[Mahasi] [Ledi [Other] [Pesala]
Venerable Mahāsi Sayādaw

A Discourse on Dependent Origination

From Mental Formations, Consciousness Arises

Select a linkImportance of the DoctrineFrom Ignorance, Mental Formations AriseFrom Formations, Consciousness ArisesFrom Consciousness, Mind and Matter ArisesFrom the Six Sense-Bases, Contact ArisesFrom Contact, Feeling ArisesFrom Feeling, Craving ArisesFrom Craving, Attachment ArisesFrom Attachment, Becoming ArisesFrom Becoming, Birth ArisesFrom Birth, Aging, Death, Grief, etc., AriseAttachment to Views as the Cause of RebirthThe Three Periods in the Cycle of ExistenceOther Aspects of Dependent OriginationConclusion

GNORANCE leads to mental formations, which in turn cause consciousness. Because of wholesome or unwholesome kammas in the previous life, the stream of consciousness arises, beginning with rebirth-consciousness in the new life. Immoral deeds may, for example, cause rebirth-consciousness to arise in one of the four lower realms. After that the stream of consciousness called bhavanga arises. This functions continuously unless the six kinds of thought-process consciousness occur when seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching or thinking. In other words, bhavanga is a kind of subconsciousness that occurs during sleep and between moments of active-consciousness. We die with this subconsciousness and it is then called decease-consciousness (cuticitta). So the rebirth-consciousness, the subconsciousness, and the decease-consciousness result from the kamma of the previous life.

The five kinds of consciousness associated with the five unpleasant sense-objects such as unpleasant visual-consciousness, auditory consciousness, etc., are due to unwholesome kamma. So too are 1) the consciousness that adverts to these five sense-objects and 2) the investigating-consciousness (santīrana). Altogether, seven types of consciousness stem from unwholesome kamma. As for imperturbable kamma, because of the four types of immaterial-sphere consciousness the resultant consciousness arises in the four immaterial realms. Rebirth-consciousness arises in the beginning, subconsciousness runs in the middle, and decease-consciousness occurs at the end of existence.

Similarly, because of the five types of fine-material consciousness, five types of resultant consciousness arise in the fine-material realms. Then eight great resultants, which correspond to eight wholesome kammas in the sensual realm, form the rebirth, subconsciousness, and decease-consciousness in the human world and six celestial realms. They also register pleasant sense-objects after the seven impulse-moments (javana) that occur on seeing, hearing, etc. Also due to wholesome kamma of the sensual realm are the five kinds of consciousness associated with five pleasant sense-objects, the registering-consciousness, the joyful investigating-consciousness, and the indifferent investigating-consciousness. So, resultant consciousness is of thirty-two kinds: four of the immaterial realm, five of the fine-material realm, seven unwholesome resultants, and sixteen wholesome resultants in the sensual realm. All these thirty-two are resultants of mental formations.

How Mental Formations Lead to Rebirth

It is very important, but hard to understand, how mental formations lead to rebirth-consciousness. The Venerable Ledi Sayādaw pointed out that this aspect of Dependent Origination leaves much room for misunderstanding. One must distinguish between the cessation of decease-consciousness of the old life and the immediate arising of rebirth-consciousness in the new life. This arising of rebirth-consciousness is the result of wholesome or unwholesome kammas by living beings who are not yet free from defilements. Lack of clear understanding usually leads to the belief in eternalism (sassataditthi), or the belief in annihilation after death (ucchedaditthi), which is held by modern materialists. The belief in annihilation is due to ignorance of the cause-and-effect relationship. To see how ignorance leads to mental formations is not too difficult. How the sense-bases, contact, feeling, craving, etc., form the chain of causation is also self-evident. However, the emergence of a new existence following death is not apparent, hence the belief that there is nothing after death. Learned people whose reasoning is based on faith usually accept the teaching that mental formations lead to rebirth-consciousness. However, it does not lend itself to a purely rational and empirical approach, so today it is being challenged by the materialistic view of life.

The way that rebirth takes place is unmistakable to one who has practised insight meditation. One finds that consciousness arises and passes away ceaselessly. This is what one discovers by experience, not what one learns from one’s teachers. Of course one does not know this much initially. One discovers this fact only when one attains knowledge by comprehension (sammasana-ñāna) and knowledge of arising and passing away (udayabbaya-ñāna). The general idea of the death and rebirth of mental units dawns with the development of knowledge by discerning conditionality (paccaya-pariggaha-ñāna), but it is sammasana-ñāna and udayabbaya-ñāna that remove all doubt about rebirth. From these insights, one realises that death means the cessation of the last moment of consciousness in one life, and that rebirth means the arising of the first moment in the next life. This is similar to the arising and cessation of consciousness that one notes during meditation.

Those who do not have insight miss the point. They believe in a permanent soul or self and identify it with the mind. This belief is rejected by those who have a sound knowledge of Abhidhamma, but it lingers in some people because of attachment to it in their previous lives. Even the meditator whose knowledge is immature sometimes feels tempted to accept it.

Eternalism and Annihilationism

For ordinary people who are wedded to the personality-belief, death means either the extinction of a person or displacement of a person to another existence. The former misconception is called ‘ucchedaditthi’ or the belief in annihilation, the latter is called ‘sassataditthi’ or the belief in the transmigration of the soul. Others believe that consciousness develops spontaneously with the growth and maturation of the body. This belief is called ‘ahetukaditthi’, or the view of no root-cause. Some have misconceptions about the cycle of death and rebirth. They regard the body as the temporary home of the life-principle, which passes on from one life to another. Though the disintegration of the body is undeniable, some people believe in its resurrection and so treat it with respect. These views confirm the Venerable Ledi Sayādaw’s statement that the causal link between mental formations and consciousness lends itself to misinterpretation. Buddhists are not necessarily free from these misconceptions, but because of their faith in the doctrine of not-self they do not harbour the illusions so blindly as to harm their insight practice. So even without a thorough knowledge of the nature of death and rebirth, they can enlighten themselves through contemplation.

For example, shortly after the parinibbāna of the Buddha, Venerable Channa practised insight meditation but made little progress because of his personality-belief. Then while he listened to Venerable Ānanda’s discourse on Dependent Origination, he contemplated, overcame his illusion and attained arahantship. Again, in the time of the Buddha, Venerable Yamaka believed that the arahant was annihilated after death. Venerable Sāriputta summoned him and taught him. While following the discourse, Venerable Yamaka meditated and achieved liberation. So those who have faith in the Buddha need not be disheartened for if they meditate zealously and wholeheartedly they will become enlightened.

Because of their ignorance and doubt about the process of rebirth, or because of a leaning towards annihilationist beliefs, some people question the possibility of a life after death. This question presupposes a soul (attā) or life-force in a living being. Materialism rejects the idea of a soul but the self-illusion is implicit in its differentiation of the living from the dead. The questions of those who accept the self explicitly or implicitly are hard to answer from the Buddhist point of view. If we say that there is a future life, they will conclude that we support the personality-belief. However, Buddhism does not categorically deny the future life, so the Buddha refused to answer such questions. Moreover, producing sufficient evidence to convince people is difficult. Psychic persons can point out hell or the celestial realms but sceptics will dismiss such exhibitions as black magic or deception. So the Buddha did not affirm the future life directly, but said that without the extinction of defilements the psychophysical process continues after death.

The question of an afterlife does not admit of an intellectual approach. It is to be answered only through certain practices that enable a meditator to gain psychic powers. They can then see the virtuous who have arisen in the celestial realms, and the immoral who are suffering in the lower worlds. Their vision is as clear as that of an observer directly opposite two houses watching people pass from one house to the other. Such meditators can easily find the person whom they want to see among the many living beings of the higher and lower realms.

Insight meditators can also attain psychic powers; no teaching rules out this possibility. Some meditators have had paranormal contact with the other world, but such gifts are rare since they depend on intense concentration, so the easier way is to practise for insight. The problem of life becomes fairly clear when the knowledge by discerning conditionality discloses the nature of death and conception. It becomes even clearer when one attains knowledge by comprehension, knowledge of arising and passing away, and knowledge of dissolution (bhanga-ñāna). Then one can see vividly how the consecutive units of consciousness arise and pass away ceaselessly. One sees, too, how death is the passing away of the last unit of consciousness followed by conception, or the arising of the first unit in a new existence. However, this insight is still vulnerable. It is only when one attains the stage of a stream-winner that one becomes wholly free from all doubts about future life.

The trouble is that people want to ask about such matters instead of practising meditation. Some seek the verdict of Western scientists and philosophers while others accept the teaching of those who are reputed to be arahants with psychic powers. Instead of relying on other people, however, the best thing is to seek the answer through insight meditation. With the knowledge of arising and passing away, one can clearly see how, after a unit of consciousness has passed away, a new one arises attached to a sense-object. From this one can infer how life begins with rebirth-consciousness, which is conditioned by attachment to an object in the final moment of the preceding life. Before death, the continuous stream of consciousness depends on the physical body, with one moment of consciousness following another uninterruptedly. After death, the body disintegrates and the stream of consciousness shifts to a new physical process elsewhere. This may be compared to light in an electric bulb, which is maintained by the continuous flow of electricity. When the bulb is burnt out, the light goes out but the electric potential still remains. Light reappears when the old bulb is replaced with a new one. Here, the bulb, electricity, and light are all changing physical processes, and we should be mindful of their transience.

The commentary illustrates the process of rebirth with the analogies of an echo, a flame, the impression of a seal, and a reflection in a mirror. An echo is the reflection of a sound produced by the impact of sound waves on a hard surface. However, though the sound is the cause of the echo, the source of the sound does not move to the source of the echo. When we look at a mirror, our face is reflected in it, but although they are causally related, we do not confuse the reflection with our face. If a burning candle is used to light another one, the flame of the second candle is obviously not the flame of the first one, but it is not unrelated to the first flame either. Lastly, the seal leaves an impression that is like its face, but it is not the face, and the impression cannot occur without the seal either.

These analogies help to clarify the nature of rebirth. When a person is dying, their kamma, the signs and visions related to it, or visions of their future life appear. After death, rebirth-consciousness arises, conditioned by one of these visions. So rebirth does not mean the transfer of the decease-consciousness to another life. However, since it is conditioned by deatbhed visions, it is rooted in ignorance and craving, which form the decisive links in the chain of causation. Thus rebirth-consciousness is not the consciousness of the dying person but it is causally related to the previous life. Any two consecutive units of consciousness are separate but, since they belong to the same stream of consciousness, we speak of the same individual for the whole day, the whole year or the whole lifetime. Likewise, we can speak of the decease- and rebirth-consciousness as belonging to one individual, and we can say that a person has been reborn without implying the transfer of mind and matter. We speak of a person only because rebirth depends upon a stream of causally related mental units.

So it is annihilationism to believe that we are annihilated at death, and that we have nothing to do with a previous life. Most Buddhists are free from this view. As the two consecutive lives are causally related, one can speak of them as belonging to one person, but we should not adopt the eternalistic view that rebirth means the transfer of the personality to a new existence.

One who has mature insight does not harbour either belief. He or she is fully aware of the rising and passing away of mental units in the present life and of their causal relations. This insight leaves no room for the illusions of immortality or annihilation. The nature of consciousness is evident even to those who think objectively. Joy may be followed by dejection and vice versa, or a serene mind may give way to irritation. These changing states of consciousness clearly show its heterogeneous nature. Moreover, mental states may be associated through similarity, as, for example, the intention to do a certain thing at night may occur again in the morning. The mental states are distinct but causally related. Those who understand this relationship between two consecutive mental states can see that the same relationship holds true between those separated by death.

Deathbed Visions

Consciousness in the new existence occurs in two modes: as rebirth-consciousness and as the consciousness that flows on during the whole life. Altogether, rebirth-consciousness is of nineteen kinds: one in the lower realms, nine in the sensual realms of human beings and devas, five in the fine-material brahmā realms, and four in the immaterial brahmā realms. As for the other resultant mental states that occur during the rest of life, they number thirty-two. These enumerations will be meaningful only to those who have studied the Abhidhamma. To a dying person, there appears a flashback of a deed they have done in life (kamma), or the surrounding conditions associated with the act (kammanimitta), or a vision of their future life (gatinimitta). Kamma may assume the form of a flashback about the past or an hallucination in the present. On his deathbed, a fisherman may talk as if he were catching fish, or a man who has often given alms may think that he is giving alms. Many years ago, I led a group of pilgrims from Shwebo to visit pagodas in Mandalay and Rangoon. An old man in the group died shortly after our return to Shwebo. He died muttering the words that were reminiscent of his experience during the pilgrimage. The dying person also has visions of the environment in which kammic deeds were done. One may see robes, monasteries, bhikkhus or Buddha images relating to acts of charity; or weapons, murder scenes or victims relating to a murder. Then one sees visions of what one will find in the afterlife. For example, one might see hellfire or demons if one is destined to be born in hell, but celestial beings or mansions if one is to pass on to celestial realms. Once a dying brahmin was told by his friends that a vision of flames portended the brahmā realm. He believed them and died only to find himself in hell. Wrong views are very dangerous. It is said that some people tell their dying friends to visualise their acts of killing a cow for charity, believing that such acts are beneficial.

The Story of Mahādhammika

In Sāvatthi at the time of the Buddha, five hundred lay-supporters each had 500 followers, all of whom practised the Dhamma. The eldest of them, Mahādhammika, the head of all the lay-supporters, had seven sons and seven daughters who also followed the teaching of the Buddha. As he grew old, he became sick and weak. He invited the monks to his house and, while listening to their recitation of the Dhamma, saw a chariot arriving to take him to the celestial realm. He said to the devas, “Please wait.” The monks stopped reciting as they thought that the dying man was addressing them. His sons and daughters cried, believing that he was babbling for fear of death. After the monks’ departure, he came round, and told his children to throw a garland of flowers up into the air. They did as they were told and the garland remained hanging in the air. The lay-supporter said that the garland revealed the position of the chariot from Tusita heaven. After advising his children to do skilful deeds for rebirth in heavenly realms, he died and was reborn in Tusita. This is how the vision of the celestial realm appears to the virtuous man on his deathbed. A layman in Moulmein said, just before he died, that he saw a magnificent building. This, too, may have been a vision of the celestial realm. Some people who are to be reborn as human beings have visions of their future parents, house, etc., on their deathbed. A Sayādaw in Moulmein was killed by robbers. Three years later a child from Mergui came to Moulmein and identified by name the Sayādaws with whom he said he had lived in his previous life. He said that the robbers stabbed him when they did not get the money. He then ran away to the jetty where he got into a boat, reached Mergui, and dwelt in the home of his parents. The flight, journey by boat, etc., were perhaps visions of the Sayādaw’s afterlife.

Flashbacks of kammic acts and visions of a future life occur even in cases of sudden death. According to the commentary, they occur even when a fly is crushed with a hammer. Nuclear weapons can reduce a big city to ashes in a flash. From the Buddhist point of view, these weapons have appeared because of the unwholesome kamma of their potential victims. Those who are killed by these bombs also see flashbacks and visions. This may sound incredible to those who do not understand how the mind works, but it presents no difficulty to one who contemplates psychophysical phenomena. It is said that in the twinkling of an eye units of consciousness arise and pass away by the billion. Meditators who have attained the knowledge of arising and passing away know empirically that hundreds of mental units arise and dissolve in a moment. So they have no doubt about the possibility of flashbacks and visions in those who meet violent and sudden death.

Consciousness is always focused on objects. We often recall what we have done, and think of the celestial realm or human society. If a person who has done meritorious deeds dies with these thoughts, they will be reborn as a celestial or human being. Visions of the future life on one’s deathbed are called ‘gatinimitta’. Visions of objects associated with kamma are called ‘kammanimitta’. References to these deathbed phenomena are to be found not only in the commentaries, but also in the Tipitaka. In the Bālapandita Sutta the Buddha speaks of deathbed visions of wholesome or unwholesome deeds. He likens them to the shadow of a mountain dominating the plains in the evening. Once I saw a dying woman who showed great fear as if she were face to face with an enemy who was out to treat her cruelly. She was speechless. Her relatives tried to comfort her, but in vain. Perhaps she was having a foretaste of her unhappy future because of unwholesome kamma.

So one must do wholesome kamma that will produce agreeable images at the moment of death or visions of a favourable afterlife. If the meritorious deed is rational, strongly motivated and one of the eight kinds of sense-sphere meritorious deeds, the resultant consciousness will be one of the four kinds of rational consciousness. The rebirth is then associated with non-delusion and as such takes place with three root-conditions: wisdom, goodwill, and generosity. A person reborn with these innate tendencies can attain absorption and psychic powers if they practise tranquillity meditation, or the Noble Path and nibbāna if they devote themselves to insight meditation. Virtuous acts that are motivated by the desire for nibbāna lead to such favourable rebirths and finally to the Path and nibbāna through contemplation or hearing a discourse.

If the motivation is weak, or if it is a meritorious deed divorced from the belief in kamma, the result is one of the four kinds of unintelligent consciousness. The rebirth is then called ‘a two-root-condition rebirth’, which is accompanied by generosity and goodwill, but lacks wisdom. A person reborn in this way cannot attain absorption or the Noble Path as they lack the innate intelligence for it. If the meritorious deed is unintelligent and halfhearted, the result will be a favourable rebirth without wholesome roots, by reason of which one is likely to have defective sense faculties. So when you do a meritorious deed, you should do it with zeal (chanda), and with nibbāna as your objective. If you set your heart on nibbāna, the meritorious deed will lead you to it, and the zeal with which you do such a deed will ensure a rebirth with wholesome roots. Praying for such a noble rebirth is not necessary because you are assured of it if you do meritorious deeds intelligently and zealously. However, if you lack zeal in doing good, the result will be a rebirth with only generosity and goodwill.

Some people say that charity and morality generate wholesome kamma, which, being rooted in ignorance, leads to rebirth and suffering in samsāra. This is a mistaken view that stems from lack of knowledge. If the practice of charity and morality is motivated by the desire for nibbāna, it will ensure the noblest rebirth and lead to the supreme goal. It was due to charity and morality that Venerable Sāriputta and other disciples of the Buddha finally attained nibbāna. The same may be said of Solitary Buddhas (Paccekabuddhas).

The bodhisatta, too, attained supreme enlightenment in the same way by praying that his meritorious deeds contribute to the attainment of omniscience. Here, a rebirth with three wholesome roots involved in the genesis of Buddhahood is of two kinds: consciousness associated with joy and consciousness associated with equanimity. Again each of these two types of consciousness is of two kinds: prompted and unprompted. The bodhisatta’s rebirth-consciousness was powerful, zealous, and unprompted. According to ancient commentaries, it was joyful consciousness. Since the bodhisatta had infinite loving-kindness for all living beings, and strong loving-kindness is usually coupled with joy, the bodhisatta’s rebirth-consciousness must have been tinged with joy. However, the ancient Sri Lankan authority Venerable Mahāsiva suggested that the bodhisatta’s rebirth-consciousness was accompanied by equanimity. In his view, the bodhisatta’s mind was firm and profound, therefore equanimity rather than joy must have been the characteristic of his rebirth-consciousness. In any event, his rebirth-consciousness had its origin in a meritorious deed motivated by the desire for supreme enlightenment. Thus, although the intelligent wholesome kammas lead to rebirth, they do not prolong the cycle of existence. On the contrary, they contribute to liberation from samsāra.

Consciousness of any kind, whether rebirth-consciousness or otherwise, is only momentary. It lasts for just three instants: arising (upāda), being (thiti), and dissolution (bhanga). According to the commentaries, these mental units arise and pass away by the billion in the blinking of an eye. Each unit is so transient that it does not last even a billionth of a second. The cessation of rebirth-consciousness is followed by the stream of subconsciousness, which flows ceaselessly unless it is interrupted by an active cognitive process (citta-vīthi), the kind of mental activity involved in seeing, hearing, and so forth. The stream of subconsciousness lasts throughout life, its origin being mental formations, as with rebirth-consciousness. Its duration, too, depends mainly on kamma. It may be likened to a stone thrown into the air. A stone will travel a long way if it is thrown forcefully, but it will not go very far if thrown feebly. The force of kamma may also be compared to the initial velocity of a bullet or rocket. Death means the dissolution of the consciousness born of the same kammic force. So the initial rebirth-consciousness, the stream of subconsciousness, and the last consciousness of an existence comprise the mental life that is wholly rooted in past kamma.

The five kinds of sense-consciousness involved in seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching are also results of kamma. So too, are the consciousness that adverts to the sense-objects, investigating-consciousness (santīrana), and the consciousness that registers (tadārammana) the objects of impulse moments (javana). These have their roots in kamma that leads to rebirth or other kinds of kamma.

The Abhidhamma attributes all kinds of consciousness, including functional-consciousness (kiriyā-citta), to mental formations. This is reasonable since functional-consciousness evolves from the subconsciousness rooted in mental formations. However, Dependent Origination specifically describes the “three cycles” — defilements, kamma, and kammic results — with their cause-and-effect relationships. So, to mental formations it ascribes only the thirty-two types of mundane resultant consciousness that stem from the cycle of kamma. Of these, we have described nineteen that comprise rebirth-consciousness, subconsciousness, and decease-consciousness. Of the other types of consciousness, some are wholesome resultants and some are unwholesome resultants, depending on the mental formations.

In the doctrine of Dependent Origination, ignorance and mental formations are described as the causes in the past; consciousness, mind and matter, the six sense-bases, contact, and feeling as the effects in the present; craving, attachment, and becoming as the causes in the present; and birth, aging, and death as the effects that will occur in the future.