Where is thy self?
"Where is thy self" asked Buddha. And when Kutadanta mande no reply, he continued: "Thy self to which thou cleavest is a constant change. Years ago thou wast a small babe; then, thou wast a boy; then a youth; and now, thou art a man. Is there any identity of the babe and the man? There is an identity in a certain sense only. Indeed there is more identity between the flames of the first and the third watch, even though the lamp might have4 been extinguished during the sedon watch. Now which is the true self, that of yesterday, that of to-day, or that of tomorrow, for the preservation of which thou does clamor?"
Buddha the Teacher: Identity and Non-identity
The Gospel of Buddha: According to the Old Records
Told by Paul Carus
The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904
page 138