232. Q. _If the idea of a separate human "soul" is to be rejected, what is it in man which gives him the impression of having a permanent personality?_ A. _Tanhā_, or the unsatisfied desire for existence. The being having done that for which he must be rewarded or punished in future, and having _Tanhā_, will have a rebirth through the influence of Karma. 233. Q. _What is it that is born?_ A. A new aggregation of Skandhas, or personality[11] caused by the last generative thought of the dying person. 234. Q. _How many Skandhas are there?_ A. Five. 235. Q. _Name the five Skandhas?_ A. Rūpa, Vedanā, Saññā, Samkhārā,_ and _Viññāna_. 236. Q. _Briefly explain what they are?_ A. __Rūpa_, material qualities; _Vedanā_, sensation; _Saññā_, abstract ideas; _Samkhārā_, tendencies of mind; _Viññāna_, mental powers, or consciousness. Of these we are formed; by them we are conscious of existence; and through them communicate with the world about us. 237. Q. _To what cause must we attribute the differences in the combination of the five Skandhas which make every individual differ from every other individual?_ A. To the ripened Karma of the individual in his preceding births. 238. Q. _What is the force of energy that is at work, under the guidance of Karma, to produce the new being?_ A. Tanhā--the will to _live_.[12] 239. Q. _Upon what is the doctrine of rebirths founded?_ A. Upon the perception that perfect justice, equilibrium and adjustment are inherent in the universal system of Nature. Buddhists do not believe that one life--even though it were extended to one hundred or five hundred years--is long enough for the reward or punishment of a man's deeds. The great circle of rebirths will be more or less quickly run through according to the preponderating purity or impurity of the several lives of the individual. 240. Q. _Is this new aggregation of Skandhas--this new personality--the same being as that in the previous birth, whose Tanhā has brought it into existence?_ A. In one sense it is a new being; in another it is not. In Pālī it is--"_nacha so nacha añño_" which means not the same nor yet another. During this life the _Skandhas_ are constantly changing;[13] and while the man A. B., of forty, is identical, as regards personality, with the youth A. B., of eighteen, yet, by the continual waste and reparation of his body, and change of mind and character, he is a different being. Nevertheless, the man in his old age justly reaps the reward of suffering consequent upon his thoughts and actions at every previous stage of his life. So the new being of a rebirth, being the same individuality as before, but with a changed form, or new aggregation of _Skandhas_, justly reaps the consequences of his actions and thoughts in the previous existence.