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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