如是我聞 一時佛在拘尸那城 阿利羅跋提河邊 娑羅雙樹間 爾時世尊 告諸比丘 汝等當知 如來應正遍知 今日中夜 當般涅槃 汝等莫謂 如來永滅 如來常住 無有變易
rú shì wǒ wén yī shí fó zài jū shī nà chéng ā lì luó bá tí hé biān suō luó shuāng shù jiān ěr shí shì zūn gào zhū bǐ qiū rǔ děng dāng zhī rú lái yìng zhèng biàn zhī jīn rì zhōng yè dāng bān niè pán rǔ děng mò wèi rú lái yǒng miè rú lái cháng zhù wú yǒu biàn yì
Key Message
The Buddha's nirvāṇa is not annihilation — it is the declaration that reveals the Dharmakāya's eternal permanent abiding.
▸The opening of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra begins with the scene of the Buddha declaring to his disciples, beneath the twin śāla trees (娑羅雙樹) at Kuśinagara (拘尸那城), that he will enter nirvāṇa this very night.
The opening of the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra begins with the scene of the Buddha declaring to his disciples, beneath the twin śāla trees (娑羅雙樹) at Kuśinagara (拘尸那城), that he will enter nirvāṇa this very night. 'Thus have I heard' (如是我聞) is the standard opening of a Buddhist scripture, certifying that the Venerable Ānanda heard these words directly from the Buddha. The Buddha urges his disciples: 'Do not think that the Tathāgata has eternally perished' (汝等莫謂如來永滅). He then declares: 'The Tathāgata permanently abides without change' (如來常住無有變易), thereby clarifying that nirvāṇa is not to be understood as mere physical death but at the level of the permanently abiding, unchanging Dharmakāya. This declaration foreshadows the central theme of the entire Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra: the permanent abiding of the Tathāgata (如來常住).