The History of Buddhist Thought c16.53

c16.53

Such is the way in which the difficulty of Sāti is explained—consciousness is not something permanent which persists unchanged from birth to birth, but one form which the individual assumes at one stage of his existence. Conception consists in “ the descent of the embryo ”. This statement is opposed to the view of Childers that it is only karma which transmigrates, but no evidence has ever been given for his view. The descent of the embryo is called the descent of consciousness or cognition in the *Mahānidāna-sutta* (above p. 67). Yet Rhys Davids when translating the very words of that sutta, *viññāṇaṃ va hi mātu kucchiṃ okkamitvā*, as “ were cognition after having descended into the mother’s womb ” (*Dial.*, ii, 60), adds a note to say, “ there is no conception of cognition, as a unity, descending from outside into the womb like a ball into a bag.” Even if it were only karma which were transmigrating, one would have thought that it must come from outside.