Page:Sacred Books of the Buddhists Vol 1.djvu/308

 world hereafter in a concrete and visible form. Let not thy mind be benumbed by scepticism so as not to perceive this truth.

8. 'Further there are now and then persons who, owing to their practice of dhyâna and the vividness of their memory, remember their former existences. From this it must likewise be inferred, there exists a world after this. And myself, do I not give thee the evidence of a witness ?

9. 'Moreover, thou must infer its existence also from this. The perfection of the intellect presupposes a previous existence of that intellect. The rudimentary intellect of the fetus is the uninterrupted continuation of the intellect in the preceding existence.

10. Further, it is the faculty for catching matter of knowledge that is called intellect (buddhi). Therefore there must be a sphere of employment for the intellect at the beginning of existence. But it is not possible to find it in this world, because of the absence of the eyes and the other (organs of sense). By inference, the place where it is to be found, is the other world.

11. 'It is known by experience that children diverge from the nature of their fathers and show discrepancies of conduct and the like. Now, since this fact cannot arise without a cause, it follows that we have to do here with habits acquired in other existences.

12, 13. 'That the new-born child, though his mental powers are wholly rude and his organs of sense in a torpid state, makes an effort to take the breast without being instructed so and almost in a state of deep sleep, this proves his having in former existences exercised himself as to the fit ways of taking his food. For practice, perfecting the mind, sharpens its faculty for acquiring knowledge for different special performances.

'Perhaps, since thou art not accustomed to the idea of the existence of another world, thou mayst still be