Visuddhimagga (the pah of purification)
by Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu | 1956 | 388,207 words | ISBN-10: 9552400236 | ISBN-13: 9789552400236
This page describes Dependent Origination (xi-xii): Birth, etc. of the section Dependent Origination (paññā-bhūmi-niddesa) of Part 3 Understanding (Paññā) of the English translation of the Visuddhimagga (‘the path of purification’) which represents a detailled Buddhist meditation manual, covering all the essential teachings of Buddha as taught in the Pali Tipitaka. It was compiled Buddhaghosa around the 5th Century.
Dependent Origination (xi-xii): Birth, etc.
[Full title: B. Exposition of Dependent Origination (III): Detailed Exposition (xi-xii): Birth, etc.]
270. As regards the clause “With becoming as condition, birth,” etc., the definition of birth should be understood in the way given in the Description of the Truths (XIV.31ff.)
Only kamma-process becoming is intended here as “becoming”; for it is that, not rebirth-process becoming, which is a condition for birth. But it is a condition in two ways, as kamma condition and as decisive-support condition.
271. Here it may be asked: “But how is it to be known that becoming is a condition for birth?” Because of the observable difference of inferiority and superiority. For in spite of equality of external circumstances, such as father, mother, seed, blood, nutriment, etc., the difference of inferiority and superiority of beings is observable even in the case of twins. And that fact is not causeless, since it is not present always and in all; [576] nor has it any cause other than kamma-process becoming since there is no other reason in the internal continuity of beings generated by it. Consequently, it has only kamma-process becoming for its cause. And because kamma is the cause of the difference of inferiority and superiority among beings the Blessed One said, “It is kamma that separates beings according to inferiority and superiority” (M III 203). From that it can be known that becoming is a condition for birth.
272. And when there is no birth, neither ageing and death nor the states beginning with sorrow come about; but when there is birth, then ageing and death come about, and also the states beginning with sorrow, which are either bound up with ageing and death in a fool who is affected by the painful states called ageing and death, or which are not so bound up in one who is affected by some painful state or other; therefore this birth is a condition for ageing and death and also for sorrow and so on. But it is a condition in one way, as decisive-support type.
This is the detailed explanation of the clause “With becoming as condition, birth.”