The History of Buddhist Thought c18.33

c18.33

The doctrine of annihilationism as put by Ajita implies annihilation at death, but other forms of the doctrine in the *Brahmajāla-sutta* admit the existence of a finer self, which yet is finally annihilated. For Buddhism neither of these points is fundamental. Perhaps more than any other Indian religion it held views about the departed resembling those of the modern spiritualists. The Scriptures are full of stories of the materialization of dead persons, and of individuals with special powers of communicating with them. And if these stories do not belong to the earliest stages of the Doctrine, it is all the more clear that they were told by the same persons who refused to recognize the eternity of the self. The fundamental question is whether a Tathāgata¹ exists after death; and that is put aside in the fourth undetermined question: every possible way of asserting it or denying it is stated and rejected.