The Gospel of Buddha Part 26

Therefore, let thy mind rest in the truth; propagate the truth, put thy whole will in it, and let it spread. In the truth thou shalt live forever. 13

"Self is death and truth is life. The cleaving to self is a perpetual dying, while moving in the truth is partaking of Nirvana which is life everlasting." 14

Kutadanta said: "Where, O venerable Master, is Nirvana?" 15

"Nirvana is wherever the precepts are obeyed," replied the Blessed One. 16

"Do I understand thee aright," rejoined the Brahman, "that Nirvana is not a place, and being nowhere it is without reality?" 17

"Thou dost not understand me aright," said the Blessed One, "Now listen and answer these questions: Where does the wind dwell?" 18

"Nowhere," was the reply. 19

Buddha retorted: "Then, sir, there is no such thing as wind." 20

Kutadanta made no reply; and the Blessed One asked again: "Answer me, O Brahman, where does wisdom dwell? Is wisdom a locality?" 21

"Wisdom has no allotted dwelling-place," replied Kutadanta. 22

Said the Blessed One: "Meanest thou that there is no wisdom, no enlightenment, no righteousness, and no salvation, because Nirvana is not a locality? As a great and mighty wind which pa.s.seth over the world in the heat of the day, so the Tathagata comes to blow over the minds of mankind with the breath of his love, so cool, so sweet, so calm, so delicate; and those tormented by fever a.s.suage their suffering and rejoice at the refreshing breeze." 23

Said Kutadanta: "I feel, O Lord, that thou proclaimest a great doctrine, but I cannot grasp it. Forbear with me that I ask again: Tell me, O Lord, if there be no atman, how can there be immortality? The activity of the mind pa.s.seth, and our thoughts are gone when we have done thinking." 24

Buddha replied: "Our thinking is gone, but our thoughts continue.

Reasoning ceases, but knowledge remains." 25

Said Kutadanta: "How is that? Is not reasoning and knowledge the same?" 26

The Blessed One explained the distinction by an ill.u.s.tration: "It is as when a man wants, during the night, to send a letter, and, after having Ids clerk called, has a lamp lit, and gets the letter written. Then, when that has been done, he extinguishes the lamp. But though the writing has been finished and the light has been put out the letter is still there. Thus does reasoning cease and knowledge remain; and in the same way mental activity ceases, but experience, wisdom, and all the fruits of our acts endure." 27

Kutadanta continued: "Tell me, O Lord, pray tell me, where, if the sankharas are dissolved, is the ident.i.ty of my self. If my thoughts are propagated, and if my soul migrates, my thoughts cease to be my thoughts and my soul ceases to be my soul. Give me an ill.u.s.tration, but pray, O Lord, tell me, where is the ident.i.ty of my self?" 28

Said the Blessed One: "Suppose a man were to light a lamp; would it burn the night through?" 29

"Yes, it might do so," was the reply. 30

"Now, is it the same flame that burns in the first watch of the night as in the second?" 31

Kutadanta hesitated. He thought "Yes, it is the same flame," but fearing the complications of a hidden meaning, and trying to be exact, he said: "No, it is not." 32

"Then," continued the Blessed One, "there are flames, one in the first watch and the other in the second watch." 33

"No, sir," said Kutadanta. "In one sense it is not the same flame, but in another sense it is the same flame. It burns the same kind of oil, it emits the same land of light, and it serves the same purpose." 34

"Very well," said the Buddha, "and would you call those flames the same that have burned yesterday and are burning now in the same lamp, filled with the same kind of oil, illuminating the same room?" 35

"They may have been extinguished during the day," suggested Kutadanta. 36

Said the Blessed One: "Suppose the flame of the first watch had been extinguished during the second watch, would you call it the same if it burns again in the third watch?" 37

Replied Kutadanta: "In one sense it is a different flame, in another it is not." 38

The Tathagata asked again: "Has the time that elapsed during the extinction of the flame anything to do with its ident.i.ty or non-ident.i.ty?" 39

"No, sir," said the Brahman, "it has not. There is a difference and an ident.i.ty, whether many years elapsed or only one second, and also whether the lamp has been extinguished in the meantime or not." 40

"Well, then, we agree that the flame of to-day is in a certain sense the same as the flame of yesterday, and in another sense it is different at every moment. Moreover, the flames of the same kind, illuminating with equal power the same land of rooms, are in a certain sense the same." 41

"Yes, sir," replied Kutadanta. 42

The Blessed One continued: "Now, suppose there is a man who feels like thyself, thinks like thyself, and acts like thyself, is he not the same man as thou?" 43

"No, sir," interrupted Kutadanta. 44

Said the Buddha: "Dost thou deny that the same logic holds good for thyself that holds good for the things of the world?" 45

Kutadanta bethought himself and rejoined slowly: "No, I do not.

The same logic holds good universally; but there is a peculiarity about my self which renders it altogether different from everything else and also from other selves. There may be another man who feels exactly like me, thinks like me, and acts like me; suppose even he had the same name and the same kind of possessions, he would not be myself." 46

"True, Kutadanta," answered Buddha, "he would not be thyself.

Now, tell me, is the person who goes to school one, and that same person when he has finished his schooling another? Is it one who commits a crime, another who is punished by having his hands and feet cut off?" 47

"They are the same," was the reply. 48

"Then sameness is const.i.tuted by continuity only?" asked the Tathagata. 49

"Not only by continuity," said Kutadanta, "but also and mainly by ident.i.ty of character." 50

"Very well," concluded the Buddha, "then thou agreest that persons can be the same, in the same sense as two flames of the same kind are called the same; and thou must recognize that in this sense another man of the same character and product of the same karma is the same as thou." 51

"Well, I do," said the Brahman. 52

The Buddha continued: "And in this same sense alone art thou the same to-day as yesterday. Thy nature is not const.i.tuted by the matter of which thy body consists, but by thy sankharas, the forms of the body, of sensations, of thoughts. Thy person is the combination of the sankharas. Wherever they are, thou art.

Whithersoever they go, thou goest. Thus thou wilt recognize in a certain sense an ident.i.ty of thy self, and in another sense a difference. But he who does not recognize the ident.i.ty should deny all ident.i.ty, and should say that the questioner is no longer the same person as he who a minute after receives the answer. Now consider the continuation of thy personality, which is preserved in thy karma. Dost thou call it death and annihilation, or fife and continued life?" 53

"I call it life and continued life," rejoined Kutadanta, "for it is the continuation of my existence, but I do not care for that kind of continuation. All I care for is the continuation of self in the other sense, which makes of every man, whether identical with me or not, an altogether different person." 54

"Very well," said Buddha. "This is what thou desirest and this is the cleaving to self. This is thy error. All compound things are transitory: they grow and they decay. All compound things are subject to pain: they will be separated from what they love and be joined to what they abhor. All compound things lack a self, an atman, an ego." 55

"How is that?" asked Kutadanta. 56

"Where is thy self?" asked the Buddha. And when Kutadanta made no reply, he continued: "Thy self to which thou cleavest is a constant change. Years ago thou wast a small babe; then, thou wast a boy; then a youth, and now, thou art a man. Is there any ident.i.ty of the babe and the man? There is an ident.i.ty in a certain sense only. Indeed there is more ident.i.ty between the flames of the first and the third watch, even though the lamp might have been extinguished during the second watch. Now which is thy true self, that of yesterday, that of to-day, or that of to-morrow, for the preservation of which thou clamorest?" 57

Kutadanta was bewildered. "Lord of the world," he said, "I see my error, but I am still confused." 58

The Tathagata continued: "It is by a process of evolution that sankharas come to be. There is no sankhara which has sprung into being without a gradual becoming. Thy sankharas are the product of thy deeds in former existences. The combination of thy sankharas is thy self. Wheresoever they are impressed thither thy self migrates. In thy sankharas thou wilt continue to live and thou wilt reap in future existences the harvest sown now and in the past." 59

"Verily, O Lord," rejoined Kutadanta, "this is not a fair retribution. I cannot recognize the justice that others after me will reap what I am sowing now." 60