Page:Gospel of Buddha.djvu/183

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

The Blessed One explained the distinction by an illustration: "It is as when a man wants, during the night, to send a letter, and, after having his 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 j and in the same way mental activity ceases, but experience, wisdom, and all the fruits of our acts endure." Kūtadanta continued: "Tell me, O Lord, pray tell me, where, if the sankhāras are dissolved, is the identity of myself. 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 illustration, but pray, O Lord, tell me, where is the identity of my self?" Said the Blessed One: "Suppose a man were to light a lamp; would it burn the night through?"

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

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

Kūtadanta hesitated. He thought "Yes, it is the same flame," but fearing the complicati9ns of a hidden meaning, and trying to be exact, he said: "No, it is not."

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

"No, sir," said Kūtadanta. "'"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 kind of light, and it serves the same purpose." "Very well," said the Buddha, "and would you call those flames the same that have burned yesterday and are 155