[Yash RS]

Let’s say A has done a bad deed and after dying ,many births later, it has been born as B

So why does B have to suffer the consequences of what A has done?

Can’t it be said these are completely different people?

Where is the kamma bija stored and how it “knows” whom to inflict the punishment on?

A citta arises and passess away, and that same citta will never arise, so a new citta has to suffer from the consequences of the previous citta. How and why it happens?

 

[Lal]

1. A and B are not the same, but they are “connected” via causes (hetu) and results (phala.)

• B would not have been born unless A was there.
• Had A followed Buddha’s path and ended the rebirth process, B would not have been born. Had A cultivated jhana or samapatti, B would have been born a Brahma with less suffering. If A had done papa kamma (highly immoral deeds), B would have been born in an apaya.
• This is why it is critical to understand Paticca Samuppada and how various gati lead to corresponding births.

2. We can end future suffering even in this life (let alone in future lives) by cultivating the path.

• Yet, we get “fooled” by our “built-in distorted sanna” and attach to worldly things, believing that “sensory pleasures (kama guna) are in that external object.” This is the main reason that most rebirths in the apayas.
• Think about the following. Some people force women to cover up their bodies, believing what causes men’s lust is beautiful women. Even though women need to be sensible about not “triggering” kama assada in ignorant minds by over-exposing themselves, that is NOT the ultimate solution. One can control one’s mind by comprehending Buddha Dhamma, i.e., “sensual pleasures” are not in external things, but in one’s own mind: “Fooled by Distorted Saññā (Sañjānāti) – Origin of Attachment (Taṇhā).”

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Yash RS

[taryal]

Lal wrote:

A and B are not the same, but they are “connected” via causes (hetu) and results (phala.)

One could ask why A should worry about B’s suffering if they’re not the same. My understanding is that the “momentary perception” of me/mine will still remain. In a way, the same thing happens in a single lifetime too, right? Each citta arises and passes away but the “momentary perception” of self is always there. When a toddler grows into an adult human, it becomes a totally different person but there is a continuity (since it is the same life stream) which is why when a human thinks about their past, there is the perception that it is the same person.

[Lal]

Taryal: “One could ask why A should worry about B’s suffering if they’re not the same.”

Let us recall that Yash started this discussion with: “Let’s say A has done a bad deed and after dying ,many births later, it has been born as B.”

• So, A cannot worry about B because B will be in the future.

Now, we can see the truth of Taryal’s subsequent statement: ”  In a way, the same thing happens in a single lifetime too, right? Each citta arises and passes away but the “momentary perception” of self is always there. When a toddler grows into an adult human, it becomes a totally different person but there is a continuity (since it is the same life stream) which is why when a human thinks about their past, there is the perception that it is the same person.”

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Yash RS, taryal

[taryal]

“So, A cannot worry about B because B will be in the future.”

I meant to say why A would worry about future suffering if there’s no self in ultimate reality. 

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Waisaka

[Waisaka]

Now let’s try to change positions. Why is it that the one who feels the fruit of suffering is the B, if the one who makes the bad seed is the A? 

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Yash RS

[y not]

Through the grasping of a ‘B bhava’ at the death moment, A  ‘creates’ B.  For that reason A ‘becomes’ B.  Nothing unreasonable or unmerited here.

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taryal, Waisaka

[Lal]

Trying to resolve these “philosophical issues” is a waste of time.

• Do you not remember past suffering? Do you not see that there will be future suffering that one will inevitably perceive as “mine”?
• The Buddha taught the following: Understand that there is suffering, and also understand that it can be stopped. 

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Yash RS, taryal, Waisaka

[Author]

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