THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING
he both exist and not exist after death?” ‘“Does he neither
exist nor not exist after death?” . . . Because “the Blessed
Buddhas lift not up their voice without a reason and without
an object.”* But in spite of their being no sow/ “in the
highest sense,” j Gotama had to postulate some vehicle which
would transmit the sorrow of one generation to another, of
one instant of time to the next; and, not being able to use the
familiar idea of Atman, he instead made that of Karma doa
double duty. ‘He does not die until that evil Karma is
exhausted,” says Nagasena.{
Now this brings us to an extraordinary complex question,
namely the Jractical difference between the Karma minus
Atman of the Buddhists and the Karma plus Atman of the
later Vedantists?
The Brahman’s idea, at first, was of one complete whole,
this, as the comment supplanted the text, got frayed into
innumerable units or Atmans, which, on account of Karma,
were born again and again until Karma was used up and the
individual Atman went back to the universal Atman. Buddha
erasing the Atman, though he refused to discuss the Begin-
ning, postulates Nibbana as the end, which fact conversely
also postulates the Beginning as Nibbana. Therefore we have
all things originating from an x sign, Atman, Nibbana, God,
Ain or First Cause, and eventually returning to this primordial
Equilibrium. The difficulty which now remains is the bridging
over of this divided middle. To Gotama there is no unit, and
existence fer se is Ignorance caused as it were by a bad dream
in the head of the undefinable Nibbana; which itself, however,
* “The Questions of King Milinda,” iv, 2, 5. + Lbid,, iii, 5, 6.
t Lbid,, iii, 4, 4.
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