If you asked a hundred people to name the ultimate goal of life, you’d get a ton of different answers: making a fortune, finding happiness, leaving a legacy, or just getting some peace and quiet. But if you walk into a Buddhist temple and ask that same question, the answer is singular, definitive, and thousands of years old: Nirvana.

Derived from a Sanskrit word that literally means “blowing out” or “extinguishing”—like snuffing out a candle flame—Nirvana is the ultimate finish line. It’s the moment you finally break samsara, the exhausting, looping cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.

But here’s where things get fascinating. While pretty much every Buddhist school agrees that Nirvana is the grand prize, how they define it, how you get there, and what actually happens when you cross the finish line depends entirely on who you ask.

Let’s look at how the three major branches of Buddhism map out ultimate liberation.