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II, 1, 2.
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For it was said, Sire, by our Sister Vagirâ in the presence of the Blessed One:
SENIORITY.
"Just as it is by the condition precedent of the co-existence of its various parts that the word 'chariot' is used, just so is it that when the Skandhas are there we talk of a 'being'.'
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'Most wonderful, Nâgasena, and most strange. Well has the puzzle put to you, most difficult though it was, been solved. Were the Buddha himself here he would approve your answer. Well done, well done, Nâgasena!'
2. 'How many years seniority have you, Nâgasena ?'
'Seven, your Majesty.'
'But how can you say it is your "seven?" Is it you who are "seven," or the number that is "seven?""
Now that moment the figure of the king, decked in all the finery of his royal ornaments, cast its shadow on the ground, and was reflected in a vessel of water. And Nâgasena asked him: 'Your figure, O king, is now shadowed upon the ground, and reflected in the water, how now, are you the king, or is the reflection the king?'
'I am the king, Nâgasena, but the shadow comes into existence because of me.'
'Just even so, O king, the number of the years is seven, I am not seven. But it is because of me, O king, that the number seven has come into existence; and it is mine in the same sense as the shadow is yours?.'
1 From the Samyutta Nikâya V, 10, 6.
* Hardy (p. 427, § 4 of the first edition) has quite missed the point of this crux.
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