Segmented Birth-and-Death and Transformational Birth-and-Death

Those who have not realized entry into the first bhūmi are called ordinary worldlings (pṛthagjana); those who attain the first bhūmi are noble ones, who have eliminated the ordinary being's nature and no longer create evil karmic actions of birth and death. All sentient beings who have not severed the karmic seeds contaminated by birth and death belong to the category of ordinary beings; when this lifespan ends, there will be another life, only born at another time and in another place—whether in the heavens, the human realm, hell, or among hungry ghosts—this is called being born at a different time and in a different place. Both first-bhūmi bodhisattvas and ordinary worldlings have segmented birth-and-death. For example, a person lives one lifetime of a hundred or eighty years, or a thousand or eight hundred years; when the lifespan ends, there is a next life—birth and death occur in segments, hence it is called segmented birth-and-death. If a first-bhūmi bodhisattva is reborn in the heavenly realms, the lifespan is extremely long; if reborn in the human world, the lifespan is the same as that of ordinary sentient beings, and there is also segmented birth-and-death; if reborn into the animal realm through the power of vows, the lifespan is as brief as that of animals, and there is also segmented birth-and-death. Besides segmented birth-and-death, there is also transformational birth-and-death (subtle birth-and-death). Transformational birth-and-death means that although the lifespan is extremely long, the contaminated seeds of birth and death within the tathāgatagarbha mind have not all been eliminated, so one can still incur karmic actions of birth and death and cannot forever extinguish the false appearance of birth and death. Before the stage of buddhahood, the seeds of arising and ceasing within the mind cannot be severed; therefore there is transformational birth-and-death.