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An ordained Bhikkhu shared the following with me.

"You have done what is good and wholesome, you have made a shelter from fear. You have not done anything to harm other. You have not been greedy and immoral. You have forgiven the world difficult life pleasure and pain with compassion and after death you will be reborn in a happy destination." … said Buddha before death when he invited all the monks and followers to come and watch how the noble one dies.

I do not know if he paraphrased and I could not find it with a Google search... he was saying the idea that Buddha died from eating bad pork was incorrect.

He was vaguely referencing mushrooms as a possible cause and then also mentioned that Buddha died through some supernatural phenomenon and this was in some Pali sutta.

I was wondering if anyone knew where this quote is from (and hence the rest of the story)?

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  • As to the cause of death, DN 16 is taken to mean that he recovered completely from the sickness caused by the meal, and died as predicted due to his giving up the life faculty three months prior. Commented Sep 2, 2015 at 3:06

2 Answers 2

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The quoted passage sounds vaguely like the last paragraph of Ud 8.5 the Cunda Sutta. For example you quoted,

You have done what is good and wholesome ... after death you will be reborn in a happy destination

Thanissaro's version of that,

Cunda's remorse should be allayed ... it's well-done by you ... Venerable Cunda the silversmith has accumulated kamma that leads to heaven

However much of the rest of it doesn't match the your quote, e.g. "you have made a shelter from fear" sounds like it's addressed to people who have taken refuge (i.e. "all the monks and followers").

But then again it is a bit like the poem at the end of that sutta ("not greedy" -> "giving" and "You have forgiven" -> "no animosity").

For a person giving,  
merit increases.  
For one self-restraining,     
no animosity is amassed.  
One who is skillful  
    leaves evil behind  
and  
 — from the ending of passion,  
    aversion,  
    delusion —  
is totally unbound.

Anyway (whether or not this is the sutta which the Bikkhu wanted to share with you) this sutta too is from towards the end of the Buddha's life, and may or may not mention pork,

The Commentary notes a wide range of opinions on what "pig-delicacy" means. The opinion given in the Mahā Aṭṭhakathā — the primary source for the Commentary we now have — is that pig-delicacy is tender pork. Other opinions include soft bamboo shoots or mushrooms that pigs like to nibble on, or a special elixir. Given that India has long had a history of giving fanciful names to its foods and elixirs, it's hard to say for sure what the Buddha ate for his last meal.

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The Buddha's final days and death are described in the Maha-parinibbana Sutta

I don't see anything there quite like the quote you mentioned. According to the sutta, the Buddha's final words were:

Behold now, bhikkhus, I exhort you: All compounded things are subject to vanish. Strive with earnestness!

Concerning the final meal, the text says that the Buddha's final meal was 'Sukara-maddava'. The translators of the version I linked to have noted several possible interpretations of this phrase, including that it was a tender pork dish, a dish containing some kind of mushrooms that pigs find delightful, and a dish that has bamboo that has been trampled by pigs.

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