The Buddha's withdrawal into Parinirvana

[Vladimir Shelkovich]

    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

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Vladimir Shelkovich (shelkv at svm.abu.spb.ru)
ABU
Sat, 30 Sep 100 11:55 +0300 MSK