Concept
Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta
Overview
The Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta is a Buddhist sutta in the Majjhima Nikaya of the Tripitaka. This sutta is number 72 in the Third Division on Wanderers [Paribbajakavagga], and has an alternate spelling of [Aggivacchagotta] by the Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi. In this sutta, Gautama Buddha clarifies his views on the nature of existence and explains the nature of Nibbana to Vacchagotta by means of a simile. A sentient being which is composed of Skandha who realized Nibbana is compared to an extinguished fire.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
We may here therefore sacredly inquire first, why it is that Moses is here led to speak thus. And secondly, why it is recorded in this place concerning man only, that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul," when all animals throughout the whole Scripture are called "living creatures." The divine expressions recorded by Moses above are, "Let the earth bring forth every…
Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1
States what Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta is.
Hitherto we have observed the abstract principles; the following is to be noticed regarding the creation of the concrete actuality of the universe. The bodily creation consists of the soul habited in a material body; it comprehends eight orders of higher beings and five orders of lower beings, which constitute—with men, who form a single class—fourteen orders, and these are divided into three worlds or classes. The…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy
Close in meaning to Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta; the term itself is not named.
Again, what reaches unto its Perfector and attaches itself to Him is safe against corruption, all the more so if even during disconnection from Him it has not undergone corruption. Wherefore the soul after death shall ever remain and continue unwavering [and undying] and attached to this noble essence, which is called generic universal mind, and in the language of the lawgivers the Divine Knowledge. As to the other…
Avicenna, A Compendium on the Soul
States what Aggi-Vacchagotta Sutta is.
Related ideas
- Fire
- Mind–body dualism
- Skandha
- Majjhima Nikāya
- View (Buddhism)
- Bhikkhu Bodhi
- The Buddha
- Pali
- Cosmos
- Buddhists
- Duḥkha
- Existence
Place in the tradition
Part of Buddhist philosophy.