Fw: The Buddha's withdrawal into Parinirvana

[Dr Y. Vassilkov]

Dear collegues,
    I am afraid that political emotions aroused by the "Horseplay in
Harappa" led us probably a bit too far so that sometimes we fail to responce
to questions having purely Indological (and not political in any way)
significance. In particular, to my great disappointment, nobody gave as yet
an answer to a very interesting question put by Vladimir Shelkovich. Being
myself very much interested in knowing an answer, I would ask specialists in
Buddhism, Yoga, Anthrolology and other disciplines to reconsider the
question. The way of Buddha's withdrawal into Parinirvana meant a revolution
both in the yoga technique and in religious [psycho-]cosmology. That is why
the question seems to me so important.
    Or maybe the specialists in these subjects have already left the list,
except those of us who continue to participate in polemics over Rajaram's
little pranks or the question what Indian language is more classical than
others?

 Best regards
                                        Yaroslav Vassilkov
----- Original Message -----
From: "Vladimir Shelkovich" <shelkv at SVM.ABU.SPB.RU>
To: <INDOLOGY at LISTSERV.LIV.AC.UK>
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2000 11:04 AM
Subject: The Buddha's withdrawal into Parinirvana


>     Dear colleagues, I would be most grateful if someone could help me
with the following problem
> concerning the Buddha's withdrawal into Nirvana:
>
>   After going into a trance in order to enter Parinirvana, the Buddha
followed a back-and-forth
> motion, passing consecutively from the first stage of trance through the
eighth, then passed again
> through all the stages in reverse order from the eighth through the first
and at last,
> passing once more from the first to the fourth, he entered Parinirvana
from the fourth stage
> (The Maha-Parinibbana Suttanta,VI,11-13). The significance of the
back-and-forth motion of the
> Buddha on his way to Parinirvana is obvious, since it was his last trance.
>
>     I was unable to find any interpretation of the back-and-forth motion
of the Buddha and would
> like to have the answers to the following questions:
>
>   1) Did anyone, except the Buddha, go into Nirvana in such a way?
>
> The cases of withdrawal into Nirvana which I know of started from the
first stage of trance and
> ended at the fourth, for instance, the case of Sariputta.
>
>   2) Is there any interpretation of the last trance of the Buddha?
>
>   3) Are there known any other rituals (may be, in other civilazations)
connected with a specific
> back-and-forth "motion": downwards-upwards-downwards-centre.
>
>                          Vladimir Shelkovich
>
> St. Petersburg, Russia, e-mail: shelkv at svm.abu.spb.ru
>
> ---
> Vladimir Shelkovich (shelkv at svm.abu.spb.ru)
> ABU
> Sat, 30 Sep 100 11:55 +0300 MSK