25. Ibid., III. 136. The Book of Kindred Sayings
(London: Luzac & Co., 1954), pt. III, p. 115.
26. Ibid. Also, the Nakulapitar section of the
Samyutta Nikaaya, III. 1-5, carries the same
discussion on not setting up a self or an I.
27. Po.t.t.hapada Sutta of the Diigha Nikaaya, Sutta
IX. The translation is from The Dialogues of the
Buddha, trans. T. W. Rhys Davids, Sacred Books of
the Buddhists, vol. 2 (London: Luzac & Co.,
1956), pt. I, p. 263
28. Mahaaparinibbaana Sutta of the Diigha Nikaaya,
II. 120, 156.
p.312
Unequalled among all the men that are,
Successor of the prophets of old time,
Mighty by wisdom, and in insight clear...
Hath died!(29)
Accordingly, the human organism is compounded, an
aggregate of "mental and material qualities." These
refer to the five skandhas, which are [1]
corporeality (ruupa), [2] feeling or sensitive nature
(vedanaa) , [3] primary imagery (sa^mj~naa), [4]
interplay of the imagery or activity thereof
(sa^mskaara) , and [5] conscious play or
discriminative knowledge ( vij~naana ). Any of the
above cannot be identified with a self or a being so
as to assert "I feel" or "I am conscious, " as if
feeling and consciousness are separate entities. In
separation they lose all meaning but in unity they
gain something. They are all intimately bound
together to form the unit of becoming that we
conventionally call the self. The classic expression
of the unit of becoming is presented in the Questions
of King Milinda (Milindapa~nha, 25) , where the
learned monk questions the validity of assigning
reality to the constituent parts of a chariot. He
points out that the wheels are not the chariot; nor
is the carriage, etc. But the chariot is. Likewise,
the constituent parts of a king or a monk lack
reality in themselves but the king or monk does