TIL

Rebirth

UKT notes on A Practical Sanskrit Dictionary by A. A. Macdonell, 1893

on scanned p081 in http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/

by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA) and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL) . Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone. Prepared for students and staff of TIL Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR : http://www.tuninst.net , http://www.softguide.net.mm

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 {ga.ti.}

p081c3-b02

• गति gati [ gá-ti ]
= ग त ि --> {ga.ti.}
Skt: - f. gait, course, motion, flight; going away, departure; progress; success; attainment (of, g., lc., --°); way, path; egress, outlet; source, basis; expedient, means, feasibleness; stratagem; refuge; state, condition, nature; transmigration, human lot; manner; preposition or adverb combined with a verb. -- Mac081-c3
Skt: gáti f. going, moving, gait, deportment, motion in general RV. v, 64, 3 VS. TS. &c -- MonWilli
Pal: {ga.ti.}
- - UHS-PMD0355 f

UKT from UHS: f. going, transit, place of transfer, becoming, process of becoming, place, dictate of the mind .
See my note on Theravada view of Reincarnation .

Theravada view of Reincarnation

UKT - 120712

I have been asked many times in Australia, Canada, and in the U.S., on my view and the Theravada-Buddhist view of reincarnation. Since, I don't pay much attention to such scientifically unanswerable questions, my best answer as a material scientist is a straight "I don't know, and it doesn't matter much to me". The following is an excerpt from the answer by:

Sayadaw U Kelasa, Dhammacariya, B.A. (Philo), M.A. (Buddhism), 2012 Mar 01
-- http://www.burmeseclassic.com/EngVersion/dhamma_QA.php 120712

" Buddhism denies all eternal things ... . It teaches that every thing is changeable and not eternal and there is no no immortality inside or outside this world.

" What we call a being is mind and body or five aggregates - namely; materiality, feeling, perception, and mental formations. All kinds of consciousness and mental states are called mind. One mind-moment consists of three sub-moments: arising, presence and dissolution. What we called body is a compound of twenty-eight types of matter. [UKT ¶ ]

UKT: Sayadaw's mention of "twenty-eight types of matter" shows that his idea and the material science idea of Matter (that occupies space and has mass) are not the same. Einstein's equation, E = mc² , has been left out.

The duration of matter consists of seventeen such mind-moments. Immediately after one moment of mind or matter there occurs another arising of the subsequent one. So, mind and body or aggregates are constantly changing.

" It is like the flame of a lamp or the stream of a river that is a succession of sparks that follow upon one another with such rapidity that we cannot perceive them separately. The arising of one moment means the passing away of another moment and vice versa. No eternal entity between these rapid moments of mind and material phenomena.

" Think about how you were last seven years ago. We cannot say that I am the same person as I was the last moment. Every moment there is birth, every moment there is death. In the course of one life-time there is momentary death and rebirth without a soul. Life is just process.

Rebirth

" As the process of one life-span is possible without a permanent entity passing from one moment to another, so a series of life-processes is possible without anything to transmigrate form one existence to another. To produce a new being it is the force of tanhᾱ - the attachment to live - under the guidance of Kamma energy.

" Re-birth is the arising of new aggregates (khandhᾱnam pᾱtubhᾱvo) caused by the last generative thought of a dying person. The last thought-moment of this life perishes conditioning another thought-moment in a subsequent life. With this mind and body one does a deed and by reason of this deed another mind and body is reborn into next existence. In one sense it is a new being, in another it is not (na ca so na ca añño), like reflection in a mirror.

UKT: If the "dying thought" and the "coming-into-being thought" are taking place in the physical brain of same person, there is the physical connection - the brain itself. However, when the "dying thought" is taking place in the brain of one person, and the "coming-into-being thought" is to take place in the womb of the female where her ovum is being penetrated by a male sperm -- the moment of conception -- when the single cell resulting from the ovum and sperm is going to divide into 2 cells and then into 4, etc., there is no physical connection. Sayadaw's explanation is no explanation for me.
Maybe, and a big "maybe", lies in quantum entanglement -- a very current topic in modern physics. But then, I am too old to comprehend. Why don't you try to understand it? See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_entanglement 120713

No reincarnation

" This doctrine of rebirth is different from the idea of reincarnation which implies the transmigration of a soul and its invariable material rebirth. "

UKT: The idea of rebirth, and what happens when the "dying thought" leaves the body of the dying person, are explained by the idea of "Bardo concept" in Tibetan Buddhism. See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bardo 120713
The Bardo concept is to be found in the Burmese layman's belief in {laip-pra} literally a 'butterfly' which is supposed to leave the body of the dying person, but which hovers near the dead body before it can find a living body being formed. If the {laip-pra} could not find a living person being formed at the time of destruction of the corpse -- by cremation, burial, or natural decay process -- the {laip pra} becomes a 'ghost' residing generally in a tree. See for a dictionary explanation in MED2006-455.

End of TIL file.