Preface

What is Buddha?  If you have ever wondered about what the  Buddha really taught. Should Buddhists be ambitious?  What does Buddhism say about sex, marriage and divorce?  How is meditation practised?  These are just some of the many questions yet to be answered.

“All About Buddhism” is an in-depth study of the most important teachings of Buddhism.  This will be the first of its introductory courses in Buddhism and will eventually be used for a comprehensive course in Buddhist education. It presents the ancient teaching as it is ; a humane and dynamic philosophy of life as relevant today as when it was first proclaimed nearly twenty-five  centuries ago. The inclusion of Pali terms only where necessary, or where they might be of particular interest.

Over the past decade, there has been an increased interest in Buddhism, an interest which seems to be accelerating yearly. With this growth in interest, the need for a thorough introduction to Buddhism has also arisen.  

The likelihood that most Buddhists at some time or other will be questioned about their beliefs, or perhaps even be called upon to defend them from unfair criticism is, unfortunately, very likely. This being so, an introduction to Buddhism should answer some of the questions that are most commonly posed, it should include some comparisons between Buddhist doctrines and those of other faiths, and it should remind the reader of the importance of non-retaliation, tolerance and good manners.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, an introduction to Buddhism should be written primarily from the Buddhist standpoint.

 

In this content almost all the quotations are used from the Pali Tipitaka or from Buddhist classical literature. After all, the Pali Tipitaka contains the teachings of the Buddha in his own words, and thus must take precedence over the opinions of enlightened scholars and philosophers. The classical literature of Buddhism, on the other hand, has been drawn upon frequently because with its profundity and beauty it deserves to be more well-known by the  general Buddhist public.

Introduction

Buddhism is one of the major religious and philosophical traditions in the world.  It began over 2,000 years ago in northeast India, with the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha (the founder).  Buddhism spread all over India, and then northward through the Himalaya mountain passes into China, Tibet, Korea, and Japan.  Southward, it reached Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma (now Myanmar), Cambodia, and Vietnam.  

During the 1900's, it spread to Europe, the United States of America, and Australia. Buddhism has always adapted well to other cultures, and has developed distinctive forms in different countries.  The number of Buddhists in the world is estimated at some 330 million. 

Buddhism was founded by Siddhartha Gotama, who lived in and around the Ganges Plain during the fifth and sixth centuries BC. Heir to the throne of the Sakyan kingdom, at the age of 29, Siddhartha renounced his royal heritage to search for a means of ending the sense of dissatisfaction and futility of which he had become acutely aware.

Having tried and discarded all the approaches to spiritual practice then available, he discovered a radically different path, a middle way between the extremes of indulgence and asceticism. This brought him the enlightenment he sought; he was known thereafter as 'the Buddha', the enlightened one.

The Buddha summarised his teaching in four statements known as the noble truths: Life in the relative world is fundamentally unsatisfactory and although happiness can be found in the world, all things that give rise to it - possessions, people, wealth, desirable mental states - inevitably age, decay and die.

Our sense of dissatisfaction is not something that falls upon us out of the blue - we become dissatisfied whenever we want life to be different from the way it is right now.

There is an ending of all dissatisfaction, all suffering, and all distress -Nirvanaor Enlightenment. This goal is attained by following the Buddhist path, which comprises the perfection of ethical conduct, meditation and wisdom. (For a lucid modern exposition of the Buddha's path to enlightenment.

Having established itself in northern India during the 5th century BC, Buddhism was contained within the subcontinent for about a hundred years. The teaching spread to Nepal by the 4th century BC, and reached Kashmir, Sri Lanka and Central Asia by the 2nd century BC. The later spread of the religion occurred partly through trade and partly through the work of missionaries.

By the time of the birth of Christ, Buddhism was established in China, reaching Korea by the end of the 3rd century.

The increased trade in the Far East at this time gave greater impetus to the spread of the religion, and by the 7th century Buddhists were to be found in Java, Sumatra, Japan, Tibet, Thailand and Myanmar.

Further westward expansion was halted by Islamic conquests but conversion still persisted; Bhutan, for instance, was not reached until the 9th century but today is one of the most strongly Buddhist countries in the world.

Buddhism is not a centralised religion with centralised institutions, although it does have a hierarchical form of organisation within each of the three main groups (see above).

In countries such as Thailand, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, where the Government and a large part of the population are Buddhist, the state is very closely associated with the religion and its organisation and institutions tend to be more formalised. In other countries, such as Japan, the religion exists within a looser framework.  

The beliefs of Buddhism 

All Buddhists have faith in: (1) Buddha; (2) his teachings, called the dharma; and (3) the religious community he founded, called the sangha.  Buddhists call Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha the Three Refuges or Three Jewels.    In the Sanskrit language the word for the three jewels is triratna.  At the beginning of most Buddhist gatherings and on special occasions, people say three times: "I go to the Buddha for refuge, I go to the dharma for refuge, I go to the sangha for refuge." 

The Buddha was the founder of Buddhism.  He was a religious teacher who lived in north-east India.  His real name was Siddhartha Gautama.  According to later Buddhist accounts, he was a member of a rich and powerful family.  At the age of about 29, Gautama became overwhelmed with the conviction that life was filled with suffering and unhappiness.  This conviction led Gautama to abandon his wife and infant son and to seek religious enlightenment as a wandering monk. 

Most scholars think he lived from about 563 to 483 B.C. However, some scholars claim he lived from about 448 to 368 B.C. By his own effort he attained enlightenment (a state of understanding truth) and then taught others how to do the same.  The title Buddha means Enlightened One.  Buddhists follow Buddha by following this path to enlightenment in one of its forms.  But Buddhists believe that taking refuge in the Buddha means more than just following him.  It also means that a person has confidence in the nature of enlightenment, whether it is manifest in one's own life or in other beings.    

Dharma means teaching, especially the teaching of the Buddha and his followers.  Dharma also involves the wider idea of truth, especially the truth about the way things are.  This idea is taught in various summaries, such as the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, the Three Marks of Existence, and the Twelve-Linked Chain of Dependent Origination. 

 Buddha preached that existence was a continuing cycle of death and rebirth.  Each person's position and well-being in life was determined by his or her behavior in previous lives.  For example, good deeds may lead to rebirth as a wise and wealthy person or as a being in heaven.  A person's evil deeds may lead to rebirth as a poor and sickly person or even in hell. 

Buddha also taught that as long as individuals remain within the cycle of death and rebirth, they can never be completely free from pain and suffering.  Buddha said people could break out of the cycle by eliminating any attachment to worldly things.  By ridding themselves of such attachment, people would gain a kind of perfect peace and happiness.  Buddha called this state of peace and happiness nirvana.  According to Buddha, those who are willing and able to follow the Middle Way and the Noble Eightfold Path will conquer their attachment to worldly things and thus achieve nirvana. 

The sangha is the Buddhist religious community.  It consists of four groups of people: laymen, laywomen, bhikkhus (monks), and bhikkhunis (nuns).  These people are called the sons and daughters of the Buddha.  The laypeople support monks and nuns with gifts of food, shelter, and clothing.  In return the monks and nuns give to the laypeople the example of lives lived close to the example of the Buddha.  Monks and nuns also have a special task to preserve and pass on the dharma.  Often the word sangha is used to mean just the monastic community.  In most Buddhist countries, monks are expected to live a life of poverty, meditation, and study.  Some Buddhists become monks for life.  Others serve in the sangha for short periods of time.  The monks wear special orange or red robes, and are a common sight in Buddhist countries. 

01 The Universe

  

1   Most religions have myths that attempt to explain the origin and nature of the universe. The  ancient Egyptians believed that the god Khnumm created the universe, and then made men out of clay after which the godess Hathor breathed life into them. The ancient Greeks believed that  everything was made by Oceanus, the primodial waters. The ancient Jews and Christians had two creation legends, both contained in the Bible.

The first says that the Hebrew god created the universe and light and darkness on the first day,  the water and dry land on the second day, all the plants on the third day, the sun, moon, and stars on the fourth day, all the birds and animals on the fifth day, and the first man and woman on the  sixth day.

The second creation legend in the bible says that God made the earth, then the first man, then all the plants and animals, and finally he created woman. In ancient China they believed that P'an Ku chiselled the universe out of chaos and then changed his bones into rocks, his flesh into earth, his teeth into metal and so on, the whole process taking 18,000 years. The different religions have ideas concerning the age and extent of the universe, but most of them are within the bounds of very limited human imagination. The Bible, for example, implies that the whole universe is only several thousand years old. All of these myths and legends have been replaced by the modern scientific model of the universe.

2 The development of modern physics has caused scientists to come to the conclusion that the universe does not have an ultimate beginning. It is constantly changing from one form into another, coming into being and being destroyed, a process without either beginning would require explaining how all the energy in the universe came into being out of no-thing, and this would contradict every principle of physics. The Buddha agrees that the universe, or as he calls it, samsara, is without beginning. He says:

Undetermined is the beginning of this universe. The Furthest point of beings moving on from birth to birth, being bound by ignorance and craving, cannot be known.

3 Scientists now believe that the universe is a pulsating system, that it expands to its furthest limit then contracts with all energy compressed into a single lump, until pressure becomes so intense that there is an explosion, or "big bang", once again sending all energy outwards. This expanding and contracting of the universe takes place over a period of billions of years. Again, the Buddha was familiar with the idea of an expanding and contracting universe. He says:

Sooner or later there comes a time when, after a long period, this universe contracts...But sooner or later, after a very long period of  time, this universe begins to expand again.

4 The invention of the conventional telescope and the more recent radio telescope has allowed astronomers to understand not only the origin and nature of the universe, but its actual structure.  We now know that the universe is made up of billions of stars, planets, asteroids and comets. In places, all these objects cluster together into disk- or spiral-shaped forms that astronomers call galaxies.  Our own planet earth is a tiny speck in the Milk Way galaxy, which contains about 100 billion stars and which is about 60,000 light years across. It is also now known that galaxies occur in groups.

The Milky Way is one of a group of about two dozens galaxies have only been known about in the West since the invention of sophisticated scientific equipment, Buddhist texts speak of most of these things. The ancient Buddhists, just like modern astronomers, described galaxies as being disk- or spiral-shaped, the Pali word for galaxy being "cakkavala",  which is derived from he word "cakka"  (wheel).  

The Buddha very clearly and very accurately describes the groups of galaxies that scientists have only recently discovered. He calls them world systems (loka dhatu)  and says that they are of different sizes:  the thousand-fold  world  system, the ten thousand-fold world system, the major world system, and soon. He describes them as consisting of thousands of suns and planets, although astronomers today talk not of thousands but of millions.

As far as these suns and moons revolve, shining and shedding their light in space, that far extends the thousands-fold world system. In it there are thousands of suns, thousands of moons...‚

5 Until fairly recent times, people simply could not think of the vast distances in either time or space that are needed to understand the nature and extent of the universe. Their imagination was  very earthbound. The Bible, for example, conceives of the whole universe being created in six days and implies that creation is a mere few thousand years old.

Today astronomers number the stars in the thousands of  billions, and measure distances in light years, one light year being the distance that light travels in one year. Ancient man simply could not imagine categories this huge. The Buddha, however, was an exception. His wisdom, being infinite, was quite able to understand the concept of an infinite universe. He speaks of  " the black, gloomy regions of darkness between the world systems where even the light of our sun and  moon, powerful and majestic though they are, cannot reach..."  It takes many “kappas” for a world system to disintegrate and then reform, and when the Buddha was asked how long a kappa was, he answered:

          "Long is a kappa. It is not easy to calculate by counting years, 

           centuries or even thousands of centuries."

           "Then can it, Lord, be indicated by a parable?"

          "It can. Imagine a great crag, a great mountain without any chasms or clefts, a solid mass one mile wide, one mile across and one mile high. And imagine that once every hundred years a man were to rub that mountain once with a piece of  Benares cloth. That mountain would sooner wear away than a kappa would pass. And more than one, more than a thousand, more than a hundred thousand such kappas have already passed".

Thus the Buddha  used a simile such as this to give the idea of vast distances in time, just as modern astronomers use the distance that light can travel in a year to give the idea of vast distances in space.

6 The Buddha talks about the nature and extent of the universe only in passing. He did not consider such theorizing and speculating to be essential to the main task in hand, which is the ending of suffering and the attainment of the happiness of  Nirvana. When someone once insisted that the Buddha answer his questions about the extent of the universe, the Buddha compared him to a man wounded with a poison arrow who refused to have the arrow removed until he knew all the details about the person who shot the arrow.

The Buddha then said:

Living the holy life could not be said to depend

on whether the universe is finite or infinite or

both neither. For whether the universe is finite

or not, there is birth, there is ageing, there is

dying, there if grief, sorrow, suffering,

lamentation and despair, and it is for the

overcoming of these that I teach.

Quite clearly, knowing how the universe began cannot help us overcome our suffering nor can it help us develop generosity, virtue or love. And to the Buddha, questions regarding these things  were far more important then idle speculation  about how the universe began.

7 However, the Buddha's  remarkably modern and accurate conception of the universe compels us to ask how he came to know these things. How could someone know about clusters of galaxies and that galaxies are spiral-shaped long before the invention of the telescope ? How was he, living so long ago, able to comprehend the infinity of time and space ?

The only possible answer is that he was what he said he was, a fully enlightened Buddha. His mind was so utterly free from the usual prejudices and delusions that cloud the ordinary human mind that his knowledge was able to extend far beyond the normal human range.

 The Buddha claimed to be a `knower of the worlds' (lokavidu) and evidence supports his claims.

- Concept of Space and Time

Space and time are great inventions of the mind. Both exist objectively. Although we may feel how time is carrying us away, we can neither halt nor prolong it. We cannot recover a single moment of existence. The flow of time is beyond our control. We are helpless in it as floating leaves in a flowing stream.

The concept of space and time has strongly conditioned our minds in the form of ideas of past and future. We tend to engage in thoughts in the present moment – memories, recollections and reflections we labeled as thoughts of the ‘past’ and project them beyond us which we categorised it as ‘future’.

By not realizing that they are merely the product of our own thought processes, we ironically burdened ourselves with worries about past and anxieties of anticipation of what has yet to happen.

Only when we live in the now, then we free ourselves from the bondage of time and space. In Brian Greene’s book “The Fabric of the Cosmos,” he states that to “fully understand space and time has become physics’ most daunting problems …” The present laws of physics do not distinguish past from future. For example, they do not explain why spilling a cup of tea cannot simply be reversed.

People have long puzzled over the basic nature of space and time. The philosopher Kant proposed over 200 years ago that space and time do not really exist but are intuitions or perceptions imposed by our own minds, and that was in line with the teachings of Buddha.

In the early 1900s, Albert Einstein found that space and time are interchangeable and replaced them with space-time for rigorous scientific purposes.

In the material world, we are taught that everything has extension and duration. Space and time have their peculiarities. Space has three dimensions: length, breadth and height, but time has only one – from the past through the present to the future.

Time is inevitable, unrepeatable and irreversible. Thus, we smartly say that one can make money but not time.

Correct understanding of the concept of space and time is closely connected with the scientific picture of the world. Generally, scientists claim that space-time is conditioned by matter, just as a form is conditioned by its content, and every level of the motion of matter possess its space-time structure.

Thus living cells and organisms have changing rhythm of time and geometry, and possess special space-time properties. This is known as biological time.

There is also historical time, whose unit may be the replacement of one generation by another, which corresponds to a century. Subject to our practical needs, historical time is counted in decades, centuries and millennia. The reference point may be certain cultural-historical events or even legends.

One cannot live in the world without concepts though he or she may be enlightened. The enlightened person in living his or her life, has to use that process of mind to deal successfully with the world. Thus, there are two levels of truth: the worldly truth and the ultimate truth.

Meditation helps us to see the conventional nature of time-space, to see that in reality it ultimately does not exist, that it is simply a mental construct, a projection onto what is happening in the moment.

There are many other concepts which also keep us strongly bound – concepts of self, of ownership, the duality of subject and object. You can see how much of our lives revolve about them, how much we live in the world of shadow, an illusion and the mere appearance of things.

We can set no limits to the universe as a whole. It categorically forbids us to do so. It is ageless. It is infinitely old and eternally young in its timeless evolution. 

Someone once wittily remarked that he could not imagine the universe having lived its life and sadly vegetating for the rest of eternity. But this does not mean that once we experience a reality beyond the conceptual level, we throw out the whole intellectual process. It is important that we still have to pay attention to what is happening on the day-to-day experiential level.

02 Life and the Realms of Existence

8 How and when life began is a mystery and perhaps will always remain so. The theistic religions all claim that their respective gods created life. But saying that a god created life does not really answer the question of how life began, because God is living and thus we still have the idea of life coming from life. The theist still cannot explain how God's life began.

But apart from legends, there are two scientific theories that attempt to explain how life began on earth. The first, called the Haldane-Oparin Hypothesis after the two scientists who first presented it, says that organic matter came from inorganic matter. According to this hypothesis, a mixture of simple inorganic gases dissolved in the ocean and energized by ultraviolet light from the sun resulted in the first pre-historic molecules, such as might be required for the start of life. This is the most widely accepted hypothesis on the origin of life.

Recently, Sir Fred Hoyle and Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe have presented an entirely different hypothesis. They suggest that simple life forms evolved in space and were transmitted to earth on meteorites and in the tails of passing comets. But however it began, the earliest evidence of life on earth consists of fossils of rod-shaped structures resembling modern forms of primitive algae and bacteria thought to be about 2.7 billion years old. Almost all scientists believe that these first life forms developed while floating on the surface of the ocean.

9 Buddhism says that, as in the case of the universe, the ultimate origin of life cannot be known. But the Buddha does explain how life on earth began. At the time when the universe is expanding, he explains, beings exist only in a heaven realm.

And there they dwell, made of mind, feeding on joy, self-luminous, moving through the air and glorious, and there they abide for a long, long time. During that period the world was one mass of water and all or stars could be seen, there were no months or fortnights, no years or seasons, nor was there male or female - beings were just beings.

And after a long, long time, a savoury scum formed over the surface of the waters those beings were. It looked like the skin that forms on hot milk as it cools. It had the colour of quality ghee or butter, and it was sweet like the taste of pure wild honey. Then some being of a greedy nature said: "I say, what can this be ?" and tasted the scum with its finger. When it did this, it liked the taste, and a craving arose. Then the other beings did the same thing, and craving arose in them too. So they began to break off pieces and eat them.

And as a result of this, their self-luminosity disappeared, and as a result of that, the moon and the sun, night and day, months and fortnights, years and all seasons all came into being.

The Buddha then goes on to explain how the bodies of these beings become grosser as they ate, and how eventually sexual characteristics arose. And all of these changes, he says, took place "over a long, long time". Another familiar with scientific speculation about the early evolution of life on the planet cannot fail to see how similar it is to what the Buddha says.

Both scientific speculation and Buddhist thought agree that the surface of the earth was originally covered with water. Both agree that the first life floated on the surface of the water where it absorbed nutrients. Both agree that early life forms were asexual, and both agree that the evolution from simple organism into complex ones took place over an immense period of time.

10 Science categorizes life into types according to the structure of the body, while the Buddha categorized life into types according to the quality of experience. The Buddha says that there are six realms of existence, differentiated from each other by the types of experience that the beings in those realms have. There is the deva realm, the human realm, the realm of animals, the realm of hungry spirits, the realm of jealous spirits, and the hell realm. Let us have a look at each of these realms.

11 Devas are sometimes called gods and their realm is sometimes called heaven, but both these terms are somewhat misleading.

The word `God' suggests the theistic idea of an all-loving, all-powerful deity who creates and controls everything and who is utterly different from man. e words `heaven' suggests the naive theistic concept of an eternal afterlife not unlike life on earth but where nothing ever goes wrong, where people in white robes sing songs, and where angels play trumpets.

Devas are not perfect or eternal, and when their lifespan is over they can be reborn in the human realm just as a human can be reborn as a deva. The main characteristic of the devas is that they experience a great deal of happiness.

Likewise, heaven is not a place completely separate from the other realms of existence; heaven is not `up there' any more than`hell' is down there. A deva might dwell right next to a human being or a hungry spirit. What separates them is their differences, not their position in space. Because devas might well have been humans before being reborn in the deva realm, they often retain an interest in what human do. They might answer prayers, protect particular people from danger, or even create problems.

12 While discussing the differences between devas and gods, it will be useful to see what Buddhism says about the idea of a single perfect creator God. The existence of such a God was denied by the Buddha because he believed the idea to be illogical, without evidence to support it, and unnecessary. There are several arguments used to try to prove the existence of a God, and Buddhism successfully shows that none of these arguments are satisfactory.

The first argument for the existence of God goes like this; everything has a cause, so there must be a first cause, and that first cause is God. There are several objections to this argument. Firstly, this argument contradicts itself. If everything must have a cause then the first cause must have a cause also.

Secondly, there is no logical reason why everything must have a single first cause. Most things we see are produced by multiple causes, so it is just as logical to say that everything had ten, twenty, a hundred or even a thousand first cause.

Thirdly, even if there was a single first cause, there is no evidence that the first cause was God. It could just as possibly have been a dinosaur, an old boot or a flash of lightning.

And fourthly, it is logically impossible to have a first cause or a beginning of the universe. A beginning is an event, must take place in time. Time consists of past, present and further. For any event to take place, there must be a time before it occurred (past), a time in which it occurred (present) and a time after its occurrence (future). Before the supposed creation of everything by God, there could have been no time because nothing existed. And it is clearly impossible for the timeless to give rise to time any more than darkness can give rise to light or wetness can give rise to dryness.

13 The argument for the existence of God goes like this: everything in nature seems to have an order and purpose. This could not happened accidentally, it must have been designed. If nature exhibits design, there must be a designer, and that designer is God. There are several objections to this argument.

Firstly, even if it is admitted that nature displays design, there is no evidence that the designer is God or even that there is a single designer. In fact, as nature is so intricate and complex, we would expect it to require many designers. Thus, if anything, nature's apparent design indicates that there are many creator gods.

Secondly, although nature does not exhibit design, there seem to be many aspects of cruelty in that design. For example, tuberculosis germs have been designed to rot human lungs. The mouth of the lamprey has been designed to latch on to the bodies of fish and then slowly and painfully eat them alive. Leprosy germs are designed to kill human flesh so that extremities drop off the body, causing hideous deformitities. So although nature does exhibit design, much of its causes extreme suffering, thus indicating that an all-loving God could not have designed it.

The third objection is that although nature does exhibit design, it does, at the same time, often go wrong. If God the designer is perfect, his creation must be perfect also.
But nature is far from perfect. Rain waters the crops but the rain often fails to come and millions die of starvation, or sometimes it rains too much and thousands lose their homes and their lives in floods. Every year millions of babies are born with terrible deformities or mental retardation. The production of cells in the body is sometimes faulty, causing tumors and cancers. The fact that nature's design is imperfect creator God could not have designed it.

14 Buddhism can also offer several well-reasoned arguments as to why there cannot be an all-powerful, all-loving creator God. The first argument goes like this: If God is all-knowing, he must know all the past, all the present and all the future. God must know every choice a person will make, every thought a person will have, and every act he will do long before they happen. Thus a person can only act in the way God has already foreseen; his whole life must be fixed and predetermined. So the idea of an all-knowing God makes freewill impossible, and if man has no freewill, he cannot be held responsible for any of his acts and the idea of trying to do good or avoid evil becomes meaningless.

Related to this, another argument runs thus: if God really created and controls everything, there is no point in man doing anything, because he is only a puppet of God's desire and God, not man, is responsible for any evil that man does. The Buddha states the argument like this:

There are some ascetics and Brahmins who teach and believe that whatever a person experiences, be it pleasant, painful or neutral, all that is caused by God's will. I went to them and I asked if they did teach such an idea, and they said they did, and I said:

"If that is so, venerable sirs, then people must commit murder, theft and adultery because of God's will. They must lie, slander and use harsh and idle speech because of God's will. They must be greedy, hating and full of false views be cause of God's will."

Those who fall back on God's will as the decisive factor will lack the desire and effort to do this or not do that.

The Buddhist poet, Santideva, puts the idea simply when he says: If God really is the cause of all that happens, then what is the use of man's striving?"

15 Another argument againsts the idea of God runs thus: the existence of a great deal of evil and suffering in the world is proof that an all-loving, all-powerful God does not exist, for if such a God did exist, surely he would act to stop evil and suffering. Even most ordinary, imperfect people would relieve sickness, famine and distress if they had the power. So why doesn't God, who is supposed to be perfect and all-powerful?

Theists will say that suffering is God's punishment for evil-doers. But this cannot be so, because good people are sometimes seen to suffer accidents, sickness and premature death, while evil people are sometimes successful, healthy and happy. The theist will then say that suffering is caused by man's sinfulness. But although man must be held responsible for some suffering, he can hardly be blamed for the suffering that is caused by diseases like cancer, disasters like
earthquakes, famines and droughts or terrible things like birth defects.

Finally, the theist will sat that evil and suffering are caused by devils. But even is this is so, it still doesn't explain why an all-loving God does not save innocent people from unnecessary suffering. Thus the theist cannot explain why an-all God allows suffering to happen. In fact, the terrible and apparently meaningless suffering that does exist is convincing proof that an all-loving does not exist. As the Buddha says:

One with eyes can see the sickening sight;
Why does not God set his creatures right?

If his wide powers no limit can restrain,
Why is his hand so rarely spread to bless?
Why does he not to all give happiness?
Why do fraud, lies and ignorance prevail?
Why triumphs falsehood, while truth and justice fail?
I count you God, one of the unjust among,
Who made a world in which top shelter wrong.

16 Another argument Buddhism puts against the God idea is that the belief in God does not seem to be necessary. Theist are often heard to say that a happy, meaningful life can only be had by believing in God, or that only the belief in God can give strength enough to overcome personal problems.
But this is not true. There are millions of people who lead happy, productive and virtuous lives without such a belief. There are just as many who have overcome great handicaps, disabilities and hardships through their own strength and resolution and without belief in God.

If a person can be moral, happy and compassionate to his fellows, and have a purpose in life without belief in God, then belief in God is simply not needed. However, it is important to remember that some people do find belief in some form of God meaningful and necessary in their lives. Therefore, while not subscribing to it themselves, Buddhists should respect theism and those who adhere to it.

17 The human realm (manussa loka) is the best of all realms of existence because it offers the best opportunities to spirally develop and to attain Enlightenment. The devas experience so much happiness that they have no motivation to develop their minds, while the beings in the lower realms experience so much suffering that they are unable to. Humans experience about equal proportions of happiness and suffering. The size and structure of the human brain gives consciousness a very wide expression, allowing humans to think, reason and remember.

In fact, the anient Buddhists used to think that the word `man' (manussa) was derived from the term `prominence of mind' ( mana ussannata ). Humans also have highly developed language, making the clear communication of the Dhamma possible. But although the human realm is the best of all realms, to be born human is a rare privilege indeed, and we should make full use of the opportunities it offers us.
The Buddha asks:

"Which is greater - the little bit of sand on
my finger nail, or the great earth?"

"Lord, greater by far is the great earth.
Tiny is the sand on your fingernail. The two cannot be compared."

"So too, beings who are born as humans are few in number. Far greater are those who are reborn in non-human realms. Therefore you should train yourself, thinking: "We will live earnestly"

18 Not only does the human state offer the best opportunities for Enlightenment, but all human beings can attain Enlightenment. The reason for this is that mankind is one. It is important to mention this because some religions and political ideologies claim that different races, castes or classes have different intellectual capacities, and that they should be treated differently and given different opportunities.

Hinduism in ancient India taught such as idea, dividing humans into four castes and excluding the lowest, the sudras, from all social and religious life, claiming that they had no intellectual abilities.

The Buddha opposed such ideas most strongly. In dozens of his discourses he used reason and common sense to attack the caste system and to uphold human equality and dignity. He says:

If you observe the trees or the grass,
Without knowing it,
They exhibit different type and kinds.
There are many different species.

Then observe beetles and moths
Or small insects like ants;
They exhibit different types and kinds;
There are many different species.

They exhibit different types and kinds;
There are many different species.

Observe creatures that crawl on their bellies,
Snakes and reptiles,
They exhibit different types and kinds;
There are many different species.

Observe fish,
And those that have the water as their homes;
They exhibit different types and kinds;
They are many different species.

Observe birds on the wind,
Those that travel through the sky.
They too exhibit different types and kinds;
There are many different species.

In these creatures,
Types and kinds can be seen;
In humans no such types or kinds can be seen.
Not in hair or head, not in ears or eyes,
Not in mouth or nose, lips or eyebrows
Is there any great difference.

Not in neck or shoulder,
Not in abdomen or chest.
Not in genitals is there any great difference.
Not in hands or feet, not in fingers or nails,
Not in calves, thighs or complexion
Are there different types or kinds As there are with other creatures.
Human types do not differ greatly
As other species do.
The difference between humans
Are only differences of convention.

19 Again, there are some who believe that women have less ability to develop spiritually than men do. But in Buddhism masculinity and femininity are characteristics of matter, no mind. Enlightenment is attained by developing wisdom and compassion, and anyone, no matter what their gender, can develop these qualities. The Buddha says:

Woman, having gone forth from home into homelessness in the Dhamma and discipline taught by the Tathgata, are able to realize the fruits of Stream-Winning, Once-Returning and Arahantship. Being equal in this respect, women should be treated the same and given the same opportunities as men. The Buddha's attitude to women's capacity for Enlightenment is best summed up by his female disciple Soma.

A woman's nature is unimportant
When the mind is still and firm,
When knowledge grows day by day,
And when she has insight into Dhamma.

One who thinks such thoughts
As `I am a woman' or `I am a man'
Or any other tought of `I am...'-
Mara is able to address that one

Some religions teach that women have a God-given role, usually as a mother and a wife, and that they are obliged to fulfill that role. Buddhism does not accept this idea. Women as much as men are free to take on any role, as a mother, wife, businesswoman, nun, and so on, if they think it will give them fulfillment and happiness.

Knowing that all human beings could attain Enlightenment, the Buddha taught his Dhamma to all, and expected them all to learn the Dhamma, practise it and share it with others. When Mara urged him to die early, the Buddhas replied:

I shall not die until the monks, the nuns, the laymen and the laywomen have become deeply learned, wise and well-trained, remembering the teachings, proficient in the lesser and greater doctrines and virtuous; until, having earned the teachings themselves, they are able to tell it to others, teach it, make it known, establish it, open it up, explain it and make it clear; until they are able to refute false doctrines taught by others and are able to spread the convincing and liberating truth abroad. I shall not die until the holy life has become successful, prosperous, undespised and popular; until it has become well proclaimed among both gods and men.

20 The animal realm (tiracchana yoni)includes all non-human animals - mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and insects. In animals, qualities like loyalty, compassion, self-sacrifice and the like are only very rudimentary, the main motivating factors in their lives being the lower instincts of hunger, sex and survival. Because of this, animals prey on each other without either mercy or compassion, and they can expect little help or sympathy from their fellows. The Buddha says of the animal realm:

There is no living by Dhamma there, no balanced living, no doing what is good or skillful; there is only devouring of one another and feeding on the weak.

21 Hungry spirits (peta ) are beings whose minds are constantly tormented by longing, wanting and the frustration of not getting what they want, and they wander about trying to relieve their hunger.

22 Jealous spirits (asura) are given that name because they are tormented by jealousy and covetousness. The happiness of others, especially of the devas, makes them rage with envy.

23 Beings whose experience is mainly painful are said to be in Hell (niraya). The pain they feel is not physical, but rather the pain of anxiety, fear, remorse and depression.

24 Although the realms of existence are places, they are more than that, they are primarily states of mind. A human who has beauty, power and happiness can be said to be in a deva realm just as much as a deva is. Likewise, a human who experiences great emotional suffering can be said to be in hell just as much as a hell being is. The Buddha makes it clear when he says:

When the average ignorant person says that hell is under the sea, he is saying something that is false and without basis. The word `hell' is a name for painful feelings.

Most theists accept the reality of the heaven realm and the hell realm, but mistakenly believe them to be eternal. The Buddha teaches that when a being's life span in one realm is over, that being might well be reborn in another realm. The beginningless process of being born and dying, of moving on from one realm of existence to another, is called samsara.

The Buddha's teachings help us to be happy in this life and to be reborn in happy circumstances in the next life. But complete happiness can only be achieved by being free from samsara and by attaining Nirvana, and this is the ultimate purpose of the Buddha's teachings.

25 Imagine that a scientist goes to live with a tribe of natives in order to study their culture. One day he observes them involved in playing some form of game. He watches carefully in order to understand what is going on, but because he doesn't know the rules of the game or what distinguishes one team from another, he cannot make sense of all the activity. Eventually the rules and rationale of the game are explained to the scientist, and behaviour which before seemed meaning-less suddenly becomes meaningful.

Life presents us with a similar situation. Things are happening around us and to us but because we don't know why they are happening, we are not sure what is going on, and it all seems meaningless and confusing.

In an effort to make sense out of it all we invent religious beliefs, but there are always anomalies that the beliefs can't explain, which don't fit into the belief, for which excuses have to be made, and which have to be explained away by saying that they are `mysteries'. But when the Buddha explains how and why things happen, suddenly life makes sense and has a meaning. And the purpose of life is to disentangle ourselves from samsara, and by freeing our minds to attain the peace of Nirvana.

The Buddha says:

The holy life is not lived for the advantages that come from gains, honours or fame; it is not lived for the advantages that come from morality; it is not lived for the advantages that come from concentration, nor is it lived for the advantages that come from knowledge and vision. But what which is unshakable freedom of mind - that is the aim of the holy life, that is the goal, that is the culmination.

03 Kamma

26 We have seen that beings can be reborn into any of the six realms of existence. But what conditions which of these realms beings will be reborn into?

Before we answer this question, let us see what Buddhism says about why things in general happen the way they do. Theist answer this question by saying that God is the cause of all things, good and bad. But Buddhism denies the existence of a supreme God, so how does it explain the dynamic universe in which we live, a universe full of movements, interactions and events?

Buddhism, like science, teaches natural causation. According to Buddhism, all phenomena operate according to five natural laws (niyama). Physical laws (utu niyama)) govern the physical inorganic order, they determine the temperature at which water will boil, the speed at which light travels, the cycle of the seasons, and so on.

Biological laws (bija niyama) govern growth, reproduction, genetics and so on in living organisms. Psychological laws (cita niyama) govern the functioning of consciousness and phenomena like telepathy, clairvoyance, and others.

Under Universal Laws (dharma niyama) are grouped gravity, the laws of thermodynamics and all the phenomena that are the same throughout the whole universe. But the law that we are most interest in is the Law of Kamma (kamma niyama).

Over the centuries, the Buddhist doctrine of Kamma has been so misunderstood that it has often been represented as a form of determinism. Even today, it is not uncommon to hear people, even Buddist monks who should know better, say that everything that happens to us is due to kamma.

As we will see, this and in fact many popular interpretations of kamma, are quite at odds with what the Buddha taught. What is presented as the doctrine of kamma today is usually not based upon the Buddha's teachings but upon commentorial literature, much of which was written more than a thousand years after the Buddha. We will attempt to explain the doctrine of Kamma as it is described by the Buddha and in the light of modern understanding.

27 The word `kamma‚' means actions, and refers to out intentional (cetama) mental, verbal and bodily behaviour. The Buddha says:

I say that intention is kamma because having first intended, one then acts with body, speech
or mind.

The word `vipaka‚' means result or effect, and refers to the result of our intentional actions. So to give help (kamma) to a stranger might result in making a new and good friend (vipaka). Or again, deliberately telling a lie (kamma) might result in being found out and embarassed or scolded (vipaka). Of course, merely intending to do something is different from actually doing it, although both will have an effect, the first less than the second.

Each time we intentionally think, speak or act, it modifies our consciousness. So what type of person we are now is very much the accumulation of what we have done in the past, and likewise what we do now will go to make up the type of person we will be in the future.

What we are is what we have done.
What we do we will become.

And what type of person we are will greatly influence our relationships with others, our reactions to different situations, and consequently whether or not we are happy. The Buddha puts it this way:

All beings are the owners of their reactions, the heirs of their actions, their actions are the womb from which they spring, with their actions they are bound up, their actions are their refuge. Whatever actions they do, good or bad, they will inherit those actions.

28 At this point it is important to understand the difference between determining factors and conditioning factors. If we say that our past actions determine our present and that our present actions determine our future, this would mean that our whole life was fixed and predestined, and we would not be free to initiate or change anything. Kamma does not determine us.

Our past actions condition our present, which in turn conditions our future, that is to say, our actions have an influence to a greater or lesser degree, and thus there is room to exercise will and initiate change. The Kammic Law therefore is about tendencies rather than inevitable and unchangeable consequences. Thus we can say that Buddhism teaches neither determinism (niyativada) or absolute free-will (attakiriyavada), but rather conditioned will.

The Law of Kamma conditions three things - whether or not we will be reborn, which of the realm of existence we will be reborn into, and what kind of experience we will have. We will examine each of these three things.

29 According to the Buddha, every action that the unenlightened person performs has greed (lobha), hatred (dosa) and delusion (moha), or as the Buddha sometimes calls them ignorance (avijja) and craving (tanha) at its root. Even good actions will have traces of these defilements in them. Greed, hatred and delusion cause us to act, but not all actions will have results in this life; the impetus of those that don't have an effect in this life will impel us into a new body when the old one dies.

To use an analogy from ordinary life, a car moves because of the engine, but if the engine stalls, the residual energy will keep the car moving for a while, until the engine stars again. The Buddha says:

There are three origins of action. What three ? greed, hatred and delusion. An act performed in, born of, originating in, arising from greed, hatred and delusion will have its result wherever one is reborn, wherever the act has its result, there the being will experience the result of it, either in this life, the next life or in future lives.

For as long as we act with greed, hatred and delusion, we create kamma either good or bad, and thus we are reborn. Hence, on attaining Enlightenment, greed, hatred and delusion are finally and completely destroyed, we continue to act but no new kamma is produced, so at death we are no longer re-born.

30 Again, the Buddha says:

There are three origins of action. What three ? Freedom from greed, hatred and delusion. An act performed in, born of, originating in or arising from freedom from greed, hatred and delusion - since greed, hatred and delusion are no more - that act is stopped, cut off at the root, make like a palm-tree stump that can come to no growth in the future.

Kamma causes us to be reborn, and when we are reborn, it is into one or another of the six realms of existence. What type of kamma we have accumulated will condition which of these realms we arise in. All intentional actions have an ethical dimension, and are classified by the Buddha into four different types. He says:

There are four kinds of actions that I have realized by own wisdom and then made known to the world. What four ? They are dark actions having dark effects, bright actions having bright effects, dark and bright actions that have dark and bright effects, and neither dark nor actions that have neither dark nor bright effects.

`Dark actions' refers to behaviour motivated by greed, anger, impatience or other negative mental states and which results in discomfort and unhappiness, or what the Buddha calls `dark results'

`Bright actions' refers to behaviour motivated by positive mental states like kindness, generosity and honesty and which results in ease and happiness, or bright results.

`Dark and bright actions' refers to behaviour which is motivated by a mixture of both positive and negative intentions, and which has a mixture of both positive and negative intentions, and which has a mixed effect.

`Neither dark or bright actions' refers to neutral behaviour which has a correspondingly neutral effect. When certain types of actions are predominant in our behaviour, we are attracted, at death, towards one or another of the six realms of existence. The Buddha says:

And what is the variety of actions ? These are actions having their results in hell, in the animal realm and there are actions having their results in the deva realm.

The cruel, malicious and hate-filled person might be reborn in the hell realm or as a human whose experience is predominantly unpleasant. The person whose main concern in life is eating, sexual satisfaction and coarse enjoyment and who makes no effort to develop intellectually or spiritually might be reborn as an animal or as a human being whose experience is dullness and drudgery.

The fiercely ambitious, constantly dissatisfied person and perhaps those obsessed with or addicted to sex, alcohol or drugs tends to be reborn as a hungry spirit or as a human being tormented by dissatisfaction and discontent. The happy, innocent and loving type tends to be reborn as a deva or as a human being whose experience is mainly joyful and happy.

31 But of course to tell a lie or even to lie a few times does not mean we will be reborn in hell any more than being generous from time to time means we will be reborn in heaven. The Buddha makes it clear that a particular type of behaviour has to be strong, habitual and predominant in the mind, or as he says "committed, carried out and often pursued" before we are likely to be reborn into the very low or very high realms.

Most people, being as they are occasionally very good, occasionally very bad and the rest of the time a little bit of both will probably be reborn as average human beings with average experience. If however, the Dhamma is practised sincerely and properly, the chance of being reborn into a heaven or as a human being in good circumstances is very high.

32 The third thing that the Law of Kamma conditions is the type of experience we will have during our life. People are often heard to say that something which happens to them now is a result of something they did in a pervious life or that something they are doing now will have an effect in the next life. The understanding seems to be that all actions have their effect in any life except the present. This is quite wrong. The Buddha says:

The results of actions are of three types. What three ? Those having an effect in the present life, those having an effect in the next life, and those having an effect in future lives.

In fact, if we observe our experience, we will see the results of much of what we do immediately or soon after - we don't always have to wait until the next life.

Another misunderstanding about kamma is that every act must have its effect, a negative action, for example, must inevitably have a negative effect. Although the Buddha sometimes gives this impression, at other times he makes it clear that the inevitability of effects cannot be so. He says:

If anyone were to say that just a person does a deed, so does he experience it, and if this were true, then living the holy life would not be possible - there would be no opportunity for the overcoming of suffering.

But if anyone were to say that if a person does a deed that is to be experienced, so does he experience it, then living the holy life would be possible - there would be an opportunity for the destruction of suffering. For instance, a small evil deed done by one person may be experienced here in this life or perhaps not at all.

Now, what sort of person commits a small evil that takes him to hell? Take a person who is careless in development of body, speech and mind. He has not developed wisdom, he is insignificant, he has not developed himself, his life is restricted, and he is miserable. Even a small deed may bring such a person to hell.

Now, take the person who is careful in development of body, speech and mind. He has developed wisdom, he is not insignificant, he has developed himself, his life is unrestricted and he is immeasurable. For such a person, a small evil deed may be experienced here or perhaps not at all.

Suppose a man throws a grain of salt into a little cup of water. That water would be
undrinkable. And why? Because the cup of water is small. Now, suppose a man throws a grain of salt into the River Ganges. That water would not be undrinkable. And why ? Because the mass of water is great.

Clearly, if a person's character is predominantly good, a few small bad deeds may have little or no effect, and the same is true of a small good deed done by a person who character is overwhelmingly bad. Again, the effects of some actions will not mature because they may be cancelled out or dissolved by other new actions.

For example, someone might steal something but later come to understand that what he has done is wrong. He might decide to return the stolen article, try to make ammends and resolve to avoid such actions in the future. Under such circumstances, the result of his bad action might be cancelled out by his later good actions. As we said before, the Kammic Law is about tendencies, not inevitable, unchangeable consequences.

33 But perhaps the most common misunderstanding about the Law of Kamma is the belief that every single thing that happens to us tripping over, getting sick, winning the lottery, being good looking, is all the result of past kamma.

The Buddha denies this mistaken belief and for a very good reason. If it was true, it would mean that there would be no point in encouraging people to do good to avoid evil, because their whole life would be predetermined.

The Buddha says:

There are some ascetics and Brahmins who teach and believe that whatever a person experiences, be it pleasant, painful or neutral, all that is caused by past kamma. I went to them and I asked if they did teach such as idea and they said they did and I said:

"If that is so, venerable sirs, then people must commit murder, theft and adultery because of past kamma; they must lie, slander, and use harsh and idle speech because of past kamma. They must be greedy, hating and full of false views because of past kamma."

Those who fall back on past kamma as the decisive factor will lack the desire and effort to do this or not do that.

When we remember that there are five laws governing the universe, it is clear that kamma is only one of several causes of the things that happen to us. Being born beautiful, ugly, well-formed or deformed would probably be due to genetics (biological laws), not to good or bad past actions.

Being intelligent or dull would probably be due to social conditioning and parental influence (physical and psychological laws), not to good or bad past actions. To attribute everything that happens to us to good or bad past actions is, the Buddha says, to ignore causes and effects that our experience tells us are operating. He says:

In this connection, there are some sufferings that arise because of bile, because of phlegm, from wind, because of accidents, because of unforseen circumstances, and also as a result of one's past actions - as you should know from your own experience. And the fact that sufferings arise from these different causes is generally acknowledged by the world to be true.

So those samanas and Brahmins who say: "Whatever pleasure or pain or mental state that a human being experiences, all that is due to one's past actions," they go beyond personal experience and what is generally acknowledge by the world to be true. Therefore, I say that they are wrong.

The Buddha teaches us about the law of kamma so we can understand why we are the way we are, so we can change ourselves, and so we can create the conditions helpful for the attainment of Nirvana.

04 Rebirth

34 People often ask: "What will happen to me after I die ?

There are three ways of answering this question. Those who believe in some form of God will say that when a person dies he goes either to eternal heaven or eternal hell according to his deeds or beliefs.  This is the theistic view. 

Others say that when a person's life ends, his existence ends also. They believe in annihilation at death. This is the materialist's view. The Buddha says that when we die, we are reborn into a new life and that this process of death and rebirth will continue until the freedom of Nirvana is attained.

35 Buddhism criticises both the theistic and the materialistic views as being inadequate and incomplete. The theistic view is rejected because it seems to be unjust and cruel.

Even an evil person does not deserve eternal punishment in hell any more than a good person deserves eternal reward in heaven for a mere sixty or seventy years of doing goods on earth.

It also seems inconceivable that an all-loving God could condemn one of his creatures to countless millions of years of pain and torture. The theistic view also fails to answer many important questions.

What happens to animals when they die ?

What happens to the millions of babies who die each year in the womb or soon after birth?

Do they go to heaven or do they go to hell?

If they go to heaven this would be unfair because they have never done any good, and if they go to hell  this would be unfair because they have never done any evil.       

The materialist's view is better than the theistic one, but it still fails to answer many important questions. The materialist has difficulty explaining how a phenomenon as complex as human consciousness can arise from the meeting of two cells and develop within nine months. And now that para-psychology is a recognized branch of science, phenomena like telepathy are increasingly difficult to fit into the materialistic model of the mind.  

Buddhism offers the most satisfactory explanation of where we come from and what happens to us after we die.

36 The process of rebirth is called punabbhava which literally means ‘again becoming’. The Buddha says that for rebirth to take place, three conditions must be present: the parents fertility sexual union and the presence of the gandhabba. 

The word ‘gandhabba’ means ‘come from elsewhere’ and refers to the stream of mental energy made up of tendencies, abilities and characteristics that leave the body at death.

When the body dies he ‘mind moves upwards’ (uddhamgami) and re-establishes itself in a newly-fertilized egg. The fetus grows, is born and develops a new personality, conditioned by both the mental characteristics that have be carried over and by the new environment. The personality will change and be modified by conscious effort, education, parental influence and social conditioning.  A lot of the likes and dislikes, abilities and so-called ‘inborn traits’ of the individual are in fact carry-overs from the former life.

In other words, our present character and experience is in some degree the result (vipaka) of our actions (kamma), in the former life. Which realm we are reborn into will likewise be influenced by our actions in the present life.

37 It is fairly easy to understand how the mind goes from one body to another if we compare it to processes that we are familiar with - radio broadcasting for example. Radio waves, which are made of words or music but which consist of energy at different frequencies, are transmitted, travel through space, are attracted to and picked up by the receiver from which they are broadcast as words and music.  

In a very similar way, the mind leaves the body at death, travels through space,  is attracted to and picked up by the fertilized egg and is ‘broadcast’ as the new personality. Both radio waves and the mind are not things but dynamic processes, and so it is not correct to say that an unchanging soul passes into a new body anymore than it is correct to say that words and music pass into the radio from the transmitter. Likewise, there is no in-between state (antarabhava), as the mind passes almost instantaneously from one body to the next, just as radio waves are picked up almost as soon as they are transmitted.

38 But what evidence is there to support the doctrine of rebirth?  For centuries people have claimed that they could spontaneously remember former lives. One of the earliest recorded examples of this in Europe is the Greek philosopher and the mathematician Pythagoras (582 - 500 BC), who claimed he could remember several of his former lives.

In recent times, there have been numerous cases of people who could vividly remember events in previous lives, and some of these claims have been verified. The most impressive evidence so far presented to prove rebirth is the research of the American scientist, Ian Stevenson.

Dr Stevenson is professor of psychiatry at the University of Virginia, and his research, commenced in 1958, has received international acclaim and recognition. Over the years, he has published details of numerous cases of people, often children, who could remember former lives - all backed up by careful scientific research.

A fellow scientist, Dr. Harold Leif,  has said of Ian Stevenson's research: " Either he is making a colossal mistake, or he will be known as the Galileo of the twentieth century.

39 We will have a look at one of the cases investigated by Dr Stevnson. A boy named Ravi Shankar was born in 1951 in the city of Kanaiy in northern India. His father's name was Ram Gupta, but from the age of two the child kept insisting that his real father was a banker named Jogeshwar. The child also claimed that in his former life  he had been murdered  by having his throat cut by two men - Chaturi and Jamahar. The boy even said that the unusual birthmark on his throat which strongly resembled a knife wound was proof of his story.

Investigation showed that only half a mile away there was a man call Jageshwar whose son Munna had been murdered just as Ravi Shankar has described. The police has strongly suspected two men of the murder, a washerman called Chaturi and a banker called Jamahar, but had dropped charges on the grounds of

insufficient evidence. The Body Munna had been murdered six months before Ravi Shankar was born. Dr Stevenson's research showed that most of the details were correct.

Numerous cases like this are very compelling evidence that when people die, they are reborn, sometimes with vivid memories of dramatic events that happened in their former lives. No such evidence exists to support the theistic or even the materialistic views.                              

40 Apart from the evidence supporting it, the doctrine of rebirth has a deep appeal because it is so just. The theistic view makes it possible for a good person to be condemned to eternal hell merely because he held wrong religious beliefs.

This seems to be profoundly unique. Kamma and rebirth mean that a good person will have a good rebirth no matter what his religious beliefs are.

Likewise, a bad person will have to take responsibility for the evil he has done, whether he repents and converts at the last minute or not. The doctrine of rebirth appeals also because one always has another chance. In the theistic view, a person is given only one chance. What one does or believes in the short period of a single life will determine how one will spend the rest of eternity. But Buddha makes it clear that if we do not purify or free ourselves in this life, we will be able to do it in the next life - or the one after that.

Rebirth makes it possible for us to continue to perfect the skills and interests we have developed in this life in the next life as well. The Buddha even says that we may even meet the people we love and cherish in the next life if we have a strong affinity for them.

The  householder Nakulapita and his wife Nakulamata came to see the Lord, and having sat down, Nakulapita said:

 "Lord, since my wife was brought home to me when I was a mere boy, she being a mere girl, I have not been conscious of  having transgressed against that even in thought, much less in body. Lord, we desire to behold each other, not just in this life, but in the next life also."   

Nakulamata then said: "Lord, since I was brought to my husband's house when I was a mere girl, he being a mere boy, I have not been conscious of having transgressed  against him even in thought, much less in body. Lord, we desire to behold each other, not just in this life, but in the next life also."

At this, the Lord said: "If both husband and wife desire to behold each other in both  this life and the next life, and both are matched in faith, matched in virtue, matched in generosity and matched in wisdom, then they will behold each other in both this life and the next life also."

41 It is fair to say, therefore, that the doctrine of rebirth is more plausible, more just and more appealing than other post-mortem theories.  Not surprisingly, rebirth, (or reincarnation, or transmigration, as it sometimes called) has always attracted many adherents. Gallup polls in England have shown that the belief in rebirth increased from 18 percent in 1968 to 28 percent in 1978, the largest percentage being in the 25 to 35 age group. 

A similar survey shows that 28 percent of Americans accept the idea. An impressive number of thinkers, philosophers and men of science have found the doctrine of rebirth acceptable. Two eminent philosophers who have argued for the belief in rebirth on logical and ethical grounds are J.M.E.M`Taggat and C.J. Duccuas.

Thomas Huxley, who was responsible for having science introduced into the 19th century British school system, and who was the first scientist to support Darwin's   theories, believed that rebirth was a very plausible idea. In his famous book, "Evolution and Ethics and other Essays ",  he says:

In the doctrine of transmigration, whatever its origin, Brahmanical and Buddhist speculation found, ready to hand, the means of constructing a plausible vindication of the ways of the Cosmos to man... Yet this plea of justification is not less plausible than others; and none but very hasty thinkers will reject it on the ground of inherent absurdity.

Like the doctrine of evolution itself, that of transmigration has its root in the world of reality; and it may claim such support as the great argument from analogy is capable of supplying.

Professor Gustaf Stromberg, the famous Swedish astronomer, physicist and friend of Einstein, also found the idea of rebirth appealing.

Opinions differ whether human souls can be reincarnated on the earth or not. In 1936 a very interesting case was thoroughly investigated and reported by the government authorities in India. A girl (Shanti Devi from Delhi) could accurately describe her previous life (at Mattra, five hundred miles from Delhi) which ended about a year before her ‘second birth’.                             

She gave the name of her husband and child and described her home and life history.  The investigating commission brought her to her former relatives, who verified all her statements.  Among the people of India, reincarnations are regarded as commonplace; the astonishing thing for them in this case was the great number of facts the girl remembered. This and similar cases can be regarded as additional evidence for the theory of the indestructibility of memory.         

Professor Julian Huxley, the distinguished British scientist who was Director General of UNESCO believed that rebirth was quite in harmony with scientific thinking. 

There is nothing against a permanently surviving spirit-individually being in some was given off at death, as a definite wireless message is given off by a sending apparatus working in a particular way. But it must be remembered that the wireless  message only becomes a message again when it comes in contact with a new, material structure - the receiver. So with our possible spirit-emanation. It would  never think or feel unless again `embodied' in some way.

Our personalities are so based on body that it is really impossible to think of survival which would be in any impossible to think of survival which would be in any true sense personal without a body of sorts... I can think of something being given off which would bear the same relation to men and women as a wireless message to the transmitting apparatus; but in that case `the dead' would, so far as one can see, be nothing but disturbances of different patterns wandering through the universe until...they....came back to actuality of consciousness by making contact with something which could works a receiving apparatus for mind.                                   

Even very practical and down-to-earth people like American industrialist Henry Ford found the idea of rebirth acceptable.  Ford was attracted to the idea of rebirth because, unlike the theistic idea or the materialistic idea, rebirth gives you another chance to develop yourself. Henry Ford says:      

I adopted the theory of Reincarnation when I was twenty-six. Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction. Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next.      

When I discovered Reincarnation it was as if I had found a universal plan. I realized that there was a chance to work out my ideas. Time was no longer limited. I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock...       

Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but it is the fruit of long experience in many lives. Some are older souls than others, and so they know more...       

The discovery of Reincarnation put my mind at ease...If you preserve a record of this conversation, write it so that it puts men's minds at ease. I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives to us.          

So the Buddha teaching of rebirth does have some scientific evidence to support it. It is logically consistent and it goes a long way to answering questions that the theistic and the materialisitic theories fail to do.