REBIRTH IS UNSATISFACTORY
Our nature at death determines our future life — what kind of conditions we are to enjoy or endure. But no matter how good life can be, all forms of existence are unsatisfactory because all things are impermanent and subject to change. Pain will turn to pleasure, which we may like, but pleasure will also inevitably turn to pain, which we shall not like. The fifth Zen Patriarch said to his monks one day:
"The question of incessant rebirth is a momentous one. Day after day, instead of trying to free yourselves from this bitter sea of life and death, you seem to go after tainted merits only (i.e. merits which will cause rebirth). Yet merits wil! be of no help, if your Essence of Mind is obscured."
Hung Yen: The Sutra of Hui
And the Buddha had this to say:
"Which do you think is more — the flood of tears, which, weeping and wailing, you have shed upon this long way, hurrying and hastening through this round of rebirths, united with the undesired, separated from the desired — this, or the waters of the four oceans?
"Long have you suffered the death of father and mother, of sons, daughters . . . And whilst you were thus suffering, you have indeed shed more tears upon this long way than there is water in the four oceans.
"And thus have you long undergone suffering, undergone torment, undergone misfortune, and filled the graveyards full — truly, long enough to be dissatisfied with all the forms of existence, long enough to turn away and free yourselves from them all."
Samyutta-Nikaya, The Word of the Buddha.
"Through the total fading away of craving, clinging ceases; through the cessation of clinging, the process of becoming ceases; through the cessation of the process of becoming, rebirth ceases; and through the cessation of rebirth, decay and death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering, grief and despair cease."
The Buddha: Samyutta-Nikaya, The Word of the Buddha.
The Buddha advised us to go beyond the reaches of karma and free ourselves from the rounds of birth and death because true happiness is not to be attained by any other means.
Birth into the world is a delusion brought about by craving for things. The way out of the delusion, therefore,
It is craving or desire that brings us into the unsatisfactory states of existence. We desire happiness for what we think of as ourselves — the mind and body. We believe that happiness is dependent upon the satisfaction of the senses. Whenever we desire something in life we are reborn. When we are hungry and desire food, we are reborn. We are not reborn because we are hungry, we are reborn because we desire something. The body experiences certain sensations when we are hungry. If these sensations are accepted for what they are — feelings in the mouth and stomach, neither good, neither bad — then desire does not spring up and rebirth does not take place. We must eat, of course, but once desire springs up, dissatisfaction follows and there is entry into existence; we are reborn into misery.
When we are tired and desire sleep, we are reborn; when we are poor and desire riches, we are reborn; when we are in love and desire a person, we are reborn. We are very practised at desiring things and so we are being reborn all the while. The mind leaps like a monkey from one desirable object to another. Without desire, there would obviously still be the need for food and sleep etc, but such needs would be seen for what they are and no rebirth would take place.
re is a Zen saying, 'When hungry, When tired, sleep.' There is no need to be reborn because of hunger and tiredness, or because of anything. When each moment is lived as it is Without any preferences, without any form of desire or craving, rebirth will imi take place.
"... the reason why sentient beings by their previous lives since begin-ningless time have formed a succession of deaths and rebirths, life after life, is because they have never realized the true Essence of Mind and its self-purifying brightness. On the contrary they have been absorbed all the time busying themselves with their deluding and transient thoughts which are nothing but falsity and vanity. Hence they have prepared for themselves the conditions for this ever returning cycle of deaths and rebirths."
The Buddha: The Surangama Sutra, A Buddhist Bible.
If we are in a state of wanting, we are small, in the body, isolated and unhappy. To desire anything is to be in conflict with the way things are. And to be in conflict is to spoil the freedom of the moment. It is a very simple law of life.
"... by abandoning three states one can grow so as to abandon rebirth, decay and death. What three? By abandoning lust, malice and delusion. By abandoning these three states one can grow so as to abandon rebirth, decay and death."
Anguttara-Nikaya, PTS.
Self as a separate entity owning and possessing a mind and body is a delusion brought about by lust or desire. How, then, can there be birth and death for a delusion? When there is no desire for anything, there is no malice, greed or hatred and no delusion.
The mind and body are born and reborn. But there is no 'self being reborn apart from the delusion of one produced by desire. And the end of desire is not oblivion. The selfless do not suddenly cease to be, they simply wake up to the way things really are; the unhappy states are thereby abandoned for true happiness and true peace of mind.
