Dictionary of Pali Proper Names v1.c7.824

v1.c7.824

As already stated above, the aim of Āḷāra’s practices is stated to have been the attainment of Ākiñcaññāyatana, the stage of nothingness. Whether this statement is handed down with any real knowledge of the facts of his teaching, it is not now possible to say. Aśvaghoṣa, in his *Buddhacarita*,⁶ puts into the mouth of Ārāḍa or Āḷāra, a brief account of his philosophy. It has some resemblance—though this is slight—to the Sāṅkhya philosophy, but in Āḷāra’s teaching some of the salient characteristics of the Sāṅkhya system are absent. In reply to Gotama’s questions about the religious life and the obtaining of final release, Āḷāra describes a system of spiritual development which is identical with the methods of the Buddhist monk up to the last attainment but one. The monk reaches the four jhāna and then attains successively to the states of space, infinity and nothingness. The last three stages are described in the terms of the first three of the four Attainments.⁷