IDENTITY AND NON-IDENTITY

  KUTADANTA, the head of the Brahmans in the village of Danamati,

having approached the Blessed One respectfully, greeted him and

said: "I am told, O samana, that thou art the Buddha, the Holy One,

the All-knowing, the Lord of the world. But if thou wert the Buddha,

wouldst thou not come like a king in all thy glory and power?" Said

the Blessed One: "Thine eyes are holden. If the eye of thy mind were

undimmed thou couldst see the glory and the power of truth."

  Said Kutadanta: "Show me the truth and I shall see it. But thy

doctrine is without consistency. If it were consistent, it would

stand; but as it is not, it will pass away." The Blessed One

replied: "The truth will never pass away."

  Kutadanta said: "I am told that thou teachest the law, yet thou

tearest down religion. Thy disciples despise rites and abandon

immolation, but reverence for the gods can be shown only by

sacrifices. The very nature of religion consists in worship and

sacrifice." Said the Buddha: "Greater than the immolation of

bullocks is the sacrifice of self. He who offers to the gods his

evil desires will see the uselessness of slaughtering animals at the

altar. Blood has no cleansing power, but the eradication of lust

will make the heart pure. Better than worshiping gods is obedience

to the laws of righteousness."

  Kutadanta, being of a religious disposition and anxious about his

fate after death, had sacrificed countless victims. Now he saw the

folly of atonement by blood. Not yet satisfied, however, with the

teachings of the Tathagata, Kutadanta continued: "Thou believest, O

Master, that beings are reborn; that they migrate in the evolution

of life; and that subject to the law of karma we must reap what we

sow. Yet thou teachest the non-existence of the soul! Thy disciples

praise utter self-extinction as the highest bliss of Nirvana. If I

am merely a combination of the sankharas, my existence will cease when

I die. If I am merely a compound of sensations and ideas and

desires, whither can I go at the dissolution of the body?"

  Said the Blessed One: "O Brahman, thou art religious and earnest.

Thou art seriously concerned about thy soul. Yet is thy work in vain

because thou art lacking in the one thing that is needful. There is

rebirth of character, but no transmigration of a self. Thy

thought-forms reappear, but there is no ego-entity transferred. The

stanza uttered by a teacher is reborn in the scholar who repeats the

words.

  "Only through ignorance and delusion do men indulge in the dream

that their souls are separate and self-existent entities. Thy heart, O

Brahman, is cleaving still to self; thou art anxious about heaven

but thou seekest the pleasures of self in heaven, and thus thou

canst not see the bliss of truth and the immortality of truth.

  "I say to thee: The Blessed One has not come to teach death, but

to teach life, and thou discernest not the nature of living and dying.

This body will be dissolved and no amount of sacrifice will save it.

Therefore, seek thou the life that is of the mind. Where self is,

truth cannot be; yet when truth comes, self will disappear. Therefore,

let thy mind rest in the truth; propagate the truth, put thy whole

will in it, and let it spread. In the truth thou shalt live forever.

Self is death and truth is life. The cleaving to self is a perpetual

dying, while moving in the truth is partaking of Nirvana which is life

everlasting."

  Then Kutadanta said: "Where, O venerable Master, is Nirvana?"

"Nirvana is wherever the precepts are obeyed replied the Blessed One.

  "Do I understand thee aright," rejoined the Brahman, "That Nirvana

is not a place, and being nowhere it is without reality?" "Thou dost

not understand me aright," said the Blessed One, "Now listen and

answer these questions: Where does the wind dwell

  "Nowhere," was the reply.

  Buddha retorted: "Then, sir, there is no such thing as wind."

Kutadanta made no reply; and the Blessed One asked again: "Answer

me, O Brahman, where does wisdom dwell? Is wisdom a locality?"

  "Wisdom has no allotted dwelling-place replied Kutadanta. Said the

Blessed One: "Meanest thou that there is no wisdom, no

enlightenment, no righteousness, and no salvation, because Nirvana

is not a locality? As a great and mighty wind which passeth over the

world in the heat of the day, so the Tathagata comes to blow over

the minds of mankind with the breath of his love, so cool, so sweet,

so calm, so delicate; and those tormented by fever assuage their

suffering and rejoice at the refreshing breeze."

  Said Kutadanta: "I feel, O Lord, that thou proclaimest a great

doctrine, but I cannot grasp it. Forbear with me that I ask again:

Tell me, O Lord, if there be no atman  [soul],  how can there be

immortality? The activity of the mind passeth, and our thoughts are

gone when we have done thinking."

  Buddha replied: "Our thinking is gone, but our thoughts continue.

Reasoning ceases, but knowledge remains." Said Kutadanta: "How is

that? Are 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; and in the same way mental activity ceases, but experience,

wisdom, and all the fruits of our acts endure."

  Kutadanta continued: "Tell me, O Lord, pray tell me, where, if the

sankharas are dissolved, is the identity of my self. 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?" Kutadanta hesitated. He thought it is the

same flame, but fearing the complications of a hidden meaning, and

trying to be exact, he said: "No, it is not."

  "Then," continued the Blessed One, "there are two flames, one in the

first watch and the other in the second watch." "No, sir," said

Kutadanta. "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 burning now in the same

lamp, filled with the same kind of oil, illuminating the same room?"

"They may have been extinguished during the day," suggested Kutadanta.

  Said the Blessed One: "Suppose the flame of the first watch had been

extinguished during the second watch, would you call it the same if it

burns again in the third watch?" Replied Kutadanta: "In one sense it

is a different flame, in another it is not."

  The Tathagata asked again: "Has the time that elapsed during the

extinction of the flame anything to do with its identity or

non-identity?" "No, sir," said the Brahman, "it has not. There is a

difference and an identity, whether many years elapsed or only one

second, and also whether the lamp has been extinguished in the

meantime or not."

  "Well, then, we agree that the flame of today is in a certain

sense the same as the flame of yesterday, and in another sense it is

different at every moment. Moreover, the flames of the same kind,

illuminating with equal power the same kind of rooms, are in a certain

sense the same." "Yes, sir," replied Kutadanta.

  The Blessed One continued: "Now, suppose there is a man who feels

like thyself, thinks like thyself, and acts like thyself, is he not

the same man as thou?" "No, sir," interrupted Kutadanta.

  Said the Buddha: "Dost thou deny that the same logic holds good

for thyself that holds good for the things of the world?" Kutadanta

bethought himself and rejoined slowly: "No, I do not. The same logic

holds good universally; but there is a peculiarity about my self which

renders it altogether different from everything else and also from

other selves. There may be another man who feels exactly like me,

thinks like me, and acts like me; suppose even he had the same name

and the same kind of possessions, he would not be myself."

  "True, Kutadanta, answered Buddha, he would not be thyself. Now,

tell me, is the person who goes to school one, and that same person

when he has finished his schooling another? Is it one who commits a

crime, another who is punished by having his hands and feet cut

off?" "They are the same, was the reply.

  "Then sameness is constituted by continuity only?" asked the

Tathagata. "Not only by continuity," said Kutadanta, but also and

mainly by identity of character."

  "Very well, concluded the Buddha, then 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 this sense another

man of the same character and product of the same karma is the same as

thou." "Well, I do," said the Brahman.

  The Buddha continued: "And 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. The 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. Dost thou call it death and

annihilation, or life and continued life?"

  "I call it life and continued life," rejoined Kutadanta, "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

atman, an ego."

  "How is that?" asked Kutadanta. "Where is thy self? asked the

Buddha. And when Kutadanta 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 today, or that of

tomorrow, for the preservation of which thou clamorest?" Kutadanta was

bewildered. "Lord of the world," he said, I see my error, but I am

still confused."

  The Tathagata continued: "It is by a process of evolution that

sankharas come to be. There is no sankhara which 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 thy self.

Wheresoever they are impressed thither thy self migrates. In thy

sankharas thou wilt continue to live and thou wilt reap in future

existences the harvest sown now and in the past."

  "Verily, O Lord," rejoined Kutadanta, this is not a fair

retribution. I cannot recognize the justice that others after me

will reap what I am sowing now."

  The Blessed One waited a moment and then replied: "Is all teaching

in vain? Dost thou not understand that those others are thou thyself

Thou thyself wilt reap what thou sowest, not others. Think of a man

who is ill-bred and destitute, suffering from the wretchedness of

his condition. As a boy he was slothful and indolent, and when he grew

up he had not learned a craft to earn a living. Wouldst thou say his

misery is not the product of his own action, because the adult is no

longer the same person as was the boy?

  "I say to thee: Not in the heavens, not in the midst of the sea, not

if thou hidest thyself away in the clefts of the mountains, wilt

thou find a place where thou canst escape the fruit of thine evil

actions. At the same time thou art sure to receive the blessings of

thy good actions. To the man who has long been traveling and who

returns home in safety, the welcome of kinfolk, friends, and

acquaintances awaits. So, the fruits of his good works bid him welcome

who has walked in the path of righteousness, when he passes over

from the present life into the hereafter."

  Kutadanta said: "I have faith in the glory and excellency of thy

doctrines. My eye cannot as yet endure the light; but I now understand

that there is no self, and the truth dawns upon me. Sacrifices

cannot save, and invocations are idle talk. But how shall I find the

path to life everlasting? I know all the Vedas by heart and have not

found the truth."

  Said the Buddha: "Learning is a good thing; but it availeth not.

True wisdom can be acquired by practice only. Practice the truth

that thy brother is the same as thou. Walk in the noble path of

righteousness and thou wilt understand that while there is death in

self, there is immortality in truth."

  Said Kutadanta: "Let me take my refuge in the Blessed One, in the

Dharma, and in the brotherhood. Accept me as thy disciple and let me

partake of the bliss of immortality."