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Theory of Karma and Rebirth in Theravāda
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that just as an insect going to the end of a leaf of grass by a new effort collects itself in another so does the soul coming to the end of this life collect itself in another. This life thus presupposes another existence. So far as I remember there has seldom been before or after Buddha any serious attempt to prove or disprove the doctrine of rebirth.”ll It appears that Buddha' accepted the Upanişadic note, "as a man does so will he be born” without any modification. Hence, the present birth could only take place on account of the works of a previous existence which determined it. Therefore this life comes only as one which had an infinite number of lives before, and which except in the case of a few emancipated ones would have an infinite number of them in the future. Theravāda (early Buddhism) contends that death is the portal to the next existence. But the passage of an individual from one life to another life is not through the migration of the soul, as there is no soul to migrate. It is the character that continues. When a man dies his physical organism which is the basis of his psychical dissolves, and so the physical life comes to an end. Although, there is no permanent identity between two lives yet the new born being is the successor of the acts of the dead man as there is no annihilation or cutting off. A new being is what its act made it. An evil deed results in birth as a being in hell and he may be compelled for long period of rebirth in such state. The birth and sufferings undergone are the fruit of ripening of the sin (vipākaphala). But at last the force of birth projection by the sin is lessened and an animal existence or existences follow. The sufferings in the animal existences are again the fruit of ripening as the character of the birth is the fruit similar to the action (nisyanda phala) as when the murderer is reborn as a tiger. At last the power of birth projection is exhausted and the way is open for some deed done in the former birth which had merit and which now may project a human birth. But still, the following life shall be coloured by a fruit similar to the ancient sin. Hence the murderer will be crushed to death or the thief poor.!? For example a thorn which pricks the Buddha's foot is the result of slaying of a man in some previous birth. However the process is complex since
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