[ebook.nsO] [buddhism] From Womb to Womb - Metamorphosis of a Mother - Francis Story [www.Nor.pdf

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Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.

Metamorphosis of a Mother

by Francis Story

From Womb to Womb

from

Womb

.................... metamorphosis

of a mother

Francis Story

Plus

A Reading Guide to

Death and Rebirth

by Bodhisæra

1997 AN INWARD JOURNEY BOOK

INWARD PATH PUBLISHER

Penang, Malaysia

An Inward Journey Book

Published by

Inward Path Publisher

P.O. Box 1034, PENANG, MALAYSIA

TEL: 04 890 6696

Special thanks to

Buddhist Publication Society, Sri Lanka

for the kind permission to reprint this essay.

Formerly published as

Metamorphsis of a Mother in

Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience

Essays and Case Studies

by Francis Story

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Story, Francis, 1910-

From womb to womb: metamorphosis of a mother

/ Francis Story; plus a reading guide to death and

rebirth by Bodhisæra

ISBN 983-9439-00-6

1. Reincarnation (Buddhism). 2. Rebirth in

Buddha’s land (Buddhism). I. Bodhisæra II. Title.

294.3443

(1997) INWARD PATH PUBLISHER

Printed for free distribution: 3,000 COPIES 1997

Book layout and design by Lim Hock Eng

Printed in PENANG, MALAYSIA

King Milinda: ‘He who is born, Nagasena,

is he the same person or

another?’

Nagasena: ‘Neither the same nor another.’

King Milinda: ‘Give me an illustration.’

Nagasena: ‘In the case of a pot of milk

which turns first to curds, then

to butter, then to ghee; it

would not be right to say that

the ghee, butter and curds

were the same as the milk but

they have come from that so

neither would it be right to say

that they are something else.’

Note: The Greek king Meanders (Milinda) questioned Arahant

Nagasena on many difficult or controversial topics of the

Buddha’s teachings. The text we have nowadays is pro-

bably legendary though it is likely to be based on a histor-

ical encounter of the king with exponents of the Buddhist

order of monks. (See: The Questions of Milinda 2.2.i)

PREFACE

uddhists usually don’t have a problem

accepting the teaching of rebirth. Al-

though Western science has not been able to

come up with hard proofs, increasing evidence

gained in so called soft sciences (psychology,

philosophy, sociology, parapsychology, etc.) and

difficulties in explaining how life could origi-

nate from matter, boosted the discussion about

possible lives before birth and after death. As

the famous French writer Voltaire said:

It is not easier to explain the origin of life

for one existence than for two.

If one accepts the idea of rebirth then comes

the question what is it that is reborn? There are

two main schools of thought. One is based on

the idea that in each individual there is a stable

and eternal soul (self, or inner spirit) which

transmigrates from one life to another. Only the

body is subjected to the law of impermanency

and is ‘shed’ like the skin of a snake upon death.

If the soul is reborn in human realm it is called

reincarnation1 .

The second school of thought is based on

the idea of non-self or soullessness. Here, not

only matter is considered as being impermanent

but also feelings, consciousness, experience,

knowing, and so on—that means all aspects of

the mind. It says that all components of a being,

that is the body and the mind, arise, stay and

disappear continuously at a sub-perceptive level.

But each set of mind and body having arisen

will condition by way of kammic potential the

immediately following set of mind and body.

So also on death. One last set of mind and body

arises in this existence, comes to an end, con-

ditioning and giving way to a new set of mind

and body.

Because this process of arising and passing

away is tremendously fast we can usually only

1 carne meaning flesh, the expression means to

become flesh again or to return into a physical body.

see the results of it, in the case of death for

example the material compound left behind after

the cessation of the last consciousness in this

existence.

We illustrate the idea with the transmission

of energy between billiard balls. The ball hit by

the player collides with another ball, then stands

still, empty of the energy that made it rolling

before. The newly started ball again may hit

another ball transmitting to a new entity the

energy which kept it going before. The new balls

always inherit ‘something’ from the old balls,

yet they are never the same.

One mind moment arises, rolls on and comes

to an end, passing on a kammic force or imprint

which conditions the next arising mind moment.

One material compound arises, ceases and con-

ditions the next.

When King Milinda asked arahant Nagasena:

“Can it be that one does not transmigrate and

yet is reborn?” Nagasena’s answer was: “Yes,

it can. Think of some man who were to light a

lamp from another lamp. The lamp does not

pass over to the other. In the same way one

does not transmigrate and yet is reborn.” Re-

search into materiality in the 20th century physics

lends support to the insights into impermanence

taught by the Buddha: no matter is stable, all

matter changes. In the neuro-sciences the most

recent insights indicate that all there is in the

mind is an ever changing range of perceptions,

thoughts, feelings, etc., which are hard to grasp.

Earlier we said that usually one does not

perceive these ultra quick changes of mind and

body. We are aware on a conceptual level that

the body is growing old and moods are chang-

ing. Where has the body gone which ‘we had’

ten years back? And what happened to the mind

of our childhood? This rapid incessant change

of mind and body can be experienced directly.

Concentrating the mind and observing our body

sensations and mind processes we can verify

the theory of impermanence through penetrative

experiential knowledge. This mental investi-

gation is called insight meditation (in Pali lang-

uage vipassana bhavana). The effect of the

insight gained from such meditation will event-

ually lead to a change of one’s attitude toward

life as attested to by all the successful Buddhist

meditators starting with the Buddha himself.

While the Buddhist psychology of Abhi-

dhamma gives us the most fundamental explan-

ation of change the research of rebirth on a

conceptual level does also bring us many valu-

able insights. This research includes Near Death

Experiences, remembered accounts of past lives

of children, past life regression through hypnotic

trance, and other approaches. Most researchers

assume a soul or spirit transmigrating from one

life to the next. This is to be expected as the

people who have Near Death Experiences or

remember past lives do not usually have the

penetrative tool of insight meditation to investi-

gate the processes on the profoundest levels.

Their findings are nevertheless important. They

contribute much to our understanding of the

kammic forces involved in rebirth, of other

realms of rebirth and of feelings involved in

dying from one life and reappearing in another.

A vast field of study has opened, research is

carried out in many branches of science. The

collected material is already extensive and

exciting. We present to the reader one beautiful

example of this research, done in Myanmar by

the late Francis Story. For those who would

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