3.4.2. Ahara and Rebirth

98 3.4.2. Ahara and Rebirth First of all, rebirth (in Sanskrit, punaravrtti, in Pali punappunam jati,) also called transmigration and reincarnation, is the belief common to all Buddhist traditions that birth and death occur in successive cycles driven by ignorance (avidya, or avijja,) desire, and hatred. The cycle of rebirth, termed Samara, is beginningless and ongoing, and it is determined by the moral quality of a person's thoughts and Kamma (action.) The effects of good moral actions lead to wholesome rebirths (birth as gods, demigods, and human beings;) and the effects of bad moral actions lead to unwholesome rebirths (animal, ghosts, and hell beings.)168 According to Lord Buddha, all beings except the Arahants are subject to rebirth (punabbhava). 169 The idea of rebirth upheld in Hinduism and Jainism is the existence of an eternal and substantial self or soul (atman in Hinduism and Jiva in Jainism) that transmigrates from life to life. Buddhism, fundamental to its understanding of rebirth is samara, which is forever in flux, impermanent or changing, and no self. 170 From the rebirth doctrine of Buddhism, there is a conundrum brought out: how does Buddhism resolve the problems of the continuity of karma between one life and the next, if there is no absolute self? 171 Answering for the above conundrum, the early Buddhist schools in India offered a variety of responses, the Pudgalavada 172 proposed the inexpressible personal entity (pudgala) that traveled from life to life; the Sarvastivada, posited the existence of an ethereal entity (gandharva) 168 Robert E. Buswell, Encyclopedia of Buddhism, vol. II, p. 712. 169 Ibid. 170 171 Ibid. Ibid. 172 Ibid.

99 composed of subtle forms of the five aggregates that passed through an intermediate state (antarabhava) between death and the next birth. 173 However, not all schools accepted such ideas. The Theravada denied the existence of an intermediate state and argued instead for the existence of an inactive mode of deep consciousness (bhavanga) that forms a causal link (pratisandhi, patisandhi in Pali,) between one life and the next. In this view, the first moment of consciousness in a new birth is simply the direct conditioned effect of the final moment of consciousness of immediately previous existence. 174 This idea leading to a complete answer to the difficult question of rebirth in light of the cardinal teaching of "no-self" is to be located in the Dependent Origination or causality as mentioned (see above). The self, therefore, is not to be understood as essential, independent entity moving from one life to the next, but rather as a manifestation of a complex of causes and conditions, both mental and physical, themselves interdependent and continually in flux. 176 175 177 From the above discussion, it is noticed that the existence of human and world is that of kamma and rebirth, of samsara (cycle of birth and death.) However, its operation is always supported and sustained by four types of foods as taught by Lord Buddha as follows: "Monks, these four (forms of) nutriment are for the maintenance of creatures that have come to be or for the assistance of those seeking birth. What are the four? Material nutriment, whether coarse or fine, sensory impingement is the second, mental striving is the third, consciousness is the fourth. And of these four (forms of) nutriment, 173 Ibid. 174 Ibid. 175 Ibid., p. 713. 176 According to early Indian philosophers, Purusa (spiritual principle) is so separate from prakrti (material principle) that it is never aware of the others existence, and the grand finale of the cosmic evolution is the extermination of the prakrti. The Hindu Quest for the Perfection of Man, p. 153. 177 ibid., Op. cit.

... 100 monks, what is the provenance, what the source, what the birth, what the origin? These four (forms of) nutriment, monks, have craving as provenance, craving as source, craving as birth, craving as origin. And, monks, what is the provenance of this craving, what the source, what the birth, what the origin? Feeling is the provenance of craving, feeling is the source of craving, feeling is the birth of craving, and feeling is the origin of craving And what, monks, is the provenance of consciousness? The karma-formations are the provenance ... the source ... the birth... the karma-formations are the origin of Consciousness. So it is, monks, that conditioned by ignorance are the karmainformations; conditioned by the karma-informations is consciousness; conditioned by consciousness is psycho-physicality conditioned by birth, aging and dying, grief, sorrow, suffering, lamentation and despair come into being. Such is the arising of this entire mass of anguish. ... 2,178 The statement in the Mahatanhasankhayasutta above that the four nutriments have craving as their source, should be understood to mean that cravings in a former life are the source of the nutriments; or, in other words, of the (present) individual (attabhava,) from (the moment of) rebirth (i.e., conception) onwards. How? At the moment of rebirth, there is present "nutritive essence" (oja) that has originated within the corporeality arisen by way of seven units of corporeal continua (sattasantati) (see more details in chapter IV,) in the case of beings with complete sense faculties; or in the case of other beings, with the appropriate reduction of the continua. This "nutritive essence" constitutes the karmically acquired nutriment "edible food" (upadinnaka kabalinkarahara) that has (past) craving as its source. The senseimpression and volition associated with the rebirth-consciousness, as well 178 M. I, sutta No. 38. Jayakar Knowledge Resource .5 Centre Th- 13151 SPPU Pune

101 as that consciousness itself - these are the karmically acquired nutriments sense impression, volitional thought, and consciousness which have craving as their source. This so far refers to the nutriments arising at rebirth and having as their source the craving in a former life. The same applies also to the nutriments arising later, at the first moment of bhavanga, and so forth. 179 But because the Exalted One not only knows the source of the nutriments which is craving, but also the latter's source which is feeling, and so forth; therefore the discourse continues "And this craving, O monks, what is its source...?" showing by this method the samsaric cycle (vatta) and (implicitly) the stopping of that cycle (vivatta). Here, however, the exposition is given under the aspect of the past, and accordingly the cycle of kamma and kamma result has been described in terms of past (existence). How? This (present) individual is conceived (as a product of) the four nutriments. Among the factors of the Dependent Origination given here, craving (tanha) is the generative kamma (janaka-kamma) for this (present) individual. "Feeling, sense-impression, sixfold sense-base, mind-andbody, and consciousness" are the factors present in the individual (of the past) that performs that (past) kamma; they have been mentioned here for indicating this latter fact. Thus the individual (of the present and the past) has been indicated here in two places (i.e., by mentioning the nutriments and by mentioning feeling, etc.;) and in two places the generative kamma of that (past and present individual) has been indicated, (namely, by mentioning craving and by mentioning ignorance and kamma-formations.) In such a way, two things have been shown here in brief, kamma and kamma result; and in doing so, 179 The Four Nutriments of Life, p. 43.

102 the exposition has been given under the aspect of the past, and accordingly the samsaric cycle has been described here in terms of past (existence). 180 In Hinduism, along with the development of ideas about the deceased merging part by part into the natural cosmos is the notion that food has a central role to play. "This whole world is in fact food and the eater of food," says the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, and in the Maitri Upanisad, "this indeed is the highest form of self, namely food, for this life is constituted by food."181 Based on the evidences of the senses, moreover, writers of the Upanisads observe that food is probably at the core of the transformations involved in rebirth, for creatures come into being from seed as a form of food, "by food alone they live, and then into it also they go at the end. 182 In Buddhism, out of the four nutriments, consciousness is the most subtle food, which is the rebirth-linking consciousness, the food which at the moment of conception feeds mind-and-body in the new life. 183 However, the conception of an embryo in a womb takes place through the union of three things, lack of one of three it can not take place; in other words, the round of existence or rebirth takes place through the conjunction of three things, "when there is the union of the mother and father, and it is the mother's season, and the being to be reborn is present, through place through the union of these three things the conception of an embryo in a womb takes place. The mother then carries the embryo in her womb for nine or ten months with much anxiety, as a heavy 180 Ibid., p. 44. [8] 182 BAU 1.4.6: etavad va idam sarvam annam caivannadas ca; Maitri-upanisad 6.11; param va etad atmano rupam yad annam, annamayo hy ayam pranah. Ellison Banks Findly, Dana: Giving and Getting in Pali Buddhism, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 2003, p. 232. 183 Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Vol. I, p. 281.

103 burden... Therigatha when the child is born, she nourishes it with her own blood; for the mother's breast-milk is called blood....."184 The above teaching shows that food is understood as an instrument of continuity, and consciousness (vinnana) is understood as the cause, or the food, of the appearance of rebirth in the future. 185 Now, following that teaching let us take a deeper look into child's physical body; we can understand what rebirth is or is rebirth samsara, which is forever in flux, changing and no self? That physical body comes from a fetus made up by the spermatozoon and semen. These spermatozoon and semen were created by the essence of food coming from many conditions in nature which includes the existence of the Sun about 150 million kilometers away from here. That baby has been brought up also by food, etc. it exists out of the intention of a person, and changes all the time. How can that body be regarded as his own self? 186 Similarly, analyzing the mental factors: the nutriment contact, nutriment volitional thought, and nutriment consciousness are seen as not the 'I,' the "mine,) or the "myself". Again, after child's faculties mature, if he has no good education, then his lust for the four nutriments continues operating and producing future renewed existence. For this, Lord Buddha points out that 187 with lust for the four nutriments, there is rebirth; if there is no lust for the four nutriments, there is no rebirth, no sorrow, anguish, and despair. In fact, the four nutriments themselves do not cause kamma and rebirth, birth, aging, and death in the world, it is the very lust and grasping for them that causes it. In other words, craving and grasping - this is the very nutriment for rebirth and suffering. Here, it is noted that the problem of no rebirth - this is 184 M. I, 266. 185 Dana: Giving and Getting in Pali Buddhism, ibid., p. 134. 186 The Concept of Personality revealed through the Pancanikaya, pp. 155-165. 187 S. II, 101 (The Connected Discourses of the Buddha, pp. 599-601.)

104 not to say the four nutriments or the five aggregates or man are permanent, this is to say all of which are operation of the law of causes and effects or causality or Dependent Origination, there is also birth and death but the complete absence of craving, lust, hatred, and of delusion. Further, if one lives as the slave of craving and without controlling for the material and mental foods even one hour or one minute only, he will himself be immediately subject to rebirth in such a short time. Thus, rebirth happens not only after death but also can happen here and now, as soon as man eats, touches, acts, and thinks, or as soon as his body, speech, and mind are operating. From now the search for the nutriments grasped from outside for rebirth turns to the search for the nutriments for enlightenment factors by way of serenity and insight, or of the discipline of the bodily volitional information, the verbal volitional information, and the mental volitional information. Such a way of training will eliminate foods poisoned at every level: less wisdom, emotional imbalance, sensational slaves, and material craving. In short, Lord Buddha showed the operation of the four kinds of nutriments is that of kamma and rebirth, of the twelve causes, of suffering. This is the operation of conditions in which the four nutriments not only conditions for the maintenance of beings that have already come to be but also for conditions for the assistance of those about to come to be.