DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45392#0299
Beginnings of the Mahayana
of birth were extinguished. Other men, to whom the
Way has been revealed by the Buddha or his disciples,
can attain to Arahatta and Nibbana, but are not regarded
as Buddhas, nor is it suggested that every creature
may ultimately reach the condition of Buddhahood. Specu-
lation is forbidden as to whether the Buddha and the
Arahats exist or do not exist after the death of the body.
If now we survey the canonical scriptures as a whole—
written down in Pali about 80 b.c.—we shall find that
they include certain elements which are more or less
inconsistent with this pure intellectual doctrine which
appears to have formed the very consistent Dhamma of
Gautama himself. In the dialogue of Pasenadi, king of
Kosala, with the nun Khema, regarding the state of the
Buddha after death, we find: “ Released, O great king,
is the Perfect One from this, that his being should be
gauged by the measure of the corporeal world: he is
deep, immeasurable, unfathomable as the great ocean.” 1
Here is at least the suggestion that the undetermined, the
unregistrable, that which is other than Becoming, yet
is, though beyond our ken or understanding. In another
place, answering the question: What kind of being is a
Buddha? Gautama himself is made to reply that he is
neither a Deva, nor a Gandharva, nor a Yakkha nor a
man, but is a Buddha. It may be intended only that a
Buddha must not be regarded as an ordinary man; never-
theless there is clearly to be seen here an opening for the
later Mahayana doctrine of the Body of Transformation.
We find, again (in the Udnacs, viii, 3), the following
passage, which sounds more like a Brahmanical than a
Buddhist saying:
“There is, O Bhikkhus, an unborn, unoriginated, un-
1 Avyakala Samyuita, 1.
223
of birth were extinguished. Other men, to whom the
Way has been revealed by the Buddha or his disciples,
can attain to Arahatta and Nibbana, but are not regarded
as Buddhas, nor is it suggested that every creature
may ultimately reach the condition of Buddhahood. Specu-
lation is forbidden as to whether the Buddha and the
Arahats exist or do not exist after the death of the body.
If now we survey the canonical scriptures as a whole—
written down in Pali about 80 b.c.—we shall find that
they include certain elements which are more or less
inconsistent with this pure intellectual doctrine which
appears to have formed the very consistent Dhamma of
Gautama himself. In the dialogue of Pasenadi, king of
Kosala, with the nun Khema, regarding the state of the
Buddha after death, we find: “ Released, O great king,
is the Perfect One from this, that his being should be
gauged by the measure of the corporeal world: he is
deep, immeasurable, unfathomable as the great ocean.” 1
Here is at least the suggestion that the undetermined, the
unregistrable, that which is other than Becoming, yet
is, though beyond our ken or understanding. In another
place, answering the question: What kind of being is a
Buddha? Gautama himself is made to reply that he is
neither a Deva, nor a Gandharva, nor a Yakkha nor a
man, but is a Buddha. It may be intended only that a
Buddha must not be regarded as an ordinary man; never-
theless there is clearly to be seen here an opening for the
later Mahayana doctrine of the Body of Transformation.
We find, again (in the Udnacs, viii, 3), the following
passage, which sounds more like a Brahmanical than a
Buddhist saying:
“There is, O Bhikkhus, an unborn, unoriginated, un-
1 Avyakala Samyuita, 1.
223