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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?