In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Does the Buddha Exist After Death?and#8221; Sangharakshita explores this centuries old question.
From the talk, and#8220;The Meaning of Parinirvanaand#8221; by Sangharakshita, 1972.
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Does the Buddha Exist After Death?
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] Well, this reference to the stupa, this reference to the pareñirvana, brings us back to the event that we are commemorating today. I'd like to say the death inverted commas of the Buddha. But obviously, the death of the Buddha wasn't an ordinary death because the Buddha wasn't an ordinary person, as we've just seen. Not only his own immediate disciples, but those who followed for many generations felt very, very strongly that the Buddha was so great that there could be no thought of his greatness, no conception of his greatness, no representation of it even in artistic form. The Buddha's true nature was unfathomable. And even during the Buddha's lifetime we know from the scriptures. Even the close disciples were sent as very, very puzzled by the question of the Buddha's nature, who the Buddha was, what the Buddha was, what would happen to the Buddha at death. We don't know why, but apparently in the days of the Buddha, quite a lot of the disciples and quite a large number of members of the public were very, very interested in this question of what would happen to the Buddha when he died. It seems to sort of fascinates them, and there was a regular way of putting it which they had. And they used to come to the Buddha himself sometimes and say, "Lord, after death, first at the Thargata, that it would say the Buddha exists, or does he not exist, or both or neither?" And the Buddha always gave the same reply. He'd always say, "It is inappropriate to say of a Buddha that after death he exists. It is inappropriate to say of a Buddha that after death he does not exist. It is inappropriate to say of a Buddha that after death he exists and doesn't exist. It exists in one sense, doesn't exist in another sense. And it is inappropriate to serve a Buddha that after death he neither exists nor does not exist." He says, "All ways of telling, all ways of describing are totally inapplicable through the Buddha, through the Thargata." So from this we can understand that the Buddha's death is not death in the ordinary sense at all. And this is why in the Buddhist tradition it's termed usually the parinirvana. We don't say the Buddha died, we say he attained parinirvana. And what does this word parinirvana mean? Nirvana of course means enlightenment, Buddhahood and so on. Pari means supreme. What's the difference? There's no difference at all. The only difference, a quite minor one, is that in the case of Nirvana the Buddha's physical body continues to be attached. In the case of the parinirvana the physical body is no longer attached. The experience is the same. The nirvana, or if you like the nirvana nation of the nirvana, remains the same. One is called nirvana with remainder. This is the official or the traditional description. The other is called nirvana without remainder. So from the Buddha's point of view as it were there's no difference at all between the two states. Before death, after death, is completely the same for the Buddha. Whatever it is which we can't describe, which we can't know. The only difference is this difference only affects other people, the disciples. In one case the physical body is there, in the other case the physical body of the Buddha is not there. That's the only difference, and from the Buddha's point of view, attaining as he does nirvana, there's no difference between the two states, whatever. Now the circumstance is under which the Buddha attained a parinirvana. These are described at some length in the scriptures, and we'll be having readings from some passages later on this evening. Perhaps the final scenes or the final scene of all is best depicted, best represented, not so much in words, but in the art of the Buddhist Far East. And it is interesting to note that the scene is laid in the open air, he sometimes emphasized that the Buddha was born in the open air, under a tree. He gained enlightenment in the open air, under a tree, and he passed away in the open air, under trees. And this is the scene which is painted by these great Chinese and Japanese artists of the medieval period. By this time they felt able to actually represent the person of the Buddha himself in art. So you see first of all the beautiful forest background and the grow of saaltries. Salaltries are beautiful straight trees, almost like telegraph poles, with beautiful big green leaves and beautiful big white flies. And there's a grove of these, not far from Kuttinara in north eastern India, and at the foot of these saaltries there's a stone couch, which have been built by the local people, there's a resting place for people wandering in that grove. So on that stone couch the Buddha laid himself down at full length. And this is the scene painted by these Chinese master painters. The Buddha lying full length on this stone couch beneath these beautiful straight saaltries, which are sharding down white blossoms upon him, on all around of the disciples. The close disciples sitting near his head in their yellow robes, and in Brahmin disciples, princes, ministers, ascetics, fire worshipers, merchants, peasants, traders. And even the animal world, you see all around elephants, goats, deer, horses, dogs, even the cat who, according to tradition, wasn't the least upset by all. Even mice, even birds, are depicted all around the whole of creation, and up in the sky, clouds, gods, goddesses, everybody has come, as it were, to witness the Buddha's Paris-Nirvana. This is what these great Chinese artists depict, not just an ordinary incident in someone's life, but an event, as it were, of cosmic significance, the Buddha's final Paris-Nirvana. And as you look more closely at the picture, you notice that most of the people, most of the beings in the picture, even the animals, are weeping. The elephants, in particular, you notice, seems to be shedding tears. But a few of the disciples, those who are closest to the Buddha, those who are seated near his head, they're not weeping at all, they're perfectly calm, because they see beyond the physical body. They see that, really, there's going to be no change at all, just from Nirvana to Paris-Nirvana, no real change whatsoever. So this is the scene depicted by these great masters of Chinese and Japanese Buddhist art. And this is the scene that we're commemorating that we're remembering today. And we commemorate, we remember, in the first place out of gratitude to the Buddha for giving the teaching, and in the second place, because any recollection of death can only be done to our own spiritual development. And obviously, there's no question of remembering just today, but not other days, we must try to remember all the time. And we may say that the recollection of death must be constant, or at least frequent. And in this way, the defilement of craving, at least, can be overcome. And there'll be all sorts of other side effects, will be more energetic, more zealous, more vigorous, less inclined to waste time, because we'll realize how precious time is, less attached to material things, more generous. This is supposed to be one of the special fruits of the recollection of death, you become more liberal-minded. You hang on to things less, you share with people much more, then you become less afraid of death, more happy, more carefree. And above all, you develop a better insight into the impermanence of all conditioned things, a better insight into the true nature of existence. So that when, there was when, that will be we don't know, when we also come to die, as die we must. We too, perhaps we hope, should go from nirvana to paren nirvana, or if that isn't possible, at least we shall be going, from happiness to greater happiness, from understanding and insight to greater understanding and insight. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donny. And thank you. [music] [silence] [ Silence ]