What happens to the mind-stream when a person becomes a Buddha?
Before answering this question, I must explain that Buddha taught many people. Not everyone is the same. We have different dispositions and capacities. Buddha was extremely skillful and gave a variety of teachings so that each person would find an approach suitable to his or her character and disposition. Thus, the major traditions of the Buddhist teachings are Hinayana for modest- minded practitioners and Mahayana for vast- minded practitioners. Of the eighteen Hinayana schools that existed in ancient times, Theravada is the only one left in existence now. If Buddha were to say to somebody who is modest in his or her aspiration and goal that everyone’s mind-stream lasts forever, the person might become discouraged. Some people are overwhelmed with their own problems and therefore, to them, Buddha said, “You can get out of your problems, become a liberated being – an arhat ? and achieve nirvana. When you die, you attain parinirvana. At that time, your mind-stream ends, just as a candle
