“From the fulness of faith do you speak, Ananda. But He who has thus Attained knows of certain knowledge that in this whole Assembly there is not one brother who has any doubt or misgiving. For even the most backward of all these brethren knows and has seen and will be born no more in a state of suffering and is assured of final peace.” And by these words did the World-Honoured reassure Ananda the beloved in whom as yet the tenderness of love crippled its wings, restraining it from the eagle-flight of the perfected Arhat. And Ananda knelt, hiding his face beside the sala trees where lay the Blessed One, for he knew that the parting drew very near. And there was a deep silence, and it was as though all the spirits of earth and air, and the Divine Beings and the Three Worlds, the earth, the heavens, and hells waited with them nor would lose a breath that remained. And He who has thus Attained lay with closed eyes, submerged in calm as in a great ocean. And after awhile his eyelids opened and for the last time he looked upon them and for the last time his disciples heard his voice, strong in death. “Behold now, brethren, I exhort you, saying—‘Decay is inherent in all component things. Work out your own salvation with diligence.’” And they trembled, kneeling about him. Then the Blessed One entered into the first state of ecstasy, and, rising from this, into the second, and so passed into the third and into the fourth and rising from that realm of ecstasy he entered the realm of the infinity of space, and from this he entered the realm of the infinity of consciousness and rising from this he entered the realm of nothingness, and beyond this the realm of neither perception nor non-perception, and from this he arrived at the cessation of sensation and idea. And Ananda cried out to the great Anuruddha in an agony: “O my Lord—O Anuruddha, the Blessed One is dead!” And he, leaning above that Peace, said with calm: “Nay, brother Ananda. He has entered that state where sensation and ideas have ceased to be.” And all veiled their faces. And the mind of Him who has thus Attained retraced its way downward again and passing through all the stages entered into the fourth stage of deep meditation and passing out of this he immediately entered the Great Peace. And at the moment of his expiring the thunders of Heaven broke forth roaring about them and there was a loud and terrible trembling of the earth and the voice of Him who is the First uttered this: “All beings in the world must lose their compound selves and individuality, and even such a Master as this, he, unrivalled and endued with all the powers, even he has passed into the Nirvana.” And the voice of Indra, King of Gods, took up the tale. “Transient are all component things. They being born must die, and being dead are glad to be at rest.” And Anuruddha the Great said these words: