I now appear is merely a manifestation of relative, conventional
reality.^25 This form does not represent the true Buddha, or the true
Arahant, it is just our conventional bodily appearance.”Ãcariya Mun replied that he had no doubts about the true nature
of the Buddha and the Arahants. What still puzzled him was: how
could the Buddha and the Arahants, having attained anupãdisesa-
nibbãna^26 without any remaining trace of relative, conventional
reality, still appear in bodily form. The Buddha explained this
matter to him:“If those who have attained anupãdisesa-nibbãna wish to interact with
other Arahants who have purified their hearts but still possess a phys-
ical, mundane body, they must temporarily assume a mundane form
in order to make contact. However, if all concerned have already
attained anupãdisesa-nibbãna without any remaining trace of relative,
conventional reality, then the use of conventional constructs is com-
pletely unnecessary. So it is necessary to appear in a conventional form
when dealing with conventional reality, but when the conventional
world has been completely transcended, no such problem exists.
“All Buddhas know events concerning the past and the future
through nimittas that symbolize for them the original conventional
realities of the occurrences in question.^27 For instance, when a Buddha
wishes to know about the lives of the Buddhas who preceded him, he
must take the nimitta of each Buddha, and the particular circum-
stances in which he lived, as a device leading directly to that know-
ledge. If something exists beyond the relative world of conventional
reality, that being vimutti, then there can be no symbol represent-
ing it. Because of that, knowledge about past Buddhas depends on