Rebirth can't be real or we'd remember?

(The Journey to Awakening) If rebirth is real, why don't we remember our past lives?

Rebirth is real: relinking consciousness

In detailing the reality of rebirth, the Buddha used the term patisandhi (lit. "relinking" or "reunion"). It is one of the 14 "functions of consciousness" (viññāna-kicca).

Patisandhi is a karma-resultant type of consciousness that arises at the moment of conception, that is, with the forming of new life in the mother's womb.

Immediately afterwards, this consciousness (citta, "mind moment") sinks into the subconscious stream of existence (bhavanga-sota), where it is conditioned. Thereby, corresponding states of subconsciousness arise. Therefore, it is really this rebirth-consciousness that determines the latent character of a person.

Technically and in an ultimate sense, "neither has this [rebirth-] consciousness transmigrated [traveled] from the previous existence to this present existence, nor did it arise without such conditions as karma, karma-formations (sankhara), propensity, object, and so on.

That this consciousness has not come from the previous existence to this present existence -- has not traveled from one life to another -- yet that it has come into existence by means of causes and conditions included in the previous rebirth such as karma and so on may be illustrated by various similes.

An echo, the light of a lamp, the impression of a seal, [a wave on the ocean, electrons in electrical current], and the image produced by a mirror, all of which are reflections, correspond to causes and conditions without being identical to them.

One does not travel to become the other, though it certainly appears that way. Conventionally speaking, of course, we may even say this is what happens as a shorthand, but closer inspection reveals that that is an illusion, a misunderstanding, or an oversimplification of the process actually taking place.

Just as the resounding of an echo is conditioned by an initial sound and so on, nowhere does a transmigration of sound take place. It is just so with this consciousness.

Furthermore, it is said: "In this continuous process, no sameness and no otherness can be found." For if there were full identity (between the different stages), then milk could never turn into curd, whereas if there were complete otherness, then curd could never come from milk....

If in a continuity of existence [a passing from one life to another] any karmic result takes place, then this karmic result neither belongs to any other being, nor does it come from any other [karma], because absolute sameness and otherness are excluded here (The Path of Purification, VisM, XVII 164ff).

In the Questions of King Menander (Mil.), it is said:

"Now, Venerable Nāgasena, the one who is reborn, is that the same as the one who has died or is that another?"

"Neither the same nor another" (na ca so na ca añño).

"Please give me an example, Ven. Nagasena."

"O, king, how do you see it: are you now, as a grown-up person, the same who you had been as a little young and tender babe?"

"No, venerable sir. Another person was the little young and tender babe, but quite a different person am I now as a grown-up man."...

"Is perhaps in the first watch of the night one [flame of a] lamp burning, another one in the middle watch, and yet another one in the last watch?"

"No, venerable sir. The flame [continuous light] during the whole night depends on one and the same lamp.''

"O, king, it is just so with the chain of phenomena linked together. One phenomenon arises, another vanishes, yet all are linked together [in unbroken continuity], one after the other, without interruption. In this way one reaches the final state of consciousness neither as the same person nor as another person.''

Divisions

According to the nature of their rebirth consciousness, beings are divided into the following three groups:

• 1. ahetu-patisandhika: a "being reborn without root-conditions," is a being whose consciousness at the moment of rebirth was not accompanied by any of the three noble root-conditions (greedlessness, hatelessness, undeludedness. (See mūla, "roots").

That is, selflessness, kindness, intelligence were not present. Such beings are found in the Four Lower Worlds (apāya, the downfall, subhuman planes of existence), in which case the function of rebirth is exercised by the class of consciousness listed in Table I as No. 56.

But if, lacking those good root conditions, such beings are fortunate enough to be reborn as humans in this Sensuous Sphere, they will be crippled, blind, deaf, mentally deficient, and so on. (Rebirth-consciousness = Tab. I, No. 41).

• 2. dvihetu (duhetu)-patisandhika: a "being reborn with only two [noble] root-conditions," namely, greedlessness and hatelessness. (Rebirth-consciousness = Tab. I, Nos. 44, 45, 48, or 49).
• 3. tihetu-patisandhika: a "being reborn with three [noble] root-conditions." Such a being can only be found among human beings (rebirth-consciousness = Tab. I, Nos. 42, 43, 46, or 47) and higher heavenly beings [in worlds superior to the human plane (manussa loka) within any of the three spheres, Sensual, Fine Material, or Immaterial].

On these three types of rebirth, see Atthasālini Tr. 11, 354-379. (Appendix: patisandhika). In the sutras, the terms for "rebirth" are chiefly punabbhava ("renewed existence") and abhinibbatti ("[re]arising," "reappearance") or both combined as punabbhavābhinibbatti. (See Appendix: patisandhi).

LITERATURE

• The Path of Purification (Vis.M. XVII, 133f, 164f, 189f, 289f; Vis.M. XIX, 22f)
• Karma and Rebirth by Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera (BPS.lk, Wheel 9).
• The Case for Rebirth by Francis Story (Wheel Nos. 12/13).
• Survival and Karma in Buddhist Perspective by K. N. Jayatilleke (Wheel Nos. 141/143)
• Rebirth Explained by V. F. Gunaratna (Wheel Nos. 167/169)