The concept and principles of reincarnation as seen through the teachings of early Buddhism.

For the happiness of this life and the happiness of the next life to come
Buddha's Correct Prescription: Reincarnation
How much do you know about reincarnation?

- What is reincarnation and what is its principle?
- What kind of world is the three realms in which we reincarnate?
How does karma work in the cycle of life?
- What do we need to know and prepare for happiness in this life and the next?

We all want a happy life.
But I can't live a happy life.
The reason is that we live by doing unwholesome things that take us away from a happy life.
Moreover, because we do not know what consequences the karma we create every moment will bring, many people are forced to live a life of suffering, fearing the end of this life.
In Buddhism, one of the causes of all suffering and affliction is said to be ignorance.
It is like wandering in the darkness where you cannot see even an inch ahead, and you end up going down the wrong path without receiving the light of truth.
So, what do we need to know to be happy in this life and the next? How should we live, and how should we end this life? It's all contained within the teachings of reincarnation.

When we learn about the three realms, we begin to think, 'That's a place worth going to,' or 'That's a place we should never go.'
And when you realize what it is like to be in a world that is endlessly spinning, unable to escape the cycle of reincarnation, you feel a sense of alarm: 'When I receive a human body, I must practice diligently to avoid going to the lower realms and quickly escape the cycle of reincarnation.'
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In the sutras, there is a saying, “Samgyehwataek (Three Realms Fire House).”
It means 'the three realms are like a house on fire'.
Although there are differences in the amount of pleasure or pain in the world of desire, form, and formless world, they are all similar in that they are worlds inhabited by sentient beings, that is, beings who have not been able to escape the suffering of reincarnation.
Until we become Arhats, we will wander endlessly through these three realms, whether we want to or not.
Sometimes we are born in a good place and enjoy happiness, and sometimes we are born in a bad place and experience extreme pain, and this cycle continues.
The scriptures say that the amount of tears and blood shed by living beings during their reincarnation is greater than the amount of sea water on Earth.
To escape from these three realms, that is the purpose of our practice.
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In the world of desire, there is a heavenly realm where there is much more pleasure than in the human realm.
In many sutras, including the commentary on the Dhammapada, there are many examples of people being born in the heavenly realm of desire by keeping the precepts and practicing charity.
There are six heavenly realms in the world of desire. The lowest heavenly realm is the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, followed by the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, the Heaven of Yama, the Heaven of Tusita, the Heaven of Hwarak, and the Heaven of Other-Transformation-Freedom.
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Venerable Moggallana, one of the Buddha's chief disciples, is called the first in supernatural powers.
Venerable Moggallana would occasionally ascend to the Thirty-Three Heavens to meet the devas and ask them what merits they had earned to come to the heavenly world. Then he would descend to the human world and teach the practitioners.
When the Venerable Moggallana asked a deva what merit he had to bring to the heavenly world, the deva remained silent at first, but eventually answered, “I was born here by giving a piece of radish to a monk.”
When the Venerable Moggallana heard this, he asked the Buddha whether it was possible to be born in the heavenly realm with such a small amount of merit. The Buddha replied, “Haven’t you seen and heard it with your own eyes?”
In fact, even the smallest act of kindness, if performed with right faith and a joyful heart, can lead to rebirth in the heavenly realm of desire.
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The most powerful conditions that lead to birth in the three realms or the thirty-one worlds are craving [ta?ha] and karma [kamma].
Understanding karma greatly helps us understand how reincarnation occurs.
The Buddha said that ‘intention’ is karma.
In the “Piercing Sutta” of the Anguttara Nikaya, it is said, “I call intention karma.
“We create karma with our body, speech, and mind.”
Strictly speaking, karma can be said to be the intention of a good or bad mind.
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Because karma interacts organically with one another, even if you commit the same karma, the results are not necessarily the same.
So, if you think you have committed some evil deeds in your life, you should diligently commit good deeds for the rest of your life.
If you do good deeds as great as a river, your bad deeds will be diluted like the saltiness of salt, and the consequences of those bad deeds will be weakened.
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The basis of good deeds in the world of desire is giving alms and keeping the precepts.
If you live a life of observing and keeping the precepts, you can be born in the human world or the heavenly world.
There are many examples of people being born in the world of desire and heaven through observing the Buddha.
Some people say they were born in heaven by giving a single stalk of sugarcane or a piece of radish, while others say they were born simply by telling the truth and not lying.
By doing such a small act of kindness or keeping even one precept, you can increase your wealth of good deeds and receive the reward of being born in a heavenly realm.
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As we live, there are times when the process of recognizing external objects occurs, and times when the process of recognizing does not occur.
There are times when we are absent-minded, such as when we wake up in the morning, when we are in a deep sleep, or when we faint, and on the contrary, there are times when a series of thoughts arise continuously through the doors of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind, knowing forms, sounds, smells, tastes, touches, and phenomena.
And finally, the last thought in this life arises.
That mind is called 'death mind [cuti-citta]', and the arising of death mind means death.
The last cognitive process that occurs in this life just before the death mind arises is called the 'death-only cognitive process', and the first cognitive process that occurs in the next life just after the death mind arises is called the 'rebirth-linking consciousness'.
The death consciousness is the last consciousness of this life, and the rebirth consciousness is the first consciousness of the next life.
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More important than knowing how to cope with the impending death is accumulating good karma in daily life.
In the “Nugak Sutra” of the “Anguttara Nikaya,” it is written, “If the karma of the body, the karma of speech, and the karma of the mind are rotten, one cannot die a blessed death and cannot have a blessed end.
However, if the karma of the body, the karma of speech, and the karma of the mind are right, then one will die a blessed death and have a blessed end.”
The first condition for a happy death is 'what kind of life did you live?'
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Only by knowing the exact principles of reincarnation can we know the way to escape from reincarnation.
So it is very important to first gain insight into why and how reincarnation occurs.
The teachings that systematically explain the principles and structure of this cycle of reincarnation are the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination.
If you do not know the twelve links of dependent origination, you cannot escape suffering and achieve liberation.
So understanding smoke is very important in Buddhist practice.
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If you understand that things happen according to conditions, you will also understand impermanence.
Because what arises according to conditions is destined to disappear when the conditions disappear, it cannot be eternal and is therefore impermanent.
Also, because impermanence means imperfection, it has the characteristic of suffering.
Since impermanence and suffering cannot be achieved by saying, "O Dharma that has arisen, do not disappear," or "O suffering, do not arise," there is no self that can control phenomena at will.
So, what is impermanent and suffering is anatta (no-self).
Understanding smoke in this way leads to an understanding of not only impermanence but also suffering and non-self.
To properly understand acting in this way is to properly understand Buddhism.
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Because of our ignorance, we mistake what is not happiness for happiness.
So, we do things to achieve what we consider happiness.
The intention at that time is an intentional act.
Ignorance and intentional acts are said to be the two causes of the past.
The present life arises on the condition of ignorance and intentional actions that occurred in the past, and the first mind that arises in this life is called rebirth consciousness.
From the moment the regeneration connection occurs, the six sense places are established as the mind and matter continue to connect.
Contact with external objects arises through the six sense bases, and when a feeling arises, craving for that object arises, and when craving becomes strong, it becomes attachment, and because of that attachment, another existence, that is, karmic existence, arises.
In this way, from consciousness to existence corresponds to the present.
Among these, consciousness to feeling are the present results of past causes, and craving to existence are the present causes.
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Many people ask, when they think of reincarnation, whether there must be a subject of reincarnation.
Some people ask how one can live a life where one can eat and speak without being a self.
This is because anatta was understood to mean ‘nothing’.
Even some scholars understand reincarnation and anatta as contradictory concepts, and have even published papers and books on how reincarnation and anatta can coexist.
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The Buddha taught the doctrine of dependent origination, which states that if there are conditions for birth, one is born, and if there are no conditions for birth, one is not born again.
It doesn't mean that you are never born again or that you are never born again, but that you are born again when conditions exist and are not born again when the conditions disappear.
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