—  841  ~~~ 
In  another  Sermon  it  is  declared:  «0  Brethren!  some  Buddhists  äs  99.b. l. 
well  as  some  Brahmins  entertain  the  idea  of  a  Self.  But  you  must  know 
that  all  such  ideas  refer  exclusively  to  the  five  mundane  groups  (of  elements, 
the  substrates  of  a  person's  phenomenal  life:  its  bodily  frame,  its  feelings,  its 
notions,  its  will,  and  its  general  consciousness))) .  Therefore  all  such  cognitions 
of  a  Self  invariably  refer  to  the  non-Self. 
[§  7.  Is  the  Buddha  a  real  personality]. 
Vasubandhu.  Accordingly  Scripture  declares:  « (there  are  saints,  who  99.  b.  2. 
can)  remember  their  various  previous  existences,  but  in  doing  so,  all  that 
they  did  remember,  all  they  are  remembering  or  will  remember  about  in 
future  refers  simply  to  these  five  groups  of  mundane  elements. 
Vatsiputnya.  If  such  be  the  import  of  this  text,  why  then  does  Buddha 
declare  (in  his  Sermons) :  can  a  former  existence  I  have  had  such  a  bodily 
ігатед.  (Using  the  term  «I»  implies  the  existence  of  a  Self). 
Vasubandhu.  He  alludes  in  these  words  to  the  fact  which  has  been 
expressed  in  the  (just  cited)  passage  «there  are  saints  who  can  remember 
their  various  previous  existences  etc.»  (The  saints  who  remember  their  pre- 
vious births  remember  them  in  this  form,  namely  in  the  form:  «I»  have  had 
such  a  bodily  frame)».  If  the  import  of  these  words  had  been  (as  you  con- 
ceive it)  that  there  is  a  (real)  Individual,  which  (in  former  births)  possessed 
an(other)  body,  it  would  follow,  that  you  are  professing  the  heresy  of  Wrong 
Personalism,  and  then  the  only  possible  escape  (for  you  not  to  be  accused  of 
this  heresy)  would  be  to  declare  spurious  (all  the  Sermons  where  Buddha 
speaks  of  his  previous  births)32.  Therefore  it  is  clear  that  in  those  Sermons 
Buddha  speaks  about  his  person  in  the  common,  conventional  sense,  just  as 
we  use  the  expression  «a  collection»  (meaning  its  separate  parts),  or  «a  con- 
tinuity)) (meaning  its  separate  moments.  In  one  moment  we  have  a  collection  Yagom, 
of  the  elements  of  a  personality  existing  simultaneously,  in  the  continuity  of 
life  through  many  births  a  collection  of  such  successive  moments). 
Vatsiputnya.  In  this  case  it  would  follow  that  Buddha  is  not  omni-  99  ь,  5, 
sclent.  Since  consciousness  as  well  as  the  mental  states  are  but  separate  mo- 
ments, there  is  not  the  slightest  possibility  (for  one  of  such  moments)  to  know 
every  thing  (i.  e.  the  arising  and  disappearing  of  all  elements  in  every  moment). 
But  for  a  real  personality  such  (universal)  knowledge  becomes  possible. 
Vasubandhu.  But  then  you  admit  the  existence  of  a  Self  which  does 
Dot  vanish  at  the  moment  when  consciousness  vanishes,  therefore  you  must 
admit  the  existence  of  an  eternal  Soul,  (an  unchanging  Self  along  with  a 
Извѣстія  P.  A.  H.  1919.  56* 
