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

>

Robert: 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.
> ===================

Stephen: > Then how does your position account for this:

>
> "But what one has done by body,
> or by speech or mind:
> This is what is truly one's own,
> This one takes when one goes:
> This is what follows one along
> Like a shadow that never departs.
> Therefore one should do what is good
> As a collection for the future life.
> Merits are the support for living beings
> in the other world." [SN I 93 (Bhikkhu Bodhi p184-5)]

=========
Dear Stephen,
This sutta is talking about kamma and its results. When a being dies
none of the khandhas (vinnana, vedana, sanna, sankhara, rupa ) pass
over to the next life. But the kamma done in this life can give a
result a future lives. It is like billiard balls: the first
billiard ball is different from the one it touches but passes on its
energy. In the same way the new being is very different from the
last but all the deeds done in the past are now propelling it.
=============

>
> > 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.

=========
Stephen: And if pigs had wings they might fly :) This is merely an
assertion with no

> probative value.
> ==============
> > Where did you find that the minimal duration of a citta
> > is .003seconds?

=======
Stephen: The precise figure is not important for my argument but
1/75th (.003) sec is

> mentioned in various modern sources -- got mine in this instance

from a

> book in Japanese on Buddhist cosmology.
>
> ========

According to the pali texts (see for example the commentary to the
Phena Sutta in Samyutta nikaya), the duration of all mental states,
including consciousness and feeling is incredibly instantaneous,
much briefer than .003 seconds. Nothing can be shorter, indeed time
itself can only be understood by the serial arising and passing of
states.
The Samantapasidika ( B.Bodhi):
*****
note 190:Spk: a bubble is feeble and cannot be grasped, for
it
breaks up as soon as it is seized; so too feeling is feeble and
cannot be
grasped as permanent and stable. As a bubble arises and ceases in a
drop
of
water and does not last long, so too with feeling: 100,000 kotisEof
feelings arise and cease in the time of a fingersnap (one ko.ti = 10
million).
As a bubble arises in dependence on conditions, so feeling arises in
dependence
on a sense base, an object, the defilements, and contact.... Spk:
Perception is like a mirage (marikaa) in the sense that it is
insubstantial, for one cannot grasp a mirage to drink or bathe or
fill a
pitcher. As a mirage deceives the multitude, so does perception,
which
entices
people with th idea that the colourful object is beautiful,
pleasurable,
and
permanent.""
Robertk