The Great Discourse on the Wheel of Dhamma

and unfeeling, but as she was talking in the presence of her dear husband, the male beetle, it is natural that she wanted to please him. We can easily see, in every day life, many conspicuous examples of estrangement between ex—husbands and wives, who get separated not through death but in this very life on grounds of incompatibility, and examples of loving tendemess heaped on their new partners in life. The remarks in the commentary appears therefore to be quite in order.

The Jataka Pali texts describe the female beetle's reply thus: "Reverend Sir, I who had loved king Assaka had roamed about in this garden many a time together with king Assaka who had loved me and who was my beloved husband then, enjoying each other's company. But now, the joys and troubles of the present new life have obscured, covered up the joys and troubles of the old life. The new joys and troubles having transcended the old joys and troubles, I love my present husband, the male cowdung-beetle more than I did the king Assaka".

The commentary exposition of the words "love more than" makes interesting reading. It says ‘love more than" means "love hundred times more, love one thousand times more", indicating the intensity of love in favour of the new husband.

The king Assaka was greatly distressed to hear the harsh, unfeeling words of estrangement from the lips of the female beetle. He thought to himself: "I had loved and adored her so much [ could not betake myself to throw away her dead body. But she had become so antipathetic and nasty to me."

He felt so disgusted with his old queen Upari that he ordered even while sitting there: "Go and have that woman's body removed." Then having bathed and washed himself, the king went back to the palace. He made another court-lady his chief queen and carried on ruling over his country wisely. The hermit, Bodhisatta, after giving good advice to the king, went back to the Himalayan sanctuary.

The moral from this Story is that queen Upari, while in the human world, had taken delight in being a human person, and a an world, had taken delight in being a human person, and a queen at that. She would never have even dreamt of being rebom a female beetle. But in accordance with her past kamma, when she happened to be rebom a female beetle, she at once took to the life and delight in the physical body of a beetle. She esteemed and adored the physical body of the male beetle hundred times, thousand times more than that of the king Assaka.

That she felt quite at home in her lowly existence as a cowdung beetle is due to ranhd, craving, which finds delight everywhere; that is why the Buddha had said, "Tatra tatrabhinandini - Tanha has the tendency to delight wherever it finds rebirth"

Rebom as a dog, it takes delight in a dog's existence; rebom as a pig, as a fowl, there is always delight in each existence. Even having been bom as children of affluent parents of upper social class, there are cases of them sinking down to poverty-stricken existences and yet enjoying their lives therein. Some of them even resisted the efforts of their parents to take them back into the fold of family, since they are finding their new life quite enjoyable. It is tanha again which is giving them pleasure wherever they are, delighting in whatever sense object presents itself.

HOW FRESH RE-BIRTH TAKES PLACE

We shall now deal with 'ponobhavika’ -- tendency to give rise to new births, which we have earlier postponed considenng,

Since tanha@ has the nature of delighting and clinging, a being finds delight in whatever existence it is bom into and enjoys any sense-object that presents itself. Because it finds its existence so delightful and pleasurable, there comes the wish for this existence to remain everlasting, stable and pleasurable objects to be endurable and lasting. In endeavouring to maintain them as one wishes, volitional activities come into play. These kammas or volitional activities which may be wholesome or unwholesome are the cause of rebirths in new existences.

Thus when a person is about to die, one or the other of these megHOTIOUS or demeritorious kammas may peresent itself before his mind's eye, or it may be a kamma-nimitta, a symbol of the kamma (which 1s any sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or idea which had obtained at the time of the commission of that kamma); or gati-nimitta, sign of destiny, that is, sign of the next existence where he is destined to open his new life in consequence of the said kamma. The kamma, kamma-nimita or gati-nimitta which presents itself to the dying person is tenaciously grasped at because of tanhd and cannot be dispelled from his mind. Just like the shadows of a mountain thrown by the evening sun falling on the surface of the land and covering it, so also these sense-objects of kamma, kamma-nimitta or gati-nimitta which present themselves at the sense-doors completely occupy his mind. These sense-objects are tenaciously held by the maranasannd-javana otherwise called abhisankhara_ vinndna.

Note on Page 273 .. (Onginal Burmese book)

In accordance with the Teaching kammam khettan, vinndnam bijan. tanha@ sinoho' of Angutara Pali Canon, Tika Nipata, for the appearance of patisandhi vinndna, bitht-consciousness, of new becoming. meritorious or demeritorious kamma serves as a field in which 1 may grow. Abhisakhdra vinndna serves as the seed for the growth of the patisandhi vinndna, and tanha@, which dehghts m every sense-object in every existence, may be likened to the moisture or water element (which promotes it's growth). Here Abhisankhadra vinndna (that conditions new becoming) is, according to the Commentary, consciousness accompanying the volitional kamma, cetanG. In the same. way it arises together with the first volitional kamma, so also it accompanies the later kamma activities and as such, consciousness which appears later should also be designated abhisankhdra vinndna. Particularly, maranasannd javana consciousness which takes as its object kamma, kamma-nimitta and gatinimitta should be called the abhisankhdra vinndna because it is from this maranasannd javana consciousness that patisandi vinndna

arises. In addition, in the same way a seed germinates only when it comes into contact with water element, moisture, the seed of consciousness receiving support and encouragement by sanhd which accompanies or precedes it in close proximity, tenaciously holds onto kamma, kamma-nimitta or gati-nimitta as its object and gives nse to patisandhi vinnana.

Then immediately after the dissolution of the death-moment aggregates of rupa, nama, patisandhi citta, the birht consciousness, holding on to the kamma, kama-nimitta or gati-nimitia as its object, arises at a new site in a new existence complete with its physical base upon which it depends. With each consciousness arise also its mentel concomitants, cetasikas. The patisandhi vinnana, the relinking consciousness, is followed by bhavanga consciousness, the life-continuum, which goes on continuously throughout life as prescribed by one's own kammic energy. The arising of new existence is brought about by two factors: one's own kamma and _ tanhd. Without tanhd, however, kamma by itself cannot bring about new becoming.

Note on Page 275 .... (Orginal Burmese book)

For an Arahat, his past meritorious deeds will come to good fruition before his death, parinibbdna. Multifarious gifts gained by Venerable Sivali, perfect health enjoyed by Venerable Bakula are examples of good fruition. His demeritorious deeds will, however, bear bad fruits as for instance, lack of alms-food for Venerable Losakatissa, or the fate met by the Venerable Moggalana who was cudgelled to death by flons. These kammas, however, do not have any more potentialities for causing fresh re-births as they are devoid of tanhé. Lacking the support and encouragement of tanhd at the time of maranasannd, the abhisankhara vinndna cannot arise and hence no re-birth. For this reason, only tanhd is attributed to be the cause of fresh existence ... ponobhavika.

Therefore, tanh forms the root cause of fresh becoming. For this reason, the Blessed One had pin-pointed tanhd to be the cause of new existence ... ponobhavikd. These are the words which

the Blessed One had used in the very first discourse to teach the existence of after-life. In spite of this clear teaching, there is a group of people who maintain that "the Blessed One taught only about the present existence. He did not touch upon future life". We could not be sure whether these people were attempting to associate the Buddha's teaching with uccheda vada, the theory of annihilation, a very misguided effort we must say! In reality, however, so long as tanha endures, through failure to develop the Eightfold Path, or even if developing, not being fully advanced in accomplishment, so long this tanhd@ will continue to serve as the cause for fresh existence.

When the Eightfold Path has been fully accomplished and arahatta path and fruition attained, tanhd will be completely eradicated and there will be no more re-birth. Thus when exercising retrospection on attainment of enlightenment as a Buddha or an Arahat, the thought always occurs to the Noble Ones: Ayam antima jati. natthi dani ponabhavoti.. This is the last existence. There is no more re-birth. This relfection is also included in the later section of the Dhammacakka Suta. Such reflections make it obvious that unless tanhd is completely rooted out, continuous fresh existences, new becomings are imevitable.

How this tanhd brings on repeated rebirths will now be illustrated by afew stories. There are thousands of stores illustrative of this fact, but it will suffice by taking three stones from the Pali commentaries and four or five modem period.

IN BRAHMA LAND HE SHINES BRIGHT;

IN PIG'S PEN, TOO, HE FINDS DELIGHT

At one time the Blessed One went into Rajagiri for almsround. On seeing a young female pig, the Blessed One smiled. Noticing the white radiations which shone forth from theteeth of the Buddha, the Venerable Ananda knew that the Buddha was smiling. Accordingly he asked; "What has caused, Sire, to smile?"

The Blessed One pointed out the young female pig to Ananda and said, "See that young female pig? She was a young

woman in human existence during the dispensation of Kakusan Buddha. When she died, she was reborn a hen in the neighbourhood of amonastic feeding-hall. The small hen fell victim to an eagle. But earlier she happened to have heard the recitation by ayogi Buddhist monk of a meditation subject which aroused in her wholesome thoughts. By virtue of these merits, the small hen was rebom as a princess named Ubbari in a royal family. The princess Ubbari later left the household life and became a wandering mendicant. Residing in the mendicants' residence she happened one day to gaze at the maggots in the laterine. The worms served as an object for meditation (contemplation of ugliness of worm - infested corpse or contemplation of a white object) by which she attained the first jhdna. When she passed away, she was rebom a Brahma im the first Jhanic Brahma world. On expiry from the Brahma world, she became the daughter of a rich man in thehuman world which she left again only to be bom a pignow. I saw all these events which made me smile".

On hearing this story of repeated births in various existences, Venerable Ananda and other monks became greatly alarmed and agitated with religious emotion. The Blessed One stopped going on the alms-round and while still standing on the road way, started teaching the dhamma in six verses the first one of which stated:

Yathaépi mule anupaddave dalhe,

chinnopi rukho punareva ruhati

evampi tanhGnusaye anuhate

nibbattati dukkhamidam punappunam

"If the main roots of a tree remains undamaged and in good condition, even when the upper branches are cut off, that tree will grow again developing new buds and shoots. Likewise, if there remains defilements (lying dormant) which are not yet eradicated by Ariya magga, this suffering of rebirth will arise time and again successively".

What is conveyed by this verse is that, “Dunng her existence as princess Ubbari she renounced the world to become a

wanderer. By practising meditation, she attained the first jhdna which could dispel or put away by vikkhambhana pahdna, elimination by discarding, only the defilements of pariyutthdna class, that 1s, craving for sensual pleasure which appear as sensuous thoughts at the mind's door. By means of vikkhambhana pahdna, jhdna can put away the defilements only to a certain distance for a certain period of time. Thus she was able to dispel the craving for sensual pleasure when she attained the first jhdna and later in the Brahma world. But when she was bom again in the human world as the daughter of a wealthy man, the craving for sensual pleasure reappeared because it had not been rooted out by the Ariya-megga. The bhava tanhd, craving for existence, of course, persisted even when she had attained the jhdna. Thus because the latent defilements had not been completely uprooted, she had to descend from the Brahma world, through the human world, into a pig's existence. So long as the craving petsists, repeated re-births will take place in this way in various existences."

In reference to this story of descent from the Brahma world to a pig's existence, ancient Sayadaws had left an aphorism "In Brahma land, she shines bnght; in pig's pen, too, she finds delight." ' But it is not possible to be rebom as a pig straight from the Brahma world: nor as any other animal nor in the realms of petas, starving ghosts, nor in the states of misery. By virtue of the upacdra bhdvand, the access meditation, proximate to the jhdna, previously attained, re-birth can take place only as a human being or in the celetial abode. The young female pig of the above story also passed through human life where she was bom as the daughter of a wealthy man. It is quite possible that she landed im a pig's existence after being the daughter of a wealthy man because of the bad kamma she had committed, then, m being haughty and insolent -to those she should have shown respect.

When the young female pig died, she was rebom in a royal family of Suvannabhumi, which ts generally taken to be the country of Thaton. Some scholars, however. take Suvannabhumi to be the

Sumatra island, relying on the bronze inscriptions inscribed by the King Devapala, about 1500, Buddhist era.

From being aprincess of Suvannabhumi, she passed over to Baranasi, India, as a woman. She then became a woman in Vanavasi, in south east of Bombay. From there, she was rebom the daughter of a horse— merchant in the sea port town of Supparaka, north-west of Bombay. Next she became the daughter of a ship owner at the port of K4vira in the south eastem most part of the Indian peninsular. This is the coastal district inhabited by the Tamil people formerly called Damila. After that life, she was rebom in the family of a government official at Anuradha of present day Sn Lanka. Her next life was as a daughter of a mch man, named Sumana from Bhokkanta, a village south of Anuradha. She took the same name, Sumana, as her father. Later her father left that village and settled down in the Mahamuni village of the Dighavapi District. One day a minister of the king Dutthagamimi, named Lakundaka Atimbara happened to visit the Mahamuni village on a certain business. Upon seeing the young lady Sumana, he fell madly in love with her. He marred her with great pomp and ceremony and carried her off to his village Mahapunna.

The Venerable Maha Anuruddha who resided at the monastery of Taungsun happened to visit her village for alms-round. While waiting for offer of alms-food at the gate of Sumana's house, he saw Sumana and said to his monk followers: "Bhikkhus, how wonderful, what a marvel! The young female pig of the Blessed One's time is now the wife of the minister Lakundaka Atimbara."

On hearing this exclamation, Sumana, the wife of the minister, developed jatissara ndna, knowledge of previous existences. With the help of this faculty, she recalled to her mind the previous existences she had passed through. In consequence, she became agitated with fear at the prospect of repeated birhts in the cycle of existences. Asking permission from her minister husband, she went to a bhikkhuni monastery and got herself ordamed After ordination, she listened to the discourse on Satipatthana sutta at Tissa Maha