Why did Buddha passed away in fourth Jhana?
Upvote:-4
Buddha (and other masters) tend to depart from this life--or into the other boundless jhanas from the 4th jhana. This is because the 1st three jhanas are "tainted" with certain attachments to bliss, joy, and pleasure.
Upvote:2
Buddha emerged from the 4th jhana and passed away with equanimity; to demonstrate he passed away with an ordinary mind viewing ordinary reality (rather than passing away in an altered state of consciousness). This shows faithful disciples they do not need jhana or any non-ordinary mind to pass away at peace. All that is needed is equanimity & wisdom.
Then the Blessed One, emerging from the cessation of perception & feeling, entered the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception. Emerging from that, he entered the dimension of nothingness... the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness... the dimension of the infinitude of space... the fourth jhana... the third... the second... the first jhana. Emerging from the first jhana he entered the second... the third... the fourth jhana. Emerging from the fourth jhana, he immediately was totally Unbound. DN 16
However, the Buddha practised the jhanas before his passing to show he had not lost any mental mastery; per MN 12:
I am now old, aged, burdened with years, advanced in life, and come to the last stage: my years have turned eighty. Now suppose that I had four disciples with a hundred years' lifespan, perfect in mindfulness, retentiveness, memory and lucidity of wisdom. Just as a skilled archer, trained, practiced and tested, could easily shoot a light arrow across the shadow of a palm tree, suppose that they were even to that extent perfect in mindfulness, retentiveness, memory and lucidity of wisdom. Suppose that they continuously asked me about the four foundations of mindfulness and that I answered them when asked and that they remembered each answer of mine and never asked a subsidiary question or paused except to eat, drink, consume food, taste, urinate, defecate and rest in order to remove sleepiness and tiredness. Still the Tathagata's exposition of the Dhamma, his explanations of factors of the Dhamma, and his replies to questions would not yet come to an end, but meanwhile those four disciples of mine with their hundred years' lifespan would have died at the end of those hundred years. Sariputta, even if you have to carry me about on a bed, still there will be no change in the lucidity of the Tathagata's wisdom. MN 12
More post
- π What are the salient differences between the PΔαΈ·i NikΔyas & Chinese Δgamas?
- π Emptiness and consciousness
- π How come desire and sati causes sleepness?
- π How can merit be transferred?
- π Implementing the Satipatthana Sutta IRL [HELP]
- π What is the meaning of 'defiled cognition'?
- π Buddha's advice for after enlightenment
- π Why does MN 117 refer to a dirty defiled (ΰΈΰΈ΄ΰΉΰΈ₯ΰΈͺ) right view of bondage?
- π Dhamma Language Learning
- π Why are Mahayana texts in Sanskrit?
- π What is ThΓΆgal?
- π 'Impermanence' during vipassana practice
- π Time and duration to meditate
- π Did infinite space had a beginning?
- π Question on the eighth precept of Vipassana
- π How to practice Metta without a Benefactor?
- π How death anniversaries take place by Buddhist rituals?
- π Examples of early Buddhist art
- π Why would a non-dualist mind choose the Bodhisattva path once it has stopped differentiating between suffering and non-suffering?
- π Is Enlightenment a momentum with a continuum or can have regressions?
- π Is mindfulness itself kamma ? does it create kamma?
- π *"... not the physical lama, ... but your own nature of mind ... That's the real lama ..."* Is that actually a concept in vajrayana?
- π Am I a man of integrity?
- π Should I consider multitasking while listening to audiobooks? Is it a danger to mindfulness?
- π Does Buddha bless all human beings?
- π What is a Mudra and what do they mean?
- π What is the difference between right thinking and right view?
- π What is useless/meaningless speech?
- π According to Buddhism, what separates humans from animals?
- π No owner of the Dhamma?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π Why did Buddha passed away in fourth Jhana?
- π Why did the Buddha suffer before he died?
- π If there is no soul or self, why did the Buddha speak of his past lives?
- π Why did the Buddha touch the earth at his enlightenment?
- π Did the Buddha discover jhana by himself?
- π Why did physical representations of the Buddha only start to appear a few centuries after his death?
- π Why did the Buddha contradict about His teachings in these two different suttas?
- π Did the Buddha approved the idea of a council or was it a decision made after he passed away?
- π Why did Buddha choose sacred fig for meditating and austerity?
- π Why did the Lord Buddha criticize natthikavΔdaαΉ (moral nihilism)?
- π Why did Buddha put so much emphasis on no-self?
- π Why did Buddha use the 'Raft Simile'?
- π Why did Buddha continue jhΔna after enlightenment?
- π Why did first gerneration followers of Gautama Buddha chose oral method instead of written verbal method to preserve his teachings?
- π Why did the Buddha teach how to escape Samsara if there is no soul?
- π Why did the Buddha not answer Vacchagotta (SN 44.10), but did answer the monks (MN 140)?
- π Why did the buddha teach the mahayana?
- π Why did Buddha need a personal physician?
- π Why did the Buddha take 7 years to attain Nirvana?
- π If Buddha had unconditional love, why did he "kill" some of his monks?
- π Animals: why did the Buddha remain silent?
- π Why did Buddha refrain from finding knowledge of the whole universe?
- π Why did Buddha praise the vedic Agnihotra as the foremost sacrifice?
- π Did Gautama Buddha exist?
- π If Buddha stayed unanswered on this matter, why do his followers preach that soul doesn't exist?
- π Why does the Buddha call himself the TathΔgata?
- π Why is Buddha almost treated like a God in most Buddhist traditions?
- π Did the Buddha speak Pali? Are the suttas his word verbatim?
- π Attachment is a poison. Why is attachment to the Buddha and to Buddhist philosophy not a problem?
- π What language did the Buddha speak?