Reincarnation

[Teddy (IDS Legislator)]

I dont know how it works. There are enough unknowns in Science and Quantum Physics, that the "Paranormal" unknowns are really not all that far-fetched.

Quantum Scientists have done a trick/test where they create two electrons at the same place and time, then send one far away, then change the first one. The second one reacts instantly, faster than light, because it was created at the same place and time. Well IIRC, the Big Bang was when the entire universe was created in the same place at the same time. Therefore, are we not all connected to every last bit of everything across the entire cosmos? And that's just one small bit of one small theory of one small section of science - real science. That does not even brush up against the paranormal.

[angus]

I dont know how it works. There are enough unknowns in Science and Quantum Physics, that the "Paranormal" unknowns are really not all that far-fetched.

Quantum Scientists have done a trick/test where they create two electrons at the same place and time, then send one far away, then change the first one. The second one reacts instantly, faster than light, because it was created at the same place and time. Well IIRC, the Big Bang was when the entire universe was created in the same place at the same time. Therefore, are we not all connected to every last bit of everything across the entire cosmos? And that's just one small bit of one small theory of one small section of science - real science. That does not even brush up against the paranormal.

But those physics experiments match calculations. 

The existence of bosons (particles which could occupy the same space at the same time) was predicted by Albert Einstein and Saytendra Nath Bose in the 1920s, and by the late 1990s Carl Weiman and others showed evidence, in a lab, of the existence of Bose-Einstein condensates. 

The transport of a particle has been achieved as well.  Beam me up Scotty.  Of course, it was only a photon (non-zero rest mass) and only over a very short distance (16 km), so it's not like we're going to be able to reach into the fridge and get a beer from our sofa, without having to get up, any time soon.  But that transport phenomena is simply one of the consequences of applying wave mechanics to particles, an application justified by physical observations dating back to the 1930s.  (e.g., Davisson & Germer's electron diffraction) 

The Standard Hot Big Bang Model requires that a quantum singularity (a zero in the denominator of an equation) occurs at a particular juncture.  You follow that and you can trace it forward to a 2.7 Kelvin cosmic background radiation.  That radiation was eventually observed in the 1960s by Penzias and Wilson, so the experiment matches the theory. 

Nothing really superstitious there.  The mathematical models are fairly well-understood, and not at all at odds with Newtonian physics when you understand that classical mechanics is simply a limiting case of quantum mechanics (correspondence principle). 

Notions about the afterlife seem to come from a more emotional place.  Some Pleistocene-epoch hunter gatherer arrives at a stony outcrop on the Russian steppes only to see his brother trampled by a stampeding mammoth, so he imagines a his brother's spirit being intertwined with the mammoth, which would eventually be killed and eaten.  That spirit goes on reside in a baby mammoth, which is a favorite of the tribe, one to be revered rather than eaten.  I don't know, something like that.  Maybe a trained anthropologist would think that's a bit far-fetched.  In any case, there are no equations that accompany reincarnation theory, are there?

[anvi]

Excellent post.  Enlightening.  And I especially appreciate the Sanskrit etymologies, but you haven't given us a perfect English word for Karma.  

Thanks, angus!  And thanks for the Boy George revival.

I don't know any other way to translate karma.  The verbal root is "kri," which means "do" or "make" and "karma" is the nominalization, "action," "act," "deed" or "accomplishment."  As mentioned, the philosophical senses of the term used in Hindu and Buddhist texts are more subtle, but it's hard to capture their senses in just one term; "the intended action" comes closest to a description.  By the way, the Chinese translation of karma is 業 (ye-4), which has something more of the direct sense of the occupation or station in life one's past deeds lead to in the present life.  In Sanskrit, the generic term karma does not convey the occupational or caste implications of past action directly.  That is done by a different Sanskrit word, namely "varna," which literally means "color" (referring to the fact that people of different castes wear different colored clothing in certain ritual contexts), but the connotation of which is "caste" or "class."

[angus]

業

Yes, I think that's the word my wife uses when she teaches this to my son.  And when she tried to give him an English word for it she said something similar.  Profession or job.  If you get rich by stealing from everyone, you will return as a beggar.  That will be your yè.  She's not a religious scholar, and in fact was raised by devout communists--the socially conservative variety commonly found in China.  Atheistic and nationalistic, for whom The Party is something of a religion in itself.  Reviving traditional ways (ancestor worship, Confucianism, Daoism, and yè) was something of a rebellion for her, coming to fruition only after she immigrated to the US in the 90s.  But lately she's buying books on such subjects as the life of Kong Fu Zi and the life of Lao Ze, so I get to hear about Eastern philosophy and Eastern religions regularly now.  I always joke that she's nominally an atheist, but not a very observant one. 

I always had the impression that the desire for immortality was expressed fundamentally differently in chinese religion than in the Western or Indic traditions.  Westerners affect their afterlives by moral self-discipline (or by seeking God's grace) or whatever.  And Hindu have similar ideas really.  You can argue that Greater Vehicle Buddhists have dropped the atman altogether, but in the grand scheme of things their basic desire for some kind of continuance beyond physical death manifests itself in the same way that the Hindu does.  (It's worth noting that Buddhism is a collection of diverse religions, much like Christianity is, and that the Chinese have bastardized Buddhism over the millenia.  Kind of like the way the Romans have paganized Christianity.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, and no offense to anyone intended.  My wife, for example, sees the Buddha as a diety, and one of many.  But I digress.)    In China, especially if you discount Buddhist influence, the desire for life beyond death resulted in practices that did not involve individual salvation (via reincarnation or assumption or otherwise).  The Chinese emphasized biological continuance through descendants.  To this day, the idea of giving your child the gift of life and sacrificing material rewards for the benefit of that child's nurturing is huge among the Chinese.  To the extent that a metaphysical afterlife was emphasized, the souls of the departed were cared for by the children and the grandchildren.  That people set out a bowl of oranges for their dead ancestors is a natural consequence.  As far as I know, the concept of yè doesn't show up in Dao (China's only truly home-grown religion), or in Confucianism (the philosophical system that Chairman Mao never really successfully wiped out), and my assumption is that it must be imported from Buddhism.  The Cultural Revolution didn't quite rid the country of Buddhist influence either.  I visited a Buddhist Temple in Nanjing, paid my 5 yuan, and was handed three giant incense sticks just like everyone else.  After I burned them among the busy and worrying and bowing monks and supplicants, I climbed up the giant pagoda and hid behind the swastikas and found a young couple there who could speak some English.  We talked about spirits and such for a while, and I gleaned that their concept of yè was very utilitarian.  The man was really hating his boss and wanted to find another job.  They'd been to a Dao Temple, a Confucian Temple, and a Buddhist Temple in the space of a few hours, dropping a few coins, ringing a few bells, and lighting a few incense sticks, all in the hopes that he'd be blessed with a better job.

Back to topic, the Chinese also have the concept of ghosts.  They are the souls for whom no one cares.  And just like Western ghosts, they're ornery and maddening.  The whole Chinese philosophical set-up is a great way to keep the kids in line, I have to say. 

[anvi]

It's certainly true that the rarified philosophical debates between Hindu and Indian Buddhist philosophers about whether or not there was such a thing as a soul didn't really translate into problems felt in the popular practice of south Asian Buddhism, whether it was Theravada or Mahayana. 

I also agree that no concept of karma existed in the Chinese tradition before the importation of Buddhism in the Middle Kingdom.  Before then, ancestral spirits were the primary objects of consultation and care, but there were also ghosts and spirits that populated nature. 

A half century or so of Communist rule in China, even though it was punctuated by the incredibly anti-religious Cultural Revolution, could not wipe out some two and a half millennia and more of customary beliefs and practices.  My ex-wife, who went to school during the anti-Lin Biao campaign in the early '70's, remembers that a number of hours during the week were spent criticizing Confucius, and he even wasn't referred to in those sessions by his honorific name Kongzi, but by the derogatory phrase Kong lao er (Kong's "second" (bastard) son.)  And now we not only see a huge revival of Confucianism in the country, even in popular culture, which is largely state-driven, but also the revival of anti-Confucian traditions, especially Daoism, which has been going on since some national policy adjustments on religion in 1982.  But since Chinese (and Japanese people too) largely think of their indigenous religions as traditions, customs, practices meant to enhance health, good fortune and longevity rather than strong ideological leanings, they can at once remain intellectual atheists and practical traditionalists.  It's a very interesting phenomenon, actually.