ABSTRACT

In Chapter 3, we saw that the right interpretation of nirvana with and without a remainder of clinging is, agreeing with its metaphorical structure, as the cessation of all defilements during life for the former and the cessation of the aggregates at death for the latter. In the early canon, the state of nirvana without a remainder of clinging was often explained through the image of a fire extinguished. In fact, we can get an early idea of this state through one of the well known discourses concerning one of the four unanswered questions: the state of the TathAgata after death. As its name suggests, the early canon did not really answer this question and, as a consequence, there have been many attempts to fill ‘the silence of the Buddha’ through clarifying this metaphor of a fire extinguished.