Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

------------------------ 14. When the Blessed One died there arose, at the moment of his passing out of existence, a mighty earthquake, terrible and awe-inspiring and the thunders of heaven burst forth. 15. When the Blessed One died, Brahmâ Sahampati, at the moment of his passing away from existence, uttered this stanza: 'They all, all beings that have life, shall lay Aside their complex form--that aggregation Of mental and material qualities, That gives them, or in heaven or on earth, Their fleeting individuality! E'en as the teacher--being such a one, p. 117 Unequalled among all the men that are, Successor of the prophets of old time, Mighty by wisdom, and in insight clear-- Hath died[1]!' 16. When the Blessed One died, Sakka, the king of the gods, at the moment of his passing away from existence, uttered this stanza: 'They're transient all, each being's parts and powers, Growth is their nature, and decay. They are produced, they are dissolved again: And then is best, when they have sunk to rest[2]!' [1. Brahmâ, the first cause, the highest result of Indian theological speculation, the one God of the Indian Pantheists, is represented as using expressions full of deep allusions to the most characteristic Buddhist doctrines. The Samussaya is the result of the temporary collocation of the 'aggregations' (khandhâ) of mental and material qualities which give to each being (bhûto, that is, man, animal, god, ghost, fairy, or what not) its outward and visible shape, its individuality. Loka is here not the world in our sense, but the 'locality' in the Buddhist universe which such an individual occupies until it is dissolved. (Comp. Chap. II, §§ 14, 34.) Brahmâ appears therefore as a veritable Vibhaggavâdî.