Exploring The Dhamma

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Exploring The Dhamma
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Rebirth Without A Soul
Neither the same nor yet another
- Visuddhi Magga
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Rebirth Without A Soul
Buddhism does not assert the existence of an
immortal soul or an eternal ego.
A soul which is eternal must necessarily remain
always the same without any change whatever -
there could neither be a rise nor a fall. How
then can one explain why different souls are so
variously constituted at the outset.
Certain religions postulated the existence of an
immortal soul to justify the existence of endless
happiness in an eternal heaven and unending
suffering in an eternal hell.
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Rebirth Without A Soul
Bertrand Russell wrote It should be said that
the old distinction between soul and body has
evaporated, quite as much because matter has
lost its solidity as because mind has lost its
spirituality. Psychology is just beginning to be
scientific. In the present state of psychology
belief in immortality can at any rate claim no
support from science.
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Rebirth Without A Soul
If nothing in the form of a spirit or soul passes
from this life to the other, what is it that is
reborn?
Buddhism believes everything changes so quickly.
For no two moments are we identically the same.
Buddhism, teaching a psychology without a psyche,
resolves the living being into mind and matter
(nama-rupa) which are in a state of constant flux.
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Paramathas
In ancient India, the sages believed in an
indivisible atom which they called Paramanu.
According to the belief
36 Paramanus 1 Anu 36 Anus
1 Tajjari 36 Tajjaris 1
Ratharenu
The minute particles of dust seen dancing in the
sunbeam are called Ratharenu. One Paramanu is
1/46,656th part of a Ratharenu.
The Buddha analysed the Paramanu and declared
that it consists of interrelated forces known as
Paramathas or essentials of matter. These
Paramathas are Pathavi, Apo, Tejo, and Vayo.
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Paramathas
Pathavi
Means the element of extension. Without it,
objects cannot occupy space. Hardness or
softness are two qualities of this element.
Apo
Element of cohesion. This element makes the
scattered atoms of matter cohere and gives us the
idea of body.
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Paramathas
Tejo
Element of heat. Cold is also a form of tejo.
It is the vitalising energy. Preservation and
decay are due to this element. Only this element
has the power to regenerate itself.
Vayo
Element of motion. Movements are caused by this
element. Motion is regarded as the force or the
generator of heat.
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Paramathas
These 4 elements (Pathavi, Apo, Tejo, and Vayo)
are the fundamental units of matter and are
invariably combined with the 4 derivations
namely colour (vanna), odour (gandha), taste
(rasa) and nutritive essence (oja).
The 4 elements and their derivatives are
inseparable and interrelated. One element may
dominate over another. For example, the
extension (Pathavi) element preponderates in
earth cohesion (Apo) preponderates in water
heat in fire and motion in air.
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Paramathas
Thus, matter consists of forces and qualities
which are always in a state of constant flux.
According to Buddhism, matter endures only for
17 thought-moments.
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Paramathas
Mind consists of 52 mental states (cettasika).
Feeling (vedana) is one perception (sanna) is
another, the remaining 50 are collectively called
volitional activities (samkhara). Of them,
volition (cetana) is the most important factor.
All these psychic states arise in a consciousness
(vinnana).
There is no single moment, when one does not
experience a kind of consciousness hanging on
to some object whether physical or mental.
The time-limit for one consciousness 1
thought-moment.
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Consciousness
Each unit of consciousness consists of 3 instants
(khana). They are
Arising/genesis uppada
Static/development thiti
Cessation/dissolution - bhanga
The cessation of a thought-moment is immediately
succeeded by a genesis of the next thought-moment.
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Consciousness
The rapidity of the succession of such
thought-moments is hardly conceivable (time
duration of 1 thought moment is even less than
one millionth part of the time occupied by a
flash of lightning.)
In the Abhidhamma text, it is stated that
consciousness arises and dissolves in a person at
a tremendous rate of more than a thousand billion
times per eye-wink. And there are 250 eye-winks
in a second.
So the life-span of a consciousness (citta) is
less than one-thousand billionth of a second.
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Consciousness
Each consciousness on its passing away transmits
its whole energy, all the indelibly recorded
impressions, to its successor.
Kammic energy
Every fresh consciousness consists of the
potentialities of its predecessors together with
something more.
There is a continuous flow of consciousness like
a stream without interruption.
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Consciousness
The subsequent thought-moment is neither
absolutely the same as its predecessor since
its composition is not identical nor entirely
different being the same stream of life.
These states constantly change, not remaining the
same for two consecutive moments. Worldlings,
enmeshed in the web of illusion, mistake this
apparent continuity to be something eternal and
go to the extent of introducing an unchanging
soul into this ever-changing consciousness.
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Five Aggregates
The 4 kinds of psychic phenomena, combined with
the physical phenomena, form the five aggregates
(pancakkhanda), the complex compound termed a
living being. Ones individuality is the
combination of these 5 aggregates.
Five aggregates (pancakkhanda)
Rupa - Matter (4 elements solidity,
fluidity, heat, motion) Vedana - Sensations
or Feelings
Samma - Perceptions or identification
Sankara -
Mental formation or Tendencies
Vinnana - Consciousness
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Life-Flux
How is rebirth possible without a soul to be
reborn?
Birth is the arising of the khandas, the
aggregates or groups.
Just as the arising of a physical state is
conditioned by a preceding state as its cause, so
the appearance of these psycho-physical phenomena
is conditioned by causes anterior to its birth.
The present process of becoming is the result of
the craving for becoming in the previous birth
and the present instinctive craving conditions
life in a future birth.
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Life-Flux
Analogy of the billiard balls
If, for instance, another ball is rolled against
the last stationary ball, the moving ball will
stop dead, and the foremost stationary ball will
move on. The first moving ball does not pass
over, it remains behind, it dies but it is
undeniably the movement of that ball, its
momentum, its Kamma, and not any newly created
movement, which is reborn in the foremost ball.
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Life-Flux
In like manner, the body dies and its Kammic
force is reborn in another body without anything
transmigrating from this life to the other. The
last thought-moment of this life perishes
conditioning another thought-moment in a
subsequent life.
Kamma Force
The new being is neither absolutely the same
since it has changed nor totally different
being the same stream of Kamma energy. There is
merely a continuity of life flux just that and
nothing more.
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The gift of Dhamma excels all gifts
the taste of Dhamma excels all taste,
the delight in dhamma excels all delights, The
Craving-Freed vanquishes all suffering. -
Dhammapada verse 354
End of Lesson
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Rebirth Without A Soul
According to the learned author of the Riddle of
the Universe The theological proof that a
personal creator has breathed an immortal soul
(generally regarded as a portion of the Divine
Soul) into man is a pure myth. The cosmological
proof that the moral order of the world demands
the eternal duration of the human soul is a
baseless dogma. The teleological proof that the
higher destiny of man involves the perfecting
of his defective, earthly soul beyond the grave -
rests on a false anthropism. The moral
proof-that the defects and the unsatisfied
desires of earthly existence must be fulfilled by
compensative justice on the other side of
eternity - is nothing more than a pious wish.
The ethnological proof - that the belief in
immortality, like the belief in God, is an innate
truth, common to all humanity - is an error in
fact. The ontological proof - that the
soul,being a simple, immaterial, and indivisible
entity cannot be involved in the corruption of
death - is based on an entirely erroneous view of
the psychic phenomena it is a spiritualistic
fallacy. All these and similar proofs of
athanatism are in a parlous condition they are
definitely annulled by the scientific criticism
of the last few decades.
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Consciousness
The time-limit for one consciouness 1
thought-moment.
Each thought-moment is succeeded by another.
Thus the succession of mental states contains a
time element.
The rapidity of the succession of such
thought-moments is hardly conceivable (time
duration of 1 thought moment is even less than
one millionth part of the time occupied by a
flash of lightning.)