Do you believe in REBIRTH? - Part 1

INVESTIGATING REBIRTH - Part 1

Many Buddhists tend to accept rebirth as a part of their religious faith. They rely on traditional belief and religious scriptures to reinforce their acceptance of rebirth. However, few make the effort to investigate what rebirth is and how it takes place. Among those who refute the doctrine of rebirth, there are very few who take the trouble to study and to investigate rebirth as a subject. Those who want to know what rebirth is and how it takes place, must study and investigate this subject just as they would study any other subject (chemistry, physics, etc.); after study, they will be able to understand to a certain extent.

Many people are reluctant to accept rebirth because they cannot understand it or because they do not remember their previous birth. Just because they cannot understand or remember their previous life is not a reasonable argument. Remember that rebirth is a process that is not perceptible to the senses. Rebirth cannot be discovered by exact measurement and mathematical calculation or by the application of machines and scientific instruments. Rebirth cannot be photographed, measured or weighed. This does not mean that it is non-existent. Even the materialist scientist does not limit himself to immediately experienced data. The limits of our experience are so narrow that if we did not permit our thinking to go beyond them, human thought would be poor indeed. Modern man has come to the conclusion that there is much in the universe that we cannot perceive by our ordinary sense or even by scientific instruments.

Those who want to understand the subject of rebirth fully, must first eradicate their defilements and emotions from the mind; when the mind is completely purified, they can focus their mind through their psychic power to trace back their previous births.

Understanding Buddhists cannot accept rebirth as a mere theory or a religious dogma. They can accept rebirth as a fact that is subject to investigation and verification. There is much evidence that is available in favour of rebirth. The aim of this booklet is to present some of the lines of investigation along which enquiry into rebirth may be carried out.

HISTORICAL EVIDENCE

The teaching of rebirth has had a long history. From the dawn of civilization, rebirth has been universally held wherever men have lived, whether in primitive cultures or among highly civilized men. Rebirth is found in various forms in many ancient religions and philosophical systems in many parts of the world. Historical documents record that the belief in rebirth - viewed as transmigration or reincarnation - was accepted by some spiritual teachers and many ordinary men in the East as well as in the West.

The earliest record of the idea of rebirth is found in the ancient, Egyptian hieroglyphics, where the soul leaving the body is depicted in the form of a bird. Among the Greeks, rebirth was taught by Empedocles, Pythagoras and Plato. Among the early Christian Church fathers, the belief in rebirth was held by Clement of Alexandria (150 - 220), Justin Matryr, St. Gregory, bishop of Nyasa (257 - 332), Arnobius (290 AD.), Lactantius (early 14th century) and St. Jerome (340-420 AD.). Rebirth was officially declared a heresy in 553 AD. by the Council of Constantinople which was boycotted by the then presiding Pope Vigilius. Philosophers who believed in the possibility of rebirth include Immanuel Kant (1724 - 1804) and Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860).

BELIEVE IN ONE LIFE

Regarding life after death, we have only two alternative beliefs to choose from. One belief is that there is some sort of survival; the other belief is that there is annihilation. Those who believe in survival after death are usually influenced by the teachings of one religious teacher or another. Those who believe in annihilation have so far failed to present a philosophy that is acceptable to anyone who recognises spiritual values. Hence it is regarding the nature of survival after death that we have to speculate about. We can neither prove nor disprove that we shall continue to exist after our present life has apparently ceased.

Some religions postulate eternal damnation in hell, or everlasting happiness in paradise after death. The eternal residence is believed to be determined according to the belief and the behaviour of the individual during this single life-span here on earth. Is it reasonable to believe that the present, brief span of life is the only existence between two eternities of happiness and misery? Surely the few years we spend here on earth must certainly be an inadequate preparation for eternity.

Now we ask the question, "If a single life here decides the whole course of the future, why is one life only for a few weeks, and another for 70 or 80 years?" For one thing, the person who lives only a few weeks or years risks less chance of eternal damnation than does the person who lives up to 80. The person who lives only a few weeks or years cannot fully develop and mature his intelligence and understanding. He does not encounter all the pitfalls and the temptations that life abounds with.

If there is only one life on earth, then how could an all loving God permit the heart-burning and sorrow that always accompanies the bereavement of a young child? Moreover, where is the justice and mercy of God who permits one to live only a few years, and permits another to live his full span of life, then consigns the people to eternal damnation or everlasting happiness - depending on the merits and demerits of this single life? In other words, is it reasonable to accept that our entire destiny in eternity is determined by our behaviour here on earth - no matter how short or how cruel this single existence may be?

THE BUDDHA-WORD

The Buddha is our greatest authority on rebirth.

On the very night of His Enlightenment during the first watch, the Buddha developed retrocognitive knowledge which enabled Him to read His past lives. "I recalled," He declares, "my varied lot in former existences: first one life; then two lives; then three, four, five, ten, twenty, up to fifty lives; then a hundred, a thousand, hundred thousand, etc."

During the second watch, the Buddha, with clairvoyant vision, perceived beings disappearing from one state of existence and reappearing in another. He saw "the base and noble, the beautiful and ugly, the happy and miserable passing according to their deeds."

These are the very first utterances of the Buddha regarding the question of rebirth. These references conclusively prove that the Buddha did not borrow this truth of rebirth from any pre-existing source, but spoke from personal knowledge - a knowledge which was supernormal, developed by Himself, and which could be developed by others as well.

In His paean of joy (udana), the Buddha says; "Through many a birth wandered I, seeking the builder of this house. Sorrowful indeed is birth again and again."

In His very first discourse, the Dhammacakka Sutta, the Buddha comments on the second Noble Truth: "This very craving leads to rebirth." The Buddha concludes that discourse with the words, "This is my last birth. Now there is no more rebirth."

The Majjhima Nikaya relates that the Buddha, out of compassion for beings, surveyed the world with His Buddha-Vision before He decided to teach the Dhamma. At this time, He perceived beings who realized the faults and fears and how they affect a future life.

In several discourses, the Buddha clearly states that beings that have done evil are born in woeful states after their death; and beings that have done good are born in blissful states after their death.

Incidental reference to some of the past lives of the Buddha are found in the Tipitaka. Such references are also found in the Jataka stories which deal with His previous lives.

In the Parinibbana Sutta, an unusual direct reference is made to the departed ones. The Venerable Ananda desired to know from the Buddha
the future state of several persons who had died in a certain village. The Buddha patiently described their destinies.

The above instances can easily be multiplied from the Tipitaka to show that the Buddha did expound the doctrine of rebirth as a verifiable truth.

Following the Buddha's instructions, His disciples also developed this retrocognitive knowledge and were able to read a vast yet limited number of their past lives. The Buddha's power in this direction was limitless.

Thus through his own personal knowledge and direct vision and experience, the Buddha spoke on the truth of rebirth.

PSYCHIC POWER: RECALLING THE PAST
Buddhists are generally aware that advanced meditators can gain psychic powers by practising concentration of mind up to the 4th jhana. One of these psychic powers is the ability to recall past lives. This power to recall past lives is gained by having access to memories that are available to the sub-conscious mind. Most men do not develop their purity and their concentration to the high stage necessary to achieve this power. Since only a few individuals have exerted themselves and have reached so high a stage of spiritual maturity, the rest of us must rely on the testimony of these saints, just as those who have not travelled to a foreign country have to put their trust in the statement of reliable travellers. Nevertheless, the fact remains that one of the powers of the human mind is the ability to recall the past. Those who have developed this power can directly confirm the doctrine of rebirth. Such persons can read their past just as one might recall a past incident of one's present life.

HOW TO RECALL THE PAST?

A writer on science and Buddhism, Historing Tan, offers an explanation on how man might recall the past. His memory theory is based on the principle of the conservation of consciousness as follows:

Psychologists who studied the memory of human thought speculated that memory was preserved in the protein molecules of the brain cell. On the other hand, physiologists who studied the structure of the human body with radio-isotopes found that nearly 98% of the cells are changed once in a year, and the protein molecules in the brain cell are metabolized almost entirely in one day or two days. The power of memory, however, is preserved to reflect impressions of many decades ago; if hypnotic methods are used, recall goes back to happenings of the past generations and to previous lives. The question arises: in what way do the protein molecules transfer their memory to the newly-born ones while they are dying away? Some scientists have passed their memory over to the newly-born ones through electric impulses. If this is so, then the following conclusion is inevitable: if memory can be conserved in electric energy, why should the consciousness, which produces memory and imagination, not be possible to be conserved in the space which is full of electricity?

If the principle of the conservation of consciousness is valid, it offers a theoretical explanation for rebirth.

PSYCHIC RESEARCH

All evidence of psychic research tends to confirm the teaching of rebirth.

Experiences of some reliable, modern psychics shed light upon this problem of rebirth. These experiences include ghostly phenomena, spiritcommunication, alternating and multiple personalities, etc.

The phenomenon of secondary personalities has to be explained either as remnants of past individual experiences or as 'possession'. The former explanation appears more reasonable but the latter cannot be totally rejected.

How often do we meet persons we have never before met and instinctively feel that they are familiar to us? How often do we visit places and instinctively feel impressed that we are perfectly acquainted with those surroundings?

SPIRITUALISM

Many Western spiritualists have now come to accept rebirth as a fact because it is the only valid explanation of certain data which cannot otherwise be fitted into the spiritualist concept. To give only one example, it is well known that spiritualist mediums find it impossible to contact certain people after death, while others are able to do so. This has always been a great difficulty to spiritualists, but the Buddhist answer is a simple one: not all are reborn into the so-called spirit world. Furthermore, some of these planes of existence are too remote from the human world to be accessible to any ordinary medium.

HYPNOTISM: A TECHNIQUE FOR INVESTIGATING REBIRTH

Psychic power takes a long time and a high degree of self purification. Hypnotism seems to provide a short-cut technique for releasing some of the dormant memories of former lives. Hypnotism is certainly an easier method to tap the memories that are latent in the subconscious mind. For a long time it has been known that under deep hypnosis, events in very early infancy outside the normal range of memory, could be recalled; this method was used increasingly for the treatment of personality disorders. As some subjects show an involuntary resistance to hypnosis, this technique is not universally applicable in order to tap the memories of previous lives. But where it is applicable, it has borne remarkable results to collaborate the doctrine of rebirth.

If a person can be put into a deep, hypnotic trance, his conscious mind recedes and the subconscious starts functioning. If the subconscious can be made to function, it is sharp and has the ability to recall memories that are not available to the normal conscious mind. In a state of deep hypnosis, the subject can regress to a particular point in childhood, infancy, or to a prenatal period where he has access to memories latent in the subconscious mind. In this state, known as hyperamnesia, the subject becomes in effect the child or person he was, and he relives experiences that have long been buried in the subconscious mind.

There are numerous cases on record of persons who have remembered their previous lives while in a deep hypnotic state. Hypnotists working in widely separated countries with subjects of different cultures and traditions have come across what appears to be memories of previous lives. Some of these cases have been investigated, and found to be correct*. The most famous of these cases is the Bridey Murphy Case in America.

Psychiatrists working with hypnosis (and other techniques) are still reluctant to accept completely the doctrine of rebirth. However, one
psychiatrist, Dr. Alexander Cannon in his book The Power Within, offers this conclusion: "For years the theory of reincarnation was a nightmare to me; and I did my best to disprove it, and even argued with my trance subjects to the effect that they were talking nonsense; yet as the years went by, and one subject after another told me the same story in spite of different and varied conscious beliefs, in effect until now, well over a thousand cases have been investigated and I have now to admit there is such a thing as reincarnation."

* Some book's which deal with memories of previous lives obtained under hypnosis include:

1. The Successive Lives by Col Albert de Rochas
2. The Three Lives of Naomi Henry by Henry Blythe
3. Who was Anne Okendan? by Arnoll Bloxom
4. Explorations of a Hypnotist by Dr. Johnathan Rodney
5. The Search for Bridey Murphy by Morey Berenstein
6. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation by Dr. Ian Stevenson
7. The Power Within by Dr. Alexander Cannon

WHY INEQUALITIES?

When considering this world and when thinking of the diverse destinies of the beings living in this world, it will appear to most thoughtful people as if everything in nature is unjust. Observing the inequalities and unfairness of life, the thoughtful person asks ‘Why?' Why is one man rich and powerful while another is poor and distressed? Why is one man all his life well and healthy, while another from his very birth is sickly and inclined to many diseases? Why is one man endowed with attractive appearance and intelligence while another is repulsive and ugly? Why some people are blind, idiotic or deaf while others are not? Why is one child born amidst utter misery and wretched people, while another child is born in the midst of plenty and comfort? Why is one child raised as a criminal while another is born of noble-minded parents and enjoys all the advantages of the best mental and moral education?

Why does one man, often without the slightest effort, succeed in all his enterprises, while another fails in all his plans? Why can one man live in luxury, while another man has to live in poverty and distress? Why is one man happy while another is sad? Why does one man enjoy long life while another is carried away to death in the prime of his life? Why do such differences exist in nature? How are we to account for the inequality, injustice and discrimination among men? Do these glaring inequalities occur by chance or are they "planned by God"? Neither of these explanations is convincing. If God is merciful, then why did he create such adverse circumstances for man to live in? A merciful God must be capable of doing something to prevent these inequalities. Another explanation is to attribute the inequality to the unfairness of the capitalistic structure of society. But this explanation does not account for intellectual inequality, personality difference, etc. In Buddhism, these inequalities are explained by Kamma and Rebirth.

KAMMA AND REBIRTH

The theory of kamma is the theory of cause and effect, of action and reaction; it is a natural law, which has nothing to do with the idea of justice or reward or punishment. Every volitional action produces its effects or results. If a good action produces good effects and a bad action, bad effects, it is not justice, or reward, or punishment meted out by anybody or any power sitting in judgment on your action, but this is in virtue of its own nature, its own law.

The law of Kamma, unlike the laws of physics, chemistry, etc is intangible, immeasurable and unpredictable. Since it is an imperceptible law, it cannot be demonstrated by scientific experiments. According to the doctrine of kamma and rebirth, deeds - whether good or bad - have their retribution sometime, somewhere.

According to the law of kamma, the circumstances and conditions that make up the destiny of a being come into existence with a previous cause and the presence of appropriate conditions. Just as, for example, from a rotten mango seed never will come a healthy mango tree with healthy and sweet fruits, just so the evil, volitional actions or kamma produced in former births, are the seed or root causes of evil destiny in a later birth.

The only reasonable and sound explanation for the inequality among men is found in the doctrine of kamma and rebirth. Kamma and rebirth offer the only rational, consistent explanation that can satisfy unbiased and impartial thinkers.

The doctrine that rebirth occurs conditioned by kamma was accepted by the Indian teachers of old who preceded the Buddha. It is incorporated in the Upanishad and Vedanta teachings, as in the Bhagavad Gita. The teaching is that rebirth is conditioned by the good and evil that one has acquired in this and in previous lives. As this process of rebirth and death is fraught with much suffering, emancipation from this cycle of births and deaths is the goal of all Indian systems of philosophy. The Buddha taught, "Owners and heirs of their actions are beings, the actions divide beings into high and low.”

Kamma and rebirth account for the following:

1. They account for the problem of suffering for which we ourselves are responsible.
2. They explain the inequalities among humans.
3. They account for the arising of geniuses and infant prodigies.
4. They explain why identical twins who are physically alike, enjoying equal privileges, exhibit totally different characteristics, mentally, intellectually and morally.
5. They account for the dissimilarities amongst children of the same family though heredity may account for the similarities.
6. They account for special abilities of men by their parental tendencies.
7. They account for the normal and intellectual differences between parents and children.
8. They explain how infants spontaneously develop such passions as greed, anger and jealousy.
9. They account for the instinctive likes and dislikes at first sight.
10. They explain how in us are found "a rubbish heap of evil and treasure trove of good".
11. They account for the unexpected outbursts of passion in a highly civilized person and for the sudden transformation of a criminal into a saint.
12. They explain how profligates are born to saintly parents and saintly children to profligates.
13. They explain how we are the result of what we were, we will be the result of what we are; in other words, we are not absolutely what we were and will not be absolutely what we are.
14. They explain the causes of untimely deaths and unexpected changes in fortune.
15. Above all they account for the arising of omniscient, perfect spiritual teachers like the Buddhas, who possess incomparable physical, mental and intellectual characteristics which can be explained only by Kamma and a series of births.

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT AND PERSONALITY

The pre-existence of human beings is supported by the great variety and degree of achievement found among the people. There is a huge gap between the capacities and performance of people in spiritual, moral, intellectual and artistic fields. This great gulf in the achievement of human beings separates the primitive from the advanced type of beings. This suggests that the spiritual, moral, intellectual and artistic stages are the result of an evolutionary process through a long period.

On the one hand, there are the ordinary runs of humanity with their average attainments. On the other hand, there arise in this world highly developed personalities and Perfect Ones like the Buddhas. Could they evolve suddenly? Could they be the product of a single existence?

How are we to account for personalities like Homer and Plato, men of genius like Shakespeare, infant prodigies like Pascal, Mozart, Beethoven and so forth? How can these huge differences between men of highest attainments and those of lowest attainments be accountable in terms of the one-life theory?

How can the greatness of such men as Socrates, Einstein, Gandhi, etc evolve within a single life-span? Surely these attainments represent the results of past achievements.

CHILD PRODIGIES

Child prodigies appear on this earth from time to time. Although these child prodigies do not constitute direct evidence for rebirth, they do, however, present a phenomenon for which biology and other sciences cannot account.

How are we to explain the extraordinary talents and faculties of these child prodigies?

• Bentham who in his fourth year could read and write Latin and Greek
.• Babington Macaulay who in his sixth year wrote a Compendium of World History.
• Thomas Macaulay the writer who could speak like an adult when he was only one-and-half years old. At age seven, he was writing history.
• Beethoven who gave public performances when he was only seven. • Mozart who wrote musical compositions before his sixth year. • Voltaire who read the fables of Fontaine when he was three years old. • Christian Heinecken who could talk within a few hours of his birth,
repeat passages from the Bible at one, answer any questions on Geography at two, speak French and Latin at three, and be a student of philosophy at four. • John Stuart Mill who could read Greek at three.
• William James Sidis at age two, could read, write and speak French, Russian, English and German. At eight, he also knew some Latin and Greek.
• Sir William Hamilton, the British diplomat could speak Hebrew at three, and by the time he was seven, he was said to have more knowledge on this subject than an average university student studying it. Hamilton could speak twelve languages including Persian, Urdu and Hindustani.
• Ferruco Burco the Italian boy who could conduct a full symphony orchestra when he was only four years old.
• Giancella de Mareo an Italian girl who conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra when she was eight years old.

It is interesting to note that prodigies and geniuses for the most part came from parents who possessed no such skill at all.

Explaining prodigies seems to be a problem for scientists. Some medical men are of the opinion that prodigies are the outcome of abnormal glands. The extraordinary hypertrophy of glands of certain individuals may also be due to a past kammic cause. However, scientists do not explain why glands hypertrophy in just a few and not in all people. The real problem remains unsolved.

Is it not reasonable to assume that these prodigies and geniuses acquired their skills in their previous lives? Their talents can be explained as the results of intensive cultivation in the past. There seems to be no other adequate explanation for such extraordinary faculties.

REMEMBERING THE PAST

a) THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND AND MEMORY

If rebirth is a fact, then why do most people not remember their previous lives? Most human beings do not even remember the details of their infancy. Nor do they remember the day they were born. There is a belief that it is difficult for the following categories of human beings to remember their past existence if and when they are reborn as human beings:

1. Children who die young.
2. Those who die old and senile
3. Those who are strongly addicted to drugs or intoxicants.
4. Those whose mother, during conception, have been sickly or have had to toil laboriously or have been reckless or imprudent during pregnancy.
5. The children in the womb being stunned and startled lose all knowledge of their past existence.

The fact remains that the human mind seems to operate in such a manner that it does not remember all the past events. The mind and its workings are generally not understood by most people. Little do we know of the subconscious which is the major portion of the mind that we do not usually utilise. In this part of the mind are latent the memories of all our past experiences including those of our previous lives.

It has been scientifically demonstrated by western science that our ordinary consciousness is but a reflex of our subconscious, no more important in reality than the light of the moon is when contrasted with the light of the sun; in this simile, the moon-light represents the ordinary consciousness and the sunlight represents the subconscious. Modern science also accepts the hypothesis that in the subconscious there is complete memory not only of all the minutest of detail of our present life, but of past states of conscious existence parallel to our present existence.

It is a good thing we do not remember the mistakes, miseries and prejudices of our previous life as they would make the present life intolerable. There are rebirths in states that are non-human, where impressions are not registered in the consciousness clearly. A series of such lives will completely obliterate all memories.

b) THOSE WHO CLAIM TO REMEMBER THE PAST

Evidence for rebirth is available from the testimonies of those who claim to spontaneously remember their past lives. In such cases, the memories of the previous lives come spontaneously from the normal, conscious mind.

Authentic reports about children who remembered their previous lives come not only from India and the Buddhist countries, but also from Christian countries in Europe and America where there is no belief in rebirth. Competent investigators have checked the memories of these children and have found some of them to be distinct and true.

Some extraordinary persons, especially children, spontaneously develop, according to the laws of association, the memory of their past birth. There are numerous cases on record of children and others who have been able to recall their past lives under normal consciousness and to give a multitude of details. Some of these have been checked, verified and authenticated by competent research workers. Forty-four such cases are referred to by Dr. Stevenson of the University of Virginia and discussed in his book on Rebirth.

The American scientist, Dr. Ian Stevenson, who is the author of Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation, stated that years of research into the question of rebirth has left him convinced that there "may be life after death'. Dr. Stevenson has been trying to verify the theory of rebirth since 1961 when he first visited India. Until now, he and his computer have investigated and scientifically analysed 1,200 claims of rebirth including 170 cases from India. Dr. Stevenson says that the majority of the cases he studied "are suggestive of reincarnation." The highest number of rebirth claims came from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon and the majority of those who remember their previous lives were children. Dr. Stevenson says that there is no reason for pooh-poohing the claims of rebirth as superstition and that rebirth merits serious academic research. He says that in some cases, origin of birthmarks like moles and warts could be traced back to stab injuries or shot wounds received in previous lives.

A single such well-attested case is in itself enough for a discerning student to believe in a past birth.

NO SOUL

The Buddhist doctrine of rebirth must be differentiated from the transmigrating and reincarnation of other systems which postulate the existence of an eternal soul. Buddhism, however, denies the existence of a transmigrating, permanent soul.

To justify the existence of endless happiness in an eternal heaven, and unending torment in an eternal hell, it is absolutely necessary to postulate the existence of an immortal soul. Otherwise, how can what is sinned on earth be punished in everlasting hell?

"It should be that the old distinction between soul and body has evaporated," said Bertrand Russell, "Quite as much because 'matter' has lost its solidity just as mind has lost its spirituality. Psychology is just beginning to be scientific. In the present state of psychology, belief in immortality can at any rate claim no support from science."

According to this learned author of "The Riddle of the Universe" - "The theological proof that the personal creator has breathed an immortal soul (generally regarded as a position of the Divine soul) into man is a pure myth. The cosmological proof - that the ‘moral order of the world’ demands the eternal duration of the human soul - is a baseless dogma. The theological proof - that the 'higher destiny' of man involves the perfecting of his defective, earthly soul beyond the grave, rests on a false anthropism. The moral proof - that the defects and the unsatisfied desires of earthly existence must be fulfilled by compensative justice on the side of eternity - is nothing more than pious wish. The ethnological proof - that the belief in immortality is an innate truth that is common to all humanity - is an error in fact.”

UNDERSTANDING THE ANATTA (NO SOUL) TEACHING

To understand rebirth, one must understand the Anatta teaching first.

As long as man fails to see things as processes, as movements, he will never understand the Anatta (no-Soul) teaching of the Buddha. It is very difficult for people to break the habit of continually thinking of their own mind and body and the external world as inseparable and whole units. This is why people impatiently ask the question, if there is no persisting entity, no unchanging principle like Self or Soul (Atman), then what is it that experiences the results of deeds here and hereafter? In other words, is it the doer of the act or another who reaps its results in the succeeding birth? To say that he who sows is absolutely the same as he who reaps is one extreme.

To say that he who sows is totally different from he who reaps is the other extreme. The simple reason for this is that what we call life is a flow of physical and mental processes or energies arising and ceasing constantly. Thus it is not possible to say that the doer himself experiences the results because he is changing now, every moment of his life. Yet life is a continuous process. The child is not the same as the adolescent, the adolescent is not the same as the adult; they are neither the same nor totally different persons. There is only the flow of bodily and mental processes. Thus Buddhaghosa in the Visuddhi Magga says,

 “No doer of the deed is there, No one, who experiences its result; Bare phenomena flow on This alone is the right view.”

The change and continuity of life can be illustrated by considering the evolution of the butterfly. In its initial stage, the butterfly is an egg. Then it turns into a caterpillar. This process occurs in the course of one life-time. The butterfly is neither the same as, nor totally different from, the caterpillar. Here also there is a flux of life, or a continuity.

MAN: A PSYCHO-PHYSICAL PROCESS

Man believes that he has some eternal entity within himself. He calls this eternal entity by different names: soul, Atta, self, ego, I, me, personality, being, etc. The Buddha taught that what we take to be as something eternal is merely a combination of changing psycho-physical forces or energies. The process of these psycho-physical forces is not static but constantly becoming and passing away. This psycho-physical process is also called the five aggregates. What is called a 'being' is nothing but a combination of these ever-changing aggregates or forces: aggregate of matter (rupa khandha), aggregate of feeling or sensation (vedana khandha), aggregate of perception (sanna khandha), aggregate of mental formations (sankhara khandha) and aggregate of consciousness (vinnana khandha).

Birth is the combination of these five aggregates. Life is the existence of the five aggregates. Death is the dissolution of the five aggregates. Rebirth is the recombination of the five aggregates.

Buddhism does not totally deny the existence of a personality in an empirical sense. It denies, in an ultimate sense, an identical being of a permanent entity; but it does not deny a continuity in process. The Buddhist philosophical term for an individual is santati - that is, a flux or continuity. This uninterrupted flux or continuity of psycho-physical phenomena conditioned by kamma, having no perceptible source in the beginningless past nor any end to its continuation in the future, except by the Eightfold Path, is the Buddhist substitute for the permanent ego or eternal soul in other religious systems.

REBIRTH WITHOUT A SOUL

One must first understand the Buddha's analysis of man as a psychophysical process (or a combination of ever-changing aggregates) in order to understand how rebirth can be possible without a soul to be reborn.

According to Buddhism, birth is the coming into being of the aggregates (khandhas).

Just as the arising of a physical state is conditioned by a preceding state as its cause, even so the appearance of this psycho-physical phenomenon is conditioned by causes preceding its birth. The present process of becoming is the result of the craving for becoming in the previous birth. The present instinctive craving is conditioning life in a future birth.

As the process of one life-span is possible without a permanent entity passing from one thought-moment to another, a series of lifeprocesses is possible without anything to transmigrate from one life to another.

“If there is no soul to be reborn, then what is it that is reborn?” This is the question that King Milinda asked Ven. Nagasena. “A psycho-physical combination (mind and body / Nama Rupa) is the answer, oh King." replied Ven. Nagasena. “But how, Ven. Sir? Is it the same psycho-physical combination as this present one?" "No, oh King. But the present psycho-physical combination produces kammically wholesome and unwholesome volitional activities. Through such kamma, a new psycho-physical combination will be born. "Then, Ven. Sir, can rebirth take place without passing over of anything?" "Let me illustrate, O King: if a man lights a lamp with the help of another lamp, in this case, does the light of one lamp pass over to the other lamp?" "No, Ven. Sir." "Just so, O King, does rebirth take place without transmigration.

SAMSARA: THE WHEEL OF EXISTENCE

The constant succession of birth and death of each individual lifeflux is technically known as samsara. Samsara is the recurrent wandering of the life-flux in the ocean of birth and death. Concerning samsara, the Buddha says: "Without cognizable end is this samsara. A first beginning of beings who, obstructed by ignorance and fettered by craving wander and fare on, is not to be perceived." This life-stream or samsara flows ad infinitum, as long as it is fed by the muddy waters of ignorance and craving. When these two are completely cut off, then only does the life-stream cease to flow; then rebirth ends, as in the case of Buddhas and Arahats. The ultimate beginning of this life-stream cannot be determined, as a stage cannot be perceived when this life-force was not fraught with ignorance and craving. The round of rebirths or samsara does not automatically come to an end. Nor is there any point at which all beings revolving in samsara, gain their release by reason of its ceasing, for it has no temporal boundaries. By understanding samsara, we are able to gain assurance that there is, in truth, a moral principle governing the universe. By learning to use these laws in the right way, we become able to control and to guide our individual destiny by a higher spiritual purpose and towards a more certain goal. If life can extend forward in time beyond the grave, it must surely be capable of having extended from the past into the present. 'From the womb to the tomb’ has its complement in 'From the tomb to the womb'; to be born many times is no more miraculous than to have been born once.

The Buddha explained samsara or the process of the wheel of existence in his teaching of Paticca Samuppada.

THE PROCESS OF REBIRTH: PATICCA SAMUPPADA

How rebirth occurs has been fully explained by the Buddha in the Paticca Samuppada. Paticca Samuppada is a discourse on the process of birth and death; it is not a theory of the evolution of the world from primordial matter. It deals with the cause of rebirth and suffering in order to get rid of the ills of life. It makes no attempt to solve the riddle of an absolute origin of life. To develop a clear insight into the conditioned nature of all things and to understand how rebirth is dependent on certain conditions, one must first investigate the Twelve Links of the Wheel of Life as explained by the Buddha in Paticca Samuppada. Ignorance is the first link or the cause of the wheel of life. Ignorance of things as they truly are and ignorance of oneself as one truly is, is the ignorance that clouds all right understanding. Dependent on ignorance arise activities (sankara) which include moral and immoral thoughts, words and deeds. Actions, whether good or bad, which are directly or indirectly rooted in ignorance, must necessarily produce their due effects: they tend to prolong wandering in the ocean of life. Nevertheless, good deeds that are free from delusion, hate and greed are necessary to get rid of the ills of life. Dependent on activities arises relinking or rebirth-consciousness with the present and is the initial consciousness one experiences at the moment of conception. Simultaneous with the arising of the rebirth-consciousness, there occur mind and matter (nama-rupa). From this psycho-physical phenomena evolve the six senses. Because of the six senses, contact sets in. Contact leads to sensations or feelings. Dependent on feelings arises craving which conditions attachment if the objects are desirable. Attachment produces becoming (bhava) which in turn, conditions future birth. Old age and death are the inevitable results of birth. These links or conditions that make up the Wheel of Life can be summed up thus: if, on account of a cause, an effect arises, then if the cause ceases, the effect must also cease. In other words, when A arises, then B arises; when A ceases, then B also ceases. The reverse order of the Paticca Samuppada will make the matter clear:

Old age and death are only possible in and with a corporeal organism, that is to say, a six-sense machine. Such an organism must be born which presupposes birth. But birth is the inevitable result of past kamma or action which is conditioned by attachment to craving. Such craving appears when sensation arises. Sensation is the outcome of contact between the senses and sense objects. Hence the organs of sense cannot exist without mind and body. Mind originates with a rebirthconsciousness which is due to ignorance of things as they truly are. This process of birth and death continues ad infinitum. A beginning of this process cannot be determined as it is impossible to conceive of a time when this life-flux was not encompassed by ignorance. But when this ignorance is replaced by wisdom and the life-flux realises Nibbana, then only does the rebirth process terminate.

CONDITIONS FOR BIRTH AS A HUMAN BEING

According to the scientific point of view, we are the direct products of the sperm and ovum cells provided by our parents. But science does not give a satisfactory explanation with regard to the development of the mind which is infinitely more important than machinery of man's material body. From the scientific point of view, we are absolutely parent-born. As such, life precedes life. However, with regard to the origin of the first protoplasm of life, scientists plead ignorance. From the Buddhist point of view, we are born from the matrix of action. Parents merely provide us with a material layer. As such, being precedes being. At the moment of conception, it is kamma that conditions the initial consciousness that vitalizes the foetus. It is this invisible kammic energy, generated from the past birth, that produces mental physical phenomenon to complete the trio that constitutes man. Concerning the conditions for birth or for the conception of beings, the Buddha says, "A germ of life is planted when three conditions are found in combination. If mother and father come together, but it is not the mother’s fertile period, and the 'being-to-be-born' is not present, then no germ of life is planted. If mother and father come together and it is the mother's fertile period, but the ‘being to-be-born’ is not present, then no germ of life is planted. If mother and father come together, and it is the mother's fertile period, and the 'being-to-be-born' is also present, then by the combination of these three conditions, a germ of life is planted." For a being-to-be-born here, somewhere a being must die. The birth of a being - which strictly means the arising of the aggregates or psycho-physical phenomena in this present life - corresponds to the death of a being in a past life - just as (in conventional terms) the rising of the sun in one place means the setting of the sun in another place. This enigmatic statement may be better understood by imagining life as a wave and not as a straight line. Birth and death are only phases of the same process. Birth precedes death, and death on the other hand precedes birth. This constant succession of birth and death in connection with each individual life-flux constitutes what is technically known as samsara - recurrent wandering. If science could ultimately succeed in generating life from nonliving matter, if babies could one day be born from test tubes, this achievement would make no difference to the Buddhist doctrine of rebirth according to kamma. The kammic energy may remanifest through
Vital elements brought together artificially in the same way as it does through the natural biological processes. The artificial production of living organisms may deal the final blow to the theory of divine creation, but it will not in any way affect the Buddhist explanation of life.

CONDITIONS FOR REBIRTH: THE NIYAMAS

Kamma alone does not create life. Kamma is only one of the five orders or processes or niyamas which operate in the physical and mental realms. Each of the five niyamas helps to produce a life; each is a condition for the life. Every mental or physical phenomenon can be explained by these all-embracing processes or niyamas which are laws in themselves.

1. Utu Niyama: refers to the physical, inorganic order. This order includes such phenomena as the seasonal winds and rains, the unerring sequence of the four seasons, characteristic seasonal changes and events, the causes of wind and rains, the nature of heat, etc.
2. Bija Niyama: refers to the physical, organic order. This order includes such phenomena as germs and seeds: how rice is produced from rice seed, how sugar taste results from sugar-cane or honey, the peculiar characteristics of certain fruits, etc. The scientific theory of cells and genes and the physical similarity of twins may be ascribed to this order.
3. Kamma Niyama: refers to the order of action (condition) and result. This natural law states that desirable and undesirable acts produce corresponding good and bad results. As surely as water sees its own level, so does kamma, given opportunity, produce its inevitable result - not in the form of reward or punishment but as an innate sequence. This sequence of cause and effect is as natural and necessary as the way of the sun and the moon.
4. Dhamma Niyama: refers to the order of the norm; e.g. the natural phenomena occurring at the advent of a Bodhisatta in his last birth. Gravitation and other similar laws of nature, the reason for being good, and so forth, may be included in this group. 5. Citta Niyama: refers to the order of the mind or psychic laws. This order includes such phenomena as processes of consciousness, constituents of consciousness, power of mind, etc. All psychic phenomena which are inexplicable to modern science are included in this order: telepathy, telesthesia, retrocognition, premonition, clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought reading, etc.