Source: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (1942), p. 319
Context: The body was born and it will die. But for the soul there is no death. It is like the betel-nut. When the nut is ripe it does not stick to the shell. But when it is green it is difficult to separate it from the shell. After realizing God, one does not identify oneself any more with the body. Then one knows that body and soul are two different things.
““Well, Lord, is the soul the same as the body, is the soul one thing and the body another?”
“I have not declared that the soul is one thing and the body another.”
“Well, Lord, does the Tathāgata exist after death?” …
“I have not declared that the Tathāgata exists after death.” …
“But, Lord, why has the Lord not declared these things?”
“Potthapada, that is not conducive to the purpose, not conducive to Dhamma, not the way to embark on the holy life; it does not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to higher knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana. That is why I have not declared it.””
M. Walshe, trans. (1987), Sutta 9, verse 28, p. 164
Source: Pali Canon, Sutta Pitaka, Digha Nikaya (Long Discourses)
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Gautama Buddha 121
philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism -563–-483 BCRelated quotes
“If the soul does not exist, then stop believing in life and death as well.”
D. Martin Luthers Werke, Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 61 vols., (Weimar: Verlag Hermann Böhlaus Nochfolger, 1883-1983), 52:39 [hereinafter: WA] 1544
T 2760 (January 1892); as quoted in Edvard Much – behind the scream, Sue Prideaux; Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 119
1880 - 1895
Joseph William Chitty, J., In re Dawson; Johnston v. Hill (1888), L. R. 39 C. D. 152.
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Source: To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia (c. 1344), p. 296