“But where does this Nibbāna exist?” was the question raised by King Milinda. The Venerable Nagasena replied: “There is no place in the East, the West, the South, the North, above, below or beyond, where Nibbana is situated."
"Yet there is Nibbāna for he who is pure in virtue and possesses right insight, realizes it, whether he is in Greece, Alexandria, Kosala or China.” (Milinda Pañha 323–26).
Just as the fire is not stored up in a particular place but rises when the necessary conditions are present, so Nibbāna is not said to exist in a particular place, but it is attained when and wherever the necessary qualities are fulfilled. Nibbāna therefore, is not a heavenly place like the Egyptian Amenti, i.e., the West, or the Greek Elysium, or the Hebrew Paradise, or the Christian Heaven, or the Vedic Svarga.
When the deity Rohitassa asked, “Where does the world’s end exist?” the Buddha said: “It is in this fathom-long body with consciousness that I declare the existence of the world, its origin, its cessation, and the path leading to its cessation.” Thus, Nibbāna does not exist as a locality in space; it is to be realized as that which transcends the world.
~ Venerable Dr. Parawahera Vajirañana Thera, excerpt from the essay The Buddhist Doctrine of Nibbana (1971)
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