මැරුණට පස්සේ මොකද වෙන්නේ කියල මම දන්නේ නෑ බං. මට ඒ ගැන අත්දැකීම් නැති නිසා. මම හිතන්නේ නෑ එතනින් එහාට ඒ පුද්ගලයා වෙන කෙනෙක් හැටියට ඉපදෙනවා කියල. මම හිතන්නේ ඉපදෙන අපි ඔක්කොම අලුතෙන්ම මේ ලෝකෙට ආපු ජීවින් ගොඩක් කියල විතරයි. මැරුණට පස්සේ හරියට ඉන්ධන නැතුව නවතින වාහනයක් වගේ නවතිනව.ඊට පස්සේ වාහනේ දිරනව. බුද්ධාගමේ තියෙන නිසා කියන කාරණේ ඇරෙන්ඩ වෙන හේතුවක් නෑ මටනං පුනරුප්පත්තිය පිළිගන්ඩ.
Mchn for you info.This explains everything I'm trying to say
Rebirth Later: What Happens When You Die
Now that you have learned that in Buddhism the concept of “you” is an illusion, well…what happens to “you” when you die? This section may be a little long, but there are a few concepts to explain that helps explain what happens.
In one of my favorite books,
What the Buddha Taught, scholar Walpola Rahula summed up what happens when you die:
What we call death is the total non-functioning of the physical body. Do all these forces and energies stop altogether with the non-functioning of the body? Buddhism says ‘No’.
He later goes on to say:
According to Buddhism, this force does not stop with the non-functioning of the body, which is death; but it continues manifesting itself in another form, producing re-existence which is called rebirth. … when this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life.
All that talk about “energies” and “force” sounds a bit mysterious, however Barbara O’Brien
explains explains it this way:
One way to explain rebirth is to think of all existence as one big ocean. An individual is a phenomenon of existence in the same way a wave is a phenomenon of ocean. A wave begins, moves across the surface of the water, then dissipates. While it exists, a wave is distinct from ocean yet is never separate from ocean. In the same way, that which is reborn is not the same person, yet is not separate from the same person.
But lets get back to basics. Why does rebirth even occur?
According to Ven. Master Hsing Yun, rebirth is a result of Karma:
Karma is the force that causes us to be born even if we do not want to be born and causes us to die even if we do not want to die. However it is important to understand that in the cycle of birth and death it is not “we” who are being born again and again, but rather it is our karma. Buddhist practices places great emphasis on doing good deeds because the good that we do today will form the foundation for future lives. The right way to understand karma is not to think about what we are going to “get out of” our actions, but rather to pay attention to what we [are] doing right now, and what the effects of our actions will be.
But how does karma impact rebirth? And how the heck is all that Karma stored up to impact rebirth? Good question!
Now this ‘consciousness’ I was referring to earlier with “Doctor Who” is part of the fifth aggregate in Buddhism. In Buddhism, “you” are made up of “the five Aggregates”. These aggregates are impermanent, and don’t last (and in-fact, “change”). They are:
- Form
- Sensation
- Perception
- Mental Formation
- Consciousness
All of these are connected to each other, and make you what you are. However the fifth one, consciousness, takes a special meaning as it relates to rebirth (and is considered the core of rebirth in Mahayana). Once again according to Walpola Rahula:
According to Mahayana Buddhist philosophy the Aggregate of Consciousness has three aspects: citta, manas and vijnana, and the Alaya-vijnana (popularly translated as ‘Store-Consciousness’) finds its place in this Aggregate.
For most in the Theravada tradition, Alayavijnana is treated as purely as Mahayana invention (specifically the Yogacara or Vijnanavada School), and not what the Buddha taught. It should be noted, however, that eight years after Dr. Rahula wrote “What the Buddha Taught” (and the verbiage above), he wrote an essay on Alayavijnana (
Middle Way , London, August 1967 – click here to view [PDF-9mb]) where he said at the end:
Thus one may see that, although not developed as in the Mahayana, the original idea of alayavijnana was already there in the Pali Canon of the Theravada
This Alayavijnana or “Store Consciousness” impacts rebirth. As Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh
explains:
According to Buddhist psychology, our consciousness is divided into eight parts, including mind consciousness (manovijnana) and store consciousness (alayavijnana). Store consciousness is described as a field in which every kind of seed can be planted – seeds of suffering, sorrow, fear, and anger, and seeds of happiness and hope. When these seeds sprout, they manifest in our mind consciousness, and when they do, they become stronger.
He later goes on to explain:
Even before agitation manifests in our mind consciousness, it is already in our store consciousness in the form of a seed. All mental formations lie in our store consciousness in the form of seeds. Something someone does may water the seed of agitation, and then agitation mainfests in our mind consciousness. Every mental formation that manifests needs to be recognized. If it is wholesome, mindfulness will cultivate it. If it is unwholesome, mindfulness will encourage it to return to our store consciousness and remain there, dormant.
Ven. Master Hsing Yun
explained (November 21st, 1982, at the CKS Cultural Center in Kaohsiung, Taiwan) that Alaya-vijnana is the crucial part of rebirth:
If it is not the physical body that is reborn, then what is this “compelling force” that is at the core of rebirth? In Buddhism, the core of rebirth is described as the alaya-vijnana (storehouse consciousness).
he goes on to say:
Alaya-vijnana is the basic source of life. As it comes into contact with different conditions and circumstances, it gives rise to various mental formations and actions, hence karma. The seeds of karma are [in turn] stored in this giant warehouse of alaya-vijnana. The relative abundance of the good or bad karma in this giant warehouse then determines the direction of the next rebirth. When a being dies, the alaya-vijnana is the last to leave the physical body. When a being is reborn, the alaya-vijnana is the first to arrive in the next body. It is the core of rebirth.
Going back to the last section where we talked about the
Ten Spiritual Realms, your karmic actions and influence impact rebirth while you are alive, and after you are dead. For example, while you are alive your karma (“actions”) can move you in and out of different realms and you are in control of it. While you are dying, and then deceased, your karmic influences are also part of the energy that is transmitted into new life. This doesn’t mean that literally you will be reborn as an animal, but that it will impact the new life in that ‘realm’. But like everything with Karma, that new life can change it. Karma is
not “fate”.
If we can sum up what happens to you when “you” die:
- Your karmic actions (good and bad) are kept in your store consciousness (alayavaijnana)
- Alayavijnana is the force, or energy, that creates rebirth
- When you die, your store consciousness (alayavijnana) is the last to leave your body, and the first to arrive in the next body