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NIRVANA IN THE THERAVf DA BUDDHIST TRADITION profound meaning associated with the doctrine of emptiness.’ 63 The name PArAyana, among other names, such as Dharmapada and Arthavarga, was nearly always found in lists of such works 64 and this could be the reason why Northern Buddhists hesitated to form a definitive collection of this kind, as the Theravadins did in their Pali KhuddakanikAya. That is to say, its authenticity was not universally accepted among early Indian Buddhists. The Parayana stanza in the Suttanipata The text of the PArAyanavagga was about a kind of question time offered by the Buddha to fifteen young brahmans who were pupils of a renowned Brahman, Bavari. When Upascva, one of the young Brahmans, asked the Buddha about the last consciousness of an enlightened one at the final stage, the Buddha answered as follows: ‘“Just as a flame is tossed about by the force of the wind, Upascva”, said the blessed one, “goes out and no longer counts (as a flame), so a sage released from his mental body goes out and no longer counts (as a sage)”.’ 65 Steven Collins has translated ‘mental body’ (nAmakAya) as ‘name-and-form’ in his book Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities, 66 so that it is synonymous with nAmarEpa, psycho-physical phenomena. 67 He seems to translate it as a coordinate (dvandva) compound, thinking that, as long as it is the final release, it should be the release of an enlightened not only from his mental category but also from his physical category. Within the early Pali canon, this compound was generally regarded as a descriptive (karmadhAraya) compound meaning ‘mental category’ as contrasted with ‘physical category’ (rEpakAya) in explaining the relationship between nAmarEpa and contact (phassa) in dependent origination ( paMiccasamuppAda). 68 ‘Mental body’ here seems to mean the category of name (nAma). To be released from the category of name is the same as being released from the category of what is nameable. So this refers to the same as na upeti saNkhaN: when a saint dies he cannot be referred to by language or conceptionalised. According to the Cullaniddesa, an enlightened one at this stage was already released from his physical category and about to be released from his mental category. The commentary explains this in the following way: ‘released from the category of name means the sage who, already, released from the category of form was eliminated by the abandonment through the opposite, through passing beyond and through repression’. 69 That is to say, the Theravada tradition regards this verse as explaining the final release of an enlightened one who has already been released from his physical aspect by meditation. 70 This verse thus explains nirvana without a remainder of clinging through the image of a fire extinguished by the force of the wind. However, this fire image could be quite different from the fire image used in the context of the last unanswered question. As we have seen above, a fire in that context goes out through lack of fuel. 71 In order to explain nirvana 61
THE DOCTRINAL DEVELOPMENT OF NIRVANA without a remainder of clinging (anupAdisesanibbAnadhAtu), it should explain why a fire will not reappear in the future, like the image of a fire’s going out through lack of fuel seen above. 72 If a fire is extinguished by the force of the wind, it could easily reappear in the future when suitable conditions, such as tinder or friction, are given to the remaining fuel, such as oil or firewood. That is to say, this image could not be enough to explain why this particular extinction of a fire should be regarded as the final one. Moreover, this image could fit the fire image in the later UpaniLads, in which fire’s imperishable essential character (liWga) is contained within its womb, ready to reappear by means of tinder. 73 Earlier in this chapter, I showed that this could be the source of the common Indian view on the quenching of a fire: ‘an expiring flame does not really go out, but returns into the primitive, pure, invisible state of fire it had before its appearance as visible fire’. 74 Although this image, ‘a flame is tossed about by the force of the wind’, looks as if it is following the basic etymological meaning of nirvana, ‘going out’ (nir √vA (to blow)), 75 its implication when used in the context of nirvana without a remainder of clinging (anupAdisesanibbAnadhAtu) could be quite unexpected. Whether it is intended or not, this fire image in the PArAyanavagga seems to open the way to interpreting the state of an enlightened one after death not simply as mere non-existence. In fact, there is another clue in this verse that could be used to interpret this state as something existing separately (pAMiyekka). Instead of saying there is no more rebirth in the future, as in the context of the last unanswered question, it says ‘a sage released from his mental body goes out (atthaN paleti) and no longer counts (as a sage)’. According to PED, atthaN paleti is synonymous with atthaN gacchati, which usually appears as the noun atthaWgama in the early canon and as the participle atthaWgata in the JAtaka. Although the former, atthaWgama, generally meant ‘annihilation, disappearance’ as opposed to samudaya and synonymous with nirodha, the latter, atthaWgata, was used together with suriya to refer to the setting of the sun. As I show later in this chapter, this latter meaning seems to open the way to interpreting the state of an enlightened one after death as something existing separately (pAMiyekka). The Sanskrit equivalent of the word attha is asta, meaning ‘home, the western mountain (behind which the sun is supposed to set)’. 76 Attha in this meaning is found not only in the JAtaka but also in the AWguttaranikAya 77 together with the verb eti derived from the root √i (to go). Thus, the literal meaning of atthaN paleti could be ‘going home to its resting place’. If we apply this meaning to this PArAyaOa verse, it could mean that an enlightened person when finally released does not go to nothing but goes to somewhere, like home or the western mountain, as a kind of resting place. Within the Theravada exegetical tradition, this verse seems to be used for the two of the crucial interpretations that could almost determine what the 62
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METAPHOR AND LITERALISM IN BUDDHISM
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TEACHING BUDDHISM IN THE WEST Edite
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METAPHOR AND LITERALISM IN BUDDHISM
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FOR DONGJE MY ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE D
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CONTENTS List of figures and tables
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PREFACE I am glad to be able to tha
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ABBREVIATIONS The abbreviations for
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ABBREVIATIONS RV Rgveda. SA SaNyukt
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INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION In the Ab
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INTRODUCTION to reach it was descri
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INTRODUCTION two nirvana theory in
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NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE Part 1 TH
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NIRVANA AND ITS REFERENCE 1 NIRVANA
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Page 32 and 33: THE TWO NIRVANA THEORY IN THE EARLY
Page 54 and 55: DEVELOPMENTS OF THE TWO NIRVANA THE
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Page 94 and 95: NIRVANA IN NORTHERN BUDDHIST SCHOOL
Page 122 and 123: Table 5.4 Summary of the doctrinal
Page 124 and 125: CONCLUSION The term anAgAmin was of
Page 126 and 127: CONCLUSION passion, hatred and delu
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CONCLUSION The Sautrantikas probabl
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SELECTED SOURCES FOR THE NIRVANA CO
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NOTES Indians; and also because we
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NOTES 13 Huzita (1988: 8). 14 La Va
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NOTES 70 See Dutt (1960: 252-71), L
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NOTES 146 Akanuma (1929: 126). 147
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NOTES 39 yaP sAsravair dharmair vis
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NOTES 5 Harvey (1990: 66-7). 6 DN I
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NOTES 65 Tr. Norman (1992: 120): ac
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NOTES 132 Bareau (1955: 285). 133 B
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NOTES 15 Life faculty is one of the
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NOTES 77 Akb-h pp. 67-8. 78 Accordi
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NOTES 149 SA (TD2 57c8), SN IV 109.
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NOTES 6 SN IV 251-2. 7 The Chinese
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NOTES (1969: 378-82), which was mad
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BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY PRIMARY S
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BIBLIOGRAPHY SECONDARY SOURCES Adik
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BIBLIOGRAPHY Pasadika, Bhikkhu (198
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faculty see indriya fetters see saN
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