Brahmajalasutta 2.38
Brahmajala Sutta (Dialogues of the Buddha) 2.38
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- English
2.38
‘There are, brethren, recluses and Brahmans who hold the doctrine of a conscious existence after death, and who maintain in sixteen ways that the soul after death is conscious. And how do they do so?
‘They say of the soul: “The soul after death, not subject to decay, and conscious,
(1) has form, (2 is formless, (3) has, and has not, form, (4) neither has, nor has not, form, (5) is finite, (6) is infinite, (7) is both, (8) is neither, (9) has one mode of consciousness, (10) has various modes of consciousness (11) has limited consciousness (12) has infinite consciousness (13) is altogether happy (14) is altogether miserable (15) is both (16) is neither.”
2.38.n1
Literally ‘who are After-deathers, Conscious-maintainers.’ These summary epithets are meant to be contemptuous, and the word chosen for death adds to the force of the phrase. It is not the usual word, but āghātana (so read in the text), meaning literally ‘shambles, place of execution.’ The ordinary phrase would have been parammaraṇikā.
Linked texts (1)
- Brahmajālasutta — Pāli