CONCEPTION
| The Buddha says there are three necessary conditions for
conception. There has to be a union of the father and mother, the father to provide the
sperm, the mother to provide the egg. Second, it must be the mother's proper season. If
the mother isn't fertile, conception won't take place. Third, there must be a stream of
consciousness of the deceased person, the flow of mind that is ready and prepared to take
rebirth. This third factor he calls the 'gandhabba'. Unless all these conditions are met
conception does not take place. Does rebirth go on automatically and inevitably? The Buddha explains that there is a distinct set of causes underlying the rebirth process. It has a causal structure and this structure is set out in the teaching of Dependent Arising, "paticcasamupada". |