Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Justin Read Term Paper Hono3191 Professor Gay Lynch Comparative Reincarnation Beliefs Reincarnation, despite not being part of the three Abrahamic religions, plays a big role in systems of belief all over the globe. The idea of reincarnation in brief is simple, that when a person dies their spirit returns to inhabit another body; but among religions that believe in reincarnation, there are numerable differences and subtleties of belief. For the purpose of this paper I will be comparing three religious beliefs about reincarnation: the Hindu belief, the Buddhist belief, and beliefs generally held among the North American Indians. In Hinduism the process of reincarnation is called samsara. The soul begins in very basic organisms and slowly reincarnates up through more and more diverse organisms. During this period the atman, or soul, experiences fairly automatic growth. Once the atman reincarnates into a human, its growth is no longer automatic, and the atman becomes, for lack of a better expression, self aware of its current incarnation. At this time karma has shaped its path to an extent but will now play a more active role. The intentions and actions of the person will now directly affect the future, for both the current physical body that the atman is in and for the atman in its future incarnation (Smith, H.). The atman continues the samsara until it can achieve moksha, which is the liberation from rebirth and the goal of the Hindu religion. Moksha involves the atman reuniting with god and living in eternal oneness. However, this process is usually a long one. The atman, when it first is reincarnated as a human, experiences far more than it did as lesser life forms and becomes distracted. Eventually it grows tired with the distractions, and gradually improves its purpose to advancing the self, to advancing others, and to the community. During this process of samsara the karma that the atman incurs through its incarnations determine what position the atman will be reincarnated into. The more the atman matures and develops over the incarnations the more selfless its goals are and the more it begins to see the divinity within. Eventually, over many reincarnations it will pursue the eternal good, dissolve the perception of and belief in the finite self, and the person will understand their underlying divinity within and unite with the oneness of god (Smith, H.). The Buddhist view on the soul and reincarnation is different than the Hindu view, although both share the goal of liberation from continual rebirth. The Buddha taught his followers anatta, that there is no permanent identity or soul. However, there is an animating life force that reincarnates the next person, like the flame of one candle being passed to the next candle. There can even be some residual imprint from the previous incarnation, left by the remainder of particularly strong feelings or desires, however this fades (Smith, H.). In Buddhism Nirvana is the ultimate goal; to become an awakened, enlightened being. Nirvana, like moksha in Hinduism, is the extinguishing of boundaries around the finite self (Smith, H.). Once this is achieved, a person, upon death, can choose to break apart from continual rebirth and suffering and go to salvation. They can also choose to be continually reborn as a bodhisattva, and enlightened being, in order to help others to achieve enlightenment (Novak, P.). In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, instructions concerning reincarnation outline what is to be told to a dying person. These instructions begin by telling the person to rouse their energy so they can enter a state of mental separation from the body. A colorless light of emptiness will appear, and one should recognize it as their true self, although many don’t. Then, Buddhas and bodhisattvas will appear to the person for 7 days. If they can pray with intense faith and humility, they will merge with the Buddhas and attain salvation. If not, they will be confronted with angry deities/demons for 7 days. The demons are another representation of the person, and if they realize that then they go to salvation; if not then the person will face Yama, king of the dead. He will show them the mirror of karma and reveal all the deeds they did in their life. However, Yama is the person, and the mirror is their memories, and the person pronounces judgment on himself or herself. From there 6 paths will appear, and based on the person’s self judgment they will go to either heaven, a warring realm, be reincarnated as a human again, or as an animal, become a ghost, or go to the hells full of anger and conflict (Novak, P.). Hinduism and Buddhism are both ethicized eschatologies, meaning that they portray the afterlife as differentiated into either a positive reward or a negative punishment. They also include transcending from terrestrial life at the culmination of achievement. This contrasts with the reincarnation beliefs of the North American Indians, who don’t have the concept of salvation in their belief. Their belief is categorized as an unethicized eschatology, in which the afterlife is similar to society on earth and the goal is to return to terrestrial life (Mills, Slobodin). The American Indians, or Amerindians, believe in the equality of human consciousness with the consciousness of other life forms. They observe ethics of humananimal interaction and conduct themselves so that beings whose lives they take choose to reincarnate again to give them selves for human survival. The conduct is based on respect for an equal life form and the goal is to grant the being release in the spirit realm and then to have it return to the physical realm. In this area the Amerindians hold a belief similar to karma, that if they don’t honor and respect the being they kill, then it will not reincarnate, and the Amerindians will have less food and be worse off (Mills, Slobodin). They hold a similar belief towards humans. It isn’t a damning act to take a human life; it is an act that carries consequences in this world and the spirit realm for both the killer and the killed (Mills, Slobodin). In Hinduism, killing would bring bad karma to a person and impact their reincarnation and spiritual journey, while in Buddhism the lack of compassion involved in killing another being is very terrible. In Amerindian beliefs, after death a person goes to another plane, much like the spirit realm where animals go, and can appear as ghosts to us on this plane. There are multiple planes and there is continuous interaction between them, one form of which takes place when one of the spirits is reincarnated in this plane (Mills, A.). Some beliefs surrounding this reincarnation include name soul, in which a baby is sickly and unhappy until it gets the name of the person/spirit it truly is. Amerindians also believe that babies that die young come back to be reincarnated quickly as the other gender, and that a person can be reincarnated multiple times simultaneously (Mills, Slobodin). Another reincarnation belief is kinship, in which people are reincarnated into the same family or group, ideally are given the same name, fill the same role as their previous incarnation, and share similar personal traits. Often totems are used to protect lineal society and reincarnations in families and groups. Like Buddhism, Amerindians believe people can be reincarnated as animals, however it is not viewed negatively and people often have personal connections to certain animals (Mills, Slobodin). The general goal of Amerindian reincarnation and life is the evolution and interpenetration of successive worlds or planes, which they believe are connected temporally and through the reincarnation process. All beings are reincarnated and all beings are essential to the interconnected welfare of those living on earth and in other planes (Mills, Slobodin). The differences between the three eschatologies are evident despite the same general belief being exercised. The main difference that begets all subsequent differences is eschatology, being either ethicized or unethicized. Buddhism and Hinduism are salvation oriented belief systems and because of the desire to achieve salvation they have many different beliefs and perspectives from the Amerindians. One of the main concepts in Hinduism and Buddhism is killing another being negatively impacts one’s journey towards salvation, whereas in Amerindian belief the killing is fine so long as they respect the spirit so that it will return. Hinduism and Buddhism are progressive by nature; there is an end, and the means to achieve it, which includes following certain steps for one’s personal development and understanding of the world. Amerindian belief is differently transcendent, individual yet collective, and focuses on the evolution and interpenetration of planes and the wellbeing of all interconnected living beings rather than salvation. Personally, I appreciate different aspects from these beliefs, however the Amerindian belief intrigues me more with the collective mentality and the concept of different planes of existence but without an end salvation. I would only add the selflessness and meditation stressed by the other two religions to the equation to make my own personal reincarnation belief system. Works Cited Mills, Antonia C. "A Comparison of Wet'suwet'en Cases of the Reincarnation Type with Gitksan and Beaver." Journal of Anthropological Research 44 (1988): 385-415. Mills, Antonia Curtze., and Richard Slobodin. Amerindian Rebirth: Reincarnation Belief among North American Indians and Inuit. Toronto: U of Toronto, 1994. Novak, Philip. The World's Wisdom: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions. San Francisco, CA: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994. Print. Smith, Huston. The Worlds Religions. N.p.: HarperCollins, 1991. Print.