諸經要集 19.66

19.66

Second, as for the method of taking birth: According to the Abhidharmakośa-śāstra: In order to go to the destiny where they should be born, this intermediate existence (antarābhava) arises. Sentient beings, by the power of past karma, possess the eye faculty of that rebirth, so that although dwelling in the farthest place, they are able to see the place where they should be born, and therein they see the mating of the father and mother. If [the being is to] become male, it conceives a male desire toward the mother; if it is to become female, it conceives a female desire toward the father, and through inversion, this mind gives rise to resentment. Sentient beings in the intermediate existence give rise to an inverted mind on account of these two, and thus, seeking desire and play, they go to the place of birth; that is, they delight in obtaining it for themselves. At that time, the impure substances have already reached the womb, and they immediately feel joy and consequently attach to it to be born. From that moment on, the five aggregates of this sentient being are unified and solidify, and the five aggregates of the intermediate existence immediately perish. Only then is it said that birth has been taken. If the fetus is male, it rests against the mother's left side, squatting with its face toward the mother's back. If the fetus is female, it rests against the mother's right side, dwelling with its face toward the mother's flank. If the fetus is neither male nor female, it takes birth according to the class of desire, and its position is likewise like this. There is no intermediate existence that is different; in both males and females the faculties are fully complete. Therefore, either as male or female, they take birth and dwell, and later, while growing in the womb, some become eunuchs (paṇḍaka). If taking birth through the two modes of womb-birth and egg-birth, the principle is like this. If sentient beings are to receive moisture-birth, on account of delighting in fragrances they go to the place of birth; this fragrance is either clean or foul according to past karma. If it is apparitional birth, on account of delighting in the location, they go to the place of birth. If so, then how do beings in the hells give rise to delight in their location? Because their minds are inverted: these sentient beings see cold wind and freezing rain afflicting their bodies, and see the fires of hell blazing intensely and pleasantly; wishing to obtain warm touch, they go and enter there. Or again, they see their bodies scorched by hot winds, glaring light, flames, and the like, suffering unbearable pain; they see the cold hells as cool and refreshing, and delighting in the cold touch, they go and enter there. The two modes of womb-birth and egg-birth are born in the place of the mating of the father and mother; the two modes of moisture-birth and apparitional birth do not depend on relying on red and white [fluids] to form a body, and hence lack this transformation. Moisture-born beings only, because of craving fragrance, go to the place of birth; according to whether their karma is good or evil, the fragrance they crave naturally has pure or foul qualities. Apparitionally born beings only crave the place on which they rely; although the hells are places of suffering, yet the sinners take pleasure in them, and also finding a place they crave, they take birth within it. Why is this? Because without craving, birth is not taken. The treatise says: Just as deeds performed in the past can induce such a birth, one delights in seeing oneself in such a status, and seeing those beings to be likewise, therefore one goes there. Former masters of old made such an explanation: If a sentient being, at the age of thirty, engaged in the deed of killing living beings by netting and catching beings, when performing this act they necessarily had companions. This karma can induce rebirth in hell; later, in the intermediate existence, they see their own body just as when they were thirty years old and practicing netting and trapping. Hence it says "status." Furthermore, they see their former companions no different from the past. When seeing the hell, it is just like previously seeing rivers and lakes, with the various companions pulling one another and entering into it together; due to this, inversion arises, and they immediately take birth therein. Later explanations hold that although the karma performed in the past was manifold, it must be by means of a single karma that rebirth in hell is induced; whether they performed this karma at the age of twenty or at the age of thirty, later in the intermediate existence they see their own body as young or old according to when they previously performed the action, and they see the beings in hell all as they were at their own age. Since their age is similar, toward these beings inversion arises, and they immediately go toward them; due to this craving, they take birth. Such is the explanation according to the Sautrāntika masters.