Rebirth-Linking Transmigration!

by Bhikkhu Samāhita

Is consciousness moving at death to the next life?

(August 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) No! Since consciousness arise & cease right here, it cannot move anywhere!It is not continuous, but contiguous discrete mental states as pearls on a string. The prior moment of consciousness contains the properties that conditions the arising of the next moment of consciousness! These inherent properties are mainly craving for (conscious) sensing & craving for becoming anew into being. If these cravings are present in the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness,then the next moment of consciousness will arise immediately after the death, but now in another location and body, which qualities (or lack of) also are all conditioned by properties within the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness…

Example:

If ignorance is dominant in the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness,then an animal rebirth is to be expected. If harmonious peace and settled mental calmness based on a long life of doing good are the dominant factors right in the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness, then a divine deva rebirth is to be expected. If anger, hostile enmity, envy and hate are dominant in the rebirth-linking moment of consciousness, a rebirth in hell is to be expected... So what actually passes on is CAUSALITY: That is conditioning factors of mental forces! Nothing more! No form, feeling, perception, construction, or consciousness passes on, or can ever endure from one moment to the next... No "Self, I, Me, Body, Identity, or Ego" passes on, because they never really existed in the first place, so how can they ever then pass on?!?

The classic example is the 2 candles:

Candle A is in flame. (=Dying individuality)

This is then used to light or ignite Candle B (=Reborn individuality).

By this very ignition the flame of Candle A is extinguished…

Only candle B is now burning: What now was passed on !-?-!

Is the flame of Candle B now the SAME, as the flame of Candle A?

Not so. Candle B burns by its own flame, but it was turned on by flame A!

Is the flame of Candle B now DIFFERENT from the flame of Candle A?

Not really so either. Since Candle B started burning from the flame A!

What is Reborn?: Neither the SAME individuality, nor ANOTHER!

What am ‘I’ & ‘Person’?: Neither the SAME nor ANOTHER!

Not a fixed entity, but a streaming process of ever renewed

arisings and ceasings of impersonal mental and physical states…

Just moments of name-&-form passes on!

In brevity:

Question: What passes on at death?

Answer: The forces or streams of: Ignorance, Greed, and Hate,and derivatives thereof, passes on at death and also in every moment of this life! One is reborn not only at death, but at every conscious moment of this endless life cycle itself also... Re-arising rebirth occurs billions of times per second! Neither as the same, nor as another...