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For all Buddhists, regardless of sect, the ultimate goal is a religious quest that ends in enlightenment and complete freedom from the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara). Enlightenment can be described as a blissful mental state or nirvana (Nibbana). Buddha, the religious figure who inspires Buddhists’, describes the enlightened one as, “One who knows [his] former lives, And sees the heavens and the state of woe, And who has reached the extinction of births, Who has perfected higher knowledge, Sage who has fulfilled the final perfection” (Dhammapada, 26:423). Apart from form, this state of existence called, ‘the essential’, is bestowed upon those who can see the world for what it really is (Dhammapada, 1:12). There are four successive stages of Nibbana, the highest of which is (Parinirvana). Buddha describes those in this state as, ‘the Awakened Ones’ (Dhammapada, 14:195). Once Parinirvana has been achieved, the believer is called worthy (Arahant), bestowed with buddhahood, and their personal cycle of samsara is permanently broken. One who has begun the pursuit of enlightenment in the earthly world must undertake three refuges otherwise known as the Three Jewels. One must take refuge in Buddha, th