Death after seeing

A. Sujin: You are talking about bhavanga citta, the object of bhavanga citta, right? But there are so many realities that cannot be known, for example, the birth consciousness, the death consciousness, can they be known? Not at all, so the same for bhavanga, it cannot be known until the pañña is so high that it can experience different realities one at a time, and what is there is what we call bhavanga. But, when there is the understanding of the words like "no one" and "no self", why did the Buddha teach about that which cannot be directly experienced, like birth consciousness and death consciousness? But it's there, who knows? That's why it's in the Teachings: it brings about the understanding of "no one", more and more and more and more, from understanding the truth of what is there, unknown. For example is there any citta before the eye process, ear process? Is there a citta? A citta, see, what is that? That cannot directly be the object of this moment, but what is appearing now, like sound, it's heard, but before it's heard it has to be the process before that, seeing, from the moment of pañcadvārāvajjana and so on, but that cannot be known.

That's why from the Teachings of the Buddha we learn about: no self, even that moment, but there must be the understanding of: is there any citta before the moment of seeing or before the process of seeing? There must be, unknown. What about the pañcadvārāvajjana? Unknown. And what about seeing? Seeing sees now, but it cannot be directly object of pañña, to know that it's not the other citta before or after. That's why learning the Teachings is about beginning to understand the truth of life which no one knows, only the Enlightened One who taught us about what is there as no self, anything which appears now is no-one no-thing at all. That's why learning to understand the truth that actually even at this moment there must be the bhavanga before seeing (process), as much as one can understand.

So it depends on how much understanding is there of that which is conditioned to be there, like bhavanga, unknown now, and the patisandhi or the death consciousness are unknown now. So can there be death after seeing? It's there, unknown, but as after seeing has fallen away the other citta and cetasikas arise instantly, so it's just like now: the death of each moment, momentary death all the time. So no doubt about whether there is any citta after death, there must be. And what can its object be? Before there can be the end of the process the ārammana of that process is experienced, before it's gone, so after the death it's there (again). There must be conditions for another moment to arise, following instantly, and experiencing the same object as that before death.

Just like now, after the seeing process, bhavanga is there. It cannot be known because it does not experience any object through any doorway, as while one is fast asleep, there must be citta before the moment of seeing or hearing when one wakes up. So when death is there, falling away, it conditions the next moment by anantara paccaya and what follows? The same ārammana which is the same as that of the citta before death, as usual, like now. What is there after seeing (process)? Bhavanga, and then the mind-door process follows instantly, immediately (experiencing the same visible object as that of the seeing process). But after death, there is no bhavanga in between, because there are conditions for patisandhi citta to arise by samanantara paccaya (instead). So the object is the same as that which is experienced before death, just like now.

Is there any question? This is only: how come the birth consciousness after death consciousness and what is the object of birth consciousness after death consciousness, just like ordinary life, now. But it is sammuti marana not khanika marana and not the samuccheda marana, each is different, at different moments. Just arises, performs its function, and then gone completely, never to return.

And this is the meaning of samsara, even now. It is samsara: just gos around, seeing hearing smelling tasting touching thinking, and then at the end of life, and begin again as next life, seeing hearing smelling tasting touching. So each moment is samsara, it's not the end of samsara yet.