How Rebirth Takes Place

To the dying man is presented a Kamma, Kamma Nimitta, or Gati Nimitta. By Kamma is here meant some action of his whether good or bad. It may be either a meritorious or a de-meritorious Weighty Action - Garuka Kamma, such as Jhanas - Ecstasies, or parricide, and so forth.

These are so powerful that they totally eclipse all other actions and appear very vividly before the mental eye. If experience has afforded him nothing weighty, he may take for the object of his dying-thought a Kamma done immediately before death - Asanna Kamma.

In the absence of an Asanna Kamma, a habitual meritorious or de-meritorious act (Acinna Kamma) is presented, such as stealing in the case of a robber, or the healing of the sick in the case of a good physician. Failing all these, some casual act, that is, one of the accumulative reserves of the endless past - Katatta Kamma, becomes the object of the dying thought. Kamma Nimitta is any sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, or idea which was obtained at the time of the commission of the Kamma, such as knives in the case of a butcher, patients in the case of a physician, an object of worship in the case of a devotee, etc.

By Gati Nimitra is meant some sign of the place where one is destined to be reborn - an event, which invariably happens to dying persons. When these indications of the future birth occur, if they are bad, they could be turned into good. This is done by influencing the thoughts of the dying man, so that his good thought may now act as the proximate Kamma and counteract the influence of the Reproductive Kamma which would otherwise affect his subsequent birth.

These symbols of one’s destiny may be hellish fires, forests, mountainous re ions, a mother s womb, celestial mansions, etc.

Taking for the object of the dying-thought one of the above, a thought process runs its course even if the death be an instantaneous one. It is said that even the fly which is crushed by a hammer on the anvil also experiences such a process of thought before it actually dies.

By death is meant the ceasing of the psychophysical life of one’s individual existence. Death takes place by the passing away of vitality - Ayu, heat - Usma and consciousness - Vinnana.

In the words of a Western philosopher death is merely "the temporary end of a temporary phenomenon." It is not the complete annihilation of the so-called being, for, although the organic life has ceased, the force, which hitherto actuated it is not destroyed.

Just as an electric light is only the outward visible manifestation of invisible electric energy, even so we are only the outward manifestations of invisible Kammic energy. The bulb may break and the light may be extinguished, but the current remains and the light may be reproduced in another bulb. At the death the consciousness perishes only to give birth to another consciousness in a subsequent birth. This renewed life-flux inherits all past experiences.

This new being is neither absolutely the same as the past one owing to its different composition, nor totally different - being the identical stream of Kammic energy - Na ca so na ca anno.

The birth-process of the butterfly may be cited in illustration of this. It was first an egg, and then, it became a caterpillar. Later it developed into a chrysalis, and finally evolved into a butterfly. This process occurs in the course of one lifetime. The butterfly is neither the same as, nor totally different from, the caterpillar. Here too there is a flux of life or continuity.

The transition of the flux is also instantaneous. There is no room for an intermediate state - Antara bhava. Buddhists do not believe that the spirit of the deceased person takes lodgment in a certain state until it finds a suitable place for its reincarnation.

Rebirth takes place immediately, and there is no difference in time whether one is born in a heaven or in a state of misery, as an animal or as a human being.