Donald S. Lopez Jr.: commitment

Transcript context

…Theologically, as you know, there are some very particular ways that Christians make sense of the death of Christ. How is it that Buddhists make sense of the death of Buddha? You’ve told us he knew everything. Presumably, he knew he would get dysentery from the food, and he would die. Is there an account of the broader meaning of that? Or it’s just stuff that happened? What they say is that the most important meals that a Buddha has is the meal before his enlightenment and the meal before his passage into nirvana. These are special meals, and the person who gives those meals is blessed by the tradition for these two important meals. The gods infuse special powers into those two meals. The dysentery attack is explained by the tradition as just this very powerful meal. He actually told his host, “Give this to me and bury the rest. The other monks can’t eat this.” The dysentery attack is the proximate cause of his death. However, before he died, he was meditating in the woods with his cousin and attendant, Ananda. He said, “Ananda, if asked to do so, a Buddha can live for an aeon or till the end of an aeon.” Ananda said something like, “Oh, that’s interesting.” Later, he said the same thing, and Ananda said, “That’s nice.” Finally, he said one more time, “A Buddha can live till the end of an aeon if asked to do so,” and Ananda says, “Whatever.” At that point, there was an earthquake, and Ananda arose from meditation. “What does the earthquake mean? ” The Buddha said, “This means that I have relinquished my life force. I will die in three months’ time. ” Ananda said, “Please don’t do that. Please live for an aeon.” The Buddha said, “Too late. You had three chances, and that’s passed.” He predicted his death at that point, and then the dysentery attack and that final meal come sometime after that scene. This is something I find puzzling in Buddhist theology. Maybe you can clear it up for me. The Buddha says he can live for an aeon if asked to, but who’s the asker? Now, the asker could be God, but there’s something also atheistic, you might say, about some parts of Buddhist theology. So, where is the role for the sacred? How does it relate to, apparently, supernatural things that can happen? Where do the special powers come from?…

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