Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c8.s1.5

v1.c8.s1.5

1 The usual English synonym chosen for *avyākata* is 'indetermined.' It is equated to *avyākṛta*, which, literally, means 'not-explained' or 'not-determined.' *Avyākṛta* is a Buddhist-Sanskrit form derived from the word *Avyākata*. The Pāli word *avyākata* may well be taken as corresponding in sense to Sanskrit *avyakta*, meaning 'inexpressible' or 'unanswerable' because the question does not arise, and all answers are inadmissible. It, however, does not bear the philosophical sense of *avyakta* which is commonly in use in Vedānta and Sāṅkhya, but it is quite plausible to hold that Buddha meant by *avyākata*, inexplainable in worldly language, i.e., the nature of Nibbāna is as unfit for answer as is the question of the existence of the sky-flower. See Eliot, *Hinduism and Buddhism*, I, p. 228.