What moves at death to the next life? Is it
consciousness?
No! since
consciousness arise & cease right here, it cannot move anywhere!
It is not
continuous, but contiguous discrete mental states as pearls on a
string.
The prior
moment of consciousness contains the properties that conditions
the
arising of the next moment of consciousness! These inherent
properties are
mainly
craving for (conscious) sensing and craving for becoming into
new being.
If these cravings are present in the rebirth-linking moment of
consciousness, then
the next
moment of consciousness will arise immediately after the death moment,
but now in another location and body, which qualities (or lack of)
indeed also are
conditioned by properties within the rebirth-linking moment of
consciousness…
Example: If
deluded ignorance is dominant in the rebirth-linking moment of
consciousness,
then an animal rebirth is to be expected. If harmonious peace
and well earned
settled
mental calmness based on a long life of doing good are the dominant
factors right in the
rebirth-linking moment of consciousness, then a divine deva
rebirth is to be expected.
If anger, hostile enmity, envy and hate are
dominant
in the rebirth-linking moment of
consciousness, rebirth in hell is to
be expected...
So what
actually passes on is CAUSALITY: That is conditioning factors or
forces!
Nothing
more! No form, feeling, perception, construction, or consciousness
passes on.
No "Self, I, Me, Body, Identity, or Ego" passes on, because they never
really existed
in the first
place, so how can they ever then pass on?!?
The classic
example is the 2 candles:
Candle A is
in flame. (=Dying individuality)
This is then
used to light or ignite Candle B (=Reborn individuality).
By this very
ignition the flame of Candle A is extinguished…
Only candle
B is now burning: What was now passed on!?!
Is the flame
of Candle B now the SAME, as the flame of Candle A?
Not so. Candle B burns by its own flame, but it was turned on by
flame A!
Is the flame
of Candle B now DIFFERENT from the flame of Candle A?
Not really so either. Since Candle B started burning from the flame A!
What is
Reborn?: Neither the SAME nor ANOTHER!
What am ‘I’
& ‘Person’?: Neither the SAME nor ANOTHER!
Not a fixed
entity, but a streaming process of ever renewed
arisings and
ceasings of impersonal mental and physical states…
Just moments
of name-&-form passes on!
In brevity:
Question: What passes
on at death?
Answer:
The forces or streams of:
Ignorance, Greed, & Hate,
and
derivatives thereof, passes on at
death and also in every
moment of this life! One is reborn not only at death, but at
every conscious moment of life itself also...
Re-arising millions of times per second!
Neither as the same, nor as another...
Regarding
Buddhist Theory of Rebirth-Linking (patisandhi) see also:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/n_r/patisandhi.htm
Kamma and Rebirth: Nyanatiloka Thera:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanatiloka/wheel394.html#ch2
Enjoy
further details on Rebirth here:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Rare_Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Divine_Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Animal_Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Samsaric_Dread.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Minor_Hells.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Hell_Destiny.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Five_Destinations.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_5_Destinations.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Kamma_and_Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Samsaric_Round.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Mad_Demon_Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Human_Being_Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Hungry_Ghost_Rebirth.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/What_passes_on_by_Rebirth-Linking.htm
Rebirth-Linking
Transmigration!
