Page:Henry Mulford Tichenor - The Buddhist Philosophy of Life.djvu/38

 36 "They are the same," replied Kutadanta.

"Then sameness is constituted by continuity only!" asked the Teacher.

"Not only by continuity," said Kutadanta, "but also by identity of character."

"Then," said the Teacher, "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 such sense another of the same character, and product of the same karma, is the same as thou."

"I must."

And the Teacher said: "In this same sense alone art thou the same today as yesterday. Thy nature is not constituted 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 identity of thy self, and in another sense a difference. But he who does not recognize the identity should deny all identity, 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. Is it death and annihilation, or life and continued life?

"I would call it life and continued life," said Kutadanta. "It is the continuation of my existence, but I do not care for such continuation. I only care for the continuation of self