Introduction In the following pages I survey selected passages from the early Buddhist texts in order to provide a perspective on the significance of the realization of Nirvana. My attempt to do justice to this topic is based on what--to the best of my knowledge--is to some extent a new approach. Said simply, this approach considers descriptions of the breakthrough to Nirvana to convey a complete stepping out of the way the mind usually constructs experience.[i] The first part of this book serves as a preparation for the type of perspective I intend to present, by way of examining indications offered in the early discourses on the topic of the construction of experience. In order to approach this matter from a practice-related viewpoint, a central concern in my exploration is the notion of signlessness ( animitta ), in particular its meditative development as a form of concentration, which appears to have a counterpart in some later traditions in the cultivation of nonattention ( amanasikara ). The second part of my exploration then turns to deathlessness. As an epithet of Nirvana, "deathless" in its early Buddhist use can be understood to involve a departure from notions of immortality held in the ancient Indian setting, instead offering the promise of complete freedom from being afflicted by mortality while still alive. The two main parts of my study fall into twelve subsections each, with a summary of the basic points at their respective ends.

In the conclusion that follows these two main parts I apply the idea of a transcendence of the construction of experience to a textual description of the awakening of the Buddha''s son, Rahula. While the topic of signlessness does not seem to have garnered much scholarly attention so far, the realization of Nirvana and passages related to this topic have been taken up in a vast number of publications, both scholarly and popular. Although I have tried my best to take into account a fair range of these, I have not been able to do that in a fully comprehensive manner. To do so properly would require a book in itself.[ii] Moreover, any attempt at comprehensive coverage would need to take up not only relevant scholarly assessments but also the different positions and perspectives on Nirvana that have emerged in the course of time in the various Buddhist traditions.[iii] Rather than attempting such broad coverage, the present book has the much humbler purpose of formulating my current understanding of selected early Buddhist passages in the hope of offering a meaningful perspective. For the time being, I have minimized critical observations, except for a few remarks in my notes.[iv] As a result, what I propose here comes with no claim of superseding previous discussions and presenting the final word on the matter.

Instead, what I present is simply a new way of approaching the topic of Nirvana, based on the viewpoint of the construction of experience as recognized in early Buddhist thought. The resultant perspective is therefore just one out of many, hopefully being at least internally coherent and relevant to actual meditation practice. In order to make my exploration as accessible as possible to readers from various backgrounds, I have tried to refrain as much as possible] from referring to texts by their Indic names and instead provide references to reliable translations of the relevant Pali versions in inline quotation for passages that I do not translate myself.[v] Although the main text of my exploration is geared toward a general audience, my annotations in turn are meant to cater to readers with a more scholarly inclination, hence I provide quotations of the relevant originals and some further discussions. When translating from any of these originals, although in general I attempt to be fairly literal, I tend to change singular verb forms to plural in order to maintain a gender-inclusive writing style.