Ānanda, all beings in the world are caught up in the continuity of birth and death. Birth happens because of their habitual tendencies; death comes through flow and change. When they are on the verge of dying, but when the final warmth has not left their bodies, all the good and evil they have done in that life suddenly and simultaneously manifests. They experience the intermingling of two habits: an abhorrence of death and an attraction to life. [SS VII 95]
…in the second watch he, whose energy had no peer, gained the supreme divine eyesight, being himself the highest of all who possess sight.
Then with that completely purified divine eyesight he beheld the entire world, as it were in a spotless mirror. His compassion waxed greater, as he saw the passing away and rebirth of all creatures according as their acts were lower or higher.
Those living beings whose acts are sinful pass to the sphere of misery, those others whose deeds are good win a place in the triple heaven.
The former are born in the very dreadful fearsome hell and, alas, are woefully tormented with sufferings of many kinds.…
In the hells is excessive torture, among animals eating each other, the suffering of hunger and thirst among the pretas (i.e., ghosts), among men the suffering of longings.
In the heavens that are free from love the suffering of rebirth is excessive. For the ever-wandering world of the living there is most certainly no peace anywhere.
This stream of the cycle of existence has no support and is ever subject to death. Creatures, thus beset on all sides, find no resting place.
Thus with the divine eye sight he examined the five spheres of life and found nothing substantial in existence, just as no heartwood is found in a plantain-tree when it is cut open. [Aśvaghoṣa, Acts of the Buddha, Ch. 14, “Enlightenment”]
“Now let’s consider the contents of our past lives. You are thinking, ‘I don’t believe there are past lives. If I had past lives, why don’t I remember them?’ Take the dream as a comparison. The day passes and the dream of the night before is forgotten. How much the less can we remember the events of our past lives!…
“You should know that now we too are dreaming. I am telling you right now that you are dreaming, but you can’t believe it. Wait until you cultivate, cultivate to understanding, and, ‘Ah, everything I did before was all a dream.’” (HS 38)
生 / 再生 [shēng / zài shēng]