The Buddhist Nirvana is a center of peace. Buddhism is a psychological religion. It starts with the psychological problem of suffering: all life is sorrowful, there is, however, an escape from sorrow; the escape is Nirvana - which is a state of mind or consciousness, not a place somewhere like heaven. It is right here, in the midst of the turmoil of life. It is the state you find when you are no longer driven to live by compelling desires, fears, and social commitments, when you have found your center of freedom and can act by choice out of that. Voluntary action out of this center is the action of the bodhisattvas - joyful participation in the sorrows of the world. You are not grabbed, because you have released yourself from the grabbers of fear, lust, and duties. These are the rulers of the world.

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell