Page:Henry Mulford Tichenor - The Buddhist Philosophy of Life.djvu/39

 Rh in the other sense, which makes of every one, whether identical with me or not, an altogether different person than myself."

"This," said the Teacher, "is the love of self. This is thine error. All things are transitory. They grow old and decay. Where is thy self? Thy self to which thou cleavest is a constant change. Years ago thou wert a babe; then thou wert a boy; then a youth, and now thou art a man. Is there any identity of the babe and the man? Which is thy self, that of yesterday, that of today, or that of tomorrow, for the preservation of which thou longest?"

"Thou hast confused me," said Kutadanta.

The Teacher said: "It is by the process of evolution that sankharas come to be. No sankhara 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 thyself. Wheresoever they go, thither thou goest. In thy sankharas thou wilt continue to live, and thou wilt reap in future existences the harvest sown now, and in the past."

(The literal Sanscrit definition of sankhara is "conformation," "disposition." It is the formative element in the karma as it has taken shape in bodily existence.)

Kutadanta said: "I cannot recognize the justice that others after me will reap what I am sowing."

The Teacher said: "Is this teaching in