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

19[1]. When the Blessed One died, of those of the brethren who were not yet free from the passions, some stretched out their arms and wept, and some fell headlong on the ground, rolling to and fro in anguish at the thought 'Too soon has the Blessed One died! Too soon has the Happy One passed away from existence! Too soon has the Light gone out in the world!' But those of the brethren who were free from the passions (the Arahats) bore their grief collected and composed at the thought 'Impermanent are all component things! How is it possible that [they should not be dissolved]?' 20. Then the venerable Anuruddha exhorted the brethren, and said: 'Enough, my brethren! Weep not, neither lament! Has not the Blessed One formerly declared this to us, that it is in the very nature of all things near and dear unto us, that we must divide ourselves from them, leave them, sever ourselves from them? How then, brethren, can this be possible--that whereas anything whatever born, brought into being, and organised, contains within itself the inherent necessity of dissolution--how then can this be possible that such a being should not be dissolved? No such condition can exist! Even the spirits, brethren, will reproach us[2].' [1. Nearly = V, 11-14; and below, VI, 39. 2. Ugghâyanti. I have followed the reading of my own MS., which is confirmed by the Sumangala Vilâsinî and the Mâlâlankâra-vatthu. Vigghâyanti, which Childers reads, would be questionable Buddhism. The spirits do not become extinct; that is, not as a general rule, as would be implied by the absolute statement, {footnote p. 120} 'Even the spirits, brethren, become extinct.' It is no doubt true that all spirits, from the lowest to the highest, from the most insignificant fairy to the God of theological speculation, are regarded as temporary. But when they cease to exist as gods or spirits (devatâ), they do not go out, they are not extinguished (vigghâyanti); they continue to exist in some other form. And though that other form would, from the European point of view, be a different being, as there would be no continuity of consciousness, no passage of a 'soul' from the one to the other; it would, from the Buddhist point of view, be the same being, as it would be the resultant effect of the same Karma. There would follow on the death of a devatâ, not extinction, but a transmutation of force, a transmigration of character, a passing on, an inheritance of Karma. Only in the exceedingly rare case of an anâgâmin, of which an instance will be found above, Chap. II, § 7, could it be said that a spirit becomes extinct.