Another time the Buddha was questioned by the wanderer Vacchagotta who wanted to know what happened to the Tathagata after death. Did he reappear in some other existence or not or both or neither? By asking this question, Vacchagotta assumes that there is some fixed entity that corresponds to the label Tathagata. The Buddha however, uses the simile of a fire to show that one should not think of the Tathagata as a fixed being that can be said to appear or disappear.
“What do you think, Vaccha? Suppose a fire were burning before you. Would you know: `This fire is burning before me’?”
“I would, Master Gotama.”
“If someone were to ask you, Vaccha: `What does this fire burning before you burn in dependence on?’ – being asked thus, what would you answer?”
“Being asked thus, Master Gotama, I would answer: `This fire burning before me burns in dependence on grass and sticks.’”
“If that fire before you were to be extinguished, would you know: `This fire before me has been extinguished’?”
“I would, Master Gotama.”
“If someone were to ask you, Vaccha: `When that fire before you was extinguished, to which direction did it go: to the east, the west, the north, or the south?’ – being asked thus, what would you answer?”
“That does not apply, Master Gotama. The fire burned in dependence on its fuel of grass and sticks. When that is used up, if it does not get any more fuel, being without fuel, it is reckoned as extinguished.”
“So too, Vaccha, the Tathagata has abandoned that material form by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him; he has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, done away with it so that it is no longer subject to future arising. The Tathagata is liberated from reckoning in terms of material form, Vaccha, he is profound, immeasurable, unfathomable like the ocean. The terms `reappears’ does not apply, the term `does not reappear’ does not apply, the term `both reappears and does not reappear’ does not apply, the term `neither reappears nor does not reappear’ does not apply. The Tathagata has abandoned that feeling by which one describing the the Tathagata might describe him…has abandoned that perception by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him…has abandoned those formations by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him…has abandoned that consciousness by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him; he has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, done away with it so that it is no longer subject to future arising. The Tathagata is liberated from reckoning in terms of consciousness, Vaccha; he is profound, immeasurable, unfathomable like the ocean. The term `reappears’ does not apply, the term `does not reappear’ does not apply, the term `both reappears and does not reappear’ does not apply, the term `neither reappears nor does not reappear’ does not apply.” (The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, pp. 593 – 594)
The Buddha makes this point again and again throughout his teachings. The Buddha does not think of himself in terms of a fixed identity that depends upon impermanent and contingent phenomena such as form, sensations, perceptions, volitions or even consciousness. The Buddha does not even try to identify a self apart from phenomena. It is not that the Buddha has negated or extinguished his selfhood, it is that the Buddha has awakened to the true selfless nature of reality which transcends the limitations of such self-conscious views and the finite reference points upon which such self-reference depends. One might say that before enlightenment, arbitrary boundaries between the self and the rest of reality have created a false view of self and that after enlightenment these boundaries are recognized as arbitrary and not ultimately significant. The boundaries of the self do remain insofar as they are needed to function in the world of conventional reality, but they no longer have any hold over those who have seen through them and realize that these fixed boundaries between self and other, beginning and end, inside and outside have no real substance. Free of these boundaries, the Buddha saw that there was no fixed, independent or definable self which can undergo birth or death in the first place. For this reason, the Buddha spoke of himself as the Tathagata, the “Thus Come/Thus Gone One.” In other words, he was able to operate both in the realm of conventional reality in order to teach and impart liberation as the “one who comes from the realm of Truth” and in the realm of freedom from the fixed, independent and finite self as the “one who goes to the realm of Truth.” The Tathagata, therefore, did not think of himself in terms of existence or non-existence, both, neither, or any other form of classification. Again and again, he pointed his disciples back to his pragmatic teachings concerning suffering and the end of suffering and away from idle speculation as to the nature of his existence as in the following passage:
“But Anuradha, when the Tathagata is not apprehended by you as real and actual here in this very life, is it fitting for you to declare: ‘Friends, when a Tathagata is describing a Tathagata – the highest type of person, the supreme person, the attainer of the supreme attainment – he describes himself apart from these four cases: ‘The Tathagata exists after death,’ or ‘The Tathagata does not exist after death,’ or ‘The Tathagata both exists and does not exist after death,’ or ‘The Tathagata neither exists nor does not exist after death’?”
“No, venerable sir.”
“Good, good, Anuradha! Formerly, Anuradha, and also now, I make known just suffering and the cessation of suffering.” (The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, pp. 937 – 938)
It must be understood that the Buddha was not saying that people do not really exist, or that the Tathagata has escaped existence or that birth and death are not actual events. What he realized for himself and tried to share with others was the insight into the selfless nature of all events and phenomena. There are definitely people who are born and people who die, people who undergo suffering and joy, and on rare occasions people who awaken to the Truth and are able to teach the Truth to others. However, those who do know the Truth, the Dharma, no longer view or experience these things from the point-of-view of self-reference. For them, the very nature of self and other, suffering and joy, birth and death or even existence and non-existence has changed. In fact, the viewpoint of the Buddha has changed so radically that for him, these terms have become wholly inadequate and misleading.