I ♥︎ Suttas

Ud 8.1. On Extinguishment (1)

The Buddha was once staying in Jeta’s grove, Anathapindika’s park at Savatthi. He was instructing, encouraging, inspiring, and gladdening the mendicants with a talk on extinguishment. The mendicants were paying heed, paying attention, engaging wholeheartedly, and lending an ear. At that time, realizing this, the Buddha spoke this inspired utterance:

“Mendicants, there is a case[1] when there is no earth, no water, no fire, no air; no state of unbounded space, no state of unbounded consciousness, no state of nothingness, no state of neither awareness nor nonawareness; no this world, no other world, no sun, no moon. Then, I tell you, there is no arriving, no departing, no abiding, no passing on, and no rebirth. It is with nothing planted, not moving on, without foundation. Just that is the end of suffering.”

  1. As dictionaries gloss, āyatana can have the abstract meaning of ‘occasion’ or ‘opportunity’. This meaning applies here, not more concrete meanings like ‘realm’ or ‘sphere’. The passage tells us that the cessation of all the things listed is possible (i.e. in the realm of possibility), not that extinguishment is a literal realm or sphere. In SN 35.117 the same āyatana is simply said to be the cessation of the six senses itself, not something beyond it. For a further discussion see Seeds, Paintings and a Beam of Light. ⤴