such special distinctions would turn the
non-entities into entities no less real than lotuses and the like. In no
case non-existence would possess causal efficiency, simply because, like
the horn of a hare, it is non-existence merely.--Further, if existence
sprang from non-existence, all effects would be affected with
non-existence; while as a matter of fact they are observed to be merely
positive entities distinguished by their various special
characteristics. Nor[404] does any one think that things of the nature
of clay, such as pots and the like, are the effects of threads and the
like; but everybody knows that things of the nature of clay are the
effects of clay only.--The Bauddha's tenet that nothing can become a
cause as long as it remains unchanged, but has to that end to undergo
destruction, and that thus existence springs from non-existence only is
false; for it is observed that only things of permanent nature which are
always recognised as what they are, such as gold, &c., are the causes of
effects such as golden ornaments, and so on. In those cases where a
destruction of the peculiar nature of the cause is observed to take
place, as in the case of seeds, for instance, we have to acknowledge as
the cause of the subsequent condition (i.e. the sprout) not the earlier
condition in so far as it is destroyed, but rather those permanent
particles of the seed which are not destroyed (when the seed as a whole
undergoes decomposition).--Hence as we see on the one hand that no
entities ever originate from nonentities such as the horns of a hare,
and on the other hand that entities do originate from entities such as
gold and the like the whole Bauddha doctrine of existence springing from
non-existence has to be rejected.--We finally point out that, according
to the Bauddhas, all mind and all mental modifications spring from the
four skandhas discussed above and all material aggregates from the
atoms; why then do they stultify this their own doctrine by the fanciful
assumption of entity springing from non-entity and thus needlessly
perplex the mind of every one?

27. And thus (on that doctrine) there would be an accomplishment (of
ends) in the case of non-active people also.

If it were admitted that entity issues from non-entity, lazy inactive
people also would obtain their purposes, since 'non-existence' is a
thing to be had without much trouble. Rice would grow for the husbandman
even if he did not cultivate his fiel