Yet it would seem that according to the psychology of the Pitakas an ordinary human being is an aggregate of the skandhas and nothing more.  When such a being dies and in popular language is born again, the skandhas reconstitute themselves but it is expressly stated that when the saint dies this does not happen.  The Chain of Causation says that consciousness and the sankharas are interdependent.  If there is no rebirth, it is because (as it would seem) there are in the dying saint no sankharas.  His nature cannot be formulated in the same terms as the nature of an ordinary man.  It may be noted that karma is not equivalent to the effect produced on the world by a man’s words and deeds, for if that were so, no one would have died leaving more karma behind him than the Buddha himself, yet according to Hindu doctrine, whether Buddhist or Brahmanic, no karma attaches to the deeds of a saint.  His acts may affect others but there is nothing in them which tends to create a new existence.

In another dialogue[514] the Buddha replies to a wandering monk called Vaccha who questioned him about the undetermined problems and in answer to every solution suggested says that he does not hold that view.  Vaccha asks what objection he has to these theories that he has not adopted any of them?

“Vaccha, the theory that the saint exists (or does not exist and so on) after death is a jungle, a desert, a puppet show, a writhing, an entanglement and brings with it sorrow, anger, wrangling and agony.  It does not conduce to distaste for the world, to the absence of passion, to the cessation of evil, to peace, to knowledge, to perfect enlightenment, to nirvana.  Perceiving this objection, I have not adopted any of these theories.”  “Then has Gotama any theory of his own?” “Vaccha, the Tathagata has nothing to do with theories, but this is what he knows:  the nature of form, how form arises, how form perishes:  the nature of perception, how it arises and how it perishes (and so on with the other skandhas).  Therefore I say that the Tathagata is emancipated because he has completely and entirely abandoned all imaginations, agitations and false notions about the Ego and anything pertaining to the Ego.”  But, asks Vaccha, when one who has attained this emancipation of mind dies where is he reborn?  “Vaccha, the word ‘reborn’ does not fit the case.”  “Then, Gotama, he is not reborn.”  “To say he is not reborn does not fit the case, nor is it any better to say he is both reborn and not reborn or that he is neither reborn nor not reborn.”  “Really, Gotama, I am completely bewildered and my faith in you is gone.”

“Never mind your bewilderment.  This doctrine is profound and difficult.  Suppose there was a fire in front of you.  You would see it burning and know that its burning depended on fuel.  And if it went out (nibbayeyya) you would know that it had gone out.  But if some one were to ask you, to which quarter has it gone, East, West, North or South, what would you say?”