Rebirth

轮回

Unsatisfied desire for existence and sensual pleasures is the cause of rebirth.

感官的不满足是造成轮回的最大原因。

Buddhists regard the doctrine of rebirth not as a mere theory but as a verifiable fact. The belief in rebirth forms a fundamental tenet of Buddhism. However, the belief in rebirth is not confined to Buddhist; it is also found in other countries, in other religions, and even among free thinkers. Pythagoras could remember his previous birth. Plato could remember a number of his previous lives. According to Plato, man can be reborn only up to ten times. Plato also believed in the possibility of rebirth in the animal kingdom. Among the ancient people in Egypt and China, a common belief was that only well-known personalities like emperors and kings have rebirths. A well-known Christian authority named Origen, who lived in 185-254 A. D., believed in rebirth. According to him, there is no eternal suffering in a hell. Gorana Bruno, who lived in the sixteenth century, believed that the soul of every man and animal transmigrates from one being to another. In 1788, a well-known philosopher, Kant, criticized eternal punishment. Kant also believed in the possibility of rebirth in other celestial bodies. Schopenhauer(1788-1860), another great philosopher, said that where the will to live existed there must be of necessity life. The will to live manifests itself successively in ever new forms. The Buddha explained this 'will to exist' as the craving for existence.

轮回对佛教来说，不仅是理论而且还是可证实的事实。信仰轮回成为佛教的基本教义。然而轮回的信仰不仅存在于佛教，在其它国度、其它宗教里，甚至以下自由的思想家里，都有信仰轮回的人。希腊的毕达哥拉斯(Pythagoras)能记得起他的前世，柏拉图(Plato)也能记起他好几个前世，柏拉图相信人能轮回十世。同时也会轮回到畜生界里。在古代的中国和挨及，一般都相信贵族和帝王能转世轮回。一名基督教权威奥里根(Orgen, 185-254)也相信轮回，他认为没有永远受苦的地狱。十六世纪的意大利哲学家果拉那.布鲁诺(Gorana Bruno)，相信每一个人或畜生的灵魂都是由另一个众生的转世。在一七八八年著名的哲学家康德，批评了「永 久 的 惩 罚 」， 康 德 也 相 信 轮 回 于 其 他 天 国 的 可 能 性 。 另 一 位 哲 学 家 叔 本 华(Schopenhauer, 1788-1860)认为：「只要有生存的意志，就必然有生命，就是生存的意识令生命得以持续运转。」佛陀诠释这种「生存意志」为：对「生」的「执着」。

It is possible but not very easy for us to actually verify our past lives. The nature of mind is such that it does not allow most people the recollection of their previous lives. Our minds are overpowered by the five hindrances: sensual desire, ill-will, sloth, restlessness and doubt. Because of these hindrances, our vision is earth-bound and hence we cannot visualize rebirths. Just as a mirror does not reflect an image when it is covered with dirt, so the mind does not allow most people the recollection of previous lives. We cannot see the stars during daytime, not because they are not there in the sky, but because they are outshone by the sunlight. Similarly, we cannot remember our past lives because our mind at present is always over-burdened with many thoughts in the present, day-to-day events and mundane circumstances.

要实际验证我们的过去世，是可能的，但并不容易。心的本质的转变，使大多数人无法记忆起他们的往世。我们的心被贪、嗔、痴、慢、疑五种障碍所左右，因为有这些障碍的存在，我们的「识」受了限制，因此无法识别往世。这有如一面镜子被灰尘蒙蔽，照不出影像一样。因此大多数的人不能回忆前世。白天，我们看不见星星，并不是星星不存在，而是太阳的光比它们还要强烈。同样的，我们无法回忆起我们的往世，是因为我们现在的「心」一直负荷过重，我们对每天遇到诸多的事故，生起了种种的思虑，因此，导致「心」的真性被蒙蔽了。

A consideration of the shortness of our life-span on earth will help us to reflect on rebirth. If we consider life and its ultimate meaning and goal, and all the varied experience possible for man, we must conclude that in a single life there is not enough time for man to carry out all that is intended by nature, to say nothing about what man himself desires to do. The scale of experience is enormous. There is a vast range of powers latent in man which we see and can even develop if the opportunity is presented to us. This especially true today if special investigation is made. We find ourselves with high aspirations but with no time to attain them. Meanwhile, the great troop of passions and desires, selfish motives and ambitions, make war within us and with others. These forces pursue each other to the time of our death. All these forces must be tried, conquered, subdued and used. One life is just not enough for all this. To say that we must have but one life here with such possibilities put before us and impossible to develop is to make the universe and life a huge and cruel joke.

思考于「我们在世间的寿命是短暂的」，将有助于我们培养正确的轮回观。如果我们考虑到生命的究竟意义和目标以及各种各样的人生经验时，我们就能推断在「人」的短短一生中，实在是没有足够的时间去实现他所想要做的事。经验层次的范围非常大，只要因缘成熟，人体所拥有的巨大潜能就可以获得充分的发挥。知识是无限的，并以各种形态出现在我们眼前，特别是今日，我们只要稍加观察，我们都会发现我们自己拥有高度的抱负，但是没有时间去实现。同时，有一大堆激情、欲望、自私的动机和野心一直在我们的内心中交战，或与他人交战，这种力量必须去尝试、去征服、去压制和去利用。一次的生命，不够力量来达到我们的理想，如果说我们只拥有一次的生命，又要用它来完成这么多的事，那完全是不可能的。这无疑是开宇宙和生命的一个巨大而残忍的玩笑。

The Buddha doctrine of rebirth should be differentiated from the teachings of transmigration and reincarnation of other religions. Buddhism denies the existence of a permanent, god-created soul or an unchanging entity that transmigrates from one life to another.

Just as relative identity is made possible by causal continuity without a Self or Soul, so death can issue in rebirth without a transmigrating Soul. In a single life, each thought-moment flashes in and out of being, giving rise to its successor with its perishing. Strictly speaking, this momentary rise and fall of every thought is a birth and death. Thus even in a single life we undergo countless births and deaths every second. But because the mental process continues with the support of a single physical body, we regard the mind-body continuum as constituting a single life.

佛教所阐述的轮回学说，应该和其它的轮回学说区分开来，佛教否定永恒的神创造存在的灵魂，也否定在无数的轮回中，有一个不变的实体。 没有「自我」或「灵魂」的存在，也由「因果」相对的不断循环而获得证实。因此，死亡后可以不通过「灵魂」的转世而获得重生。在生命中，每一个「念」都是生生灭灭的，严格的说，这种剎那间「念」的生灭，就是一种生死。因此，在我们一生中的每一秒钟，都经历了无数的生死。只因为一个肉体，在支撑着心理路程的延续， 因此，我们认为身和心的结合，就构成单独存在的「生命」。

What we ordinarily mean by death is the cessation of the body's vital functions. When the physical body loses its vitality it can no longer support the current of consciousness, the mental side of the process. But as long as there is a clinging to life, a desire to go on existing, the current of consciousness does not come to a stop with the body's loss of life. Rather, when death takes place, when the body dies away, the mental current, driven by the thirst for more existence, will spring up again with the support of a new physical body, one which has just come into being through the meeting of sperm and egg. Thus, rebirth takes place immediately after death. The steam of memory may be interrupted and the sense of identity transferred to the new situation, but the entire accumulation of experience and disposition has been transmitted to the newborn being, and the cycle of becoming begins to revolve for still another term.

一般，我们以为「死亡」就是身体活动力停止作用。当身体失去了活力，它就不再支持意识的流动，可是，只要对生命有一点点执着，有一个想继续生存的贪念，那么，意识之流就不因为身体失去了活力而从此停顿。当死亡一发生，身体开始毁坏时，意识之流在渴望生存的驱使下，再度进入一个精子与卵子结合的生命体中，就这样，当死亡后，重生的现象就即刻发生，记忆之流或许中断了，感官意识也转变成另一个新的形态，而本质经验的累积却转入一个新的生命体中，生命的循环又找到一个新的起点。

For Buddhism, therefore, death does not spell either the entrance to eternal life or complete annihilation. It is, rather, the portal to a new rebirth which will be followed by more growth, decay, and then till another death.

因此佛教认为：「死亡既非永生，也并非绝灭。」新的生命开始后，接着是成长、衰老，然后又是另一个死亡。

At the last moment, no renewed physical functioning occurs in a dying man's mind. This is just like a motorist releasing the accelerator before stopping, so that no more pulling power is given to the engine. Similarly, no more material qualities of Kamma arise.

当意识死亡之时，生理功能也跟着死亡。这就好像汽车松开了油门，引擎得不到新的动力而终止运作。同样的，业力的生起或运作是不依赖物质现象的。

Buddhists do not maintain that the present life is the only life between two eternities of misery and happiness; nor do they believe angels will carry them to heaven and leave them there for all eternity. They believe that this present life is only one of the indefinite numbers of states of being and that this earthly life is but one episode among many others. They believe that all beings will be reborn somewhere for a limited period of time as long as their good and bad Kamma remains in the subconscious mind in the form of mental energy. The interpretation of the subconscious mind in the Buddhist context should not be confused with that given by modern psychologists since the concepts are not exactly synonymous.

佛教不相信「生」是在幸与不幸这两个永恒点之中。也不相信死后有所谓的天使接送到永恒的天堂或地狱。佛教相信「生」是无数世间生命轮回中的一段小插曲。佛教相信只有业力留在「心的潜在意识」里。所有的众生都将因为自己所造的善业或恶业，在某段时间，轮回于某个生界。这里所提到的「心的潜在意识」，并不是现代心理学所提到的「潜意识」。

What is the cause of rebirth?

什么是轮回缘起的因？

The Buddha taught that ignorance produces desires. Unsatisfied desire is the cause of rebirth. When all unsatisfied desire is extinguished, then rebirth ceases. To stop rebirth is to extinguish all desires. To extinguish desire, it is necessary to destroy ignorance. When ignorance is destroyed, the worthlessness of every such rebirth, is perceived, as well as the paramount need to adopt a course of life by which the desire for such repeated births can be abolished.

佛陀说，轮回肇始于无明所缘起的欲望，欲望得不到满足就造成轮回，当所有的欲望都消失殆尽时，就不再轮回了。因此，要了断生死，必须先涤除欲望，要涤除欲望必须先消灭无明，当无明被消灭后，轮回就因失去了翼护而失去价值，因此，也就没有再「生」的需要了。

Ignorance also begets the illusive and illogical idea that there is only one existence for man, and the other illusion that this one life is followed by states of eternal pleasure or torment.

无明导致人类以为生命只有这一世的错觉和不合理的观念。另一种无明所导致的观念，是以为死后将能得到永生或永灭。

The Buddha taught that ignorance can be dispelled and sorrow removed by realization of the Four Noble Truths, and not through any other source. To disperse all ignorance, one must persevere in the practice of an all-embracing altruism in conduct, intelligence and wisdom. One must also destroy all desire for the lower, personal pleasures and selfish desire.

佛陀说，只有四圣谛才能消除愚痴和「苦」，一个人要消除愚痴，必须以坚韧不拔的意志，学习一种包容性强的利他行法，在行为、学识和智慧要有同样的精进，同时，要降伏各种层次的欲念──包括个人的欲乐和自私心。

How does rebirth take place?

When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life. The kammic force manifesting itself in the form of a human being can also manifest itself in the form of an animal. This can happen if man has no chance to develop his positive kammic forces. This force, called craving, desire, volition, thirst to live, does not end with the non-functioning of the body but continues to manifest itself in another form, producing re-existence which is called rebirth.

轮回是如何产生？当身体不再具有活动的能力时，「生命源」并不与他同时消失，他会继续以另一种生命形态出现，业力可以使这生命形态转化为人类或其他众生。如果，一个人不全面的去发展业力，那么轮回就产生了。这种业力──包括贪、嗔、痴、慢、疑的存在，并不因为身体的死亡而消失，它们继续以不同的形态而重生，这就是轮回。

Today, there are people in various countries who have spontaneously developed memory of their past births. The experiences of these people have been well-documented in newspapers and periodicals. Some of these people never accepted that there was such a thing as rebirth until memory fragments of their previous lives came to them. Much of the information they revealed about their past lives has been investigated and found to be valid.

今天，在很多国家里，不断的传出有人开发了前世的记忆，这些人的经验被完整的记载于新闻或刊物中。这些人，有些是从来都不相信轮回的，却因记忆起前世的琐碎、片断的生活经历而相信了轮回学说。很多资料显示，他们的回忆的确和过去世的经历相符。

Through hypnotism, some people have managed to reveal information of previous lives. Certain hypnotic states that penetrate into the subconscious mind make the recalling of past lives possible.

通过催眠术也能获得过去世的经验，有些人能透过催眠而唤醒对前世的记忆。

Rebirth or becoming again and again is a natural occurrence not created by any particular religion or god. Belief in rebirth or disbelief does not make any difference to the process of rebirth or avoiding rebirth. Rebirth takes place as long as craving for existence and craving for sensual pleasures or attachment exist in the mind. Those strong mental forces prevail in each and every living being in this universe. Those who hope and pray that they be not born again must understand that their wishes will not materialize until they make earnest efforts to eradicate their craving and attachment. Having seen and experienced the uncertainty and unsatisfactoriness of life under worldly conditions, wise people try to rid themselves of these repeated births and deaths by following the correct path. Those who cannot reduce their craving and attachment must be prepared to face all unsatisfactory and uncertain situations associated with rebirth and becoming again and again.

轮回是一种循环性的自然规律，它不属于任何宗教的创造，因此，无论你信或不信有轮回的存在，都同样避免不了轮回的发生。只要心中渴望于生存，渴望于感官的欲乐或任何对心灵的执着，轮回就会发生，这种强烈的意志力，存在于宇宙间所有的生灵。如果冀求摆脱轮回，就必须做到不攀缘、不执着。在世俗的条件下，曾经看过或经历过不确定或不满意的生存经验后，聪明的人决定以正确的方法来排除轮回，而那些不能减少自己的欲念或执着的人，就必须面对永无休止的生死轮回。

Is Rebirth Simultaneous?

轮回是否与生死并存？

Another difficult thing to understand about rebirth is whether the occurrence of rebirth is simultaneous or not. This is a controversial issue even amongst prominent Buddhist Scholars. According to Abhidhamma, rebirth (conception) takes place immediately after the death of a being without any intermediate state. At the same time, some others believe that a person, after his death, would evolve into a spirit form for a certain number of days before rebirth takes place. Another interpretation regarding the same belief is that it is not the spirit, but the deceased person's consciousness or mental energy remaining in space, supported by his own mental energies of craving and attachment. However, sooner or later rebirth must take place. The spirits (petas), who are beings born in spirit forms, are unfortunate living beings and their lives in the spirit form is not permanent. It is also a form of rebirth which is temporary.

Another concept that many people cannot understand is that in the process of rebirth a man can be reborn as an animal and an animal can be reborn as a man. The animal nature of the man's mind and the animal way of life adopted by him can condition him to be born as an animal. The condition and behavior of the mind is responsible for the next existence. On the other hand, a person who is born in animal form, owing to certain mental abuses during a previous birth, could be reborn as a human being, if that animal has not committed any serious evil acts. It is a well-known fact that some animals are very intelligent and understanding. This is a clear evidence to prove that they are tending towards the human life. A person who is born as an animal can again be born as a human being when the bad kamma which conditioned his birth as an animal is expended and the good kamma which was stored becomes dominant.

另一个难以理解的事，就是轮回是否与生死并存？这是一个争论性的问题，有些学者认为人死后，轮回现象即刻发生，不需要任何中断。而有些学者却认为人死后，在重生前，以一种类似灵魂的形态存在一段时间。而另一种说法是，否认了灵魂的存在，认为人死后意识力或精神力继续存在于自己的贪欲或执着的支持下。无论如何，轮回是迟早要发生的事。转世为鬼类(Petas)是最不幸的，它们的精神生命不能持久，在短暂的生命结束后，继续轮回。

另外一个很多人都不能理解的观念是：一个人或许转世为畜生，而畜生也可以转世为人类，人固然不可能在其生理形态变成畜生，但是，人类心理形态拥有畜生的本质，也有些人采取了畜生的生活方式，就这样，促使他转世为畜生。「心」和「行」的因缘，必须为来世负责，有些人，可能由于前世对某种「心识」的滥用，而导致今世轮回为畜生。而有些畜生因不造恶业而转世为人。我们都知道，有些畜生非常聪明和善解人意，这点清楚的显示它们倾向于人道的生命。

Dying Moment

临死前的片刻：

In the dying man's consciousness, there are three types of consciousness (Vinnana) functioning at the moment of death :rebirth-linking consciousness (patisandhi-citta), the current of passive consciousness or the current of life-continuum (bhavanga) and consciousness disconnecting the present life (cuti-citta). At the last moment of a man's present life the (patisandhi-citta) or rebirth-linking consciousness arises, having the three signs as its objects. The patisandhi-citta remains in the course of cognition for five faint thought-moments Javana and then sinks down into bhavanga. At the end of bhavanga the cuti-citta arises, disconnecting the present life and sinks down into bhavanga. At this very moment comes the end of the present life. At the end of that bhavanga another patisandhi-citta rises up in the next life and from this very moment the new life begins. This is the process of death and rebirth according to Buddhism, and only in Buddhism is the process of these natural phenomena found explained in minute detail.

A Buddhist faces death not as a crisis in life but as a normal event, for he knows that whoever is born must suffer, 'decay', and ultimately die. Or, as someone so aptly puts it, 'Everyone is born with the certificate of death at his birth.' If we could all look at death such an intelligent and rational way, we would not cling to life so tenaciously.

'Ayamantima jatinatthidani punabbhavo"

This is my final birth and there is no more rebirth for me.(Dhamma Cakka Sutta).

在临死前的片刻，有三种潜在的意识(Vi¤¤àõa)在作用──联系于重生的意识、被动的意识和生命延续的意识。当意识与生命分离时，联系于重生的意识开始生起，产生三种不同的信息。

一、联系重生的意识逗留在「识」的过程中，产生五种细微的意念，然后沉没于生命中，也就是这一世生命结束的时候。

二、生命分离的意识生起，它中断了生命与意识，也就是在这一剎那间，结束了目前的生命。

三、在一个生命结束之际，另一个联系于重生的意识生起于另一个生命之中，就在这一剎那，新的生命开始了。

这是佛陀所阐述的生死轮回的过程，也只有在佛教里，才会对这种自然现象，做出如此详细的诠释。

佛教徒面对死亡时，不认为是生命的危机，反而当作是一件正常的事，因为，他们知到有「生」必有「苦」、衰老乃至最后的死亡。有些人形容的很恰当：「每个人一出世，就拥有死亡证明。」倘若，我们对死亡的看法如此理性及明智，我们就不会攀缘和执着于生命了。

佛陀说：「这是我的最后一生，我不再轮回了。」《转*轮经》