chain of causation and other abstruse matters; nor does it really take
the form of neglecting metaphysics: rather of defining them in a manner
so authoritative as to imply a reserve of unimparted knowledge. Again
and again questions about the fundamental mysteries of existence are put
to him and he will not give an answer. It would not conduce to
knowledge, peace, or freedom from passion, we are told, and, therefore,
the Lord has not declared it. _Therefore_: not, it would seem, because
he did not know, but because the discussion was not profitable. And the
modern investigator, who is not so submissive as the Buddha's disciples,
asks why not? Can it be that the teacher knew of things transcendental
not to be formulated in words? Once[404] he compared the truths he had
taught his disciples to a bunch of leaves which he held in his hand and
the other truths which he knew but had not taught to the leaves of the
whole forest in which they were walking. And the story of the blind men
and the elephant[405] seems to hint that Buddhas, those rare beings who
are not blind, can see the constitution of the universe. May we then in
chance phrases get a glimpse of ideas which he would not develop? It may
be so, but the quest is temerarious. "What I have revealed[406] hold as
revealed, and what I have not revealed, hold as not revealed." The
gracious but authoritative figure of the Master gives no further reply
when we endeavour to restate his teaching in some completer form which
admits of comparison with the ancient and modern philosophies of Europe.

The best introduction to his theory of existence is perhaps the
instruction given to the five monks after his first sermon. The
body[407] is not the self, he says, for if it were, it would not be
subject to disease and we should be able to say, let my body be or not
be such and such. As the denial of the existence of the self or ego
(Atta in Pali, Atman in Sanskrit) is one of the fundamental and original
tenets of Gotama, we must remember that this self whose existence is
denied is something not subject to decay, and possessing perfect free
will with power to exercise it. The Brahmanic Atman is such a self but
it is found nowhere in the world of our experience[408]. For the body or
form is not the self, neither is sensation or feeling (_vedana_) for
they are not free and eternal. Neither is perception (_sanna_)[409] the
self. Neither, the Buddha goes on to say, are the _Sankharas_ the