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II, 3, 3.
THE FIRST BEGINNINGS.
Then setting out a precisely corresponding circle of each of the other organs of sense (of the ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind”), he in each case put the same question. And the reply being always the same, he concluded :
Just so, O king, the ultimate point of time in the past is not apparent.'
•You are ready, Nagasena, in reply.'
3. The king said : When you say that the ultimate point is not apparent, what do you mean by “ultimate point”?'.
Of whatsoever time is past. It is the ultimate point of that, О king, that I speak of.
But, if so, when you say that it is not apparent, do you mean to say that of everything? Is the ultimate point of everything unknown ?'
* Partly so, and partly not.' *Then which is so, and which not ?'
'Formerly, o king, everything in every form, everything in every mode, was ignorance. It is to us as if it were not. In reference to that the ultimate beginning is unknown. But that, which has not been, becomes; as soon as it has begun to become it dissolves away again. In reference to that the ultimate beginning is known 2' [52]
'But, reverend Sir, if that which was not, becomes, and as soon as it has begun to become passes again
In the text the whole sentence is repeated of each. ? That is, the beginning of each link in the chain-the beginning of each individuality--can be traced, but not the beginning of each chain. Each life is a link in a chain of lives, bound together by cause and effect, different, yet the same. There are an infinite number of such chains; and there is no reference in the discussion to any greater unity, or to any “ultimate point" of all the chains.'
[35]
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