Chapter 8 some famous twins, Ma Nan Soe and Ma Nan San of Burma,

Chapter 8
The following are the short accounts of
some famous twins, conjoined twins like
the little Ma Nan Soe and Ma Nan San of Burma,
who were born joined-together (twins) in 1971.
        Life time, are strange occurrences for which the latest biology and psychology of the modern sciene have not yet been able
to account.
        The following are the short accounts of some famous twins, conjoined twins like the little Ma Nan Soe and Ma Nan San ofBurma, who were borujoined-together (twins) in 1971 and subsequently separated a few months, after their birth by surgical operation at the Rangoon children Hospital. Some months after the successful surgicalseparation Ma Nan San died of illness, obviously not due to the effects of surgical separation. The mother of the twins also died of an unknown illness in her village some months after the death of Ma Nan San. The remaining twin sister Ma Nan Soe is still living quite safe and sound under the benevolent care of the Children’s Hospital in Rangoon.

   Joined-together twins may have more than enough parts to make one individual but not enough parts to make two, and in which some parts of the body are used in common by the two conjoined
twins.
        True Siamese twins consist of two nearly complete individuals united obliquely side by side in the hip region. Internally there are two complete sets of viscera except that there is usually a common rectum. It can hardly be denied that a pair of true Siamese twins having two heads consists of two individuals, for the two may have distinct thoughts and actions and often differ in their personality traits. Some of the types of conjoined twins, however are very far from being two complete individuals. One type has two separate heads but a single trunk and one pair of legs. Some other types of conjoined twins have but one head and two pairs of legs. Here the question of two individuals would hardly arise. The question ofindependence of personalities in conjoined twins is therefore a rather academic one and hard to answer. Siamese twins are surely one-egg twins. They are more nearly completely separate than any other types of conjoined twins. They have barely missed being completely separate twins.             Not only is ft clear that they are one-egg twins but it is obvious that one of the two individuals has developed from the right half of an embryo and the other from the left half; for they are joined side by side and are symmetrically placed with respect to each other. Very rarely are joined-together twins born alive. Because of the complex and awkward shape of the double foetus it is a very difficuft matter for them to be delivered without fatal injury to one or both components. The only type of conjoined twin that has survived in any considerable number is the type known as Siamese twins, the type that consists of two nearly complete individuals. Because such pairs are less monstrous than most other types, doubtless more of an effort is made to keep them alive. When Siamese twins have survived the harzards of birth and early infancy their prospects of reaching a fairly good age are excellent and their ability to earn a living is even better than
average, for they become show people.
        It is said that one of the earliest pairs of Siamese twins is Eliza and Mary born in England in 1100 A. D. All the information available about them is contained in an ancient poster taken from Ballantyne’s Antenatal Pathology. According to this document, these twins were united at the hips and the shoulders. They appear to have had but one arm apiece, one a right and the other a left. In this respct they were different from all other Siamese twins. ft is interesting that in this case, as in subsequent ones, when one twin died the other reflised to accept the advice of surgeons that she be separated from her deceased companion, saying: As we came together we will also go together.”
The most famous conjoined twins and the ones that introduced the terms “siamese twins” for the first time were the Siamese twins themselves, Chand and Eng, who were really not Siamese at all but Chinese, born of Chinese parents in Siam in 1811. They were discovered at the age of 13 by a British merchant. They had but recently come to the attention of King Chowpohyi of Siam and were about to be put to death because the King believed that they were the portent of evil to his country The Biitish merchant, however, was able to purchase their release on condition that they should be at once removed from the country. In the course of time they were brought to Boston and offered to Barnum, the circus magnate, who was glad to secure them for a side show. For many years they were a major attraction among the exhibits of this famous circus and travelled over most of the world. In later life, having accummulated a small fortune, they married two sisters, the daughters of a Boston clergyman, Daniel Yeast, Chang to Adelaide and Eng to Sarah Ann. Adelaide had ten children and Sara eleven. Their descendents are respected citizens of North Corolina. As the families grew later, it was found necessary in the interest of peace and domestic felicity for the twins to move their families to separate houses about a mile apart. A firm pact was made that Chang and Eng would spend three days in one’s home and then three in the other’s. They settled down as farmers m North Corolina before death in 1874 at the fairly ripe age of sixty-three.
        Chang and Eng were the objects of considerable scientific study in both Boston and London. They were, however, not so extensively aftected as are most conjoined twins, for they were connected by a relatively narrow band of  flesh at the sides of  the lower chest or upper abdominal region, a connection that was flexible enough to permit them to humble head over heels without the slightest inconvenience”. There was lack of any strong resemblance between Chang and Eng. Much emphasis was placed on their different dispositions and temperaments. Chang was inclined to drunkenness while Eng was a teetotaller. Throughout life they showed an “affectionate forbearance” for each other’s weaknesses and exhibited great sympathy and understanding. One wonders what
would have happened had they been   or pugnacious.
        Rosa and Josepha, the two Bohemian twin sisters, who were broadly joined in the pelvic region. Rosa was and thinner and looked younger while Josepha was shorter and heavier, and her face was much more fill. Josepha had a rudimentary vagina and uterus while Rosa was normal in these respects and had lineae-striae as evidence that she had borne a child. It was known that she had a normal son. There was a common rectum which branched about seven inches from the anus into two intestines. Apparently they were very active as children, even climbing trees. They spoke several langnages and both played the violin. When Josepha was seriously ill with jaundice and other complications Rosa seemed quite, heafthy with only a hint of jaundice. When it appeared that Josepha would surely die Dr. Breakstone advised separating them, anatomical examination having indicated feasibility of a success surgical operation. Their brother-manager of the show reflised to permit it. Together they were valuable; apart worthless to him. Josepha died on March 30, 1922, and Rosa died also a day or two
later, for she could not live joined to a corpse.
        The Filipino twins, Simplicio and Lucio Godina, who died in New York at the age of 28 had been for several years headline performers in \41deville circuits in the United States. They were married to two separate one-egg twinsisters with whom they performed on the stage. The twins were decidedly dissimilar. Sirnplicio was heavier, had a distinctly broader head and face and was less lively than his smaller partner whose head was longer and forehead more sloping. They were very active and could dance and perform difficult feats on roller skates. A few years ago Lucia, the smaller twin, caught cold and developed pneumonis from which he died. After his death an operation was performed to save Simplicio. This was reported as successfiil, but a few days later Simplicio died also, apparently as the result of an infection of  the nervous system. From the outcome of  this operat~n’ it might be assumed that Roza could not have been saved in spite of  Dr.
Break-stone’s statement.
        Apart from the human interest values of  these remarkable twins, certain facts of far-reaching significance have been noted by various writers, but their bearings on theories of  twiiing have been overlooked. In describing several pairs of  these strange twins, writers have commented upon their lack of close similarity. Such twins have been regarded as the only kind of  twins that are beyond question derived from a single-egg and therefore surely
identical in their hereditary make-up.

The following is the gist of the translation of
an article in Burmese on the subject of conjoined twins Ma Nan Soe and Ma Nan San of Burma:
“Conjoined Twin Sisters Ma Nan Soe and Ma Nan San.”
new historic success of the Burmese medical science
by Mann Aung Thein, Shetho (Forward) Magazine,VoL 19,
No.6 of August l5,1971.
+ ~ + ~ + ~ +
        Unprecedented in the annual of  the Burmese medical science and rare in the world’s medical history are the conjoined twin sisters Ma Nan Soe and Ma Nan San. They were born alive to farmer Ko Sein Mya Gyi (33) and wife Ma Daw Pon (32) residing at Belunk~ village in the east of  Begayet village, Kangyidaung Police Station Jurisdiction, of  Bassein District, on February 20, 1971. Ma Daw Pon gave birth to the said conjoined twin sisters ;with the help of village private midwife Daw Pein Pon (60) and her husband U Tha Ym (61) of the same village. According to the statements of village midwife Daw Pein Pon and her husband, at first they saw a babe’s head projecting out of the mother’s womb and pulling out the body of it Daw Pein Pon became aware that they were twins joined breast to breast to each other. While Daw Pein Pon was holding on one little body outside the mother’s womb U Tha Ym pulled out the other body from the mother’s womb, thus two conjoined twin sisters were delivered alive from their mother’s womb
within twenty minutes with-out much trouble.
        Ko Sein Mya Gyi and Ma Daw Pon had already four chil~en before the birth of the twin sisters. The fourth child Ma Mwe Qi, who died five days after her birth looked like the twin sisters Ma Nan Soe and Ma Nan San. During the pregnancy of the twin sisters U Dhamasami, an old Buddhist novice of the village, predicted that a great fortune must come; landed property an~~ lot of money in cash as well. Before her confinement Ma Daw Pon had strange dreams,j~ twice or thrice in a month, totalling five up to the time of her conlineU ment. She used to dream about riding motor cars, ship~$~roplanes etc. On the night following the day of her confinement she dreamed that while she was sitting at the front door of the house, an elephant came down from the sky and stood in front of her house. The legs of the elephant did not touch the ground and the two ears were shaking. There were two girls about the age of 15 years each seated on the back of the elephant. They were looking Ma Daw Pon. One of the girls beckoning to Ma Daw Pon asid, “Aunty! Please come.” When Ma Daw Pon replied, “I could not” I am a pregnant woman. You had better come to me”, the other girl said: ‘Don’t ask aunty” and both burst out laughing. At that m4~nt on old man came. He wore a white turbin around his head and held a staff He asked Ma Daw Pon. “What are the things in front of your house? “and she replied “They are garbages, grandfather,” the old man muimured ‘Not garbages, they are gold and silver” and struck with his staf when all of them, the elephant, the two girls, and the old man himseW, disappeared. Ma Daw Pon woke up from her sleep with alarm and began feeling pain in her womb. ft was at about 7 a. im on February 20, 1971 when she sent for village midwife Daw
Pein Pon and her husband U Tha Ym.
        This is the first time that village private midwife Daw Pein Pon and husband U Tha Ym, who are mere indigenous midwives, have ever delivered conjoined twins afthough they had previously attended on five cases of child-birth and delivered twins indMdaually
one by one. Subsequently, they went and reported the matter to the ~ government midwife Daw Sakina at Sabyuzu village. The g~ernment
midwife was wondering when she saw the two conjoined twins, each complate with hands and legs and then sent the twin sister to the hospital at Bassein at 11 a. im on the same day (20-2-1971).
On February 22, the Bassein Hospital staff sent the twin sisters by the UBA plane under the care of a nurse to the Rangoon Children Hospital. On arrival at Rangoon the twin sisters were recived warmly by the Hospital Superintendent, U Tin U, Senior Surgeon Dr.
U Pe Nyunt, doctors and nurses.
        This is also the first time in the history of the Burmese medical science that we have seen this type of twins conjoined each other from about the middle of the sternum to a point below the umbilicus. This type is very very rare in the world’s medical rd6¼ds Besides all this, liver is filsed between the twins, so is sternum, and so is cardio-vascular systeim We have come across cases of birth of conjoined twins in the world of western medical science in Burma; but we have never seen this type of twin sisters
born alive with plenty of junctions.
        At the time of arrival in Rangoon, the health of No.2 Ma Nan San was not very good. Her jaundice, diarrhoea were cured by the doctors and nurses of the Childre~~~iospital in Rangoon. Ma Nan Soe was quite well and good since arrival from Bassein. As the total weight ofboth the twins was only 9 lbs and 4 ounces, surgical operation was not carried out so soon. Nutritive good, medicine etc ., were given to improve their heafth. other measures were taken to facilitate a successfiil surgical operation.
        As the twin health improved day by day, both consumed six to seven bananas, 2 eggs each in addition to nilik, as a resuk of which their weight went up to 18 lbs and 2 ounces on July 6 when
their age was four months and sixteen days.
        As the heafth of the twin sisters was imporving lordosis and pectus carinatum in both of them were also increasing, The size and growth between the twins was unequaL There was the risk of infection in one spreading to the other easily X-Ray also shows that liver was filsed between the twins and that there were few defects in the cardio-vascular system. In these circunsstances surgical separation of  the twin sisters was found quite neces
sary.          
        On July 7, 1971 coinciding with the Burmese Buddhis~ auspicious day of Waso, the first flilimoon day of the Buddhist Lent, at 8 a.m. Dr. U HIa Tun and Dr. U HIa Myint began administering chloroform to the twins before surgical separation was commenced at 10.30 a.ni the same day by members of  the Children Hospital staff headed by senior surgeon Dr. U Pe Nyunt and his assistant surgeon Dr. U Htut Saing and at a little over 2 p. m. the twins were separated successfiilly on ~completion of surgical operation on four vital organs (1) liver (2) sternum, (3) breathing muscle and (4) cardio-vascular system. The surgery team was then divided into two; one headed by Dr. U Pe Nyunt and Dr. Aung Thein Lu was to attend to No.2 Ma Nan San while the other headed by Dr. U Htut Hlaing and Dr. Saw Saing Lu was assigned to No.1 Ma Nan Soe. The duties of both parties were (1) closing of  blood vassels in places operated, (2) stiching of separated livers, cardio-vascular system and breathing tubs. etc. The nursing party headed by sister Ma Nan Ym rendered the necessary assistance as and when required by the surgeons. Silon was used to close the separated abdomen of the twins and prevent baetaria and air. The entire surgical operation came to an end at 4 p.m. on the same day when the surgeons and the nurses were able to smile on hearing a sharp cry from No.1 Ma Nan Soe whose chloroform effects began subsiding at 4.30 p.im followed 15 minutes later by No.2 Ma Nan San licking her little thump
when her chloroform effects were all gone.
        The flim recording of  the entire surgical operation of  the twin sisters was done by the Central Fihn Board of  the Government.
        On hearing the news of  the successfiil surgical separation of their twin daughters, Ko Sein Mya Gyi and Ma Daw Pon, parents of the twin sisters, visited Rangoon on July 10 to see their daughters with the permission of the surgeons concerned. On July 12 in the evening before their return to Bassein, both the parents again visited their twin daughters and gave the name “Ma Nan Soe” to No.1 daughter and  “Ma Nan San” to No.2 respectively after an expression of heartfeft thanks to the surgeons and nurses for their most wonderfiil surgical treatment and to all those rendering every kind of assistance in cash or kind for the survival,
health and general welfare of the twin sisters.
The case for Rebirth by FS ,I think the following extract from the article entitled “The Case for Rebirth” by the late author Mr. Francis Story appearing in the ‘Rebirth as Doctrine and Experience published by the Buddhist Publication Society of Sir Lanka in
1975 will throw more light on the above subject;
        The embryo human being derives its hereditary characteristics from the genes of the parents, sharing in equal measure the chromosomes of father and mother, the sex being detennined by the proportion of what are distinguished as X and Y chromosomes. Famale cells contain always two X-chromosomes while the male has one X and one Y, and it is in the substitution of one Y for an X chromosme that the basic difference in sex consists. At the time of conception the male sperm cell unites with the female and by the process of syngamy forms one complete cell, which after wards dMdes into two, thus starting the process of mitusis by which the complete organism eventually comes into being. Here, what is not known is exactly why in certain cases the X and Y chromosomes combine to form a female, while in others they produce a male cell. This may be purely fortuitous; but it is more in accordance with the scientific view of cause and effect to suspect the presence of another factor that in some way determines the combination. The Buddhist view that this unknown factor is Kamma or energy-potential, the mental impulse projected by another being which existed in the past, is one that science by itself can neither prove nor disprove, but it provides the most likely explanation in fact, the only one which can be offered as an akernative to the improbable theory of chance. Kamma as cause, and vipaka as resuk, also provide an explanation of the intermediate conditions in which sex characteristics are more or less equal in one individual, or where it is possible for a complete change of sex to take place. The Kamma which in the first place produced a male may be weak, or may become exhausted before the life-supportuig Kamma comes to an end, in which case the characteristics of the opposite sex may become so marked that they amount virtually to a sex-trans- formation, the resuk of a different kind of Kamma coming into operation. Similarly, masculine thoughts and hab~radually becoming dominant in a female may bring about more and more marked male characteristics with the passage oftime, and these influences may be so strong that they actually reveal themselves in physical changes. On the other hand, they may only affect the psychic life. What is certain, as this analysis will attempt to show, is that thought-accretions do have the power to affect not only the general outlook and h~s~~but the physical body itself For ‘~hought- accretions” we may substitute here the Buddhist term Sankhara, since this is one of the various associated meanings of
this highly comprehensive word.
        Individual character is usually attributed to two factors, the first being heredity But simple physical characteristics alone are not traceable always to this cause. Colour-blindness, akhough it can be followed back through successive generations and shows clearlymarked biological transmission, is not invariably hereditary; and in those individual features that partake of both the physical and psychological, such as the sexual deviations referred to above, the hereditary influence does not provide any satisfactory explanation That they are not herediatary is the conclusion of most authorities. This also applies to the many examples of infant prodigies and to the less striking, but never theless significant, instances of children who bear no resemblence whatever to their parents or grand parents. Where hereditary traits transmitted through the genes of the parents cannot account for differences in character the second factor, environmental influence, is brought in to explain the variation. But this also fails to cover all the ground because the same antecedents and the same environment together frequently produce quite dissimilar personalities, and there are numerous examples of pronounced characteristics appearing at birth, before any environmental pressure is brought to bear on the developing personality.
        In Buddhist philosophy it is axiomatic that more than one caese is necessary to produce a given result, so that while character may be partly drawn from heredity, and partly modified by environment, these two factors do not in any way rule out the third factor, that of the indMdual Sankhara., or Kamma-formation-tendency developed in previous lives, which may prove itself stronger than either of them. Hereditary transmissions the meselves are a part of the operation of the causal law, for it happens that owing to strong attachment the same persons may be born again and again in the same fiimily~ This accounts for the fact that a child may be totally unlike either of its parents in temperament, tastes and abilities, yet may resemble a dead grand-father or some more distant ancestor. Physical appea~ rance may be derived in the first place from the genes of the parents, but it undergose modifications as the individual develops along his own lines, and it is then that distinctive characteristics, the resuftx of habitual though tendencies stamping them selves upon the features,
become more pronounced.
        That the mind, or rather the mental impressions and volitional activities, produce changes in the living structure, is a fact which science is beginning to recognize. Hypnotism affords an opportuility of studying this phenomenon under test conditions. ft is only recently that hypnotic suggestion as a mode of therapeutic treament has been officially recognized by medi~ associations in many parts of the world, but it is aleeady being used with success as a form ofharmless anaesthesia duiing operatins and childbith, and as a treatment for psychological dis-orders. Clinical experiments with hypnosis are helping to reveal the secrets of the mysterious action of mind on body, for it has been found possible by suggestion to produce physical reactions which under orindary conditions could only be obtained by physical means. Doubtless many of the ‘~aith cures” of religious or non-religious centres m the world to-day are the result of a strong mental force, comparabel with that produced under hypnotism, action upon the physical body; the force in this instance being the patient’s absolute conviction that a miraculous cure will take place. The taks of the hypnotic practitioner is to induce this acquiescent and receptive state of unquestionining faith by artificial means. This, of course, requires the consent and c+~e~ation of the subject, and it is here that the difficulty usually arises. The patient must have complete faith in the operator to enable him to surrender his own will entirely, for the time being, to another person. when flill control of the subject’s mind is gained the required suggestion can be made with every confidence that the mind of the subject will carry them out, and the astonishing thing is that not only does the mind obey, but the body also responds. If; for instance, the idea of a burn is conveyed through the mind, the mark of a burn duly appears on the flesh on the spot indicated, without the use of any physical means to produce it. Many similar experiments attest to this close inter-relationship of the mental
and physical, and prove beyond question the truth of the Buddhist teaching that mental conditions precede and determine certain classes of phenomena which we have been wont to consider purely
physical and material;
        All this has a distinct bearing on the manner in which the mental impulses generated in past lives, particularly the last mental impressions at the time of the preceding death, influence the physical make up, and often predetermine the very structure of
the body, in the new brith.
        As alerady stated above the life-continuum flows on from one existence to another in the endless success ion of Patisandhi,
Bhavanga, vithi and Cuti.
        There is no actual thought-existence that passes across from one life to another, but only an impulse. Each moment of consciousness passes away completely, but as it passes it gives rise to a successor which tends to belong to the same pattern; and this process is the same, whether it be considered from the viewpoint of the moment-to-moment life-continnuin that~makes up a total lifespan, or from that of the connecting link between one life and the next. The rebirth is instantaneous and is directly conditioned by the preceding thought-impulse. Since both mind and body are conditioned by it, even the distinctive pattern of the brain convolutions that accompanies a particular talent, say for music or mathematics, is the result of this powerfill mental force operating from the past life and stamping its pecuhar features on the physical substance, the living cell-tissuse of the brain. It is this which accounts for the phenomenon of genius in circumstan-
ces where heredty offers no tenable explanation.
        In some way not yet known to science, the thought-energy released at the time of death is able to control the combinations of male and female gametes and by means of Utu (temperature) and the other purely physical elements of generation to produce a living organism that embodies the nature and potentialities of
the past Kamma in a new life (anagata vipaka bhava).
        It should, however, be noted that strongly marked tendencies, both mental and physical, as well as actual memories belonging to past lives, are most in evidence when the rebith is direct from one human life to another. The memories themseh~ ~re transferred by impression on the brain cells so that the ordinary rules of memory obtain here and it is the most recent and vivid impressions that survive. Intermediate lives in one or other of the remaining planes of life can efface altogether the memory of previous human lives, and if ~ these intermediate existences have been in any of the lower states, where consciousness is dim, or spent in the inconceivably long lifespe, of the Deva realm, if eam bardly beexpected that there should be any recollection at all. This is only one of the many reasons why most people altogether fail to remember having existed in a previous state, and yet may
have a vague feeling that have done so.
        In terms of Paticcasamuppada (dependent origination) also, Sankliara (kamma tendencies) conditioned by Avijja (ignorance) produces V~nmana (consciousness), and from consciousness springs up a fresh Nama-Rupa (mind-body) bearing all the mental objects that impress themselves on the last moments of consciousness during repeated Citta-vithis (cogni- tive thoughta) on the same object. It is thus that all living beings carry with them, through out countless existences, the inheritance of their own thoughts and actions, sprung from past tendencies and nourished on the ever-renewed craving that comes from contact between the senses and the objects of the external world. Heredity itself is merely one f()ctor in the multiple operation ~ of the law of Kamma and Vipaka (result), and it too is greatly influenced by the direction taken by past interests, activities and attachments.
        In the Buddhist teaching it is naturally the moral aspect of Kamma and Vipaka that is stressed; and indeed there is a moral aspect to every major volitional impules. The relationship of good Kamma and good Vipaka, bad Kamma andbad Vipaka, however,is not always obvious at first glance. A child born with a physical deformity has not necessarily inflicted injury of a similar kind on someone else in a previous life. The physical defect may be the result of a strong mental impression produced by some other means. But, the ultimate cause can invariably concerned, to some trait of character unduly dominated by the Asavas, the taints or fluxes associated with the grasping tendency which in Paticca-samuppada is shown as the imn~ediate cause of the process of’~ecoming” (Uppada or grasping) which gives rise to Bhava or becoming which in its turn causes jati (arising or rebirth) Thus the whole individual life process, mcluding its physical medium, the Rupa (body), must be viewed as Santati that is, a causal continuum of action and result, all the actions being to some degree tainted by craving for existence, passion, self-interest and ignorance, until the attainment of Arahatship extinguishes
these energy-supplying fires.
_________of how rebirth in the human state takes place is sometimes obscured by misconeeptions regarding certain biological principles, espectally those releting to the transmission of heroditary characteristics. Here it is necessary to realies that ‘~he various parts of an organism are not received intact from the parents but developed out ofcomparatively simple structures present in the egg. There is no real anology between he~edity an~ the legal notion of inheritance of p)~y~Oiice speaks loosely of a given hereditary character being ‘~ansmitted” from parent to off~i~~g but obviouslythis is impossible since the only matetials which can be thus transmitted are those contamed in the uniting sex cells, the eggsand spermatozoa in higher ammals. An indi~dal receive from his parents not a set of flilly-formed characters hut a set of determinants or comes, as a con sequence of whose activities the heraditary characters are developed. This concept of hereditary doterminants is flindamental for an understanding of heredity (~o{ G.ll.Beale, lecturor in Geneties, ~din burgh University, 1957). The dW~tolmm.~ants are therefore only a contribution to the sumtotal of characters, or personality The parent to which they are decisive must depend very largely on other factors, not all of which are to be accounted for by environmen~ Heredity and the predispositions from past Kamma may be complmantary to one another, as when attachment leads to repeateds rebirth in the same racial group, of even in the same famely; or the Kammic tendencies may medity or counteract the hareditary characteris
tics.
        It will be seen, therefore, that the claim that biological heredity and environmental influences are the sole causes of origin of personality is not quite correct, especially because siblings with the same same hereditarybackground and reared in the same environment and even those one-egg conjoined twins. as stated above, show marked differences in character and ability as well as in the structure of the body and that the principle of Buddhist rebirth is no less applicable here in the case of sex changes than in those of other psycho-physic paranormal phenomena, and that the theory of arising and vanishing (Oppada Vaya) denotes not only the arising of a new mind-body complex at brith or rebirth as the resuft of Kamma of one that existed before; but it also stands for the arising of consoious thoughts-moments as they succeed one another in the causal continuum of his life-time, each conscious thought-moment, arising and vanishing, being a little birth and a little death; and this aftemation of birth and death is going on all the time . It is for this reason that Buddhism defines all existence as Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta (Impermanent, subject to suffering and no-self). We must not forget here that there are four modes ofBuddhis birth or rebirth (Jati or Patisandhi), Viz. (1) Andaga (egg-born), (2) Jalabuja (womb-born), (3) Samsedaja (moiture-born), and (4) Opapatika (spontane
ous or apparitional rebirth (or) pre-mortem rebirth?)
        After all the entire universe consists of energy, an acknowledgement of this fact will help us to understand that human personality is also energy. Man is, no doubt a congery of phyaical and mental energies without a self or anything belonging to a self At death the psychical energy disappears from the body and in rebirth on the human plane. the male sperm and female ovum of the parents serve as physical basis for the psychical energy, i.e. the Kamma force i~omthe dying man. ft is apparent, therefore, that the parents also j~y some part in the process of rabirth, that is to may that Kaimic force (or paychic energy) from the dying man gravitates to the sperm-ovum combination which provides it with a suftable genetis and hereditary b  ground for its
development as a paycho-physical antity.
        Here we must understand that no soul or self-entity is tranamitted from one personality to a subsequent pereonality in the process of rebirth. All that is transmitted is the effect of prior which corresponds to the invi~5energy of the sun traverising the empty space. That energy becomes a new ‘~personalfty” when it is draw~ to the physical con~ituents of embodji~~life, and in that now manifestation it beare the karmic characteristics that ware generate in the past, just as the sun’s energy becomes light on contact with solid objects capable of reflecting it. For an instance, we used to say that the sun gives light. What actually happens is the sun generates an energy; that energy is projected into the void of space, where there is nothing physical to transmit it. Nevertheless it is transmitted, over millions of miles of shear emptiness, and that emptiness remains in black darkness. When, however, the sun 5 energy reaches a physicalac{
erundergies object. such asthe earth’s atmosphere,~s    achange.
Diffused by the partieles of gas constituting the atmosaphere, it
becomes discernable to our eyes and we call it light.
********
“Kamma and Rebirth” by Mr.Hnmphrey,
the late President of the Pali Society of London.
        Therefore, As regards the three causal factors of rebirth (or Patisandhi citta) referred to above, Viz ., (1) heredity, (2) environment and (3) Kamma or mental impulses generated in the past, particularly the last mental impressions at the time of the preced~TnCg death, Mr.Hnmphrey, the late President of the Pali Society of London, saya on pages 38 & 56 of his little book “Kamma
and Rebirth” as follows:,
(1) If there is anything a man can truly call his own it is not
what he possesses but what he does (Kamma).
(2) Karma expresses not that which man inherits from his ancestors, but that which he inherits from himself in some previous
state of existence.
(3) In the same way environment is a product of one’s own past action (kai~Wa) ~r each new birth accords with the karni~~t~eYre
in to be discharged.
Kamma only that follows on death.Buddish is also quoted as saying
in the Dhammapada in a similar vein.
Atta gehe nivuttanti sussane mittabandhava sugatam duggatam kamma
chayava anuyaysti.
The meanlng in short is ; “It is none of your wealth nor property nor those inherited from parents and ancessator~n%rany member of your family nor friends but action (kan~~ ~at follows you as a
shadow on death.
        Heredity and the theory of genes cannot explain all the behaviours of man. Man shows many individual characteristics which cannot be traced back to heredity and genes such as the occurrence of a genious or a potential criminal born into a perfectly normal
and respectable family.

Further expositions of Buddhist Rebirth.
        To put all the above more simply in a plain language~$or the man in the street to understand, the pali world pehisamdle ~ nearest English equivalent of which is rebirth or new birth, means mind or consciousness which joins the past life with the present; nothing is transferred from the former to the letter which arises as a resuftoof the past Kamma (i.e. impulsive activity or volitional action). In other worlds, nothing emerges from the five aggregates of the dead man to find its way in the new aggragates or new life ft may be supposed from this statem~ntthat there is no link or no connection between the past and the present; but such a supposition is not correct. That there is a link or connection between any two mental states is now a proven fact accepted both by scientists and psychologists. It is clear, therefore, that there is a similar link or connection between the last mental state or last impulsive activity of the past life and the new life. Should a man die here in Burma and be reborn in England of some other distant place, the period occupied by this operation would be as brief as the interval between the passing of one mental state and the arising of another. Thus, afthough nothing comes from the past to the new life, the first mental action of the present life belongs to the mental series as to whether a man, who is reborn, is the another? To answer this, let us take an analogy from our every-day-life; when we look into a mirror the reflection we see there is not our own real face; but since its appearance is due to and similar to our own real face, we call it our face. Similarly, the five aggregates (or
pancekkhandha) or mind and corporeality (or nama-rupa) of the new life are not the five aggregates (or Pancekkhandha)or mind and corporeality (nama-rupa) of the past life, because none of the five aggregates or nama-rupa has come over to the present new life, and we cannot also say that both are entirely different from
each other.
        Futher details on the subject may be referred to the Milindha panna questions and answers on pages.... of this introductory
thesis.
        We can rest assured, however, that the principle of Buddhist Kamma (action) and vipaka (resuft or rebirth) will not be affected in any way by the fact of artificial insemination or even the approaching possibility of babies being engendered in test tupes. Whenever the genetic factors are present, together with the necessary environmental conditions Kamma icforce~ fro~m a deceased personality can aid and mould a new~ycliaipli~sical
organism.
                Nissaya paccaya Dhamma (Dependence Condition).   
        All this is very well expressed in the parthana of the abhidhmma; “Yam rupam nissaye manodhatu ca manovinnanadhatu ca
vaff anti, tam rupam manodlia tuya ca manovinnanadhatuya ca tam samyuttaka nanca dhammanam nissayapaccayena paccayo.”
It is the mano-dhatu (element of mind) which is barely
(indistinctly) conscious of its object, or it is the mano-vinnana-dhatu(element of mind consciousness), which is throughly (distinctly)conscious of its oij{t, ~at arises dependent on the
rupa-yatana(physical base or heart base).
        It is this rupa-yatana (physical base or heart base) that gives rise to the element of mind or element of mind consciousness as well as the relevant concomittanta by way of Nissaya paccaya
Dhamma (Dependence Condition).
Patisambhida Magga
        In connection with the same subject of Kamma and Rebirth, the patisambhida Magga mm~entary says as follows;-
Idha patisandhi vinnanem name-rupam passado ayatanam phuttho phassa vedayitam vedana iti ime panca dhamma idhupa pavutti bhavasmim
purekatassa kammassa pac~aya.
It is due to past kamma (past mental, physical and verbal action) that the present five dhamma (five phenomena) arise These five dhammas are (1) rebirth consciousness linking the past with the present; (2) nama-rupa (psycho-physical organism; (3) Passada and ayatans (senses and sense object); (4) phassa (contact); and
(5)vedana (feeling).
            The Abbidhammattha Sangaha carries a passage        
        The Abbidhammattha Sangaha carries a passage from the
atthana, the law of relativity, in which it is stated
Shadha namantu namassa pancadha namarupinam. Ekadha puna rupassa rupam namassa c’ekadha.pannattinamarupani namassa duvidha dvayam. Dvayassa navadlia c’eti chabbidlia paccaya kathaim
The meaning is; Mind is related to mind in six ways. Mind is related to mind and matter in five ways. Matter is related to matter in one way and to mind in one way, Concepts, mind and matter are related to mind in two ways. Mind and matter are related to mind and matter in nine ways. Further details on the same subject may be referred to the Abhidhammattha Sangaha in the
chapter dealing with patthana.
            nama-rupa (five psycho-physical aggregates);       
The following are more definitions of what is life or living organism which we call nama-rupa (five psycho-physical aggregates); Ye nirodha marantassa titha manassa va idha, sabbe pi sadisa Kamdha gata appati sandiya. There a~v~’e~andha nama-rupa (five psychophysical aggregates) of a dying man which cease to flinction at the time of his moment of death, that is maranasanna-kala. There are also five khandha ~ (five psycho-physical aggregates) of a living individual which cease to flinction at the vanishing instant of his thought moment, that is called Bhangakkhana in Pali, during his life-time. Both are the same. In both cases once the Khamdhas are gone they are gone for ever,never to return.
It is just like our sending a telepho~o fiom Mandalay to
Rangoon. The original photograph does not ~o or never moves from
Mandalay to Rangoon. But there is the causal relation between the original photograph and the photograph which is received in Rangoon. Photohraph are now senit in this way through the post office
telecommunication system.
The same with television.
In this matter patthana of Buddhist Abhidhamma says as follows;-Yesamyesam dhammanam anantara ye ye dhamma upp4janti
citta cetasika dhamma; te te dhamma tesanitesam dhamanam anantara paccayena paccayo.meaning in short is- “All classes of consciousness and their mental concomitants which have just ceased (in the immediately preceding instant) are anantara paccayas (relation of continguity).What are those that are related by the law of
All classes of consciousness and their mental concom~hich have just arisen (in the immediately succeeding instant) are related by the law of continguityI    ~d6~$ Huxley~ one of the great philosphers of our time, in one of his books, foretold a honible development of films in which tactile sensation was conveyed as
well as vision and sound.
The logical conclusion from all this to develop films which take possession of the minds of the audience and make them identity themselves in consciousness with one or other of the characters.
We are told that the technique of subliminal suggestion is already going some way towards conditioning people to think as
directed. At first jiJ’n~ in black and whiie were selected; then sound was added, and after that colour. Then came vista-vision, andt~tempts to make three dimensional pictures. It is said that the latest addition is to be smell; but what name will be given to
this entertainment is not yet known.
It will, be seen from the above, therefore that, according to Buddhism, reincarnation or rebirth takes place not only on the death, tha~ is Marana-sanna-kala, of a living being but also during his lifetime, that is pavutti-kala before his final death or Maranasanna-kala. That is to say that every living being as stat~1)efore is nothing but a manifestation of the mind and matter arising and vanishing at the rate of over 1,000,000,000,000 in a
flash of lightning or in an eye’s wink.
The Buddha also says in the Anguttara Nikaya~ Seyyathapi Bliikkiiave apamatta kopigutho duggandho hoti. Eva meva kho aham bhikkhave apamattakampi bhavan na vunne mi antamasso icchara sankliata mattampi, the meaning of which in short is- ‘~hikkh us” the smell from a tiny bit of excrement is still evil and disgusting. The
same is true of the life of a living being even though it is so short as an eye’s wink or a snap of fingers or a flash of lightning
which I would’nt admire.
There are on record instances of people all over the world who hava possessed wonderfiil memories, some for what they had once said, others for musics, others for names etc., There are still those who have iimembered their past lives as we have stated above in tham~~olunns. The average person 5 memory is very bad indeed; but the fact that they do not remember an activity in their past di~~ not prove that it did not happen. The same is true of the memory ~of past lives. Same p9ople, simply because they cannot remember their past lives, d~½ that there have been any previous births. To students Os Buddhima this seems a rather foolish position for we are taught neither to accept nor rejoct any teaching until we have examind all the evidences for it and have experimented with it ourselves to see if it in true or unture. A Buddhist should live according to the evidence; but he must neveriudWther or be impatient if they cannot see things asothersdo.
It is common to read in the Buddhist literature the remarks of the Buddha and any of his disciples conceaping their own lives and those of other, and ofien too, of their flituAlives. Having attained his final Engliglhtment and developed higher spiritual powers, the Buddha declared over 2500 years ago in the Hailima Nikaya as follows;- so aneka vihitan pubbenivasan anussarami passayyathisam ekampijatim dvihijatm tihi jatim catuhi jatm pancahi jatim dassahi jatim visahi jatim pannasi jatim natampi jatim sahassa jatim dasasahassa jatim dasasahassa jatiadini.
The mesning in short is  “Bhikkus” I recall my varied lot in formar existences as follows;- irat one life, then two lives, then there, four, five, ten, twenty, up to fifly, then a hundred, athousand, a thousand, a hundred thousand and so on continuing Buddha said “So dibbena cakkhuna visuddhena attikkantama nusatena satte passami. cavamane upajjamane hine panite surunne dubbanne
sugate duggate yathakammu-page satta pajanami.
“With clairvoyant vision I perceived beings disaprearing from one state of existence and reappearing in another state. I behold the base and the noble, the beautiflil and the ugly, and the happy passing rdingtot~ deeds” (see sutta 36, M4jim Nikaya 1,248)
There are several other discourses in which the Buddha clearly states that the being4 who have done ~vil are born in woeflil states and those who have donegood are barn in blissfiil states. All the Jataka stories which are not only intere~ing but are of psychological importance, deal with the Buddha’s discigles who also developed supernormal spimtual powers and were able to
remember their past lives to a certain event.
I think I have now deaft with this subject of Kamma and Rebirth more than enough. I have gone into so much details about it because without proper understanding of this Kamma-and-rebirth problem, which is the most important link in the long chain ofPaticcasamuepada, the nuclous of the Buddhist philosophy, you will not be able to realise the most urgent need for eradicating Sakkaya Ditthi. I have already quoted in the foregoing a passage from the visuddhi Magga Commentary to point out that realisation af Ariya I)ukkha Sac~a (Nobel Tiuth of Suffering) gives rise to eradication of sakkaya Dirthi (Egoistic Wrong view) and that without eradication of Sakkaya Ditthi you cannot realise Magga,
Phala or Nibbana (i.e. the final emancipation).
As already stated at the beghining, the real purpose of there discussion is to serve~ ~ rullnmg exegetical commentary on the principal doctrines such as the Four Noble Truths of the Dhammacakka Pavattana suff a, Anatta Dhamma of the Anatta Lekkha ~utta, Four foundations ofMindfiilness of the Maha Satipattha Sutta, in all of which the problems of( 1) ultimate tn~th (i.e. Fourfeld Noble Truth); (2) sentient beings or oIi~Lanic life; (3)~’ birth or rebirth and (4) law ofrelations (Paccaya Dhamma), are flilly discussed for realisation of Magga, Phala and Nibbana or for final
liberation from all surrings.
Now, as stated already in the previous columns, this important
subject of Kamma and Rebirth has been discussed more tjha~~~ sufficiently not only in the light of the Buddhist ethic6~pThAiosophy
but also in that of the latest discovery of the seientific research on psychic phenomena, i.e. parapsychology of ESP (Extra-sensory Pereption), and the allied subject or subsidiary psychic powers such as telepathy, clairadience, telekaneties, psychometrics, and other wonder-working phenomena much as magic powers, hypnotism, occuft practiees, so on and so forth. All these latest discoveries of modern sciences are nothing peculiar to the Buddha’s teaching of Abh~a (Higher Spiritual or Suppernomal Fowers) such as (1) Iddhividha (i.e. magic power); (2) Dibba Cakkhu (div~~); (3) ]5ibba~~ Sota (divine ear); (4) Cetopariya (Telepathy) and (5) Pubbenivasa (rem~i~~~ A)erance of fermen lives). All these Super-normal Powers can be developed by meditation practioes or
mind training exeucises.
These were discovered and preached by the Buddha over 2500 years age, when he also discovered and preached Lokuttara Abhinna (Supramundane Higher Spiritual Power) which is called in pali Asavakhhaya-Abhinna (i.e. realisation of a state totally free from all such as Kamasava (sensual desire), Bhavesava (craving for life or existance), Ditthasava (attachment to wrong view), and Avijj~asava (attachment to ignoranceof truth). Sinence, However, has not yet discovered anything like this last Abhinna of Buddha. We sincerely hope that world scientists are doing their best to discover it sooner
or later.
Paticcasamuppada (law of dependent origination)
    Before we close this chapter on the universal law of Kamma and rebirth, I would like to say some things more about Paticcasamuppada (law of dependent origination) as a few hints given here and there about it are not, in my opinion, quite sufficment.
Paticca-samuppada (the law of dependent origination is, as we all know, a doctrine of conditionality of all physical and psychical phenomena, which together with that ofAnatta (Ego or Imp ersonalit aorms an indispensable condition for real understanding and realization of the Buddha’s teaching and explains above everything eles how the arising of jati (birth or rebirth) and I)ukklia (suffering) is dependent upon conditions by showing that the various physical p~;stTh(31and psychical life processes, ~ called personality, man~ii~al, ect., are the out comes of causes and conditions only, nothing else. The reverse roder of paticca- samuppada shows how with the removal of these causes and conditions all forms of suffering will cease. While the obverse order shows that all kinds of suffering will arise there causes and conditions exit. Paticca-samuppada is not a theory on the evolution of the world from primordial matter. It deals, of course, with the cause of rebirth and suffering. ft does not in the least try to solve the riddle of the absolute origin of life.
The following diagram shows at a glance how the 12 links of
the formula extend over the three consecutive periods of past, present and future;-
                    
                 1.    Avijja (ignorance)
                  2.    Sankhara (kamma formations
                    or volitional activities)
                  3.     Vinnana (conciousness)
                  4.    Nama-Rupa(mind-matter or
                    psycho-physical compless)
                  5.    Ayatana (sense organs)
                  6.    Phassa (sense impressions)
                  7.    Vedana (feeling)
                  8.    Tanna (craving)
                  9.    Upadana (clinging
                           or attachment)
                10.    Bhava (kamma process)
   
                11.    Jati (rebirth) 
                12.    Jara-marana (decay-death)

Avijja paccaya sankhara ,Sankhara paccaya vinnana,
Vinnana paccaya nama-rupam,Nama-rupa paccaya salayatanam ,
Salayatana paccaya phasso, Phassa paccaya vedana ,Vedana paccaya tanna, Tanna paccaya upadana,Upadana paccaya bhava,Bhava
paccaya jati,Jati paccaya jara-marana ,sawka,parideva etc.
Because of avijja there is sankliara;because of sankhara there is vinnana;because of vinnana there is nama-rupa; because of nama-rupa there is salayatana; because of sa~yatana there is phassa; because of phassa there is vedana; because of vedana there is tahna; ~ because of talma there is upadan~; because of upadana there is bhava; because of bhava there is jati; beacause ofjati
there is jara-marana-soka etc., etc.,
From the above it will be seen that the first two links, avijja and sankhara belong to the past~as Kamma(cause~e eight links from vinnana to bhav~ to the present and the last jati to jara-marana etc., to the future, thus the three groups of the 12 to links of paticcasamuppada are taking place every moment. Jati and jara marana that are to arish~g~and venish one afier other in the future have arise* and vanished in the past, and are arising and vanishing in rapid succession in the present. Avijja and sankhara are the same. Obviously paticcasamuppada is a process of cause and effect or action and reaction; Kamma and vipaka in     h is always in a state of ali, wc flux arising and vanishing from moment to moment in the three periods of past, present and future; in fact, the process of cause and effect goes on arising and vanishing from moment to moment all the time in the present life-time. To underatand all this fally, we shall have to study properly the meanings and interpretations of the Vali texts concerned. According to Buddhist philosophy Jati (rebirth) and Marana (death) are like the current of water flowing all the time without interruption.
In order to understand the idea of dividing into t~~oups such as past, present and future, we must know the theory that a single cause (Kamma) produces its effect or resuks in three separate periods, so that avijja and sankhara are treated as Kammabhava (kamma process or life process) or process of cause and effect of the past which produces its effects or resufts in the present, which is called paccup anna vipakebhava (resuftant rebirth process) of the present. This present vipakabhava is the resuft of the past producing its resufts in the present or in the filture. ifthe resufts are produced in Lhe present they are called paccupanna vipakabhava (resuftant rebirth process) of the present, developing the five factor from vinnana to vedana in the middle of the farunal viz., (1) v~ana (2) nama-rupa (3) salayatana (4) phassa and (5) vedana which are the results of the volitional actions done in the past. if the volitional actions done in Lhe past were good their resufts in the present would be good; if the volitional actions done in the past were bad their resufts in the present would be bad. This is at least one of the re~ons why there are ~ifferences in the mind and body of men in particular and other livings ~eings il~~~ing~nimals in general. As we all are aware from our daily life, some are heafthy, others are not; some ~e rich while others are poor and so on. But we cannot take it for granted that our past is always the mother of all inventions in the present because we   can~; modily or improve the three factors orlimks, (1) Tabna (craving), (2) Upadana (clinging) and (3) Bhava (kamma of life process) shown in) the middle of the formual as ~accu~panna kammabhava (kamma or life process) of the present, which is just like the Kammabhava (kamma or life process) of the past. We can also after one way or the other process of cause and effect through volitional actions (kamma). As the past begins with avijja (ignoranea) so does the present with Tahna (~raving). Both are the same in effect and both start first in
their respective spheres of volitional action so tahan and ~vijja can be dispelled if you will; once tahue is gone avi~a will follow
suit.
Jati and jara-marana of the future are ofvipakabhava (rebirth process). They are resufts of the kamma process or action done in the present. As this vipakabhava of the present, the entire network of pati~c~samuppada must be said to have contamed onlytwo types of C:Kamma-bhava (kamma or life process) of past and present and two of vipakabhava (resuftant rebirth process) of present and
future.
As there is no jiva (soul) nor spirit, nor any permanent ego entity nor enduring seff we cannot claim that any jiva (soul) or spirit, etc., transmigrates from one living being on death to another. All living beings, human or subhuman or Deva (deity) are me~ manifestations of Kammas (actions). It is therefore possible for a person who is guilty of an evil action through loba (greed), Dosa (hate) or Moha (delusion) to take rebirth, on death in an ~imal’s body. This is not to suggest that the theory of transmigration or the be~14~ that a person on death becomes a Deva (deity), man or animal is correct. We used to say that a person on death becomes a Deva (deity),man or animal not as an absolute philosophical truth but only as conventional term. In the uftimate sense, however, it is a new mindbody complex (Nama-Rupa) generated or ilffluenced by the causal contmuum (kammic force) of the previous life process or previous personality ft is just like the identity between a newly born infant and the old man it because later, which is only an identity of causal I    continum. What we mean is that the infant is the causal antecedent of the old man and the old man is the effect~roduct of the infant. It is purely and simply a causal relationship; the one is the result of the other ‘~ote the same, yet not another (na ca no na ca anno)” as Arahat Nagasena is quoted as answering King Milinda’s question. The old man may cariy the same name as he did in his infancy, but he is not the same man in mind and body as a stream of flowing water is not the same stream from moment to moment. Just like the following water of that stream, it is the Bhavangha Citta (sub- conscious mind) or causal continuum of cause and effect manifesting itself as an infant in the past and an old man in the present.
A living being or what we may call Five Khandha or psychophysical compound is nothing but a more manifestation of the law of Kamma and vipaka (cause and effect or action and reaction or resuft). if we look at Patic~6asamuppada as a whole, we find, as state above that it begins with Avijja (ignorance), a cetasika ( mental
concommitant).    bhav~becorniiig.
The life-process of a living being is called
It also explains the cause and condition not only of man but also
of other species.
As already stated, Avijj~a and Sankhara shown in the first part of the formuali’(past) are Kammas or actions done as causes in the past From Sankhara we have \(mana (consciousness); and through
its impact with a material object or physical base we have five sense organs otherwise known as 28 types or Rupa (material phenomena), Sanna (perception), Vedana (feeling) Sankliara (50 cetasikas or mental concommitants) and Vinnana (consciousness). It is the appearance of \(nmana from Sankliara that is the beginning of a new bhava or rebirth or conception inthe mother’s womb. This new psycho physical compelx consists of sixAyatanas (six sense organ~ Through Ayatana we have Phassa (contact) with the outsists world or environment. From phassa we have vedana (feeling). The whole gi~()i~~)f vinnana, Nama-Rupa, Salayatana, Phassa, Vedana is the resuft of Atita kamma (action in the past); it is also called paccupan na vipakabhava (1)resent rebirth process). It was caused and conditioned b~n~ or ~liitional action in the past, in other words, the mind and body we have in the present were caused and conditional by ~etana kamma (volitional action) in the past; but our filture Os dependent on the present kamma.
From enjoyment of  sensual pleasure, we have Tahna (craving) for seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and for thinking or knowing. From Talma we have Upadana we have bhava (‘)rocess of  life).Bhava is not an objective phenomenon; it is a ceaseless process of cause and effect like the current of~blwin’’g water or a burning flame. These Tanha, Upadana and Bhava are the three that manifest themselves in the present as Cetana Kamma (volitionas action or impulse). They ,~r called Kammabhava or Kamma Process or Life Process of the present like the Atita Kamma bhava or Kammabhava or
life Process of the past.
It will be seen, therefore, that the five from ~nmana to veden~~~f the present are the resufts of Atita Kamma (action in the past) a~d that through the influences of these resuftant vipalabhava (resuftant rebirth process) there arises new Kamma or fr~ causal
Kamma process.
According to this moral law of Kamma and vipaka (cause and effect etc) what we are at present, has been determined by our kam~ in so we cannot make a change or it as a general rule; but we are at fiilllibertyto do good orbad aswe like for our good orbad future. Rich or poor, heafthy or unheafthy, educated or uneduc- aed, etc., are the wholesome or unwholesome qualities of man determined by his Kamma (action) of the past. But, how he is to deal with his immediate situation in the present has not been determined by the past Kamma. if he is poor and unheafthy at present he should_do good in the present so that he becomes rich and hea~ the future. You can over~ o~ at least change some of the unsatisfactory states of affairs into good by your good deed, good word and good thought. A sickly man can improve his heafth by volunteering public heafth services. A dull-witted man can become an intelligent person if he makes every effect at learning with zeal, industry and perseverence. All this will prove that Kamma is in flill accord with the moral law of cause and effect.
The last two. Jati and Jara-Marana of the 12 links or factors of paticcasamuppada belong to Anagata vipakabhava (resuftant re
birth process of the future).
From all the above it will be seen that the process of cause and effect extends all the three periods of past, ~resent and future in succession. There are, however, four m~des of the proecss, the two of which are called Kamma (action) as cause, the remaining two being vipaka (reaction, effect or resuft). It must be noted that Avijja and Sankliara of the past and jati and jata Marana of the future are described here only in brief There are others between Vinnana and ~~ava all of which are turning round and round in a ceaseless process like a wheel, some of them active sometimes and
in~ctive, occuring every where within the wheel. Jati and Jara-Marana also occur in all past, present and fliture, irespective of whether their impressions are vivid or not, m accordance with the Buddhist philosophy of mind and matter which are always in a state of flux, constantly arising and vanishing all the time. From this it is obvious that a man’s character and ability are caused and conditioned not only by such material element as reproductive cells from the parents not by environment but also by his past Kamma (ph~al,vei~al or mental action). This is also how we ~ould account for the differences among humanity. Why should one be brought up in the lap of luxury endowed with fine moral and physical qualities, and anothe#4 absolute povert;’ steeped in misery? Wily should one be born a millionair and another a pauper? why should one be a mental prodigy and another an idiot? Wily should one be born with saintly characteristics and another with criminal tendencies? Why was a criminal born in a long line of honourable ~estors? Why should some be linguists? artists, mathamati~ c4ans and musicians from the very cradle? Why should others be congenitally blind, deaf and deformed? Wily should some be blessed and others cursed from their birth? There must either be a cause or causes for all these inequali~ ~ties of mankind.
    It is obvious from Buddhism in general and Patiecasamuppada in particular that this inequality is due not only to heredity, environment, ‘nature and ni~rt~~1~ut also to Kamma, our own past and present kmma (actions). In Culakamma vibilanga Sutta No.135 Mi~ima Nikaya a young truth-seeker questioned Buddha about this intricate problem of inequality as follows:- ‘~at is the cause, what is the reason, 0 Lord, that we find amongst mankind the short-lived (Appayuka) and the long-lived (I)ighayuka), the healthy (App abadha), the diseased (bavhabadha), the ugly (Dubbana) and the beautiffil (Vaimavanta), the powerless (Appasesakkha) and the powerfill (Mahasakidia), the poor (Appbhoga) and the rich (Maha-bhoga), low-born (Nicakulina) and the high-born (Niccakulina),
the ignorant(Duppamma) and the wise (Pannavanta)
A brife reply given by the Buddha is as follows:- Kammassaka Bhikkhave satta kammadayada kamma yoni kamma bandhu kammappati saraka>am kammam karunti kalayanam va papakam va tassa dayada bhanvanti, the meaning of which in short is. “All living beings have action (kamma) as their own, their inheritance, their reflige. It is kamma that classifies being into low and high.
We were~ course, born with hereditary characteristics; but we do have certain abilities skills and tendencies that science cannot adequately account for at least for the gross sperm and ovum that form the nucleus of this so-called being or personality. There they remain dormant until the potential germinal compound is vitalized by the kammic energy needed for the development of foetus. Kamma is therefore the indispensable conceptive cause of
this being.
The accumulated kammic tendencies, inherited by individuals in the course of their previous lives play perhaps a for greater role
than the hereditary parental cells and g~nes in jhe formation of both physical and mental characteristics. For instance, the Buddha inherited like every other person the reproductive cells and genes from his parents. But, physically, morally and intellectually there was none comparable to him in his long line of royal ~ In the Buddha’s own words, he belonged not to the royal lincage, but to that of the Ariyam Buddhas. He was certainly a superman, an
extraordinary creation of his own Kamma.
According to lakkhana sutta in Digha Nikaya the Buddha inberited these exceptional features such as the 32 major marks as
the resuft ofhis past meritorious deeds or kamma. The othical reason for acquiring each physical feature is clearly explained in the It is obvious from this unique case that kammic tendencies not only influence our physical organism, but also render the potentiality of parantal cells and genes ineffective. That is the reason why the Buddha has said “we are he~our own actions (kamma).”
It is clear, therefore, that our present, physical, mental, moral, intellectual and temperamental differences are preponderantly due to own actions and tendencies, both past and present.
Although Buddhism shows that these differences are due to kamma as the chief cause amongst a varitaty ofc~uses,yetit does not claim that everything is due to kamma. The law of kamma, important as it is, is only one of the twenty-four conditions ~accaya) described in the Buddhist philosophy-~Refiiting the erronecus view (pubbekatahetuditthi) that what~ver weal or woe or neutral feeling is experienced, all that is due to some pravious action, the Buddha states:- “Tenahayasamanto p anatipatino bhavissanti issaranimmana hetu, abvymacarino bhavissanti pubbekatahetu, musa~adino bhavissanti pubbekatah~tu, pisunavac~~bhavissanti pubbekatahetu, pharusavac~i~ bhavissanti; pubb ekatahetu, samphapp alapino bhavissanti pubb ekatahetu,,Al(nktbhavi~~~i pubbekatahetu, byapannacitta bhavissanti pubbekatahetu, mic~ditthika bhaviasanti
pubbekatahetu tL
us, ifthat be the case, there will be persons who have
become~, due to previous kamma (actions), murderers, thieves, liars, adnltere~~a~~ers,babblers, covetors, malicious persons and
man P of wrong view.”
This important text contradicts the beli~~~~hat all physicsl circumstanses and mental attitades spiing from past kamma. if the
present life is tetally conditional or caused by our past actions L (kamma), then surely kamma is tantamount to fatalism, determinism and predetermination. One will not be free to mould one’s present and filture.In that case freewill becomes an absolute farce. Life becomes purely mechanistic, not ~uch different from a machine Whether we are crested by an almighiy God who controls our destinies and fore-ordains our fliturs or are produced by an irresistible kamma __ that completely determines our fate and
independent of any free action on our part, is essentially the same. The only difference lies in the two words, God and kaim~~a. One could easily be substitated by the other, because the uftimate operation of both forces would be indentical.
The Buddist law of kamma is not such a fataliatic doctrine.
h~his connection it abould be ~ated that there are fivefold Niyamas (cosmic orders or cossic processes) which operate in the
physical and mental re They are:
(1)     Utu Niyema, means climic physical inorganic order, e.g., seasonal phenomens ofwinds and raing, seasonal changes and events, causes of winds and rains, nature of heat and cold;
(2)    Biza Niyama means cosmic order of germs and seeds or cosmic physical organic order, e.g., rice produced from rice, sugary taste from sugar cana or honey, peculiar characteristics of certam fruits, etc., The acientific theory of cells and genes and the physical aimilarity of twins belong to this order
(3)     Kamma Niyama means cosmic order ofijffi’;tion and result, e.g., desirable and undesirable actions produce con~$jn~m~ good and bad results. As surely as water se~s its~wn lev4 so (~karn~~a, given an oppertunity, ~ro~uceyts inevitable result, not in the form of a reward or punishment but as an innate saquence. This saquence of action and re~ult is as natural and necessary as the
way ofthe sun and the moon.
(4)     Dhamma Niyama means cosmic order of the norm, e.g., the natural phenomema accuning at the advent of a Baodhi satta in his last rebirth. Gravitation, etc., are incinded in this order.
(5)     Citta  Niyama means cosmic order of mind or psychic order,e.g., processes of consciousness, arising and vanishing of consciousuess, power of mind, telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance, clairaudience, Pare-psychology E. S.P(Extra-Sensory-Perception) and various other para-normal phenomena not yet known to the modern science belong
to this order.
Every mental or physical phenomenon could be explained by these all-embracing five orders which are laws in themselves. Kamma as such is only one of these five orders which, as is the case with
all natural laws, demand no law-giver.
Of these five, the physical inorganic order and the order of the norm are more or less mechanistic, though they can be controlled to some extent by human ingenuity and the power of mind. For example, fire normally burns and extreme cold freezes, but man has walked scatheless over fire and meditated naked on Himalayan snows; horticufturists have worked marvels with flowers and fruits; and Yogis ~’ have performed levitation. Psy~&& law is equally mechanistic, but Buddhist training aims at control of mind, which is possible by right understanding and skifflil vohtion Kamma law operates quit automaticaaly and, when the kamma is powerfiil, man cannot with its inex~aWe resuft though he may desire to do so; but h~re also right understanding and skiii~l volition can accomplish much and mould the fliture. Good kamma, persisted in, can thwart the ripening~of bad kamma, Kamma is certainly an intricate law whose working is flilly comprehended only by a Buddha.
The law of Kamma and Vipa4~;(q~ ~h) explains the problems of
(1)    suffering, the mystary of the so-called fate and
predestination and inequality of mankind.
(2). ft accounts for the arising ofgeniuses and infant prodigies.
(3). ft accounts why individual twins, physically alike and enjoying equal privileges, exhibit totally different characteris
tics, mentally, morally and intellectually.
(4). It accounts for the dissimilarities amongst childr~;he same family whilst heredity accounts for similarities.
(5). It accounts for the special abilities of man, due to their
prenatal tendencies.
(6). It accounts for the moral and intellectual differences be
tween parents and children.
(7). ft explains how infants spontaneously develop such passions
as lobha (greed), Dosa (Hate), jealousy, etc.,
(8). It accounts for the instinctive likes and dis-likes at first
sight.
(9). It explain~~w profligates are born to saintly parents and
saints to profligate parents.
(10). It accounts for the sudden transformation of a criminal in4b
a saint and a ~acter mto a    man into woman and woman into man.
(11). It explains the causes ofuntimely deaths and unexpected
~hanges of fortune, etc.,
(12)    The last but not the least is that it explains that even if science should ultimately succeed in generating life from non-living matter; the achievement will make no difference to the Buddhist doctrine of Kamma and vipaka (cause and effect or action
and reaction, or resuft).
In the words of the late Francis 4 tory on page 267 of his Collected Vol: 2 on the subject of rebirth as Doctijne and Experience(Qreferired to above: “The Kammic ~~Qrr~ent may remanifest ,~ through vital elements biought together a~cially in the same way as it does through the natural biological processes. The artificial production of living c)rganisms may deal the final blow to the theory of divine creation but it will not in any way affect the Buddhist explanation oflife.” I may also add here that if science shouldsucceed in prolonging our life for ever the Buddhist concept of Anicca (impermanent) would not be affected and that the law of Kamma (action) and vipaka (reaction or result
or rebirth) would still be in flill force.
We have so far discussed the Buddhist theory of rebirth at some length and in these discussions we have included a few interesting points on the modern medical science. I am now going to put forward some of my old news and notes collected from the local news media on the subject of rebirth ~nd medical science.
From the scientific point of view human beings are composed
of several billion cells. The simplest model of a cell is a half-boiled .~ hen’s egg without the shell. It has a central firm~~obulesurroui~ded a gelacinous coat, humanas in ~
approxunatei~~i~~ th~usand times ~maller than that of the averag hen’s~e central globule is called the nucleus and the coat i called cytoplasm~v~thin 1~e nucleus of every cell in the body lie
tin stringy structure called chromosomes.
Iluman beings have a complement of 46~chromosomes This means that in every nucleus of all soi~(b~y) cells, there are 46 separate stringy chromosomes. Each chromosome is composed of several thousand genes. The medical dictionary defines ‘gene’ as the ‘flinctional unity of heredity’. To be more precise, they are flinctional
units consisting of a discrete segment of a giant molecule of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) the primary element of living matter. The several thousand genes on each chromosome are arranged like rnngs on a very long ladder. Of course we are talking in microscopic
proportions.
Each gene is made up of a set of combinations of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen) arranged in a particular manner to represent a code. There are four nucleotides in the nucleus of every cell. They can four nucleotides in the nucleus of every cell. They can thus be arranged in 64 different ways to form coded instructions for the formation of the 20 different amino acids (basic elements~ of protein) that are present in the body The 20 amino acids in turn can be arranged in quadrillions of ways to form proteins. These proteins are the building blocks of organs and tissues and their architecterral syntaxis will determine whether a particular cell is the pre- embryonic mass will develop into a heart, a hand, a
liver, a leg, an eye and so on.
produ}~a{so The quality and efficiency of the end controlled by the genetic code. The tissues and organs thus produced amalgamate to form the human embryo which will enlarge and be born as a human~~~ ~ being if one~i~ers the (ntit~~~m~r of a
for the basic~%i½ilding elements one can safely assume that there Th5~ not, was never and will never be another individual exactly like oneself Every persoii~~ver conceived is thus unique.Although all human somatic cells ~ontain 46 chromosomes in their nuclei, the germ (reproduetive) cells the sperm in the male and the ova (egg) in the female contain 23 chromosomes. This is reasonable because the male germ cell must flise with the female germ cell, to produce a new individual. Mathematically, the new indiviqu~~uld thus have 23 chromosomes from the father plus 23 chromosomes from the mother to give 46 chromosomes in his every first cell a few minut~ afier fertilization takes plac~. This cell divides-thousands of time~ to produce masses and sheets of cells called tissues. These tissues arrange themselves into organs and the organs are finally organized to form the flinctiolling entity
called a person.
Genes start playing a role from the very moment of fertilization. The role is essentially one of direction or command mv~~mg a complex biochemical process. Every person has a set of genes inherited from two sources- parternal and mate~al. Not all the genes he possesses however manifest themselves by the flinction they perforim Some are eclipsed by their stronger dominant counteiparts which express themselves through preferential selection. Some inherited characteristics like a ABO blood group are controlled by a, single gene. Others like intelligence height,occlusion if teeth and sensitivity to certain drugs are under the direction of several genes. There are also a large number of diseases produced by’bad’ genes passed down tehr4~gh generations.Haemophilia- the bleeding disease-is an example.
    As a new- born babe is the product ofboth paternal and maternal genes, he would thus resemble both his parents in organic structure. Some features like the slant of the eyes or the fliliness of the lips are readily recognisable Other like the internal structure of the kidney, the cellular connections of the brain or the arrangement of the air tubes in the lungs may resemble one parent or the other. This in turn determines what sort of diseases the child will be predisposed to or what level of intellectual
achievement will be possible for him.
Almost as soon as a child is born surrounding or environmental factors begin to play a pa~t on his genome or genetical constitution. The diet, the weather, the care and education he receives are a few of the factors which can influence the effects of genes. Studies of identical twins ill various countues have high-lighted the effect of the environment on the genome. Identical twins, having developed from the splitting of a combination of one sperm with one ova are very similar in the genes they possess. There have been several scientific reports of such twins separated at birth and obliged to grow up in dissimilar circumstances. After several years, striking differences m social outlook and intelligence were noted. Differences in weight, body hair distribution and other physical traits we e also s~en. All these were thought to be due to th/e½nir~m~e ~’. In certain scientific circles, the controversy over the genetic virsus, environmental influence on
shaping a person’s mind and body still rages.
News & Notes Of New Scientitic Tkerapy
Apart from a few theories of physics there has been no other subject of science sin~e the beginning of the present c~ntury that is more progressive than the medicine and surgery of science. ft is now a little more than 100 years since the first surgical operation after administration of chloroform. Sedatives and potent drugs to relieve pain and mitigate suffering have opened the way for medical scientists to carry out without restraint surgical operation of various diseased organ and damaged parts of a human body Surgical operations that usually ended in death 40 years ago are now performed with ease and unique success. The new technique and the new chloroform have more or less reduced the number of fatal cases of faint and loss of s(~~sib~ty. The new equipment and apparatus of surgery are most useflil for the surgeon to get into the innermost regions ofthe human body and dissect the most delicate organ such as heart, brain etc. Cooperating with the medical scientists, the engim~er has invented new instruments and new machines for the surg(~Th~~~trace the mysterious flinctions of the human or~of the patient There are also technicians who have made artifi’ci~ human organs with metal to be used in place of diseased natural organs removed from the
patient’s body by the surgeon.
In some cases of surgical operetion a new technique of freezing is used in stead of the usual chloroform. This freesing technique is called crymotherapy, a new technique of creating low temperature. From this ~chnique we come to understand that as our frigidany at home is useflil in preventing our articles of food from decaying so the crymotherapy in precerving freezing sakee cur nerves frigid. The freezing technique, crymothexapy, has now become very useflil like the chloroform even in cases of major surgieal operations. As far as we know from scientists crymotherapy is more imPota~t~ou.~ can block anything that becomes septic by loweiing the temperature of the injured part of theinjured part of the body
    The Ethel-chloride acid carries a special element which is not susceptibe to the eir. It gets dried when it is exposed to the air as a~~r~suft of whi~ the tempeature falls down. if it drops on a humam body and gets dried the body will have no more sense feeling of touch. Members of the madical s~e~ave not yet known precisely why its exposure to the air causes low temaperature and l~ss of~ou?4i the medical ~¼nt~5~ have ac~pted is the fast that the technique of crymotharapy or application of Ethelchloride slows down the movements of flesh tissues suspending the fimctions of the cells. We can notice that the cells stop their activities when the temperature slows down to about the zero.
We notice that minor surgical operations are now undertaken after poaring down Etha or Ethelchloride acid on the skin and other parts of the human body The patient does not suffer pain dming operation nor do~,e undergo the same kind of suffeiing as an
afte~ffect of operation. There are indications to prove that the freezing technique is a success not only in miner operetions but also in major ones.   
It will be seen, therefore, that c~ymotherapy freezing is a most reliable technique for surgicel operation of old patients. Duiing the time of operation crymotherapy is not only as effective as chloroform or other techniques that cause loss of sensibility or consciousuess &~ut also very useflil for prevention of pain from operation. ft also gives protection against the to remove a certain organ fromthe patient’s body: In some cases of heai~~ bloo~d4~e arteriss. if these blood clots are mot removed the patient may net survive by the time he is sent to the operation room. The sargeon can now remove the blood clots by freezing the organs or parts of the body where blood clots are blocking.   
By the use of the same techi~~ique of fr~ezing we can now substitute a new human skin in plsce of a bad one damaged by a bum or
any other accident.
The close cooperatin between members of the medical science
and engin~~ig profession has now become most beneficial to the
medical man as new machines or mechanical apparatuses are available for the medical science to detect easily the mysterious workings of the organs and other vital parts of the human body. Human body is, of course, a kind ofworking machine while it is heafthy, and the duty of the medical surgeom is to see that the human body is going on working properly without interruption.
Thanks to this close cooperation of medicine and engineering, the medical man is now able to find out quite easily the working of the kindly, the breathing of the lunge, blood circulartion through the heart, stor to the arteries and veins. The heart is like the blood circulating tube inside the body. As soon as the heart stops beating the blood stop a circulating and the patient may die. In the case of a heart disease which requires operation, an artificial heart, which is a kind of mechanical apparatu<s, can be substituted for the diseased heart, which is removed, so that the surgeon is free to do what he likes with the remaining organs of
the body
The work of the kidney is to pull out impuritie~from the food in the stomach and other undesirable substances from the tissues of the body. The kidney is to pull out impurities as urine from excreta. Blood flows into the kidney through the tiny crooked tubes and gets into the blood distillers known as glomagulas. The blood which contains impurities also consists of glucos, sodium chlorite, which are all devoid ofprotein. The glucose etc. ,inquestion are required for the body The second distiller of the kidney separates impure blood from impure blood and make the unclea~wa~er cent per cent cleen. when the clean water and other crsative substances get back to the blood circulation centre, unclean water and other undesirable impurities drop out of the
body as unne.
    If the kidney cannot work properly to pull out in]purities from the excret~, these impurities become poison to kill the patient. Until lately there was no proper solution to the problem of kidney disease, as a resuft ofwhich most of the patients of serious kidney dieases last ~Thejiij½veij~ of artificial kidney has since been invented to prevent loss of human life through kidney disease. Artificial kidey is made of pig’s intestinal skin by the scientist of the chemistry who claims that the pig’s intestinal skin not only distil~ater but also mefts any other physical matter that it touche~ proves to be a new technique to dissolve blood ~ogulating in the human body
Artificial lungs have now been made of iron for use in various hospital. The work of the artificial lung is not to do the oerdinary breathing as usual-but to do the work of breast neaves which do not flinction properly. But the defects of the artificial iron lung are (1 )heavy weight and (2)patient has to lie flat on his back all the time. To overcome lung has to be invented.
One of the advantages of this new artificial or electronic lung,
which is also called ventilator, is that it works with a battery only. It C’)has to be connected to the ~ectric current before it is made to drive the motor engine. Electronic lungs are used in the surgery room for chloroformed patients to breathe properly.
____    Searches have been made since the beginning of the medical
science to find substitutes for human bones and nerv&;tissues. QLiite~ a number of investigatioms have been carried out to make
replacements of fractured human bones, dislocated joints, broken ~ blood banks etc. Metal is the only raw material that can
be made to replace bones and nerves. Gold and silver were used to replace defective hands and legs for nearly 500 years. Gold and silver were very expensive, and silv~ joint rings were vulnerable to the oxygen inside the body. Alluminium was used as substitutes for damaged sknlls, but like the silver it was not quite reliable
in cases of surgical operation.
In the year 1903 a German metallist discov~ed a kind of rare metal which he called ‘Tintalan’ because, for nearly fifty yea~after its discovery he was very uncertain abouts its value. He used Tintalan for some time as fibre in electric alectric bulbs. Because Tintalan is chernicelly in%active, it can withstand the effects of various acids in the human body Even if it touches liquids from human nerve tissues there will be no electric charging from it. Tintalan is a very light, extremely hard and strong metal: but you can mould it any way you like even when it is cooling. You can pull and stretch it out like a
small thin fibre or as a tiny skin. Thus this metal has beco~ery useflil substitute for human bone and nerve tissue Tintalan can be
used as pouch~substitute broken blood veins and biles. if you join ~½tto a ~ b~k the rims ofthe blood bank becomes longer. Tintalan
fibre can be used as thread to stitch pieces of metal with living
organigms.
Tintalan can also be used most succesaflilly as substitute for broken bones removed from the body. ft is very ~ffective as a ring to on a broken bone or a dislocated joint. As it has no active

ce~scientists of Prefect to use it as stitching fibre in the
patient’s  stomach. Thae ~talan stitcning fibre does not give harm to the nearest nerves or injured nerves nor does it leave any
large marks on the flesh.
The best contribution Tintalan has made to the medical science is in connection with the brain and sknll surgery operations. if you cover the brain or an injury in the brain with Tintalan you can be sure that no beg scar will be left on the thin skin and neve~sues.’ It is a new achievement of the surgical therapy that parts of the
brain that used to cause fear, worry, anger ~ could be removed successfiilly by the scientific surgery. Dr.Monet, a Portugese, is the first surgeon who suce~m”uy carried out the first brain operation of ar as cases of    isorder are concerned. Dr. Monet believes that intense fear, worry, wrong perception etc., are the symptoms of Thelma nerves connecting with the front part of the brain. In the present case no part of the brain was removed, only the nerve was out off ft is said that a person who has u~dergone this~ kind of operation will not be able to think of his fliture anymore, because the front part of the brain is the sense organ of
the mind to speculate the fliture.
    We cannot, however, insist all the time that our inabilly to specu-late on our fliture is a defect ft is the unnecessary w4rry about the fliture which to be remedied by this kind of surgery which does the changes only in the mind.The other kind of brain surgery in which half of the brain is to be removed is for abablery. The number of similar operations is nearly 20 up to now. Most ofthese successfiil cases the patiest’s intellectusal power has improved to a certain cases are of a complete success and in each of these succeasfiil cases the patiant’s intellectual power
has improved to a certain extect.
Most of us believed at one time in the past that removal of half of the brains would stop at least 50 percent ofthe normal activities of the body we now notice that on successfiil completion of a brain surgical operation, one half ofthe brains is quite enough for the patient to breathe, speak and so on like a normal person. But sensual organs such as hand and foot, eye and ear on the side of the head from which one part of the br~ins has been removed do
not work as properly as before.
    we also learn from the recent research on the electro-medical seience that hum~n body emits electro-magnetic radiation like a radio-transmitter and that every part of a living organismhas its own waves, sometimes making changes according to the changes
physical conditions.
As already stated above, the modern science has now begun to panetrate, if imperceptibly, into the world of the mind (piritual), not contented any longer with that of the matter (material), we shall have to see how and in what manner it will be activating in terms of the Buddhist conventional world of kamma \viPaka~ the
universal law of cause and effect.
        In the mangala sutta also Buddba is quoted as
saying to the son of a Deva as follows:-Bahusisanca sippanca vinayoca su-sikkhito. su-bhasitaca yevaca etam mangala-mottamam. O~ Soil of Deva~ There are four noble dharnas such as~ 1 )You must
be well-informed; (2) You must understand science or technology
wtc., which are ofno offences;(3) You must iearn leain and understai~d’ ~ the law of moral conduct properly; (4)You must apeak what is truth.These are the four that will bring you blessings.While putting finishing touches on the above subject of Kamma and Rebirth the following press report-a very intere feature article on science vide the Guardi~nofAugust 28, 1979 on page 5- came to my notice.   
“To-day the most powerfill force the lives and destjnii~es
~j~m§ugh~of all people on this planet is sciece~cience, applied
medicine and technology. The explosion of information, accumulated by a scientific community that is now larger than the total of all other scientists who have ever lived, is feeding ideas and techniques to the military and industry at ever accelerating rates. It is sad but true that during the time it takes to read this article, so much new information will have been generated that you will know relatively    of the total body of scientific and technologi~ information than you did when you began.
A brief list of some of the technological inventions that have been applied within the past three decades, and have forever altered the course of social evolution, illustrates science’s power: the rele&e of nuclear energy, oral contraceptives, micro computers, jet planes, videotapes rockets, satellitee, television tranquilizers, polir vaccine, antibiotics, DDT., transister, lasef and petrochemical products such as plastics. With each innovation. cultural moves that have evolved over centuries are suddenly rendered obsolete. But while our distant ancestors often had millenia to adapt to rach discovery-the co~~trol of fire, t&oHaking or pcffery-we cncounter invention after invention with such stunning rapidity that we have in fact come to expect, even anticipate, surprise and novefty and the consequent conflict with old values and cus~ms or their repl~cement. And while governments attempt to cop½w{tT~}~~ob ems of unemployment, inflation, and
~cial    unrest, the transcenisnt forces of science continue to
fliel them. Looming overall global issues are the two spectres of
nuclear war and massive and irreversible environmental
degradation.
Stimulated in the pursuit ofpower and profit by scientific enterprise,the military and industry contribute mightily
to these twin threatas.How then can we come to grips with science to ensure that it is applied for the benefit of humankind?
In countries with a long and rich history of science peopled with names like Newton, Darwin, Curie, pasteur, Einstein, planck, Bohr, Bohr, Heisenberg and Galileo-it has been an integral part of the culture. The less developed countries have entered the technological age only within the past half century. lacking a cufture that accepts science as an mtegral component, they have p~rceived a gulf between scientific reseaerch and the life of the average person. Although profoundly affected by science, the layperson considers that it is beyond his or her ability to understand if they do not understand the nature of scientific research and its fundamenental principles peoples lose all hope of directing their own destinies. ifthey do not understand the scientific aspects ofissues such as nuclear energy plants, environmental earcinogens, oil exploration in the Ar~c, supertankers, and pollution by mercury esbestos, or PCBS, they will
filture.    ~;ill~-advised decisions about the For the populations of developing countries, science holds the
solutions to problems of overpopulation, inadequate nutrition, unplanned urbanization, energy shortages, pollution, lack of
~i~ansplatation, and poorly distributed heafth care. But the solutions will greatly disrupt the lives of ordinary people. In order to anticipate and direct these disruptive changes, the public must be familiar with science. Here television and radio among other media have a key role to play. Ideas in science-whether it is black holes, the structure of atoms, the ecology of atoms, the ecology of our akins, or the flinction of the brain- are as awesome and mindstretching as the most imaginative work of fictiom. Numerous polls and surveys attest to \ the broad appeal ofprogrammes deal~ing with science, medicine and
nature. As well as entertaining and educating, such programmes demysif~~ the scientists revealing him or her as a fallible human being with emotions and limitations. Such programmes can also reveal the nature of the relationship between science and idustry, medicine, the military, or other sectors that will apply that knowledge. ft is only by bringing science into the mainstream of daily life and removing the mantle of mystery surrounding scientists that people will be able to make science benefit all
humanity-DRC Feature)
    The word “science” is from the latin word ‘SCIENTIA’
which means knowledge. Ancient Greeks and Romans recognized science as cukural art, kept it free from any restriction and paid a high(tributejto the scientist as seeker of truth. In those days the scientist devoted his time and energy entirely to search of truth for the benefit of mankind as a whole without knowing
anything about the study of politics.
About 150 years ago every scientist and men of foresight knew that science was a technique to make a better world for all of us.
There is n~~bt that science has been most useflil for social services and no one will deny that the b~sic object of science has been for promotion of social welfare. Many ofus believe that scientists are most helpfiil to the poor and debillty and have prevanted us from diseases.we are afraid, however, that science has now begun to lose the confidence of most of the people because the people have found themselves marching not to the heaven that the scientists have promised to build on earth but to the hell of a nuclear holocaust due to one or other ofthe war-mongering dictators. We might say that the larious forms of trouble in the world at present should have been attributed to science.
It is true that,thanks to science man has been able to travel to the moon and will soon visit other planets; but it has not_yet been able to cure cold fever. Science is now able to an~lize nuclear energy, but it has not yet got rid of the menace of man-
killing cancer.
Even the most important problem of our security is uncertain since the science has now invented new deadly military weapons endan
gering mankind.
In any case, it is not proper for us to hold science responsible entirely for all unpleasant things all over the world. Of course, science has done and is still doing a lot or, in fact, more than a lot, for the good of mankind. In under-developed countries science has been able to raise the standard of living to some
extent.
Every one of common sense must, however, admit that it is the science and not anything else that has caused the world split, cold war and international discord that have taken root so deep as it is today. Science has, therefore, lost its ground as human cufture and lowered its value in the eyes of the world. Many are now inclined to the view that sience has done more harm than good for the people. ft is unfortunate that those, who are now pessimistic about science, ~ striving not only to stop recognizing it as a ben½f~ictor of mankind but also to wipe it out from the earth’ s~urf~ce.    In the few years before the worlA war II it was sure and certain for the scientist who was able to invent new weapons for dectruction of both the sophisticated and conventional weapons of the enemy to receive more suppoff from the goverrment concerned than the medical scientist who was able to prevent disease. Governments m those days were more for the welfare of their own nationals than for those of the entire humanity
At the outbreak of war scientists were made under the orders of government to devote their time and labour entirely to military services, as a resuft of which the power and prestige of seience were upgraded not to the benefit of mankind but to thresten the
world with mass slaughter and genocide.
Since the science has enjoyed the most favoured priority from the government, the motive of political rivalry and competition becomes not a human cukure but narrow nationalism.C  ~~Jp¼£es~nt~day governments ofthe world are interested in scientific researches only for the welfare of their respective peoples, not for any other purposes. In encouraging a scientific research the government concerned is guided solely by consideration of military strategy.‘In Soviet Russia almost all her financial resources are utililized for production ofrockets for the welfare of the general public. In the same way, the United states of America have not hesiteled to spend billions of the dollar freely for making rockets and other projects of nuclear physics. But to spend a few dollars more on projects of social development it takes a long time in getting the money passed by both houses of the National
Assembly after long and heated debates.
Scientific Generation of Life.
Oxygen 961bs, carbon 521bs, hydrogen l5lbs, calcium 4lbs,
nitrogen 3 1/2ounce,potssium 21/2ounce, sulphur 31/2ounce, fluorine 3 l/2lbs, phosphorns 1 1/2lbs, sulphur 3 1/2ounce, magnesium 1 1/2ounce,iron 11/2ounce, and copper, lead, arsenic, magnesia, bromine, silicon, alluminium, all weighing one sixteenth of an ounce, are obtain,able by any one on payment of a certain sum of money at any shop selling miscellaneous medical and pharmaceutical stores in any local market of the world.
All these chemical stores are used in making various consumer goods. Nature also teaches us that all these chemical stores could be made into man in the same way as the universe is made up of alloy, sugar, water, air and other elements, and of we mix all these together and add mind or conscious~o them some of the stores shown in the above list would be able to become a sentient being perceptable to love, hate,fear,heroisitc.He may have intellect, feeling, noble mind or vicious mind. He may have the ability to make a man like himself It follows that if we get the above kinds of consumer chemical stores on payment of a few sums of money and mix them up the right way, we may get a man like Newton, Einstein, Shelly, as an ordinary man like one of the millions living all
sover the world of ours.
It may be truly said that man is merely a chemical compound as stated above, but so far as we see it none of us can produce a man with enough intellect out of the compound of above descrptions.
By rising above the mystics and magical powers not long ago, science has discoverd several natural forces so that biologists and chemists are led to believe that they will be able to engender
living beings in their laboratories.
In the opinion ofthe chemist, life is a mere compound ofthings chemical;there can be no reason why man cannot make a man like him if he is able to take required amount of materials to his laboratory and create the necessary conditions. It is not yet 25 years since a noted American biologist has said: “The time is not far off for the physicist to be capable of making life. There can be no reason why life cannot be generated with living cells within
the domain ofphysics.
It is said that members of a society of biophysics believe that before the end of the present centuly man- made human beings will appear in this world. This belief must be a mere wishfiil- thinking; it is quite against the evidences available up to th& present moment. It may, however, be possible in course of time to engender a primary living organism with but appearance of an artificial living matter in a test tube; but appearance of an artificial living organism with human intellect must still remain an insoluble problem.In any case, the reason given by those who believe that life could be generated (by man or science) needs careflil investigation. The trouble with some of the physicists, who believe that life exists as one of the essential elements, is nothing but one of the elements already known to them. They cite radium as an example. Radium had been lying latent in the rocks for millions ofyears before Madame Curis discovered it.
Still some suggest that life is like a kind of element called “bion” not yet known to man; but it must have been lying among the elements already known. It is also contended that science has not been able to generate life because we are not willing to spend enough time and money and undertake research to find out why living beings have come to exist in the world. According to them.        had been used as power and light by the people long before the electricians came to know that “It is the movement of billions of
electrons that gives rise to electricity.
Electrical engineers have now known what is electricity definitely and also known the cause of the electrical power. They known how power and light could be produced from electricity and also know in details the work and apparatus of the electrical engine to produce electricity In fact, they know everything about
electricity production.
In the same way, a surgeon has known the structure of man’s body and its contents. He knows what makes the body work and heafthy and also knows how to repair the damaged parts thereof The surgeon knows how to take out those worn-out unusable parts and get good ones substitued. This is the end ofthe situation between the surgeon and man’s body on the one hand and the electrical engineer and electricityproduction on the other. When the man dies the surgeon cannot re~urrect him nor can he make him (dead man) move again. The electrical engineer also cannot produce any electricity from his damaged engine.Practically speaking it has not been known what it is that generates life. This is the weakness of science; it has found no beginning, no clue as to why and how life begins and so no.  Now let us see what is the structure of ameeba, the primary living cell. It is said that ameeba eats tiny creatures that are found round it and it is also said that a lifeless thing does not eat food. From this it may be deduced that a living thing eats food. But any one who has had some foundation ofthe science of chemistry may demonstrate that there are non-living things that can eat and digest what they have eaten.
The difficufty has not been minimised by the scientific investi~ation of the process of the growth of smallest animals and plants ~taken as beginning of life, nor has any another solution been found about life research on the behaviour pattern of prehistoric living beings has been undertaken nothing has been known about life afthough some used to claim that a thing is alive because it
is doing something.
There is another contention by some fliture fathers, who are going to create men (artificially), that life is a kind of growth or development; a small plant grows and develops so does a small animal; but a lifeless thing does not. There is no evidence to prove this contention. A chemistry man may reflite this by showing that lifeless things also grow and develop. ifa piece of9opper is put into potassium fenicyanide a brown skin      and from this brown skin there spring up many things and within thii~ minutes the nitrate acid water becomes fiill~ of solid stones that look like sea-weeds. This shows that there are many lifeless stones
that grow and develop.
If we put carbon acid into ordim~y saft we get the cells some of which become living cells. This has led some of the biologists to believe that life is created by nature through some means unknown to us. But so far there is not a single evidence to prove this.
The diagnosis ofprotoplasm, a primary living matter containing a kind of gelatine, shows that it is a mass of living cells as well as physico-chemical changes and contains oxygen 72%, nitrogen 2.5%, carbon 13.5%, hydrogen 9.1% and the remain 3.93% ofphosophrous, sulpha, calciurn, chlorine, ~ilicon, sodium magaese, iron, maganiciurn, fluorine and iodine. The entire universe also is composed of all these chemical elements.
But the scientist of the chemistry cannot find on diagnosis any living cell out ofthe composition ofthese elements. It is merely lifeless acid water which does not look like a protoplasm living cell. This particular test will show that living cells cannot be obtained by the medical man’s preseciption.
There is an effective method in dealing with this problem of scientific life-making. Life is a kind of force like a nuclear split. Physicists are of the opinion that if we can find out where atomic force comes from, it will be the same as we have found out the origin of life. But those of the professions ofphysics, chemistry and biology have not been able to give any suggestion for
making a test of this method.
So far all the proposals of making life in the laboratory have not received any scientific support. ft appears, therefore, that those who believe that life can be made by man through unnatural causes will never have a man-made man in a laboratory.
Even if science cannot make life it may make some wonderfiil experiment ofprimary living matter Efforts, however, have been made to preseive life without physical body.
As we all are aware, surgical operations to substitute a vitual human organ for a bad one in a person have become very common now-a-days. Thanks to the wonders of the latest technique of facial surgery, new lips, new cheeks, new noses, etc., were fixed in place of the old bad onces of the wounded soldiers in the second world war. Similar surgical achievements have been recorded in transplanting eye, kidney, liver, etc., from one person to another.For the purpose of the new artificial insemination, semen taken from a male is injected into the sex organ or uterus of a woman so that the latter becomes pregnant without any sexual intercourse. This kind of incernination is enery common in cattle breeding, particularly the breeding of much-cow as this technique tends to decrease the incidents of abortion and other
cattle discases.
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