In This Fathom-Long Body

I say, friend, that by traveling one cannot know, see, or reach that end of the world where one is not born, does not grow old and die, does not pass away and get reborn. Yet I say that without having reached the end of the world, there is no making an end of discontentedness.

It is in this fathom-long body endowed with perception and mind that I proclaim the world, the origin of the world, the elimination of the world, and the way leading to the elimination of the world.

(Reference: AN 4.45)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares that he has “proclaimed” The Four Noble Truths. He is using the word “world” as a “retelling” of how he describes The Four Noble Truths.

It is The Four Noble Truths where one can make the breakthrough to establishing “Right View” and in doing so, one can make a complete end to discontentedness. In doing so, one would no longer be reborn. As more and more beings are born through The Cycle of Rebirth coming to understand and penetrate The Four Noble Truths, there will be fewer and fewer beings coming into existence. As all beings gradually attain Enlightenment ending The Cycle of Rebirth, there will eventually come “the elimination of the world” in terms of you no longer needing to experience “the world”.

A “fathom” is a unit of measurement considered to be approximately 1.8 meters or six (6) feet. He is only using this to reference himself and there is no meaning here in the use of that word that needs to be further understood.

Through traveling in The Cycle of Rebirth, “one cannot know, see, or reach that end of” discontentedness, thus, ending The Cycle of Rebirth or “ending the world”. Through ending The Cycle of Rebirth “one is not born, does not grow old and die, does not pass away and get reborn”.

“Without having reached the end of” The Cycle of Rebirth, “there is no making an end of discontentedness”. Here, The Buddha is sharing the interlinking between making an end to discontentedness through attaining Enlightenment is equivalent to making an end to The Cycle of Rebirth, thus, an end to existence in “the world”.

He is not sharing that the world will actually come to an end, as he left The Teaching on this as an “undeclared” Teaching.

Gotama Buddha did not teach about an afterlife or a soul. He left these “undeclared” in his Teachings. He did not teach whether we exist nor not exist once we attain Enlightenment and die. He shared that there is no more rebirth as “a being” in The Cycle of Rebirth which is different than no existence at all. If we do not attain Enlightenment during this life or at death, we will be reborn through The Cycle of Rebirth.

These are the undeclared Teachings of Gotama Buddha.

• the world is eternal

• the world is not eternal

• the world is finite

• the world is infinite

• the soul is the same as the body

• the soul is one thing and the body is another

• after death The Tathāgata exists

• after death The Tathāgata does not exist

• after death The Tathāgata both exists and does not exist

• after death The Tathāgata neither exists nor does not exist

Tathāgata is another term used to refer to Gotama Buddha.

Gotama Buddha is referring to himself who was an Arahant, therefore, you can also insert “Enlightened Being” for Tathāgata. This means, he left The Teachings “undeclared” of whether a human being who has attained Enlightenment as an Arahant “after death exists, does not exist, both exists and does not exist, neither exists nor does not exist”.

Just like all clinging and attachments, if we cling and crave the answer to these questions, it will cause the mind to be discontent. Knowing the answer to any of these questions will not lead to an individual’s own Enlightenment and therefore Gotama Buddha never taught or “declared” these Teachings. They are “undeclared”.

There were many Teachings Gotama Buddha did not share, as his main focus was to help people understand that they needed to work towards their own salvation through the process of attaining Enlightenment.

Gotama Buddha focused everyone’s attention, the mind, and their development on The Teachings that lead to Enlightenment - the cessation of discontentedness and the suffering it causes rather than ceremonies and worship. He taught people to practice The Teachings of being a good moral person that eliminates all unwholesome Kamma production, producing only wholesome Kamma.

Gotama Buddha’s Teachings are about non-attachment. He was not even interested in people attaching to him nor the existence of God, as Gotama Buddha knew Enlightenment is 100% determined by our own intentions, speech, and actions.

Rebirth, or The Cycle of Rebirth, is the process in which all beings who have not attained Enlightenment during this life or at death will be reborn into a new form or formless realm of existence, hell, afflicted spirits, animal, human, or heaven.

An “afterlife”, which Gotama Buddha left as an “undeclared” Teaching, is what happens when one has attained Enlightenment in this life or at death - what happens next? That is the afterlife.

You need to be comfortable with not knowing the answer, in other words, not being attached to what is or is not going to happen in an afterlife as being attached to needing to know this outcome could inhibit you from attaining Enlightenment and will cause rebirth. The goal is to extinguish all craving for a “Personal existence view”, “Desire for form”, and “Desire for the formless”. These are just three (3) aspects of The Ten Fetters required for Enlightenment as it relates to the discussion in this Chapter.

If you attain Enlightenment in this human existence, life will be so peaceful, calm, serene, and content with joy that you will have no need to know what comes next in the afterlife, if anything at all. You will be experiencing complete and total peace of mind and will know that if there is something after death having attained Enlightenment, it must be good.

The goal is to attain Enlightenment in this very life so that you will not be reborn through The Cycle of Rebirth into another realm of existence. You can attain Enlightenment during your existing life to experience ever lasting peace or at death.