One day King Milinda asked bhiksha (monk) Nagasena:
- Are those eyes you?
Nagasena, laughing, replied:
- No.
King Milinda insisted:
- And the ears are you? Is that your nose?
- No!
- And the language is you?
- No!
- But your personality resides in the body?
- No, the material body has only apparent existence.
“Perhaps your true substance is your mind?”
- Neither!
Milinda got angry:
- Since sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, mind - all this is not you, is not your true, existing substance, then where are you?
Bhikshu Nagasena smiled and in turn asked:
- Is a window a house?
Milinda got angry, but through force he answered:
- No!
- Are doors a house?
- No.
- Are bricks and tiles a house?
- No.
- Well then, maybe the columns and walls are a house?
- Neither!
Nagasena smiled and said:
- Since windows, doors, bricks, tiles, walls and columns are not a house, then where is the house?
Then King Milinda felt an awakening and realized the unity of causes, conditions and effects, realized that they are inseparable and cannot be considered separately. A house becomes a home due to the combination of many causes and conditions; a person also becomes a person when a certain unity of causes and conditions is observed.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru