Life is endless. Our life journey from birth to death is only a link and a fragment in the process of life continuation. So, how is life transmitted? How to turn from the past to this life and from this life to the afterlife? Buddhism tells us that the continuation of sentient life generally goes through four stages: being born, being born, dying and being born.

1. Being born

Being born does not mean being born when we are born from our mother's womb, but the moment when life is first reborn. When men and women have intercourse with love, the bardo will intervene when sperm and eggs combine, forming the initial beginning of a life. At this point, the career of the Yin body ended, which Buddhism called living. There are mainly two questions about birth:

1. Conditions for becoming a fetus

What are the causes for the formation of a fetus? The Yoga Teacher's Theory of Land talks about four elements.

(1) Parents and children have a career relationship. If parents want to have children, they must first feel the karma of their children. If parents don't have karma for having children, or have physical problems, or don't have a bardo to reincarnate, etc., naturally they can't conceive.

Parents and children are mostly related to each other because of debt. As the saying goes, "the children are in debt, and the debtors will come." Parents feed their children like cows and horses, but some children can't enjoy their knees, but they also have to worry about suffering all day long. Of course, there are also many children who can share their worries for their parents from an early age, and they will repay their parenting with all their heart when they grow up. The two completely different types are the true portrayal of that proverb. At the same time, feelings and wishes are also important reasons for blood relationship. For example, friends are suffering from * * *, couples are loving each other, and even parents have no love for their children and children are excessively attached to their parents. Because of this deep emotion, they hope to be together forever, and this desire is also an important karma.

to organize a family, we often pay attention to the right family, and this is also the case when the yin body is reborn. "Dabaoji Sutra" says: "If parents are noble and have great fortune, and the middle yin is humble, or if the middle yin is noble and have great fortune, and parents are humble, or if they are all rich, they will not be pregnant. It can be seen that the formation of the relationship between parents and children also has corresponding requirements in Ford.

(2) Parents have no physical defects. If parents have physiological defects and cannot form fertilized eggs, naturally they cannot conceive a fetus; Or although the fertilized egg is formed, the maternal reproductive organs are abnormal and cannot provide growth space for the fertilized egg; Or parents have genetic problems, leading to miscarriage or stillbirth. These all affect the sentient reincarnation.

(3) Parents have intercourse with love. Affectionate reincarnation occurs when men and women have intercourse. Driven by love and dye-in-the-heart, Yin-in-the-body is interested in the mother's womb because of the intercourse between men and women. Also, because of the spermatozoa flowing out of copulation, Alaye holds that this is mine and constitutes the initial embryo of the first phase of life.

(4) The intervention of the vagina. Modern medicine believes that as long as there are living genes, a fetus can be formed. This is wrong in Buddhism's view, and heredity is only a material factor; The formation of sentient life must also have the intervention of the yin body, further speaking, the participation of knowledge. Modern people believe that the root of life is heredity, so when explaining life phenomena, it is mostly attributed to heredity. Of course, we can't deny the role of heredity, but that is mainly limited to the similarity of form. In fact, children and parents are often very different in personality, way of thinking and hobbies. The reason is that every life comes to be pregnant with life information from its past life.

2. What happens when you are reincarnated

What happens when you are reincarnated? The Yoga Teacher's Theory of Land has a detailed explanation on this issue.

Reincarnation occurs when men and women have intercourse. When seeing the scene of parents' intercourse, the Yin-in-law, under the control of the tainted heart, had an upside-down thought, not thinking that parents were having intercourse, but thinking that they were having intercourse. If you are reborn as a woman, you will have greedy love for your father and hope that your mother will go away; If you are reincarnated as a man, you will have a greedy love for your mother and hope that your father will leave. Gradually, the image of parents is not seen, only male and female reproductive organs, driven by karma, are interested in the roots of men and women, the bardo disappears, and the reincarnation procedure is completed, thus entering a state of being. It is precisely because of this that Buddhism regards lust as the foundation of life and death.

Love is born out of nothing, and because of Alaye's strong insistence on genetic genes, safety and * * *. If the genetic gene is broken, or the fetus is destroyed, or the sentient beings come to the end of their lives due to karma, that is, the life limit has come, and the Araye knowledge will only leave, and life will die in the mother's womb.

when you are reborn, you will see different scenes because of different blessings. If there are few blessings for the reincarnated, they will be born in a family of * * *, and when they are reincarnated, they will hear all kinds of messy voices and see themselves walking into the dark jungle; If the reincarnation has a great blessing, he will be born in a noble family, and when he is reborn, he will hear all kinds of wonderful sounds and see the magnificent palace at the same time. Of course, these are all dreamlands, and the dreamlands are different with different sentient blessings.

Second, there is

there is, from the moment after reincarnation to the moment before death, which is the whole process of our life. There are many problems to be discussed about life, and here only the basic problems of survival are involved. As a sentient life, what strength does it depend on to survive and continue? Buddhist scriptures say: all sentient beings live on food.

I'm sure everyone is familiar with the concept of "food". The so-called "food is the most important thing for the people". What Buddhism calls "eating" has richer connotations: eating, enriching and increasing righteousness. In other words, anyone who has the function of enriching and increasing the color body can be called food. Therefore, what Buddhism calls "eating" is not limited to three meals. In Buddhist scriptures, "food" is classified into four categories:

1. Staged food

means three meals a day, such as rice and noodles, which need to be eaten in stages. Because we can't solve three meals at once, and we can't eat them endlessly, we must eat them after a few hours, so it's called temporary food. Temporary food refers to food that is beneficial to the body, and drugs, poisons and other things that damage the body cannot be called food.

eating for a while is not only good for health, but also helpful for monasticism. Some people start to break through the valley when they reach a certain stage, thinking it is a great effort. In fact, many animals have this function, such as turtles and snakes, which hide in caves for months or even years when they are in hibernation. If we try our best to break through the valley, people are afraid that we are still far behind the tortoise, but we have never seen a tortoise open its wisdom and break its troubles.

In the process of monasticism, diet can often also play a role in promoting the achievements of Taoism. Buddha Sakyamuni spent six years on the Nilian River, suffering from an eclipse of hemp and wheat, but he did not realize the Tao. Later, he gave up this extreme asceticism and accepted the chyle provided by the shepherdess gladly, thus restoring his physical strength and spirit. As a result, just 49 days later, I saw the stars at night under the bodhi tree and realized. Imagine, if the Buddha insists on useless asceticism, will he finally realize the Tao?

2. Touching food

Touching is a state of mind. Buddhist scripture says: "Three things touch each other". Three, that is, six roots (eye root, ear root, nose root, tongue root, body root and meaning root), six dusts (color dust, sound dust, fragrance dust, taste dust, contact dust and law dust) and six senses (eye knowledge, ear knowledge, nose knowledge, tongue knowledge, body knowledge and consciousness). When the three are combined in one place, six touches are produced. Touch comes from the combination of root knowledge and dust knowledge, and at the same time makes root knowledge contact the dust environment again.

why is "touching" also called eating? Because it is closely related to sentient existence. Touch feeds on six dusts, that is, the eyes feed on color, the ears feed on sound, the nose feeds on fragrance, the tongue feeds on taste, the body feeds on touch, and the meaning feeds on law. Touch can be divided into intentional touch and unintentional touch, which depends entirely on the quality of the food realm. When we are faced with prosperity, such as seeing our long-lost relatives, hearing sweet admiration, smelling the fragrance of flowers, eating delicious food, getting in touch with comfortable environment, or encountering unexpected surprises, etc., these are all tangible.

Touching can make us feel happy and joyful, which is beneficial to our physical and mental health. It is said that people are happy when they are happy. Even some patients with incurable diseases, because of their cheerful mood, are good at adjusting their emotions, and finally make the disease better and even cured. On the contrary, some people are depressed and anxious all day because of work stress or emotional frustration, which leads to various physical diseases, which is the impact of unintentional contact.

3. Thinking about food

Thinking means will, which means the desire to survive. Living in the world, the desire to survive is very important. In order to survive, human beings will continue to work and toil. And all animals are also busy for survival, no matter the birds in the air, the animals on the land or the fish in the sea, they are trying their best to find a way to survive. Because of this desire to survive, sentient beings will gain the motivation to survive.

The desire for life is an important force for nurturing sentient beings to survive. Sometimes some dying people will miraculously support their dying lives with their will in order to meet their distant relatives or achieve a certain wish. For a person who lacks the motivation to survive, maintaining life has become a great pain, even committing suicide. There are many reasons for suicide. People often take emotion, career or wealth as their spiritual support. Once their feelings are frustrated or their career goes bankrupt, they will lose confidence in life. Philosophers and artists who are more thoughtful, although thinking about life, can't find the ultimate value of life, and will eventually choose suicide as their destination.

4. Knowing food

Knowing food is the spiritual source of holding emotional life. I can give a lecture on the stage, and those present here can listen to the lecture below because of the knowledge. If you leave the hold of knowledge, you are dead. Since the reincarnation of Yin-ti, knowledge has been holding sentient beings until it dies. When this life is declared to be over, consciousness will complete the next life combination with karma.

Four foods hold our existing life. Among them, thinking about food and knowing food promote the continuation of sentient future life. Thinking about food is not only the desire to survive, but also the psychological factor of making a career. Under the action of thinking, sentient beings create good and evil karma and continue to influence future life.

The desire to live makes sentient beings greedy for real life and fear the extinction of death. Therefore, there is a strong love after, and they are constantly greedy for the next life. After the end of the first phase of life, the desire to survive will push knowledge to reincarnate. The end of the next life will promote the next life. Before liberation, it will continue to the end of the future.

The desire to live also leads to the multiplication of sentient life. Although life will go on endlessly, in the sense of ordinary people, raising children is the reliable guarantee for the continuation of blood, which urges sentient beings to breed offspring continuously. Humans have this demand, and animals also have this demand, which is also the expression of love after.

the endless continuation of life, in addition to the promotion of thinking, must also be held with knowledge. As the core force of life form, knowledge, with all sentient life information, turns from one life to another, from one to another, forming a endless cycle. Therefore, knowledge not only adheres to the existing life form so as not to be corrupted, but also continues to live and die in the future.

third, there is death

there is death, which refers to the moment when the life form of sentient beings dies. The medical judgment of death is: dilated pupils, loss of brain stem reaction ability, no fluctuation of brain waves, respiratory pause, etc., which appear for 6 hours without change. Buddhism believes that death is the disintegration of longevity, warmth and knowledge. Affective life consists of three methods: longevity, warmth and knowledge. Once the life is over, the body leaves and the body temperature disappears, the first phase of life is declared dead. Death is a major event in life, and it is also an important transition of sentient life. So, what does Buddhism think of death?

1. There are many kinds of death.

Life and death are impermanent, and if there is life, there must be death. But sentient beings have different karma, and death also has different causes. On the Great Bodhisattva divides death into four types.

one is to have money and die. Wealth represents blessings, and the existence of sentient beings needs blessings to nourish them, and blessings are like bank deposits. When we come to this world, our savings are all * * *. Some people know how to cherish blessings, and they know how to cultivate blessings while consuming them. Even when such people die, they never enjoy all the blessings.

the second is to die if you have a long life and run out of money. Although the life span is not over yet, the good news has been squandered in advance. Just like those people who were extravagant and spendthrift when they were young, they only knew how to withdraw their savings, but they died in poverty when they got old. Blessing is a crutch to support life. If you enjoy all the blessings before the end of your life, your life will end early.

thirdly, wealth and longevity are exhausted, that is, the blessings and longevity of this life have been exhausted.

fourth, wealth and longevity are not exhausted, but they died in an unfortunate fate. This kind of death is also called transverse death. The Pharmacologist's Classic talks about nine kinds of transverse death: First, illness failed to be treated in time, or death was caused by medical accidents such as misdiagnosis; Second, he violated national laws and was sentenced to death; Third, there is no shortage, and the spirits suck up the essence; The fourth is to be killed by evil beasts such as tigers and wolves; The fifth is to fall from the cliff and die; Sixth, it was burned to death; Seventh, drowning in the water; Eight is poisoned by poison; Nine is dying of hunger and thirst. These nine situations are quite special, and they are not dead, but died because of some particularly powerful karmic karma. Reading the Classic of Pharmacists and practicing the method of pharmacists can avoid violent death.

2, the state of death

When I talked about the cycle of life earlier, I quoted a lot of information from Seeing After Death, which was an investigation and study on the death experience of more than 15 people who came back from the dead by Dr. Moody, an American. This also shows from one side that there are many different situations of death.

The Theory of Exaggerating the Holy Religion tells us that people have all kinds of mentality when they die, some of which belong to the kind-hearted death, recalling the good deeds of their lives at the end of their lives, or causing their own kindness by some reason and dying in a peaceful state of mind. Others are sick to death, remembering the evil deeds of their lives at the end of their lives, or causing their own evil thoughts by some karma, and dying in a resentful heart. There are also some who die without remembering, and the thoughts at the end of their lives are not good or evil.

after kindness, nausea, or forgetfulness, you will enter a state of forgetfulness at the moment of death. When we are about to die, our consciousness is still relatively clear, or in kindness, or in nausea, or in forgetfulness. But at the critical point of death, it is in a state of unconsciousness. Like the deepest sleep, after waking up, life will turn to another state, that is, the Yin period.

When you die, your mentality is different, and your experience is very different from what you see. When you die with kindness, you will feel happy and comfortable, see all kinds of wonderful realms and hear all kinds of beautiful music. If you die with anger, you will feel painful and uneasy, see all kinds of horrible scenes and hear all kinds of noisy voices. And those who don't remember to die have neither happiness nor terror.

3. The idea of dying and the destination after death

What kind of mentality sentient beings bring at the end of their lives will directly affect the destination of their future lives. When you are dying, you will have a good heart and remember the good deeds you have done in your life. Before you do good deeds, you will be born in good places such as humanity, heaven, and even the pure land of Buddhism. When you are dying, you will feel sick and remember the evil you have done in your life. If you are not good at your career, you will fall into the three evil ways of hell, hungry ghosts and animals.

the idea of dying is very important for future life.