The process of rebirth by Ajahn Suchart Abhijãto

“The process of rebirth.”

"How long you have to spend in heaven or hell depends on when you finished spending your good kamma or bad kamma. After you have expired your good kamma and bad kamma, your mind will take up a new body and be reborn as a human being again. This is what we called, ‘the process of rebirth’. After you die, you’ll go to heaven or hell, or be born as an animal. And after you have expired all your kamma, the good kamma and the bad kamma, then you’ll be reborn as a human being again, to do more good or bad kamma depending on whether you know about it or not. If you live with people who know about it, such as the Buddha, or you live when there is Buddhism, then you’ll be taught not to do bad kamma, but do only good kamma. Buddhism also teaches you the way not to be reborn again.

The Buddha has discovered the cause of our rebirth. Our rebirth is caused by our craving or desire – the desire to use the body as a mean to bring happiness. We have to have a body to see what we want to see and to hear what we want to hear. We use this body to take us to places, to do things to make us happy. As long as we rely on this body as a mean of producing happiness for us we’ll always have to come back and be reborn to have a new body after this body expires. This body only last for a certain length period of time. After 80 or 90 years, the body will have to die.

But the desire to use the body doesn’t die with the body, so it brings the mind to take a new body. This is called, ‘rebirth’.

Once you’re reborn, you then have to go through the process of suffering. You have to get old, get sick and die. You have to worry about your existence. You have to fight to stay alive.

According to the Lord Buddha, these are all suffering.  If you don’t want to suffer, then you should stop rebirth."


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Question:

Does it mean that the habitual practice is actually very important course of action?

Than Ajahn:

Yes. Everything that you do adds up until the end of your life.

Today you’re doing good kamma. Maybe tomorrow you are doing a bad kamma. Then, these go to different accounts: good kamma account and bad kamma account. When you die, both of these accounts will combined and you’ll see which one is stronger. If the good kamma is stronger, then it will send you to heaven. If the bad kamma is stronger, it will take you to hell.

And when both the good and the bad kammas become equal, then you’ll be born as a human being.

Because the good kamma cannot send you to heaven; The bad kamma cannot send you to hell. So, the only place you can go is to become a human again.”

Dhamma for the Asking,

Laypeople from Malaysia and Singapore, Oct 26, 2017
Laypeople from Malaysia, Feb 6, 2017.

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto