To Vaccha on Fire (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly translation (Aggi Vacchagotta Sutra, MN 72)

Buddha as modern museum art, Singapore (Angloitalianfollowus/flickr.com)

 

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Buddha was staying in Savatthi, at Jeta's Grove, in Anathapindika's park. 

 

Then the wanderer Vacchagotta came, exchanged courtesies, sat respectfully to one side, and asked:

1. "How is it, Master Gautama, does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is eternal; only this is true, anything else false'?"
 

Composite art echoes doctrine of Dependent Origination

The Buddha answered: "...No."

[In sutras, which were originally memorized by making them into chants, there is a great deal of repetition: Each answer repeats the question in its entirety. While this is an excellent device to aid chanters, memorizers, and listeners, it is needlessly cumbersome and may even be misleading to readers. Nor is it likely that it would have been spoken this way in the first place.]

2. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is not eternal; only this is true, anything else false'?" "...No."
 
3. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is finite...'?" "...No."
 
4. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The cosmos is infinite...'?" "...No."
 
5. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The self [atta/atman, essence, ego, soul, or animating principle] and the body are the same...'?" "...No."
 
6. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'The self is one thing and the body another...'?" "...No."
 
7. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer [Tathagata, one who like you has attained the goal you teach in your Doctrine and Discipline] exists...'?" "...No."
 
8. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer does not exist...'?" "...No."
 
9. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer both exists and does not exist...'?" "...No."
 
10. "Then does Master Gautama hold the view: 'After death the Wayfarer neither exists nor does not exist...'?" "...No."

"How is it, Master Gautama, that when Master Gautama is asked if he holds the view 'The cosmos is eternal...' ... 'After death the Wayfarer neither exists nor does not exist; only this is true, anything else false,' he answers '...No' in each case?"

 "Seeing what drawback does Master Gautama entirely shrink away from each and every one of these ten positions?" 

A Thicket of Views

"Vaccha, the position 'The cosmos is eternal' is a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing [eel-wriggling] of views, a fetter [bond] of views. It is accompanied by dissatisfaction, distress, despair, and fever. It does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, to calm, direct knowledge, full enlightenment, or nirvana.

"The position 'The cosmos is not eternal' is a thicket of views... [and so on for each of the ten views].
 
"Vaccha, the position 'After death the Wayfarer neither exists nor does not exist' is a thicket of views, a wilderness of views, a contortion of views, a writhing of views, a fetter of views. It is accompanied by dissatisfaction, distress, despair, and fever, and it does not lead to disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, to calm, direct knowledge, full enlightenment, or nirvana."
 

"Does Master Gautama have any position at all?"
 

"A 'position,' Vaccha, is something that the Wayfarer has done away with. What the Wayfarer sees is this: 
 
"'Such is form, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is feeling, such its origin, such its disappearance; such is perception... such are formations... such is consciousness, such its origin, such its disappearance.' Because of this, I say: The Wayfarer -- with the ending, extinguishing, cessation, renunciation, and abandoning of all views, all speculations, all I-making and mine-making and obsession with conceit -- is freed through the abandoning of clinging."

"But, Master Gautama, the ascetic whose mind/heart is thus released, where does one reappear?"
 
"'Reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
 

"In that case, Master Gautama, one does not reappear."

"'Does not reappear,' Vaccha, does not apply."
 

"...Both does and does not reappear."
 

"...Does not apply."
 

"...Neither does nor does not reappear."

"...Does not apply."
 
"How is it, Master Gautama, when Master Gautama is asked if the ascetic reappears... does not reappear... both does and does not reappear... neither does nor does not reappear, he says, '[This]  does not apply' in each case?

"At this point, Master Gautama, I am baffled and confused. The small amount of clarity from our earlier conversation goes out now."

"Of course you are baffled, Vaccha. Of course you are confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this Dharma [this Doctrine concerning existential phenomena like the Five Aggregates, which leads to enlightenment and complete freedom], hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise.
  

"For those of other teachings, other disciplines, other practices, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know-and-see. Such being the case, permit me to question you. Answer as you see fit. 

"How do you see this, Vaccha: If a fire were burning in front of you, would you know, 'This fire is burning in front of me'?"
 
[Vaccha repeats the question then answers] "...Yes."
 
"Now suppose someone were to ask you, Vaccha, 'This fire burning in front of you, dependent on what is it burning?' So asked, how would you answer?"

"...I would reply, 'This fire burning in front of me is burning dependent on grass and wood as its sustenance.'" 

"Vaccha, if the fire burning in front of you were to go out, would you know, 'This fire burning in front of me has gone out'?" "...Yes."

Which way did the flame go? (yaymicro)

"Now suppose someone were to ask you, 'This fire that has gone out in front of you, which direction has it gone? East? West? North? South?' So asked, Vaccha, how would you answer?" 

"That does not apply, Master Gautama. Any fire burning dependent on and sustained by grass and wood, being unnourished -- from having consumed its fuel and not being offered more fuel -- is simply classified as 'gone out.'" 
 
"Even so, Vaccha, any physical form used to describe the Wayfarer, that has the Wayfarer abandoned, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the causes-and-conditions of existence, is not destined for future arising [reappearing].

"Freed from the classification of form, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, unbound, hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply.

"Any feeling... Any perception... Any formation...
 
"Any consciousness [these are the Five Aggregates of  Existence and Clinging] by which one describing the Wayfarer would describe him, that has the Wayfarer abandoned, its root destroyed, like an uprooted palm tree, deprived of the causes-and-conditions of existence, not destined for future arising. 

 
"Freed from the classification of consciousness, Vaccha, the Wayfarer is deep, unbounded, hard to fathom, like the sea. 'Reappears' does not apply. 'Does not reappear' does not apply. 'Both does and does not reappear' does not apply. 'Neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply."

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Wandering Indian ascetic (saiva tantra)

When this was said, the wanderer Vacchagotta said to the Buddha: 
 
"Master Gautama, it is as if there were a great sal tree not far from a village or town, and its branches and leaves were stripped away, its bark stripped away, its sapwood stripped away, so that -- divested of branches, leaves, bark, and sapwood -- it stood as pure heartwood. In just the same way, Master Gautama's words are freed of branches, leaves, bark, and sapwood and stand as pure heartwood.
 
"Excellent, Master Gautama, excellent! It is as if one were to set upright what was overturned, to reveal what was hidden, to show the way to one who was lost, or were to carry a lamp into the dark so that those with eyes could see what was there. In just the same way has Master Gautama -- through many lines of reasoning -- clarified the Dharma. I go to [the Buddha] for guidance, to the Dharma for guidance, and to the [enlightened] Sangha for guidance. May Master Gautama remember me as a lay follower who has gone to him for guidance from this day forward."