If we want to understand kamma and rebirth correctly, we have to see them in the light of non-self. They proclaim non-self quite vividly and yet most people usually don’t take that into consideration at all, but talk about “my” kamma and “my” rebirth. Especially “my” rebirth, which is absurd. Do they mean the last one or future one? Do we think it will be “me” again? However in ordinary language we have little choice, yet the spoken word has evolved out of our thinking processes.
People often ask what is reborn, if it isn’t “me”? Kamma as a residual effect in the rebirth consciousness is reborn, but it certainly doesn’t look or act like the one we know, doesn’t have the same name, may not have the same form or sex, may not even be human. It has no other connection than kamma. Since we can see quite clearly that the one who is reborn only connects through kamma in the rebirth consciousness with a previous life, we can see just as clearly that kamma is impersonal, without identity. While we talk about “my” kamma, it’s really an impersonal process. It is not crime and punishment, although it may appear like that, and is one of the most commonly held views. Many of our entrenched views are so deeply ingrained that it becomes extremely difficult to understand anything radically different.
