Reincarnation

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Reincarnation
It is no more surprising to be born twice than
it is to be born once. Voltaire
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Reincarnation The Basic Idea
(R1) Some aspect A of the human person (construed
as a psycho-physical organism) persists after
biological death at time t1 and is united at time
t2 with a new body B of some sort.
(R2) For any time tn2, when B ceases to exist, A
is united to a subsequent body B of some sort.
The conjunction of (R1) and (R2) constitutes the
basic idea of reincarnation, roughly, the idea
that human persons live a succession of multiple
embodied lives.
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What exactly persists?
Negatively not the physical body or material
components of the human person.
Possibility 1 The Psychological Self
The Psychological Self refers to a distinct
center of self-consciousness that (a) exhibits
various beliefs, feelings, memories, intentions,
and desires, (b) has the capacity to develop a
distinctive character and sense of self-identity,
and (c) operate causally on the world.
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Possibility 2 The Soul
The soul refers to a non-physical substratum (or
immaterial substance) that grounds the
psychological self. The psychological self is a
function of the soul.
What Persists?
Positively Either the human persons complete
psychological package OR aspects of a persons
psychological package OR the soul.
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(R1) is a permissive or neutral account of
reincarnation. It allows a range of options for
what gets reincarnated, from a persons complete
psychological package to the soul of a person.
Corollary of (R1). . . .
(R3) Every human person is continuous in some
manner and to some degree with some formerly
living human person or life form.
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Reincarnation Beliefs
Buddhism
Jainism
Taoism
Hinduism
Theosophy New Age
Ancient Greek Philosophy
Some Christian and Jewish Sects
Various Modern Western Philosophers and Scientists
Reincarnation beliefs have been widespread in
both eastern and western intellectual and
religious thought.
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Five Fundamental Questions
What is reborn?
What drives the process of death and rebirth?
What is the purpose of human persons?
What is the nature and identity of human persons?
What is the nature of ultimate reality?
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Hinduism and Reincarnation
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Vedanta Metaphysics
Brahman is the one, eternal, unchanging, and
wholly transcendent reality.
The creative power of Brahman expresses itself in
the existence of the universe and all life forms
within the universe. The universe is a finite
manifestation of Brahman. It is designated Maya
(illusion or appearance) to signify its mutable
and dependent nature.
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Vedanta Philosophy of the Human Person
Vedanta distinguishes between an eternal and
unchanging self (atman) and a temporary, mutable
self (jiva).
Atman is the eternal, unchanging Self, identical
with Brahman. This transcendental self is beyond
the subject-object duality implied by all
individuality. It is infinite consciousness. The
Supreme Soul.
Atman
Jiva is the individual, finite consciousness
whose life begins in the womb and ends at
physical death. It is the embodied self, soul, or
psychophysical entity. In contrast to the Atman,
the transcendental self, Jiva is the empirical
self of the realm of maya.
Jiva
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Relation between Atman and Jiva
Jiva is a finite, temporary manifestation of
Atman, the eternal, infinite consciousness.
Analogy Atman is to Jiva what the space around a
jar is to the space within the jar.
Space Outside Jar
Space Within Jar
As the space within the jar is space bounded and
limited by the edges of the jar, Jiva is Atman
bounded and limited by individuality.
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The Psycho-Physical Composition ofthe Empirical
Self
The Upanishads describe the true self (Atman) as
enveloped in five sheaths. They enclose the self
in much the same way that a sheath encloses a
sword. (1) physical sheath, (2) vitality sheath,
(3) the mind sheath, (4) the intellect sheath,
and (5) the bliss sheath. Each sheath is more
subtle than the prior.
Later Hindu thought simplified this scheme and
spoke of three bodies.
The gross body (sthula sharira) is equivalent to
the physical and vitality sheaths in the
Upanishads. It is composed of the five elements
(space, air, fire, water, and earth).
Gross Body
The subtle body (linga sharira) is equivalent to
the mind and intellect sheath. It consists of
five elements in uncompounded form embracing the
perceptual, cognitive, deliberative, volitional,
and vital powers of the human person.
Subtle Body
The causal body (karana sharira) is the
dispositional state of the subtle body, or the
subtle body at rest, in a seed like condition.
Associated with the bliss sheath in the
Upanishads.
Causal Body
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Subtle Body and Consciousness
The subtle/causal body is not material.
Body refers to that which lacks consciousness
(cit).
Consciousness
Consciousness Mental Events
Mental Substance
Thoughts, memories, and various mental
dispositions linked to character must be capable
of existence independent of a distinct center of
consciousness.
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Individual consciousness emerges when atman is
sheathed in the subtle, causal, and gross bodies.
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Atman
Jivatman
Gross Body
Causal Body
Subtle Body
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What Happens at Death?
Detachment at death, the causal and subtle
bodies are separated from gross body.
Subtle Body
Causal Body
Persistence after death, the causal body and the
subtle body persist because they have no inbuilt
tendency toward corruption or decay.
Subtle Body
Causal Body
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Rebirth The subtle body and causal body of the
former person transmigrate to a new gross body
and form a new center of consciousness.
Gross Body
Subtle Body
Causal Body
What is reborn is not the individual
consciousness or personality of the former
person, but the intellectual, spiritual, and
aesthetic dispositions of the former personality.
The former self has not survived death, only an
aspect of the former self.
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Sri Aurobindo(Hindu Religious Philosopher,
1872-1950)
The old Indian thinkers. . .were not attached to
the survival of the personality. . . .They saw
that personality being what it is, a constantly
changing composite, the survival of an identical
personality was non-sense, a contradiction in
terms.
They perceived indeed that there is a
continuity, and they sought to discover what
determines this continuity. . . .The Vedantist. .
.admits an identical self, a persistent immutable
reality but other than my personality, other
than this composite which I call myself.
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In the ordinary, the vulgar conception there is
no birth of a soul at all but only the birth of a
new body into the world occupied by an old
personality unchanged from that which once left
some now discarded physical frame. It is John
Robinson who has gone out of the form of flesh he
once occupied it is John Robinson who tomorrow
or some centuries later hence will reincarnate in
another form of flesh and resume the course of
his terrestrial experiences with another name and
in another environment.
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John Hick
Like Aurobindo, John Hick distinguishes between a
popular conception of reincarnation and more
sophisticated account articulated in Vedantic
Hinduism.
Popular view Transmigration of the conscious
character and memory-bearing self.
Vedantic view Transmigration of a cluster of
non-conscious mental dispositions (possibly
including memory).
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C.D. Broads Psychic Factor
Mental items (thoughts, emotions, desires,
memories) minus complete conscious personality
Charlie Dunbar Broad (1887-1971)
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Rebirth and Memories
Hindu thinkers differ on the issue of whether the
memories of the former personality can in
principle pass to the new personality.
The practical knowledge of various skills
acquired in a past life may pass to a new person,
but not necessarily the recollection of having
performed certain actions or having had certain
experiences. The ability and skill of playing an
instrument could be passed on to the new
personality, even if the new personality does not
remember playing the instrument in a past life.
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Some Hindu philosophers hold that memories are
erased at death and do not pass to the next life.
What passes to the next life are the character
impressions left on the subtle body.
Some Hindu philosophers posit a transmission of
memories to the next life, as well as behavioral
dispositions.
But it is not guaranteed that a disposition to
recall past experiences will be activated.
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The Force Behind Rebirth
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Avidya and Samsara
Every individual consciousness suffers from
ignorance (avidya), ignorance of the nature of
reality and ones true self.
To be an individual means one perceives the world
in terms of a subject-object duality, but this is
error, for all is Brahman, all is one.
Individuality is appearance only.
As long as a person continues to perceive himself
as individual, as distinct from others, he
remains in the realm of illusion (maya) and is
caught in the cycle of death and rebirth
(samsara).
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Karma
Being uncompounded, the subtle body will continue
to exist after death.
Avidya guarantees samsara, the cycle of death and
rebirth.
Karma determines the character of the person, the
kind of body (human or animal) into which the
subtle body is incarnated, the initial
circumstances of birth, and the life events.
Karma may be defined as the law of cosmic justice
according to which every deed or action has an
effect that is proportional to the moral quality
of the deed. Good deeds produce good effects.
Bad deeds produce bad effects. Motto you reap
what you sow.
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Karma Punishment or Character Formation?
Karma is a teleological law. It is goal, end, or
purpose directed.
The long-term purpose of karma is not to punish
or reward but to shape character in the direction
of enlightenment or in the negative - freeing
people from egoism and the correlated illusion of
individuality.
There is punishment for bad karma and reward for
good karma, but it takes place in other spheres
of existence.
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Moksha
Upanishads
World of the Creator
Reward for good karma Heavenly Realm and the
World of the Creator
Heavenly Realm
Earthly Realm
Punishment for bad karma
Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate state, higher
than the world of the creator. While there is no
rebirth from the world of the creator, there is
gradual evolution from it to Moksha when one
comes to understand that Brahman transcends all
definitions and descriptions and is identical
with the true self (atman).
Sub-Human Realm
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Transmigration of the Soul
Does the soul transmigrate from body to body?
Atman is the Absolute Soul or Self, without
beginning or end, the infinite consciousness.
Every human person is Atman sheathed in various
bodies that generate the illusion of
subject-object duality.
Atman is not actually incarnated. Rebirth takes
place in the realm of Maya (illusion). Atman has
no place in Maya. Atman is not born and does not
die.
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Jiva is the relative soul or self, the finite
expression of atman.
Jiva Embodied Self
Jiva An Individual Soul
If Jiva is an individual soul that becomes
embodied (not the product of subtle body
embodiment), then Jiva would be a substantial
entity that survives death, something similar to
the soul in western philosophy.
If Jiva is identified with the embodied self,
then jiva comes into existence at conception and
goes out of existence at death. So we cannot
speak of Jiva as something that survives death
and transmigrates to a new body.
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To best capture the range of Hindu views about
rebirth, we must say that in Hinduism the
reincarnating entity is either the soul, some
aspect of the psychological self, or - in its
more popular forms - the complete psychological
self.
Hindus agree that there is substantial continuity
between lives (some thing transmigrates) but they
disagree about the degree of psychological
continuity between lives.