The King asks for another example to explain the precise nature
of this dependence, and Nagasena compares it to milk: the
curds, butter, or ghee that can be made from milk are never the
same as the milk, but they depend on it entirely for their
production.
The King then asks: "If there is no
being that passes on from body to body, wouldn't we then be free of
all the negative actions we had done in past
lives?"
Nagasena gives this example: A man steals
someone's mangoes. The mangoes he steals are not exactly the same
mangoes that the other person had originally owned and planted, so
how can he possibly deserve to be punished? The reason he
does, Nagasena explains,
is
that the stolen mangoes only grew because of those that their owner
had planted in the first place. In the same way, it is because of
our actions in one life, pure or impure, that we are linked with
another life, and we are not free from their
results.
The King asked, "Is there anyone
who is not reborn after death?"
Nagasena:"Yes, there is.
The one who has no defilements is not reborn after death; the one
who has defilements is reborn."
The King:"Will you be
reborn?"
Nagasena:"If I die with
craving in my mind, yes; but if not, no."
Craving, for pleasure (or avoiding pain), serves as the "seed" of
energy, or Karma, driving that consciousness to go on and on,
similar to a spinning bundle of yarn revolving around the rolling
spindle of karma, with the impulsive force of greed, hatred, and
delusion. This results in the cycle of birth and death, either as
lives after lives, or thoughts after thoughts - engraving into an
illusive 'self-image' hologram.
"O'
monks, I declare - Volition is Karma (action). Having willed
(impelled by intention), man acts by deeds, words, and
thoughts."
- The Buddha.