Yesterday we talked about the link between clinging and becoming. If you understand this link, the link between clinging and becoming, you can easily understand the next link which is between becoming and rebirth. I think that you remember that in the previous link becoming is of two kinds, Kamma-becoming and rebirth-becoming. Kmma-becoming is just the wholesome and unwholesome Kammas and also covetousness etc. accompanying the volition. So generally it is the same as Sankhàra. The second becoming, the rebirth-becoming is just rebirth in the different planes of existence. There are 31 planes of existence ccording to the teachings of Buddhism. Rebirth in these planes is called becoming here in Bhava.

The next link is between becoming and rebirth. Why is becoming in the previous link divided into two? It is because of the next link. In the next link or the present link we are talking about, becoming is a conditioning factor and rebirth or Jàti is the conditioned factor.

What is Jàti? Jàti is rebirth. 'Rebirth' means the first moment in a given life, the first thought moment and also the material properties arising together with it. That is technically called rebirth or relinking.

If we take becoming in this link as rebirth-becoming, then it will amount to saying rebirth is conditioned by rebirth or rebirth conditions rebirth which is absurd. So here by 'becoming' we mean only the Kamma-becoming. But in the previous link 'becoming' can mean either Kamma-becoming or rebirth-becoming. So there in the previous link 'becoming' has to be understood in two ways, but here in this link 'becoming' just means Kamma-becoming or just the wholesome and unwholesome volition and also covetousness etc. which go with the volition. We have as Kamma-becoming the wholesome and unwholesome volition or wholesome Kamma-becoming and unwholesome Kamma-becoming.

Unwholesome Kamma-becoming conditions rebirth in the woeful states, the states of loss, the states of misery like the animal kingdom and hell. We do something in this life which is unwholesome, some misconduct. As a result of this unwholesome action or misconduct, we will be reborn in one of the four woeful states. The Kamma-becoming which we perform in this life conditions the rebirth in the other existences, in this case in one of the four woeful states.

Wholesome Kamma-becoming conditions rebirth in the human world, the world of Devas, and the world of Brahmas. So different Kamma-becoming conditions rebirth in different existences. for example we practice wholesome actions here, such as giving Dàna or keeping precepts, or practicing meditation. As a result of this wholesome Kamma we will be reborn in human existence or in higher existences. If we practice Jhàna here and we die with this Jhàna intact, then we will be reborn in the Brahma world. If we want to become mindless Brahmas, then we will practice the Jhàna which leads to that state and we will be reborn as mindless beings there. If we go to the other extreme that the physical body is painful - becuase we have physical body we have pain, we have suffering - and so we don't want to have physical body at all. Then we try to get some Jhana which will enable us to be reborn in a state where no physical body exists. If we die with that Jhàna intact, we will be eborn in that existence where only mind and mentl states exist and there is no physical body. So different Kamma-becoming conditions rebirth in different existences. This is not difficult to understand because the same things have been explained in the previous link.

The next link is between birth on the one hand and ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair on the other. Conditioned by birth, ageing and death arise. Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despir arise. This is the last link, the link between birth and ageing and death and so on.

When beings are reborn in a given existence, after rebirth there will be getting mature or getting old, or development into a full being and then at the end one will meet with death. So ageing and death is the inevitable result of rebirth. That means rebirth is the basis for ageing or getting old and death.

The other factors like sorrow, lamentation and so on are not inevitable results of rebirth. But these two, ageing and death, are the inevitble results of rebirth. So they are grouped together separately from sorrow, lamentation and so on.

When does ageing begin? When does old age begin? After 30 years, after 40 years, 50 years, 60 years or 100 years? Do you think you are old now? Nobody wants to get old. Nobody wants to be old. If someone says, 'Oh, you look young', then people are happy. At least I am happy when people say, 'You don't look your age.' People are so afraid of old age that when someone asks their age they are upset. When I first came to this country, a Burmese ldy warned me not to ask the age of people because she said they would be angry with me. So nobody wants old age. But can you avoid old age? No. When does old age begin? Immediately after the moment of rebirth or relinking. You don't wait for ten years, or twenty years, or thirty years to get old. Immediately after rebirth consciousness, the rebirth moment, which lasts for less than a billionth of a second, old age comes in. Even in the mother's womb, you have this old age or you are ageing. But we call this development. The fetus develops into a baby. The baby develops until he gets to twenty or thirty yeas of age. Then only do we say he is going down or something like that.But actually from the very moment of relinking or rebirth, old age sets in. So at every moment people are getting old.

Nobody likes to be old. So people try to avoid or stop this old age, but so far without success. What is old age? It is described in the books as broken teeth, wrinkles, weakness in eyesight, having to rely on a cane to walk and so on. This is called old age. When you get too old, you become like a child. I think that is called dotage. These are all to be suffered through old age. So nobody likes old age, but old age is always with us. We are getting old day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second.

This is so because ccording to the teachings of the Buddha everything just rises for a moment and then disappears. Then another new thing arises and disappears and so on. So in every moment there is change. From one moment to another we are getting old. From the first moment to the second moment we are getting old. From the second moment to the third moment we are getting old. We are getting old day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. We are not the same persons that enteed this hall a few moments ago. Every second we are getting old.

A woman in Massachussetts told me that the fact that every moment we are getting old is very correct. She said that according to biology cells change every moment. Cells in our body always change. Old cells die and new cells come into being. She said that every seven years every cell in your body is totally changed. According to biology every seven years you are a different person. You are a new person. Your physical body is all completely changed into a new body. That may mean the whole body, but at every moment there is change. So we hav this old age at every moment. We cannot push it backward. We cannot escape this old age.

When Buddha talked about old age, he didn't want us to be scared of it or to be depressed about it, but to see it as it really is, to accept it and to do something to get rid of this old age. The only thing we can do about old age is what? Try to find a way to escape the source or the basis of this old age. In this life since we have been reborn as human beings, since we have this physical body and also the mental body, we cannot escape old age at all. It is the nature of life to get old. Since we got this life, we have to suffer old age. What we can do is to try not to be reborn, not to have aa rebirth so that we do not have to suffer old age and ultimately death again. This is the only thing you can do to get rid of old age, that is the practice of meditation.

Many people nowadays try to avoid or try to cover up this old age by plastic surgery or by having artificial things. But old age cannot be escaped or avoided in this way. Even though a person is undergoing plastic surgery, he is getting old second by second. He may look young, but he is not young. He is getting old.

We have to suffer this old age because we have rebirth. At the end comes death. Death is inevitable for beings that have been reborn. Here 'death' means death at the end of one life. Actully there is death at every moment because mind and matter arise at every moment and then disappear at every moment. Disappearing of mind and matter is nothing but death. So we have small deaths at every moment, but we do not call it death. We call it death only when it comes at the end of one life. So the end of life is called death.

What is death? Yesterday I talked about death and I got many questions. According to the teachings of Buddhism death occurs when three things disappear from us. One is what we call 'the life principle'. Life principle is of two kinds- physical and mental. It is said that in our bodies there is a kind of material property which keps the other material properties from decomposing, which keeps the other material properties alive. That is called material life principle. There is also a kind of mental state that keeps other mental states going. That is the mental life or psychic life. Then body heat is another. There is heat in the body. So long as we are aive our body is warm. But when we die the body becomes cold. The heat leaves us. And then consciousness is the third one. When these three things leave us, we are dead. They are life principle, body heat and consciousness. If you ant to know about someone, whether she or he is alive or dead, then you may test with these three things - whether that person still has life principle (That means his body is decomposing or not.), also whether the bdy is still warm and whether there is consciousness or not. With regard to consciousness it is difficult for us to decide whether a person still has consciousness or not. Sometimes consciousness is so subtle that it is difficult to decide whether the person has consciousness or not. Sometimes there is still consciousness, but we do not know or we do not see, or we do not detect consciousness in that person. So when these three things leave us, then we are said to be dead. Death comes at the end of life when the life principle, body heat and consciousness leave us.

Ageing and death are the inevitable results of Jàti (rebirth). When we have rebirth, then we have ageing and death. We cannot escape. We cannot avoid these two things. Even the religious teachers, the founders of religions, they also died. Anybody who has the physical body or this body of a human being, or the material form of Deva or Brahma will one day die. Nobody can escape death. So it is very dreadful thinking of death, but it is very useful to reflect upon death from time to time. It helps us be less attached to things, to have less pride. Have you ever looked at a watch, maybe the second hand of the watch or a digitl watch, and thought second by second I am approaching death? My expectancy of life is trickling away second by second as I look at the watch. Sometimes it may scare you because you know that one day death will come to you and you don't know when it will come. The seconds are trickling away and so you may be scared. But by watching such a thing and contemplating on death, 'Death is going to come one day. I cannot escape death. Before death I must do something so I will not be reborn in the four woeful states, so I may have a better life in the future or better still I will practice meditation so that I become enlightened.' When you contemplate on death, the attachment to things will at least diminish. If you really contemplate on death, you will have very little attachment to persons or to things. Also the best way to deal with pride is to think of death. When you think of death, pride just goes away. So it is very beneficial to contemplate on death from time to time. Ageing and death are the two inevitable results of Jàti or rebirth.

The results of rebirth are not just these two. There are more. They are sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. Conditioned by rebirth sometimes we suffer sorrow. There is nobody who has never been sorry. Sorrow comes from loss of relatives, loss of wealth, loss of health, loss of moral conduct (That means breaking some important rules.). Then we are sorry about that. Also the loss of right view is a cause for sorrow. Sometimes from right view we go to wrong view. Then we realize that we have done wrong and we are sorry about that. Sorrow comes from different kinds of loss. So when a relative dies we are sorry. The dearer that person is to us the more we suffer. When people lose property (their house, their car or their job), they suffer a lot and so there is sorrow. Sorrow cannot be avoided if you are reborn as a human being and also if you are reborn as an animal, or if you are reborn in the four woeful states. Even if you are reborn as a Deva, you cannot escape sorrow. There is sorrow for gods too. There are some deities or gods who are not so well off as other deities, as other gods. Therefore they are always sorry for themselves and they want to improve their situation. Do not think you will be free from sorrow if you are reborn as a Deva.

Even the king of gods was once destitute because he once tricked the Venerable Kassapa into accepting a food offering. He and his wife created the appearance for themselves of an old man and an old woman. When Venerable Kassapa came for alms, they offered food to the Venerable. He was not aware that they were gods, so he accepted their food. But after some time he got the very good smell of the food and he knew that it was not orinary human food. By his psychic power he kne the persons who offered him this food were the king of gods and his wife. He scolded them: 'Why do you rob this opportunity from human beings? If human beings offer to me, they will get good results. You are gods. You are deities. You are much more well off than the human beings.'

Then the king of gods said: 'Although I am the king of gods, I was born as a result of wholesome deeds performed durig the time of absence of a Buddha, during a time when there was no Buddha and no dispensation of the Buddha.' That meritorious result gave him good results but nt so good as the others. He said that there were other gods who came up after him and did meritorious deeds during the time of the Buddha and they had more luster in the body and more beauty and more of all other things. 'So although I am the king of gods, I am a poor king.' He said, 'Please have mercy on me.'

So even though you are reborn as a god, you can have sorrow. And also it is said that when Buddha talked about old age and death and so on, then these gods became very afraid or frightened. So they have this sorrow. Also when the gods are about to die, then they have these signs, the signs that they ae going to die. When these signs appear, they are very afraid and they are very sorry. Even though you are reborn as a god, you will not escape sorrow, lamentation and others.

With sorrow we lament, we cry. This crying aloud is called lamentation here. That is also the result of rebirth.

'Pain' here means bodily pain. We all have pain. Even during meditation you have pain. You have a hard time dealing with pain. This pain comes to us or we feel this pain because we have this physical body. And this physical body is the result of rebirth. So pain is also the consequence or result of rebirth.

In the phrase 'ageing and death' you may have noticed that there is no disease. The usual phrase is 'ageing, disease and death'. Disease is not mentioned here because disease is not an inevitable result of rebirth. There can be persons who are free from disease all their lives. They are gods. The gods and Brahmas do not have physical pain, but human beings and other beings have physical pain.

After pain there is grief or in Pàli Domanassa. It is mental pain. So pain is physical pain and grief is mental pain. When we have physical pain, we have mental grief, mental pain mostly. When we are in pain, there is some kind of consciousness in us which dislikes it or which longs for the absence of pain. Therefore we have some kind of grief, some kind of Domanassa when we have pain. That is true if we do not watch, if we do not make notes of pain. Most people who do not meditate when they have pain, they have this grief. Buddha said that it is like having two thorns at the same time. You have a thorn in your body. In order to take out that thorn you use another thorn. That thorn then breaks and remains in your flesh. So you have two thorns. In the same way first we have physical pain. If we have mental pain with this physical pain, we are having two thorns at the same time. It is more painful than having one thorn.

When you meditate, you try not to have grief or mental pain. That is why you concentrate on the pain. You are mindful of the pain saying, 'pain, pain, pain', seeing pain as a sensation separate from yourself. Then you can only have one thorn at that time if you are mindful and know how to practice contemplation on feeling. That is grief or mental pain.

The Devas can have this grief or mental pain too. When they are afraid of death from the life of Devas, they are having this mental pain too, this grief too. There ws a Deva who was enjoying himself with 1000 celestial nymphs it is said. 500 nymphs were collecting flowers and they just died. They were reborn in hell. When the Deva did not see the 500 nymphs, he started to look for them. The Deva or god saw that they were reborn in hell. So he was sorry for them. When he looked at himself and the 500 nymphs that remained, he saw by his divine power that he was going to die and that he was going to be reborn in hell too. So he was very distressed. But he ws lucky because he went down to the Buddha and told the Buddha that he was very frightened and afraid. He asked the Buddha what he should do to get rid of this fear. Buddha said that without enlightenment and without proper practice, and without restraint of the senses that he could not see any happiness for beings. He said that he should practice self-restraint and meditation. At the end of the discourse the Deva became a Sotàpanna. So even for gods there is grief.

The last one is despair. Actually in Pàli it is Upàyàsà. 'Upàyàsà' means intense burning. After grief you get this feeling. Actually it is not a feeling. You get this mental state. It is called Upàyàsà. It is translated as despair. I don't know whether it is correct or not. The characteristic of Upàyàsà is burning of the mind. It is more intense than grief. After grief you get this despair or Upàyàsà, intense burning in the mind. It is actually Dosa.

In the Commentary the difference between sorrow, lamentation and despair is explained by a simile. Sorrow is like the cooking of oil etc. in a pot over a slow fire. Lamentation is like the oil etc. boiling over from the pot when cooking over a quick fire. Despair is like what remains in the pot after it has boied over and is unable to do so anymore, going on in the pot until it dries up. Sorrow is just like boiling over a fire. Lamentation is like spilling over the pot. And despair is like drying up after having boiled over. Despair is the worst of these three.

These states, some mental and some physical, all bad states, all undesirable states, are the result of rebirth. But they are not the inevitable results. That is why they are phrased separately from ageing and death.

When you are reborn as a Brahma, you may not experience any sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair. The world of Brahmas is much better than the world of Devas and the world of men. But even though one is reborn as a Brahma, there is ageing and there is death. Ageing here just means going from birth to death, not ageing as in human beings. Still there is ageing because that which remains in the middle between rebirth and death is ageing. Even the Brahmas have ageing or getting old and death. At the end death comes to them too.

Sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair are not the inevitable results of rebirth. Ageing and death or getting ild and dying are the direct results of rebirth. Therefore these two are phrased together and the other five are phrased together separately.

This is the last link in the Doctrine of Dependent Origination. As a conclusion the Buddha said: 'Thus there is the arising of this whole mass of suffering.' In this way this whole mass of suffering arises. Everything in this doctrine beginning from ignorance up through despair, it is all suffering, a whole mass of suffering. 'Whole' is explained as not mixed. So this mass of suffering is unmixed with any happiness.

According to the formula whatever is impermanent is suffering. So everything is suffering. Suffering is to be understood in this way. If we just say that everything is suffering, there are people who cannot agree with that because there are what we call pleasures in the world. They are not suffering, but everything that has a beginning and an end is unsatisfactory. We don´t want these pleasures to go away. But they will disappear at some time. And so they are unsatisfactory. That unsatisfactoriness is ne of the meanings of Dukkha in Pàli. Everything that has a beginning and an end is Dukkha or suffering. Beginning with ignorance all these twelve factors arise and disappear and so they are suffering. Therefore the Buddha said: 'Thus there is the arising of this whole mass of suffering.'

We are told that the Doctrine of Paticca Samuppàda should be understood s a wheel or as a circle. We didn't find any wheel or circle until now. It is like a chain. There is ignorance in the beginning, then mental formations, and then consciousness and so on, one after the other. How do we conceive this like a wheel or a circle? It is called the Wheel of Life. You may have seen diagrams in a circle. The last link says, 'Conditioned by birth, ageingand death arise; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair arise.' When there is sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair, what is there? If you understand Abhidhamma, you should know. What accompanies sorrow? What accompanies lamentation? What accompanies grief and despair? What type of consciousness arises in you when you are sorry? Unwholesome consciousness. When you lament or you are crying, you have unwholesome consciousness. When you have grief, unwholesome consciousness arises. When you despair, when you are burning greatly, thenyou have unwholesome consciousness. All unwholesome consciousness is accompanied by Moha (ignorance). So when you have sorrow, lamentation, grief and despair, then there is ignorance. When we have ignorance, we can go on to mental formations nd so on. So it goes like a wheel, going on and on without a visible end. So the Doctrine of Paticca Samuppàda (Dependent Origination) is to be understood as a wheel, as a circle and not just as a chain.

This Doctrine of Dependent Origination as I told you is a very important doctrine in the teachings of the Buddha. It is very difficult to understand it fully because you need some knowledge of Abhidhamma in order to understand in all aspects this Doctrine of Dependent Origination. This Doctrine of Dependent Origination is found in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. Its detailed explanation is given in the book written by the Venerable Buddhaghosa, now translated as The Path of Purification and also in another Commentary written by the same author. It is one of the four things that are difficult to understand and difficult to teach.

There are some more things to know about the Doctrine of Dependent Origination. Dependent Origination teaches us that everything is conditioned. Nothing is absolute. Everything must have a condition. A condition must have something that conditions it and so on. So one may go backward ad infinitum. When we perceive the Doctrine as a circle, as a wheel, we cannot see any beginning. That is why the Buddha said, 'The round of rebirth is beginningless or the beginning of the round of rebirth is not to be perceived.' It cnnot be perceived because it goes round and round. So the Doctrine of Paticca Samuppàda teaches us tht everything is conditioned.

If there is no discernible beginning, why is it stated that depending on ignorance formations arise and so on? Why is ignorance shown here as the first cause? Why is ignorance put in the beginning? Ignorance is not the first beginning of mental formations and so on. But since it is the main condition for mental formations, it is stated there.

In this Dependent Origination we have two parts, two divisions. One begins with ignorance and the other begins with craving. Ignorance and craving are the root causes of these two divisions. Ignorance and craving are the main causes, the main conditions for this round of rebirths. Ignorance is just put at the beginning, just as a presentation, not that ignorance is the first cause and not that there is no cause for ignorance. Since it is the main cause for this whole wheel of rebirth, it is mentioned in the beginning. So there is no beginning of this wheel of life or wheel of rebirth.

This Doctrine should be understood so that we do not fall into wrong views. In the Commentary these four methods are given. We must understand with reference to these four methods so that we do not fall into wrong views.

I don't think I have time today. I just want to read the name of these four methods because there is one word that I do not understand and it may be very difficult to find in the dictionary.

'There are four methods in treating the meaning here. They are A. the method of identity B. the method of diversity C. the method of uninterest (There is a footnote as to why he chose the word 'uninterest' here) D. the method of ineluctable regularity. (I don't know what that means.) This wheel of becoming should be known accordingly as to the kinds of methods.'

So we should understand the Doctrine of Dependent Origination with reference to these four methods. The first is the method of identity. The second is the method of diversity. The third is the method of uninterest. That is not so bad. But the last one, the method of ineluctable regularity - that means something like inevitable or sure regularity. We must understand Paticca Samuppàda according to these four methods.

If we do not understand with regard to these four methods properly, then we will come to take wrong views, like there is no cause for things, or there is an Atta, or there is nothing we can do about anything, like fatalism and so on. So it is important to understnd the Doctrine of Paticca Samuppada with reference to these four methods.

The first one is the method of identity. In the Doctrine of Dependent Origination ignorance conditions formations, formations condition consciousness and so on. They are separate, let us say cause and effect. They are separate and they are different. Ignrance arises and disappears. Sankhara arise and disappear and so on. At every moment there is a new thing coming up and an old thing disappearing. Looking at it, we might fall into believing that the one who does something in this life does not get any results in the next life because at every moment there is new phenomena coming up. The one who performs the Kamma here is not the one who reaps the results. So in that case we don't need to do meritorious deeds or we don't need to avoid unwholesome deeds. We can do anything e like because we are not going to reap the results of what we do here. That false view can come in if you do not correctly understand Paticca Samuppàda with regard to the method of identity.

Also the method of diversity must be undestood. It is very tricky. Neither completely identical nor completely different or completely unconnected is to be the understanding. According to that method we have to understand that although there is something like continuity at every moment they are new. So there is nothing that persists from one moment to another or from one life to another and so on.

I will not finish it today. So I will explain it tomorrow. The time is up now. I don't want to set you thinking about this while meditating. There are four methods - method of identity, method of diversity, method of uninterest and method of ineluctable regularity. Tomorrow we will hear about this.

Thank you very much.

Sàdhu! Sàdhu! Sàdhu!