Mūlapaṇṇāsa-aṭṭhakathā — E-Piṭaka
Āsavakkhayañāṇakathāvaṇṇanā
The Explanation of the Discourse on the Knowledge of the Destruction of the Taints
Excerpt:
Khīṇā jātītiādīhi tassa bhūmiṃ, tena hi ñāṇena bhagavā paccavekkhanto ‘‘khīṇā jātī’’tiādīni abbhaññāsi.
Birth is destroyed, etc.: with these words, he shows the domain of that*. For, by that knowledge, the Blessed One, while reviewing, directly knew, “Birth is destroyed,” and so on.
Katamā pana bhagavato jāti khīṇā, kathañca naṃ abbhaññāsīti?
But which birth of the Blessed One was destroyed, and how did he directly know it?
Na tāvassa atītā jāti khīṇā, pubbeva khīṇattā, na anāgatā, anāgate vāyāmābhāvato, na paccuppannā, vijjamānattā.
First, his past birth was not destroyed, because it had already been destroyed before. Not the future one, because there is no effort in the future. Not the present one, because it still exists.
Yā pana maggassa abhāvitattā uppajjeyya ekacatupañcavokārabhavesu ekacatupañcakkhandhabhedā jāti, sā maggassa bhāvitattā anuppādadhammataṃ āpajjanena khīṇā, taṃ so maggabhāvanāya pahīnakilese paccavekkhitvā ‘‘kilesābhāve vijjamānampi kammaṃ āyatiṃ appaṭisandhikaṃ hotī’’ti jānanto abbhaññāsi.
But that birth—distinguished as the one-, four-, or five-constituent* in the one-, four-, or five-constituent existences—which would have arisen because the path had not been developed, that birth was destroyed by reaching the state of non-arising due to the path having been developed. He, having reviewed the defilements abandoned through the development of the path, directly knew this, knowing, “In the absence of defilements, even existing kamma becomes non-rebirth-linking in the future.”
I was confused so I asked Google AI and here’s an excerpt of what it said:
Na tāvassa atītā jāti khīṇā, pubbeva khīṇattā, na anāgatā, anāgate vāyāmābhāvato, na paccuppannā, vijjamānattā.
This first part uses strict logic to ask: When we say rebirth is “destroyed,” which birth are we actually destroying?
- It cannot be past births: Your past lives are already gone and finished. You cannot destroy something that already ceased to exist on its own.
- It cannot be future births: The future hasn’t happened yet. There is no actual future life existing right now for you to destroy.
- It cannot be the present birth: You are alive right now reading this. Your current life cannot be “destroyed” because it is currently happening.
A Simple Analogy: The Apple Tree
Think of a seed in your hand right now that is destined to grow into a future apple tree.
- Paragraph 1 says: “You cannot chop down the future apple tree right now. Why? Because the tree doesn’t exist yet! There is no tree there to chop.”
- Paragraph 2 says: “Correct. So instead of trying to chop down a non-existent tree, we throw the seed into a fire right now. Because the seed is burned, it enters a state where it is impossible for it to ever grow. Therefore, the future tree is ‘destroyed’ because its cause is gone.”
So basically, you can’t directly destroy your future birth because it doesn’t exist yet like how you can’t chop down a future apple tree right now because it doesn’t exist yet. However, you can destroy the conditions for a future birth like how you can destroy a seed so that it doesn’t grow into an apple tree in the future.