Metaphor and Literalism in Buddhism: The ... - misterdanger.net

NIRVANA IN THE THERAVf DA BUDDHIST TRADITION
of the Buddha have thought that an expiring flame does not really go out
but goes back into a non-manifested state as latent heat?
In order to answer this question, we may need to look at some passages in
the UpaniLads suggested by F. Otto Schrader in his article ‘On the Problem
of Nirvaoa’. 52 Apart from the passages mentioned above, 53 one passage in
the VvetAUvatara UpaniLad seems to show where this Indian view could have
originated. It reads as follows:
When a fire is contained within its womb (yoni), one cannot see its
visible form and yet its essential character (liWga) is not extinguished;
one can grasp the fire once again from its womb by means of tinder.
In just the same way, one can grasp both within the body by means
of the syllable Oq. 54
According to Olivelle, 55 the image here is the production of fire by using a
fire-drill. In the fire-drill method, a stick is rotated rapidly in a pit in a
stationary piece of wood to produce a fire. The womb (yoni) here is the
depression on the lower slab into which the drill is inserted and then twirled
to produce fire.
Thus, the essential character (liWga) 56 of a fire is believed not to be extinguished
but to be hidden in the depression on the lower slab. That is to say,
this imperishable essential character could be the origin of the common
Indian view in which people think of an extinct fire not as having gone to
nothing but as having returned to its origin or pure state. However, there
are some problems with accepting that this notion of the imperishable essential
character (liWga) behind a phenomenal fire is already presupposed in the
metaphor of a fire extinguished in the context of nirvana without a remainder
of clinging (anupadhiUeLanirvAOadhAtu).
This essential character is something ready to produce a fire in the future
when suitable conditions, such as tinder and friction, are given. As long as it
can be made to reappear easily in the future it could not be the image of a
fire extinguished in the context of nirvana without a remainder of clinging,
where the most important message to be conveyed is that it will never reappear.
Moreover, the notion of this imperishable essential character behind a
phenomenal fire is absent from the description of the fire-drill in the one of
the oldest UpaniLads, the BKhadAraOyaka UpaniLad, which probably predates
Buddhism. It reads as follows: ‘Then he churned like this and, using
his hands, produced fire from his mouth as from a vagina. As a result the
inner sides of both these – the hands and the mouth – are without hair, for
the inside of the vagina is without hair.’ 57 ‘Churned like this’ is, according to
Olivelle, 58 a good example of the oral nature of the UpaniLads. What it
meant could be the reciter’s demonstration of the fire-drill by churning with
his palms to make friction and then by blowing with his mouth to produce
a fire blaze.
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