The Buddhist sage Nagasena & King Milinda

• neutral_onliner

  21 Jun 06, 16:24

  The King asked Nagasena: "When someone is reborn, is he the same as the one who just died, or is he different?"
  
  Nagasena replied: "He is neither the same, nor different ... Tell me, if a man were to light a lamp, could it provide light the whole night long?"
  
  King: "Yes."
  
  Nagasena:"Is the flame then which bums in the first watch of the night the same as the one that burns in the second .... or the last?'
  
  King: "No."
  
  Nagasena: "Does that mean there is one lamp in the first watch of the night, another in the second, and another in the third?"
  
  
  King: "No, it's because of that one lamp that the light shines all night."
  
  Nagasena: "Rebirth is much the same: one phenomenon arises and another stops, simultaneously. So the first act of consciousness in the new existence is neither the same as the last act of consciousness in the previous existence, nor is it different."
• neutral_onliner

  21 Jun 06, 16:34

  The King asks for another example to explain the precise nature of this dependence, and Nagasena compares it to milk: the curds, butter, or ghee that can be made from milk are never the same as the milk, but they depend on it entirely for their production.
  
  The King then asks: "If there is no being that passes on from body to body, wouldn't we then be free of all the negative actions we had done in past lives?"
  
  Nagasena gives this example: A man steals someone's mangoes. The mangoes he steals are not exactly the same mangoes that the other person had originally owned and planted, so how can he possibly deserve to be punished? The reason he does, Nagasena explains, is that the stolen mangoes only grew because of those that their owner had planted in the first place. In the same way, it is because of our actions in one life, pure or impure, that we are linked with another life, and we are not free from their results.
  
  The King asked, "Is there anyone who is not reborn after death?"
  
  Nagasena:"Yes, there is. The one who has no defilements is not reborn after death; the one who has defilements is reborn."
  
  The King:"Will you be reborn?"
  
  Nagasena:"If I die with craving in my mind, yes; but if not, no."
  
  Craving, for pleasure (or avoiding pain), serves as the "seed" of energy, or Karma, driving that consciousness to go on and on, similar to a spinning bundle of yarn revolving around the rolling spindle of karma, with the impulsive force of greed, hatred, and delusion. This results in the cycle of birth and death, either as lives after lives, or thoughts after thoughts - engraving into an illusive 'self-image' hologram.
  
  "O' monks, I declare - Volition is Karma (action). Having willed (impelled by intention), man acts by deeds, words, and thoughts."
  
  - The Buddha.
• neutral_onliner

  21 Jun 06, 16:45

  Why then we do not remember the experience of
  
  our past lives? If one would carefully consider this issue, one may realize that
  
  we all have very limited remote memories. Do you remember how old were
  
  you when your parents taught you the first word? What were you doing,
  
  sitting, crawling, walking, or eating? It has been noted that those people,
  
  who could remember their past lives, were usually dealt with very tragic
  
  incidents, e.g., got killed unexpectedly (without being able to say goodbye to
  
  their families), or they were deeply concerned with their loved ones, which
  
  engraved a very strong hold of their past memories into their mind at the
  
  moment of their deaths. It has been stated that well-trained meditators who
  
  have reached higher absorption levels are capable of recollecting the
  
  memories of their past lives, some for one previous life, some two or three,
  
  and some for many past lives, depending on their absorption levels.