ana"
as prav@rtti (movement) generated by t@r@s@na (desire), i.e. the active
tendency in pursuance of desire. But if upadana means "support" it would
denote all the five skandhas. Thus _Madhyamaka v@rtti_ says _upadanam
pancaskandhalak@sa@nam...pancopadanaskandhakhyam upadanam. M.V._ XXVII. 6.]

[Footnote 3: Poussin's _Theorie des Douze Causes_, p. 23.

91

birth [Footnote ref 1]. The manner in which the vijnana produced in the
womb is determined by the past vijnana of the previous existence is
according to some authorities of the nature of a reflected image,
like the transmission of learning from the teacher to the disciple,
like the lighting of a lamp from another lamp or like the impress
of a stamp on wax. As all the skandhas are changing in life,
so death also is but a similar change; there is no great break,
but the same uniform sort of destruction and coming into being.
New skandhas are produced as simultaneously as the two scale
pans of a balance rise up and fall, in the same manner as a lamp
is lighted or an image is reflected. At the death of the man the
vijnana resulting from his previous karmas and vijnanas enters
into the womb of that mother (animal, man or the gods) in which
the next skandhas are to be matured. This vijnana thus forms
the principle of the new life. It is in this vijnana that name
(_nama_) and form (_rupa_) become associated.

The vijnana is indeed a direct product of the sa@mskaras and
the sort of birth in which vijnana should bring down (_namayati_)
the new existence (_upapatti_) is determined by the sa@mskaras [Footnote
ref 2], for in reality the happening of death (_mara@nabhava_) and the
instillation of the vijnana as the beginning of the new life
(_upapattibhava_) cannot be simultaneous, but the latter succeeds just
at the next moment, and it is to signify this close succession that
they are said to be simultaneous. If the vijnana had not entered
the womb then no namarupa could have appeared [Footnote ref 3].

This chain of twelve causes extends over three lives. Thus
avidya and sa@mskara of the past life produce the vijnana, namarupa,

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[Footnote 1: The deities of the gardens, the woods, the trees and the
plants, finding the master of the house, Citta, ill said "make your
resolution, 'May I be a cakravartti king in a next existence,'"
_Sa@myutta_, IV. 303.]

[Footnote 2: "_sa cedanandavijnana@m matu@hkuk@s