著者

鈴木 隆泰

出版者

山口県立大学

雑誌

山口県立大学大学院論集

巻号頁・発行日

vol.7, pp.A1-A18, 2006-03-22

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In a grove of sal trees in Kusinagara, the Buddha Sakyamuni entered into his perfect peacefulness (parinirvana; final extinction) leaving the following short words: vayadhamma samkhara appamadena sampadetha (DN ii. 156.1-2) The meaning of these, the Buddha's last words, has been often offered in such arbitrary and tentative interpretations as "All phenomena are constantly changing. Therefore always remain assiduous," or "All things change and time flies like an arrow, so you must carry out your practice as hard as possible." As has already been shown, however, samkhara (samskdra in Sanskrit) primarily means subconscious force or function which builds up the self, and "the mutableness of samskdra (Sho-gyo-mu-jo)" is one of the most fundamental and essential ideas for understanding Buddhism. This paper attempts to present a more proper interpretation of the Buddha's last words paying special attention to Sho-gyo-mu-jo, and to make a contribution toward deepening our understanding of Buddhism.