[Footnote 1: Warren's Buddhism in Translations, p. 182, Milinda Pañha (628).]
[Footnote 2: Atthasâlinî, p. 112…]
[Footnote 3: Ibid. p. 113, Yathâ hi rûpâdîni upâdâya paññattâ suriyâdayo na atthato rûpâdîhi aññe honti ten' eva yasmin samaye suriyo udeti tasmin samaye tassa tejâ-sa@nkhâtam rûpa@m pîti eva@m vuccamâne pi na rûpâdihi añño suriyo nâma atthi. Tathâ cittam phassâdayo dhamme upâdâya paññapiyati. Atthato pan' ettha tehi aññam eva. Tena yasmin samaye cittam uppanna@m hoti eka@msen eva tasmin samaye phassâdihi atthato aññad eva hotî ti.]
[Footnote 4: "Jâtirdehajanma pañcaskandhasamudâya@h," Govindânanda's Ratnaprabhâ on S'a@nkara's bhâ@sya, II. ii. 19.]
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suggested, namely, the works (karma) which produce the birth [Footnote ref 1]. Upâdâna is an advanced t@r@s@nâ leading to positive clinging [Footnote ref 2]. It is produced by t@r@s@nâ (desire) which again is the result of vedanâ (pleasure and pain). But this vedanâ is of course vedanâ with ignorance (avidyâ), for an Arhat may have also vedanâ but as he has no avidyâ, the vedanâ cannot produce t@r@s@nâ in turn. On its development it immediately passes into upâdâna. Vedanâ means pleasurable, painful or indifferent feeling. On the one side it leads to t@r@s@nâ (desire) and on the other it is produced by sense-contact (spars'a). Prof. De la Vallée Poussin says that S'rîlâbha distinguishes three processes in the production of vedanâ. Thus first there is the contact between the sense and the object; then there is the knowledge of the object, and then there is the vedanâ. Depending on Majjhima Nikâya, iii. 242, Poussin gives the other opinion that just as in the case of two sticks heat takes place simultaneously with rubbing, so here also vedanâ takes place simultaneously with spars'a for they are "produits par un même complexe de causes (sâmagrî) [Footnote ref 3]."
Spars'a is produced by @sa@dâyatana, @sa@dâyatana by nâmarûpa, and nâmarûpa by vijñâna, and is said to descend in the womb of the mother and produce the five skandhas as nâmarûpa, out of which the six senses are specialized.
Vijñâna in this connection probably means the principle or germ of consciousness in the womb of the mother upholding the five elements of the new body there. It is the product of the past karmas (sa@nkhâra) of the dying man and of his past consciousness too.
We sometimes find that the Buddhists believed that the last thoughts of the dying man determined the nature of his next
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