Four kinds of generation

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chownah
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Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:19 pm

Four kinds of generation

Post by chownah »

Found this in MN12:
Four Kinds of Generation
32. "Sariputta, there are these four kinds of generation. What are the four? Egg-born generation, womb-born generation, moisture-born generation and spontaneous generation.

33. "What is egg-born generation? There are these beings born by breaking out of the shell of an egg; this is called egg-born generation. What is womb-born generation? There are these beings born by breaking out from the caul; this is called womb-born generation. What is moisture-born generation? There are these beings born in a rotten fish, in a rotten corpse, in rotten dough, in a cesspit, or in a sewer; this is called moisture-born generation. What is spontaneous generation? There are gods and denizens of hell and certain human beings and some beings in the lower worlds; this is called spontaneous generation. These are the four kinds of generation.
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What does the part about spontaneous generation mean or what is it talking about.....especially with regard to human beings.
chownah
santa100
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Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:55 pm

Re: Four kinds of generation

Post by santa100 »

chownah
Posts: 9336
Joined: Wed Aug 12, 2009 2:19 pm

Re: Four kinds of generation

Post by chownah »

Thanks for the link. After looking around a bit it seems that the case of the human undergoing spontaneous rebirth is the case of the non-returner who is spontaneously reborn in the pure abodes. I'm hoping someone can confirm or show that this is wrong.
chownah
santa100
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Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 10:55 pm

Re: Four kinds of generation

Post by santa100 »

Yes, non-returner's spontaneous rebirth in the Pure Abodes realm is often mentioned in the suttas. There's another scenario of spontaneously-born humans during the start of a world-cycle as mentioned by Ven. Dhammanando here: http://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.ph ... 00#p221093
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