Q: "Where, for instance, is the identity of myself? There's a special quality that makes me different from everything else and also from all other selves. And I want that identity, my own self, to continue. So where does that identity dwell?"
A: "Where indeed?" asked the Buddha. "That "self" to which you cling is in constant change. Years ago you were a baby, then a youth, and now a man. Which is your true self? that of yesterday, that of today, or that of tomorrow which you so long to preserve?"
"I see I have misunderstood things," replied Kutadanta slowly, "and although I find it hard to endure the light, the truth now dawns on me that there is no separate and enduring self. I will take my refuge in your teaching and find that which is continuing and everlasting in the truth."
-Majjhima Nikaya
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