Buddhist Philosophy in India and Ceylon c15.s3.20

c15.s3.20

The conception of a Saṃtāna was clearly not acceptable to all the Hīnayāna schools; we have a decidedly emphatic denunciation of it in a passage of the *Saṃyutta Nikāya*¹ where it is denounced as an illusion and idle talk, while in the Brahmanical texts energetic criticism is directed against the whole conception. Either, it is argued, the plan means that there is a Saṃtānin, or subject, under the moments, which means that the Buddhist is throwing aside his doctrine of non-ego and momentariness, or there is no real continuity at all and the Saṃtāna leaves us with nothing to solve the problem of individuality.