Download Reincarnation in the East Chandler Barber Oriental/Eastern

Reincarnation in the East
Chandler Barber
Oriental/Eastern Philosophy
October 15, 2014
Reincarnation in the East
Reincarnation is a part of many religions and in the beliefs of many people
through out the world, from Native Americans ethnicity to the religion of
Hinduism and Buddhism. It is a very long process of many lives’ and improving
or declining in status of the reincarnation until you reach the last stage in which
you will no longer be reincarnated into another life. The goal of this paper is to
examine the process of reincarnation as well as compare and contrast reincarnation
in Hinduism and Buddhism, More specifically to state that Hinduism and
Buddhism are very similar in their ideas of reincarnation.
Before we can look at the similarities and differences we need to fully
understand the concept of reincarnation. Reincarnation is defined as the idea of the
belief that people are born again with a different body after death, or someone who
has been born again with a different body after death according to MerrianWebster Dictionary( reincarnation). It is most commonly brought up in the
spiritual nature, but not all people can agree on what its true meaning is. Not only
is the definition between people different its also varies between philosophical
systems such as between Hinduism and Buddhism.
Hindu’s or believers in the Hinduism faith would likely refer to the
reincarnation as transmigration, or to go from one state of existence or place to
another. Hindu’s believe that the soul which is you as of now has been previously
living as an animal, and has a greater chance that it will do so again in future
reincarnations. This is a key reason why most devout in their faith Hindus don’t
hurt or try not to hurt any animals or bugs and insects because they don’t know
what they were or could be when their souls come back in the next life, or if they
were one of those animals in a past life. That is a key difference in transmigration
compared to reincarnation. In transmigration you can come back as an animal or a
human (O’Dell 2014)
Reincarnation in the Hindu religion is composed of two fundamental
principles opposed to each other in nature. The first is spiritual, or the soul, and the
other is material, or the body. The first is the eternal, immutable, the not born or
created and indestructible. While the later the body is temporal, its created,
mutable, and destructible (Thuruthiyil). In Hinduism the union with the body is
not similar to Buddhism but it different in the fact that it’s a type of imprisonment
or penalty that the soul has to undergo before moving on in life. It was once said
“I did not begin when I was born, nor when I was conceived. I have been
growing, developing, through incalculable myriads of millenniums. All my
previous selves have their voices, echoes and promptings in me. Oh, incalculable
times again shall I be born”(Das 2014).
Both Buddhism and Hinduism have a strong grounding within karma.
Similar to Buddhism, Hinduism explains karma as a moral debit of actions, which
one has done. Every action that’s committed has its own reaction, and the actor
must experience all the consequences of their own actions. The behavior one
exerts in their existence results in an appropriate reward or punishment for there
next life. Just like Buddhists, Hindus believe in samsara or beginning-less cycle of
birth, death, and rebirth, a process propelled by karma.
However, since the body is just temporarily inhabited by the soul its
important for us to understand how the past actions or karma effects us, and how it
determines what we will come back as in future life. Hindus all believe in two
different kinds of bodies. The first is one that is visible what most would call the
body, or the organic sense of the word. The second is the internal sense, the things
that they take with them when they leave, such as intelligence, the mind, and the
ego (Thuruthiyil).
The Buddhist view on reincarnation is a belief that there is no permanence,
and self is never the same from moment to moment. They also are of the belief
that we don’t have a soul since there is no continuousness from moment to
moment or from life to life. To say that we are always learning from our
experiences, and time and what is our self at this moment will not be the same self
in the next moment because we are always evolving in ourselves. From this they
don’t believe there is a true self but there is a concept of self, which is what
grounds them attached to the concept of rebirth and reincarnation. “It is an
illusion of life that results in all of the pain which we encounter in our life, and we
fully recognize that it is illusion, we are freed from the cycle of rebirth and are free
to exist in the state of Buddhahood and nirvana wherein we recognize that all
manifestation in but an illusion” (O’Dell 2014). Although the Buddhism believes
in reincarnation it does not believe in the transmigration of the soul in a neverending cycle.
Buddhism has two main subsets, and a ton of variations in their beliefs but
most are of the samara or cycle of rebirth. One key concept to this idea is karma,
which states that good actions receive good karma and bad actions receive
negative karma (Dowdey). Karma is defined as “the sum of a persons actions in
this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in future
existences” according to Merriam Webster dictionary. The karma that is earned in
ones life is used to almost direct the soul while its between bodies so to give it a
“germ of Consciousness” for the afterlife which comes after death and before
rebirth. Both philosophical views intertwine the concept of karma deep into their
beliefs, showing how big of an impact karma plays to them.
“The souls must reenter the absolute substance whence they have
emerged. But to accomplish this, they must develop all the perfections, the
germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not fulfilled this condition
during one life, they must commence another, a third, and so forth, until they
have acquired the condition which fits them for reunion with God.” (Das
2014)
Buddhists also view a need for suffering caused by unenlightened samsara,
this suffering is desired for the transient. This is the path to nirvana or salvation,
which is defined as “a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire,
nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the
cycle of death and rebirth, which represents the final goal of Buddhism”(Bodhi
1999). This only can be achieved be reaching a state of complete passiveness that
will allow us to free ourselves from all desires can we escape and reach the final
Nirvana. Most Buddhist believe that you can end the cycle of reincarnation by
following the Eightfold Path also know as the Middle Way. Those that are fully
committed to the Eightfold Path are considered to be enlightened.
The eight parts to the Eightfold Path are, correct view, correct intention,
correct speech, correct action, correct livelihood, correct effort, correct
mindfulness and correct concentration (Bodhi 1999). These should not be done in
a step by step process rather in coincidence with one another to achieve the end
goal. They could be broken into different subcategories. You have the moral
discipline group, which include right speech, right action, and right livelihood.
Then you have the concentration group; right effort, right mindfulness, and right
attention. Lastly you have the wisdom group; right view and right intention. The
order of the three trainings is to be determined by the overall aim and direction of
the path (Bodhi 1999). The path is the end goal for with you want to achieve in
life.
The two philosophies are vastly similar, though not completely, and
depending on where and what is looked at could be very different. From the
sources cited in the essay it seems to be that they are more similar then not but, Its
all just a matter of what philosophy you are attached to and feel at home with. For
there is truly no known answer as to what reincarnation is, because, let’s face it,
we can’t prove that it actually is happening or has happened. Everyone has the
ability to claim that they were or know people who have been reincarnated but
until there is tangible evidence that reincarnation is real and we all go through it,
its hard to make an argument for or against it without throwing your opinion with
little evidence to back it in front of you and hoping people believe what your
saying. There is really no known way to be positive that reincarnation really
happens its about faith and that’s where it will stay.
References
Bodhi, B. (1999, January 1). The Noble Eightfold Path The Way to the End
of Suffering. Retrieved October 20, 2014, from
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html
Das, S. (n.d.). 30 Quotes on Reincarnation. Retrieved October 20, 2014,
from http://hinduism.about.com/od/reincarnation/a/quotes.htm
Dowdey, S. (n.d.). Reincarnation in Buddhism - HowStuffWorks. Retrieved
October 20, 2014, from
http://people.howstuffworks.com/reincarnation2.htm
O'Dell, M. (2014). Reincarnation as a Concept. Journal For Spiritual &
Consciousness Studies, 37(3), 137-142.
Reincarnation. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2014, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reincarnation
Tsuji, T. (n.d.). A Basic Buddhism Guide: On Reincarnation. Retrieved
October 20, 2014, from http://www.buddhanet.net/elearning/reincarnation.htm
REINCARNATION IN HINDUISM. (n.d.). Retrieved October 20, 2014,
from http://www.spiritual-wholeness.org/faqs/reincgen/hindrein.htm