Part 26 (1/2)
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. 13
”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.” 14
Kutadanta said: ”Where, O venerable Master, is Nirvana?” 15
”Nirvana is wherever the precepts are obeyed,” replied the Blessed One. 16
”Do I understand thee aright,” rejoined the Brahman, ”that Nirvana is not a place, and being nowhere it is without reality?” 17
”Thou dost not understand me aright,” said the Blessed One, ”Now listen and answer these questions: Where does the wind dwell?” 18
”Nowhere,” was the reply. 19
Buddha retorted: ”Then, sir, there is no such thing as wind.” 20
Kutadanta made no reply; and the Blessed One asked again: ”Answer me, O Brahman, where does wisdom dwell? Is wisdom a locality?” 21
”Wisdom has no allotted dwelling-place,” replied Kutadanta. 22
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 pa.s.seth 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 a.s.suage their suffering and rejoice at the refres.h.i.+ng breeze.” 23
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, how can there be immortality? The activity of the mind pa.s.seth, and our thoughts are gone when we have done thinking.” 24
Buddha replied: ”Our thinking is gone, but our thoughts continue.
Reasoning ceases, but knowledge remains.” 25
Said Kutadanta: ”How is that? Is not reasoning and knowledge the same?” 26
The Blessed One explained the distinction by an ill.u.s.tration: ”It is as when a man wants, during the night, to send a letter, and, after having Ids 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.” 27
Kutadanta continued: ”Tell me, O Lord, pray tell me, where, if the sankharas are dissolved, is the ident.i.ty 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 ill.u.s.tration, but pray, O Lord, tell me, where is the ident.i.ty of my self?” 28
Said the Blessed One: ”Suppose a man were to light a lamp; would it burn the night through?” 29
”Yes, it might do so,” was the reply. 30
”Now, is it the same flame that burns in the first watch of the night as in the second?” 31
Kutadanta hesitated. He thought ”Yes, it is the same flame,” but fearing the complications of a hidden meaning, and trying to be exact, he said: ”No, it is not.” 32
”Then,” continued the Blessed One, ”there are flames, one in the first watch and the other in the second watch.” 33
”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 land of light, and it serves the same purpose.” 34
”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?” 35
”They may have been extinguished during the day,” suggested Kutadanta. 36
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?” 37
Replied Kutadanta: ”In one sense it is a different flame, in another it is not.” 38