Originally posted by _wanderer_:
There [b]appears to be a 'self'
undergoing rebirth, but the ultimate reality is that there is no
real 'self' going through rebirth.
There is only rebirth, with no 'self' undergoing rebirth.
It is not easy to comprehend in the beginning, but the difficulty
is due to the limitation of the conceptual mind.
Nagarjuna used the eg of a waterfall. You see a 'waterfall', but
when you examine further, you cannot find a truly existing
'waterfall' that never changes. 'It' changes every moment, yet 'it'
is there. Actually there is no one truly existing unchanging
'waterfall' that exists there; there is only continous flowing, forming
the illusion of a 'truly existing entity called ' waterfall'.
Because there is continuity, we mistakenly think that there is a
thing called "waterfall" truly existing there.
Similarly, because there is continuity in our lives from moment to
moment and from live to live, we mistakenly think that there is
such a thing called a "real me" truly existing and undergoing
rebirth.
In the Milinda Panha, Ven Nagasena gave excellent replies to
questions by King Milinda.
(http://web.singnet.com.sg/~rjp31831/nagasena.htm#ID)
Just as the flame of a candle. At moment 1, the 'flame1' is a
production of the candle, the oil, the wick, the oxygen etc at
moment 1.
At moment 2, the 'flame2' is the production of the candle oil wick
etc at moment 2.
At moment 3, the 'flame3' is the production of those conditions at
moment 3.
Each of these conditions are changing at every instant. Eg. the
wick is shortening, the oil is depleting, the candle's mixture of
elements have changed. So since these conditions have changed, the
'flames' have also changed.
Therefore, there is no one 'flame' existing throughout the night.
There is only a succession of dependently arisen 'flames', which
instantaneously arise and simultaneously cease, in a continuous
fashion.
... flame 1 - flame 2 - flame 3 - flame 4 - ...
This is analogous to our experience of 'self'.
There appears to be a 'wanderer' that existed since age 1 till age
20.
However, 'age 1 wanderer' liked toys and 'age 20 wanderer' liked
books.
'age 1 wanderer' had small hands while 'age 20 wanderer' has big
hands.
'age 5 wanderer' wanted to be a teacher while 'age 20 wanderer'
hated teaching.
now which is the real 'wanderer'?
while 'wanderer' recalls a continuity of growth from 'wanderer 1'
to 'wanderer 20' and so on... there is no one truly existing
'wanderer' that grew up.
from wanderer 1 to wanderer 20, all the instantaneous moments of
the 'wanderers' are merely dependently arisen, based on the coming
together and falling apart of temporary causes and conditions.
These causes and conditions, sometimes also known as karma, provide
the force that continually brings about birth-death... This forms
the illusion of a 'self' undergoing rebirth.
Your question of why some people can remember their past lives -
it's because even though there is no 'self' truly existing, there
is continuity due to the continuous occurrence of karma. Under
particular circumstances, with the right conditions, people are
able to have a glimpse of what happened in 'their' past
lives.
It is just like when you sleep last night and you woke up this
morning, you remember what happened to you last night. However, if
you analyse the 'you' yesterday and the 'you' today, you realize
that there is no real 'you' that slept through the night and woke
up in the day, but there is a continuity of a dependently arisen
temporary 'you before sleep' to the dependently arisen temporary
'you while sleeping' to the dependently arisen temporary 'you
awake'.
*Phew* very lengthy. 
Hope it helps to
clarify and doesn't create even more confusion.
This is a very impt qn in Buddhism. Thanks for raising it.
[/b]
Good use of Examples
