like the aftermath of the “anti-creation.” Nirvana starts to look an awful lot like hell.
