Doctrine of Liberation in Indian Religion

Author(s): Shivkumarmuni
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

Page 75

THE DOCTRINE OF KARMA AND TRANSMIGRATION
The term rebirth or transmigration means, in Buddhism, only the psycho-physical process, which is cut off at death and continues immediately somewhere else like the image in the mirror or the echo of one's voice. It is the arising of rebirth consciousness, just as the image is produced through the contact of face and mirror. It is the passing away of the present consciousness only that conditions a fresh one in another life.
It means that the coming into being of the linking consciousness (pațisandhiviññāņa) is dependent upon the passing away of another consciousness in a past birth, and that the process of coming into being and passing away is the result of the powerful force known as kamma (karma). Thus, in the real sense, there is no permanent being or self that wanders through the round of rebirths, but merely everchanging twofold process of karma activities i.e. kammanantara and vipākānantara. It is through karma that one is afflicted with pain and suffering. As it is stated in the Visuddhimag ga,
"A mere phenomenon it is, a thing conditioned that rises in the following existence.
But not from previous life does it transmigrate there, and yet it cannot rise without a previous cause."21
PURE AND IMPURE KARMA
The karmas are divided, according to their effects, into four classes, viz :
1. Bad acts leading to impurity, 2. Good acts leading to purity, 3. Both partly good and partly bad acts and thus productive of
both purity and impurity, 4. Those acts which are neither good nor bad and do not result
in purity or impurity but which contribute to the destruction
of karmas.22 Generally there are two kinds of karma viz. 1. Karmas free from asravas or pure karmas. 2. Karmas attached to asravas or impure karmas.
Here åsravas include ignorance, desires and passions, and free from asravas means free from any kind of desire, ignorance or passion which make way to Nirvāņa. Karma, by itself without any desire
21. 22.
Visuddhimagga, XVII. 161 Aţthasālini, 3.117.