Around the World in 80 Faiths – The Indian Subcontinent .

Karma and Rebirth

Around the World in 80 Faiths – The Indian Subcontinent

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZYgpYM2DYs

GROUP ACTIVITY In your groups: Using p. 39, Origins and Religious Use, and pp. 68-70, Karma and

Rebirth, in your Book of Readings, discuss the meaning of these words:

Karma Rebirth Samsara Moksa

As a group come up with terms, definition(s), beliefs, and a general consensus on what the words mean.

Using p. 40, para 2, Origins and Religious Use, see if you can work out what the problem is for a person who belong to the religions that support karma but who does not always what to lead a totally virtuous life.

Karma in and after Greater Magadha

Greater MagadhaIs the region east of the Vedic homelands Is the eastern Ganges plainIn 4th century BCE became the centre of an

empire which unified most of the Indian subcontinent

Little or no textual sources from this region except for some writings on Buddhist and Jaina beliefs

Karma in and after Greater Magadha

A distinctive feature of the culture of the Greater Magahda was the belief in rebirth and karmic retribution that began with the renouncer traditions.

Religious movements based on this belief originated here: Jainism, Buddhism, Ajivikism, and later Brahmanism.

Historic Vedic ReligionVedic period 1500 BCE -

500 BCEThe religions of the Vedic

period: Vedism, Vedic Brahmanism, and Ancient Hinduism.

Religion and culture based on 1000 yr. old Vedic texts

Focused on rituals and sacrifices for benefits in this world

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Vedic_religion 

Development of Renouncer Traditions

Occurred between the 9th and 6th centuries BCE

New schools of thought arose:Within Orthodox Hinduism Patanjali’s Yoga and later Advaita Vedanta Outside of Orthodox Hinduism Jainism,

Ajivikism, Buddhism

Different worldview from the Vedic but …

General concepts of karma and rebirth accepted

Each tradition had different interpretations

What are the origins of Karma & Rebirth?

Found in the earliest literature of Jainism and Buddhism

The focus is on lives after death

Literature deals with continued existence in future lives as a source of distress

Generally seen as endless suffering and unhappiness

Aim is liberation from rebirth – termination of this sequence.

Jainism

Jainism (Ji nism)

A symbol of Jainism consisting of a hand and a wheel reading ahimsa, referring to the Jain vow of non-violence.

What is Jainism?• At least 2500+ years old• One of the earliest religions to appear in

the Greater Magadha• Followed by 3-4 million people mostly in

India• Life affirming but world-denying• Seeks to release the soul from the round

of rebirth, to liberate spirit from matter• Earliest Jaina texts identify asceticism

as a solution• What is asceticism? Discussion.

Early Jainism?• Karmic retribution means that my future

is determined by what I do, think, and feel

• Karma means deed, activity, ACTION

• Solution is to abstain from all activity (asceticism). Free oneself from bodily and mental activity

• Good deeds get us no closer to liberation

• Thoughts and feelings have karmic consequences.

Early Jainism?Advanced Jaina practitioners followed a double goal:

1. Abstaining from all bodily and mental

activity by means of immobilization asceticism

2. Destroying the traces of deeds performed in the past by means of suffering brought

about by that same immobility asceticism.

JainismToday• Ahimsa. Non-violence – is the

hallmark of this spiritual discipline

• No creator god

• Spiritual life is primarily moral rather than ritualistic

The Vanished Indian ReligionAjivikism

• No followers today• Agreed with Jainas on all principles except one:

o Did not accept that the suffering resulting from immobilization destroys the traces of deeds performed in the past.

o They did not believe that they could liberate themselves from the cycle of rebirths.

o Jainism did teach, though, that there was a way that the cycle of rebirths would end.

• Why did some Ajivikas practise asceticism if they believed they could not reach liberation by themselves? (Book of Readings C: para 2, p. 53)

Buddhism… http://

www.dailymotion.com/video/xuw0be_religions-of-the-world-buddhism_school

The “middle way of wisdom and compassion”• A 2500 year old tradition that began in India and

spread and diversified throughout the Far East

• A philosophy, religion, and spiritual practice followed by more than 300 million people

• Based on the teachings of the Buddha

The Spread of Buddhism

• Within two centuries after the Buddha died, Buddhism began to spread north and east into Asia

• By 13th century Buddhism had disappeared from India

What do Buddhists believe?• Rebirth (reincarnation) results from attachments

(karma)

• Nirvana is a peaceful, detached state of mind

• Achieving Nirvana means escape from the cycle of rebirth

• Once Gautama Buddha died, after 80 years of life in this world, having achieved Nirvana and teaching multitudes his way of life, he ceased to exist as a distinct being

• Buddhism is non-theistic: Buddha is not the Buddhist God – he is just a revered teacher

What did the Buddha teach?The Four Noble Truths:• To live is to suffer• The cause of suffering is self-centered

desire & attachments• The solution is to eliminate desire and

attachment, thus achieving Nirvana (“extinction”)

• The way to Nirvana is through the “Eight-Fold Path”

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgcbQnL6-BQ

What is the Eight-Fold Path?

Wisdom:•Right understanding

•Right motivation

Moral discipline:•Right speech

•Right action

•Right livelihood

Mental discipline:•Right effort

•Right mindfulness

•Right meditation

Buddhism: KarmaBuddhists understand karma as a natural law. There is no higher instance, no judgement, no divine intervention, and no gods that steer man's destiny, but only the law of karma itself, which works on a universal scale. Deeds yield consequences either in the next second, in the next hour, day, month, year, decade, or even in the next lifetime, or in another distant lifetime.

Buddhism: Karma KarmaAn unpleasant sensation occurs. A thought arises that the source of the unpleasantness was a person. This thought is a delusion; any decisions based upon it will therefore be unskilful. A thought arises that some past sensations of unpleasantness issued from this same person. This thought is a further delusion. This is followed by a wilful decision to speak words that will produce an unpleasant sensation in that which is perceived as a person. This decision is an act of hostility.

Of all the events described so far, only the last is called karma. • Source: http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/karma.html

Buddhism: RebirthBuddhists hold that the retributive process of karma can span more than one lifetime.

Rebirth has always been an important tenet in Buddhism; and it is often referred to as walking the wheel of life (samsara).

It is the process of being born over and over again in different times and different situations, possibly for many thousand times.

Source: http://www.thebigview.com/buddhism/karma.html

“Buddhism rejected immobility asceticism and knowledge of the true self as means to gain freedom from rebirth and karmic retribution”

Question: Did Buddhism have a way of dealing with karma and rebirth?

GROUP ACTIVITYDiscussion Questions

What were the Buddhist views on karma and rebirth?

How did the Jainist view of karma and rebirth differ from the Buddhist view?

GROUP ACTIVITYESSAY QUESTION

KARMA AND REBIRTH

Why did the ancient Indian renouncers consider karma and

rebirth problems and what solutions did they offer to these?