Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)

1 Wherefore, Ananda, just that is the ground, the basis, the genesis, the cause of name-and-form, to wit, cognition.

22. ' I have said that name-and-form is the cause of cognition. Now in what way that is so, Ananda, is to be understood after this manner. Were coomition to gain no foothold in name-and-form, would there then, in the coming years, be manifested that concatenation of birth, old age, death and the uprising of 111 ? '

' There would not, lord.'

' Wherefore, Ananda, just that is the ground, the basis, the genesis, the cause of cognition, to wit, nameand-form.

' In so far only, Ananda, can one be born, or grow old, or die, or dissolve, or reappear, in so far only is there any process a of verbal expression, in so far only is there any process of explanation, in so far only is there any process of manifestation, in so far only is there any sphere of knowledge, in so far only do we go round the round of life [64] up to our appearance amid the conditions of this world 2 — in as far as this is, to wit, name-and-form together with cognition.'

2\ 'Now with declarations concerning the soul,
Ananda, how many such declarations are there 3 ?

1 Patho, literally, course, path.

2 Itthattaw pafifrapanaya, lit. for the making manifest thusness. Warren's rendering: — 'And it is all that is reborn to appear in the present shape,' — is beside the point, as well as free. Barely stated, the summary amounts to this : — : Only through cognition, language and bodily form do we live and express ourselves.' The little paragraph contains a great part of modern psychology in the germ-state.

3 The doctrine of origin by way of cause having now been set forth, the following is, according to the Cy., an illustration of how 'this generation has become a tangled skein,' &c, as asserted above (§ 1). These different impressions as to the nature of the atta

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Either the soul is declared to have form and to be minute, in the words : — " My soul has form and is minute." Or the soul is declared to have form and to be boundless, in the words : — " My soul has form and is boundless." Or the soul is declared to be formless and minute, in the words : — " My soul is formless and minute." Or the soul is declared to be formless and boundless, in the words : — " My soul is formless and boundless."

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24. ' And in each case, Ananda, he who makes the declaration, makes it with regard either to the present life, or to the next life, or else his idea is : — " My soul not being like that, I will refashion it into that likeness." That being so, Ananda, we have said enough about the case of one who is given to the theories that the soul has form and is minute, . . . has form and is boundless, and so on.

[65] 'In so many ways, Ananda, are declarations made concerning the soul.

25. ' And in how many ways, Ananda, when no declaration concerning the soul is made \ is such declaring refrained from ? Either the soul is not declared to have form and to be minute, in the aforesaid formula, or the soul is not declared to have form and to be boundless, in the aforesaid formula, or the soul is not declared to be formless and minute, in the aforesaid formula, or the soul is not declared to be formless and boundless, in the aforesaid formula.

(atman), soul, or mannikin, are, according to the Cy., deductions from Jhana experience. For instance, in the first ' declaration,' ' he who, on gazing at a particular kasiwa' (one of ten kinds of objects for inducing meditative rapture), ' gets hold of an after-image where there is no expansion (a.va.dd/1'ita.m), and of a consciousness that " it is the soul," declares that it, the soul, has form and is minute ' — and so on. Comp. on the whole exposition above Vol. I, pp. 45 foil.