Linked Discourses on the Undeclared

While staying in Toraṇavatthu, King Pasenadi wishes to visit a spiritual teacher, and the nun Khemā is highly recommended to him. He asks her about whether a realized one still exists after death, and she says this is not answerable. Later he visits the Buddha, who replies in exactly the same way.

Venerable Anurādha is questioned by a number of ascetics, and ends up by saying that a realized one is described in terms other than “still existing after death” and so on. The wanderers say he’s a fool, so he checks with the Buddha, who says that a realized one is not even apprehended in this life, so how can they be described after death?

Mahākoṭṭhita asks Sāriputta whether a Realized One exists after death. Sāriputta says that to answer this would be to get involved in the five aggregates, something that a Realized One is free from.

Mahākoṭṭhita asks Sāriputta whether a Realized One exists after death. Sāriputta says that one who understands the five aggregates would not think in such terms.

Mahākoṭṭhita asks Sāriputta whether a Realized One exists after death. Sāriputta says that only someone who has desire for the five aggregates would think in such terms.

Sāriputta asks Mahākoṭṭhita whether a Realized One exists after death. Mahākoṭṭhita says that only someone who delights in the five aggregates would think in such terms, and offers a variety of further explanations of the same point.

The wanderer Vacchagotta asks Moggallāna the ten metaphysical questions, starting with whether the cosmos is eternal. Moggallāna says such questions would only be answered by someone who identifies with the six senses. Vacchagotta then asks the Buddha the same questions.

The wanderer Vacchagotta asks the Buddha the ten metaphysical questions, starting with whether the cosmos is eternal. He says such questions would only be answered by someone who identifies with the five aggregates.

The wanderer Vacchagotta reports to the Buddha a conversation among ascetics on the views of the six heretical teachers as to where a perfected one is reborn. Unsure of what the Buddha’s position was, he asks how it is to be understood. The Buddha says it is like a flame that burns dependent on fuel, and goes out when that fuel is extinguished.

Vacchagotta asks the Buddha whether a self exists, but the Buddha is silent. When Ānanda later asks him why he didn’t answer, the Buddha replied that it was to avoid misunderstanding.

The wanderer Vacchagotta asks Venerable Sabhiya Kaccāna whether a Realized One exists after death. He answers that the basis for describing a Realized One no longer applies. Vacchagotta is impressed that such a junior monk understands this subtle matter.