Commentary on the Scripture of the Gathering of Fathers and Sons (210)

Segmentary Birth-and-Death and Transformative Birth-and-Death

Those who have not attained the First Ground are called ordinary beings (prithagjana), while those who have attained the First Ground are sages, having eradicated the nature of ordinary beings and ceasing to create karmic actions leading to birth and death. Sentient beings who have not eliminated the defiled karmic seeds of birth and death all belong to the category of ordinary beings. After the end of one segment of lifespan, there will be another life, born at a different time and in a different place, whether in celestial realms, the human world, hells, or among hungry ghosts; this is called being born at different times and places. Both bodhisattvas at the First Ground and ordinary beings experience segmentary birth-and-death. For example, a human lives for a lifespan, whether one hundred and eighty years or a thousand eight hundred years; after the lifespan ends, there is the next life. Birth and death occur in segments, hence it is called segmentary birth-and-death. If a First Ground bodhisattva takes birth in a celestial realm, the lifespan is extremely long; if born in the human world, the lifespan is the same as that of ordinary beings, and there is still segmentary birth-and-death; if born into the animal realm by the power of vows, the lifespan is as short as that of animals, and there is still segmentary birth-and-death. Besides segmentary birth-and-death, there is also transformative birth-and-death. So-called transformative birth-and-death refers to an extremely long lifespan, but the defiled seeds of birth-and-death within the Tathagatagarbha mind have not yet been completely eliminated. They can still ripen into karmic actions leading to birth and death, unable to permanently extinguish the illusory appearance of birth and death. The arising-and-ceasing seeds within the mind cannot be severed until the stage of Buddhahood is reached. Therefore, there exists transformative birth-and-death.