The
Dalai Lama
On
Rebirth

In taking rebirth as a human, one sees one's future mother and father as if lying together. If one is to be reborn as a male, this sight generates desire for the mother as well as hatred for the father --- and vice versa if one is to be reborn as a female. Being desirous, one rushes there to engage in copulation; but upon arrival, one sees only the sexual organ of the desired partner. This creates anger which causes cessation of the intermediate state and makes the connection to the new life. One has entered the mother's womb and begun a human life.

When the father's semen and mother's blood are conjoined with this life or consciousness, they naturally and gradually develop into the elements of a human....One is desirously attracted to one's future birthplace, even if it is to be a hell.

 

---The Dalai Lama in
Death, Intermediate
State, and Rebirth
(Snow Lion)