 section 39 of Hinduism and Buddhism an historical sketch volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Hinduism and Buddhism an historical sketch volume 1 by Charles Elliot the teaching of the Buddha part 1 when the Buddha preached his first sermon to the five monks at Benares the topics he selected were the following footnote 402 see chapter 8 of this book and footnote first comes an introduction about avoiding extremes of either self-indulgence or self-mortification this was especially appropriate to his hearers who were ascetics and disposed to overrate the value of austerities next he defines the middle way or eight-fold path then he enunciates the four truths of the nature of suffering its origin its cessation and the method of bringing about that cessation this method is no other than the eight-fold path then his hearers understood that whatever has a beginning must have an end this knowledge is described as the pure and spotless eye of truth the Buddha then formally admitted them as the first members of the Sangha he then explained to them that there is no such thing as self we are not told that they received any further instruction before they were sent forth to be teachers and missionaries they were it would seem sufficiently equipped when the Buddha instructs his sixth convert yasa the introduction is slightly different doubtless because he was a layman it treats of quote almsgiving of moral duties of heaven of the evil vanity and sinfulness of desires of the blessings which come from abandoning desires end quote then when his catacumans mind was prepared he preached to him quote the chief doctrine of the Buddhas namely suffering its cause its cessation and the path end quote and when yasa understood this he obtained the eye of truth it is clear therefore that the Buddha regarded practice as the foundation of his system he wished to create a temper and a habit of life mere acquiescence in dogma such as a Christian creed is not sufficient as a basis of religion and test of membership it is only in the second stage that he annunciates the four great theorems of his system of which one the path is a matter of practice rather than doctrine and only later still that he expounds conceptions which are logically fundamental such as his view of personality quote just as the great ocean has only one taste the taste of salt so has this doctrine and discipline only one taste the taste of emancipation end quote footnote 403 Kulavaga 914 and footnote this practical aim has affected the form given to much of the Buddha's teaching for instance the theory of the skandhas and the chain of causation when examined at leisure by a student of today the dogmas seem formulated with imperfect logic and the results trite and obvious but such doctrines is that evil must have a cause which can be discovered and removed by natural methods that a bad unhappy mind can be turned into a good happy mind by suppressing evil thoughts and cultivating good thoughts are not common places even now if they receive a practical application and in 500 BC they were not common places in any sense and yet no one can read Buddhist books or associate with Buddhist monks without feeling that the intellectual element is preponderant not the emotional the ultimate cause of suffering is ignorance the Buddha has won the truth by understanding the universe conversion is usually described by some such phrase as acquiring the eye of truth rather than by words expressing belief or devotion the major part of the ideal life set forth in a recurring passage of the diga nikaya consists in the creation of intellectual states and though the Buddha disavowed all speculative philosophy his discourses are full if not of metaphysics at least of psychology and this knowledge is essential it is not sufficient to affirm one's belief in it it must be assimilated and taken into the life of every true Buddhist all cannot do this most of the unconverted are blinded by lust and passion but some are incapacitated by want of mental power they must practice virtue and in a happier birth their minds will be enlarged the reader who has perused the previous chapters will have some idea of the tone and subject matter of the Buddha's preaching we will now examine his doctrine as a system and will begin with the theory of existence promising that it disclaims all idea of doing more than analyze our experience with speculations or assertions as to the origin significance and purpose of the universe the Buddha has nothing to do such questions do not affect his scheme of salvation what views if any he may have held or implied about them we shall gather as we go on but it is dangerous to formulate what he did not formulate himself and not always easy to understand what he did formulate for his words though often plain and striking are like the utterances of other great teachers apt to provoke discordant explanations they meet our thoughts halfway but no interpretation exhausts their meaning when we read into them the ideas of modern philosophy and combine them into a system logical and plausible after the standard of this age we often feel that the result is an anachronism but if we treat them as ancient simple discourses by one who wished to make men live an austere and moral life we still find that there are uncomfortably profound sayings which will not harmonize with this theory the Buddha's aversion to speculation did not prevent him from insisting on the importance of a correct knowledge of our mental constitution the chain of causation and other abstruse matters nor does it really take the form of neglecting metaphysics rather of defining them in a manner so authoritative as to imply a reserve of unimported knowledge again and again questions about the fundamental mysteries of existence are put to him and he will not give an answer it would not conduce to knowledge peace or freedom from passion we are told and therefore the Lord has not declared it therefore not it would seem because he did not know but because the discussion was not profitable and the modern investigator who is not so submissive as the Buddha's disciples asks why not can it be that the teacher knew of things transcendental not to be formulated in words once he compared the truths he had taught his disciples to a bunch of leaves which he held in his hand and the other truths which he knew but had not taught to the leaves of the whole forest in which they were walking footnote 404 samyuta nikaya 51 31 end footnote and the story of the blind men and the elephant seems to hint that buddhas those rare beings who are not blind can see the constitution of the universe footnote 405 udana 64 the story is that a king made a number of blind men examine an elephant and describe its shape some touched the legs some the tusks some the tail and so on and gave descriptions accordingly but none had any idea of the general shape end footnote may we then in chance phrases get a glimpse of ideas which he would not develop it may be so but the quest is temerarius quote what i have revealed hold as revealed and what i have not revealed hold as not revealed end quote footnote 406 or determined end footnote the gracious but authoritative figure of the master gives no further reply when we endeavor to restate his teaching in some complete or form which admits of comparison with the ancient and modern philosophies of europe the best introduction to his theory of existence is perhaps the instruction given to the five monks after his first sermon the body is not the self he says for if it were it would not be subject to disease and we should be able to say let my body be or not be such and such footnote 407 or form ruppa end footnote as the denial of the existence of the self or ego atta in pali atman in sanskrit is one of the fundamental and original tenets of gotama we must remember that this self whose existence is denied is something not subject to decay and possessing perfect free will with power to exercise it the brahmanic atman is such a self but it is found nowhere in the world of our experience footnote 408 the word jiva sometimes translated soul is not equivalent to atman it seems to be a general expression for all the immaterial side of a human being it is laid down diga nikaya six and seven that it is fruitless to speculate whether the jiva is distinct from the body or not end footnote for the body or form is not the self neither is sensation or feeling vedana for they are not free and eternal neither is perception sanna the self footnote 409 sanna like many technical buddhist terms is difficult to render adequately because it does not cover the same ground as any one english word its essential meaning is recognition by a mark when we perceive a blue thing we recognize it as blue and as like other blue things that we have marked see mrs reese davids dama sanghani page eight end footnote neither the buddha goes on to say are the sankharas the self and for the same reason here we find ourselves sailing on the high seas of dogmatic terminology and must investigate the meaning of this important and untranslatable word it is equivalent to the Sanskrit samskara which is akin to the word Sanskrit itself and means compounding making anything artificial and elaborate it may be literally translated as synthesis or confection and is often used in the general sense of phenomena since all phenomena are compound footnote 410 the samyutta nikaya 22 79 8 states that the sankharas are so called because they compose what is compound sankatam end footnote occasionally we hear of three sankharas body or deed word and thought footnote 411 majima nikaya 44 end footnote but in later literature the sankharas become a category with 52 divisions and these are mostly mental or at least subjective states the list opens with contact fasso and then follow sensation perception thought reflection memory and a series of dispositions or states such as attention effort joy torpor stupidity fear doubt lightness of body or mind pity envy worry pride as european thought does not class all these items under one heading or in other words has no idea equivalent to sankhara it is not surprising that no adequate rendering has been found especially as buddhism regards everything as mere becoming not fixed existence and hence does not distinguish sharply between a process and a result between the act of preparing and a preparation conformations confections synthesis coefficients tendencies potentialities have all been used as equivalents but i propose to use the poly word as a rule in some passages the word phenomena is an adequate literary equivalent if it is remembered that phenomena are not thought of apart from a perceiving subject in others some word like predispositions or tendencies is a more luminous rendering because the sankharas are the potentialities for good and evil action existing in the mind as a result of karma footnote 412 in this sense sankhara has also some affinity to the Sanskrit use of samskara to mean a sacramental right it is the essential nature of such a right to produce a special effect so too the sankhara's present in one existence inevitably produce their effect in the next existence for sankhara see also the long note by s z on at the end of the compendium of philosophy pts 1910 and footnote the buddha has now enumerated four categories which are not the self the fifth and last is vinana frequently rendered by consciousness but this word is unsuitable in so far as it suggests in english some unified and continuous mental state vinana sometimes corresponds to thought and sometimes is hardly distinguished from perception for it means awareness of what is pleasant or painful sweet or sour and so on footnote 413 the use of this word for vinana is i believe due to mrs reese davids and footnote but the pitakas continually insist that it is not a unity and that its varieties come into being only when they receive proper nourishment or as we should say an adequate stimulus footnote 414 see especially majima nikaya 38 and footnote thus visual consciousness depends on the sight and on visible objects auditory consciousness on the hearing and on sounds vinana is divided into 89 classes according as it is good bad or indifferent but none of these classes nor all of them together can be called the self these five groups body feeling perception the sankharas thought are generally known as the skandhas signifying in Sanskrit collections or aggregates footnote 415 pali kanda but it has become the custom to use the Sanskrit term compare with karma nirvana and footnote the classification adopted is not completely logical for feeling and perception are both included in the sankharas and also counted separately but the object of the buddha was not so much to analyze the physical and mental constitution of a human being as to show that this constitution contains no element which can be justly called self or soul for this reason all possible states of mind are cataloged sometimes under more than one head they are none of them the self and no self ego or soul in the sense defined above is discernible only aggregates of states and properties which come together and fall apart again when we investigate ourselves we find nothing but psychical states we do not find a psyche the mind is even less permanent than the body for the body may last a hundred years or so quote but that which is called mind thought or consciousness day and night keeps perishing as one thing and springing up as another end quote footnote 416 see samyuta nikaya 1262 for parallels to this view in modern times see william james textbook of psychology especially pages 203 215 216 end footnote so in the samyuta nikaya mara the tempter asks the nun vajra by whom this being that is the human body is made her answer is quote here is a mere heap of sankharas there is no being as when various parts are united the word chariot is used to describe the whole so when the skandhas are present the word being is commonly used footnote 417 compare with melinda pana 2 1 1 and also the dialogue between the king of sovira and the brahman in vishnu purana 2 13 end footnote but it is suffering only that comes into existence and passes away end quote and budhag goza says misery only doth exist non miserable no doer is there not but the deed is found nirvana is but not the man that seeks it the path exists but not the traveler on it end quote footnote 418 vishuddha maga chapter 16 quoted by warren buddhism in translations page 146 also it is admitted that vinana cannot be disentangled and sharply distinguished from feeling and sensation see passages quoted in mrs reese davids buddhist psychology pages 52 to 54 end footnote thus the buddha and his disciples rejected such ideas as soul being and personality but their language does not always conform to this ideal of negative precision for the vocabulary of paali and still more of english is inadequate for the task of discussing what form conduct and belief should take unless such words are used also the atta atman which the buddha denies means more than is implied by our words self and personality the word commonly used to signify an individual is pugalo thus in one sutta the buddha preaches of the burden the bearer of the burden taking it up and laying it down footnote 419 samyuta nikaya 22 22 1 end footnote the burden is the five skandhas and the bearer is the individual or pugalo this if pressed implies that there is a personality apart from the skandhas which has to bear them but probably it should not be pressed and we should regard the utterances merely a popular sermon using language which is strictly speaking metaphorical part two the doctrine of anata the doctrine that there is no such thing as a soul or self is justly emphasized as a most important part of the buddha's teaching and buddhist ethics might be summarized as the selfless life yet there is a danger that europeans may exaggerate and misunderstand the doctrine by taking it as equivalent to a denial of the soul's immortality or of free will or to an affirmation that mind is a function of the body the universality of the proposition really diminishes its apparent violence and nihilism to say that some beings have a soul and others have not is a formidable proposition but to say that absolutely no existing person or thing contains anything which can be called a self or soul is less revolutionary than it sounds it clearly does not deny that men exist for decades and mountains for millenniums neither does it deny that before birth or after death there may be other existences similar to human life it merely states that in all the world organic and inorganic there is nothing which is simple self-existent self-determined and permanent everything is compound relative and transitory the obvious fact that infancy youth and age form a series is not denied the series may be called a personality and death need not end it the error to be avoided is the doctrine of the brahmins that through this series there runs a changeless self which assumes new phases like one who puts on new garments the coordination and apparent unity observable in our mental constitution is due to mano which is commonly translated mind but is really for buddhism as for the upanishads a census communist whereas the five senses have different spheres or fields which are independent and do not overlap mano has a share in all these spheres it receives and cognizes all sense impressions the philosophy of early buddhism deals with psychology rather than with metaphysics it holds it profitable to analyze and discuss man's mental constitution because such knowledge leads to the destruction of false ideals and the pursuit of peace and insight inquiry into the origin and nature of the external world is not equally profitable in fact it is a vain intellectual pastime still in treating of such matters as sensation perception and consciousness it is impossible to ignore the question of external objects or to avoid propounding at least by implication some theory about them in this connection we often come upon the important word dhamma Sanskrit dharma it means a law and more especially the law of the buddha or in a wider sense justice righteousness or religion footnote 420 with reference to a teacher dhamma is the doctrine which he preaches with reference to a disciple it may often be equivalent to duty compare with the Sanskrit expressions swadharma one's own duty paradharma the duty of another person or caste end footnote but outside the moral and religious sphere it is commonly used in the plural as equivalent to phenomena considered as involving states of consciousness the dhamma sanghani divides phenomena into those which exist for the subject and those which exist for other individuals and ignores the possibility of things existing apart from a knowing subject footnote 421 dhamma sanghani 1044 to 5 end footnote this hints at idealism and other statements seem more precise thus the samyutta nikaya declares quote verily within this mortal body some six feet high but conscious and endowed with mind is the world and its origin and its passing away end quote footnote 422 238 end footnote and similarly the problem is posed quote where do the four elements pass away and leave no trace behind end quote footnote 423 diga nikaya 1185 end footnote neither gods nor men can answer it and when it is referred to the Buddha his decision is that the question is wrongly put and therefore admits of no solution quote instead of asking where the four elements pass away without trace you should have asked where do earth water fire and wind and long and short and fine and coarse pure and impure no footing fine where is it that both name and form die out and leave no trace behind footnote 424 name and form is the Buddhist equivalent for subject and object or mind and body end footnote to that the answer is in the mind of the saint yet it is certain that such passages should not be interpreted as equivalent to the later yogakara doctrine that only thought really exists or to any form of the doctrine that the world is maya or illusion the pitakas leave no doubt on this point for they elaborate with clearness and consistency the theory that sensation and consciousness depend on contact that is contact between sense organs and sense objects quote man is conceived as a compound of instruments receptive and reacting end quote and the samyutta nikaya puts into the Buddha's mouth the following dogmatic statement footnote 425 mrs reese davids buddhist psychology page 39 footnote 426 samyutta nikaya 35 93 end footnote quote consciousness arises because of duality what is that duality visual consciousness arises because of sight and because of visible objects footnote 427 the same formula is repeated for the other senses end footnote sight is transitory and mutable it is its very nature to change visible objects are the same so this duality is both in movement and transitory end quote the question of the reality of the external world did not present itself to the early buddhists had it been posed we may surmise that the buddha would have replied as in similar cases that the question was not properly put he would not we may imagine have admitted that the human mind has the creative power which idealism postulates for such power seems to imply the existence of something like a self or atman but still though the pitakas emphasize the empirical duality of sense organs and sense objects they also supply a basis for the doctrines of Nagarjuna and asanga which like much late buddhist metaphysics insist on using logic in regions where the master would not use it when it is said that the genesis of the world and its passing away are within this mortal frame the meaning probably is that the world as we experience it with its pains and pleasures depends on the senses and that with the modification or cessation of the senses it is changed or comes to an end in other words for this doctrine like most of the buddha's doctrines is at bottom ethical rather than metaphysical the saint can make or unmake his own world and triumph over pain but the theory of sensation may be treated not ethically but metaphysically sensation implies a duality and on the one side the buddha's teaching argues that there is no permanent sentient self but merely different kinds of consciousness arising in response to different stimuli it is admitted too that visible objects are changing and transitory like sight itself and thus there is no reason to regard the external world which is one half of the duality as more permanent self-existent and continuous than the other half when we apply to it the destructive analysis which the buddha applied only to mental states we easily arrive at the nihilism or idealism of the later buddhists of this i will treat later for the present we have only to note that early buddhism holds that sensation depends on contact that is on a duality it does not investigate the external part of this duality and it is clear that such investigation leads to the very speculations which the buddha declared to be unprofitable such as arguments about the eternity and infinity of the universe the doctrine of anata is counterbalanced by the doctrine of causation without this latter the buddha might seem to teach that life is a chaos of shadows but on the contrary he teaches the universality of law in this life and in all lives for hindus of most schools of thought metempsychosis means the doctrine that the immortal soul passes from one bodily tenement to another and is reborn again and again karma is the law which determines the occurrence and the character of these births in buddhism though the pitakas speak continually of rebirth metempsychosis is an incorrect expression since there is no soul to transmigrate and there is strictly speaking nothing but karma this word signifying literally action or act is the name of the force which finds expression in the fact that every event is the result of causes and also is itself a cause which produces effects further in the fact for indians regarded as one that when a life whether of a god man or lower creature comes to an end the sum of its actions which is in many connections equivalent to personal character takes effect as a whole and determines the character of another aggregation of skandhas in popular language another being representing the net result of the life which has come to an end karma is also used in the more concrete sense of the merit or demerit acquired by various acts thus we hear of karma which manifests itself in this life and of karma which only manifests itself in another no explanation whatever is given of the origin of karma of its reason method or aims and it would not be consistent with the principles of the buddha to give such an explanation indeed though it is justifiable to speak of karma as a force which calls into being the world as we know it such a phrase goes beyond the habitual language of early buddhism which merely states that everything has a cause and that everyone's nature and circumstances are the result of previous actions in this or other existences karma is not so much invoked as a metaphysical explanation of the universe as accorded the consideration which it merits as an ultimate moral fact it has often been pointed out that the buddha did not originate or even first popularize the ideas of reincarnation and karma they are indian not specifically buddhist in fact of all indian systems of thought buddhism is the one which has the greatest difficulty in expressing these ideas in intelligible and consistent language because it denies the existence of the ego some writers have gone so far as to suggest that the whole doctrine formed no part of the buddha's original teaching and was an accretion or at most a concession of the master to the beliefs of his time but i cannot think this view is correct the idea is woven into the texture of the buddha's discourses when in words which have as strong a claim as any in the pitakas to be regarded as old and genuine he describes the stages by which he acquired enlightenment and promises the same experiences to those who observe his discipline he says that he first followed the thread of his own previous existences through past eons plumbing the unfathomed depths of time footnote 428 see majima nikaya 36 for his own experiences and diga nikaya 2 93 to 96 end footnote next the whole of existence was spread out before him like a view seen from above and he saw beings passing away from one body and taking shape in another according to their deeds only when he understood both the perpetual transformation of the universe and also the line and sequence in which that transformation occurs only then did he see the four truths as they really are it is unfortunate for us that the doctrine of reincarnation met with almost universal ascent in india footnote 429 in diga nikaya 23 payasi maintains the thesis regarded as most unusual section five that there is no world but this and no such things as rebirth and karma he is confuted not by the buddha but by kasappa his arguments are that dead friends whom he has asked to bring him news of the next world have not done so and that experiments performed on criminals do not support the idea that a soul leaves the body at death kasappa's reply is chiefly based on analogies of doubtful value but also on the affirmation that those who have cultivated their spiritual faculties have intuitive knowledge of rebirth and other worlds but payasi did not draw any distinction between rebirth and immortality as understood in europe he was a simple materialist and footnote if someone were to found a new christian sect he would probably not be asked to prove the immortality of the soul it is assumed as part of the common religious belief similarly no one asked the buddha to prove the doctrine of rebirth if we permit our fancy to picture an interview between him and someone holding the ordinary ideas of an educated european about the soul we may imagine that he would have some difficulty in understanding what is the alternative to rebirth his interlocutor might reply that there are two types of theory among europeans some think that the soul comes into existence with the body at birth but continues to exist everlasting and immortal after the death of the body others commonly called materialists while agreeing that the soul comes into existence with the birth of the body hold that it ceases to exist with the death of the body to the first theory the buddha would probably have replied that there is one law without exception namely that whatever has a beginning has also an end the whole universe offers no analogy or parallel to the soul which has a beginning but no end and not the smallest logical need is shown for believing a doctrine so contrary to the nature of things and as for materialism he would probably say that it is a statement of the processes of the world as perceived but no explanation of the mental or even of the physical world the materialists forget that objects as known cannot be isolated from the knowing subject sensation implies contact and duality but it is no real explanation to say that mental phenomena are caused by physical phenomena the buddha reckoned among vain speculations not only such problems as the eternity and infinity of the world but also the question is the principle of life jiva identical with the body or not identical that question he said is not properly put which is tantamount to condemning as inadequate all theories which derive life and thought from purely material antecedents footnote 430 the more mythological parts of the patakas make it plain that the early buddhists were not materialists in the modern sense it is also said that there are formless worlds in which there is thought but no form or matter and footnote other ideas of modern Europe such as that the body is an instrument on which the soul works or the expression of the soul seem to imply or at least to be compatible with the pre-existence of the soul it is probable too that the buddha would have said and a modern buddhist would certainly say that the fact of rebirth can easily be proved by testimony and experience because those who will make the effort can recall their previous births for his hearers the difficulty must have been not to explain why they believed in rebirth but to harmonize the belief with the rest of the master's system for what is reborn and how we detect a tendency to say that it is vinana or consciousness and the expression patisandhi vinana or rebirth consciousness occurs footnote 431 c2 the story of goddika's death samyuta nekaya one four three and buddha-gosa on dhammapada 57 end footnote the question is treated in an important dialogue in the majima nekaya where a monk called sati maintains that according to the buddha's teaching consciousness transmigrates unchanged footnote 432 number 38 called the mahatanhasankaya suttam end footnote the buddha summoned sati and rebuked his error in language of unusual severity for it was evidently capital and fatal if persisted in the buddha does not state what transmigrates as the european reader would wish him to do and would no doubt have replied to that question that it is improperly framed and does not admit of an answer his argument is directed not so much against the idea that consciousness in one existence can have some connection with consciousness in the next as against the idea that this consciousness is a unity and permanent he maintains that it is a complex process due to many causes each producing its own effect yet the patakas seem to admit that the processes which constitute consciousness in one life can also produce their effect in another life for the character of future lives may be determined by the wishes which we form in this life existence is really a succession of states of consciousness following one another irrespective of bodies if uppercase abc and lowercase abc are two successive lives uppercase abc is not more of a reality or unity than bca no personality passes over at death from uppercase abc to lowercase abc but then uppercase abc is itself not a unity it is merely a continuous process of change footnote 433 c2 diga nikaya n 63 quote if vinana did not descend into the womb would body and mind be constituted there end quote and samyuta nikaya 12 12 3 quote vinana food is the condition for bringing about rebirth in the future end quote end footnote the discourse seems to say that tanha the thirst for life is the connecting link between different births but it does not use this expression in one part of his address the Buddha exhorts his disciples not to inquire what they were or what they will be or what is the nature of their present existence but rather to master and think out for themselves the universal law of causation that every state has a cause for coming into being and a cause for passing away no doubt his main object is as usual practical to incite to self-control rather than to speculation but may he not also have been under the influence of the idea that time is merely a form of human thought for the ordinary mind which cannot conceive of events except as following one another in time the succession of births is as true as everything else the higher kinds of knowledge such as are repeatedly indicated in the Buddha's discourse though they are not described because language is incapable of describing them may not be bound in this way by the idea of time and may see that the essential truth is not so much a series of births in which something persists and passes from existence to existence as the timeless fact that life depends upon tanha the desire for life death that is the breaking up of such constituents of human life as the body states of consciousness etc does not affect tanha if tanha has not been deliberately suppressed it collects skandhas again the result is called a new individual but the essential truth is the persistence of the tanha until it is destroyed still there is no doubt that the earliest buddhist texts and the discourse ascribed to the Buddha himself speak when using ordinary untechnical language of rebirth and of a man dying and being born in such and such a state footnote 434 up a jati is the usual word end footnote only we must not suppose that the man's self is continued or transferred in this operation there is no entity that can be called soul and strictly speaking no entity that can be called body only a variable aggregation of skandhas constantly changing at death this collocation disperses but a new one reassembles under the influence of tanha the desire of life and by the law of karma which prescribes that every act must have its result the illustration that comes most naturally is that of water waves pass across the surface of the sea and successive waves are not the same nor is what we call the same wave really the same at two different points in its progress and yet one wave causes another wave and transmits its form and movement so are beings traveling through the world samsara not the same at any two points in a single life and still less the same in two consecutive lives yet it is the impetus and form of the previous lives the desire that urges them and the form that it takes which determine the character of the succeeding lives but buddhist writers more commonly illustrate rebirth by fire than by water and this similarly is used with others in the questions of melinda we cannot assume that this book reflects the views of the buddha or his immediate followers but it is the work of an indian in touch with good tradition who lived a few centuries later and expressed his opinions with lucidity it denies the existence of transmigration and of the soul and then proceeds to illustrate by metaphors and analogies how two successive lives can be the same and yet not the same for instance suppose a man carelessly allows his lamp to set his thatch on fire with the result that a whole villages burnt down he is held responsible for the loss but when brought before the judge argues that the flame of his lamp was not the same as the flame that burnt down the village will such a plea be allowed certainly not or to take another metaphor suppose a man were to choose a young girl in marriage and after making a contract with her parents were to go away waiting for her to grow up meanwhile another man comes and marries her if the two men appeal to the king and the later suitor says to the earlier the little child whom you chose and paid for is one and the full grown girl whom i paid for and married is another no one would listen to his argument for clearly the young woman has grown out of the girl and in ordinary language they are the same person or again suppose that one man left a jar of milk with another and the milk turned to curds would it be reasonable for the first man to accuse the second of theft because the milk has disappeared the caterpillar and butterfly might supply another illustration it is unfortunate that the higher intelligences offer no example of such metamorphosis in which consciousness is apparently interrupted between the two stages would an intelligent caterpillar take an interest in his future welfare as a butterfly and stigmatize as vices indulgences pleasant to his caterpillar senses and harmful only to the coming butterfly between whom and the caterpillar there is perhaps no continuity of consciousness we can imagine how strongly butterflies would insist that the foundation of morality is that caterpillars should realize that the butterflies interests and their own are the same and part two end of section 39 recording by linda johnson