lso an end. The whole universe offers no analogy or parallel to the
soul which has a beginning but no end, and not the smallest logical need
is shown for believing a doctrine so contrary to the nature of things.
And as for materialism he would probably say that it is a statement of
the processes of the world as perceived but no explanation of the mental
or even of the physical world. The materialists forget that objects as
known cannot be isolated from the knowing subject. Sensation implies
contact and duality but it is no real explanation to say that mental
phenomena are caused by physical phenomena. The Buddha reckoned among
vain speculations not only such problems as the eternity and infinity of
the world but also the question, Is the principle of life (Jiva)
identical with the body or not identical. That question, he said, is not
properly put, which is tantamount to condemning as inadequate all
theories which derive life and thought from purely material
antecedents[430]. Other ideas of modern Europe, such as that the body is
an instrument on which the soul works, or the expression of the soul,
seem to imply, or at least to be compatible with, the pre-existence of
the soul.

It is probable too that the Buddha would have said, and a modern
Buddhist would certainly say, that the fact of rebirth can easily be
proved by testimony and experience, because those who will make the
effort can recall their previous births. For his hearers the difficulty
must have been not to explain why they believed in rebirth but to
harmonize the belief with the rest of the master's system, for what is
reborn and how? We detect a tendency to say that it is Vinnana, or
consciousness, and the expression patisandhivinnanam or
rebirth-consciousness occurs[431]. The question is treated in an
important dialogue in the Majjhima-Nikaya[432], where a monk called Sati
maintains that, according to the Buddha's teaching, consciousness
transmigrates unchanged. The Buddha summoned Sati and rebuked his error
in language of unusual severity, for it was evidently capital and fatal
if persisted in. The Buddha does not state what transmigrates, as the
European reader would wish him to do, and would no doubt have replied to
that question that it is improperly framed and does not admit of an
answer.

His argument is directed not so much against the idea that consciousness
in one existence can have some connection with consciousness in the
next, as against the