—  843  — 
well,  listen  attentively  and  inculcate  it  in  your  minds!  I  am  going  to  explain!  Yacom. 
What  is  the  burden?  All  the  five  aggregates  of  elements  the  substrates  of 
personal  life,  What  is  meant  by  the  taking  up  of  the  burden?  The  Force  of 
Craving  for  a  continous  life,  accompanied  by  passionate  desires,  the  rejoicing 
at  many  an  object.  What  is  the  laying  aside  of  the  burden?  It  is  the  whole- 
sale rejection  of  this  Craving  for  a  continuation  of  life,  accompanied  as  it  is 
by  passionate  desires  and  rejoicings  at  many  an  object,  the  getting  rid  of  it  in 
every  circumstance,  its  extinction,  its  end,  its  supression,  an  aversion  towards 
it,  its  restraint,  its  disappearance.  Who  is  the  carrier?  We  must  answer:  it 
is  the  Individual  i.  e.  «this  venerable  man,  having  this  name,  of  such  a 
caste,  of  such  family,  eating  such  food,  finding  pleasure  or  displeasure 
at  such  things,  of  such  an  age,  the  man  who  after  a  life  of  such  length, 
will  pass  away  having  reached  such  an  age».  (What  for  did  Buddha  declare 
this?) 
Vasubandhk  Why  should  he  not? 
Vatsipntnya.  (The  burden  is  explained  to  represent  all  the  elements  of 
life  and  the  carrier  i.  e.  the  Individual,  if  not  different  from  them,  must  be 
included  in  the  same).  Now  the  burden  and  the  carrier  of  the  burden  cannot 
possibly  be  the  same  thing33. 
Vasubandhu.  Why? 
Vatsiputnya.  Because  (experience  teaches)  that  this  never  happens. 
Vasabandhu.  But  to  say  {as  you  do)  that  an  Individual  is  something 
undefinable,  (neither  identical  nor  different  from  the  elements  it  is  composed 
of)  is  likewise  inadmissible!  And  why?  (For  the  same  reason!)  Because 
such  a  thing  has  never  been  witnessed!  Moreover  (if  the  carrier  of  the 
burden  be  taken  to  represent  something  different  from  the  elements),  the 
consequence  would  be  that  neither  «the  taking  up  of  the  bürden»  (i.  e.  the 
Force  of  assuming  new  elements  by  birth)  could  be  included  among  these 
elements-  (which  we  know  it  is,  under  the  name  of  the  Force  of  Craving 
for  Life)20.  The  carrier  of  the  burden  has  been  pointed  to  by  Buddha  with  the 
express  purpose  to  show  that  only  so  much  can  be  known  of  him :  ehe  is  a 
venerable  man,  named  so  and  so»  and  other  (common  life)  particulars  ending 
with  « after  so  long  a  life  he  will  die  at  such  an  age»,  but  he  must  not  be 
misunderstood  to  represent  some  eternal  (Soul)  or  some  (real)  Individual.  (In 
reality  nothing  exists  but  momentary  sets  of  elements),  the  elements  of  the 
former  moment  exercising  (as  it  were)  a  pressure  upon  the  elements  of  the 
following  one.  Hence  the  preceding  moment  has  been  conventionally  called 
the  burden  and  the  following  one  —  the  carrier  of  the  burden34. 
Изьѣетія  P.  А. И.  1919. 
