Page:Gospel of Buddha.djvu/186

 "I call it life and continued life," rejoined Kūtadanta, "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." "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 ātman, an ego."

"How is that?" asked Kūtadanta.

"Where is thy self?" asked the Buddha. And when Kātadanta 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 identity of the babe and the man? There is an identity in a certain sense only. Indeed there is more identity 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?" Kūtadanta was bewildered. "Lord of the world," he said, "I see my error, but I am still confused." The Tathāgata continued: "It is by a process of evolution that sankharas come to be. There is no sankhāra which has sprung into being without a gradual becoming. Thy sankhāras 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 sankhāras thou wilt continue to live and thou wilt 158