Hi there,
MN57 is a sutta that describes that if one imitates the life of a dog (or ox) perfectely, and one develops dog (or ox) like habits, tendencies, behaviour, views, one will be born among dogs.
Here you see the general principle of the proces of becoming described, i feel. This is: If you create for yourself in this very life a dog-like bhava (dog-like existence) , you will after death enter a dog-bhava. These are connected. (Ofcourse, this is the general principle)
If you develop in this life a deva like bhava, an existence based upon love, compassion, friendliness, that kamma will probably result in a rebirth as deva. This is because you as human developed a deva-like bhava in this very life. Those are connected.
This is what the Buddha saw as the general mechanism of becoming, i believe. Those tendencies, habits, this potential of will that one feeds in this very life, have a momentum. A potential. This can become the support for becoming in this life and at death.
For example, hate might suddenly arise and overwhelm the mind and it becomes hateful. The stronger the potential of hate is, the more easily it can overwhelm the mind and become hateful.
At death it is said that this potential does not just vanish. It is like energy. It does not just vanish.
Based upon the will-potentialthe forward becoming potential of that hate, one can be born in lower realms.
So, in this very life and at death this supports the proces of becoming. And both are related.
The overwhelming potential of emotions is very important. If the potential of hate or greed is very strong it will be overwelming when arising. Purification is like weakening this potential and also decreasing this flood-like character of emotions and tendencies arising. In stead of a flood they can become slow streams and more easily to control. Less overwhelming. For myself i have situations which keep being overwhelming, like eating candy. It just triggers a flood to go one.
The mind cannot really help grasping at intense movements, i see. It immediately inclines towards it and glues to it. That is the proces of grasping. The inclining of the mind towards formations. It lands on it. Especially when formations arising have a certain intensity, a load. And those are the asava’s, anusaya’s, tanha’s.
I believe this is also why the cleansed mind is refered to as ‘uninclined’. It shows no inclination anymore to go towards arising formations. It has no drift to land upon them anymore.
Then this mind shows no becoming anymore. It has become stable.
I believe that one in this very life can arrive at the experiential knowledge that rebirth is ended, because in this very life there is no, at least, unvoluntairy becoming anymore. This is refered to as a fully tamed and freed mind. Meaning, in this very life there is ofcourse still sensing, knowing, but no unvoluntairy becoming anymore, because the mind has arrived at the uninclined.
Our mind, the unenligtend, not freed and not fully tamed mind, has no control over this proces of becoming, or very limited. We can jump from mindstate to mindstate. From a hellish mindstate to a deva-like, to a animal like, etc. That is PS happening during this life, ofcourse, and also a temporary bhava and birth.
Buddha instructs us to develop those habits, those tendencies, those views that support good tendencies. Those that at least do not lead to birth in lower states of mind. IN this very life, ofcourse and so also after this life, because those are connected.
But in the end, the goal is to go beyond good and bad because that is the freedom of Nibbana.
All is based upon this very life. In this very life there is Paticca Samuppada. In this very life the mind enters different bhava and takes birth in different mindstates, and in this very life grasping ends, becoming ends and all states of existence ends. The verification, that experiential knowledge in this life is, i believe the same as the experiential verification that rebirth has ended.
