..續本文上一頁 by the disintegration of the physical body, and passing away of the present consciousness leads to the arising of a fresh one in another birth. Just as an electric light is the outward manifestation of invisible energy. The bulb may break, and the light may be extinguished, but the current remains and the light may he reproduced in another bulb. Here the bulb may he compared to parental cell and the electric energy to the mental force. (This illustration is extracted from the publication of "Buddhism" by R.V. Narada.)

　　What happens when a man dies

　　 The dying man”s craving force remains just as electricity persists as a force. Whether it is mental force or physical force, a force is always a force. The craving force is the most potent force in the universe and that force at the time of death must follow the law of the conservation of energy, like all other forces. According to physics, a force once liberated will always go on as a force until it meets an opposite and equal force to neutralize. The same thing applies to the craving force. It is only when a human being by means of morality, concentration, and insight can develop an equal and an opposite non craving force to neutralize his craving force, then and then alone will there be no rebirth for him. (This explanation was given by Rev. Lokanatha in a talk at the Rangoon University, 1951.)

　　Another example given by Jinananda, Nayaka Thera, in his article entitled "The doctrine of reason" and published in the "Buddhist world, Ceylon, 14 April 1954, said:

　　"The process of Rebirth may be compared to the Succession of one wave form in the ocean by another, where, though the substance of one does not pass into the other, yet is wholly dependent on the nature of the former, each wave form represent-ing a life as we commonly term it."

　　Annotation 7

　　The Buddha emphatically recommended the abstinence from greed, because greed is the curse of the age. Abstention from greed is awareness of the fact that both worldly pleasures (such as wealth, possessions, reputation, overindulgence in food and sleep) and worldly objects (such as experienced by the perception of form, sound, odor, taste or touch) are all unreal, transitory and impure. So it means to have no craving for any of them.

　　Greed which blinds the eyes arises through thinking that the body is lovely. When we realize that the body is excrementitious, greed dies forever.

　　Annotation 8

　　What is the Buddha”s doctrine

　　 In a nutshell, it consists of the four noble Truths which lead to weed out craving and ignorance, to overcome rebirth, old-age, disease, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair, to make an end of this whole mass of misery and to attain the Eternal Peace, liberation and salvation from the round of existences.

　　Our great Master surveyed the world and found only suffering. He analyzed the cause of suffering and has given us a prescription for eliminating the root cause of suffering by following the Eight steps or Eightfold Path.

　　Then, what is the Eightfold Path

　　 It consists of:--

　　(1) Right Knowledge. It can be distinguished in three degrees:

　　(a) General right knowledge. It consists of compassion, loving-kindness, and equality, the cause-effect law by which we can determine our own future by our own deeds, and there is a doctrine of Rebirth.

　　(b) Right Knowledge in the Buddhist sense. It consists of;

　　(1) the understanding of what merit is and the root of merit, what demerit is and the root of demerit.

　　(2) the combination of five factors of form, feeling, perception, tendencies and consciousness as impermanent, miserable and not self;

　　(3) the law of conditional arising and cessation of all phenomena;

　　(4) the suffering and its cause, the cessation of the suffering and the Eightfold Path that leads to t…

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