The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1699 page)

 
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(Lat.,
nihil
, ‘nothing’). The view that positive claims (in metaphysics, ethics, epistemology, religion, etc.) are false; or (in its own way more positively) that oblivion awaits humans after death and the cosmos in due course. ‘Nihilism’ is used of a belief refuted by Buddhism. In
Therav
da
, it is the false belief that the self is identical with the body-mind continuum and therefore perishes completely at death (P
li,
uccheda-di
hi
). In
Mah
y
na
it is the false belief that nothing exists at all
(Skt.,
uccheda-d
i
) or that reality is an illusion
(Skt.,
m
y
). The opposite is
Eternalism
.

 
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