Human Development
Rebirth-linking
Description:
When human beings and deities are reborn through the influence of the 8 profitable or moral consciousnesses in the sense sphere, then there are 9 consciousnesses which occur: the 8 kinds of indeterminate resultant consciousness, conditioned or with root cause, in the sense realm; and the indeterminate resultant mind-consciousness element with profitable result and accompanied by indifference or equanimity. Their object is the stored profitable karma or the sign or attribute of karma or the sign or attribute of destiny which appeared at the time of death.When beings are reborn in a state of loss or woe through influence of the 12 unprofitable or immoral consciousnesses in the sense sphere, the consciousness which occurs as rebirth-linking is the indeterminate resultant mind-consciousness element with unprofitable result. Its object is the stored unprofitable karma or the sign or attribute of karma or the sign or attribute of destiny which appeared at the time of death.
When beings are reborn in the fine-material sphere (form-realm) or immaterial sphere (formless realm), through influence of profitable consciousnesses in the fine-material and immaterial spheres respectively, then the 9 consciousnesses which occur are the 5 indeterminate resultant of the fine-material sphere and the 4 indeterminate resultant of the immaterial sphere. Their object is the sign or attribute of karma (kasina, etc) which appeared at the moment of dying.
There are thus 19 kinds of rebirth-linking consciousness, together with a 20th kind of rebirth-linking which is of unconscious or non-percipient beings. Rebirth-linking conforms to the means and place by which it comes about. Those arising from unprofitable-resultant mind-consciousness element bring rebirth in a state of loss or woe; profitable-resultant brings rebirth in the human world but disabled by being blind, deaf, etc. Rebirth-linking through the 8 principal-resultant consciousnesses with root-cause (conditioned) is among deities of the sense sphere or humans possessing merit. Rebirth linking through the 5 fine-material resultant consciousness brings rebirth in the fine-material Brahma world; through the 4 immaterial resultant consciousnesses, rebirth in the immaterial world.
There are three kinds of object, "past", "present" and neither of these. Non-percipient rebirth has no object. Boundless-consciousness and neither-perception-nor-non-perception have a past object; the 10 rebirth-linking of the sense-sphere have present or past object; the others have neither of these.
Rebirth may be from a happy to an unhappy destiny: (1) When an evil doer who had a happy destiny focuses at death upon his evil deeds or their sign, the train of consciousness follows through to rebirth-linking with this past as object. (2) When, at death, the sign of unhappy destiny comes into focus at the mind-door of an evil doer who had a happy destiny. This is rebirth linking with present object arising from death with past object. (3) When, at death, an inferior object comes into focus at one of the five-doors (senses) causing greed, for instance, there is again rebirth-consciousness with present object from death with past object.
Rebirth may be from an unhappy to a happy destiny: Someone with unhappy destiny, having stored up blameless karma in the sense sphere, focuses at death upon his good deeds or their sign, the train of consciousness follows through to rebirth-linking with this past as object. Blameless karma stored in the more exalted spheres leads to rebirth-linking with past or neither past nor present object, following death with past object. Rebirth may be from a happy to a happy destiny: (1) Blameless karma or its sign comes into focus in the mind-door, the train of consciousness follows through to rebirth linking with this past as object. (2) When, at death, someone with blameless karma has the sign of happy destiny come into focus in the mind-door. This is rebirth linking with present object arising from death with past object. (3) When, at death, someone with blameless karma is presented at the five sense doors with pleasant things, rebirth linking again arises with present object following death with past object. (4) When one who has obtained exalted consciousness, there is no registration of what is in focus in the mind-door, then rebirth-linking consciousness arises with present, past or neither of these object next to death with "neither of these" object.
Rebirth may be from an unhappy to an unhappy destiny: When an evil doer who had an unhappy destiny focuses at death in the mind-door or the five sense doors upon his evil deeds or their sign, or the sign of the destiny the train of consciousness follows through to rebirth-linking with one of these as object.
Context:
In Hinayana Buddhism, this is the first mode of occurrence of consciousness in which the 89 kinds of consciousness proceed.< Broader:
Modes of occurrence of consciousness