Buddha's Death

On occasion someone asks about the death of a great yogi. People are curious about the details, about the actions of that person when that happens. In the literatures there is not much about this. However there are descriptions in the Puranas about some great yogis transiting to higher places. There is however a description of the passing of the Buddha. This is given in Great Disciples of the Buddha (Thera-Hecker page 177 in one edition):

  And once more the Master turned to the assembly of monks to give them his final words of farewell: “Now, monks, I declare this to you: It is the nature of all conditioned things to vanish. Strive for the goal with diligence!”  

After the Exalted One had spoken these last words, he entered into the four jhānas and the formless spheres of meditative absorption, until he attained the stage of cessation of perception and feeling. While the Master was in cessation Ānanda said to Anuruddha: “The Blessed One has attained final Nibbāna, venerable sir.” He no longer addressed him as “friend,” but as a senior monk, although both had been ordained on the same day. Anuruddha, however, had the divine eye and corrected him: “The Buddha is in the state of cessation, but has not yet passed away.” To recognize this last subtle difference of a state of mind was only possible for an arahant like Anuruddha, who was skilled in clairvoyance. Subsequently the Buddha entered the nine stages of concentration in reverse order, back to the first jhāna. Then he rose again through the four jhānas, and during his absorption in the fourth jhāna he passed away.   

At the moment his life ended the earth quaked and thunder roared, just as he had predicted. The Brahmā Sahampati, who had induced the Buddha to teach and who himself was a non-returner, spoke a stanza which pointed to the impermanence of even a Buddha’s body. The king of the devas, Sakka, a stream-enterer, spoke a stanza which repeated the famous lines that the Buddha had proclaimed during his own discourse: “Conditions truly are transient.” Anuruddha gave voice to two serene verses. But Ānanda lamented:

Then there was terror, and the hair stood up, when he,

The all-accomplished one, the Buddha, passed away.