Over the years I have come to think of rebirth and suffering as the rebirth of suffering. There is good reason to think this way insofar as the Five Aggregates are suffering and are what is reborn, which we must bear.
What is born as beings or sattva becomes manifest in the Five Aggregates and yes, undergoes suffering as a result. This is not only birth but also rebirth since birth is dependent on former karma or deed. As a result, as conscious individuals or agents we are constrained by old karma; we have to wrestle with it. Our consciousness, we need to bear in mind, is laden with sankhâras or old karmic impressions that have previously been willed out (our former life). Again, this is all suffering in one degree or another.
All of our present actions are now new karma (navakamma). They might be thought of as nascent karmic impressions and, naturally, determine the extent of our future suffering. The Dhammapada says it well.
“Mind precedes all mental phenomena, mind is their master, they are produced by mind. If somebody speaks or acts with a corrupted mind suffering follows him, even as the wheel follows the drawer [ox]” (1).
The desires, beliefs and principles to which we adhere, these being our deeds, will surely have future consequences and most likely suffering. If we could actually see the process as it is going on, we have unconsciously creating our world before we step into it. If, on the other hand, we speak and act with a purified mind which means it is empty of defilements, eventually bliss or sukha follows us like a shadow (châyâ) that never leaves us. This is why it is important to realize pure Mind. It only posits itself the result of which is sukha or bliss.
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