"So teaching, so proclaiming, O monks, I have been baselessly, vainly, falsely and wrongly accused by some ascetics and brahmans: 'A nihilist is the ascetic Gotama; He teaches the annihilation, the destruction, the non-being of an existing individual.'
"As I am not as I do not teach, so have I been baselessly, vainly, falsely and wrongly accused by some ascetics and brahmans thus: 'A nihilist is the ascetic Gotama; He teaches the annihilation, the destruction, the non-being of an existing individual.'
"What I teach now as before, O monks, is suffering and the cessation of suffering. M 22
('since here and now the Tathāgata actually and in truth is not to be found...') Avyākata Samy. 2 <S.iv,384>).
The reason why the Tathāgata is not to be found (even here and now) is that he is rūpa-, vedanā-, saññā-, sankhāra-, and viññāna-sankhāya vimutto (ibid. 1 <S.iv,378-9>), i.e. free from reckoning as matter, feeling, perception, determinations, or consciousness. This is precisely not the case with the puthujjana, who, in this sense, actually and in truth is to be found. Nanavira Thera
Once some wanderers of other sects went
to the venerable
Anuradha and asked him: "Friend Anuradha, one
who is a Perfect
One, highest of men, the supreme among men, one
attained to the
supreme attainment, when a Perfect One is describing
him, in which
of the four following instances does he describe him:
After death a
Perfect One is; or after death a Perfect One is not;
or after death a
Perfect One both is and is not; or after death a
Perfect One neither is
nor is not?' "Friends, a Perfect One in
describing him describes him apart from
these four instances."
When
this was said they remarked: "This will be a new bhikkhu
or an
Elder not long gone forth who is foolish and inexperienced."
Then, having no confidence in the venerable Anuradha and thinking
him newly gone forth and foolish, they got up from their seats and
went away. Then, soon after they had gone he wondered: "If they
had questioned me further, how should I have answered them so
that I
might say what the Blessed One says without misrepresenting
him with
what is not fact and might express ideas in accordance with
the
Dhamma with nothing legitimately deducible from my assertions
that
would provide grounds for condemning me?" So he went to the
Blessed One and told him about this.
"How do you conceive this,
Anuradha, is material form permanent
or impermanent?"—"Impermanent,
Lord."
The Buddha then continued as he had
done in
the Second Sermon preached to the bhikkhus of the group of
five,
after which he asked:
"How do you conceive this,
Anuradha: do you see material form as
the Perfect One?"—"No,
Lord."—"Do you see feeling ... perception
...
determinations ... consciousness as the Perfect One?"—"No,
Lord."
"How do you conceive this, Anuradha: do you see the
Perfect
One as in material form?"—"No, Lord."—"Do
you see the Perfect
One as apart from material form?"—"No,
Lord."—"Do you see the
Perfect One as in feeling ... as
apart from feeling ... as in perception ...
as apart from perception
... as in determinations ... as apart from determinations ... as in
consciousness ... as apart from consciousness?"—"No,
Lord."
"How do you conceive this, Anuradha: do you see the
Perfect One
as material form, feeling, perception, determinations
and consciousness?"—
"No, Lord."
"How do you
conceive this, Anuradha: do you see this Perfect One
as having no
material form, no feeling, no perception, no determinations ,
no
consciousness?"—"No, Lord."
"Anuradha, when a
Perfect One is here and now unapprehendable
by you as true and
established, is it fitting to say of him: 'Friends, one
who is a
Perfect One, highest of men, the supreme among men, one
attained to
the supreme attainment, when a Perfect One is describing
him, he
describes him apart from the following four instances: After
death a
Perfect One is; or after death a Perfect One is not; or after
death
a Perfect One both is and is not; or after death a Perfect One
neither is nor is not?' "
"No, Lord."
"Good,
good, Anuradha. What I describe, now as formerly, is suffering and
the cessation of suffering."
S. 44:2
Khandha Samy. 85 (iii, 112)
*'It is impossible to conceive of a consciousness which would not exist in these three dimensions.' B&N, p. 137. It is clear from the Suttas that extinction is attained in this very lifetime and that this does not entail immediate death. The question might be asked how it is that an arahat (the Buddha himself, for example) while he still lives can walk and talk and eat and drink, even though consciousness (Pour-soi) has ceased. But since a living arahat cannot actually and in truth be said to exist, except by another who is not himself an arahat, it seems hardly reasonable to look to ontology for an answer. The question, however, is invalid, since it assumes the arahat's existence: where name-&-matter and consciousness have ceased, what conceivable mode of designation, expression, or description can there be? In A and B the Buddha asserts that release is possible. I see no way of showing that assertion to be false, but without individually attaining release, I see no way of showing it to be true. Nanavira Thera
§A. There is, monks, a non-born, non-become, non-made, non-determined; for if, monks, there were not that non-born, non-become, non-made, non-determined, an escape here from the born, become, made, determined, would not be manifest. Udāna viii,3 (Ud. 80)
§B. There is, morks, that base where there is neither earth nor water nor fire nor air nor the base of endless space nor the base of endless consciousness nor the base of nothingness nor the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception nor this world nor another world, neither sun nor moon; there, monks, I say that there is neither coming nor going nor standing nor falling away nor arising; that is without establishment, without procedure, without basis; that is just the ending of unpleasure (suffering). Udāna viii,1 (Ud. 80)
"Why are these questions [about Thatagata] not
answered by a Perfect One? Because
they all treat of a Perfect One
after death in terms of form (and
the rest)" (S. 44:3).
"Because they are asked by one who is not free
from desire,
love, thirst, fever, and craving for form (and the rest)" (S.
44:5). "Because they are asked by one who relishes form (and the
rest)
and also being and clinging and craving, and who does not know
how
these things cease" (S. 44:6). "Such questions belong
to the thicket of
views ... the fetter of views: they are connected
with suffering, anguish,
despair and fever, and they do not lead to
dispassion, fading, stilling,
direct knowledge, enlightenment,
Nibbana".
(M. 72).
The form element, householder, is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the form element is called one who roams about in a home. The feeling element is the home of consciousness … The perception element is the home of consciousness … The determinations element is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the The form element, householder, is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the form element is called one who roams about in a home. The feeling element is the home of consciousness … The perception element is the home of consciousness … Thedeterminations element is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the volitional formations element is called one who roams about in a home. It is in such a way that one roams about in a home.
“And how, householder, does one roam about homeless? The desire, lust, delight, and craving, the engagement and clinging, the mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies regarding the form element: these have been abandoned by the Tathagata, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated so that they are no more subject to future arising. Therefore the Tathagata is called one who roams about homeless. The desire, lust, delight, and craving, the engagement and clinging, the mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies regarding the feeling element … the perception element … thedeterminations element … the consciousness element: these have been abandoned by the Tathagata, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated so that they are no more subject to future arising. Therefore the Tathagata is called one who roams about homeless. It is in such a way that one roams about homeless. (SN 22: 3)
“Come, bhikkhus, let us go to the Black Rock on the Isigili Slope, where the clansman Vakkali has used the knife.”
“Yes, venerable sir,” those bhikkhus replied. Then the Blessed One, together with a number of bhikkhus, went to the Black Rock on the Isigili Slope. The Blessed One saw in the distance the Venerable Vakkali lying on the bed with his shoulder turned.
Now on that occasion a cloud of smoke, a swirl of darkness, was moving to the east, then to the west, to the north, to the south, upwards, downwards, and to the intermediate quarters. The Blessed One then addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Do you see, bhikkhus, that cloud of smoke, that swirl of darkness, moving to the east, then to the west, to the north, to the south, upwards, downwards, and to the intermediate quarters?”
“Yes, venerable sir.”
“That, bhikkhus, is Mara the Evil One searching for the consciousness of the clansman Vakkali, wondering: ‘Where now has the consciousness of the clansman Vakkali been established?’ However, bhikkhus, with consciousness unestablished, the clansman Vakkali has attained final Nibbana.” (SN 22: 87)
The form element, householder, is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the form element is called one who roams about in a home. The feeling element is the home of consciousness … The perception element is the home of consciousness … The determinations element is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the The form element, householder, is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the form element is called one who roams about in a home. The feeling element is the home of consciousness … The perception element is the home of consciousness … Thedeterminations element is the home of consciousness; one whose consciousness is shackled by lust for the volitional formations element is called one who roams about in a home. It is in such a way that one roams about in a home.
“And how, householder, does one roam about homeless? The desire, lust, delight, and craving, the engagement and clinging, the mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies regarding the form element: these have been abandoned by the Tathagata, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated so that they are no more subject to future arising. Therefore the Tathagata is called one who roams about homeless. The desire, lust, delight, and craving, the engagement and clinging, the mental standpoints, adherences, and underlying tendencies regarding the feeling element … the perception element … thedeterminations element … the consciousness element: these have been abandoned by the Tathagata, cut off at the root, made like a palm stump, obliterated so that they are no more subject to future arising. Therefore the Tathagata is called one who roams about homeless. It is in such a way that one roams about homeless. (SN 22: 3)
“Come, bhikkhus, let us go to the Black Rock on the Isigili Slope, where the clansman Vakkali has used the knife.”
“Yes, venerable sir,” those bhikkhus replied. Then the Blessed One, together with a number of bhikkhus, went to the Black Rock on the Isigili Slope. The Blessed One saw in the distance the Venerable Vakkali lying on the bed with his shoulder turned.
Now on that occasion a cloud of smoke, a swirl of darkness, was moving to the east, then to the west, to the north, to the south, upwards, downwards, and to the intermediate quarters. The Blessed One then addressed the bhikkhus thus: “Do you see, bhikkhus, that cloud of smoke, that swirl of darkness, moving to the east, then to the west, to the north, to the south, upwards, downwards, and to the intermediate quarters?”
“Yes, venerable sir.”
“That, bhikkhus, is Mara the Evil One searching for the consciousness of the clansman Vakkali, wondering: ‘Where now has the consciousness of the clansman Vakkali been established?’ However, bhikkhus, with consciousness unestablished, the clansman Vakkali has attained final Nibbana.” (SN 22: 87)
