Rebirth and the Western Buddhist - Khamkoo

46 Rebirth and the Western Buddhist
any arguments-which is a pity, since it appears the most
similar to modern materialist positions. In fact, an
example given by Losang Gyatso even suggests this
possibility. He says (p. 88) that no part of the body can
pass into the nature of mind, just as sandalwood cannot
become the nature of the smell of sandalwood. Since the
smell of sandalwood is a quality of sandalwood, if the
example were exact, then mind would be a quality of part
of the body!
With Gyel-tsap Je, 81 the Lokayatas' example is not the
taste of beer but its potential to intoxicate, and Candrakirti
too gives a similar example:
Just as from certain transformations on meeting
some alcoholic products, is produced an intoxicating
potential, which is a cause of intoxication
and insensibility of living beings, so
from a certain maturation of the material
elements of the small oval embryo etc., minds
are produced; and these come to distinguish all
things. 82
Candrakirti, writing from the Prasangika viewpoint, does
not refute this directly but argues that the Lokayatas'
views on other existences are unreliable since their perception
even of this one is distorted; for they attribute
true existence to the elements.