What happens to a Buddha when he dies?

When you read Buddhist articles sooner or later, you will come across these 4 options:

• Exist
• Not exist
• Both exist and not exist
• Neither exist nor not exist

What you’ll also find is people trying to use these 4 options out of context.  So they’ll say that the Buddha never answered these questions – do you exist, not exist, both or neither.

But how these 4 options were originally used was as the undeclared answers to what happens to a Buddha after death?  Does he exist, not exist, both or neither – the Buddha didn’t answer those 4 questions.

Source:  http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn44/sn44.001.than.html

• As Dr Tony Page notes, the word “exist” is bhava.  Which is better translated as “to become” or “becoming”.
• Vibhava is “annihilation”.

Becoming implies birth.  And with birth comes change and death.  And anything that undergoes birth and death is classified as a sankhara.

So if we replace existence with becoming, we get the question, “What happens to a Buddha after death?  Does he:

• Become
• Get annihilated
• Both become and get annihilated
• Neither become nor  get annihilated

Now it gives you a totally different perspective to these 4 options doesn’t it?

A Buddha’s Dharma body is not born and does not die – so how could questions involving sankharas apply?  How could questions involving birth and death apply to the Deathless?

Dr Tony Page elaborates:

“Samsaric existence/samsaric bhava is a constant process of becoming and changing but never truly being.  Only a Buddha IS. 

• The Sutras are only saying that we need to transcend the ever-changing, unstable forms of existence that constitute samsara. 
• Once we have left samsaric ‘bhava’ (becoming) behind, we are Buddha – who never changes and never dies.“