Chapter 12 - Birth And Suffering

The role of kamma in the chain of causation is underscored in the teaching sankhara paccaya vinnanani - “From sankhara there arises rebirth consciousness”, which we have already explained in detail. The dying person is attached to the signs and visions relating to his kamma and so on his death there follow kamma based rupas together with rebirth consciousness conditioned by his death bed attachment.

Contact with the sense objects gives rise to feeling which in turn produces desire. It does not matter whether the feeling is pleasant or unpleasant. Pleasant feeling creates attachment to pleasant objects while unpleasant feeling makes us crave for pleasant objects. When the desire becomes strong and develops into frantic craving (upadana), it results in activity or effort for its fulfilment. People do good or bad deeds which they hope will help to satisfy their needs and desires. It is this kammabhava rooted in craving that gives rise to rebirth. Rebirth is bound up with suffering regardless of the world in which it takes place.

There is no need to dwell on the sufferings in the animal and other lower worlds. Among human beings, too, suffering is an inescapable fact of life. A mans suffering begins while he is in the mothers womb. He has to work hard for his living, he is harassed by bullies and tyrants. Even if he escapes from the dukkha inherent in the struggle for survival, he will finally have to face old age, sickness and death. From the time of his conception, man is headed towards these inevitable evils of life. He is approaching them at every moment. He may live an apparently care free, happy life but his namarupas are forever in the process of ageing and disintegration.

There is an Indian story which stresses the inevitability of old age, sickness and death. A man being afraid of old age rose into the air with the elixir of life in his mouth and hid in the sky. Another man hid under the sea to escape sickness and still another hid in a cave in Himalayas to avoid death. When their sons searched for them they found that the first man had become old with all the ugly signs of decrepitude, the second man was sick unto death and the third man was dead.

Everyone is subject to old age, sickness and death. Once a man is reborn, there is nothing that will protect him from these evils of existence. Hence, the Buddhas saying in the Dhammapada that there is no place in the sky, on land or in the sea, where one can escape death.