What is the process of
Becoming?
A friend asked:
Conditioned by clinging, becoming comes into being... What is Becoming?
(bhava)
Answer:
Cut short: Becoming is the process
whereby the next moment arises...
This next moment has both physical and mental properties, and is as such
dependent upon consciousness... If no clinging is present in this moment,
no next moment will arise for that Arahat individuality... That is
Nibbāna!
Every new moment, and thus also the death-rebirth-moment is the result of
this process of becoming, which drives all change, and pushes time forward!
In more detail:
The process of becoming can take place in three planes, or
dimensions:
1: Becoming in the plane of sense desire (kāma-bhava), which is what
drives the
life-process forward for hell-beings, ghosts, animals,
humans and lower devas.
2: Becoming in the plane of fine-material
existence (rūpa-bhava), which is
what drives the life-process forward for higher devas.
e.g. Brahma etc.
3:
Becoming in the plane of formless existence (arūpa-bhava), which is
what drives the life-process forward for the highest
formless devas.
On this Buddhist Cosmology of these three main dimensions please study:
The 31 Planes of Existence:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/b_f/bhava.htm
https://what-buddha-said.net/library/ati_website/html/ptf/dhamma/sagga/loka.html
This process of becoming has two sides:
The active side: Where new advantageous or detrimental
intentional actions
(kamma-bhava) create delayed future resultant forms of high or low
rebirth.
The passive resultant side: Where this rebirth in every moment
and in between
lives, recreates or regenerates
all the momentary mental & material phenomena.
There are the two kinds of
craving related to becoming!
1:
Craving for Becoming:
Examples: "May I become rich, famous, praised, satisfied, beautiful,
happy..."
2: Craving for Non-Becoming:
Examples: "May I not become sick, criticized, poor, ugly, old, dead,
unhappy..."
Both kinds of
craving create suffering since these states are
uncontrollable!
The
Blessed Buddha explained
the process of Becoming
(bhava)
like this:
At Savatthi. "Monks,
there are these four floods. Which four?
The flood of sensuality, the flood of becoming, the flood of views,
and the flood of ignorance. These are the four floods."
SN v 59
"Monks, there are these
four
yokes. Which four?
The yoke of sensuality, the yoke of becoming, the yoke of views, and
the yoke of ignorance. And what is the yoke of
becoming?
There is the case where a certain person does not understand, as it really
is,
the arising, the passing away, the allure, the drawbacks, and the escape
from becoming. When he does not understand this becoming, as it really is,
he becomes obsessed with a passion, delight, attraction, infatuation, thirst,
and a fascinated fever for new forms of becoming. Thereby he then induces
craving for becoming something new: To go further, wandering-on, heading
to new birth and ever repeated death!
This is the yoke
of becoming..."
AN ii 10
This was said by the Blessed One, said by
the Arahant, so I have heard:
"There are these three searches. Which three? The search for sensuality,
the search for becoming something new, the search for a holy
Noble life.
These are the three searches."
Iti 44-98
"What is the
origin of suffering? The craving that induces further becoming,
accompanied by passion and delight, relishing now here
and later there, that
is:
Craving for sensuality, craving for becoming, craving for non-becoming...
This is called the origin of suffering."
MN i
46
"From the arising of becoming, comes the arising of birth. From the ceasing
of becoming, comes the ceasing of birth. And the way leading to the ceasing
of birth is just this very Noble 8-fold Way: Right view, right
motivation,
right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right
awareness,
and right concentration."
MN i
46
"And what is becoming?
What is the arising of becoming? What is the ceasing
of becoming? What is the way leading to the cessation of
becoming?
There are these three forms of becoming:
Sensual becoming, fine material
becoming, and formless becoming. This is called becoming. From the arising
of
clinging comes the arising of becoming. From the ceasing of clinging comes
the ceasing of becoming. And the way of practice leading to the ceasing of
becoming is just this very Noble 8-fold Way: Right view, right
motivation,
right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right
awareness,
and right concentration."
MN i
46
"From craving as
a requisite condition emerges clinging...
From clinging as a requisite condition
emerges becoming...
From becoming as a requisite condition emerges [re]birth...
From birth as a requisite condition
emerges ageing, decay, sickness, and death!
So is the emergence of this entire
vast mass of suffering!"
DN ii
55
"Having
seen danger right in the process of becoming itself, and in any search
for new forms of becoming or
urging for a non-becoming, I didn't affirm any
kind of becoming, or cling to any kind of delight in non-becoming."
MN i
326
"What are these Four Noble Truths? They are the Noble Truth of suffering;
the Noble Truth of the origin of suffering; the Noble Truth of the
cessation
of suffering; and the Noble Truth of the Way to the cessation of suffering.
When these profound truths, Bhikkhus, have been realized and penetrated,
then craving for existence is cut off, destroyed is that process which
leads
to renewed becoming, and there is not created fresh future becoming."
DN
ii 72
Any form of
Becoming proliferates into
Suffering...
