nt out that, if he means thereby
that Nescience and so on cannot exist without aggregates and hence
require the existence of such, it remains to assign an efficient cause
for the formation of the aggregates. But, as we have already shown--when
examining the Vaijeshika doctrine--that the formation of aggregates
cannot be accounted for even on the assumption of permanent atoms and
individual souls in which the ad/ri/sh/t/a abides[392]; how much less
then are aggregates possible if there exist only momentary atoms not
connected with enjoying souls and devoid of abodes (i.e. souls), and
that which abides in them (the ad/ri/sh/t/a).--Let us then assume (the
Bauddha says) that Nescience, &c. themselves are the efficient cause of
the aggregate.--But how--we ask--can they be the cause of that without
which--as their abode--they themselves are not capable of existence?
Perhaps you will say that in the eternal sa/m/sara the aggregates
succeed one another in an unbroken chain, and hence also Nescience, and
so on, which abide in those aggregates. But in that case you will have
to assume either that each aggregate necessarily produces another
aggregate of the same kind, or that, without any settled rule, it may
produce either a like or an unlike one. In the former case a human body
could never pass over into that of a god or an animal or a being of the
infernal regions; in the latter case a man might in an instant be turned
into an elephant or a god and again become a man; either of which
consequences would be contrary to your system.--Moreover, that for the
purpose of whose enjoyment the aggregate is formed is, according to your
doctrine, not a permanent enjoying soul, so that enjoyment subserves
itself merely and cannot be desired by anything else; hence final
release also must, according to you, be considered as subserving itself
only, and no being desirous of release can be assumed. If a being
desirous of both were assumed, it would have to be conceived as
permanently existing up to the time of enjoyment and release, and that
would be contrary to your doctrine of general impermanency.--There may
therefore exist a causal relation between the members of the series
consisting of Nescience, &c., but, in the absence of a permanent
enjoying soul, it is impossible to establish on that ground the
existence of aggregates.

20. (Nor can there be a causal relation between Nescience, &c.), because
on the origination of the subsequent (momen