What happens to the Buddha when he dies?

0:00Dharma 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 freebudastodio.com forward slash donate. Thank you and happy listening. Well, this reference to the stupa, this reference to the Parynirvana, brings us back to the event that we are commemorating today, due 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 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

1:06of 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 sometimes 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 a 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 seemed to sort of fascinate 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, those that the tarkata, that it was a Buddha, exist or does he not exist or both or neither? And the Buddha always gave the same reply.

2:10He'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. Existing one sense doesn't exist another sense. And it is inappropriate to say of 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 tarkata. 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 Buddha's tradition it's termed usually, the Pari Nirvana. We don't say the Buddha died, we say, he attained Pari Nirvana. And what does this word Pari Nirvana mean?

3:19Nirvana of course means enlightenment, Buddhahood and so on. Pari means supreme. What's the difference? There's no difference at all. The only difference that quite minor one is that in the case of Nirvana, the Buddha's physical body continues to be attached. In the case of the Pari Nirvana, the physical body is no longer attached. The experience is the same. The Nirvana, or if you like the Nirvanic nature of the Nirvana, remains the same. One is called Nirvana with remainder. This is the official of 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, and this difference only affects other people

4:21of the disciples is that 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 does no difference between the two states, whatever. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this screen. Make a contribution at freebutistaudio.com forward slash Doni. And thank you.