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III, 5, 6.
5. The king said: 'Where there is no transmigration, Nâgasena, can there be rebirth?'
THE SOUL.
4
'Yes, there can.'
'But how can that be? Give me an illustration.' Suppose a man, O king, were to light a lamp from another lamp, can it be said that the one transmigrates from, or to, the other?'
Certainly not.'
'Just so, great king, is rebirth without transmigration.'
III
'Give me a further illustration.'
'Do you recollect, great king, having learnt, when you were a boy, some verse or other from your teacher?'
'Yes, I recollect that.'
'Well then, did that verse transmigrate from your teacher?'
'Certainly not.'
'Just so, great king, is rebirth without transmigration.'
'Very good, Nâgasena!'
6. The king said: 'Is there such a thing, Nâgasena, as the soul1?'
'In the highest sense, O king, there is no such thing 2'
our lives long to conduct ourselves according to the Vinaya (the rules of the Order), which the Buddha preached, and which are called the eye of the Buddha, and according to the Sikkhâpada (ethics) which he laid down, and which are called his command?' But there are other passages, no less amplified in the Simhalese, where there is evidently no lacuna in the Pâli; and the passage may well have been meant as a kind of riddle, to which the Simhalese supplies the solution.
1
Vedagu. See above, II, 3, 6, p. 86 (note).
Mr. Trenckner thinks there is a lacuna here. The Simhalese follows the Pâli word for word.
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