A belief that floats around is that the mind dies and is reborn every second/moment. I would like to confirm what the EBT says about the matter.
Here’s what I know
- Only an Arahant can see the speed of the mind. In SN 12.61 says it’s better for a putthujana to consider the body a self than the mind because the body is much slower than the mind
But, indeed, that which, monks, is called ‘mind’, or ‘thought’, or ‘consciousness’, that, by night and by day, as other, indeed, arises, as other ceases. [6] Just as, monks, a monkey in the mountain-side forests, moving itself, [7] grasps a branch, then releasing that, grasps another, then releasing that, grasps another; even so, indeed, monks, that which is called ‘mind’, or ‘thought’, or ‘consciousness’: that, by night and by day, as other, indeed, arises, as other ceases.
There’s also a sutta where the Buddha says the mind is faster than the devas that fly around the sun at extreme speeds, I’ll try to find it.
edit:
As fast as that man is, the sun and moon are faster. As fast as that man is, as fast as the sun and moon are, and as fast as the deities that run before the sun and moon are, the waning of the life forces is faster.
- SN 20.6
- At the time of conception the gandhabba enters the new body. Some say ghandhabba means sperm in this context. Eitherway, it seems like the mind is born before the human body is born (leaves the womb)
"Monks, the descent of the embryo occurs with the union of three things. There is the case where there is no union of the mother & father, the mother is not in her season, and a gandhabba [8] is not present, nor is there a descent of an embryo. There is the case where there is a union of the mother & father, and the mother is in her season, but a gandhabba is not present, nor is there a descent of an embryo. But when there is a union of the mother & father, the mother is in her season, and a gandhabba is present, then with this union of three things the descent of the embryo occurs.
- MN 38
- A person is dragged to hell when his body dies. He also floats to heaven when his body dies.
"Suppose a man were to throw a jar of ghee or a jar of oil into a deep lake of water, where it would break. There the shards & jar-fragments would go down, while the ghee or oil would rise upward and separate out. In the same way, if one’s mind has long been nurtured with conviction, nurtured with virtue, nurtured with learning, nurtured with relinquishment, nurtured with discernment, then when the body… is eaten by crows, vultures, hawks, dogs, hyenas, or all sorts of creatures, nevertheless the mind… rises upward and separates out.
and Ven Sujato translation
Right here the crows, vultures, hawks, dogs, jackals, and many kinds of little creatures devour it. But their mind rises up, headed for a higher place.
- SN 55.21
I can’t find the sutta where beings drag the person down to hell, I can only find the sutta where hell wardens drag the person to king yama, AFTER he has reappeared in hell, but I remember a sutta where the actual soul/mind is dragged down to hell.
Either way, it seems like the sutta with mahanama that the mind separates from the body. This aligns with the Vinaya story of a ghost still lurking around its decaying body in the charnel grounds, when a monk takes the body’s robes the ghost scares and chases the monk.
So does the mind die every second/moment? Or does it die at physical death and is reborn?
Thank you