Today I must continue the talk on Dependent Origination. Before going any further, it is good to recapitulate what I said yesterday. The first link in the Doctrine of Dependent Origination is that between ignorance and the volitional formations. Avijjà or ignorance is that which does not know correctly and that which knows incorrectly. Here ignorance means ignorance of the Four Noble Truths - ignorance of Dukkha, ignorance of the origin of Dukkha, ignorance of the cessation of Dukkha and ignorance of the way leading to the cessation of Dukkha.

Conditioned by ignorance there arise volitional formations. There arise actions done by the body, actions done by speech, or actions done by the mind; good actions and bad actions, or good Kamma and bad Kamma. People do good Kamma or bad Kamma because they are influenced by ignorance. It is not ignorance alone that makes volitional formations arise. Ignorance has craving and grasping as its companions. Supported by craving and grasping Avijjà helps formations to arise.

The next link is between formations and consciousness. In Pali it is Sankhàra Paccayà Viññanaç, conditioned by volitional formations consciousness arises. It is important to know what consciousness is according to Buddhism. Beings, specifically beings who have five aggregates, are composed of mind and matter. Mind is the one that inclines toward the object. Matter is that which changes with heat, cold etc. Mind is composed of two things. One is consciousness and the other is mental factors. Consciousness is just the awareness of the object. It is not really conscious of the object as is popularly understood. It is just the bare awareness of the object. It is something like when you are sitting, you are aware of the people sitting around you although you do not see them. So just the awareness of the object is what is called consciousness, or Citta, or Viññana in Buddhism. This consciousness is always with us. From the moment of conception to death at every moment there is consciousness. There may be different types of consciousness, but there is consciousness. Even though we are asleep, even though we have fainted there is still consciousness going on in our minds.

This consciousness is said to be neutral, no color. Sometimes we are happy. Sometimes we are sad. Sometimes we have attachment, craving. Sometimes we are angry and sometimes we are proud. Sometimes we feel jealous and so on. These come to us once in awhile, not always. Some of them cannot co-exist. When there is anger, there is no attachment. So anger, craving, jealousy etc. are the concomitants of consciousness. They arise together with consciousness. So they are called mental concomitants or mental factors. When a consciousness arises, it does not arise by itself but accompanied by some of these mental factors. What we call mind is a combination of Citta (consciousness) and what is called Cetasika in Pàli (mental factors). There re good and bad mental factors, wholesome and unwholesome, skilful and unskilful. A consciousness is said to be wholesome when it is accompanied by wholesome mental factors and it is unwholesome when it is accompanied by unwholesome mental factors.

Consciousness in this link is not all types of consciousness. There are altogether 89 or 121 types of consciousness treated in Abhidhamma. Here consciousness does not mean all 89 or 121 types of consciousness. Here it means only the resultant types of consciousnesses, consciousnesses that are the results of Kamma in the past. These types of consciousness that are the results of Kamma in the past are caused by or produced by Sankhàras. They are produced by good or bad Kamma in the past. So the relationship between Sankhàra (volitional formations) and Viññàna (consciousness) is that of the producer and product.

They belong to different times. They do not arise at the same time. Kamma must have arisen somewhere in the past. Its result, consciousness, must belong to a later period. Here the two links belong to different times unlike some of the other links which arise at the same time and support each other.

This link is really a cause-effect link. The mental or volitional formations are a real producing cause and the resultant consciousness is a real result, a real fruit, a real effect of the mental formations. So their relationship is one of producer and product.

How does consciousness come about? How does consciousness arise? Through volitional actions in the past. During a lifetime consciousness is always with us. One type of consciousness arises and then disappears. In its place another consciousness arises and disappears. So this series of moments of consciousness goes on and on and on, never ending.

When people meditate and begin to see mind and matter, the rising and falling of things, they see these moments of consciousness clearly in their mind. It is the mind observing other mind. So one type of consciousness arises and disappears in that place. Then in its place another type of consciousness arises. When you practice meditation, you see one thought after another. One thought means one consciousness. They arise one after the other, or the succeeding moments of consciousness arise because there is cause for them to arise. So long as there are senses and so long as there are objects, consciousness will arise. So long as there is the eye and there is something to be seen, there will be seeing consciousness. We cannot avoid seeing things when we have these two things. Depending on the senses or bases nd the objects coming together, consciousness arises. So at every moment there is the base and there is the object, and therefore consciousnesses arise one after the other.

Nobody can cut this flow of consciousness at any moment. 'Nobody' means no ordinary people. This consciousness goes on and on. During a lifetime beings do mixed Kamma (actions). Sometimes they do good actions (Kusala Kamma) and sometimes they do bad actions (Akusala Kamma).

When a person is dying, one of the Kammas which he did in the past presents itself to his mind. He sees that Kamma vividly. At times he feels that he is even doing that Kamma again at the moment of dying, at the time close to death. That is why people feel they are doing things they did in the past. Some people feel they are fishing just before they die. Some people see or experience what they did in the past such as offering to the monks or paying respect to the Buddha. Kamma or volitional actions done in the past present themselves to the mind of a dying person. It manifests itself very vividly to the person.

Sometimes not the Kamma itself, but the things surrounding that Kamma when that Kamma was done present themselves to the mind of the dying person. For example if it was a Kusala Kamma (wholesome Kamma), let us say giving (Dàna), then he may see things which he offered such as food or clothing. If it is the Kamma of paying homage, he may see the Buddha himself, or the pagoda, or the monks. These surrounding things will appear to him instead of Kamma. They are called 'sign of Kamma'. It is something which is instrumental or something that is part of doing that Kamma. That also many people experience before they die. Some people see or feel they are doing that Kamma again. If it is killing that they were doing, they see the animals that they killed. That is a sign of Kamma that presents itself to the dying person.

Sometimes the dying person sees what will be experienced in the next life or where he will go, his destination. The kind of destination becomes manifested to his mind, is presented to his mind. If he is going to be reborn as a Deva, then he may see some buildings or mansions. If he is going to be reborn in hell, then he may see some hell-fire or the tormentors in hell.If he going to be reborn as a human being, he may see the wall of his mother.

When a person is dying one of these three objects presents itself. At that time the dying person takes hold of that object. When there is that object, there is consciousness. In a person who is about to die in the moment before death, there are sme moments of consciousness. We call them dying consciousnesses. Those moments of consciousness grasp one of those three kinds of objects. One of the three kinds of objects becomes the object of the next moment of consciousness following the death moment. Immediately after the death moment, a consciousness arises because there is an object for it to hold on to. The force of Kamma creates or produces a basis for this consciousness, for in the case of a humn being, a very small bit of matter at the time of conception.

According to Abhidhamma there are 30 kinds of material particles that arise at the moment of that consciousness. These 30 kinds of material properties become the basis for that consciousness to arise. That consciousness itself and the material base are the result of that first Kamma. Kamma has the potential to give rise to or produce the consciousness nd the material base. It has the ability to manifest itself as Kamma, sign of Kamma, or sign of destiny. It creates all necessary conditions for consciousness to arise. So there is this consciousness immediately following the death moment. That moment is called rebirth. What we call rebirth is just consciousness immediately following death and the material properties that form the basis for that consciousness. That consciousness is called rebirth consciousness.

It is this rebirth consciousness that is produced by past Kamma or Sankhàra. When we say conditioned by Sankhàra, Viññàna arises, we mean that Sankhàra which is Kamma produces this consciousness as well as the material base. Kamma has this potential, this power to produce the material bae and consciousness in the next life.

Kamma has this power because it is helped or supported by craving. There is Avijjà too. Avijjà blindfolds us so that we do not see the danger or the bad points in Saçsàra, in our lives. Surrounded and enveloped by ignorance and helped by craving this Kamma produces the consciousness and material base for it in the next life. That is what we call rebirth. By rebirth we really mean rebirth consciousness and the material base.

I'm going to read something from the Visuddhi Magga. 'And while it is occurring thus, because craving nd ignorance have not been abandoned, craving pushes it and the conascent formations fling it forward onto that objective field, the dangers which are concealed by ignorance.' Ignorance conceals the danger of things or that side of things, and craving pushes it and the Kamma or formations fling it forward to that objective field.

'While as a continuous process it is being pushed by craving nd flung forward by formations, it abandons its former support like a man who crosses a river by hanging onto a rope tied to a tree on the near bank. Whether or not it gets a further support originated by Kamma, it occurs by means of the conditions consisting only in object condition and so on.' For consciousness to arise it needs two things - the object and the base. But in some cases, like beings without form at all, formless beings, they do not need material base. In that case there is no material base. Without a material base also consciousness can arise when it has an object to hold onto. For human beings there needs to be a material base and an object for consciousness to arise. But for formless beings there needs to be only an object for its arising. Whatever the case tht type of consciousness arises as a product, s a result of Kamma of the past. That is how life begins.

That Kamma is so potent, so powerful that it can cause that consciousnes (rebirth consciousness) to arise again and again in the next life. Immediately after rebirth consciousness the same type of consciousness is repeated time and again until death comes. So for the whole life the same type of consciousness is caused to rise again and again. What we call life is actually that consciousness, that series of consciousnesses, arising again and again all through life.

That type of consciousness which is produced by Kamma and rises in this life is like a 'host or home consciousness'. But when there are different objects presented to the mind, there are some 'guest consciousnesses ' - seeing,hearing, thinking and so on. When there are no objects such as seeing, hearing and so on, this type of consciousness goes on and on. That is why this succession of consciousness is called 'Bhavanga', constituent of life. The whole series of consciousnesses could be called life. Different moments in this series are called constituents of life or Bhavangas. This Bhavanga, which is the same as relinking or Patisandhi consciousness, goes on and on until the end of that life.

In the last moment of that life that consciousness is the same as rebirth consciousness, the same type of consciousness. When it comes at the last of the life, it is called death consciousness. In a given life the rebirth consciousness, and let us call it the inactive consciousness (Bhavanga), and in the end death consciousness are one and the same. They are identical.

So it goes from one life to another. So long as there is Avijjà and craving this life force goes on and on without ending. This is how the Sankhàras produce Viññàna, how mental formations or volitional formations produce rebirth consciousness.

During life too we have this resultant consciousness and other resultant consciousnesses as well. When we see something good or when we see something bad, we have seeing consciousness experiencing a pleasant or unpleasant object. This seeing consciousness is the result of past Kamma. They are not called rebirth or relinking consciousnesses, but they are resultant consciousnesses. Seeing consciousness, hearing consciousness and so on are also caused by Kamma and are the results of Kamma.

This link is the most difficult to understand and to accept in the first part of Dependent Origination. Dependent Origination has two parts, one ending with Vedanà (feeling) and the other ending with old age and death. In the first part the link between Sankhàra and Viññàna is the most difficult because we cannot see them. We cannot produce material proof or scientific proof. So it is very difficult to understand and also difficult to accept. Many people do not believe that there is life after death.

It is the place where people fall into the eternalist view or the annihilationist view. If you think that a being exists in this life and persists into the next life, you fall into the eternalist view. If you think that a being is finished at death and nothing more arises, he is cut there, then you fall into the annihilationist view. It is very difficult to keep yourself from falling into both of these extremes and to stay in the middle.

There are people who do not beieve in rebirth or next life. What can we do about that? We can explain to them according to Abhidhamma, but they will still not believe it. Although we have no scientific proof, we can make inferences. There are some people who are very, very gifted. We cannot imagine how they come to be so gifted. We cannot think how they may become so gifted or talented in one life. When we think of such persons, the only thing to go back to is past lives to expain it. The person who is very gifted must have accumulated this gift in past lives. These talents are something like transferred to this life. They gain these talents or gifts from life to life.

Such persons are exceptionally gifted. There are many such persons in the world. Some are mentioned in this book. 'How are we to account for personalities like Confucious (the Chinese sage) Pannini (Pannini is a very celebrated grammarian who lived in India about 2000 years ago.), Buddhaghosa, Homer and Plato, men of genius like Kalidasa (Kalidasa is supposed to be the Shakespeare of India.), Shakespeare, infant prodigies like Ramanuja, Vasquez, Mozart, Beethoven and so forth?' I don't know much about these people, but I think they must be very gifted persons. When we consider such persons, we cannot say it is because of heredity that are so gifted. If it is so their parents must also be gifted, but they were not. We are left with one solution and that is to go back to past lives. They have accumulated these gifts and talents in past lives and they are transferred to this life. It is considered that we can infer that there were lives in the past.

This book also mentions infant prodigies and it is interesting. 'But how one questions could Heinecken talk a few hours after his birth, repeat passages from the Bible at the age of one year, answer any question on geography at the age of two, speak French and Latin at the age of three and be a student of philosophy at the age of four?' This person is from the West. We have in our books Mahàsita who spoke immediately after his birth. Siddhattha (the Buddha) stood up and spoke immediately after his birth also. Here in the West such persons are not lacking.

'But how one questions could Heinecken talk a few hours after his birth, repeat passages from the Bible at the age of one year, answer any question on geography at the age of two, speak French and Latin at the age of three and be a student of philosophy at the age of four? How could John Stuart Mill read Greek at the age of three? How could McCauley write a world history at the age of six? (At that age we were nothing.) How could William James Siddis, wonder-child of the United States read and write at the age of two, speak French, Russian, English, German with some Latin and Greek at the age of eight? And Charles Bennett of Manchester could speak several languages at the age of three. These are wonderful events, incomprehensible to non-scientists. Nor does science explain why these things should happen in just a few and not in all. The real problem remains unsolved. Heredity alone cannot account for prodigies as their ancestors would disclose it, and their posterity in even greater degree than themselves would demonstrate it. The theory of heredity should be supplemented by the doctrine of Kamma and rebirth for an adequate explanation of these puzzling problems.'

When we consider these persons, prodigies, we have only one solution and that is to point to the past. These persons could not have learned anything in their lives, speaking at the age of two and becoming a student of philosophy at the age of four. They must have had accumulations in the past. Those accumulations help them in this life to be exceptional.

There are what we call reincarnations. Believe it or not, there are reincarnated people everywhere. For the sake of convenience let us call them reincarnated people because Buddhism does not accept reincarnation. There are people who can remember their past lives. Such people are not difficult to find in our countries. Some people can remember their past lives so vividly and in detail so that it is difficult to disprove them. Now scientists and psychologists may not want to believe these things. They may say it is hallucination or something else, but it is very difficult to disprove some evidence. Some people even remember where they have hidden their treasures in past lives. Nobody knew that the treasure had been hidden, but they came to the present life and would talk about this thing. Then they would take people and show them where the treasure had been buried. The people would dig there and find the treasure. So it is very difficult to disprove these things.

I met a girl for two lives. I knew her in her former life and also when she died and was reborn as a human being again. She was about my age. She died at the end of the Second World War. After she died, she went back to her village. She died about twenty or thirty miles away from her village. So she went back to her village and stayed on a tree and this and that. Later on she entered into one of her friends. Her friend lived about two miles from her village. She became her friend's daughter. When she was about three or four, she began to talk about her past life. In her past life there was one incident she remembered. She was about 16 and she was preparing herself, putting on face powder, to go to a party or ceremony. She took off her gold bracelet and put it on the table and left to do something. At that time a woman came and stole it. She saw what happened, but she was too afraid to say anything about it. So it was lost and nobody knew who took the bracelet. In her present life she told about the incident so everyone knew. That woman, although she did not admit it, always avoided her, her parents, and her relatives. These things can happen. There are past lives.

They are not very rare nowadays. Even in the West there are many such people. But in the West people are brought up under traditional Christianity. They say Christianity does not approve of rebirth or reincarnation. However I read in a book that formerly there was a doctrine something like reincarnation in Christianity. About 300 years after Christ there was a convention or council and this doctrine was rejected. So nowadays it is very difficult to find things about rebirth or reincarnation in Christian literature. People don't like to have people who can remember past lives because if they accept it, it would go against their religion. So they discourage their children when they talk about their past lives. They are so discouraged and so suppressed that they just keep silent. So it ws not very much known in the West. Now however people in the West are interested in this. Now there are many people who do research in this field. Hypnotism is used for example to regress patients back to past lives. Then the patients talk about their past lives.

There is one professor, Ian Stevenson, who wrote many books on reincarnation. He went to different countries and collected materials and examined them trying to look at them scientifically. He wrote a series of books on the subject. He was cautious because he was an American. He named on of his books 'Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation'. He didn't say twenty cases that prove reincarnation, but twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation. His books are very interesting.

You will be surprised to learn that one of the persons that he wrote about in his books is Venerable U Sobhana who is living with me at the monastery. He can remember his past life, at least the events at the end of that life. He said that he had to undergo an operation and that he died at the hospital. Then he met a man in white robes. That man took him to a house and he was reborn there as the son of the family. He recollects this vividly. He died at the age of 39 in his past life. So when he ws 39 in this life he was very scared. He was afraid that he might die again at the age of 39. At that age almost exclusively he chanted, counted beds and meditated. You can ask him. He is living at the monastery. There are people who can relate their past lives. They cannot be discredited.

There are past lives. If we accept past lives, then we can accept future lives too. So long as there is life force, so long as there is energy force behind this life, it will go on and on. When we accept the present life, we will accept the past life. And when we accept past lives, we accept future lives.

Meditators can accept this by inference, basing their acceptance on inference. When you meditate, you see the moments of consciousness, one after the other.ºOne moment is different from the other moment. When you see these moments clearly, you can infer that death is like one consciousness going out and that rebirth is like another consciousness taking its place. So life-death can be any moment in our lives. We could say that we are dying and being reborn at every moment.

There is only one thought moment difference between death and rebirth. At one moment there is death and the next moment there is rebirth. It is just like the moments of thought in the present life. If you think that way, you will be able to accept that there can be rebirth, that there is rebirth. Rebirth is just a different moment succeeding the death moment, like moments of consciousness in this life succeeding the previous moments. In this way meditators can accept next life with reference to their own experience of consciousness, different moments of consciousness going on and on.

Although we accept that rebirth follows death immediately and there is life going on and on, we do not accept that something from this life moves on to the next life. Nothing from this life moves to the other life or next life. Everything in this life disappears in this life. As the result of something we did in this life there arises another type of consciousness and another type of material property. And they go on and on as life. Although we accept that there is rebirth, we do not explain it as a person, or a soul going from one life to another because at every moment there is change and new phenomena going on. We have the formula - neither the one nor the other. The person or whatever that is reborn in the next life is neither the same identical person who died here, nor is he a totally different, unconnected person. We explain this way - neither the one nor the other.

Let me read from the Visuddhi Magga. 'But it should be understood that it has neither come here from the previous becoming, nor has it become manifest without Kamma, the formations, the pushing, the objective field etc. as cause.

An echo, or its like, supplies

the figures here; connectedness

by continuity denies

identity and otherwise.

And here let the illustration of this consciousness be such things as an echo, a light, a seal impression, a looking-glass image, for the fact of its not coming from the previous becoming and for the fact that it arises owing to causes that are included in past becomings. For just as an echo, a light, a seal impression, and a shadow, have respectively sound etc. as their cause and come into being without going elsewhere, so also this consciousness.

And with the stream of continuity there is neither identity nor otherness. For if there were absolute identity in a stream of continuity there would be no forming of curd from milk. And yet if there were absolute otherness, the curd would not be derived from the milk. And so too with all causally arisen things. And if that were so there would be an end to all worldly usage, which is hardly desirable. So neither absolute identity nor absolute otherness should assumed here.'

Although we accept rebirth, we do not accept one person going from one existence, one life to another. It is not one and the same person going from one life to another. The person, if we could call him a person, is neither the one nor the other - neither the identical one nor a completely different person. We should accept in this way.

This is the second link in Paticca Samuppàda. Depending on or conditioned by volitional formations consciousness arises. 'Consciousness' here means not all types of consciousness but only the resultant consciousnesses. It is resultant consciousness at the time of rebirth as well as during the life. Thank you.

Sàdhu! Sàdhu! Sàdhu!