{"collection":"Samyutta Nikaya","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/suttacentral_sn44.10/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/suttacentral_sn44.10","id":"suttacentral_sn44.10","license":"CC0","rights_basis":"suttacentral_bilara_data_cc0","source":"suttacentral","source_url":"https://suttacentral.net/sn44.10/en/sujato","summary":null,"tags":["Early Buddhist Texts","Samyutta Nikaya"],"text":"Then the wanderer Vacchagotta went up to the Buddha and exchanged greetings with him. When the greetings and polite conversation were over, he sat down to one side and said to the Buddha: \u201cWorthy Gotama, does the self survive?\u201d But when he said this, the Buddha kept silent. \u201cThen does the self not survive?\u201d But for a second time the Buddha kept silent. Then the wanderer Vacchagotta rose from his seat and left. And then, not long after Vacchagotta had left, Venerable \u0100nanda said to the Buddha: \u201cSir, why didn\u2019t you answer Vacchagotta\u2019s question?\u201d \u201c\u0100nanda, when Vacchagotta asked me whether the self survives, if I had answered that \u2018the self survives\u2019 I would have been siding with the ascetics and brahmins who are eternalists. When Vacchagotta asked me whether the self does not survive, if I had answered that \u2018the self does not survive\u2019 I would have been siding with the ascetics and brahmins who are annihilationists. When Vacchagotta asked me whether the self survives, if I had answered that \u2018the self survives\u2019, would that have facilitated the arising of the knowledge that all things are not-self?\u201d \u201cNo, sir.\u201d \u201cWhen Vacchagotta asked me whether the self does not survive, if I had answered that \u2018the self does not survive\u2019, Vacchagotta\u2014who is already confused\u2014would have got even more confused, thinking: \u2018It seems that the self that I once had no longer survives.\u2019\u201d","title":"With \u0100nanda","tradition":"Samyutta Nikaya","translated_text":null,"word_count":231}