THE MECHANICS OF REBIRTH
Certain things appear to change only very slowly, or not at all. In actual fact, however, absolutely everything is spontaneously renewing itself all the while, not one single thing remaining the same even for an infinitesimal fraction of a second. All things constantly pass away, and passing away is simultaneous with coming to be. Many of us know this intellectually, but do not see the relevance of it in the context of rebirth, or of what happens when we die.
The rebirth of mind and body occur as a result of a previous mind and body passing away, but no material particle transfers from this life to a new life. The mind and body of a moment ago are not the mind and body of now and neither are they different. The seed becomes a tree; the baby matures and eventually grows old. The seed and the tree are not the same as each other — the seed is a seed, not a tree; the tree is a tree, not a seed. Yet one is derived from the other; they are linked together as cause and effect is linked together. The same with the baby and the old person, and every other thing.
Things are separate from each other but at the same time they are interrelated. Nagarjuna, a second century Buddhist philosopher, tried to explain it in this way:
"... a thought at the point of death does not go to another world ... nor is it other than in another world . . . Similarly the thought at the time of birth is dependent on the thought at the point of death, but it cannot be said to be both itself and other than itself."
Nagarjuna's Verses on the Great Vehicle, (abbreviated)
Here Nagarjuna is saying that a thought at death does not go to another birth, yet the first thought at birth would not be there if that last thought at death had not occurred. He is making the point that the thought at birth is not the same thought as at death and neither is it different. The one would not exist without the other.
A SELF
While we believe ourselves to be the owners of a mind and body, we think a self lives inside that mind and body. The sense of self is natural, but the idea that there is a self somehow living inside a body is no more than an idea, a theory. This idea is reinforced by such words as 'I', 'me' and 'mine'. But words are only symbols. The word 'me' may refer to the body, the mind, or to something other than these two. Usually we do not distinguish what we mean when we refer to 'ourselves'. When questioned, most people are rather vague about what they mean when they use such words as 'I', 'me' and 'mine'.
We think we are born, we think we shall die, and yet when the thinker is sought, such a 'one' cannot be found. Thought itself does not know anything; it merely echoes the past, or projects images of the future based on past experiences. So we should be careful of thoughts and their products — notions and beliefs.
Thoughts, theories, ideas and beliefs distort our view of things, so that we do not see even the most obvious facts. If we let go of the idea of owning a mind and body, then the idea of a self instantly disappears. This brings us to a new way of looking at things. We begin to realise that if we do not own a mind and body, then self is not something we can pinpoint in existence. When we realise this, 'my' body is seen as just a physical form among other physical forms in the universe; and 'my' mind is seen as just a process of mental activity.
"The Perfect One is free from any theory, for the Perfected One has understood what corporeality is, and how it arises and passes away. He has understood what feeling is, and how it arises and passes away. He has understood what perception is, and how it arises and passes away. He has understood what the mental formations are, and how they arise and pass away. He has understood what consciousness is, and how it arises and passes away. Therefore I say, the Perfect One has won complete deliverance through the extinction, fading-away, disappearance, rejection, and getting rid of all opinions and conjectures, of all inclination to the vain-glory of 'I' and 'mine'."
The Buddha: Majjhima-Nikaya, The Word of the Buddha.
We confuse ideas about what we are with the truth of what we are. We believe the body is 'ours' and we are very attached to it. Because of this we magnify the importance of two events — birth and death. But birth and death occur in a stream of events; they are not the beginning or end of what we really are.
Once ideas and beliefs are identified as such and dropped, then we shall see things as they are. Thinking that 'we' have come into existence in the mind and body, is to believe a 'self is born. This conviction leads to a certain way of living, as though happiness is dependent upon the pleasures of mind and body. Therefore we work very hard at getting as much pleasure for ourselves as we can and enter the merry-go-round of mundane existence. To believe that the essence of what we are is born is to suffer in existence. The existence of material form is a fact, but the existence of a 'self in material form is not. When we believe an untruth we are deluded and suffer the consequences.
"The instructed disciple of the Ariyans [noble ones] beholds of material shape and so on: 'This is not mine, this am I not, this is not my self.' So that when the material shape and so on change and become otherwise there arise not for him grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation and despair. "
Samyutta-Nikaya, Buddhist Texts Through the Ages.
The idea that 'we' are born and die comes about when we confuse what has been born with what has not been born. The sense of self is derived from the unborn, not from the born.
THE UNBORN
If we were to find anything inside or outside of the physical body or mental formations which is permanent, then we would be able to say we have found the self. But no such 'thing' can be found. Before our eyes the world undergoes perpetual change, constant birth and death, but no self can be found anywhere being born or dying. This does not mean that the sense of self is to be ignored or rejected. Beyond the mass of moving changing phenomena, there is something very familiar, something we may have been confusing with the mind and body, but which is not the mind or body.
"There is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed, would not be possible.
"But since there is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed, therefore is escape possible from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed."
The Buddha: Udana, The Word of the Buddha.
What is not in life does not come or go, it just is. We to ourselves have never been born, created or formed. We to ourselves are unborn. Some call this unborn 'the undefiled mind' or 'the essence of mind'; the mind that is left when mental formations have ceased. We do not exist in a mind or a body or in anything which is subject to birth, decay and death. Our true nature cannot be seen, heard, smelt, tasted, touched or thought about, but it is not nothing. We sense the unborn all the while. We sense that we are here, but we cannot find ourselves. The reason for this is that the ageless, timeless, birthless, deathless ever-present cannot be encapsulated in matter or thought. Even though we may not be consciously aware of the unborn, it is present all the while. Perhaps the nearest we can come to describing it is by saying it is the 'perceiver', the 'knower', the 'realiser' of life. But this description should not be taken literally. To call it the unborn makes it sound remote and difficult to grasp, but there is no need for us to feel that way about it. 11 is, afterall, what we are.
At one time the Buddha was talking to a King who wanted to understand the state of no-dying and no-rebirth.
"At the time you first saw the river Ganges, your Majesty, how old were you?"
"I can remember when my mother brought me there to worship the Deva god. I was then just three years old. I can remember when we crossed the river; I can remember hearing it called the Ganges."
"Your Majesty, you were three years old at that time. As you have said, when ten years had passed, you were older, and down to the age of sixty the processes of change have been going on year after year, month after month, day after day and thought after thought. Your Majesty, you said that when you first saw the river Ganges, you were three years of age. Tell me, when you were thirteen years of age and saw the Ganges, how did it appear to you? Was the sight of it, your mind's perception of the sight, any different?"
"My sight of it was just the same as when I was three years of age. And now at my present age of sixty-two, while the sight of my eyes is not as good, my perception of the sight is just the same as ever."
"Your Majesty, you have been saddened by the changes in your personal appearance since your youth — your greying hair and wrinkled face — but you say that your perception of sight compared with it when you were a youth, shows no change. Tell me, Your Majesty, is there any youth and old age in the perception of sight?"
"Not at all, your Lordship."
"Your Majesty, though your face has become wrinkled, in the perception of your eyes, there are no signs of age, no wrinkles. Then, wrinkles are the symbol of change, and the un-wrinkled la the symbol of the un-changing. That which is changing must suffer destruction, of course, but the un-changing is naturally free from deaths and rebirths. How is it, Your Majesty, that the unchanging perception of Mind still suffers the illusion of deaths and rebirths and you are still clinging to the teaching of the heretic who claimed that after the death of the body, everyone was completely destroyed?"
The Surangama Sutra, A Buddhist Bible.
The un-wrinkled is the symbol of the un-changing. Even though what is perceived is impermanent, the ability to perceive it is not impermanent, it is the functioning of our unborn nature. The Buddha also made the point that a blind man, if asked what he can see, will answer to the effect that he can only see darkness, which means, of course, that he possesses the perception of sight. The perception of sight has nothing to do with the physical eyes. The same applies to the perception of hearing, tasting, smelling, touching and thinking. Zen Master Hui Hai was questioned on this subject:
Q: When there are sounds, hearing occurs. When there are no sounds, does hearing persist or not?
A: It does.
Q: When there are sounds, it follows that we hear them, but how can hearing take place during the absence of sound?
A: We are now talking of that hearing which is independent of there being any sound or not. How can that be? The nature of hearing being eternal, we (ontinue to hear whether sounds are present or not.
Q: If that is so, who or what is the hearer?
A: It is your own nature which hears and it is the inner cognizer who knows.
Hui Hai: The Zen Teaching of Hui Hai.
Everything in life is born, but we know ii with what has not been born, the indestructible unborn. Many people realise this intuitively; they know they are not just flesh and blood and mental processes, yet they fail to recognise the truth. The truth of what we are lies here where we are in this moment. The born and the unborn reside together. The unborn knows the born. The unborn also knows the unborn and without the assistance of any thought, sensation, perception, or state of consciousness.
It is easy to see how consciousness arises and passes away; how thoughts, sensations and perceptions arise and pass away; and how the body changes. This arising and passing away is birth and death, or rebirth. The unborn, that which knows rebirth, however, does not arise or pass away, it is what we really are.
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