I. Foreword

Where do people come from? What are their missions? Where will they end? These questions are often asked by people. Many religions and philosophies have sought answers to them, and different traditions have given different answers, yet none has fully satisfied human curiosity. The question of human destiny still weighs heavily on the human mind. Buddhism uses the Law of Rebirth (Samsara) to answer these questions and to clearly define the position of a human being with respect to all other beings.

II. Misconceptions About Human Life

There are four main misconceptions about human existence:

1. Annihilationism (life is short): the belief that humans only exist in the present life, live for a lifespan, and that everything — including consciousness — disappears after death.
2. Eternalism (eternity): the belief that the physical form deteriorates but there is an everlasting soul; that soul will be eternally in Heaven (if good deeds were done) or in Hell (if evil deeds were done).
3. No relationship between lives: the belief that there is a life after death, yet no connection or relationship between the previous life and the next.
4. Upward-only reincarnation: the belief that reincarnation strictly goes upward, always evolving to higher states.

III. Definition of Rebirth

• Luân (wheel): a wheel.
• Hồi (turning): turning round.

Rebirth is the continuous rise and fall of beings across the six mundane realms (Lục đạo) — being born as a heavenly being, a human, an asura, an animal, a hungry ghost or a hell being — turning round and round like a wheel without a beginning or an end.

IV. The Rebirth of Every Existence

The Law of Rebirth is a natural law that applies to all existences in the universe:

1. Plants (ecology): for example, the orange tree germinates from a seed, grows into a tree, and produces oranges with new seeds; those seeds are planted again into orange trees. The same process repeats itself endlessly.
2. Rain (water cycle): sea water evaporates under the sun's heat; the vapour meets cold air and condenses into clouds, which rain down to the ocean and evaporate again. The cycle continues without ever being lost.
3. Heat: heat is hidden in wood — it cannot be found or seen, yet rubbing two pieces of wood together long enough produces fire. The fire burns the wood into CO₂, and other trees absorb that CO₂ to restore their heat as before; in this way the heat within wood is never lost.

V. The Causes of Rebirth

The rebirth of human beings is based on the following main factors:

1. Strength of karma: living in this world, humans constantly create actions through body, speech and thought. These karmas follow one another and become a force that leads a person, after death, to be reborn into another life; this force grows ever stronger. There are four kinds of karma that guide the rebirth:
   • a. Accumulated karma: karma created and accumulated over many former lives.
   • b. Habitual karma: karma created in the present life through daily habits.
   • c. Heavy (most dominant) karma: extremely good or extremely bad karma, whose effect is far stronger than the previous two.
   • d. Near-death karma: karma or thoughts that arise as a person approaches death.
2. The will to live, fear of death and attachment: no one is free of the will to live and the fear of death, so at the moment of death one clings desperately to life. Moreover, the mind, still unsatisfied with worldly desires, longs to find another body in which to fulfil them.
3. Ignorance (avidyā): not seeing the true nature of oneself, mistaking the false for the real. Because of this mistaken view, one chases endlessly after illusions and thereby brings suffering upon oneself.

VI. Characteristics of Rebirth

The manner of rebirth depends on one's differing deeds and karma, on the inclinations of the mind, and on the actions performed — these become the forces that lead a person to be reborn. If one cultivates wholesome seeds, one is led toward happy realms (Heaven, Human). Conversely, if one cultivates unwholesome seeds, one falls into realms of suffering (Hell, Hungry Ghost, Animal).

VII. Facts About Rebirth

1. In every thought: a person can pass through the states of the six realms — thinking of good deeds places the mind in a wholesome state (Heaven, Human); thinking of evil deeds makes the hellish state arise.
2. Present manifestations: the states of the six realms can be measured by present actions. In this very world, prisons, torture chambers and the devastation of war are the very image of Hell.
3. Prodigies: the mathematician Pascal mastered geometry at the age of eight; Bạch Cư Dị knew how to write poems at the age of five. Such things cannot be called coincidence — they are knowledge accumulated from many former lives.
4. Stories of former births: the stories of former births told by the Buddha, and cases of people recalling their past lives, prove that human beings have lived through many states. In India a girl of eight was able to recognise her husband, children and relatives from a previous life.
5. Affinity (karmic bonds): sometimes we meet someone and instantly feel love, and sometimes instantly feel dislike. This is because of debts of gratitude or grievance formed with one another in the past.

VIII. Conclusion

Through the Law of Rebirth, the Buddha taught that:

1. The main origin of suffering is ignorance. Because of ignorance, karmic causes are created that force us to undergo the cycle of birth and death.
2. People revolve through the six realms and reap their fruits according to their karma; the worth of a person, high or low, can be known from their present thoughts.
3. Because human beings revolve within the six realms, countless beings may all have been our relatives in former lives. Therefore we must spread loving-kindness to all beings.
4. Buddhism speaks of Rebirth in order to help people clearly see the path of practice that leads to liberation from the cycle of birth and death.