THE BUDDHA'S VIEW OF NIRVANA

On the surface, Nirvana seems a completely negative conception. It means the end, the "blowing out" of existence, so that there will be no more reincarnation, and since the elements (skandhas) constituting a person are now dispersed, it would seem that Nirvana is "annihilation." 

But the Buddha would not say this.  He did not know whether this was true.  All he knew, and all he cared to know, was that Nirvana was the end of painful becoming;  an eternal state of being, it was the final peace.  

Western minds trained in logical and analytical thinking boggle at this.  The Buddha, however, declared that Nirvana was far more than merely a negative condition.  Rather, it was a state of bliss."