“In the Buddhist scriptures, [there is] a famous dialogue between a king named Milinda and the Buddhist sage Nagesena. The king asked Nagesena this . . . question: When someone is reborn, is he the same as the one who just died, or is he different Nagasena replied: He is neither the same nor different. . . . Tell me, if a man were to light a lamp, could it provide light the whole night long The king said, Yes.

Nagasena asked: Is the flame then which burns in the first watch of the night the same as the one that burns in the second . . . or the last The king said, No. Nagasena asked again, Does that mean there is one lamp in the first watch of the night, another in the second, and another in the third The king answered, No, its because of that one lamp that the light shines all night. Then Nagasena said, Rebirth is much the same: one phenomenon arises and another stops, simultaneously. So the first act of consciousness in the new existence is neither the same as the last act of consciousness in the previous existence nor is it different.”

—Jonathan Cott, from On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering, 2005.