Post # 9 - Rebirth - Part 3 

Are you visiting  this Blog for the 1^st time?  If so I suggest that you read the 1^st Post on the Blog from the Archives to know about the blog, and then read Rebirth Part 1, in Post 7, and Rebirth Part 2 in Post 8 before reading on.

Rebirth and Karma – how we should see them (Part 3)

From Parts 1 and 2 on rebirth in the previous posts, you would have got some understanding of the process of Rebirth as taught in Buddha Dhamma. These posts generally attempted to highlight some salient points on this important topic for creating sufficient interest in the keen learner.  It is hoped that this exposure will motivate them to access more such material and seek more opportunities to get a better understanding of this subject. This would help them to dispel any doubts or uncertainties there may be on this important subject, which can be considered as one of the supporting pillars of Buddhist practice. 

The extracts from statements made by eminent scholars of Buddha Dhamma given below show more evidence for the validity of the doctrine of Rebirth.

Bhanthe Dhammika in his essays on Kamma and Rebirth in Buddhism states as follows:

According to the Buddha, the continual process of being born, dying and being born again, which he called ‘Samsara’ is fraught with pain and suffering. Even if in this life we were able to avoid all the pain and distress that existence is susceptible to, there is no guarantee that we will be able to avoid it in the next. Thus the ultimate goal of the Buddha’s teaching is to stop being reborn.

There are three ideas about what happens after death. Materialism says that we cease to exist. The major theistic religions maintain that we go to either everlasting paradise or damnation according to our beliefs and/or our actions. Jainism, and some versions of Hinduism and several minor religions and spiritual movements say that at death we reincarnate. In Buddhist teaching, there is a re-becoming. The terms the Buddha used for rebirth are “re-becoming” ( punabbhava), or sometimes “existence after existence” (bhavabhavam).

How does rebirth take place? According to the Buddha, conventional death can be said to have occurred when vitality (āyu), heat (usmā) and consciousness (viññāṇa) leave the body. An individual who has developed meditation and purified his/her mind to a very high level can apparently have a degree of awareness over the process of rebirth. Although such abilities are rare and not accessible to the vast majority of people, they are still worth mentioning. Rebirth is a process that usually takes place unconsciously and apart from the individual’s will. However, some individuals are apparently able to be conscious and be fully aware (sampajanna) during the whole process.

Let us now examine some interpretations and development of views  of the Buddha’s doctrine of kamma and rebirth by some Dhamma Scholars. Some of these opinions may seem even to distort the doctrine rather than be in harmony with it, so you are advised to be careful and sharp.

Bhanthe Dhammika says that:

“While the Buddha understood the mind to be a “flow” or “stream” of mental events (viññāṇasota), later thinkers interpreted  that it was actually a string of individual thought moments (cittavīthi) arising and passing away with great rapidity.

Later still, the theory developed that the last of these thought moments (cuticitta) before a person dies will, not condition, but determine their next life.

The theory of the importance of the last thought moment is not mentioned in any of the Buddha’s discourses or even in the later Abhidhamma Piṭaka. The Tipiṭaka records many occasions where the Buddha counseled people who were either dying or critically ill and yet he never brought up the idea of the last thought moment, the most appropriate time to do so one would think.

Mahānāma once confided in the Buddha his anxiety about dying at a time when his mind was confused and bewildered (musati), thinking it might result in him having a negative rebirth. The Buddha reassured him that because he had developed various spiritual qualities for a long time, he had nothing to fear that such a thing would happen.

The theory of the importance of the supposed last thought moment first appears in an undeveloped form in the Milindapañha (approx. 1^st century BCE) which says: ‘If someone did unskillful things for a hundred years but at the time of death was mindful for one moment of the Buddha, he would be reborn amongst the gods’.

By the time the Visuddhimagga was composed (5^th century CE), this idea had been worked out in detail and had come to be considered orthodox in Theravada (Vism.458-60). Apart from not having been taught by the Buddha, there are several philosophical, ethical and logical problems with the theory that the last thought moment is the deciding factor in one’s circumstances in the next life.

If a person had lived a relatively good life but in the anxiety and confusion just preceding their death they had some negative thoughts they would, according to this theory, have a negative rebirth. Likewise, one could have lived an immoral and dissolute life but pass away with ease and in peace and therefore have an advantageous rebirth.

This negates the whole idea of kamma, the teaching that the sum total of our intentional thoughts, speech and actions condition our future, both in this life and the next. Further, it is very difficult to understand how just one or two thought moments, each of them supposedly a millisecond long (khaṇa), can cancel out perhaps many years of good or evil thoughts, speech and actions.

This theory also fails to take into account causation. If everything is conditioned, and the Buddha taught that it is, then the last thought moment must be conditioned by the second last thought moment which in turn must be conditioned by the third last thought moment, etc. This means what we are thinking, saying and doing right now will have an impact on what is in our minds at the time we die. Therefore, to emphasize the last thought moment is to give exaggerated significance to the effect and neglect the cause or causes, i.e. how one is living here and now”.

I thought of bringing forth some of these conflicting interpretations also, which could well be part of many dhamma talks, in order that we have a breadth of views to consider when we make our own decisions of how we would commit ourselves to a quality practice to achieve good results.

A document attributed to London Buddhist Vihara on Kamma and Rebirth indicates that ‘The Buddha has said that one of the fundamental characteristics of existence is its transient nature (impermanence). All things are in a perpetual state of change and nothing exists permanently’.

This remarkable insight is confirmed by modern physics by observing the behaviour of matter at sub-atomic level, where the fundamental particles of matter are seen to exist only momentarily and disappear. The ever changing nature is particularly true of our bodies, where millions of cells die every minute and are replenished continuously.

A sentient being (this includes animals), according to Buddha, is an ever changing, interdependent process of mind and body (nama-rupa). Therefore a permanent soul cannot exist in this ever-changing mind-matter continuam. 

Absence of a permanent soul or entity (anatta) is one of the three fundamental characteristics of existence. Hence Buddhists use the term rebirth/rebecoming in preference to reincarnation, as there is no transmigration of a soul. The conventional death is just one phase of this continuous cycle of existence, linking our present life and the next, and is a direct result of our accumulated kamma.

The past accumulated kamma acts in a subtle way to condition the new life. A person who has acquired wholesome kamma may well be born into happy circumstances, enjoying good health, wealth and family connections. Although the inherited genes from parents play an important part in determining physical and some mental characteristics, kamma may be considered as the driving force. It may well be that rebirth to particular parents was the appropriate result of past kamma.

Then there is another issue regarding re-becoming/rebirth that comes up in analytical discussions. Who is doing the Kamma and who is experiencing the effect?

If there is no permanent soul, how does one life link to another? It is said to be due to the momentum of the accumulated kamma resulting in the continuation of the 'stream of consciousness'. Re-birth is simply a continuation of this process. This is explained in terms of a famous simile of the flame. A candle or oil lamp burns because of the conditions determining the ignition and burning. At every successive moment the flame uses a new part of the un-burnt wick, new oil or wax and a new part of air. So is the flame at this moment the same as the one in the moment before? Although the new flame apparently retains all the characteristics of the previous flame it is essentially different and new born. Our life in this continuum may be seen like this from moment to moment. Then if one were to light a flame from a flame already burning but about to go out, what has been passed on? Is the new flame the same as the old one or different? It may be argued that at death the new life inherited all the characteristics from the old life, while being different from the old.

Using modern terminology, some might say rebirth is a result of an energy transfer from the existing life to the new. However one has to be cautious in using such terminology, as the term energy has a specific meaning in modern science. What is becoming apparent is that consciousness and related phenomena such as rebirth and kamma cannot be explained in terms of the laws of classical physics as we understand them now.

The Buddha emphasized that birth as a human being is precious, and provides the best opportunity for highest development of the mind leading to the attainment of Nibbana. According to the texts, there are 31 planes of existence where beings exist in the universe. Human plane is just one of them. Planes of existence below human are classed as woeful states. Beings born into such planes are unable to acquire wholesome kamma due to the nature of their unhappy state. Therefore these beings may remain trapped in those planes until the unwholesome kamma that caused the birth is exhausted.

On the other hand, beings born into higher planes than human are said to enjoy blissful existence and thoughts of release from the cycle of existence are furthest from their minds. The human plane provides a more balanced environment, where beings experience both happiness as well as unhappiness. These beings therefore are able to, if they wish and with right effort, enter the path to liberation.

Please await the next post (Post 10) on ‘Karma and Retribution’ to complete the discussion.