And there was a monk named Yamaka who, considering the teaching, believed that on the dissolution of the body the man who has lost all depravity is annihilated and exists no more. And his fellow monks having in vain urged him to abandon so wicked a heresy called upon Sariputta the Great to teach him better, and by his silence he consented.
So when the evening was come, Sariputta the Great rose from deep meditation and drawing near to Yamaka he greeted him with courtesy as one monk should another and sitting down respectfully beside him he questioned him thus:
“Is the report true, brother Yamaka, that the wicked heresy of annihilation has sprung up in your mind?”
“Even so, brother, do I understand the teaching of the Blessed One.”
And Sariputta the Great mused a moment and resumed:
“What think you, brother Yamaka;—is his bodily form the saint?”
“No indeed, brother.”
“Are sensation, perception, predispositions, the saint?”
“Certainly not, brother.”
“Then can you consider the saint as apart and distinct from form, sensation, perception and predispositions?”