Re: Nirantaraabhava-vaada [Suan]

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Stephen Hodge" <s.hodge@...> wrote:

> Dear Suan,
>
> > > Which leaves reason. I posted a hypothetical case to which,
> disappointingly, I did not receive any rational replies. Just to

spell out

> the problem, I hypothesized a death ocurring on a space mission to

Pluto.

> Though not mentioned by the Buddha or the arhats, Pluto is

5,756,778,388 km

> from Earth. This distance is so great that even an object

travelling from

> Pluto at the speed of light (300,000 km/sec) would take 5.3 hours

to reach

> Earth. Various figures are given for the minimal duration of a

citta-kkhana

> but let's say it is 0.013 sec (1/75th), so, even travelling at the

speed of

> light, the maximum distance that one citta-kkhana can cover is

3900 km.

> Therefore, unless there is some mechanism by which death citta

moment Z can

> link up to birth citta moment A by travelling faster than the

speed of

> light, it is clear that nirantaraabhava-vaada is irrational. If

you

> disagree, could you please demonstrate where the Buddha explains

the

> nirantarabhava process.
>
> ________

Dear Stephen,
According to Theravada, cittas arise and pass away. They do not move
around or fly from city to city or planet to planet. When a being
dies the last cittas is cuti-citta. This citta does not pass on to
the next life, but it is one of the conditions for a different
citta to arise, somewhere. One could be a human in Australia now and
a split second later be reborn as an infernal being in a world far,
far from this earth.
Where did you find that the minimal duration of a citta
is .003seconds?
Robertk