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Q-16: Bhante, recently I received an email with a link to view reincarnation. I'm very amazed and and wished to understand it better from a Buddhist point of view. How do we explain reincarnation? Is it cuti-cittas or some other things that lead to the reincarnation? Would appreciate if Bhante could enlighten me on this subject.

With metta & mudita

Uttara Chiam

A-16: According to the Dictionary reincarnation is defined as "Rebirth of the soul in another body." As you know, according to Buddhism, there's no soul. That is why there's no reincarnation in Buddhism. However, according to Buddhism, all beings are to die and to be reborn in samsara which is the circle of death and rebirth, before they attain nibbana. There are those who can remember their previous lives. Thus this reincarnation can be defined as "Rebirth of a person who can remember his/her previous life or lives."

Remembering previous life is called pubbenivasanussatinana in Pali. This supernormal knowledge (abhinnana) is obtained by meditation. It is through this knowledge that  the Buddha saw His previous lives and others’ in samsara. Many discourses of the Budddha showed different kinds of past lives lived by different beings, for example jataka stories, thera stories, theri stories and peta stories. These were discovered by the Buddha and his disciples who possessed supernormal knowledge.

Moreover, previous life or lives may be discovered by ordinary people with a knowledge known as jattissaranana in Pali. This can be translated as  “knowing previous life.” This is not supernormal but normal, only rarely found.

In the Tipitaka we find several people who can remember their previous lives and those who can see the previous life or lives of other people. Here are some examples. In the Dhammapada-atthakatha (Sukarapotika-vatthu, verses 338-343), Maha Anuruddha, resident monk of Kotipabbata Monastery, and other monks went round for their alms in Maha Punna Village. Then, on seeing a Lady named Sumana, wife of a minister, he told other monks: “Friends, it is wonderful that a young female piglet can become wife of a minister.” When she heard the Venerable, the lady remembered her 12 previous lives including a Brahma, human being, hen and female pig.

And in the Manorathapurani (Annatitthiyasuttavannana, Anguttara-nikaya-atthakatha), a baby boy was born with the knowledge of his past life (jatissaranana). He always cried loudly whenever he was touched by his mother because he knew that he was killed by her in their four previous lives. Thus he was brought up by his grandmother. In a past life, the son and the mother were husband and wife. Then the wife committed adultery with her brother-in-law, the younger brother of the husband. To hide their wicked act, they assassinated the husband. The husband was reborn as a snake in the house of his ex-wife due to his attachment to her. The snake always attempted to get physical contact with her by falling down upon her. Finally it was killed by her. Again, it was reborn in the house as a dog and it followed her wherever she went. Finally it was also killed by her. Again it was reborn in the house as a calf (a young bull) and it also followed her all the time. It was again killed by her. Finally, when the husband was conceived in the womb of his ex-wife, it was the grandmother who discovered the reason for his crying whenever his mother touched him.

The attached link captures yet another story of a boy who knew about his previous life. However, majority of the people cannot remember their previous lives. Why is it so? It is explained that experiences of their past lives were forgotten due to the severe experiences they encountered when they died or when they were in their mothers’ wombs or when they were born. This explanation is logical. Some people do forget the earlier experiences of their present lives after being traumatized in severe accidents such as a traffic accident. Some, however could still remember their previous lives despite their encounters. The reason is that their previous lives' experiences had such great impact that they cannot be forgotten. The ability to remember the past experiences must be supported by other conditions such as "reminders". As in the above story of Lady Sumana, she was reminded of her previous lives by Thera Maha Anuruddha.

It should be noted that two persons in two successive lives are neither the same nor different. At that moment of re-linking (patisandhi), the earliest moment of a new life, mind and matter (nama and rupa) occur. Mind and matter of a person are not transferred from one life to another. They arise anew in the present life, but they are conditioned by past kamma. Relationship of the two persons are compared with that of sound and its echo, and object and its reflection in a mirror.

With Metta,

Ashin Acara

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Dhamma Questions are answered by Bhante U Cittara, resident monk of Mangala Vihara, and his assistant monks. Questions and comments on given answers are welcome. Send your questions and comments to resident_monk@mangalavihara.org.sg.