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14
NON-ABSOLUTISTIC ATTITUDE OF THE JAINAS
(CH.
to say that the Tathāgata exists after death ... nor is it proper to say that he does neither exist nor does not exist
after death.' The Buddha spoke the same thing about the annihilation etc. of vedanā (feeling), saññā (perception), sankhāra (coefficients of consciousness) and viññāna (consciousness) of a Tathāgata who, when freed from all these, becomes deep, immeasurable, unfathomable.
This critical and rationalistic attitude of the Buddha towards metaphysical problems is responsible for the development in later times of a number of mutually conflicting metaphysical doctrines within the fold of Buddhism. The Buddha's attitude, however, was one of strict avoidance of all metaphysics which he considered as futile, because he held that one might die before one gets elucidation of these problems. Nor was there anything esoteric in his preaching. The Buddha, on his deathbed, is reported to have said to Ananda:
I have preached the truth without making any distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrine (anantarań abāhiram katvā) for, in respect of truth, Ananda, the Tathāgata has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher' who keeps some
thing back."? The Buddha avoided the extremes because the admission of any one of the extremes would involve either nihilism or eternalism-either of which doctrines implies futility of endeavour for final release. The hypothesis of eternalism is as much inconsistent with the idea of final release as the hypothesis of nihilism. Eternalism implies inherent perfection while nihilism implies its impossibility. It is in order to avoid these two undesired consequences that the Buddha adopted the middle course and left these problems auyakata (unexplained). These were time-honoured problems and as such the dogmatic minds could not get rid of them. The absolutely rationalistic mind of the Buddha, however, found absurdities in them and completely got rid of them. The truth is too deep to get expression in words. Then there was every possibility of it being misunderstood. It is due to these reasons that the Buddha did not explain it. Whenever he was asked to explain the truth, he asked the enquirer to endeavour to see it for himself instead of knowing it from him. The truth cannot be expressed in language. It is to be realized. His refusal to explain does not mean that he upheld agnosticism, because he believed in realization and asked the enquirer to realize for himself. He characterized
i See the Buddha's dialogue with Mālunkaputta, MNi, 63. 2 DNI, II, p. 100 (PTS edition).
DNi, II. p. 217 (PTS). See The Basic Conception of Buddhism, Pp. 23-24.
3 Ibid.
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