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Has anyone achieved Nirvana?
nubuddh4
Unknown New
Since the Buddha, has there been anyone else that has reached Nirvana?
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Yes. Here is someone elses answer ...
Nirvana is not an achievement. It's not a place. Let us start with a definition. The three primary mental afflictions are ignorance, craving, and aversion. In the Fire Sermon, they are referred to as the three fires, that are burning all.
When those three flames are blown out (nirvana), that state is what is being referred to.
They are replaced with wisdom, generosity, and boundless friendliness.
All the arahants (and there were a bunch in the pali canon), would have experienced this, and anyone who has been liberated since then.
https://www.quora.com/profile/Cencio-Farre
Quite a few people claim to have been liberated, mostly outside of Buddhism. But just as one should be careful in selecting a teacher, so should one be careful in believing the claims of would-be guru’s...
Such a claim is unverifiable. Hence, in the recollection of the Dhamma, it's said "come and see" (ehipassiko).
Verse 276 of the Dhammapada echoes "come and see":
Most of us could only see a nirmanakaya manifestation of a Buddha. A bodhisattva could see the enjoyment body of Buddha or as it is called samboghakaya.
Those who do/have, never talk about it.
Those who talk about it can be assumed to have misunderstood their experience as being Nirvana.
I am new and will get used to posting threads in the right places but I hope my two questions have been in correct category.
You'd be unique. The amount of times I have to move mis-placed threads... !
Still, it's all part of the task. In my job-spec, as it were. 
^^^^^^
... and you do a hell of a job!
Thanks petal!
Many. And yet, no one because, paradoxically, there's nothing to achieve and one to achieve it.
As to "achieving/reached Nirvana" -- if you have "achieved/reached" anything whatsoever, doesn't that mean you've missed the point?
I think we should stop being clever by playing with words/semantics.
In Buddhism, the goal is to 'escape' the cycle of birth and death. We are still here on this earth, which means we haven't really escaped it and are still working out our karma. Which also means we have a long way to go before we achieve nirvana.
No point in denying this and saying, Is there anything to achieve? Yes, else you and I wouldn't be here.
Depends on how you look at it.
If one accepts the teachings on anatta and interprets them as pointing towards there being no self, then who is there to achieve anything? And what would this non-existent person achieve?
If one accepts that someone persists and transmigrates, a self that's not a self, then perhaps there is someone to achieve something, and that person is released. But when they're released from this transmigration, then this temporary self is no more, destroyed.
If there is a self that is a true self (i.e., permanent) and it's released, then where does it go? And if doesn't go anywhere where, is it destroyed? Can a permanent self be destroyed?
If one views this as applying moment to moment, and the cycle of birth and death arising in the mind, then one is released in the moment from the cycle; but is there a 'self' to be released or is it more akin to a process that's interrupted than a thing achieved?
Whatever the answer may be, I think it's worth thinking about because the semantics of our questions can have a big impact on the answers and the approaches we take to get them.
On one level, there is something we're working towards, release, liberation, freedom from suffering, etc. But on a deeper level, what does that mean? Who is released? And what does it entail?
Many appear to be 'free,' though.
There are those whose heart(citta) has been released through non clinging.
"What gains total release from the five khandhas?"
"Seeing thus, the well-instructed disciple of the noble ones grows disenchanted with form, disenchanted with feeling, disenchanted with perception, disenchanted with fabrications, disenchanted with consciousness. Disenchanted, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, he is fully released. With full release, there is the knowledge, 'Fully released.' He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done. There is nothing further for this world.'"
That is a good way of putting it. The self does exist on the mundane and even the Boddhisatva planes, if the Buddha was not a Boddhisattva and had no motivation or qualities of existence but was just a moving light ... well that belongs in fantasy realms ...
Then a middle-aged woman at the back of the room asked how we intended to show the Mahatma on screen. Dick relaxed as he enthused about Ben Kingsley, the acclaimed actor whose meticulous research had included studying Gandhi's voice and gait in old newsreels.
The woman was unimpressed. This was sacrilege, she said. Richard needed to be aware that Gandhi was a deity in this country, not a mere mortal to be caricatured from newsreels. Dick said he was sorry she felt like this. How would she have him portray the Mahatma? 'Not at all. But if you must. .. as a moving light.' At this, Dick's patience finally snapped. 'Madam,' he riposted, 'I am not making a film about bloody Tinkerbell!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1052245/Richard-Attenborough-The-film-bosses-wanted-Gandhi-sexy--played-Richard-Burton.html
It is a question of the degree, quality and nature of the 'interruption'.
https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-the-self-450193
Don't they? Many teachers, monks, zen masters, lamas, Boddhisattvas and the Buddha all talk about it ... maybe you are aware of this dharma heritage ...
Which is why I think of nirvana as 'freedom from the self' rather than 'freedom of the self'. The self is the problem, even when it's not permanent or substantial. Self=suffering. The ending of suffering means the ending of self. What lies beyond, no one knows, which is perhaps why the Buddha kept quiet.
I think anyone who has would never say they have, so they are hard to spot. It's just a way of being, endless selflessness and kindness because they see that we are all one in the same and they wish to help free us all from suffering.
Enlightened Being is a hard job ... but someone has to do it.
We need all the selfless kindness going (well I do - maybe the rest of the world too).