Of Mind and Karma and Reincarnation

A concept I have struggled with for years is what is it that transfers from lifetime to lifetime? I became very confused by the terms Mind and Karma.

The endless knot symbolises the nature of reality where everything is interrelated and only exists as part of a web of karma and its effect. Initially, it also represented the confusion in my human mind.

Whatever you look at in the Mahayana and Vajrayana teachings, the predominant references are to the Mind. But what is it?

OM AH HUM are sometimes equated to Body Speech and Mind, represented physically as Third Eye, Throat and Heart. The Mind is often envisaged as being located at the Heart.

Then again, the Mind is depicted as being Self/Non-Self, incapable of being identified with any bodily location.

The understanding I have developed over time is that in the Buddhist context the Mind is also known as the Mind Stream or Mind Continuum. This is what transfers from physical embodiment to physical embodiment and carries with it the accumulation of karma from all the previous lifetimes.

Then I got confused by the practice of Lojong, literally Lo (Mind) jong (to Train) because it implies there is some THING to train, whereas Mind is ineffable. Then what is it we are supposed to be training?

As I understand it, we are training our thinking or conventional mind, as we experience it, to overcome the illusions and obscurations that create our suffering. The training leads to the development of loving kindness and compassion that eventually leads to enlightenment and the realisation of the ultimate Mind.

The human condition is determined by the five aggregates or skandas - form, feelings, perceptions, volition and consciousness. These are all interdependent and in combination represent what we experience in the conventional world and what experiences we have of suffering and (transient) happiness.

To me, the key element for understanding reincarnation is volition or action. What we perceive as happening to and driving us is a combination of our karma from previous lives and our actions in this life. It can be considered that the karma of previous lives is carried through in our mind stream/continuum.

Being a rational human being, I found these explanations lead me to be more comfortable with the concept of Mind and Reincarnation. I can now sit with this simplistic conceptualisation and get on with my practices. Hopefully this will lead me to a greater understanding in which the need to understand the process of reincarnation becomes irrelevant, anyway.

Just keep on training that Mind, whatever and wherever it is.

Thus ends this post. May whatever virtue or merit that derives from this posting be for the benefit of all sentient beings.

Yours until next time, Vajramate.