156. [Discourse on the View of Annihilation at Death] (SA156)

Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Sāvatthī in Jeta's Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika's Park.

At that time the Blessed One said to the monks: “The existence of what is the cause, by clinging to what, by being fettered and attached to what, by seeing what as the self, do living beings have a view like this and speak like this: 'All living beings who live in this world will be annihilated after death, will be destroyed, and will no longer exist. A human being is a combination of the four great elements, at the time after the body's death the earth returns to the earth, water returns to the water, fire returns to the fire, wind returns to the wind, and the faculties consequently proceed to space.

“Four men with a bier as their fifth carry the corpse to the cemetery … up to … it can be understood that what had not been burnt has been burnt, and [only] bones of the colour of a pigeon remain. The arrogant ones, who let [others] know about offerings, and the cunning ones, who let [others] know about retribution, what they claim to exist is all deception and falsehood. Whether fools or sages, after their death another existence is annihilated, destroyed, and no longer exists?”

The monks said to the Buddha: “The Blessed One is the root of the Dharma, the eye of the Dharma, the foundation of the Dharma …” to be recited fully in the same way in the sequence of the above three discourses.

Translated by Bhikkhu Anālayo. Originally published in ‘On Views and Penetrative Knowledge – A Translation of Saṁyukta-āgama Discourses 139 to 187 (Fascicle 7)’, Dharma Drum Journal of Buddhist Studies, 2015, vol. 17 pp. 43–100.

Prepared for SuttaCentral by Seniya Ariyakumara and Ayya Vimala.