Is anyone ready to be a new personality?



(Excerpt from the Dhamma discussion with Ajahn Sujin on Zoom - Sat Feb 25th 2023)

0:00 - Is anyone ready to be a new personality?
[Nina] We are so afraid of losing our personality, the idea of after this life no more this person are difficult, but it takes a long time, as Ajahn says.

[A. Sujin] Is there any personality at moment of being fast asleep?

[Nina] Nobody. [M. Betty] At moments when you're fast asleep there are just bhavanga cittas (life continuum).

[A. Sujin] And then waking up... [being] this personality, or waking up... not [being] this personality anymore? So, ready to be new personality because it can be anytime, it's just like being fast asleep, at that moment no personality, no appearing of anything at all, and then it's time to be born and at the very moment new personality, forgetting about the past completely.

So it's just like being fast asleep and then new personality, only that, but is anyone ready to be a new personality? Because it's so close, even right now: bhavanga is in between processes, it's just like that, but it's followed by the experiencing through the six doorways, so it covers up the truth that actually the personality is only at moment of seeing, hearing smelling tasting and touching, and thinking and then gone, not any moment can last at all, that's why that is so true. So, be ready to be new personality because actually it can be just right now, or anytime.

2:04 - It's something instantly because of ignorance of: just a moment of conditioned reality
[M. Betty] Tan Ajahn, wouldn't the personality be more in the mind door rather than in sense door?

[A. Sujin] Because there is the idea of "I" or "thing" only at the moment of experiencing the objects through the six doorways. When it's not the moment of experiencing what is there at the six doorways nothing is there appearing because it's just the moment of birth and death: the object of this world does not appear at all because what is there has to be experienced through the six doorways, one doorway at a time.
For example, at moment of being fast asleep... nothing, no personality, no one no thing no story, nothing at all and then waking up... it's time to experience what is there, otherwise, without experiencing any objects through one of the six doorways, there's nothing, like being fast asleep: not dying yet, but no object, no moment of experiencing appearing at all, exactly the same of what we call death, the moment of patisandhi, bhavanga and [cuti] citta, no one knows at all, just like the moment of being asleep, nothing appears, no "I" at moment of being fast asleep: no Sujin, no Sarah, no Nina at all: no-one-at-all.

And that is so true but there are conditions for the citta to arise and at the moment of experiencing an object: it's something instantly because of ignorance of: just a moment of conditioned reality to condition moment of seeing or hearing or any moment that the Buddha taught about, in detail, to understand that actually there's no one who can do or who can manage or who can make it arise at all.

4:18 - Clinging to life as: "I" was born and I see now and I think now and I'll die
And this is anatta, which is no one and no thing: only the absolute reality, the ultimate truth is there, no one can stop its arising: as long as there are conditions for whatever arises, it arises, even right now.
So, it's just life and what is life? Citta, cetasikas and rupas, not permanent at all, but the idea of self is there, so it clings to life as: "I" was born and I see now and I think now and I will die now, but in truth it's just like moment of the stream of bhavangas interrupted by the process of seeing and then stream again and then the process of hearing or whatever in life, that's all.

So the moment being fast asleep it's like the moment of death and then life starts by condition, again and again and again, on and on and on and on. So, when there is the understanding of reality as: no one there at all, no fear of what would be next moment: by conditions, it can be death and then life again, non-stop. So, what is life? It's just the process from the very beginning to the end.

No experiencing of what is there in this world because it's not moment of experiencing what is there through the six doorways. And we can say that bhavanga is just the same as moment of birth and death, so death is the same as moment of bhavanga and birth, exactly.

6:23 - Letting go of the clinging to life as "I", this personality in this life
And that's the way to let go of the clinging to life as "I", this personality in this life, and what will be next... by conditions, but there is ignorance and clinging, and the idea of self is there, all of which are conditioned by avijja or ignorance, not understanding the truth that it's not as we take it for something or someone to cling to at all.

6:59 - Be ready each moment, to be next personality, by conditions
It can be now, just like falling asleep and then life begins again, like this life: it began after death of previous life, past life. Suddenly, instantly, no time to regret, no time to be sad, it's just like waking up from [deep] sleep. So [be] ready each moment, to be next personality, by conditions. As this personality was born, what about next moment after death? It has to be born, by conditions, this personality is conditioned by kamma and many conditions, so next life will be conditioned by a kamma, by conditions, no selection, no choice at all.