CHAPTER 28
HOW REBIRTH TAKES PLACE
"The pile of bones of (all the bodies of) one
man
Who has alone one aeon lived
Would make a mountain's height --
So said the mighty seer."
-- ITIVUT'TAKA
To
the dying man at this critical stage, according to Abhidhamma philosophy,
is presented a Kamma, Kamma Nimitta, or Gati Nimitta.
By Kamma is here meant some good or bad act
done during his lifetime or immediately before his dying moment. It is a
good or bad thought. If the dying person had committed one of the five
heinous crimes (Garuka Kamma) such as parricide etc. or developed
the Jhānas (Ecstasies), he would experience such a Kamma before his
death. These are so powerful that they totally eclipse all other actions
and appear very vividly before the mind's eye. If he had done no such
weighty action, he may take for his object of the dying thought-process a
Kamma done immediately before death (Āsanna Kamma); which
may be called a "Death Proximate Kamma."
In the absence of a "Death-Proximate Kamma" a
habitual good or bad act (Ācinna Kamma) is presented, such as the
healing of the sick in the case of a good physician, or the teaching of
the Dhamma in the case of a pious Bhikkhu, or stealing in the case
of a thief. Failing all these, some casual trivial good or bad act (Katattā
Kamma) becomes the object of the dying thought-process.
Kamma Nimitta
or "symbol," means a mental reproduction of any
sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or idea which was predominant at the
time of some important activity, good or bad, such as a vision of knives
or dying animals in the case of a butcher, of patients in the case of a
physician, and of the object of worship in the case of a devotee, etc...
By Gati Nimitta, or "symbol of destiny"
is meant some symbol of the place of future birth. This frequently
presents itself to dying persons and stamps its gladness or gloom upon
their features. When these indications of the future birth occur, if they
are bad, they can at times be remedied. This is done by influencing the
thoughts of the dying man. Such premonitory visions
[1] of destiny may
be fire, forests, mountainous regions, a mother's womb, celestial
mansions, and the like.
Taking for the object a Kamma, or a Kamma
symbol, or a symbol of destiny, a thought-process runs its course even if
the death be an instantaneous one.
For the sake of convenience let us imagine that
the dying person is to be reborn in the human kingdom and that the object
is some good Kamma.
His Bhavanga consciousness is
interrupted, vibrates for a thought-moment and passes away; after which
the mind-door consciousness (manodvāravajjana) arises and passes
away. Then comes the psychologically important stage --Javana process --
which here runs only for five thought moments by reason of its weakness,
instead of the normal seven. It lacks all reproductive power, its main
function being the mere regulation of the new existence (abhinavakarana).
The object here being desirable, the
consciousness he experiences is a moral one. The Tadālambana-consciousness
which has for its function a registering or identifying for two moments of
the object so perceived, may or may not follow. After this occurs the
death-consciousness (cuticitta), the last thought moment to be
experienced in this present life.
There is a misconception amongst some that the
subsequent birth is conditioned by this last death-consciousness (cuticitta)
which in itself has no special function to perform. What actually
conditions rebirth is that which is experienced during the Javana process.
With the cessation of the decease-consciousness
death actually occurs. Then no material qualities born of mind and food
(cittaja and āhāraja) are produced. Only a series of material
qualities born of heat (utuja) goes on till the corpse is reduced
to dust.
[2]
Simultaneous with the arising of the rebirth
consciousness there spring up the 'body-decad,' 'sex-decad,' and 'base-decad'
(Kāya-bhāva-vatthu-dasaka).
[3]
According to Buddhism, therefore, sex is
determined at the moment of conception and is conditioned by Kamma not
by any fortuitous combination of sperm and ovum-cells.
[4]
The passing away of the consciousness of the
past birth is the occasion for the arising of the new consciousness in the
subsequent birth. However, nothing unchangeable or permanent is
transmitted from the past to the present.
Just as the wheel rests on the ground only at
one point, so, strictly speaking, we live only for one thought-moment. We
are always in the present, and that present is ever slipping into
the irrevocable past. Each momentary consciousness of this ever-changing
life-process, on passing away, transmits its whole energy, all the
indelibly recorded impressions on it, to its successor. Every fresh
consciousness, therefore, consists of the potentialities of its
predecessors together with something more. At death, the consciousness
perishes, as in truth it perishes every moment, only to give birth to
another in a rebirth. This renewed consciousness inherits all past
experiences. As all impressions are indelibly recorded in the
ever-changing palimpsest-like mind, and all potentialities are transmitted
from life to life, irrespective of temporary disintegration, thus there
may be reminiscence of past births or past incidents. Whereas if memory
depended solely on brain cells, such reminiscence would be impossible.
"This new being which is the present
manifestation of the stream of Kamma-energy is not the same as, and has no
identity with, the previous one in its line -- the aggregates that make up
its composition being different from, having no identity with, those that
make up the being of its predecessor. And yet it is not an entirely
different being since it has the same stream of Kamma-energy, though
modified perchance just by having shown itself in that manifestation,
which is now making its presence known in the sense-perceptible world as
the new being.
[5]
Death, according to Buddhism, is the cessation
of the psycho-physical life of any one individual existence. It is the
passing away of vitality (āyu), i.e., psychic and physical life
(jīvitindriya), heat (usma) and consciousness (viññāna).
Death is not the complete annihilation of a
being, for though a particular life-span ends, the force which hitherto
actuated it is not destroyed.
Just as an electric light is the outward
visible manifestation of invisible electric energy, so we are the outward
manifestations of invisible Kammic energy. The bulb may break, and the
light may be extinguished, but the current remains and the light may be
reproduced in another bulb. In the same way, the Kammic force remains
undisturbed by the disintegration of the physical body, and the passing
away of the present consciousness leads to the arising of a fresh one in
another birth. But nothing unchangeable or permanent "passes" from
the present to the future.
In the foregoing case, the thought experienced
before death being a moral one, the resultant rebirth-consciousness takes
for its material an appropriate sperm and ovum cell of human parents. The
rebirth-consciousness (patisandhi viññāna) then lapses into the
Bhavanga state.
[6]
The continuity of the flux, at death, is
unbroken in point of time, and there is no breach in the stream of
consciousness.
Rebirth takes place immediately, irrespective
of the place of birth, just as an electromagnetic wave, projected into
space, is immediately reproduced in a receiving radio set. Rebirth of the
mental flux is also instantaneous and leaves no room whatever for any
intermediate state
[7] (antarabhava).
Pure Buddhism does not support the belief that a spirit of the
deceased person takes lodgement in some temporary state until it finds a
suitable place for its "reincarnation."
This question of instantaneous rebirth is well
expressed in the Milinda Pañha:
The King Milinda questions:
"Venerable Nagasena, if somebody dies here and
is reborn in the world of Brahma, and another dies here and is reborn in
Kashmir, which of them would arrive first?
"They would arrive at the same time. O King.
"In which town were you born, O King?
"In a village called Kalasi, Venerable Sir.
"How far is Kalasi from here, O King?
"About two hundred miles, Venerable Sir.
"And how far is Kashmir from here, O King?
"About twelve miles, Venerable Sir.
"Now think of the village of Kalasi, O King.
"I have done so, Venerable Sir.
"And now think of Kashmir, O King.
"It is done, Venerable Sir.
"Which of these two, O King, did you think the
more slowly and which the more quickly?
"Both equally quickly, Venerable Sir.
"Just so, O King, he who dies here and
is reborn in the world of Brahma, is not reborn later than he who dies
here and is reborn in Kashmir."
"Give me one more simile, Venerable Sir."
"What do you think, O King? Suppose two birds
were flying in the air and they should settle at the same time, one upon a
high and the other upon a low tree, which bird's shade would first fall
upon the earth, and which bird's later?"
"Both shadows would appear at the same time,
not one of them earlier and the other later.
[8]"
The question might arise: Are the sperm and
ovum cells always ready, waiting to take up the rebirth-thought?
According to Buddhism, living beings are
infinite in number, and so are world systems. Nor is the impregnated ovum
the only route to rebirth. Earth, an almost insignificant speck in the
universe, is not the only habitable plane, and humans are not the only
living beings.
[9] As such it is
not impossible to believe that there will always be an appropriate place
to receive the last thought vibrations. A point is always ready to receive
the falling stone.
[1]
For details with regard to these "premonitory visions of the place of
rebirth" see Dr. W. T. Evans-Wents, The Tibetan Book of the Dead,
p. 183.
[2] According to
Buddhism material qualities are produced in four ways.
i. Kamma i.e. past moral and immoral
actions;
ii. Utu, i.e. physical change or the Tejo (heat) element
which includes both heat and cold;
iii. Citta, i.e. mind and mental properties,
iv. Āhara i.e., nutriment that exists in food.
[3]
See p. 424.
[4] Compare "The
sex of the individual is determined at conception by the chromosome
make-up of the gametes. Through this, the embryo is endowed with a
potentiality of developing towards one sex" Frank Alexander,
Psychosomatic Medicine p. 219.
[5] Bhikkhu
Silācāra.
[6] See A Manual
of Abhidhamma by Nārada Thera, p. 273.
[7] According to
Tibetan works, writes Dr. Evans-Wents, there is an intermediate state
where beings remain for one, two, three, five, six or seven weeks, until
the forty-ninth day. This view is contrary to the teachings of Buddhism.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, pp. XLII - XLIII, 58, 160-165
[8] Milinda's
Questions, part 1, pp. 127-128.
[9] "There are about
1,000,000 planetary systems in the Milky Way in which life may exist." See
Fred Hoyle, The Nature of the Universe, pp. 87-89.
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