Chapter 31 Chapter 29 What is the Reborn

This life and that life are neither one nor two; There is no author or receiver, only karma flows by itself. - Nalanda Buddhism does not believe that there is a fixed self or eternal soul outside of the mind and matter that make up the being.This self or soul is acquired in a mystical way from the same mystical origin. The eternal soul remains immutable forever.If the soul, which is considered to be the essence of man, is eternal, human beings cannot rise and fall, and no one can explain why "different souls are so diverse from the beginning." In order to make eternity To legitimize the infinite existence of the bliss of heaven, and to legitimize the endless suffering of an endless hell, it is absolutely necessary to conceive an immortal soul.

"It should be said," Bert de Russel wrote in "Religion and Science)) (1960. PP. 132133): "The distinction between soul and body has disappeared, just as matter has lost its solidity. , the mind loses its spirituality," and then he writes (p. 143): "Psychology . . . The soul cannot find evidence in science." A learned scholar, author of The Mysteries of the Universe, writes: "The theological basis for the belief that the Creator of man transports the eternal soul (generally said to be a part of the divine self) to the individual is purely a mystery. Cosmology holds that the moral standardization of the world requires the human soul to last forever. , this theoretical basis is a groundless dogma. Cosmic teleology holds that a higher destination includes the process of the soul perfecting individual defects after death. This theoretical basis is an absurd anthropology. Moral ethics holds that secular Flaws and insatiable desires must be fulfilled by the compensation of another aspect of eternity. This theoretical basis is at best a pious hope. Ethnology believes that, like belief in God, belief in eternity is a common belief of all human beings Inner truth. This theoretical basis is actually a big mistake. Ontology believes that the soul is a simple, immaterial, independently existing entity that does not participate in death. This theoretical basis is completely wrong. The nonsense of the theorists. All these and others like them are very dangerous. They have been criticized by science for decades and have been completely discarded."

If no form of spirit or soul is passed from one life to the next, what is rebirth? The implication of this question is: something is going to be reborn. Several centuries ago, merchants argued: "Because I think, there is a me (Cotito, ergosum)." This is true, but first of all, it must be proved that there is a thinking self. We say the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, even though we all know it doesn't.We must admit that it is impossible for a person to hit the same place twice, although it seems that it can. Everything changes so quickly that no two moments are exactly alike.

Buddhism agrees with Bert Russel.In his book Religion and Science he says: "Obviously, in a sense, I was the same person yesterday as I am today. To give a more obvious example, if I see a person and hear him talk at the same time, in a sense, I There is a commonality between what I see and what I hear." "Until now, scientists have not believed in the existence of independent, indivisible atoms. For good enough reasons, physicists have deduced this atom into a series of processes. Similarly, psychologists have discovered that consciousness is not a continuous process of the same entity." It is a reciprocating series that is closely connected and combined by a certain relationship. Therefore, whether there is a close connection between the things related to this living body and the things related to this body after death is the question of eternal life.”

C． E． M．Jon De said in the book "The Meaning of Life": "So far, matter has decomposed under our noses. It is no longer solid, no longer persistent, and no longer determined by mandatory laws. More importantly, no longer recognized." The so-called atoms appear to be divisible and destructible.The electrons and protons that make up the atom "can collide and cancel each other, and their persistence is like waves, without fixed boundaries, their shape and position are constantly changing, rather than a continuous thing." The Bishop of Berkeley revealed that the so-called atom was nothing more than a metaphysical assumption.He believed in the existence of a spiritual entity called the soul.

David Detum declared after a search for the soul: (On Human Nature) "There are philosophers who think that we are at every moment closely contemplating what we call our self, that we feel its presence and continuity. They affirm their identity and simplicity without proof. For me, when I go deep into what I call myself, I always come across some particular thought of warmth or warmth, light or shade, love or hate, pain or pleasure, etc. I have never been in any situation without thought. Grasp the ego. I fail to observe anything but thoughts." Henry Bergson says: "All consciousness exists only temporarily; the state of consciousness is not constant. It is in constant change and never ceases. When change ends, consciousness ceases. And itself is pure change."

The famous psychologist J, B.Watson stated in his book Behaviorism: "No one has touched the soul, nor seen it in a test tube, nor has anyone connected with the soul in the same way as in ordinary daily experience. Even so, doubting its existence would be heresy, and it may be lost. head. Even today, no one of social stature dares to question it." When it comes to the question of the soul, William James writes in Principles of Psychology: "As far as the fact of real, proven conscious experience is concerned, the soul doctrine is a complete liability. No one can force others to agree to this doctrine on scientific grounds."

Then he concluded: "The self is the composite of experiences that objectively know things. The self that knows these things cannot itself be an aggregate. Even for spiritual purposes it need not be thought of as a timeless, unchanging metaphysical entity, Like the soul, or like the subject of the pure ego. Thought differs at each moment before and after, but the acquisition of the latter moment, plus everything else, is called itself. Every fact of experience can be described in this elaboration finds its place in the world, unhampered by any assumptions except those of migrating thoughts and consciousness."

Finally, this interesting passage about the self reads: "...a thought is a thinker..." This is the echo of the words spoken by the Buddha in the valley of the Ganges more than 2,500 years ago. Buddhism teaches psychology without a soul, and regards sentient beings as composed of mind and matter, and the five aggregates formed are in the process of flux and change. In ancient times, Indian sages also believed that there is an indivisible atom and called it Paramanu.The ancients believed that 36 primary quantities constitute a secondary quantity Anu, 36 secondary quantities form a three-quantity Tajjari; 36 three-quantities form a four-quantity

Ratharenu.The floating particles that can be seen in sunlight are called quadrilaterals.Therefore, an initial quantity is 1/46656 four quantities.The Buddha analyzed the primordial with wisdom and declared that the primordial is composed of various interrelated forces, namely the four elements or material bodies. The four elements are: earth (pathavi), water (apo), and fire (tejo).wind (vayo). The earth is solid and the foundation of matter.Without this, objects cannot occupy space.Interrelated firmness and softness are two cases where this is the case. Water is viscous (or wet), and unlike Earth, it cannot be touched.It is this element which brings together the dispersed atoms of matter and gives us the idea of ​​form.This element becomes more pronounced in the liquid formed when the solid material is dissolved.This element can be found even in fine dust of solids that are crushed into powder.Solidity and cohesion go hand in hand when cohesion ends.The sturdiness is also gone.

The fire is very warm.Coldness is also a kind of fire element.Both cold and warm are captured by the fire element, this is because they both have the function of growing the body, that is, a life force that gives vitality.Living and bad are born because of this fire.Unlike the other three, this element is also called utu, or condition, because of its self-regenerating power. The wind is very dynamic.Movement is born from this greatness.Exercise is considered a force, or generator of calories. "Motion and heat in the physical world are equivalent to consciousness and karma, respectively, in the spiritual world." The four elements are the basic units of matter and are combined with the four derivatives in various forms.These four derivatives are colour, smell, taste and nourishing elements. These four elements and their regenerators are inseparable and interrelated, but one element may outweigh the other.For example, in the element of earth, solidity has the overwhelming advantage; in the element of water, cohesion is superior to others; in the element of fire, warmth is superior to others; in the element of wind, mobility is superior to others. In this way, matter is made of constantly changing energies and properties.According to Buddhism, matter lasts only 17 instants. Annotators are delighted to say that an instant is shorter than a millionth of the time required by lightning. Consciousness is even more important in this complex human machine, which consists of 52 mental states.Feeling (vedana) is one, perception (sanna) is one, and the remaining 50 are collectively called volitional activities (samkhara).This translation does not fully express the meaning of the original Pali.Of these mental factors, the will is the most important.All these arise from consciousness (vinnana). According to Buddhist philosophy, people are always thinking about something, whether material or spiritual, and experiencing a specific consciousness.The time limit of this consciousness is a moment, but the moment continues.Thus, the continuation of mental states has a time element.The speed of this moment-to-moment succession is unimaginable. Each consciousness has three forms (khana).They are arising (upada), dwelling (thiti), and passing away (bhanga). Immediately after the end of each dissolution-moment, the next generation-moment arises.In this ever-changing stream of life, each fleeting consciousness passes on to its successor all its energies, all its deeply imprinted sensations.Each nascent consciousness consists of the latent energy of its predecessor plus additional new additions.Consciousness therefore flows without interruption.The latter moment is neither completely the same as the previous moment because its constituent parts are different, nor is it completely different because it belongs to the same life flow.No two sentient beings are exactly alike, yet share commonality over the course of their lives. It must be understood that consciousness is not like a chain of separate entities, but rather, "it flows incessantly, like a river, constantly taking in ever-increasing streams of consciousness from the tributaries of the senses, and imparting to the external world the process of The content of thought collected in it.” (1) It has a source of life and an outlet of death. There is a situation where consciousness flows side by side, but it does not overlap as some people think.Vanishing mental states never reappear, and the present consciousness is never exactly the same as the one that has passed away.Such a situation is constantly changing, never being the same in two consecutive moments.Worldly people, caught in the web of ignorance, mistake these apparent durations for an eternal entity, and bring into this changing consciousness the unchanging soul, the supposed author and controller of all actions.The four mental phenomena, together with the same material phenomenon, constitute the five aggregates (pancakkhanda).This complex combination is called sentient beings. One's self is made up of these five aggregates. The water of the sea is endless, but the water of the sea is composed of countless water droplets.The countless sand grains make up the beach, but it looks like a long mat.Waves rose and lapped the shore, but strictly speaking, not a single wave from the blue sea lost its identity on the beach.In cinema, we see moving pictures, but in order to manifest this movement, a series of ephemeral images must appear on the screen. One cannot say that the scent of a flower is attached to the petals, stamens, or color.Because the fragrance is in the flower. Likewise, one's own nature is the combination of all five aggregates. The Buddha often referred to this entire mental and material process of arising and passing away as the Self.However, such a term does not refer to its identity, but to its process. From an empirical point of view, Buddhism does not completely deny the existence of a self, but from an ultimate point of view, Buddhism does not recognize a single or eternal entity, but at the same time does not deny the continuity of the process.Buddhist philosophy calls the individual Santati, which means continuous flow.Under the triggering of karma, this spiritual and material phenomenon continues to flow endlessly.It has no beginning and no end, except when it ends with the Noble Eightfold Path.Buddhism thus replaces the eternal self or immortal soul of other religious systems. How can reincarnation be possible without a soul? According to Buddhism, birth is the arising of the five aggregates. Just as the arising of a physical state depends on the cause of the previous state, so the emergence of this mental and material phenomenon is also caused by the cause of the previous life.The process of life in this life is the result of greed for existence in the past life, and the instinctive desire in the present life is the result of life in the future life. Just as the life course of a present life can flow momentarily without an eternal entity, so a series of lives can continue without the transfer of anything from one life to another. The Buddhist theory of reincarnation should be distinguished from the theory of reincarnation.The latter refers to the incarnation of the soul, and the regeneration of unchanging objects. In the Sutra of Questions of Milinda and the Treatise on the Pure Way, Bhikkhu Naxian and Master Bodhisattva used many metaphors to illustrate the truth that nothing is transferred from one life to the next. The metaphor of lights is very eye-catching.Life is like a lamp, and rebirth is the igniting of another lamp from the fire of this lamp.The fire of life continues, though there is a break called death. King Milinda asked: "Then, my lord, is there anything reincarnated in rebirth?" "No, my lord. Rebirth does not reincarnate anything." "Please give an example to explain, the first venerable." "Suppose, if one person lighted another lamp from one lamp, would the light from the first lamp be reincarnated in the other lamp?" "No, indeed not, then Venerable First." "That's right, my lord, reincarnation does not reincarnate anything." "Give me another example." "My lord, do you still remember the poems you learned from your teacher when you were young?" "Remember, Your Honor." "So, my lord, have these verses been transferred from your teacher to you?" "No, indeed not, my lord." "As it is, my lord, reincarnation does not reincarnate anything." King Milinda asked again: "Then the first venerable, what is the rebirth to the next life?" "My lord, mind and matter are reborn in the next life." "Is the same mind and matter as in this life reborn in the next life?" "My lord, it is not the same mentality and physicality as in this life that is reborn in the next life, but with the mentality and physicality of the present life, one does good and evil. Because of these actions, another mentality and materiality is reborn in the next life. " "My lord, if the same mind and matter as in this life are not reborn in the next life, wouldn't a person not suffer the consequences of his bad karma?" "If a person is not reborn in the next life, he will be free from bad karma. But, my lord, just because a person is reborn in the next life, he is not free from bad karma." "Please give an example." "My lord, just as one man takes another's mango, the owner of the mango catches him, brings him to the king, and says, 'King, this man has taken my mango.' But the man who stole the mango says, 'My lord. , I did not take his mangoes. This man grows different mangoes from the ones I take. I should not be punished.' So, my lord, will this man be punished?" "Sir, he will surely be punished." "why?" "No matter how he quibbles, he will be punished, because the later mangoes are grown from the past mangoes." "It is so, great king. With this mentality and physicality, one works, either good or evil. From this kamma another mentality and physicality is reborn in the next life. Therefore, one cannot escape from bad karma." (2) The Venerable Kyawgyin illustrated this complex issue using the metaphors of echoes, lights, imprints, and reflections in mirrors. A modern writer uses the metaphor of a string of closely colliding balls to illustrate this process. "If a ball rolls and collides with a stationary ball, the moving ball will come to a standstill, while the previously stationary ball will roll down. At first the rolling ball does not pass over, but stays behind, standing still ; but, it is undeniable that it is the movement of the previous ball, its momentum, its karma, and not any newly generated motion regenerating to the previous ball.(3) Likewise, generally speaking, after physical death, karmic rebirth occurs, and nothing is reincarnated from this life to another.When the last moment of this life has passed away, another moment in the next life immediately arises.Freshmen are neither absolutely the same.Because it has changed; it is not completely different, because it is the same flow of karma.It is simply the continuation of a particular flow of life, nothing more. [Note] (1) See "Summary of Philosophy", Preface, p. 12. (2) Warren, "Buddhism in Interpretation", pp. 234, 235. (3) Dr. Ananda Kumarasami, "Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism", p. 106.