What Is Rebirth?

When did Rebirth Begin?
Our Mind, that carries over from life to life has no beginning- its continuity is infinite. Each moment of our Mind is a continuation of the previous moment.
Who we are and what we think and feel depends on who we were yesterday.
Our present Mind is a continuation of the past Mind. One moment of our Mind was caused by the previous moment of our Mind. This continuity can be traced back to childhood and even to when we were a foetus in our Mother’s womb. Even before the time of conception, our mindstream existed in another body.

Using the example of a number line, looking left from position zero, there is no first negative number, and looking right, there is no highest last number- one more can always be added. Likewise, our mindstream has no beginning or end. We all have had countless past rebirths, and our Mind will continue to exist infinitely. By purifying our mindstream, we can make our future existences better and better.

What Causes Rebirth?
Although all sentient beings have the Buddha-nature (the potential to become Buddhas), their Minds are clouded by Ignorance since beginningless time. From Ignorance springs Craving (Greed) and Aversion (Hatred), which cause us to be continually greedy for life and its illusory pleasures while hating or rejecting death and other displeasures. Each moment of Ignorance was produced from the preceding moment without a beginning. Although Ignorance has no beginning, it can be eradicated through the attainment of Wisdom in Enlightenment.

How Does Rebirth Happen?
The sense consciousnesses that see, hear, smell, taste and feel tactile sensations, and the gross mental consciousness, function actively while we are alive. When one is dying, they cease to function and absorbed into the subtle mental consciousness.

The subtle Mind bears the imprints of the actions we have done (Karma) with all the tendencies, preferences, abilities and characteristics that have been developed and conditioned in this life.

After death, the subtle Mind leaves one body, enters the intermediate state and re-establishes itself in a fertilised egg in another body. After the subtle Mind joins with another body at the moment of conception, the gross sense consciousnesses and the gross mental consciousnesses reappear, and the person again sees, hears, thinks and so forth.

The subtle Mind which goes from one life to the next, is a constantly changing phenomenon. It is not considered to be a soul or real personality. Thus the individual is reborn and develops a personality conditioned both by the mental characteristics that have been carried over and by the new environment. The personality will change and be modified by conscious effort and conditioning factors like education, parental influence and society. At death, it re-establishes itself in a new fertilised egg.

This process of dying and being reborn will continue until the conditions that cause it, Craving and Ignorance, cease. When they do, instead of being reborn, the Mind attains a state called Nirvana, which is release from all suffering.

How Does the Mind Go from One Body to Another?
Our mindstreams are like radio waves, which is energy transmitted at different frequencies. Radio waves are transmitted, travel through space, are attracted to and picked up by the receiver with the same tuning and is broadcasted as music. It is similar with the Mind. At death, mental energy travels through space, is attracted to and picked up by the fertilised egg. As the embryo grows, it centres itself in the brain from where it later “broadcasts” itself as the new personality.

Is Being Reborn Good?
The idea of rebirth can be very comforting as it offers chances to amend the mistakes you have made in this life and time to further develop the skills and abilities you have nurtured in this life. If we fail to attain Enlightenment in this life, you will have the opportunity to try again next time. If you have made mistakes in this life, you will be able to learn from your mistakes. Things you were unable to do or achieve in this life may well become possible in the next life.

Ultimately, the aim of the Buddhist is to end the wheel of rebirth to be released from the cycle of birth and death, which is repeated suffering. Out of Compassion, one who is released can also help to show others the path to liberation.

Can I Remember My Past Lives?
Our Minds being obscured by Ignorance find it difficult to remember the past. Also, many changes occur in our body and Mind as we die and are reborn, making recollection difficult. Not remembering something does not mean that it does not exist- we sometimes even forget where we parked our car! However, some people can remember their past lives in meditation.

Must I Know My Past Lives?
What is more important is how we live our present life. Knowing what we were like in past lives is useful only if it helps to generate determination to avoid negative actions or to free ourselves from Rebirth. The important thing is to purify our previous negative actions, avoid creating more, and put energy into accumulating positive potential and developing our good qualities.

If we want to know about your past life, we only have to look at the state of our present life. If we want to know about our future lives, we only need to look at what we are doing right now. This is because we received our present rebirth as a result of our past actions.

A human rebirth is a fortunate one, and we created the cause for it by living ethically in our previous lives. On the other hand, our future rebirths will be determined by what we think, say and do now- and our Mind motivates all these actions. Thus, we can get an idea of the kind of rebirths we will take by looking at our present attitudes and examining whether they are constructive or destructive. We don’t need to go to a fortune-teller to ask what will become of us- we can simply consider the imprints we are leaving on our mindstream by our thoughts, words and deeds.

What Decides How I’m Reborn?
The most important factor influencing where we will be reborn and what sort of life we shall have is Karma- our intentional physical and mental actions. What we are is determined very much by how we have thought and acted in the past. Likewise, how we think and act now will influence how we will be in the future.

A gentle loving person tends to be reborn in a heaven realm or as a human being who has a predominance of pleasant experiences. The extremely cruel person tends to be reborn in a hell realm or as a human who has a predominance of painful experiences. The person who develops obsessive craving, fierce longings, and burning ambitions that can never be satisfied tends to be reborn as a hungry ghost or as a human being frustrated by longing and wanting. Whatever mental habits are strongly developed in this life will continue in the next life.

Can I Decide Where I’m Reborn?
Yes- that is why one of the steps on the Noble Eightfold Path is Perfect Effort. It depends on our sincerity, how much energy we exert and how strong your habits are. Some people simply go through life under the influence of their past habits, without making an effort to change. Such people will continue to suffer unless they change their negative habits. The longer the negative habits remain, the more difficult they are to change.

The Buddhist understands this and takes advantage of each and every opportunity to break mental habits that have unpleasant results and to develop mental habits that have pleasant and happy results. Meditation is one of the techniques used to modify the habitual patterns of the Mind as to speaking or refraining to speaking, acting or refraining to act in certain ways. The whole of the Buddhist life is a training to purify and free the Mind.

An Example of Rebirth
If being patient and kind was a pronounced part of your character in your last life, such tendencies will re-emerge in the present life. If they are strengthened and developed in the present life, they will re-emerge even stronger and more pronounced in the future life. This is based upon the simple observable fact that long established habits tend to be difficult to break. If you are patient and kind, it tends to happen that you are not so easily ruffled by others, you don’t hold grudges, people like you and thus your experiences tend to be happier.

Or you might come into this life with the tendency to be patient and kind due to your mental habits in the past life. If in the present life you neglect to strengthen and develop them, they would gradually weaken and die out and perhaps be completely absent in the future life. Patience and kindness being weak in this case, there is a possibility that in either this life or the next, a short temper, anger and cruelty could grow and develop, bringing with them all the unpleasant experiences that such attitudes create.

However, if you came into the present life with the tendency to be short-tempered and angry, and realise that such habits only cause you unpleasantness, you can make an effort to replace them with positive emotions. If you eliminate them completely, you become free from the unpleasantness caused by being short tempered and angry. If you are only able to weaken such tendencies, they would re-emerge in the next life where with more effort, they could be eliminated completely freeing you from their unpleasant effects.

Is There Proof of Rebirth?
Not only is there scientific evidence to support the Buddhist belief in rebirth, it is the only after-life theory that has strong supportive evidence. During the last 30 years, parapsychologists have been studying reports of people who have vivid memories of their former lives.

For example, in England, a five year old girl said she could remember her “other Mother and Father” and she talked vividly about what sounded like the events in the life of another person. Parapsychologists were called in and they asked her hundreds of questions to which she gave answers. She spoke of living in a particular village in what appeared to be Spain. She gave the name of the village, the name of the street she lived in, her neighbours’ names and details about her everyday life there. She also tearfully spoke of how she had been struck by a car and died of her injuries two days later. When these details were checked, they were found to be accurate. There was a village in Spain with the name the five year old girl had given. There was a house of the type she had described in the street she had named. What is more, it was found that a twenty-three year old woman living in the house had been killed in a car accident five years before. Now how is it possible for a five year old girl living in England and who had never been to Spain to know all these details? And of course, this is not the only case of this type.

For example, Professor Ian Stevenson of the University of Virginia’s Department of Psychology has described dozens of cases of this type in his books. He is an accredited scientist whose 25 year study of people who remember former lives is very strong evidence for the Buddhist teaching of rebirth.

What Does Rebirth Explain?
Karma and rebirth together explain many “unsolved” mysteries:

- The inequality of Mankind and their experiences (Even twins are different in character.)
- Talents of geniuses and child prodigies
- Spontaneous arising of instinctive likes and dislikes in infants
- Intellectual differences between parents and their children
- Sudden outbursts of emotion and changes in character
- Untimely death and unexpected changes in fortune

Do any Scientists Believe in Rebirth?
Thomas Huxley, who was responsible for having science introduced into the 19th century British school system and who was the first scientist to defend Darwin’s theories, believed that reincarnation was a very plausible idea. In his famous book “Evolution and Ethics and other Essays” he says:

“In the doctrine of ‘transmigration,’ whatever its origin, Brahmanical and Buddhist speculation found, ready to hand, the means of constructing a plausible vindication of the ways of the Cosmos to human... Yet this plea of justification is not less plausible than others; and none but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the ground of inherent absurdity.
Like the doctrine of evolution itself, that of transmigration has its roots in the world of reality; and it may claim such support as the great argument from analogy is capable of supplying.”

Professor Julian Huxley, the distinguished British scientist who was Director General of UNESCO believed that rebirth is in harmony with scientific thinking. He said:
“There is nothing against a permanently surviving spirit-individuality being in some way given off at death, as a definite wireless message is given off by a sending apparatus working in a particular way. But it must be remembered that the wireless message only becomes a message again when it comes in contact with a new, material structure- the receiver. So with our possible spirit (consciousness)-emanation. It... would never think or feel unless again ‘embodied’ in some way. Our personalities are so based on body that it is really impossible to think of survival which would be in any true sense personal without a body of sorts... I can think of something being given off which would bear the same relation to men and women as a wireless message to the transmitting apparatus; but in that case the dead would, so far as one can see, be nothing but disturbances of different patterns wandering through the universe until... they came back to actuality of consciousness by making contact with something which could work as a receiving apparatus for Mind.”

Where Can I be Reborn to?
The Buddha taught that there are six realms of existence (Samsara- this wold of prevalent suffering) that we are continually reborn into. These six realms correspond to the six general mindstates that we fall into again and again due to Craving, Aversion and Ignorance. These six worlds are physically existent in our world and other dimensions- some seen and others unseen. They are worlds manifested through the force of Karma of sentient beings. The six realms are also psychological worlds (mindstates) that we repeatedly get in and out of in this life (or even in one single day). None of these six realms are permanent- not even Heaven or Hell. The moment the Karma for one’s existence in that world exhausts, one is reborn accordingly to the residual karmic forces. The first three worlds are called the lower realms- there great suffering is prevalent.

The other three worlds are called the higher realms- there there is generally more happiness, though suffering still exists. None of these worlds is a safe refuge (not even the realm of gods). All Buddhas have broken free of rebirth in the six realms, though they can choose to manifest into them out of Compassion to teach sentient beings the Dharma. The six realms of existence are:

1. Realm of Hell Beings
2. Realm of Hungry Ghosts
3. Realm of Animals
4. Realm of Human Beings
5. Realm of Demi-Gods
6. Realm of Gods

What is the Realm of Hell?
Hell is a horrible dimension of intense constant pain and torment where its beings are subjected to the most excruciating tortures inflicted by vengeful demons and beasts. The fiery heat of the hot hells corresponds to the passionate intensity of hatred and fear while the freezing coldness of the cold hells corresponds to the cold cruelty of hard-heartedness and apathy. Hell consists of sub-planes, each of which “specialises” in particular kind of karmic punishment appropriate to a certain kind of unwholesome action. Beings in Hell either burn with rage or are tortured by anxiety. They do not see that their torturers are manifestations of their own guilty Minds. The duration of life in Hell also feels unbearably long.

Hell in Our World
A World War can be the equivalent of Hell where violence, hatred and fear is everywhere. Being forced to face strong personal phobias such as flying in a plane or entering an unknown place can also be hellish experiences.

Am I a Hell-Being?
The “Human Hell-Being” lives life habitually seeing the world full of dangerous strangers out to get take their advantage- everyone seems to be constantly threatening.
Their prime motivation is to eliminate or evade their menaces, and are in a state of open enmity with everyone they encounter. They suffer agonies of insecurity and feel the pain and humiliation of imagined wrongs. Because of how they behave towards others, they bring into being the enemies they imagine. Hell-Beings are dominated by the mental state of Hatred (Aversion), fear and/or even violence. They live in Hell in this world as they make every situation a place of torment for themselves. If one is to die tuned to this mindstate, one is likely to be reborn in Hell.

What is the Realm of Hungry Ghosts?
The dimension of Hungry Ghosts is of phantom-like creatures representing a mix of Craving and Hatred. Tormented by unfulfilled cravings and insatiable demanding of impossible satisfactions, they are beings with have a terrible emptiness within themselves who cannot see the impossibility of getting something that has already passed away. Their ghost-like state represents their attachment to the past. While being impossibly hungry and thirsty, they cannot eat or drink without causing themselves terrible pain or indigestion. Their long thin throats are so raw and narrow that swallowing produces unbearable burning. Their bloated bellies are also unable to digest nourishment.

Hungry Ghosts in Our World
A “Human Hungry Ghost” is the miser who lives for more and more money at the expense of everything else, falsely believing that it will bring him True Happiness. Another Hungry Ghost is a drug addict who can barely keep himself alive and is only concerned with getting his next dose, whose effects soon fade away, leaving him longing for another. Two neurotically dependent lovers might also be Hungry Ghosts if they keep trying to derive certain qualities from each other, which the other also lacks.

Am I a Hungry Ghost?
Some people are so possessed by neurotic Craving and longing out of inner emptiness that they live only to gather material things or emotional experiences (or assurance) for themselves. Even if they get what they want, it gives them little pleasure. No matter what they possess, they always feel that there is something missing. These people crave for certain experiences to feel real and substantial, distracting themselves momentarily from their repressions and lack of spirituality. Such people are dominated by the mental state of Craving. If one is to die tuned to this mindstate, one in likely to be reborn as a Hungry Ghost.

What is the Realm of Animals?
The world of Animals is that of instinctive gratification, of the biological drives of hunger and sexuality. All endeavour is directed to the satisfaction of physical desires and self-preservation. This world is of the ignorant refusal or inability to see beyond the natural needs of the body.

Animals in Our World
A Human can be reborn as a certain animal if his character and habits resemble it. “Human-Animals” also exist in our world- a couch potato who only eats, sleeps and watches television all day might gradually come to resemble a pig and become a “good-for-nothing”- being physically lazy and mindless. A viciously jealous and suspicious person could be miserably small and thin, resembling a poisonous snake in appearance and nature.

Am I an Animal?
The “Human-Animal” is one who wilfully refuses to look at the meaning and purpose of life. His bodily needs for nourishment, sleep and sex might be healthy and he gets satisfaction and enjoyment from them. But their fulfilment becomes an end in itself. For him, life has no other significance. Though he is ignorant in that he fails to see any higher noble destiny, he is not necessarily stupid in the practical sense, but he has no ideals and there is nothing beyond himself which he lives for. He lives without vision or culture when he can choose to cultivate his Mind. Such people are dominated by the mental state of Ignorance. One who dies tuned to this mindstate is likely to be reborn as an animal.

What is the Realm of Human Beings?
The Human realm is the world of our everyday experience. It contains all the other realms of existence that Humans create for themselves.

Humans in Our World
This is the realm where the individual searches for self. Humans are fundamentally unsure about the nature of many things- including his true identity. But it is in this world that transcendental insight into the true nature of self can be attained. This is the world where the individual can be conscious enough to be aware of his state of dissatisfaction and seek liberation, becoming enlightened, freeing oneself from the wheel of life and death.

Am I a Human?
A truly living Human person is one who realises his special position and treasures it, as it is not easy to be reborn as a Human. We must not take this life for granted, not realising its significance. The Human realm is the most favourable realm as it contains a mix of pleasure and pain- giving us ample opportunity to realise the true nature of life. Rebirth in the other realms is unsatisfactory as constant pain in the lower realms is demoralising while constant pleasure in the higher realms leads to spiritual complacency. Humans are plagued by all three poisons of Craving, Aversion and Ignorance to different extents. In this precious life, one can either be reborn again into any of the other realms or free oneself from rebirth. Thus, the Human life is very precious, as it is the pivoting point of our being, for better or worse.

What is the Realm of Demi-Gods?
The realm of the Demi-gods (Asuras or Titans) in the lower heavens consists of ferocious ugly jealous male Demi-gods that are in constant battle with the Gods of the realm of Gods for power and happiness. They embody the ego’s striving for power. They never win as the Gods themselves had created the Karma to be able to enjoy their position. The female Demi-gods are no less jealous and acquisitive, but they win their wars not by force but by seduction and enchantment. Demi-gods are god-like in their power and vigour though not at all happy. Others’ success, possessions and qualities make them feel enviously belittled. The deep contentment which others gain from their good fortune leads them to struggle vigorously and violently to grab it for themselves.

Demi-Gods in Our World
“Human Demi-Gods” are not uncommon in the worlds of politics, business, organised gangsterism, and many walks of life where many already somewhat relatively well-to-do people continually try to win each other in every aspect of life- be it in career positions, possessions of material wealth or even family. This is often done at drastic costs, even at the expense of close friendships.

Am I a Demi-God?
Demi-Gods are always trying to be cleverer, or stronger, or richer, or more experienced than others. Each watches for others to weaken so that he can seize power for himself. Although always trying to prove their superiority, they are very conscious of hierarchy and tend to form ordered power structures, allying with others to scheme against others- ultimately for themselves. They are able to relate to others only on the basis of dominance or submission, not as equals, and where they can, they will dominate. Backstabbing and conspiracy is common. A Human is and can be reborn as a Demi-god if he is egoistic and power-crazy. However, he would also need positive Karma to be reborn in a Heaven as it requires much merit. Such a person is however dominated by the mental state of Craving and Aversion as his merit is without Wisdom. One who dies tuned to this mindstate is likely to be reborn as a Demi-God.

What is the Realm of Gods?
The realm of the Gods (“God” here does not refer to an almighty creator) or the higher heavens are different planes of increasingly refined levels of sensual bliss and gratification. Gods are able to enjoy beauty by their own goodness. They are beings with beautiful subtle bodies who delight in music and dance, and exist in extended peak experiences, in which one dissolves into the experience of pleasure, merging with the beloved, temporarily crossing the boundaries of ego. Such experiences can be cultivated in meditation but are dangerous as they induce spiritual complacency with what is only temporary. After a long time, the gods will fall from their state of bliss. Unless they realise their impermanence and start living the spiritual life, they will be reborn into the lower realms when they had depleted their positive Karma in the heavens.

Gods in Our World
“Human-Gods” such as Kings and Queens in earlier times live a royal life full of wealth and power. They were able to satisfy any desire at their command. In our times, there are the rich, famous and powerful who move about in a sphere of opulence and majesty far above the common man- often somewhat spoilt by extravagance and luxury.

Am I a God?
A God is one who has great power in position. His wishes for any material things are easily granted. Because his position was reached through accumulation of much positive Karma, he can indeed enjoy the well-being he deserves. But he tends to revel in pleasures and forgets the bigger picture, forgetting that his state is not everlasting, and that there are many other unfortunate beings that he can help. A Human can be reborn as a God if he is very virtuous. Such a person is dominated by Ignorance as he had created much goodness without realisation of Wisdom and the importance of living the spiritual life. One who dies tuned to this mindstate is likely to be reborn as a God.

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© January 2004 My Healing Hands ALL RIGHTS RESERVED