Introduction. What is this book, and who is it for? ; The discourse of felicity : imagining happiness ; The Pali imaginaire ; Eu-topia and ou-topia ; Notes on the words "Theravāda" and "religion"
Systematic and narrative thought : eternity and closure in structure and story. Closure in systematic thought ; Closure in narrative thought
Nirvana as a concept. Action, conditioning, time and timelessness ; Nirvana in life after death ; Nirvana exists ; Can one desire nirvana? ; Silence and the production of meaning
Nirvana as an image. The words (pari)nirvāna and (pari)nibbāna : other referring terms and definite descriptions ; Two aporias : consciousness and happiness ; Imagery and expressibility ; Appendix : happiness in meditation
Nirvana, time, and narrative. The myth of "the Myth of the eternal realm" ; Individual versus collective time : can history end : was Gotama unique? ; The sense of an ending ; Ending(s) in narrated time (erzählte Zeit) : non-repetitive time ; Ending(s) in narrated time (erzählte Zeit) : repetitive time ; Ending as an event in the time of narration (Erzählzeit)
Past and future Buddhas. Vaṃsa as a genre ; Voice and temporal perspective in the Chronicle of Buddhas : repetitive and non-repetitive time interwoven ; The story of the elder Māleyya and The history of the future : unprecedented well-being ; Appendix 1 : selections from the Buddhavaṃsa ; Appendix 2 : the Anāgatavaṃsa
Conclusion : modes of thought, modes of tradition.