Rebirth and the Western Buddhist - Khamkoo

38 Rebirth and the Western Buddhist
and are not to be destroyed by any conditions whatever.
(LG 50) Thus a concrete answer is given to the perennially
puzzling questie.n, ''What passes from life to life?" Losang
Gyatso claims that the indestructible wind and
mind are what is taught in the Sutras under such names
as iilayavijfiiina and sugata-garbha, i.e. tathiigata-garbha or
Buddha-potential. Both these, of course, have been compared
to the Hindu concept of iitman, and it is hard not to
see a certain similarity in the present case also. 72
Apart from the indestructible wind and mind, which
are independent of other causes/ 3 all the constituents of
the person have their respective substantial cause and
dominant condition. We list them for the case of birth
from a womb.
The substantial cause of the external body and the
channels is the mixed drops of white and red elements
obtained from the father and mother respectively.
The principal substantial cause of the flesh,
blood, skin, etc. is the red drop obtained from
the mother, while that of the channels, bones,
marrow, heart and so on is the white drop
obtained from the father. (LG 22)
The dominant condition is karma, mind and the subtlewind-body
produced simultaneously with that mind (LG
24), i.e. the indestructible wind and mind and the karmic
imprints they carry.
The substantial causes of the sense faculties and the
winds are the impressed potentials of their previous
homogenes, existing on the indestructible wind. The
common dominant condition of the sense faculties is the
parents' semen and blood, and the uncommon dominant
condition the consciousness produced together with the
previous wind-body. The dominant condition of the
winds is likewise the external and internal bodies.
The drops come from the parents.