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Rebirth
Explained
by
V.F.
Gunaratna
Wheel No. 167 / 168 / 169
Copyright © Kandy, Buddhist Publication Society,
(1971, 1980)
BPS Online Edition © (200 7)
Digital Transcription Source:
Buddhist Publication Society
For
free distribution. This work may be republished, reformatted, reprinted and redistributed
in any medium. However, any such republication and redistribution is to be made available
to the public on a free and unrestricted basis and translations and other derivative works
are to be clearly marked as such.
by The Venerable Naarada Mahaathera,
Vajiraaraama,
Bambalapitiya,
Colombo 5,
Sri Lanka.
29th April, 1970.
The Buddhist doctrine of rebirth, which should be
differentiated from the Hindu view of reincarnation, is the favourite subject
of Mr. V. F. Gunaratna, the learned writer of this small but profound treatise.
As an ideal and practising Buddhist he writes and talks on this
important subject with firm conviction.
He has explained in these few pages very clearly almost all the
intricate points connected with the subject.
In this book the writer solves all difficult problems from a Buddhist
standpoint and satisfactorily answers many other relevant questions.
Naarada.
CHAPTER
I
THE LAW
OF CHANGE.
CHAPTER
II
THE LAWS
OF BECOMING AND.
CONTINUITY
CHAPTER
III
THE LAW
OF ACTION AND REACTION.
CHAPTER
IV.
THE LAW
OF ATTRACTION
CHAPTER V
MIND AND THE LAW OF CHANGE
CHAPTER
VI
THE
CONSCIOUS MIND AND THE.
UNCONSCIOUS
MIND
CHAPTER
VII
THOUGHTS,
THOUGHT-PROCESSES.
AND
THOUGHT-MOMENTS.
CHAPTER
VIII
HOW A
NORMAL THOUGHT-PROCESS.
WORKS.
CHAPTER
IX.
How a
Thought-Process at Death Works.
CHAPTER
X.
HOW A
THOUGHT-PROCESS.
AT BIRTH
WORKS.
CHAPTER
XI
The
Biological Explanation of Birth and the Buddhist Explanation.
CHAPTER
XII
Recall
of past lives through Hypnosis.
CHAPTER
XIV.
SOME INVESTIGATED
CASES.
OF
REBIRTH.
CHAPTER
XV.
SOME QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS.
The purpose of this
book is not so much to prove rebirth as to place before the reader certain
facts, certain serious considerations and certain reasonable lines of thought,
which will help him to appreciate the Buddhist point of view regarding the
doctrine of rebirth, and also to understand how the phenomenon of rebirth
works. “This huge world of life and motion, which is always becoming, always
changing, has yet a law at the centre of it” says Radhakrishnan. This central
law is Dhamma, and to the Buddhist it manifests itself in many ways as certain
fundamental universal laws on the operation of which the phenomenon of rebirth
works. It is therefore fitting to start with an examination of some of these
laws. When these are referred to as laws it must not be taken to mean that they
are promulgated by some governing body or that they are a man-made code. They
are natural laws or principles in the sense that they indicate a constant way
of action regarding men and matters as well as events and things of this world.
The Buddha did not make them, but only discovered them and proclaimed them to
the world.
Law of Change
The first
fundamental law or principle that should be examined in order to appreciate
rebirth is the Law of Change (anicca).
It postulates that nothing in this
world is permanent or static. In other words, everything is subject to change. Trees and creepers, flowers and fruits, goods and other
belongings, buildings and lands, men and animals—in short everything imaginable
is subject to this ceaseless universal law of change. In some cases this change
takes place visibly and within a short space of time, while in other cases it
takes place so gradually and slowly that the process of change is not visible
at all. To this latter category belong not only rivers and mountains but even
the sun, moon and stars where the process of change, as science avers, extends
through millions of years. Indeed the various operations of the cosmos in their
totality are one continuous change.
What is this change? It has various
aspects and manifests itself in various ways. Growth and decay, rise and fall,
increase and decrease, integration and disintegration, extension and
contraction, unification and diversification, modification and amplification,
progression and retrogression are some common aspects of change. Whatever the
aspect of change, the changing from one condition or state to another is the
essence of all changes, and this changing is an unfailing feature of all
things. Change rules the world. There is no stability or permanency anywhere.
Time moves everything. Time moves us also whether we like it or not. We live in
a changing world while we ourselves are all the while changing. This is the
relentless law. “Sabbe sa.nkhaaraa aniccaa”— “all compounded things are impermanent.”
An important feature about this law of
change is that though everything is subject to change, nothing is ever lost or
destroyed. Only its form is changed.
Thus solids may change into liquids and
liquids into gases but none of them is ever completely lost. Matter is an
expression of energy, and as such it can never be lost or destroyed according
to a principle of science also called a law—the law of conservation of energy.
The student of physiology knows that the human body is constantly undergoing a
change and that at the end of every seven years it becomes a new body with
every part—skin and bone, hair and nails—completely renewed.
Even at death no part of the body is
destroyed. Again only the form is changed. Fluids and gases, minerals and salts
are some of the forms into which the various parts of the dead body change
according to the nature of the part concerned. While physiology teaches that
the human body changes every seven years, the Buddha goes further and states
that the human body is undergoing an invisible change every moment of its
existence. This particular process of change is known as “kha.nika-mara.na”
(momentary death). Consider seriously the great marvel of a child changing into
a young man and the equally great marvel of a young man changing into an old
man. How different the young man is from the child and yet the young man can
recall his childhood. So also the old man can recall his youth. The seeming
identity of this individual is the continuity of an ever changing process.
Another important feature of the law of
change is that there is no distinct and separate line of demarcation between one
condition or state and the succeeding condition or state. These conditions
or states are not in watertight compartments. Each merges into the next.
Consider the waves of the ocean with their rise and fall. Each rising wave
falls to give rise to another wave, which also rises and falls to give rise to
yet another such wave. Can anyone point his finger to any one point or position
in any one wave and say that there ends one wave and there begins another? Each
wave merges into the next. There is no boundary line between one wave and the
next. So is it with all changing conditions in this world. As Professor Rhys
Davids in his American lectures has said: “In every case, as soon as there is a
beginning there begins also at the same moment to be an ending.” Thus this
changing is a continuous process, a flux or a flow—an idea which is in perfect
accord with modern scientific thought. This leads us to two other fundamental
laws which will be examined in the next chapter.
Two other
fundamental laws or principles that should be examined in order to appreciate
rebirth are the laws of Becoming and Continuity. We have just considered that
the law of change indicates a changing process in all things. A changing
process would mean that everything is in the process of becoming something
else. This in short is the Law of Becoming (bhava). While the Law of Change
states that nothing is permanent but is always changing, the law of becoming
states that everything is every moment in the process of becoming another
thing. The law of becoming is thus a corollary to the law of change.
A seed is every moment in the process of
becoming a plant and a plant is every moment in the process of becoming a tree.
A bud is every moment in the process of becoming a flower while an infant is
every moment in the process of becoming a youth and then an old man. At no point is anything not in the process of becoming
something else. A ceaseless becoming is the feature of all
things. It is the ever
present feature underlying all changes. In a sense becoming is the only process
in the world since everything is in the process of becoming another thing.
Nothing is static. Everything is dynamic. The law of becoming can therefore be
stated in another way: Nothing is, everything is becoming. One may ask: “Suppose a seed is not
planted or a plant is uprooted can you still maintain that the seed is in the
process of becoming a plant and a plant is in the process of becoming a tree?”
By no means, but the process of changing does not end. It continues, but in
another direction—in the direction of decay and disintegration. Both seed and
plant gradually change and decay and are absorbed into the elements, and as
such they too are not destroyed or lost. They too continue to exist: This leads
us to a consideration of the idea of continuity which is another law.
Law of Continuity
Dependent
on the law of becoming is the law of continuity. Becoming leads to continuity
and therefore the law of continuity is a corollary to the law of becoming. We
have already considered that the law of change can only change matter but not
destroy it, and had remarked that solids may change into liquids, and liquids
into gases, but that none of them is ever completely destroyed. The particular
energies of which they are an expression continue while their forms alone are
changed. Viewed in this light, continuity is also an unfailing feature of all
things. It is because
there is continuity that one does not see an exact line of demarcation between
one condition or state and the next.
There is also no
time gap between the two.
Even time is
continuous. The grammarian may
speak of the past tense, present tense and the future tense, as if they exist
in watertight compartments, but in reality there are no sharp dividing lines
between present, past, and future. The moment you think of the present it has
glided into the past. Your friend asks you what the time is. You look at your
wrist watch. It points to 9 a.m. and you tell your friend “It is 9 a.m.” But
quite strictly and accurately is it so? It is not 9 a.m. when you answer him.
It will be even a fraction of a second past 9 a.m. Time never stays. The
present is always gliding into the past. The future is always advancing to the
present. Time also is governed by the law of continuity.
If within our knowledge most things have
had a present, a past, and a future, showing a continuous process, can man
alone stand amid these moving processes without a past and without a future?
Why should the fundamental, universal, all—powerful laws of change, becoming,
and continuity suddenly stop operating and come to a dead halt in respect of
man only, when he dies? Cannot man also be a part of a continuous process and
death be the temporary end of a temporary phenomenon? Cannot death be just
another instance of change and open the door to another condition or state for
the dying man? These are matters that have to be seriously considered, before
rejecting the doctrine of rebirth hastily and without much thought.
The Law of Action
and Reaction is another fundamental law or principle that should be examined in
order to appreciate rebirth. This law postulates that for every action there
must be a result or reaction. This principle of a result flowing from an action
applies to every field of action whether that action is caused by nature or by
man. It is a universal law and applies to the physical world as well as the
mental world. This law is also called the law of cause and effect. When this
law has reference to the actions of human beings it is called the law of kamma and
it is in this sense that we have to consider it here. The word “kamma”
literally means “actions” but is very often used to denote the result of an
action for which the more correct word would be “kamma vipaaka.”
It is the law of kamma that governs the
results of actions performed by man; and the principle underlying the nature of
the results that follow is indicated by the following words: “Yaadisa.m vapate biija.m taadisa.m harate phala.m”- “as he sows, so
does he reap.” Thus the law of kamma sees to it that good deeds beget good
results and that bad deeds beget bad results. Its operations are characterized
by perfect justice, since kamma is a strict accountant. Therefore each man gets
his exact deserts, not more, not less.
If kamma operates with such unerring precision, the question can
rightly be asked why some doers of good deeds die without reaping the good
results they are entitled to, and why some doers of bad deeds die without
suffering for their bad deeds. Such situations can make one lose faith in the
justice of the law of kamma. There are many other anomalies in life that
similarly need an explanation. The unequal distribution of joy and sorrow, of
wealth and poverty, of health and disease among men in this world are some of
them. It is only when we imagine that the time of operation of this law is
confined within the narrow limits of this one life that these situations appear
to be anomalies. If on the other hand we postulate a past life and a future
life, then there are complete explanations for all these situations. The
actions of a past life can produce results in this life and the actions of this
life can similarly produce results in the next. This accounts for the inequalities
among men in the present life. In the Majjhima Nikaaya (Sutta No.135) the
Buddha has said: “Actions (kamma) are one’s very own; actions are one’s
inheritance; actions are one’s source of origin; actions are one’s kith and
kin; actions are one’s support; actions divide beings, that is to say, into
lowness and excellence.”
As regards
variations in the time of materialization of results, it is common knowledge
that in all fields of action there are immediate results and delayed results. Results do not always arise in the order in which their
causative actions have taken place.
Many extraneous factors can arise to disturb that order. Similarly in the field
of human actions, results do not always follow a principle of “first come,
first served,” for very good reasons. The law of kamma operates in so many ways
and the varieties of kamma are so many, that the process of kammic operations
becomes intricate; and only a very brief reference to it is possible here.
Although it is popularly supposed that by
the law of kamma an action is followed by its result, it should be known that
other causative factors also come into play and often it is their combined
effect that determines the result. A single cause cannot produce a result, much less many
results, nor can many causes produce just one result. This theory of multiple causes and
multiple results has been referred to in the Visuddhi-Magga (Chapter XVII): “Not from a single cause
will arise one fruit or many nor from many causes will arise a single fruit”
(Ven. Ñaa.namoli Thera’s translation). Thus several causes must combine to
produce a result. Some of these combining causes can strengthen and expedite
the result (upatthambhaka kamma) while some can obstruct and delay it (upapii.laka kamma)
and yet others can completely nullify it (ahosi kamma). When there is an interaction and interplay of opposing
kamma sometimes the resulting balance of kamma determines the nature of the
result, sometimes the precedence. The order of precedence is
1. Garuka kamma (weighty kamma)
2. Aasanna kamma (death-proximate kamma or terminal kamma)
3. Aacinna kamma (habitual kamma)
4.Ka.tattaa kamma (miscellaneous
reserve kamma)
(This last refers to kamma which does not fall within any of the
foregoing categories).
It is by having resource to the presumption of rebirth that all the
seeming anomalies and inequalities of life can be explained. Attempts have been
made by those who do not subscribe to the belief in rebirth to explain these
anomalies in other ways. These attempts either do not bear logical analysis or
are based on a much more difficult presumption than rebirth. The presumption of
rebirth is the most reasonable and justifiable resumption that the finite human
mind can make, to explain the seeming anomalies and inequalities of life.
One other fundamental law of principle
that should be examined in order to appreciate rebirth is the Law of
Attraction. The operation of this law is based on the principle of “like
attracts like.” There is a tendency for forces of the same type to be attracted
to one another. Hence this law is also called the Law of Affinity. It is known
that an atom of particular strength and quality of vibration will attract to
itself another atom whose vibrations harmonize with its own. Two wireless
telegraphic instruments will receive and transmit messages from one another
only if they are similarly attuned.
This law operates not only in the world
of inanimate forces but even in the world of animate life. The saying “birds of
a feather flock together” indicates this tendency. Not only birds but even
other types of animals are seen to congregate with those of their own special
type. When we come to human beings it is common knowledge that men of similar
leanings and tendencies are attracted to one another. The many clubs and
associations whose members are interested in the same type of study or hobby or
games is evidence of this tendency. The Buddha has referred to this tendency
thus: “Beings of low states flow together, meet together with those of low
states. Beings of virtuous states flow together, meet together with those of
virtuous states. So have they done in the past. So will they do in the future.
So do they now in the present” (Sa.myutta
Nikaaya—Nidaana Vagga). Mental telepathy
is yet another instance of the operation of the Law of Attraction.
In regard to the world of human beings, there is a very special aspect
of this law of attraction which does not operate in any other field. Man not
only attracts to himself others of similar leanings and tendencies, but is
often able to attract to himself the very things he strongly likes or the very
conditions and situations he strongly desires. This special power to attract
material things and conditions is peculiar to man only. Does it not sometimes
happen that just when we are longing and urgently needing to find the address
of a friend which we have lost years ago, we unexpectedly come across it in a
place where we least expect to find it? Does it not sometimes happen that a
student urgently needing a book which is out of print and not easily procurable
suddenly comes across it in a wayside bookstall? One may say this is chance.
Maybe, but can it not also happen otherwise? Is chance the only explanation? Is
chance an explanation after all? There is a cause for everything and when the
cause is unknown or unknowable this convenient word is trotted out.
The examples just mentioned may also be
due to the fact that there is some strong attractive force or power in our
desire-vibrations which makes it possible for those desires to materialize and
find their objectives. Strong and persistent desires are able to radiate
vibrations far and wide and reach the very thing or the very conditions
desired. Distance is no bar as this is not a case of physical travelling. It is
not physical things only that travel. All this is possible because of the
tremendous power of the mind. The very first stanza of the Dhammapada declares: “Mano pubba.ngama dhammaa mano settha mano mayaa”—“mind is the
forerunner of all conditions, mind is supreme, mind-made is everything.”
Further in the Sagaatha Vagga (Devataa Sa.myutta) of the Sa.myutta Nikaaya the Buddha has
said:
“ ’Tis by the mind the world is led. ‘Tis by the mind the world is
drawn. The mind it is, above all other things that brings everything within its
sway.” The reason why more often than not desires fail to materialize is either
because more often than not they do not reach that very high degree of
intensity and persistence necessary for their materialization, or because more
powerful counter-vibrations emanating from other sources are at work. Powerful
and persistent concentration on the same desire generates an overwhelmingly
attractive force and, apart from its cumulative effect, it has also the further
effect of influencing the subconscious mind where this power of attraction can
develop in strength and exert its influence over the conscious mind. One can
desire consciously as well as subconsciously. The subconscious motivations
springing from desire are more powerful than the conscious motivations.
W. W. Atkinson, that inspiring writer, uses the expression
“thought-magnet” precisely because thoughts possess this great power of
attractions. He says:
“Each idea, desire and
feeling exerts its attractive power in the direction of drawing to itself other
things to serve itself. All this refers to the inner workings of
thought-attraction ... This attractive
power operates gradually and more or less slowly at first, but like the
snowball or the growing crystal, its rate of growth increases with its size.”
(“Thoughts are Things.”)
The reader may wonder what all this has
to do with rebirth. The relevance will presently be seen. Buddhism teaches that
the most powerful motivating force in the world of beings is desire or craving.
It is called ta.nhaa. Many and varied desires spring from
this basic ta.nhaa. However there are three special aspects of this ta.nhaa or
craving, one of which is bhava ta.nhaa or craving for existence. It is not
generally realized how comprehensive and widespread this type of craving is in
regard to the life and actions of man. It underlies almost all the manifold
activities of man, who is nearly every moment of his life moved by it
consciously and, more often than not, subconsciously. The desire to be, the
desire to live on, is the fountain source of all other desires. It is the
unseen undercurrent driving man to action, whatever the nature of that action
may be.
How can it be otherwise? Just consider. We earn, we eat, we dress, not
because we desire to die, but, fundamentally, because we desire to live. We
love, we hate, not because we desire to die, but, fundamentally, because we
desire to live. We struggle, we plot, we plan, for precisely the same reason.
We utter falsehoods, we commit crimes, not, because we desire to die but,
fundamentally, because we desire to live. Even the act of suicide, paradoxical
as it may seem, springs fundamentally from a desire to live—to live a life
free from difficulties and troubles, free from obstacles and disappointments.
It should now be
obvious that this craving for existence looms large in the mind of man
consciously as well as unconsciously. Craving, like any other thought, is an
expression of energy and as such it cannot be lost or destroyed. This powerful
and persistent craving is a powerful and persistent expression of energy, and
cannot die with the dying man. On the contrary, at the moment of death, by
reason of the operation of the law of attraction (life being more or less a
series of conscious and unconscious cravings for existence), the accumulated
energies resulting from this powerful and persistent desire or craving for
existence will be the means of attracting to this dying man the very conditions
necessary for another existence. Thus the craving for existence makes him
re-exist. The will to live
makes him re-live. He then mentally grasps another existence. This grasping has been dealt with very
forcefully by a Western writer, M. O. C. Walshe, in a book entitled Buddhism for Today:
“At the moment of death the higher mental
functions cease, and the unconscious patterns caused by past kamma come to the
surface. Chief of them is the force of craving—ta.nhaa. Dependent on the enormous force of this
ta.nhaa, there is an instinctive grasping at
a new physical base, a new conception takes place and a fresh life is started
... Is this in principle so difficult to understand? A dying person normally
fights for his life as long as his existing body is able to stand the strain.
How could this terribly strong urge be simply dissipated at death? We know that
in the faculty of telepathy the mind seems to leap from one body to another in
some sense. If we accept that that is possible, as we must, then we can perhaps
form an idea of how the ‘mental leap’ at death takes place.”
In this connection it should be mentioned
that the Buddha on one occasion while answering a question put to him by a
wandering ascetic called Vaccha as to what exactly causes one life to link with
the next at the moment of death, referred to that powerful force called upaadaana which means “grasping” and explained
that at the moment of
death ta.nhaa or craving becomes this grasping force. The Buddha has
stated this very emphatically:
“At the time, Vaccha when a being lays aside this body, and rises up
again in another body, for that I declare ta.nhaa (craving) to be the
grasping force upaadaana. Indeed, Vaccha,
on that occasion ta.nhaa (craving) becomes the grasping force (upaadaana)”
(Sa.myutta Nikaaya IV. 398).
Here then is a
pointed reference to what happens at the moment of death. Thus the craving for existence (ta.nhaa)
which is most powerful at the moment of death (even though the dying man may be
consciously inactive) becomes a powerful grasping force (upaadaana), and it is
this grasping force that grasps the opportunity for re-existence which his
craving has attracted. Upaadaana
is an intensified form of ta.nhaa. Its grasping and
clinging power is overwhelming.
Consider the case of a man who has fallen
from the deck of a ship on the high seas at midnight unknown to others. He
struggles with the devouring waves. Frantically he would clutch at anything,
even a passing straw. However by reason of his powerful and persistent cries,
he attracts to himself a rope that has been flung towards him by the men in the
ship. How tenaciously will not this drowning man, struggling for his breath and
his life, grasp that rope, and eventually reach the ship for a further lease of
life? Greater, far greater, is the tenacity of that mental grasp (upaadaana) of any dying man
struggling for his last breath when the powerful and persistent energies
resulting from the totality of his powerful and persistent cravings for
existence have attracted to him the opportunity for further existence which he
most tenaciously grasps. This opportunity and this grasping are purely mental
phenomena. They will be discussed in a subsequent chapter.
Indeed, life is a series of cravings. The accumulated cravings for
existence, added to the powerful craving at the moment of death, attract to the
dying man a further existence. Indeed, the will to live makes man re-live.
Hence it is that a part of the
all-comprehensive formula of the chain of Dependent Origination or causal
connections (pa.ticca samuppaada) runs as follows:
Ta.nhaa paccayaa upaadaana.m (Dependent on
Craving, arises Grasping)
Upaadaana-paccayaa bhavo (Dependent. on
Grasping, arises Becoming)
Bhava paccayaa jaati (Dependent on
Becoming arises Rebirth).
In the very first
chapter we considered how the body is subject to the law of change. It is
necessary now to consider how mind also, like the body, is subject to the same
law. Mind is not something physical. It is not something located in the brain
as was erroneously supposed by certain schools of thought in the past. The mind
is not in the brain nor is the brain in the mind. According to Buddhist
psychology mind is nothing
but a constant stream or flow of thoughts. Thought is just mind in operation or mind in motion, just
as wind is air in motion. Thought is an expression of energy and therefore the
mind, like thought, cannot be lost or destroyed, but is subject to change. The
mind changes from moment to moment. One moment it is one thought that engages
the mind and the next moment it is another. This process of thought following
thought is continually taking place. The mind is thus nothing but an endless
succession of thoughts. It is not a unity, but a continuity. It is not
permanent or static. It is a series (santati). It is a flux or flow (sota). It is a stream of
successive thoughts which are continually arising and passing away from moment
to moment. Each thought is succeeded by another with such rapidity as to give
the mind a semblance of something stable and permanent. A stick burning at one
end and turned rapidly round and round in the dark creates the illusion of a
ring or circle of fire to onlookers at a distance who do not know what is
actually happening. In reality however there is no such permanent ring or circle.
It is just the picture of successive burning sticks following each other
closely in a rapid circular movement.
So it is with the mind where thoughts
succeed each other with a much greater rapidity. Mind has therefore been
compared to the flow of water in a river (nadi soto viya), where sheets or currents of water follow each other with
such closeness or rapidity that we seem to see a permanent thing called a
river, and are tempted to regard it as such, whereas it is clearly not so. The
Kelani River of yesterday is not the Kelani River of today. The river you have
to cross in the morning to get to your place of work is not the river you
re-cross in the evening after your work is over. It is a different set of
waters each day, each hour, each moment. So also with the mind. It is a
different thought each moment, one thought following the other with such
rapidity of succession that the illusion of a permanent thing called mind is
created.
This rapidity of succession of thoughts
has been the subject of pointed comment by the Buddha in the A.nguttara Nikaaya
(i.v.): “Monks, I have not heard of any other single thing so quick to change
as the mind, in so much that it is no easy thing to illustrate how quick to
change it is.” In the commentary Atthasaalinii it is said: “While a unit of matter which
has arisen persists, seventeen thought-moments arise and break up, and no
illustration can convey the shortness of the time they occupy” (P.T.S.
translation pt. 1, p. 81). In this connection it is important to remember that
not only is there a rapidity of succession of thoughts but that there is no
boundary line between one thought and another. One thought merges into the
other so that the expression “succession of thoughts” does not quite accurately
describe the position. Hence the description by reference to a river, where
there is not so much a succession of waters as a flow of waters. That eminent
psychologist Professor William James in his Psychology:
Briefer Course
has a whole chapter entitled The Stream of Consciousness. Here he says: “Consciousness then does
not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as ’chain’ or ’train’ do
not describe it fitly as it presents itself in the first instance. It is
nothing jointed, it flows. A ’river’ or ’stream’ are the metaphors by which it
is most naturally described. In talking of it hereafter let us call it the stream
of thoughts, of consciousness or of subjective life.” (The italics are his).
The rapidity of this process, whereby
continually one thought merges into another, not only invests the mind with a
seeming identity and a semblance of stability, but it also leads one to imagine
that there is a mysterious permanent something residing within the mind which
performs the mental function of thinking. It requires a little hard thinking to
appreciate the view expressed by Professor William James in his Principles of Psychology
that “the thoughts themselves are the thinkers.” In the same chapter referred
to above he says: “If we could say in English ‘it thinks’ as we say ‘it rains’
or ‘it blows,’ we should be stating the fact most simply.”
This view of the
mind as being not a unity but a series of
thoughts is held by almost all psychologists of note. For instance, Bertrand
Russell in Religion and Science says: “Until recently, scientists believed in an
indivisible and indestructible atom. For sufficient reasons physicists have
reduced this atom to a series of events; for equally good reasons psychologists
find that mind has not the identity of a single continuing thing but is a
series of occurrences bound together by certain intimate relations.” He also
adds, “The question of immortality therefore has become the question whether
these intimate relations exist between occurrences connected with a living body
and other occurrences which take place after the body is dead.”
As each thought passes away from the
conscious mind it transmits to the subconscious or unconscious all its characteristic
energies, impressions and tendencies, though one is not aware of this
transmission. It is not every mental process that comes within the awareness of
the conscious mind. There are many mental processes of which we are not aware.
This leads us to a consideration of the subconscious and unconscious aspects of
the mind together regarded in Buddhist psychology as “bhava.nga citta.”
As this will be specially dealt with in the next chapter no further reference
to it will be made here other than to remark that if the impressions of our
thoughts are not retained somewhere, it is impossible to explain the very
existence of that marvellous faculty of memory whereby one is able to retain
and recall at will many events of the past, as well as passages of poetry and
even prose that one has learnt by heart.
In Chapter I we learnt that the body is a
changing process. In this chapter we have just learnt that the mind is also a
changing process. Man is a psychophysical combination, a combination of mind
and body. Now we know that it is a combination of a changing mind and a
changing body. Mind and body thus viewed as changing processes help us to
appreciate the view, rather difficult to comprehend, that we actually live for
one moment only, and that the next moment it is another life. Thus the duration
of life, in the ultimate sense, is for one moment only. This is sometimes
referred to as “the instantaneousness of life.” As vividly pointed out in the Visuddhi Magga (chapter VIII), a revolving wheel
touches the ground at one point only at any given moment. At the very next
moment, the very next point in the wheel touches the very next point in the
ground. Similarly we live for one thought-moment only, and the very next moment
is really another life, because what then functions is another mind with
another body, just like another point in the wheel touching another point in
the ground. That it is another body that functions at the next moment was
explained in the course of Chapter I on the law of change, where it was stated
that the body changes every moment and that there is a living and a dying every
moment (kha.nika mara.na).
Continuity of life, however, is maintained in spite of this momentary
living and dying because there is not only momentary living and dying, there
is also momentary re-living, and the re-living is related to the living of the
preceding moment by reason of the transmission of impressions and tendencies
earlier referred to. This process of one thought or consciousness giving rise
to another continues without a break. Even at the end of the present span of
life, as will be discussed in another chapter, the dying consciousness will
give rise to another consciousness (obviously not in the same body nor in the
same place or plane of existence), which succeeding consciousness along with
two fresh physical factors (the parental sperm and ovum cells), will combine in
some appropriate maternal womb to which it is drawn to form the nucleus of a
fresh being. That the succeeding consciousness can arise immeasurable distances
away can be regarded as not impossible because in the first place it is not a
case of travelling in the physical sense and secondly because the law of
attraction works in the psychic plane as well, where time and distance do not
count.
Thus it comes to pass that the change of
life from one moment to another in this existence is in essence no different
from the change of life from one existence to another, the difference between
death and life being only a thought-moment. The first thought-moment in the subsequent life does
not originate on its own. It is a sequel to the last thought-moment of the
preceding life. It is therefore a continuity in the series of successive
thought-moments that constituted the preceding life, although in a different
plane with a different body. The last conscious thought-moment of the preceding
life conditions the first thought-moment of the succeeding life. Both these
thoughts take the same “aaramma.na” or object of thought. This will be
explained in a subsequent chapter. Death of the body thus is no bar, or
hindrance, to the continuation of this process of one thought giving rise to
another.
(Viithi Citta and Bhava.nga Citta)
In the last chapter it was shown that the
mind is a changing process. This process manifests itself in two levels or
streams—the “viithi citta,” or conscious mind, and “bhava.nga citta,” the
unconscious or subconscious mind. Western psychologists postulate three streams
or levels of mind—the conscious, the subconscious, and the unconscious. At the
conscious level there is awareness of what one does or says. At the deeper
subconscious level lie concealed all the impressions and memories of thoughts
which have left the conscious mind. Many of these impressions can be recalled
at will. Some of them on their own can re-enter the conscious mind. The deepest
level is the unconscious, where also there lie concealed past impressions and
memories of thoughts which passed through the conscious mind but they can never
be recalled at will. On their own they may sometimes reappear in the conscious
mind. They can however be drawn out by special methods such as hypnosis.
In Buddhist psychology these three levels are considered under two
heads—viithi citta and bhava.nga citta. The conscious level is recognized and
referred to as viithi citta. The other two levels are together recognized and
referred to by one name—bhava.nga citta. They are not considered as two
distinct and separate compartments. Even Western psychology admits that there
are no well-defined boundaries between the subconscious mind and the
unconscious mind, since each merges into the other. Bhava.nga citta is the
hidden repository of all impressions and memories of thoughts that pass through
the viithi citta or conscious mind. All experiences and tendencies are stored
up there, but from there they sometimes can exert an influence over the
conscious mind without the conscious mind’s being aware of the source of this
influence. The Buddhist bhava.nga citta is not identical with the unconscious
of Western psychology, although in very many respects they are similar.
Bhava.nga citta is wider in scope than the Western unconscious, nor do the
viithi citta and bhava.nga citta operate together at the same time, these two
states of mind being conditioned by each other.
The state of active consciousness and
awareness is generally present during the day when one is awake. It is then
conscious of all impacts or impressions continually received from outside
through the five senses, or of impressions received from within by way of ideas
and thoughts or recollections of former thoughts. Therefore when one is awake
the conscious mind is never doing nothing, since to be conscious is to be
conscious of something, whether external or internal. When this viithi citta, which
is thus constantly receiving impressions from within or without, subsides into
inactivity, as for instance during sleep, the other stream, the passive process
of the unconscious or subconscious bhava.nga manifests itself. This bhava.nga
citta is also called viithi mutta in the sense that it is freed or released
(mutta) from all conscious thought-processes (viithi). This passive process then begins to flow on like an
undisturbed stream so long as the conscious viithi citta does not arise to
disturb it. Such a disturbance will occur whenever sleep is disturbed through
any of the five sense channels.
It is not only during sleep that the unconscious bhava.nga citta
manifests itself. When one is awake, every time an arisen thought of the
conscious viithi citta subsides and before the next thought could arise, within
that infinitesimally minute fraction of time, the bhava.nga citta intervenes.
Then when the next thought of the conscious level arises, the unconscious
bhava.nga subsides into inactivity. Since innumerable thoughts arise and fall
one after another during the day, as innumerable are these momentary
interruptions to the flow of the unconscious bhava.nga during the day.
Importance of Bhava.nga Citta—its basic position
In
a sense the passive bhava.nga citta is more important than the conscious viithi
citta. Though the bhava.nga citta is not consciously active, it is
subconsciously active. It is referred to as a state of subliminal activity,
viz. an activity that
takes place below the threshold of the conscious mind, an activity of which
therefore there is no awareness to the conscious mind. The conscious viithi
citta holds only one thought or idea at a time, whereas the subconscious or
unconscious bhava.nga citta holds all the impressions of all the thoughts,
ideas and experiences that enter and leave the conscious viithi citta. The
bhava.nga citta thus functions as a valuable mental storehouse or reservoir of
impressions. Professor William James, speaking about the subconscious mind
(which is one aspect of the bhava.nga citta), says “that it is obviously the
larger part of us, for it is the abode of everything that is latent, and the
reservoir of everything that passes recorded and unobserved.” (Varieties of Religious Experience).
Another feature of the bhava.nga citta is that from time to time some of
the thoughts, ideas and impressions that lie concealed in it can influence the
conscious mind. They can also be drawn out or tapped by the method of hypnosis,
which will be explained in a later chapter.
The appreciation of
the significance of bhava.nga
is very necessary for understanding such mental phenomena as memory, which is
otherwise unintelligible and becomes a complete mystery. In this connection it
is useful to consider what Ven. Ñaa.natiloka
Mahaathera has said in Karma and Rebirth (The Wheel No. 9): “The existence of the
subconscious life-stream or bhava.nga sota
is a necessary postulate of our thinking. If whatever we have seen, heard,
felt, perceived, thought, externally or internally experienced, and done, if
all this, without exception, were not registered somewhere and in some way, be
it in the extremely complex nervous system, or in the subconscious or
unconscious, then we would not even be able to remember what we were thinking
the previous moment, and we would not know anything of the existence of other
beings and things, would not know our parents, teachers, friends and so on,
would even not be able to think at all as thinking is conditioned by the
remembrance of former experiences and our mind would be a complete tabula rasa and emptier
than the actual mind of an infant just born, nay, even of the embryo in the
mother’s womb.”
Apart from its function as a mental
storehouse of impressions, the unconscious bhava.nga citta performs a very
important function, as its etymology connotes. The word bhava.nga made up as
it is of bhava (existence) and a.nga (factor) indicates that the bhava.nga
citta is the factor or indispensable basis of existence. The sub-commentary Vibhaavini Tīkaa defines it thus: “Avicchedappavatti-hetu-bhaavena bhavassa a.ngabhaavo bhava.nga.m” … “the factor of life by means of which the flow of
existence or being is maintained without a break”… This then is the most
important function of the bhava.nga citta. It functions as an indispensable and
continuing basis or undercurrent of existence. In this sense, it is called
bhava.nga sota (stream of flow of bhava.nga). It has also been called “the
function of being” and as such it keeps life going. Western writers have aptly
called it “life-continuum.”
The Ven. Ñaa.natiloka
Mahaathera in his Buddhist Dictionary states: “This so-called subconscious life-stream or
undercurrent of life which certain modern psychologists call the unconscious or
the soul, is that by which might be explained the faculty of memory, the
problem of telekinesis, mental and physical growth, kamma and rebirth, etc.”
Shwe Zan Aung in his introduction to the Compendium of Philosophy gives this
helpful description of the bhava.nga citta or stream of being, in respect of
its higher function: “The stream of being then is an indispensable condition or
factor, the sine qua non of present conscious existence; it is
the raison d’etre of individual
life; it is the life-continuum. It is as it were the background on which
thought-pictures are drawn. It is comparable to the current of a river when it
flows calmly on, unhindered by any obstacle, unruffled by any wind, un-rippled
by any wave, and neither receiving any tributary waters nor parting with its contents
to the world. And when that current is opposed by any obstacle of thought from
the world within or perturbed by tributary streams of the senses from the world
without then thoughts (viithi citta) arise. But it must not be supposed that
the stream of being is a sub-plane from which thoughts rise to the surface.
There is a juxtaposition of momentary states of consciousness, subliminal and
supraliminal, throughout a lifetime and from existence to existence. But there
is no superposition of such states.”
In
any language, certain words and expressions are loosely used, more for the sake
of convention than precision. Thus we speak of the sun rising and setting
though in reality it does not do so. In Chapter V we learnt that the “mind” is
not anything permanent and stable, whereas that word is loosely used to denote
such a state. In this chapter we shall be learning that the word “thought”,
like “mind”, is also loosely used. As McDougall says in his book Psychology, “When we come to describe the facts of
consciousness we find that the notions and the words in popular use are very
inadequate to the work of analytic description.”
What is thought?
Thought
is the consciousness or awareness of anything. The object of thought may be
external or internal. There is never a moment when a man is without a thought,
either in the conscious or unconscious state. In Buddhist psychology one does
not speak of a thought, but of a thought-process, since thought is not a unity.
So what is loosely called a thought is really a thought-process. As Joseph
Jestrow, the author of Effective Thinking says, “Thinking
is just a convenient name for a complex group of mental processes.”
What is a thought-process?
We have already learnt that the mind is
an endless succession of thoughts, each following the next with such a
rapidity of succession as to give it the semblance of something permanent and
stable, whereas in reality it is not a unity but a process, with this
difference that it is a limited process—a process of 17 thought-moments each
following the other. So that, what we loosely call a thought, is a
thought-process. When a man sees a tree and instantly recognizes it as a tree,
it means that there arose in him an awareness or consciousness of the tree, but
this does not arise by one single mental operation. Before this awareness or
consciousness or thought of the tree completely arose, 17 stages or
thought-moments would have occurred. The man may not be conscious of all these
17 stages or thought-moments, since some of these mental processes, especially
the earlier processes occur in the bhava.nga or unconscious state of the mind.
Although as many as 17 stages or thought-moments are necessary to conclude and
complete one single thought-process, it is wrong to imagine that much time is
involved in the process. On the contrary, in trying to emphasize the extreme
shortness of time taken, commentators resort to a comparison with a flash of
lightning or a twinkling of the eye. So infinitesimally brief is the period of
time involved. What these 17 stages or thought-moments are will be explained in
the next chapter.
What is a thought-moment?
The
unit of measure for the duration of a thought-process is a thought-moment (cittakkha.na), which is also an infinitesimally
small division of time. All thought-moments rise up in the conscious viithi
citta, remain there for just a fleeting moment and then sink down to the
unconscious bhava.nga citta, just as waves of the ocean rise up, remain there
for a fleeting moment and then subside. Thought-moments therefore have the
following three stages: (1) The genetic stage or nascent stage (uppaada); (2) the continuing stage (tithi) (3) the cessant stage (bhava.nga): These three
stages also occur within the shortest possible time. A thought-moment does not
persist by itself but runs most rapidly from the first to the second stage and
from the second to the third.
Thought-moments and thought-processes
As stated earlier,
a thought-process is made up of 17 thought-moments, and a thought-moment is
made up of 3 stages. 17 thought-moments must arise, remain and pass away to conclude and
complete one single thought-process.
When the cessant stage of the 17th thought-moment passes away and before the
genetic or nascent stage of the first thought-moment in the next
thought-process arises, at this particular juncture, since one thought-process
has completed itself, the conscious viithi citta subsides and the unconscious
bhava.nga citta reappears into activity. This unconscious bhava.nga citta also
does not remain long. It too remains for just a fleeting moment and then
subsides to enable the next thought-process to arise in the conscious viithi
citta. This too then runs its course of 17 stages or thought-moments, and then
the bhava.nga citta again appears. In this manner the unending stream of mental
processes flows on and on.
It is a mistake to think that these
various mental states are joined together like carriages of a train to form a
somewhat jagged combination. Each mental stage merges completely into the next.
There are no sharp dividing lines between one mental stage and the next. Hence
there is no sharp dividing line between the nascent stage of one thought-moment
and its continuing stage or between its continuing stage and its cessant stage.
Similarly there is no sharp dividing line between one thought-process and
another. Although the bhava.nga citta is said to appear when one conscious
thought-process is over and before another begins, here too, there is no sharp
dividing line since, as stated in an earlier chapter, viithi citta merges into
the unconscious bhava.nga, there being no sharp dividing lines between the two.
Everywhere and under all circumstances each mental stage merges into the next. So also the last conscious mental stage of the dying
man merges into the first mental stage of the prenatal child in the life
hereafter, distance being no bar since these are psychic phenomena and not
physical phenomena. To be more precise, the resultant of the last conscious
mental state of the dying man, along with certain physical factors, go to form
the mind-body of the embryo in the life hereafter. This will be explained in a
later chapter.
In the last chapter we learnt that what
we loosely call a thought is a thought-process, and that it consists of 17
stages or thought-moments. In the present chapter it will be shown how a normal
thought-process works. The two subsequent chapters will explain respectively how
the thought-process at death works and how the thought-process at birth works.
Let us now trace the interesting course of a single normal
thought-process through the 17 stages or thought-moments that constitute it, as
explained in the commentaries. Here is the order of their occurrence in the
normal case.
Order of a Normal Thought-Process
1. Bhava.nga atiita
(past unconscious)
2. Bhava.nga calana (vibration of the bhava.nga)
3. Bhava.nga
upaccheda (arrest of the
bhava.nga)
4. Pa.tcadvaara
aavajjana (five-door
advertence)
5. Pa.tca
vi.t.taa.na (fivefold
consciousness)
6. Sampa.ticchana (reception)
7. Santiira.na (investigation)
8. Votthapana (decision)
9—15. Javana (thought-impulsions)
16 & 17. Tad aalambana (registration of the experience)
1st Thought-moment:
past unconscious (bhava.nga atiita)
We must commence tracing from the stage
immediately prior to the running of the conscious process. That is the stage
when the conscious viithi citta is in abeyance, and the stream of the
unconscious bhava.nga citta is flowing undisturbed. Such a state is present
for instance, in a man who is enjoying deep sleep, when the mind does not
respond to external objects or stimuli. This then is regarded as the first
stage for the purpose of investigation, though actually the process has not yet
begun. (This first stage is also present during that brief interval of time
when one conscious thought has subsided and before the next arises).
2nd Thought-moment:
vibration of the bhava.nga (bhava.nga calana)
Suppose
now an external object or stimulus by way of a sight or sound or other
sense-impression (any stimulus that attracts any of the senses) is received by
the sleeping man—the flow of the unconscious bhava.nga citta is disturbed.
This is the second thought-moment or stage. It can also arise in the waking
state after one conscious thought has subsided and before the next arises. The
mind is then in the bhava.nga state for a ”very short” while (“calana” means shaking or
vibrating). The bhava.nga flow now begins to vibrate. This vibration lasts for
one thought-moment before it subsides, and is compared by Shwe Zan Aung, the
translator of the Abhidhammatthasa.ngaha (in his
introduction), to the vibration of a spinning top whose velocity is falling.
This is the result of the stimulus or object trying to force its attention on
the conscious mind by impeding the flow of the bhava.nga stream of
unconsciousness.
3rd Thought-moment:
arrest of the bhava.nga (bhava.nga upaccheda).
This
is the stage when the stream of the bhava.nga citta is arrested or cut off (“upaccheda” means cutting
off). As a result, the viithi citta or the conscious process arises, and begins
to flow, but this stimulus or object is not yet cognized by it.
4th Thought-moment: five-door apprehending
consciousness pa.tcadvaara aavajjana)
This
is the stage when a start is made by the conscious viithi citta to cognize the
object which has arrested the flow of the unconscious bhava.nga. This stage is
called pa.tcadvaara, aavaajjana because there is
turning round to find out through which of the five sense-doors the stimulus is
coming (“pa.tcadvaaraa” means five doors
and “aavajjana” means turning
towards). There is thus an adverting towards the stimulus or object through one
of the five sense-channels of sight, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.
At this stage the sleeping man just awakened is turning towards something which
calls for attention but knows nothing more about it. This is sometimes
compared to the action of the spider to find out the cause that disturbed his
web. The smooth flowing of this bhava.nga undisturbed by any activity of the
viithi citta, is compared to the stillness of the spider resting motionlessly
at the centre of his web. When an insect enters the web and is entangled in one
of its threads, the web begins to vibrate and thereafter the spider turns to
see in which thread something lies entangled. This is exactly the function of
this thought moment of pa.tcadvaaraavaajjana. The sleeping man just awakened from
his sleep is trying to find out through which of the five sense-doors the
stimulus came. Is it a sight or sound or other sense-impression? He continues
to watch. It is still a dim-awareness of something. If attention is aroused not
externally through the five senses but internally through a thought, the stage
is known as manodvaaraavajjana (mind-door
advertence). This is alternative to the five sense-door advertence. The course
of such a thought-process is slightly different from the process now described,
since the thought-moments 5th to 8th do not occur.
5th Thought-moment:
five-fold consciousness (pa.tca vi.t.taa.na)
Now follows a consciousness of the kind
that apprehends the particular sense-impression caused by the stimulus (“pa.tca” means five and “vi.t.taa.na” means
consciousness). If it is a sight it is cakkhu
vi.t.taa.na or visual consciousness that works. If it is a sound it is sota vi.t.taa.na or auditory consciousness that works. In
this way in respect of every one of the sense-organs there is a particular
sense-consciousness and this sense-consciousness begins to work. Yet there is
no full comprehension of the stimulus. What appears through one of the
sense-doors is merely sensed.
6th Thought-moment:
reception (sampa.ticchana)
This
is the thought-moment which occurs when the sense-impression caused by the
stimulus is properly received. What is sensed is now received. (“sampa.ticchana” means
receiving).
7th Thought-moment:
investigation (santiira.na)
After
the function of receiving, there arises the function of investigation. This
thought-process performs the function of investigating with discrimination the
stimulus or object which caused the sense-impression. What is received is investigated. (“santiira.na” means
investigation).
8th Thought-moment:
decision (votthapana)
This
is the thought-moment when a decision is made regarding the stimulus which
caused the sense-impression (“votthapana” means decision). What is investigated is decided on or determined.
9th to 15th
Thought-moments: thought-impulsions (javana)
Now follows the
psychologically important stage of javana
or apperception or impulsion which lasts for seven thought moments (at the
time of death, only five such moments occur). It is a stage of introspection
followed by action. The psychological importance of these thoughts cannot be
over-emphasized. Javana is
derived from the Paali verb javati which means to run, and also to impel or incite. Hence these
mental states, unlike the previous mental states, run for several thought moments
and their one function is to impel. These are implosions which flash forth at
the climax of a process of consciousness of the viithi citta. Hence one is now
fully conscious of the object or stimulus in all its relations, this being the
stage of maximum cognition. It is at this stage that kamma begins to operate for good or bad, for
this is the stage when the element of free will is present. All other stages of the viithi process
are like reflex actions. They must
occur. Javana is
the only stage where man is relatively free to think and to decide. There is
the element of choice in this important thought moment, and it has the power to
affect one’s future according to the nature of the volition. If the
sense-object that entered the mind had been rightly comprehended (yoniso manasikaara),
free from the impurities of lust, hatred and delusion, harmonious results will
follow. If it had been wrongly comprehended (ayoniso
manasikaara),
disharmonious results will follow. Javana in this context is a difficult word
to be rendered into English. Professor Rhys Davids in his Paali Dictionary says that as the 12th stage in the course of an
act of the viithi citta, javana means “going” not by
way of swiftness but as intellectual movement. It is the stage of full perception
or apperception.
Mrs. Rhys Davids refers to javana as “the mental
aspect or parallel of that moment in the nerve-process when central function is
about to become efferent activity or innervation.” Innervation being a reference
to the nervous influences necessary for the maintenance of life and the
functions of the various organs, the comparison is not inappropriate. But she
herself has stated that she spent hours on this word, and finding no
appropriate rendering was content to use the word un-translated. Shwe Zan
Aung’s introduction to the Compendium of Philosophy refers to the javana stage as follows:
“Now intervenes the apperceptive stage of full cognition, wherein the object
determined or integrated by the foregoing activity is apperceived or properly
cognized. This is held to occupy ordinarily seven thought-moments or none at
all, except in cases of death, stupefaction, creation of phenomena, and other
special cases when a less number of moments than seven obtains. At this stage
of apperception, the subject interprets the sensory impression and fully
appreciates the objective significance of his experience.”
16th and 17th
Thought-moments: registration of the experience: (tadaalambana)
These
are the two resultant thought-moments following immediately after the javana
thought-moments. Their only function is to register the impression made by the
javana thought-moments. They are not an integral part of the conscious viithi
process. They are merely a recall of an experience that is passing away. If the
impression made is not strong they do not occur at all. Tadaalambana, derived from tadaaramma.na means “that object.” It is so called
because it takes the same object as that of the foregoing javana impulsions
and has been compared in the Visuddhi Magga to the current of
water that follows for a short while the boat which is going upstream (chapter
XIV).
The 17
thought-moments in general
It
must not be forgotten that these seemingly long 17 thought-moments constitute just one single
thought-process, which takes place within an infinitesimally small fraction of
time.
The progress of this process varies with the intensity of the stimulus. If the
intensity is very great (atimahanta), the complete process takes place. If
it is great (mahanta), the 16th and 17th moments of
registration do not occur. If it is small (paritta) or very small (atiparitta), the process works functionally only,
without full cognition.
The classic simile
of a falling mango
These 17 thought-moments are compared by
commentators to the 17 stages that occur between a man sleeping and the
self-same man eating a mango that falls by his side. A man is found sleeping
soundly at the foot of a mango tree with his head covered. A wind blows and
moves the branches of the tree causing a ripe mango to fall by his side. He is
aroused from his sleep by this sound. He sees the fallen mango. He picks it up
and examines it. Finding it to be desirable fruit he eats it, and after
swallowing the last morsels, he replaces his head covering and resumes his
sleep.
The sleep of the man represents the
unconscious bhava.nga stream flowing undisturbed. The striking of the wind
against the tree represents atiita bhava.nga or past unconscious. The sleeper
is not disturbed. The sleep continues. So does the bhava.nga. The moving of the
branches represents the vibration of the bhava.nga. The sleep is disturbed. So
is the bhava.nga. The falling of the mango represents the arrest of the
bhava.nga. The awakening of the man represents pa.tcadvaaraavajjana or the arousing
of attention through the five-door channels of sense. The removal of the head
covering and the use of his eyes to observe the mango is cakkhu vi.t.taa.na, or visual consciousness,
which is one of the five types of consciousness together known as pa.tca vi.t.taa.na. The picking up
of the fruit represents sampa.ticchana or reception, and the examination of it
represents santiira.na or investigation. The finding of the
fruit as a desirable mango is votthapana or decision. The eating of the fruit
represents the apperceptive acts of the seven javana thought-moments. The
swallowing of the last morsels left it the mouth represents tadaalambana or registration
of the impression. The man’s resumption of his sleep after replacing his head
covering represents the bhava.nga citta resuming to flow smoothly and
undisturbed.
Now that we have studied how
thought-processes work in normal circumstances during life, we should be able
to follow without difficulty the next study, namely, the manner in which
thought-processes work at the moment of death. Only this understanding will
help us to appreciate what follows death in the psychic plane. In no other way
can rebirth be understood.
Effect of death on
body
Man is a psychophysical
unit, a mind-body combination, (naama-ruupa). The body and the mind co-exist in a close association
with each other, like the flower and its scent. The body is like the flower and
the mind is like the scent, and death is merely the separation of these two
co-existing items. When a man is on the point of dying, his body and mind (naama-ruupa) are weak. It may be that right up to
the point of death he was strong in every way, but at the very point of death
he is weak. This is because from the seventeenth thought-moment reckoned
backwards from the point of death, no renewed physical functioning occurs. This
is just like a motorist releasing the accelerator before stopping, so that no
more pulling power is given to the engine. Similarly no more material qualities
born of kamma (kammaja ruupa) arise, while those which have already come into being
before the stage of that thought moment, will persist till the time of
death-consciousness (cuti citta),
and then they will cease. As there is no more renewal of material qualities the
whole process becomes weaker and weaker. It is like the fading light of an oil
lamp when no more oil is found.
When the mind-body combination ceases to
exist as a combination, neither body nor mind is destroyed or annihilated. These
combining parts continue separately without a break, their respective processes
of changing from one condition or state to another, from moment to moment,
although the two processes have now parted company. The bodily part (like old
clothes once worn but now discarded by the owner) will start a separate process
of change, a process of gradual decay (ruupa.m jirati—the body decays),
but there is no annihilation. Matter is energy and cannot be lost or
destroyed. The constitutes of the body, as mentioned in an earlier chapter,
will change into the elements that composed it, some into “air” as gases, some
into “water” as fluids and others into “earth” as minerals. The elements too
cannot be destroyed or lost but only their form will change. In this manner the
process of change will persist so far as the bodily counterpart of man is
concerned.
Effect of death on
mind
Now what of the
mental counterpart (naama)?
The mental counterpart also, like the physical counterpart, continues without
interruption its process of changing from one condition or state to another,
though no more in association with its physical counterpart. Thought, like
matter, is energy and cannot be destroyed or annihilated. We have learnt that
the mind is not anything permanent or fixed, that it is not a unity but is a
series (santati)
of thoughts one following the other with such a rapidity that it gives the
illusion of permanency and fixity. Death is no interruption to the progress of
this series and no bar to the continuity of this process.
This principle of thought following
thought does not end with death, because in the last thought-process before
death, the terminal thought-moment, known as mara.naasa.t.taa
javana citta (death-proximate mind), though weak by itself and unable to
originate a thought, derives a great potency by reason of the appearance of one
of three powerful thought-objects that enter the threshold of the dying mind.
Appearance of three powerful thought-objects or death
signs
These
thought-objects the dying man is powerless to resist. These powerful
thought-objects are certain death signs and will be explained later. Thus the dying mind, although it lacks the power to
originate a thought, gets a powerful push or drive by reason of the appearance
of one of these three powerful thought-objects or death signs, and is thereby
able to cause another thought to arise. This succeeding thought is pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na (rebirth
consciousness or re-linking consciousness). Where it arises
and how will be considered later.
Dying thought-process is unfailing
However unconscious a dying man may
appear to be to bystanders, it does not mean that this last mental process is
not operating within him. This process will always arise at the dying moment
whatever the circumstances of the death may be, or however sudden and
unexpected the death may be. It is said in the commentaries, that even if a man
is suddenly thrown into the water and is immediately drowned, there is yet time
before his death for this terminal thought-process to work. So also it is said
that even in the case of a fly which is crushed to death on an anvil by the
stroke of a hammer, there is yet time before its death for the terminal
thought-process to work.
Thought is energy. It is also creative energy. Apart from the fact that
any thought if sufficiently intense can under certain circumstances be a
causative and creative agent, the terminal mara.nasa.t.taa
javana thought, deriving as it does its strength from one of the powerful
thought-objects or death signs mentioned earlier (and which will be fully
explained later), can find no difficulty in causing the pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na
(rebirth consciousness or re-linking-consciousness) to arise in an appropriate
place. Where that appropriate place is will be explained later.
Reproductive kamma
It may also be mentioned here that the
appearance of any one of these three powerful thought-objects or death signs is
conditioned by no other circumstances than the actions of the dying man himself
during his lifetime. The particular type of kamma which operates at this
juncture is the so-called janaka kamma (reproductive kamma), since it is the
past actions of the dying man that conduce to his being born again, the
thought-objects being a reflex of his own actions.
It will now be easy to trace the course of this last thought-process of
the dying man. This thought-process does not contain so many stages as the
normal thought-process that was earlier examined. The order of this process is
as follows:
ORDER OF A DYING THOUGHT-PROCESS
1. Bhava.nga atiita
(past unconsciousness).
2. Bhava.nga calana (vibration of the bhava.nga).
3. Bhava.nga
upaccheda (arrest of the
bhava.nga).
4. Manodvaaraavajjana (advertence through mind-door).
5. Mara.nasanna
javana citta (death proximate
javana impulsions or terminal javana
thought-moments).
6. Tadaalambana (registration of the experience).
7. Cuti citta (death consciousness).
8. Pa.tisandhi
vi.t.taa.na (re-linking consciousness or rebirth consciousness
occurring in the
subsequent life).
1. Past unconscious
(bhava.nga atiita)
The same remarks that were made about
bhava.nga atiita when a normal thought-process was being traced are applicable
here also. Here too we commence tracing from the stage immediately prior to the
running of the death-process in the conscious viithi citta. This would be when
the mind is in the bhava.nga state, which occurs either at sleep or immediately
after one conscious thought-process of the viithi citta has ceased and before
another commences. This then is regarded as the first stage for the purpose of
investigation, though actually the process has not yet started.
2.- 3. Vibration of
bhava.nga (bhava.nga calana) and Arrest of the bhava.nga (bhava.nga upaccheda)
The remarks made about these two stages
when a normal thought-process was being examined are applicable here also. Here
too a stimulus first causes only a disturbance or vibration of the bhava.nga
stream of unconsciousness that is flowing through the mind of the dying man.
Later, as the stimulus persists the flow of the bhava.nga is completely
arrested. The dying man is still not able to recognize or comprehend the
stimulus that is at work. This stimulus now is none other than one of those
three powerful thought-objects or death signs which will be fully explained later.
4. Advertence through the mind-door (manodvaaraavajjana)
When the normal thought-process was being
examined, reference was made to a stage called “advertence through the five
sense-doors”. This occurs when the stimulus is capable of being recognized through
one or the other of the five sense-channels: of seeing, hearing, smelling,
tasting and touching. In the case of a dying thought-process this stage of
sense-door advertence does not generally occur, since the stimulus that arises
to disturb the bhava.nga of the dying man is not an external stimulus but is
internal in nature, being a thought or memory, and is capable of being
recognized only through the mind channel. Hence the stage that arises is
called ”advertence through the mind-door.”
5. Death-proximate javana impulsions or terminal javana
thought-moments (mara.nasa.t.ta javana citta)
Now
comes the psychologically important stage of impulsions known as javana.
Everything that was said about this stage, when the normal thought-process was
being examined, is applicable here, except that since death is imminent, this
mental state of javana runs for five thought-moments and not seven. It must
also be remembered as stated before that the dying man, being weak, cannot
originate a thought on his own. One of three powerful thought-objects or death
signs will present itself to him, disturb the smooth flow of his bhava.nga,
cause it to subside and induce the viithi citta or conscious mind to arise.
After the conscious process has passed through the stage of bhava.nga-vibration,
bhava.nga-arrest and mind-door advertence just described, the present important
stage of javana-impulsions is reached. It is now that the conscious mind or viithi citta is fully able to comprehend the stimulus
that awakened it.
The Powerful
Thought-Objects or Death-Signs Explained
The three stimuli,
one of which is said to present itself before the threshold of the dying mind,
are equally powerful. Not only does this thought-object become the
thought-object of the mara.nasa.t.taa
javana thoughts (the thought-impulsions at death), it also becomes the
thought-object of the pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na (rebirth consciousness) of the
next life, and of the bhava.nga citta of the next life. These last two mental
states just mentioned are not of the conscious type but of the unconscious
(bhava.nga) type. They too, though not conscious, require a thought-object for
their existence. They take for their thought-object the particular
thought-object entertained in the terminal javana thought, viz. one of the
three death signs. Thus the
thought-object of the last conscious thought before death becomes the
thought-object of the first thought in the new life. Thus the process of life goes on, each thought giving rise
to another, each life giving rise to another. Thought, it must be remembered,
is energy. It cannot be lost or destroyed. It goes on producing its results,
and they in turn produce theirs, though not necessarily in the same plane or
sphere. Thus the continuity of the being is maintained.
It is not any random thought-object that
appears at this terminal stage to disturb the bhava.nga of the dying man, nor
is it a thought-object of the dying man’s choice, as he is unable to originate
a thought on his own at this terminal stage. It is, as stated before,
conditioned by no other circumstances than the actions of the dying man himself
during his life time. By the operation of janaka kamma (reproductive kamma) the
memory of certain powerful actions of the past performed by the dying man,
thrusts itself before his mind and constitutes the thought-object of the
terminal thought—the mara.nasa.t.ta javana citta. The subsequent
thought is determined by the nature of this terminal thought. No thought can
function without an object of thought (aaramma.na), either in the
conscious or in the unconscious state. The three powerful-objects of thought
or death signs, one of which arises at the terminal stage, are as follows:
(i) Kamma
The
memory of a very important and weighty act, good or bad, performed shortly
before his death will come to him, however sudden be his death or however
unconscious he may be to his surroundings. Such an act is known as aasanna kamma, i.e. an act done when death is nearby.
In the large majority of cases no such good act is done just before the advent
of death, the time of which is not known beforehand. In the absence of such an
act good or bad, then the memory of any act habitually performed by him will
present itself to the dying man. This act is called aaci.n.na kamma,
i.e. the practised act or habitual act. The moral or immoral consciousness
experienced at the time of the commission of the death-proximate act or the
habitual act now arises as a fresh consciousness at the dying moment.
(ii) Kamma nimitta
To the dying man a
memory may sometimes present itself not of any act done, good or bad, recent or
habitual, but of something symbolic of the act done by him (“kamma” means action, and “nimitta” means sign or symbol). Thus a butcher may see a knife, or
a drunkard may see a bottle, or a pilgrim may see a shrine. These are seen
through the mind’s eye, i.e. through the mind-avenue and not through the
physical eye.
(iii) Gati nimitta
The
object of a dying man’s last thought may also be some indication or
anticipation of the place where he is to be reborn. Thus fire may present
itself to the mind’s eye of the person destined to be reborn in hell, and one
whose destiny is the world of gods may see beautiful flowers and beautiful
mansions. Dr. W. T. Evans-Wentz in The Tibetan Book
of the Dead has referred to certain cases of persons who have had at
the time of death premonitory visions of their future destiny. It is also
fairly well known both in Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka), and elsewhere that some
dying persons have given utterance to such visions experienced by them. There
was a genuine case at Kalutara (Ceylon/Sri Lanka) where a dying girl of twelve
cheerfully told her parents standing sorrowfully by her bedside, that a
beautiful carriage decked with garlands of beautiful flowers was waiting to
take her away.
6. Registration of the experience (tadaalambana)
After
the stage of mara.nasa.t.taa javana citta, there arises in the death-process
the stage of tadaalambana, which has also been earlier commented
on. It merely registers the experience of the impression received and is not of
much importance psychologically. There are no effects resulting from it.
7. Death
consciousness (cuti citta)
This is the last
thought to be experienced in the present life. (“Cuti” means disappearance or
death.) There is now to the dying mind an awareness of death. It is not the
conscious viithi citta that experiences this awareness. It is experienced by
the bhava.nga citta. Being the last bhava.nga thought of the present life, it
takes for its object, the object of the first bhava.nga thought of the next
life, i.e. the pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na of the present life. Cuti citta is also
not of much importance psychologically. It does not produce any results. It is
merely a consciousness of death. Hence what is regarded as the terminal thought
is not the cuti citta but the mara.naasa.t.ta javana citta.
8. Re-linking
consciousness (pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na)
The next stage in
the process, though not arising in the mind of the dying man, is the highly
important stage of pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na, re-linking consciousness or rebirth
consciousness. The process of one thought leading to another though not in the
same personality, can be appreciated if we desist from regarding the mind as
some permanent unchanging unit. If on the other hand we regard the mind (as in
reality it is) as a series or succession of mental states, it is not difficult
to imagine how one mental state in one life can give rise to another mental
state in another life. It is the mental state known as mara.nasa.t.taa javana
citta, the terminal mental state of the dying man that gives rise to the
pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na or re-linking consciousness in another life.
Pa.tisandhi Vi.t.taa.na is aptly rendered as re-linking consciousness (“pa.tisandhi”
literally means “re-joining”), since it links up the present life with the
next. That is why the thought-objects of both mental states are the same. In
other words, the thought-object of the terminal dying thought becomes the
thought-object of the resultant pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na. A thorough comprehension
of pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na is absolutely essential for an understanding of the
mechanism of rebirth. In the first instance, it must be understood that it is
not the cuti citta but the preceding mara.nasa.t.taa javana citta that gives
rise to the pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na. Cuti citta is an unconscious thought of
the bhava.nga citta, whereas the terminal mara.nasa.t.taa javana citta is a
thought of the conscious viithi citta. There is a belief that the cuti citta
gives rise to the pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na. This is not correct, since, as
stated earlier, the cuti citta (death consciousness) is merely a registering
agent and performs no active function which can give rise to any result. Though
it is the last thought in the dying process, it is an unconscious thought. It
merely registers the awareness of death. In conformity with the law of change,
the law of becoming, the law of continuity, the law of action and reaction and
the law of attraction, the terminal mara.nasa.t.taa javana citta (death
proximate javana thought) receives one of those three powerful terminal
thought-objects or death signs referred to earlier, as its thought-object, and
then by reason of the operation of the same laws just mentioned, gives rise to
the pa.tisandhi-vi.t.taa.na—a thought of the unconscious type (bhava.nga) which forms the nucleus of the next life.
When it is said that the mara.nasa.t.taa javana citta of the dying man
gives rise to the pa.tisandhi-vi.t.taa.na, we must realize that the former mental
state causes the latter mental state to arise, it being the causative factor.
For such a highly important result to arise, the causative factor must
necessarily be just as powerful. Let us examine the source of its potency.
Potency of the
terminal mara.nasa.t.taa thought
We know that there
is creative power in thought if it is sufficiently intense. The very first
stanza of the Dhammapada which was earlier cited refers to the supremacy of the
mind (mano se.t.tha) and to the fact that everything is mind-born (mano-maya).
In his book Thoughts are Things, W. W. Atkinson has one full chapter entitled “Creative
Thought.” He says: “Science perceives the constant effort of the inner to
express itself in the outer—the invisible trying to be visible, the un-manifest
trying to be manifest ... Thoughts strive to take form in action. Thoughts
strive ever to materialize themselves in objective material form.”
Apart from this inherent creative power
of thought, the terminal thought is the last active thought of the dying man.
We can therefore justifiably expect the last thought to be the most forceful.
The last spurt of a runner in a race often discloses his greatest strength. At
its last fruit-bearing season a dying tree is said to yield its largest
produce. Often the highest and greatest manifestation of any force or power is
a type of swan song preceding its own disruption or dissolution. Since the
desire for existence (ta.nhaa) is the predominating motive underlying well-nigh
all the activities of man, at the moment of death it grows so formidable that
it adopts a grasping attitude (mentally). As the Buddha himself has said (and
this too was cited earlier), at the dying moment this predominating ta.nhaa
becomes a grasping force (upaadaana) that attracts
to itself another existence. It is the last thought-process that carries with
it this grasping force.
Psychology tells us that the last thought
prior to sleep is very powerful and influences the first thought in the morning
at the time of awakening. It is a common experience that if one wishes to catch
an early morning train and if he retires to bed suggesting to himself that he
should awake in time for the train, then he is certain to awake in good time
for the train, however much a late riser he may habitually be. The success of
the auto-suggestive affirmations prescribed by the famous healer Emile Coué of Nancy are due to the fact that they
are practised by his patients just before they retire to sleep. Anything
suggested to the mind at this time tends to produce a powerful effect. The mind
is highly receptive to suggestion at this time. As stated in Psychology and Practical Life by Collins and Drever (the former is a
lecturer and the latter a professor of psychology at the University of
Edinburgh), “Natural suggestibility is enhanced by certain conditions. In the
states grouped together as “hypnoidal”- the state between sleep and waking,
sleep itself, hypnosis—suggestibility is very high.” These same authors refer
to the employment within recent times of hypnosis in order to obtain
anaesthesia for surgical operations.
There is thus recognition of the great creative value and potency of the
last thought prior to sleep coming as it does so close to the time of activity
of the powerful subconscious mind, for hardly anything else intervenes between
this last thought and the arising of the subconscious mind which sleep induces.
Hence, since the last conscious thought prior to sleep becomes the first
thought when one awakes from his sleep, by a parity of reasoning is it too much
to assume that his last conscious thought before the sleep of death—the
terminal mara.nasa.t.taa javana thought—becomes the first thought, the
pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na of the next life to which he awakens?
The terminal
thought is all concentrated energy, and as such it cannot die down although the
man has died. Being creative energy it must manifest itself somewhere. As
stated by Dr. E. R. Rost, “Therefore when a being dies, all the forces locked up in the brain and
represented by consciousness are not lost or dissipated in space, but, just as in this life there is the
continuity of the sequence of consciousness in the life stream, so is there
the continuity of the same life-stream at death. And as this life-stream
requires for its functioning a nidus in the evolutionary scale of beings, so
does it require, on its subjective side, the formation of an objective basis.”
(Nature of Consciousness).
So, according to Buddhism, this potent
terminal thought, receiving as its object one of those three powerful thought-objects
or death signs referred to earlier, must be deemed to be possessed of great
creative power. Its function is referred to as “abhinavakaara.na”
i.e. the preparing of a new
existence. It is for this
purpose that one of the powerful thought-objects or death-signs appears before
the mind of the dying man. Then, when the terminal thought receives this
special thought-object and thereafter subsides, there will simultaneously
arise in the next life the pa.tisandhi citta carrying with it the same
thought-object as that of the terminal thought. This pa.tisandhi citta being
something mental it can normally arise only in association with a physical
counterpart. It therefore arises in a maternal womb—not haphazardly in any
mother’s womb but in an appropriate mother’s womb in an appropriate environment,
appropriate to the type of life led in the present existence. Man being a
psychophysical combination, a naama-ruupa or mind-body combination, the reborn
man too is a mind-body combination. There is however nothing to prevent a man
being reborn in the spirit world where he will have only mind but no body. Here
too the pa.tisandhi citta does arise.
It will thus be seen that it is the
combined operation of all the fundamental laws or principles dealt with earlier
in separate chapters that results in the phenomenon of rebirth. Those
principles deal with change, becoming, continuity, cause and effect and
attraction. The German Philosopher, Schopenhauer, most of whose views are very
Buddhist, as stated by Ven. Ñyaanajiivako
Thera in Schopenhauer and Buddhism (The Wheel Nos.
144–146) has said: “At the hour of death all the mysterious forces (although really rooted
in ourselves) which determine man’s fate crowd together and come into action.” These
mysterious forces are none other than the fundamental laws just referred to.
They are natural laws, mysterious only when we do not understand them. It is
their combined operation that results in rebirth. Rebirth therefore is just a
natural result of the operation of these natural laws.
Now that we have studied the
thought-process at death according to Buddhist psychology, we should turn our
attention to the thought-process at birth. In the light of what has already
been said about various mental states in Chapters VIII and IX entitled
respectively “How a Normal Thought-process Works” and “How a Thought-process at
Death Works,” the thought-process at birth can easily be followed without much
comment, since the mental states that occur in this process have already been
studied in the earlier chapters. The order of the thought-process at birth,
which involves 5 stages, is as follows:
1. Pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na (re-linking consciousness)
2. Bhava.nga citta
(the unconscious)
3. Manodvaaraavajjana
(mind-door advertence)
4. Javana
(thought-impulsions)
5. Bhava.nga citta (the unconscious)
1. Re-linking
consciousness (pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na)
In the list of mental states enumerated
in the last chapter indicating the thought-process at death, the last mental
state mentioned, viz. pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na or re-linking consciousness, is
not a state occurring in the mind of the dying man, but it was nevertheless
mentioned in that list because the other mental states in that list along with
this re-linking consciousness form part of one
continuous process. This pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na occurs in
the mind of the reborn being, or, to be more precise, it occurs in the mind of
the pre-natal being, viz. the embryo. In fact it is this pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na
type of mental energy which, along with the parental sperm cells and ovum
cells, combines to create an embryo in an appropriate mother’s womb. Thus it is
this re-linking consciousness (or rebirth consciousness) that starts the
nucleus of a new mind-body combination, a new naama-ruupa, in an appropriate
mother’s womb. This embryo then is a mixture of mind and matter. The parental
sperm and ovum cells provide the material part of the embryo while the
pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na or re-linking consciousness provides the mental part.
It is this pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na which links the dying life with the new
life. It becomes a link because it is a resultant of the terminal
mara.nasa.t.taa javana thought of the dying man and takes the same
thought-object, viz. one of the three death-signs. The process of one thought
giving rise to another never ends. The last conscious thought at the moment of
death is no exception to this process. It too gives rise to another thought,
though not in the same body. That other thought is the pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na.
It lasts for just one moment, to be followed by the bhava.nga citta or the
unconscious.
2. The unconscious
(bhava.nga citta)
The initial pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na is
thereafter succeeded by the bhava.nga citta, which is said to last for 16
thought-moments: In this pre-natal stage, as the unborn being is still part of
the body of the mother, it does not normally contact the external world. It is
therefore the stream of bhava.nga that keeps on flowing smoothly without an
interruption in the pre-natal child-mind. As life had just commenced, this
mental state is not full grown. This is how Shwe Zan Aung describes it in his
appendix to The Compendium of Philosophy: “When a being is
conceived, Buddhist belief gives him a congenital mind simultaneously with the
inception of a physical growth as the result of the past janaka (generative)
kamma. That mind at the moment of conception is but a bare state of
sub-consciousness identical with the more adult bhava.nga consciousness during
dreamless sleep.”
3. Mind-door
advertence (manodvaara aavajjana)
As stated earlier, the bhava.nga citta
lasts for 16 thought-moments and then subsides. This is followed by the mental
state known as mind-door advertence (manodvaara aavajjana) The bhava.nga nature
of the mental state of the embryo gives way to the conscious viithi citta on
account of the desire that arises in the mind of the embryo for its new
existence.
4.
Thought-impulsion (javana)
Immediately after the mental state known
as (manodvaara aavajjana) (mind-door
advertence) has subsided, the state of javana or thought-impulsions arises. It
carries further the thought that arose through the mind-door channel, viz. the
desire for its new existence. These javana thought-impulsions develop this
desire in the new being for its new existence (bhava-nikanti
javana).
They run for seven thought-moments.
5. The unconscious (bhava.nga citta)
When the seven javana thought-moments
have arisen and subsided, the smooth flow of the unconscious bhava.nga again
arises. It will flow on smoothly until something occurs to interrupt it, but
this is hardly likely. When the pre-natal embryo is born and assumes a separate
existence, it begins to contact the external world. The normal thought-process
will then follow.
Material sciences seek to explain
birth only on a material basis on the premises of what can be seen, viz. the
present life. Hence the biologist would say that the union of the sperm cells
of the father and ovum cells of the mother result in the birth of a child and
that the physical and mental characteristics of the child’s parents and its
ancestors influence the characteristics of the child. Biology being silent on
any mental or psychic factor, knows of only two influencing and causative
factors—heredity and environment. But is this a completely satisfying
explanation? Take the case of two children of the same parents and of the same
environment. How is it that one child from birth may be well-built, strong and
healthy, while the other child from birth may be a weakling? An explanation
may be offered by reference to the differing health conditions of the mother
at the time of the two different births. Consider then the case of twins having
the same heredity and same environment. How can the physical and mental
differences that are often seen to exist between twin children be explained?
Take the case of the well-known Siamese twins Chang and Eng who were conjoined
to each other at the navel from birth. Here is a case of identically the same
heredity and the same environment. Specialists who studied their behaviour when
they arrived in London are reported to have said that they differ widely in
temperament and that while Chang is addicted to liquor, Eng is a teetotaller.
Can heredity and environment explain those startling cases of child prodigies
so well known in the East as well as in the West, when not only the child’s
parents but even its ancestors on both sides have never exhibited such
tendencies? These circumstances urge the thinking mind to consider whether
there is not some other factor at work besides heredity and environment. It is
wrong to expect a highly complex psychophysical organism like man to arise
from the combination of two purely physical factors like the sperm cells and
the ovum cells of the parents. It is only the intervention of the third factor,
a psychic factor that can bring about the birth of a child. Wick and oil can
never produce a flame. Not until a bright light comes from elsewhere will the
action of wick and oil result in a flame. A plant is not the product of seed
and soil only. From an extraneous source must come another factor, viz. light.
Similarly the combination of two purely physical factors—the parental sperm and
ovum—cannot provide the opportunity for the formation of an embryo which is a
mixture of both mind and matter. A psychic factor must combine with the two
physical factors, to produce the psychophysical organism that an embryo is.
Then again how does biology explain the determination of sex in an
embryo? The embryo is supposed to derive its characteristics from what are
known as the genes of the parents. The embryo is said to consist of the
chromosomes of the female parent and the male parent in equal proportions and
sex is determined by the way in which the chromosomes combine. The male cell is
said always to contain one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. On the other hand
the female cell is said to contain always two X chromosomes. At the time of
conception, the male sperm cell uniting with the female ovum cell, a complete
new cell is formed which later becomes the embryo. Sometimes the X and Y
chromosomes combine to form a male cell while at other time they combine to
form a female cell. Biology does not seem to be able to explain these
differences in combination. So long as only the physical causes are reckoned
with, no suitable explanation can ever be made.
In the Encyclopaedia of the Biological Sciences edited by Peter Gray, Professor of Biology, University of
Pittsburgh (6th edition, 1968) the concluding paragraph of the long article
under the head “Genetics” contains the following significant sentence: “Much of
the picture of gene action is of course hypothetical and remains to be worked
out in detail.”
In Biology for the
Modern World by
C. H. Waddington, Professor of Animal Genetics, University of Edinburgh, in the
chapter on “Sex and Reproduction” the following passage is found: “These
chromosomes influence the type of hormone produced in the developing organism.
An organism with an XX constitution produces female hormones. The presence of
XY chromosomes on the other hand induces male hormones. In this system the
differential which decides which of the basic potentialities shall be realized depends
on the operation of one of the most reliable mechanisms in the body, namely the
separation of pairs of chromosomes into single chromosomes at the time when
the germ cells are formed. Very occasionally however the mechanism goes wrong ... It is only in the last few years that the technique of
examining human chromosomes has become refined to the point when abnormalities
of the sex chromosomes can be reliably determined. We are therefore only at the
beginning of the exploration of such abnormalities.”
Although Professor Waddington refers to
the separation of pairs of chromosomes into single chromosomes at the time when
germ cells are formed, as one of the most reliable mechanisms in the body, yet
it is most significant, that in almost the same breath he is constrained to
admit that very occasionally the mechanism goes wrong. It has been found that
sometimes although the correct proportions of the correct type of chromosomes
are present which should result in the arising of a male embryo, yet it is not
a male embryo that arises. Similarly sometimes with regard to a female embryo,
although the chromosomal proportions are correct, genetically the results are
different. Hence it is that in Physician’s
Handbook,
a book written by four professors of medicine (Professors Krupp, Swertz,
Jawetsz and Biglieri, 15th edition) under the chapter entitled “Chromosomal Sex
Determination,” this most significant sentence appears: “It is not yet
possible to equate chromosomal sex with genetic sex.”
In a foreword to Professor Waddington’s book earlier referred to, Sir
Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, one time professor of philosophy, writes as follows:
“The scientist is a dedicated servant of Truth. Because he deals with the world
of nature, he is likely to overlook the role of the human spirit in scientific
endeavour. If he believes that there is nothing more than the world of nature
to which we are tied, he will suffer from an inner emptiness, anxiety, split
consciousness. Man is essentially a subject and not a mere object, a thing
among things. When this subjectivity is recognized, the distance between
science and humanity is diminished.”
In this connection,
the words of Mrs. Annie Besant are worth quoting: “Modern science is proving
more and more clearly that heredity plays an ever decreasing part in the
evolution of the higher creatures, that all mental and moral qualities are not
transmitted from parents to offspring and the higher the qualities the more
patent is this fact. The child of a genius is at times a dolt. Commonplace parents
give birth to a genius” (Ancient Wisdom).
Further in this connection, what Dahlke
has to say is equally worth quoting: “When science
teaches that I am descended wholly and entirely from my parents, it teaches
that the I-process is not kindled at all but propels itself hither from
parents, grandparents and so forth—does not burn—but rolls—so making necessary
the question as to the first beginning of this motion; for everything set in
motion urged outward—in short every reaction—must have a first moment of
beginning. In contradistinction to science the Buddha teaches, ‘The parents
provide the material, the groundwork, but the I-energy of some disintegrated
I-process corresponding uniquely to these potentialities sets all alight. Here
I take rise in my parents as the fountain takes its rise in the hill. That the
fountain does so is beyond all cavil, is patent to everyone, yet it is but an
alien guest.’ Thus the Buddha is the only one to abide by actuality, the only
one with whom the entire miracle of propagation takes its place among mundane
events conforming likewise to the laws of mundane occurrence.”
In his The Buddha and
his Teachings, Ven. Naarada Mahaathera, while strongly expressing his
view that heredity cannot account for the birth of a criminal in a long line of
honourable ancestors or for the birth of a saint in a family of evil repute,
quotes the following passage from Dr. Th. Pascal’s book Reincarnation:
“To return to the role played by the germ in the question of heredity,
we repeat that the physical germ, of itself alone, explains only a portion of
man; it throws light on the physical side of heredity but leaves, in as great a
darkness as ever, the problem of moral and intellectual faculty. If it
represented the whole man one would expect to find in any individual the
qualities manifested in his progenitors and parents—never any other; these
qualities could not exceed the amount possessed by the parents, whereas we find
criminals from birth in the most respectable families and saints born to parents
who are the very scum of society.”
According to the
Buddhist explanation of birth, as stated earlier, purely physical causative
factors, like the parental sperm and ovum, cannot result in the arising of an
embryo which is a combination of both mind and matter. Man is a psychophysical
organism, and as such the causative factors must be both physical and
psychical. In the Mahaa Ta.nhaasa.nkhaya Sutta, Majjhima Nikaaya 38, the Buddha has said that apart from
the union of father and mother, and the mother’s proper time, there must also
be the presence of, what the Buddha calls, the gandhabba. The word gandhabba literally
means “a stranger” or “one come from afar.” As a variation of gantabba, gerund of the verb gacchati
(to go), it means “one who has to go.” These meanings have reference to one who
has died elsewhere, and have no reference to the parental factor. It refers to
the mental content of the terminal thought of a dying person, which results in
that psychically important pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na or re-linking consciousness which,
combining with the parental sperm and ovum, helps to form the embryo. It is the energy potential released from a dying man. It is metaphorically “one come from
afar” or “one who has to go,” i.e. to go from the place where he was. Pa.tisandhi
means “re-linking.” It is called re-linking-consciousness because it links the
last consciousness of the dying mind with the first consciousness of the
embryo. Both types of consciousness therefore have the same aaramma.na or object of
thought, viz. one or other of the three powerful death-signs.
This then is the new mental counterpart,
the new naama,
which in a new mother’s womb in association with the new ruupa—the
new physical counterpart, viz. the new parental sperm cells and ovum cells will
cause the arising of a fresh embryo, the nucleus of a new human life. This new
human life cannot but be regarded as the resultant of the past human life. The
thoughts, words and deeds (sa.nkhaara)
of the past life produced certain energies or kammic forces which at the end of
that past life were potent enough to attract the necessary conditions for a
new life in an appropriate place, according to the strength and quality of
those forces, on the principle of “like attracts like” (law of attraction) and
also by virtue of that other great law—the law of action and reaction. It is
these forces that constitute the third causative factor of birth. It is a
psychic factor and in the psychic plane time and distance do not count. It will
thus be seen that these potential kammic energies work in conjunction with the
biological laws to condition the formation of an embryo in an appropriate
mother’s womb. The Ven. Ñyaanatiloka Mahaathera’s explanatory comments on this
point are worth reading:
“With regard to the characteristic
features, the tendencies and faculties lying latent in the embryo, the Buddha’s
teaching may be explained in the following way: The dying individual with his
whole being convulsively clinging to life, at the very moment of his death, sends
forth karmic energies, which like a flash of lightning, hit at a new mother’s
womb ready for conception” (The Wheel No. 9: Karma and Rebirth).
Thus the process of a changing
consciousness continues without interruption although in a different place or plane
and the change of
consciousness which takes place at the end of one life is no different in
essence from the change of consciousness which takes place from moment to
moment within one life.
The theory that all thoughts of incidents and events,
of all feelings and desires that enter the conscious mind make their
impressions in the unconscious before they fade away from the conscious mind,
has been established beyond doubt by the researches of psychologists who study
and practise the science of hypnosis. These impressions are all stored up in
the great reservoir of the unconscious (bhava.nga
citta). It has been found that by the method known as hypnotic
age-regression the memory not only of forgotten important events, but even of
trivial incidents long since forgotten can be recalled from the unconscious
mind. What the hypnotist does is first to induce sleep in the subject. In this
sleep state the subject will answer truthfully any question put to him. The
hypnotist by means of his voice keeps in touch with the subject and prevents
normal sleep supervening. The hypnotically induced sleep is different from
normal sleep. This is known as the hypnotic sleep or trance. The subject, when
in this state, is asked questions relating to incidents starting from the time
the subject came to the hypnotist, who then gradually regresses him to his
earliest infancy, about which also the subject will be questioned. All these
questions he will answer truthfully. On awaking to consciousness he will not
remember anything of what he said or
did. He will not even remember the fact of having been questioned. This is
because it was not the conscious mind that answered. During the induced sleep
the conscious mind was in abeyance and it was the unconscious mind that
answered.
All the events of early childhood can
thus be vividly recalled and, what is most interesting, they can also be
vividly re-lived. Vivid re-living of forgotten experiences can take place in
the hypnotic sleep, for in that condition, the conscious mind not being active,
the unconscious is free to release memories of the forgotten incidents along
with any very strong reactions to them that had been experienced at that time.
This condition is technically called hypermnesia. For instance, if
the forgotten incident is one of terror and fright, the hypnotized individual
while recalling the incident may exhibit that same terror and fright. If it is
an incident of intense sorrow which made him weep, then the hypnotized individual
while recalling that incident may exhibit the same intense sorrow and may also
weep. Such cases are quite common. Once a man of sixty was, under hypnosis,
regressed to his childhood and was asked whether he had written in copy-books.
He said he did. On being asked whether he can remember any particular line that
he copied out, he said, “I can remember copying out the line ‘a stitch in time
saves nine’.” Given pencil and paper and asked to write out that line, he—still
in the unconscious state—wrote out that line not in the firm handwriting of an
adult but in the unpractised shaky handwriting of a child. The hypnotized
subject, however, on awaking to consciousness, could not remember anything
that he has said or done, as nothing was done with the conscious mind. There is
thus this twofold nature of the human mind—the conscious and the
unconscious—the truth of which has been amply established by these hypnotic
methods. As stated by Troward in the Edinburgh lectures on Mental Science, “The great truth which the science of
hypnotism has brought to light is the dual nature of the human mind.” It must
also be mentioned that it is not everyone who responds to the method of
hypnosis. There are cases of inherent natural resistance to hypnotic
suggestion.
This method is not confined to recalling past memories of this life
only. Psychologists have been able to obtain recall of memories of past lives
in numerous recorded cases. Hypnotized persons, on being asked to go back in
time and to mention their very earliest memories, have recalled incidents in
their past lives which after an exhaustive and impartial examination have been
found to be correct. There is room to mention one such case only. It is one of
the earliest recorded cases.
Professor Theodore
Flournoy of Geneva University hypnotized a Swiss girl who, after answering
questions regarding her past in this life, was thereafter requested to recall
her earliest time of living. She said she could remember her life as an Arab
chief’s daughter. She said she could remember her name at that time. It was
Simandanee. She was able to speak Arabic as she did then. She remembered having
married a Hindu raja called Sivruka. She was able to show her intimate
knowledge about Indian dancing. She remembered her husband constructing a
fortress called Chandragiri. Professor Flournoy wrote a book about this case
after having verified these details from ancient documents, and Professor
McDougall has referred to this case in his An Outline of
Abnormal Psychology. This is just
one of several hundreds of similar cases.
In this connection reference must be made
to a book which was published in 1950 and created a great sensation. Within
seven years it reached its 10th edition. The book is entitled Many Mansions and the authoress is Gina Cerminara. It
deals with wonderful cures effected by one Edgar Cayce. His technique was to
get himself hypnotized, and in that state he was able to discover the previous
lives of his patients and find out the root cause, if such there is, of the
illnesses from which they were in this life suffering. In that hypnotic state
he would prescribe the cure, but on his awaking he would not remember what he
had said. The patient or someone on his behalf had to question Edgar Cayce, and
then he would answer and prescribe the cure. These answers were typed in
duplicate. One given to the patient and the other filed for the record. They
are called Readings and there at present over 20,000 such
readings preserved at the Cayce Institute in Virginia Beach (U.S.A.).
CHAPTER XIII
SPONTANEOUS
RECALL OF PAST LIVES
There are numbers of cases of children
who spontaneously come out with recollection of their past lives without the
intervention of hypnosis.
Dr. Ian Stevenson, Professor of
Psychiatry, University of Virginia, U.S.A., in his booklet entitled The Evidence of Survival from Claimed Memories of Former Incarnations, has dealt with
several cases of spontaneous recall of past lives. This book was the winning
essay of the contest in honour of Professor William James, the well-known
psychologist. These cases, of which he gives a full description, are from
various countries such as Cuba, India, France and Sicily. In Part II of this
booklet he analyses the evidence, in order to consider whether there are other
possible explanations for this recall of past lives, such as fraud, racial
memory, extra-sensory perception, recognition and precognition. He also deals
with reincarnation which he considers to be the most plausible explanation for
these cases. In a later book entitled Twenty Cases
Suggestive of Reincarnation he deals with further cases of
spontaneous recall. Three of these cases are from Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
It is not everyone who is able to recall spontaneously the memory of a
past existence. Such a recall is possible only in exceptional cases and that
too in children only. Investigations have not yet reached the stage when it is
possible to say in what cases a recall can take place, but it has been observed
that in nearly all the cases of spontaneous recall the previous lives were cut
off in early childhood by some form of violent death such as an accident or
serious illness. It has also been observed that the child’s memory of the
previous life fades away as the child advances in age. There can be other
reasons for the inability to recall past lives. For instance, if an
individual’s previous life was that of an animal, it is just possible that the
animal mind not being so developed as the human mind, may not be able to
register impressions with the clarity and accuracy of the human mind, with the
result that such a reborn individual may not be able to recall his past at all.
Hypnotic regression then cannot help in these cases.
By a process of meditation on certain
lines it is possible for anyone to reach a state when his mind is so purified
that its range of mental vision is no more obstructed. In that event one can
develop the memory of past lives. This is called “pubbenivaasaanussati .taa.na.” This of course postulates such a high
degree of purity that not until one attains the state of the fourth “jhaana” is
this knowledge available. Thus have the Buddhas and arahats been able to view
the past lives not only of their own but also of others as well.
The next chapter contains an account of four cases of spontaneous recall
of previous lives, the details of which have been checked up and found to be
correct.
The case of Pramod
Pramod, the second son of Professor
Bankey Lal Sharma of Bissauli in Uttar Pradesh, India, was born on October
11th, 1944. When he was about two-and-a-half years old he told his mother not
to cook because he had a wife in Moradabad who could cook. Moradabad is a town
about ninety miles away from Bissauli. The boy took an extraordinary interest
in biscuits. Whenever he saw anyone purchasing biscuits he would tell him that
he owned a large biscuit factory in Moradabad. Whenever he was taken to a big
shop he would say that his shop at Moradabad was much bigger. He also said that
he had a large soda-water factory there. Later he said that his name was
Paramanand and had a brother called Mohanlal and that the two together owned
this biscuit factory and soda factory which were run under the name of Mohan
Brothers. He also said that he died of a stomach ailment resulting from eating
too much curd.
Pramod’s parents took no notice of these
references to a previous life. Pramod however continued to repeat these
references, and often insisted that he should be taken to Moradabad. Those
references reached the ears of a family in Moradabad who owned a soda and
biscuit factory under the name of Mohan Brothers. One of the brothers,
Paramanand had died on 9th May 1943. He had suffered from a chronic
gastro-intestinal ailment as a result of excessive eating of curd. He died of appendicitis
and peritonitis. As the story the family had heard tallied with the events and
circumstances of the life of the deceased Paramanand, the other brother, Mohan
Lal, with some of his relatives came to Bissauli to see this Pramod who claimed
to be the dead Paramanand. They missed him as he had left for a distant village
to meet a relative, but the boy’s father Professor Sharma promised to bring
the boy to Moradabad. Shortly thereafter the father kept his word by bringing
the boy to Moradabad. The boy was then about five years old. Father and son
travelled by train and on alighting from the train at Moradabad railway station
Pramod at once recognized Mohan Lal as his former brother and running up to him
embraced him fondly. From the railway station they were driven in a tonga to Mohan Lal’s house.
On the way Pramod recognized a building
which he said was the town hall, and then remarked that their shop should not
be very far off. It is significant that Pramod used the English expression
“town hall” although that expression is not at all known in his native
Bissauli. The tonga on purpose was being driven past the
correct shop, without stopping there, in order to watch Pramod’s reactions.
Pramod at once called out for the tonga to halt,
remarking that this was the shop. When the vehicle stopped, this boy led the
way to the house where the claimed to have lived. He then entered the room set
apart for religious devotions and stood there for a moment in reverential
worship.
Inside the house he recognized his former mother. He recognized his
former wife and enquired why she was not wearing the “bindu” mark on her
forehead. He recognized his former daughter and two sons of his and some
relatives but he could not recognize his eldest son who had greatly changed in
appearance after the father’s death.
On entering the soda factory he found that the machine there would not
work. The water connection had been deliberately stopped in order to see what
Pramod would do. He detected at once that the machine would not operate because
the water connection was not working and immediately set it right explaining to
the workmen there how this could be done. He was only five years old when he
thus instructed the workmen.
Pramod spent two happy days at Moradabad where he was able to reveal his
familiarity with many places, many buildings and many persons including even a
Muslim debtor to whom he remarked, “I have to get some money back from you.”
The boy was so fond of Moradabad that it was very difficult to induce him to
return to his home in Bissauli. Eventually he was carried away in his sleep by
his father. Subsequently, one day wishing again to revisit Moradabad he ran
away from home unnoticed and went as far as the railway station in Bissauli
when he was brought back much to his discomfiture.
This case was first investigated within a
few weeks of Pramod’s first visit to Moradabad by Professor B. L. Attreya of
Benares University. A few years later the case was further investigated by
Professor Ian Stevenson of Virginia University, who later made another visit
to recheck the case. His account of this case with his analysis of the recorded
evidence and his comments appears in his book, Twenty Cases
Suggestive of Reincarnation.
The case of Shanti
Devi
Shanti Devi was born in 1926 in Delhi.
From about her third year she began to refer to her former life in Muttra, a
town sixty miles away from Delhi. She said that her former name was Lugdi and
that she was married to a cloth merchant called Kadar Nath Chaubey. She also
stated that ten days after giving birth to a male child she died. As Shanti
Devi was repeatedly making these references to her former life, her parents
wrote to Kadar Nath Chaubey who to their surprise answered the letter. In his
reply be confirmed the correctness of Shanti Devi’s references which were
conveyed to him. Later they sent a relative of his to visit the girl and
followed this up with his own visit which was unannounced. The girl identified
him. Shortly thereafter, enquiries were made and it was established that the
girl had never been out of her native Delhi. A committee was then appointed to
witness her visit to Muttra and to watch her reaction.
On alighting at the railway station of Muttra, out of a large crowd of
persons she recognized another relative of Chaubey. When she entered the
horse-carriage that was made ready for her, she was asked to give instructions
to the driver. She then directed the way right up to the house of Chaubey
which, having been repainted, bore a different appearance in spite of which,
she was able to recognize it. She was also able to identify Chaubey’s old
father.
A number of questions were put to her before she entered the house
regarding the accommodation there and the arrangement of furniture there, all
of which she correctly answered. She also identified about fifty persons out of
a crowd that had gathered there. On going to the house of Chaubey’s parents she
pointed to a corner in a particular room where she said she had buried some
money. The place was dug up but no money was found. Thereupon Chaubey confessed
that after her death he had removed the money.
This case was investigated in 1936 by the
International Aryan League, Delhi, and is referred to by Professor Ian
Stevenson in his book The Evidence for Survival from Claimed Memories of
Former Incarnations.
The case of
Gnanatillake
Gnanatillake was born on 14th February
1956 in an insignificant village sixteen miles away from Talawakelle, Ceylon
(Sri Lanka). When she was about two years old she began making references to a
previous life. Later when she heard that some persons from her village had
returned from a visit to Talawakelle she promptly remarked that Talawakelle
was the place where her former parents had lived and began to give details of
her former home and even mentioned the names of her family members. The credit
of discovering this case goes to Mr. H. S. Nissanka of Kandy. Equal credit goes
to Ven. Piyadassi Mahaathera of Vajiraaraama, Colombo, who along with Mr.
Nissanka pursued this case with the greatest interest and enthusiasm. They
visited the girl’s home, and tactfully questioning the shy girl elicited much
valuable information regarding details of her former life and home.
It was ascertained that her previous home was near a tea factory in
Talawakelle, that she was then a boy and went to school with her sister by
train which passed through a long tunnel. (Everything points to the school
being Sri-Pada College, Hatton.) She said that one day standing by the road,
she and her sister watched the Queen travelling by train (the present Queen
Elizabeth visited Ceylon in 1954 and travelling by train passed through
Talawakelle.)
Both Venerable Piyadassi and Mr. Nissanka were determined to find the
house in Talawakelle where Gnanatillake had claimed she had lived as a boy and
died. They went to several places and questioned several persons. They spent
several hours at the office of the Registrar of Deaths but without success.
With several others also assisting in the search, Gnanatillake was taken to
Talawakelle where she identified several buildings in the town but could not
locate her former house as it had been demolished since her death. Ultimately
they managed to contact the parents of a boy who had attended Sri Pada College,
Hatton, and had died on 9th of November, 1954, at the age of twelve.
When the parents were questioned and details of the boy’s life were
ascertained, it become apparent that this information tallied with what
Gnanatillake had said about her previous life.
A board of enquiry with Venerable Piyadassi Mahaathera as president was
then held at the Talawakelle Rest House, where many witnesses were examined,
among them being the members of Tillekeratna’s (the dead boy’s) family, a
teacher who had taught Tillekeratna, and the principal of Sri Pada College,
Hatton. At this meeting which was held in the presence of a large public
gathering, Gnanatilake was for the first time confronted with Tillekeratna’s
mother whom she identified with an earnest look, remarking softly “That is my
Talawakelle mother.”
Professor Ian Stevenson visited
Talawakelle in 1961 and
conducted an independent
investigation of this case. His account along with his analysis of the recorded
evidence and his comments appear in his book Twenty Cases Suggestive
of Reincarnation. Mr. Nissanka has given a full account
of this case, in a book written in Sinhalese, entitled Newatha upan deriya (The Reborn Girl).
The case of H. A.
Wijeyratne
H. A. Wijeyratne, the youngest son of H.
A. Tillekeratna Hamy, was born on 17th January 1947 at Kaltota, a small village
not many miles away from the town of Balangoda. From his birth there appeared a
marked hollow on the right side of his chest below the right collar bone and
the right arm pit. His right hand is thin and emaciated and the fingers in that
hand are half the normal length. From about his third year, whenever he was by
himself, he had a habit of walking round his house and muttering to himself.
This peculiar behaviour was first noticed by his mother, who overheard him
saying that the deformity in his hand was due to his having stabbed his wife in
his former life. He used to make these remarks looking at his right hand. The
father, Tillekeratna Hamy, tried to dissuade the boy from referring to this
incident but without success. Curiously a younger brother of Tillekeratna Hamy
called Ratran Hamy, had been sentenced to death and executed in 1928 for the
murder of his wife. The further details given by Wijeratne regarding the
circumstances of his previous life and regarding the charge of murder brought
against him tally with the circumstances of Ratran Hamy’s life and the charge
of murder Ratran Hamy had to face.
Venerable Aananda Maitreya Mahaathera of Balangoda was the first person
of consequence who heard about Wijeratne’s claims to have had a former
existence. He questioned the boy and his parents. The boy even described some
preliminary details regarding his execution. He is also supposed to have said
in his previous life that after his execution he would come back to his brother
(i.e. Tillekeratna Hamy). Tillekeratna Hamy did not wish this to be known as
he feared the relations of the murdered woman would wreak vengeance on the boy.
Later Mr. Francis Story made more detailed enquiries. Professor Ian Stevenson
pursued the matter on his arrival in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). He found that the
Supreme Court proceedings of the trial of Ratran Hamy corroborate to some
extent the story as told by Wijeyratne regarding the cause of his displeasure
with his former wife. The medical evidence in the Supreme Court case shows that
the murdered woman had, among other injuries, a gaping incised wound 2 ½” long,
1 ½” broad, just below the left armpit involving the lung. Curiously,
Wijeyratne has a prominent hollow in his chest, but it is on his right side
under the right armpit. Could this however, be a standing reminder to him of
the injury he inflicted on the wife of his previous existence or is it just
chance? The murder was perpetrated with his right hand. Could the present condition
of his right hand and arm be an instance of retributive kamma, or is it also
just chance? Nevertheless the account the boy gave of his past life to
Venerable Aananda Maitreya Mahaathera tallies with what the boy’s father had
told the Mahaathera and what the local residents are aware of. It may also be
mentioned that the present writer himself has made an independent investigation
of this case.
An account of this case with his analysis
of the recorded evidence and with his comments appears in Professor Ian
Stevenson’s book Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation.
SOME
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Now that we have studied the subject of
rebirth from many aspects, let us deal with certain questions that usually
arise in an attempt to understand rebirth, and which have been asked of the
writer at the conclusion of many lectures given by him on this subject:
Question 1
Can you deny the possibility that some of
these supposed cases of spontaneous recall of past lives are deliberate fabrications
where collected information is put into the mouths of unsuspecting children who
are made to repeat such information on being questioned by anyone.
Answer
As a bare theoretical possibility the
answer is, “I cannot deny such a possibility.” But as a practical proposition,
to coach successfully a child with a prepared story of a past life is scarcely
possible. In the first instance, the child, for the very reason that it is an
unsuspecting child, is easily liable to trip under the skilful
cross-examination of trained scientific investigators. Further, in order to
give the false rebirth story the appearance of truth, the perpetrator of this
fraud must first acquaint himself with numerous details of the life of a person
who has actually died elsewhere. This search will have to cover a wide area of
events and circumstances connected with the activities of the dead person. If
the place of death of this person is in a far off country the task of
collecting these numerous details becomes difficult in the extreme, if not almost
impossible. Thereafter this vast fund of information has to be imparted into
the child-mind without confusing it and, what is more difficult, to see to it
that these details are retained in the child-mind in their proper sequence. If
it is the parents of the child who would perpetrate this fraud, many others
will have to join in it such as the servants and the neighbours, the relations
and associates of the child who are most likely to be aware or to be made aware
of the child’s references to its past life. The range of cross-examination
being wide and varied, the person who fabricates a false story cannot possibly
know beforehand all the questions that will be asked, and unless all the
witnesses are consistent and do not contradict one another, the whole story
falls to the ground. The maker of the false story has not only to stage this
difficult drama without tell-tale flaws, but has also to keep it alive, as
trained investigators are never satisfied with just one single investigation.
Indeed this would be in the nature of a gigantic conspiracy involving the
co-operation of several others and the expenditure of much time, money and
energy—and to what purpose? Some might say that the parents would relish some
publicity for their child, but it must be remembered that the doubtful
advantage of such publicity hardly compensates for the stupendous effort
involved in staging a false drama which may any moment break down under the
keen vigilance of investigators who may any moment re-visit and re-examine the
child as well as all the witnesses.
Question 2
Can rebirth ever take place without
anything travelling or passing over from one life to the next?
Answer
This question assumes that there is
already in us something which is capable of travelling or passing over from us
at the moment of death. There is the further assumption that this something is
stable and unchanging, for it has to persist through life if it is to continue
on to the next life. The rigid analysis of body and mind as appearing in the
Buddhist texts and briefly indicated in an earlier chapter, shows that every
moment every part of the body and mind is undergoing a change, leaving no room
whatsoever for anything to remain stable and static in view of the relentless
law of change. As stated in the second chapter, at no point of time is anything
not in the process of becoming something else, in view of the law of becoming.
Something unchanging and stable within the human system is therefore
unthinkable.
A question such as the one under
consideration arises from the failure to appreciate the silent and
imperceptible working of the law of cause and effect. Effect need not be physically associated with the
cause. Effect is merely the result of the cause. When the photograph of a man is taken,
has anything travelled from the man to the photograph? When a man stands before
a mirror and his image appears in the mirror, has anything travelled from the
man to the mirror? It is just a case of effect succeeding cause. Sir William
Crooks in his Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science, has said, “It has also been proved by experiments that by
an act of the will the mind can cause objects such as metal levers to move.”
Such is the nature of thought-power. Further, when the causative factor is
something mental or psychic, distance is no bar to the operation of the law of
cause and effect. In the psychic plane time and distance do not count.
Even consciousness does not travel. The
Buddha is reported to have strongly reprimanded a monk called Saati for saying
that the Buddha had declared that consciousness travels from one life to the
next (Mahaa Ta.nhaa Sa.nkhaya Sutta, Majjhima Nikayaa). It is therefore abundantly clear that nothing need pass
from one life to the next to cause that next life to arise. One often does say
loosely that a man after death has gone to the deva-world or to hell. This is
said conventionally for mere convenience of expression, just as one would say
that the sun rises from the east whereas in reality the sun never rises from
the east, nor does a dead man go anywhere. It is only a metaphorical way of
expression. Present life is the effect of which past life is the cause. The
thoughts, words and deeds of the past life create powerful energies which can
condition the arising of the present life.
As stated by Venerable Ñaa.natiloka in Karma and Rebirth (The Wheel No. 9), “Thus nothing
transmigrates from one life to the next. And what we call our ego is in reality
only this process of continual change, of continual arising and passing away,
moment after moment, day after day, year after year, life after life. Just as a
wave that apparently hastens over the surface of the ocean is in reality
nothing but a continuous rising and falling of ever new masses of water, each
time called forth through the transmission of energy, even so, closely
considered, is there in the ultimate sense no permanent ego entity that passes
through the ocean of sa.msaara, but merely a process of physical and mental
phenomena taking place ever and anon, being whipped up by the impulse and will
for life.” Energy does not travel from place to place, but can cease to
manifest in one place and commence to manifest itself in another place.
Question 3
If nothing passes from one life to the
next, is the individual reborn identical with the individual who had died? Is
he the same as the one who died or is he someone else?
Answer
There is no
identity of personality between the two individuals, in the sense that neither
the body (ruupa)
nor the mind (naama)
of the dying individual is present in the individual reborn. There is however
this important fact not to be overlooked which makes it difficult
entirely to disconnect the dying individual from the individual reborn. We have
learnt that the mind (naama) is not a permanent unchanging entity. It is not
something fixed or static. It is dynamic. It is a process, a series (santati)
or flow of mental states each following the other with such rapidity that it
appears or seems to be something permanent whereas in reality it is not. We
have studied how this process of changing from one mental state to another does
not end with death. As a result of the cessation of the terminal mental state
at the moment of death another mental state arises (pa.tisandhi
vi.t.taa.na) though in a different plane or place. This is possible because thoughts are forces or energies, and cannot perish
with the body, on account of the principle of conservation of energy. Thus the process of change continues.
Thus there is a continuity of the mental part (naama)
of the dying individual. The terminal mental state of the dying individual and the initial mental
state of the individual reborn, belong to the same current of cause and effect. Hence it would not be accurate to say that there is no
identity whatsoever between the two individuals. At the same time, merely to
state that there is identity, can lead to a number of misconceptions.
The best answer to this question as to
whether the two individuals are the same is the answer given by Naagasena Thera
to King Milinda in respect of this same question: “na ca so, na ca a.t.to”- “Not the same, yet not another.” There
are some who remark that this answer is no answer but an elusive quibbling with
words. Such a remark is inconsiderate and undeserved. It is not every question
that can be satisfactorily answered with a categorical “yes” or “no.” As
Naagasena Thera on that occasion asked, “Is the flame of the lighted candle in
the second watch of the night identical with the flame in the third watch of
the night”? Neither “yes” nor “no” will explain the situation. When a child
becomes in the course of time an old man, would you say that the old man is
identical with the child? Can you explain the situation by a mere “yes” or
“no”? Here too, is it not more satisfactory to say, “na ca so, na ca
a.t.to”—“Not the same, yet not another”? There is, however, sufficient identity
between the child and the old man to fix moral responsibility on the old man
for the acts of the child. Similarly there is sufficient identity between the
dying individual and the individual reborn to establish the latter’s
responsibility for the acts of the former. As stated in the Visuddhi Magga (Ch. 17), “With a stream of continuity
there is neither identity nor otherness. For if there were absolute identity in
a stream of continuity, there would be no forming of curd from milk. And yet if
there were absolute otherness the curd would not be derived from the milk. And
so too with all causally arisen things. So neither absolute identity nor
absolute otherness should be assumed here.” (Venerable Ñaa.namoli Thera’s
translation).
Question 4
If every death is followed by a birth,
the world’s population should be constant, but how is it that, as everyone
knows, the world’s population is fast increasing year by year?
Answer
It is perfectly true that the world’s
population is fast increasing. It is also perfectly true that every death is
followed by a birth. There is however nothing inconsistent between these two
statements, when we consider the following:
1. Rebirth can take place not only in this world
(whose population only we can count) but in countless other world systems of
which the Buddhist texts speak.
2. Rebirth does not necessarily mean that the
preceding death was in a human plane. An animal or a celestial being dying can
be reborn as a human being.
3. Similarly a death does not necessarily mean that
the succeeding rebirth is in a human plane. A man dying can be reborn as an
animal or a god.
Question 5
If it is the
nature of the last conscious thought of the dying man that determines the place
and conditions of his next life, it can so happen that a man who is generally
good may happen to entertain a very bad thought at the dying moment, as a
result of which he is reborn under very bad circumstances. Has all the earlier good
he has done passed for nought?
Answer
Although the nature of the last thought,
generally speaking, determines the nature of the next birth, it does not mean
that all the earlier thoughts and deeds do not exert their influence on the
individual reborn. The last thought before death, being the very last, must
necessarily exert the first influence on the being-to-be. This does not prevent
the earlier thoughts and deeds from exerting their influence later on the new
life. The illustration is usually given of an enclosure full of cattle. An old
and weary bull happens to be just by the gate of the enclosure which is locked,
while younger and stronger bulls are found at the rear of the enclosure. As
soon as the gate is opened, the old bull will come out first and will walk away
ahead of the younger ones but in the long run the younger bulls will overtake
the old bull. Similarly the good or bad thoughts that occupy the mind when one
is at death’s door (aasanna kamma) will have immediate effect but the earlier thoughts
and deeds will in due course produce their effects. At the same time it must be
remembered, as indicated earlier, that the effects of garuka kamma (weighty
kamma) take precedence over aasanna kamma (death-proximate kamma or terminal
kamma).
Question 6
Is there such a close and immediate
connection between death and rebirth that there is no time-lapse between the
two? If that be so, then the position would be that death is birth and birth is
death. Is that correct?
Answer
Certain
schools of thought believe that there is an intermediate state (antaraabhava), but according to Theravaada Buddhism
there is no such state at all because death and birth are part of one process.
Immediately after the cessation of cuti citta (death-consciousness) the
pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na (re-linking consciousness) arises. The cessation of the
mara.nasa.t.taa javana citta and the cuti citta is necessarily followed by the
arising of the pa.tisandhi vi.t.taa.na. A death here means a birth elsewhere.
What disappears here appears elsewhere. A gate is both an exit gate and an
entrance gate according to the standpoint of the observer. If he sees anyone
coming out of it he regards it as an exit gate. But if some other observer sees
the same man entering through that gate, to that observer it is an entrance
gate, yet in both cases it was the same gate that was made use of. According to
Buddhism birth and death are merely communicating doors from one life to
another, the continuous process of consciousness being the medium uniting the different
lives of man. As Dahlke says, “Dying is nothing but a backward view of birth,
and birth is nothing but a forward view of death. In truth, both are the same,
a phase of unbroken grasping.” Dahlke takes up the case of the caterpillar
changing into a butterfly and says, “In the face of the miracles of birth and
death, science strongly resembles a boy making his first observations in
natural history. Finding in his glass case the caterpillar dead and the
butterfly born, he will say, ‘Two miracles! The old has died and something new
has made its appearance.’ Instead of both facts merging into one another in a
true conception of what has taken place, to his mistaken notion they fall apart
from one another and become problems defying solution. Even so is it with
science. Through the failure to recognize that the facts of death here and
birth there are forms of one and the same experience, instead of a single
comprehension of both under the one aspect, two miracles are found by her to be
the present. On this point the physicist has already left the stage of
childhood behind. Today he no longer says, ‘Two miracles! Heat is gone and
motion is present.’ He has found the clue, albeit it is true only in the form
of reaction. The biologist however still remains incapable of replacing two
miracles with a true and genuine conception. He is still unaware that it is
with dying that being born must be purchased. Hence he treats birth as a fact
by itself and death as a fact by itself, and so remains confronting both problems
internally insoluble.” Buddhism and Science.
Question 7
Why are we unable to recall our past
lives if indeed we had past lives? If we had past lives, we surely ought to be
able to recall them?
Answer
The general rule seems to be that death
being an obliterating agent, a person reborn is mentally incapable of
recalling his past life. This is nature’s protection, for it certainly is
confusing if past memories keep crowding into a present mind of a person reborn
when he has to keep abreast of present life conditions. There is a case of a
younger brother who had died and was reborn as his elder brother’s son and who
persisted in addressing his present father as brother, much to the father’s
embarrassment and despite severe scolding and warnings from relations not to
address a father as a brother. Even his mental attitude towards his father may
not be the same as that of a normal son towards his father.
But why is our inability to recall our past lives taken to mean that we
never had past lives? To those who argue thus, one would like to pose the
questions, “Which of us can remember the facts of our earliest infancy, let
alone a previous life? Which of us can remember being born? Does this mean that
there was no early infancy for us, or that we were not born at all?” The fact
is that at the time of birth and also in early infancy our minds for the most
part were existing in the bhava.nga or unconscious state and not in the fully
conscious state. Even during the day, a newborn infant is for the most part
sleeping. Human memory is not a perfect faculty. Even adults may forget an
incident within a few days of its occurrence, but this does not mean that that
incident did not occur. All incidents and events, if they once made their
impressions on the conscious viithi citta, are never lost even if the
impressions have faded from the conscious viithi citta because they have sunk
into the unconscious bhava.nga, from where, under certain circumstances, with
the proper technique, they can be recalled. These are the cases discussed in
Chapter XII. Then there are cases of spontaneous recall of past lives without
the intervention of hypnosis. These are discussed in Chapter XIII. When a
recall is possible and when not, is not yet known.
Question 8
The doctrine of rebirth postulates not
one previous birth but innumerable previous births. That being so, where is the
start of this series of successive births? Why is the doctrine of dependent
origination represented as a round of births and deaths and not as a straight
line of successive births and deaths, in which case we would be able to see the
starting point of this line of births and deaths? In other words is there no
First Cause?
Answer
When the Buddha promulgated his Dhamma,
it was not his purpose to explain the origin of life or the beginning to the
world. His one purpose was to explain to suffering mankind the universal
malady of dukkha (disharmony) and to prescribe a remedy thereto. This he felt
was the most pressing need for all time. He sought to show a way of escape from
the bondage of suffering. Anything outside this was irrelevant for his purpose,
as can be judged from this statement of his:
“Dukkha.t c’eva
pa.t.taapemi, dukkhassa ca nirodha.m.”
“One thing only do I teach sorrow and its
end to reach.”
(Majjhima Nikaaya Part I, Sutta 22)
In conformity with this limited purpose
he chose not to indulge in metaphysical theories and abstractions about the
origin of life and the beginning of the world—matters which have no bearing on
the aim and object of life as shown by him. According to him, the one purpose
of life is to develop ourselves morally (siila), develop the mental powers of
concentration (samaadhi), and by such aid obtain that higher vision (pa.t.taa) whereby one will
be able to see things as they actually are (yathaabhuuta.taa.na—reality), and so
be released from this life of suffering. Therefore, of all the facts that
comprise life’s entirety, he brought out only such as are necessary for the
realization of this goal.
Why the Doctrine of Rebirth Has No Reference to a First Cause
When the Buddha spoke on rebirth it was
only for the purpose of showing that the consequences of our
deeds in this life will follow us to a life hereafter, and that we should
therefore be careful and selective in regard to what we think or say or do. In
the same way when he spoke of previous births, he was only seeking to explain
that our condition in this life, our joys and our sorrows, our opportunities
and our impediments are often the results of our deeds in our previous lives.
His was essentially a practical purpose and therefore he was not in the least
interested to pursue further the process of rebirth and enter into
philosophical abstractions.
Why the Doctrine of
Dependent Origination has no Reference to a First Cause
As with the
doctrine of rebirth, so is it with the doctrine of dependent origination (pa.ticca-samuppaada). This doctrine, profound in its
significance and difficult of comprehension, sets out a series of 12 conditions
or states of factors
existing in various modes of dependence on one
another and forming, as it were, a round or cycle of conditioning (paccaya) and
conditioned (paccuppanna) factors and showing a great and
important process that is in existence. These 12 factors are ceaselessly in
operation and since this is a process of dependent origination, every condition
arises as a result of some other condition and proceeds on into yet another
condition. The factors that constitute the process are related to one another
not so much through the medium of cause as through the medium of conditionality
or dependence. Conditionality,
then, is the pattern of this process. (Pa.ticca
means conditional on or dependent on; samuppaada means arising
together). This is hardly the place to expound the profound doctrine of
dependent origination, but for the purpose of giving a full answer to the
question propounded, it is relevant to state that by this doctrine the Buddha
sought to point out the twofold manner in which this process works—the forward
manner which leads to repeated births and suffering, and the reverse manner,
which leads to the cessation of repeated births and suffering, and which
finally leads to the cessation of existence with all its suffering and sorrow.
He was keen on pointing out to us that it is left to us to choose the direction
in which the process should work in us.
The principle underlying this doctrine
can be expressed
thus in very simple and
general terms without reference to the particular 12 factors: “Imasmi.m sati, ida.m hoti—when this exists that exists. Imassa uppaadaa ida.m uppajjati—when this arises
that arises.” In the reverse order this principle works thus: “Imasmi.m asati ida.m na hoti—when this is not that is not. Imassa nirodhaa ida.m nirujjhati—when this ceases
that ceases.” (Cuula Sakuludaayi Sutta, Majjhima Nikaaya 79.) We thus have
a principle of conditionality, relativity and interdependence. This principle
is of universal applicability but the Buddha was concerned with applying this
principle to explain the process of life and also to show how the process can
be made to cease. The twelve factors which arise, each dependent on the
preceding factor are:
Avijjaa—Ignorance
Sa.nkhaaraa—Volitional activities
Vi.t.taa.na or Pa.tisandhivi.t.taa.na—Rebirth consciousness or re-linking consciousness
Naama-ruupa—Mind-body combination
Sa.laayatana—Six spheres or avenues of sense
Phassa—Contact
Vedanaa—Feeling
Ta.nhaa—Craving
Upaadaa.na—Grasping or clinging
Bhava or Kamma-bhava—The process of becoming or activities
Jaati—Birth
Jaraa-mara.na—Decay and death.
These are the
factors that are ceaselessly in operation in the long course of man’s existence
in sa.msaara, showing the endless rounds of births and deaths. This is the
process that goes on and on. The first two factors refer to the causative
conditions in the past life (atiita hetu). The next five factors refer to effects in the present
life (vattamaana phala). The next two refer to the causative conditions
in the present life (vattamaana hetu) and the last two refer to effects in
the future life (anaagata phala).
Since ignorance (avijjaa) is the root cause of all sorrows,
sufferings and disharmonies prevailing in the life process and is a continuing
cause, the Buddha in outlining the process made a start with ignorance (avijjaa), but it must not be taken to mean that
ignorance (avijjaa) is the primary origin of life or of the world. Buddha
considered avijjaa (ignorance) to be a sufficient starting point to understand
the process of life and to find a way out of it. Since avijjaa itself is
conditioned by sa.nkhaara and since sa.nkhaara is in turn conditioned by avijjaa, since birth follows
death and death follows birth, the process can best be represented by a circle
and not by a straight line. The twelve factors of the process are like twelve
spokes in a wheel. You can start considering the process from any one spoke in
a wheel, regarding each spoke as a factor but you will come back to that spoke
again. The process works in cyclic order. It is like a revolving wheel.
When a monk called Maalu.nkyaputta had
criticised the Buddha for his failure to elucidate these metaphysical problems
as to whether the world is eternal or not eternal, or whether the world is
finite or infinite, and had declared that he would not lead the holy life until
these matters were clarified, the Buddha calmly questioned this monk and
obtained his reply that his adoption of the holy life was not conditional on
the Buddha’s clarification of these problems. The Buddha then admonished this
foolish monk in the following manner: “It is as if, Maalu.nkyaputta, a person
were pierced by an arrow thickly smeared with poison and his friends and
relatives were to procure a surgeon and then this person were to say, ‘I will
not have this arrow taken out until I have the details of the person by whom I
was wounded, the nature of the arrow with which I was pierced, etc.’, that
person would die, Maalu.nkyaputta, before this would ever be known to him.”
Then the Buddha went on to explain why these metaphysical problems were not
dealt with by him. “Maalu.nkyaputta, I have not revealed whether the world is
eternal or not eternal, whether the world is finite or infinite, because these
are not profitable, do not concern the bases of holiness, are not conducive to disenchantment, to dispassion, to
cessation, to tranquility, to intuitive wisdom, to enlightenment or to
nibbaana. Therefore, I have not revealed them” (Cuula
Maalu.nkyaputta Sutta, Majjhima Nikaaya
63).
In the Anamatagga Sutta of the Sa.myutta Nikaaya, the Buddha has maintained that the
primary origin of life is something inconceivable. “Anamataggo’ya.m
Bhikkhave sa.msaaro, pubbako.ti na pa.t.taayati avijjaaniivara.naana.m
sattana.m ta.nhaana.m sa.myojanaana.m sandhaavata.m.” “Inconceivable, brethren, is the origin of this faring
on. The earliest point of this faring on of beings cloaked in ignorance and
bound by craving is not to be perceived.”
According to the Buddhist view referred
to earlier, nothing arises from a single cause. This is because all things, all
states, are both conditioning and also conditioned and are therefore
interdependent. No single event in this universe can remain isolated and unconnected
with some other events in some respect or other. Therefore a cause by itself
cannot stand. It must arise from other causes and conditions and not from
one isolated and unconnected cause, there being always a complexity of
interrelated and interdependent causes and conditions. Hence a First Cause
originating by itself is unthinkable. It can be a concept. It can be accepted
on blind faith, but it can never be recognized through the channels of reason
and experience.
Views of Great
Thinkers bbout a First Cause
The well-known
philosopher Joad in The Meaning of Life says, “The universe, we say, is not and cannot be
interpreted in terms of one fundamental principle and one only. Two principles
at least are required to account for the phenomena of plurality and diversity.”
Another well-known thinker, Aldous
Huxley, in Ends and Means,
says, “To refer phenomena back to a First Cause has ceased to be fashionable at
least in the West. We shall never succeed in changing our age of iron into an
age of gold until we give up our ambition to find a single cause for all our
ills and instead admit the existence of many causes acting simultaneously, or
intricate correlations and re-duplicated actions and reactions.”
Yet another well-known thinker, Bertrand
Russell, in Why I am not a Christian says, “There is no
reason to suppose that the world had a beginning at all. The idea that things must have a beginning is due to
the poverty of our imagination.”
From the earliest dawn of civilization thinking man has struggled
ceaselessly to discover a first beginning of all things but without success.
Whatever First Cause is assumed, there will arise immediately the very
pertinent question, “What is the cause of that cause?”
Question 9
Is the belief in life after death
confined to Buddhists only? Did such a belief exist prior to the advent of
Buddhism?
Answer
The belief in a
life after death is by no means confined to Buddhists only. This belief is one
of great antiquity and existed among the Egyptians and later among the Greeks,
the Romans and the Brahmins, long prior to the advent of Buddhism. There is
however an important difference between the beliefs of non-Buddhists and the
belief of Buddhists on this matter. The non-Buddhist belief is based an the
assumed existence of a soul within man which is said to be able to travel or
transmigrate from one life to another, and the word used in this connection is
not rebirth but reincarnation. The Buddhist belief is that nothing travels from
one life to another, nor is there any such unchanging, stable, static thing as
a soul. Hence the Paali word to denote rebirth is “punabbhava” which literally means “an existence
again.” It is not difficult to comprehend rebirth if the existence of a soul is
accepted, whereas the Buddhist theory of rebirth is difficult of comprehension
since Buddhism admits of no soul and strongly denies that anything travels from
one life to another. People of various religious systems and creeds have shared
the belief in a life after death. The ancient Egyptians believed in it and it
is said that the reason why they embalmed a dead body and placed on it some of
the food and clothing the dead man was fond of during his lifetime, was to
prevent his “ka” or soul from taking another body. The reason no doubt is
absurd but this custom indicates the prevalence of a belief in a life after
death. In the 6th century B.C. this belief found expression in the writings of
the Greek Pherecydes, Empedocles and Pythagoras. Later Plato expressed the same
view in his De Republica. The Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses has given an account of reincarnation.
Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico, Book
VI, while giving an account of the customs and manners of Gallia (ancient
France), which he had conquered, refers to the prevalence of this belief.
The religion in India before the advent
of Buddhism was Brahmanism which in its later Upanishadic stage also taught
the reincarnation of beings.
In early Christianity the idea of reincarnation appears to have existed,
although Jesus Christ never directly taught it nor repudiated it. In the Old
Testament, here and there, are passages where the idea of reincarnation is
dimly referred to (e.g. Psalm 126), while in the New Testament (St. Mark 9 and
St. Matthew 17) there is a reference to John the Baptist being a reincarnation
of Elijah. That the belief in reincarnation was prevalent during the time of
Jesus Christ is seen from a question put to Jesus Christ and referred to in St.
John 9, it is also seen from the answers given by his disciples to certain
questions put to them by Jesus Christ (St. Matthew 16 and St Luke 9).
St. Augustine in
his Confessions has strongly upheld
this doctrine. So did his pupil Origen in De Principiis and Contra Celsus. Origen used to preach this doctrine
wherever he went. While the early Christian church accepted this doctrine, the
later church fathers so strongly disapproved of it that at a meeting of the
Council of Constantinople specially convened in A.D. 533, the doctrine was
formally rejected as no more being a part of the Christian religion. (Vide Catholic Encyclopedia,
1909 edition, pages 236 and 237.)
As a result of this decision, Christian
belief in reincarnation died down, but from about the 19th century the belief
steadily gained ground. W. E. Atkinson and several others began to write about
reincarnation. Poets of the eminence of Wordsworth, Tennyson, Longfellow and
Masefield have expressed this belief, and in the present century an English
clergyman of note, Reverend Leslie Weatherhead, delivered a lecture which was
published in book form entitled The Case for
Reincarnation.
Question 10
Beyond an intellectual satisfaction that
certain truths hitherto accepted on faith have been established beyond doubt,
of what benefit are the researches of rebirth-investigators to those who are
not so interested.
Answer
That is a narrow view of the matter. The
truth of rebirth is of great consequence to all. There is hardly a man in whom
there is no yearning to know whence he came and whither he is bound. The
yearning is no doubt more marked in those who are educated, but even in the
untutored mind at least occasionally and dimly this yearning makes its presence
felt, especially on occasions like the sudden death of a near and dear
relative. This is not an intellectual quest. It is a natural urge. It is a
natural prompting of the heart to look for something that can explain the
mystery of life and death. When it is satisfactorily understood that life did
not for the first time commence here in this existence, that this present life
with its sorrows and joys, its anxieties and hopes, its losses and gains is the
logical outcome of a previous life in accordance with the great principle of
action and reaction, then life is no more an enigma or a puzzle. Life is then
seen to have a meaning and a purpose. Life then assumes a serious importance
not hitherto recognized. Life no more appears to be a dreary round of events
and circumstances. New hopes are felt. New visions are opened up. There will be
a complete reorientation of a man’s views on life as he begins to awaken to the
realization that it is he who steers the ship of his destiny, and that it is
he who is the builder of his future life. When he keenly realizes that every
thought, word and deed of his contributes to the building up of his future
life, he will learn to be more and more selective regarding the thoughts he
thinks, the words he utters and the actions he performs. If he has led a good
life, death will have no fears for him. He can cheerfully and confidently look
forward to a happy experience in the life hereafter. If he had led a bad life,
he will still have the consolation that kamma is not a finished product but is
something always in the making, and that the effects of bad actions can be
modified and altered by present good actions. Indeed, he will be happy in the
thought that he still has a chance to reconstruct his life, and that any such
attempt commenced in good earnest but left undone owing to the intervention of
death will have a chance of being taken up again in the life hereafter.
An understanding of rebirth will not only induce a refining influence on
one’s own life, it will also refine his attitude towards all sentient beings
without a single exception, since he will realize that all are his
fellow-passengers in the great journey of life, subject to the same universal
laws and fundamental principles to which he himself is subject. He will always
be ready and willing to give a helping hand to one who needs his help. He will
always forgive his enemies. He may hate the sin but he will forgive the sinner.
He will habitually wish all beings well.
Sabbe sattaa bhavantu sukhitattaa
May All Beings Be Happy
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