The Mind Has Attained to the End of Craving

Through the round of many births I roamed without reward, without rest, seeking the house-builder.

Painful is birth again & again.

House-builder, you’re seen! You will not build a house again. All your rafters are broken, the ridge pole is dismantled, immersed in dismantling, the mind has attained to the end of craving.

(Reference: DHP 153-154)

In this Teaching from Gotama Buddha, he shares just a little bit of his own experience in The Cycle of Rebirth prior to the attainment of Enlightenment.

He was reborn through constant rounds of rebirth.

As the mind awakens, one might come to observe their past lives. Not all Enlightened beings have this experience but for some Practitioners, it does occur.

At this point in time, you have memory and can recall events, situations, and relationships that have transpired within your current existence - your current life. However, you have had several lives prior to this life that you may not currently recall and cannot remember. Those prior existences may not be part of your current available memories.

As the mind wakes up, closer and closer to Enlightenment, the mind may have memories of previous lives. The process of Enlightenment will allow you to attain a higher and Higher Consciousness, which allows you to see more of your current life and past lives.

As you ascend to a higher place, you can see more of the bigger picture.

Just like if you were in a village or city, you can only see and experience what is in that village or city. But if you relocated to a higher location on a nearby mountain’s top, you would be able to see all the other villages from this higher vantage point and how all these villages interconnect from one to the other.

Attaining a Higher Consciousness will have the same effect as being on top of the mountain.

As you attain a Higher Consciousness, you will see more of your existing life and how to create a smooth and peaceful existence within this life. You may also observe previous births in the other realms, including previous births in the human realm.

To obtain rebirth in the human realm, you would have needed to generate significant amounts of wholesome, or good, Kamma in your previous births.

Seeing past lives, is not necessarily important because they are in the past and have no significance on your attaining Enlightenment in this life. Discovering past lives is interesting but will not help you to attain Enlightenment in this life. Only what you do in this life will contribute to Enlightenment in this life. Nothing from past lives and nothing in the past from this life matters - it’s in the past and does not affect your ability to attain Enlightenment in this life.

Being born into the human realm means there have already been countless previous births. A certain number of rebirths into the human realm occur from the heavenly realm. The vast majority of all rebirths occur out of the animal realm into the human realm.

If you are new to these Teachings, I suggest that you set aside The Teachings on The Cycle of Rebirth until you have a well established practice of The Three Universal Truths, The Four Noble Truths, The Eight Fold Path to include a well developed meditation practice, and The Five Precepts. These are the core and central Teachings that a Practitioner will need to learn, reflect on, and practice to start observing improvement to the condition of one’s mind and life.

In regards to The Cycle of Rebirth, what happened in the past is in the past - we can’t change that. What may or may not happen in the future, has not happened yet so there is no need to worry about the future. The challenges that you are experiencing in this present moment and this present life is a discontent mind. A Practitioner needs to deeply investigate the core Teachings implementing them into a well developed life practice to train the mind. It is through gradual training and gradual practice that there is gradual progress on The Path to Enlightenment.

Understanding The Cycle of Rebirth early in practice can be a distraction that takes one away from truly discovering the life changing Teachings offered by The Buddha. I suggest, if new to these Teachings, that you focus on the book “Developing a Life Practice: The Path That Leads to Enlightenment” (Volume 1) with the guidance of a Teacher.

It is through dedicated and determined diligence to developing and practicing these Teachings with guidance that one will come to experience the results.

In addition to acquiring a peaceful mind as the mind becomes more and more Enlightened, there will no longer be any rebirth. One will no longer “build a house again” as one will have laid down the burden and no longer accumulate The Five Aggregates.

The “house-builder, you’re seen” as through wisdom it is that one understands The Cycle of Rebirth and how continuous rebirth occurs. Through attaining Enlightenment “you will not build a house again” as one has escaped The Cycle of Rebirth and there is no more existence as birth has been eliminated. There will be no more sickness, aging, death, sorrow, grief, pain, displeasure, and despair because it is all eliminated - once and for all.