[y not]

When it is said that beings have been in sansara from a ‘beginingless time’, I take it to mean that any individual being living now has been in sansara from a beginingless time, and not with reference to ‘this humanity’,though that too, in its collectivity, has ever been before. When we read that whales, for instance, have been around for millions of
years, it is with reference to the species and certainly not to any individual specimen alive now. For any being here now there is then eternality in the past, and on attaintment of Nibbana there will be eternality in the future following that attainment.The one who has suffered up to now without a beginning is the one who stops the suffering and is also the one who will reach Nibbana and abide there
or in that State for ever after. How then can it be said that there is no abiding entity? There is no UNCHANGING entity – that much is granted.
Some have been trying to forcibly and uselessly convince themselves: there is no Self, I am not ,all is illusion…thereby throwing themselves into more illusion leading to utter delusion. The one who suffers is the one who strives, and the one who strives is the one who attains. There IS a ‘One’, and moreover an abiding One. Why try to deny this? The illusion is ‘ I as I am’ am abiding. Calling it a being, an entity, a manifestation, a self, a lifestream, a gandhabba or whatever, the fact of a core persistence in the being cannot be denied.When Vaccha asked the Self-Perfected One: Now then, Is there a Self?.. Is there then No-Self? “atthatta’ti ? …..n’atthatta’ti? ,the idea intended to be conveyed , as I see, was: Is this, I as I am, of any true essence, of any ultimate meaning, of any intrinsic existence, valuable ,worthy of clinging to, to safeguard and cherish? If a Yes answer were given, Vaccha would have been led to think he was already atta, and had no need.to strive any longer ……….if a No answer were given, he would have been confused thus: formely I had essence, I was valuable , I had meaning, now I am no longer that – I am nothing! The reality is that we as we are, trapped in a gross material body ridden with aches, diseases and mental defilements and all leading only to death, as we are also not yet perfected in the higher realms, are anatta; on attainment of Nibbana we become atta. So either a Yes or a No answer to the two questions as put was impossible to give.