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THE BUDDHIST ATTITUDE
diction in our imagining in non-existence the seed of existence, and consequently we reject the conclusion, and try to form another which is intended to be logically consistent. We now derive existence from existence. But at this stage we become conscious of the futility of our speculation, because we have reached just the point from which we started. The Buddha was conscious of the absurdity of a priori metaphysical speculations moving in a vacuum, and so rejected the metaphysical vagaries as unanswerable. We shall consider here some such problems and the Buddha's attitude towards them.
Let us begin with Eternalism (Sassatavāda). The Brahmajāla Sutta assigns the origin of such doctrine to the development of the power of remembering the former births due to some spiritual advancement. Some again arrive at this theory by means of logic and reasoning. It is stated in the Majjhima Nikāyaể that the self (attā), according to the Eternalists (Sassatavādins), is the speaker, feeler, and enjoyer of the fruits of good and evil actions (kamma), is permanent (nicca), fixed (dhruva), eternal (sassata), unchangeable (aparināmadhamma), and is steadfast like the so-called eternal objects viz. the Sun, Moon, ocean, earth and mountain.3 Memory of the past is responsible for the idea of persistence or permanence. Abstract logic also sometimes leads to the same conclusion. According to the Ucchedavāda (nihilism), on the other hand, the soul is believed to become extinct after death. The Buddha's attitude to these problems is clearly expressed in the following dialogue :
Is sorrow, Gotama, due to oneself (sayamkatam?' Not so, O Kassapa.'-_Thus said the Lord. Is sorrow then, Gotama, due to another (parakatam)?' Not so, O Kassapa.'-Thus said the Lord. Is then this sorrow, Gotama, due to oneself as well as due to another?' Not so, O Kassapa.'-Thus said the Lord. Is then this sorrow, Gotama, neither due to oneself, nor due to another?' 'Not so, O Kassapa.'-_Thus said the Lord.
"See Dr. N. Dutt's Early Monastic Buddhism, Vol. I, p. 49. 21, p. 8. 3 Dr. N. Dutt: Op. cit., p. 50.
+ Cf. 'Endow this mind with memory, and specially with the desire to dwell on the past ; give it the faculty of dissociating and of distinguishing : it will no longer only note the present state of the passing reality ; it will represent the passing as a change, and therefore as a constant between what has been and what is.'-Bergson: Creative Evolution, (1928 edition), p. 310.
JP-2
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