Avyakata
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Avyākṛta (Sanskrit) or Avyākata (Pāli), meaning "undetermined" or "unexplained", refers to "indeterminate questions" which Śākyamuni Buddha refused to answer. The avyākatas are numbered as ten, consisting of three pairs of opposites and a catuṣkoṭi (fourfold alternative) of options for the last subject. These problems are:
- (1-2) Whether the world is eternal or not eternal
- (3-4) Whether the world is finite or infinite
- (5-6) Whether the soul and body are identical or different
- (7-10) Whether the tathāgata exists after death, does not exist after death, both exists and does not exist after death, or neither exists nor does not exist after death.
