Death in Hinduism. Reincarnation theory

1) Reincarnation of souls (samsara)

Reincarnation of souls is perhaps the most attractive idea of Hinduism, as this idea overcomes the fear of death.

If after death your soul moves into another body, young, beautiful, full of energy, and a new life awaits you, perhaps more interesting and happy, then why should you be afraid of death?

“Just as a person, throwing off old clothes, puts on new ones, so the soul enters new material bodies, leaving behind the old and useless ones.”
(Bhagavad-Gita 2.22)

For Christians, the fear of death remains; even true believers sometimes have doubts: “What if there is nothing there?” After all, the existence of God does not guarantee us immortality: “What if He doesn’t need us there?”
This is confirmed by the fact that even the most righteous people, being already very old and sick, still cling to this life, which for them is filled with suffering.

Hindus, with their mother's milk, absorb the belief in the transmigration of souls and treat death much more easily. In India, people do not mourn dead people, as in Europe, but, on the contrary, celebrate this event.

The idea of the transmigration of souls has many supporters, although no one counted them, I think that most people on earth believe in the transmigration of souls.

2) Law of retribution (karma)

Karma(translated from Sanskrit means “what has been done”) is a set all human actions that together determine his future.

“Poverty, illness, grief, imprisonment and other misfortunes are the fruits of the tree of our sins.” (Sri Chanakya Niti-shastra, 14.1)

Hindus believe that a person's future is determined by how he lives in this life and how he lived in his previous incarnations. Every human action has its consequences. If a person does good deeds, then his karma improves, and if he does evil, then his karma worsens.

This is a universal law of life.

Karma is not a punishment for sins or a reward for virtues. A change in karma is the result of the natural course of events, which are interconnected by a cause-and-effect relationship: every human action generates its own consequences. At every moment of life we have a choice of what to do, good or evil, and by making this free choice, we create our future.

The idea of karma is also very attractive, because it provides an answer to the most difficult questions that believers ask themselves:

Why does the all-good God allow so much evil into our world?
Why do maniacs torture and kill young children?
Why do godly people live worse than prostitutes and thieves?
Why do innocent people die from terrorist explosions, natural disasters and man-made disasters?

If you accept the law of karma, then all these questions will disappear by themselves, because any misfortune can be explained by karmic consequences.

In addition, the law of karma gives a person hope for justice, because according to this law, a person himself determines his own destiny, each time making a choice between good and evil.

3) Liberation from the chain of rebirths (moksha)

The main goal of Hinduism is to escape the chain of rebirths.

Please note, this is not a partial working off of karmic debts and, as a result, a more favorable fate in a new incarnation, but a final departure from the world of samsara (translated from Sanskrit as “circle of rebirths”).

Every person, rich or poor, beautiful or ugly, having a villa in Nice or living homeless on the streets, sooner or later receives a full cup of suffering. Who can avoid old age, illness, loss of loved ones? In India, where many people live in grinding poverty, this is especially true. Therefore, the idea of cessation of earthly existence and transition to other worlds where there is no suffering has become the central idea of Hinduism.

In Hinduism, the reason for the soul's presence in the world of samsara is ignorance - a misconception about the laws of the universe. In our world, the human soul is consumed by passions - lust, greed, envy, hatred. And all this gives rise to new suffering, since under the influence of negative feelings we create evil and, thus, worsen karma.

To escape the cycle of birth and death and thus be freed from all suffering, a person must realize his true nature. When the individual soul of man realizes its oneness with the source of all existence (God), it will find itself in a state of pure spirit, filled with knowledge and bliss (nirvana), which defies description.

“Whoever looks at the world with the eyes of knowledge and sees the difference between body and soul,
he can find the path leading to liberation from bondage in the material world and achieve the highest goal." (Bhagavad-Gita, 13.35)

The main way to achieve liberation is Yoga (translated from Sanskrit means “unity, connection, harmony”), which is a set of various spiritual and physical practices aimed at controlling consciousness. There are many types of yoga in Hinduism, but you must begin your spiritual path by observing

5 basic principles of moral purity:

1) refusal to use violence,

2) refusal to lie,

3) refusal to steal,

4) abstinence from sensual pleasures,

5) renunciation of greed.

4) Polytheism and Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva)

There are thousands of gods and goddesses in Hinduism, each with their own sphere of influence. For example, (the elephant-headed god) brings good luck and promotes success in scientific research, so he is worshiped by scientists. is the goddess of wisdom, eloquence and art, and is worshiped by philosophers, poets and artists. She holds in her hands a musical instrument symbolizing art. – the goddess of destruction, she destroys ignorance and maintains world order. She holds a sword in one hand and a demon's head in the other. In India there are many temples dedicated to the goddess Kali, she is revered as a slayer of demons.

The pantheon of Hindu gods has a complex hierarchical structure. Each god has his own sphere of activity, and they are all included in a complex system of interactions. In Hinduism, there are many different rituals, including sacrifices, with the help of which Hindus try to establish personal contact with the deity and receive some kind of help from him.

A special place in the Indian pantheon is occupied by the trimurti (Hindu trinity), represented by three gods:

Brahma is the creator of the world, Vishnu is the preserver of the world and Shiva is the destroyer.

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are considered different manifestations of the one supreme deity Brahman, who expresses the fundamental principle of all things - absolute reality, containing the entirety of the universe with countless gods and goddesses who appear and disappear following certain time cycles.

Followers of some modern Hindu movements consider Hinduism to be a monotheistic religion, since the different deities worshiped by representatives of different Hindu movements are, in fact, only different hypostases or manifestations of a single spiritual essence - Brahman. At the same time, a person can worship the hypostasis of God that he likes best, if he respects all other forms of worship.

5) Caste structure of society

Unlike other countries, Indian society was initially divided into various social groups - varnas and castes.

There are 4 large social groups - varnas (translated from Sanskrit means “color”):

1) varna brahmins - the class of brahman priests;
2) varna kshatriyas - the class of rulers and warriors;
3) Varna Vaishyas - the class of artisans and traders;
4) varna sudra - the class of inferiors and slaves.

People who did not belong to any of the four varnas were considered outcasts and occupied the lowest rung in society.
Castes correspond to a smaller division of society into groups based on professional affiliation.

In India, social inequality did not simply arise as a result of the stratification of society into rich and poor. The division of society into varnas is a reflection of the cosmic laws of the universe described in Rig Veda. According to Hindu philosophy, a person's level of self-awareness is determined to a large extent by which varna he belongs to. Thus, for Hindus, social inequality is natural, since it follows from the fundamental laws of the universe.

We live in a world where human equality is one of the most important values. It is proclaimed as a moral right and as a law of the state. Now the constitutions of all countries contain provisions on the equality of all citizens among themselves.

However, does this equality really exist?

Look around, someone drives a Mercedes, and someone lives on the street in a cardboard box. You can say that the homeless person is to blame, it is his own choice to live on the street - the main thing is that people have the same opportunities. But do, for example, the son of an oligarch and a boy from a family of alcoholics have the same opportunities? Already at birth, we are very different from each other: one is born smart, beautiful and rich, and the other stupid, poor and sick - and this largely determines the future fate of a person.

Once I was at a lecture on philosophy at the university. The lecture was given by the head of the department, who taught Marxism-Leninism all his life, preaching “freedom, equality and brotherhood.” And so he told us: “Sometimes it seems to me that some people live only to serve other people.” Don't you think so sometimes?

6) The universal law of changing the world (dharma)

In Hinduism, there is a universal law of change in the world - dharma (translated from Sanskrit means “the eternal order of things”). Awareness of this law helps a person to find harmony in life. The word dharma in Hinduism also means truth and reality, and is often interpreted as the correct understanding of the laws of reality or God as the root cause of reality.
People who live in accordance with the principles of dharma quickly emerge from the circle of rebirths, which is why the word dharma is often translated as “right action” or “duty.” In other words, every person has his own task in life that he must complete. If a person acts in accordance with this task, then his life proceeds normally, otherwise problems arise in his way.

The source of universal law is God, whose attributes are truth, knowledge and bliss, which is why dharma is often called truth in Hindu texts.

“The king of kings is what dharma is. Therefore, there is nothing higher than dharma.
And the powerless hopes to overcome the strong with the help of dharma,
as if with the help of the king. Truly I tell you, dharma is truth.” (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.14)

Transmigration of souls, reincarnation (Latin re, “again” + in, “in” + caro/carnis, “flesh”, “reincarnation”), metempsychosis (Greek “transmigration of souls”) - a religious and philosophical doctrine according to which the immortal the essence of a living being (in some variations - only people) is reincarnated again and again from one body to another. This immortal entity is often called the spirit or soul, the "divine spark", the "higher" or the "true self". According to such beliefs, in each life a new personality of the individual develops in the physical world, but at the same time a certain part of the individual’s “I” remains unchanged, passing from body to body in a series of reincarnations. There are also ideas that the chain of reincarnations has a certain purpose and the soul undergoes evolution in it.

The belief in transmigration of souls is an ancient phenomenon. According to S. A. Tokarev, the earliest form of ideas is associated with totemism. Some peoples (Eskimos, North American Indians) believed that the soul of a grandfather or another representative of the same clan group enters a child. The doctrine of reincarnation is a central tenet of most Indian religions, such as Hinduism (including yoga, Vaishnavism, and Shaivism), Jainism, and Sikhism. The idea of transmigration of souls was also accepted by some ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Pythagoras and Plato. Belief in reincarnation is inherent in some modern pagan traditions, New Age movements, and is also accepted by followers of spiritualism, some African traditions, and adherents of such esoteric philosophies as Kabbalah, Sufism, Gnosticism and esoteric Christianity. The Buddhist concept of a series of rebirths, although often called "reincarnation", differs significantly from traditions based on Hinduism and from New Age movements in that there is no "I" or eternal soul that reincarnates.

Research shows that the number of people in the West who believe in reincarnation has increased markedly in recent decades.

Belief in reincarnation has two main components:

* The idea that a person has a certain essence (“spirit”, “soul”, etc.), which contains the personality of a given person, his self-awareness, a certain part of what a person identifies with the concept of “myself”. Moreover, this essence can be connected with the body, but this connection is not inseparable, and the soul can continue to exist after the physical body has died. The question of whether only humans have a soul, or other (perhaps all) species of living beings, is resolved differently in different worldviews.

* The idea that the soul, after the death of the body, immediately or after some time, is embodied in another body (the body of a newborn person or other living creature), thus, the life of the individual continues beyond the life of the physical body (eternally, or within a chain of rebirths completed in a certain way).

Transmigration of souls in Eastern religions and traditions

Eastern religions and traditions, such as various branches of Hinduism and Buddhism, believe that after the death of one body, life continues in a new one. According to Hindu beliefs, the soul transmigrates into another body. So, life after life, she takes on different bodies - better or worse - depending on her actions in previous incarnations. Buddhists, who do not recognize a substantial soul, teach about the recombination of dharmas - simple psychophysical elements.

For supporters of Eastern beliefs, there is no alternative to the concept of “reincarnation”. They recognize this teaching for its logic and justice - it follows from it that pious, highly moral behavior allows an individual to progress from life to life, each time experiencing a gradual improvement in the conditions and circumstances of life. Moreover, reincarnation itself is a clear evidence of God's compassion towards living beings. In the process of reincarnation, each time the soul in its new incarnation is given another opportunity for correction and improvement. By progressing in this way from life to life, the soul can become so purified that it finally breaks out of the cycle of samsara and, sinless, achieves moksha (liberation).

The philosophical and religious beliefs of the East regarding the existence of an eternal Self have a direct impact on how transmigration of souls is viewed in various Eastern faiths, among which there are great differences in the philosophical understanding of the nature of the soul (jiva or atman). Some movements reject the existence of the “I”, others talk about the existence of the eternal, personal essence of the individual, and some argue that both the existence of the “I” and its non-existence are an illusion. Each of these beliefs has a direct impact on the interpretation of the concept of reincarnation and is associated with concepts such as samsara, moksha, nirvana and bhakti.

Hinduism

Transmigration of souls is one of the basic concepts of Hinduism. Just like in the philosophical systems of other Indian religions, the cycle of birth and death is accepted as a natural phenomenon of nature. In Hinduism, avidya, or the individual's ignorance of his true spiritual nature, leads him to identify with the mortal body and matter, an identification that maintains his desire to remain in the cycle of karma and reincarnation.

The transmigration of souls was first mentioned in the Vedas, the oldest sacred scriptures of Hinduism. According to popular belief, the doctrine of reincarnation is not recorded in the oldest of the Vedas, the Rig Veda. However, some scientists point out that it also contains elements of the theory of transmigration of souls. As one example of the presence of the doctrine of reincarnation in the Rig Veda, an alternative translation of hymn 1.164.32 is quoted:
“Whoever created it does not know it.
It is hidden from anyone who sees it
Hidden in the mother's womb,
Born many times, he came to suffering."

The Yajur Veda says:
“O learned and tolerant soul, after wandering through waters and plants, the personality enters the womb of the mother and is born again and again. O soul, you are born in the body of plants, trees, everything that is created and animate, and in water. O soul, shining like the sun, after cremation, mingling with fire and earth for a new birth and taking refuge in the mother's womb, you are born again. O soul, reaching the womb again and again, you rest serenely in the mother’s body like a child sleeping in its mother’s arms.”

A detailed description of the doctrine of reincarnation is contained in the Upanishads - ancient philosophical and religious texts in Sanskrit, adjacent to the Vedas. In particular, the concept of transmigration of souls is reflected in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5.11 and Kaushitaka Upanishad 1.2.
“Just as the body grows at the expense of food and water, so the individual self, feeding on its aspirations and desires, sensory connections, visual impressions and delusions, acquires the desired forms in accordance with its actions. »

In Hinduism, the soul, called atman, is immortal, and only the body is subject to birth and death. The Bhagavad Gita, which, according to most Hindus, reflects the main essence of the philosophy of Hinduism and the main meaning of the Vedas, says:
“Just as a person takes off old clothes and puts on new ones, so the soul enters new material bodies, leaving behind old and useless ones.”

Karma, samsara and moksha
The idea of reincarnation of the soul of any living being - humans, animals and plants - is closely related to the concept of karma, which is also explained in the Upanishads. Karma (literally: “action”) is the totality of an individual’s actions that serves as the cause of his next incarnation. The cycle of birth and death driven by karma is called samsara.

Hinduism states that the soul is in a constant cycle of birth and death. Desiring to enjoy in the material world, she takes birth again and again for the sake of satisfying her material desires, which is possible only through the medium of the material body. Hinduism does not teach that worldly pleasures are sinful, but explains that they cannot bring inner happiness and satisfaction, called in Sanskrit terminology ananda. According to the Hindu thinker Shankara, the world—as we commonly understand it—is like a dream. By its nature it is transitory and illusory. Being in the captivity of samsara is the result of ignorance and misunderstanding of the true nature of things.

After many births, the soul eventually becomes disillusioned with the limited and fleeting pleasures given to it by this world, and begins to search for higher forms of pleasure, which can only be achieved through spiritual experience. After prolonged spiritual practice (sadhana), the individual eventually realizes his eternal spiritual nature - that is, he realizes the fact that his true Self is the eternal soul, and not the mortal material body. At this stage, he no longer desires material pleasures, since - in comparison with spiritual bliss - they seem insignificant. When all material desires cease, the soul is no longer born and is liberated from the cycle of samsara.

When the chain of birth and death is broken, the individual is said to have achieved moksha, or salvation.
While all philosophical schools of Hinduism agree that moksha implies the cessation of all material desires and liberation from the cycle of samsara, different philosophical schools give different definitions of this concept. For example, followers of Advaita Vedanta (often associated with Jnana Yoga) believe that after achieving moksha, the individual remains eternally in a state of peace and bliss, which is the result of the realization that all existence is one and indivisible Brahman, and the immortal soul is a piece of this whole. After attaining moksha, the jiva loses his individual nature and dissolves into the “ocean” of impersonal Brahman, which is described as sat-chit-ananda (being-knowledge-bliss).

On the other hand, followers of philosophical schools of full or partial dvaita (“dualistic” schools to which the bhakti movements belong) carry out their spiritual practice with the goal of achieving one of the lokas (worlds or planes of existence) of the spiritual world or the kingdom of God (Vaikuntha or Goloka), for eternal participation there in the pastimes of God in one of His hypostases (such as Krishna or Vishnu for Vaisnavas, and Shiva for Shaivites). However, this does not necessarily mean that the two main schools of Dvaita and Advaita are in conflict with each other. A follower of one of the two schools may believe that achieving moksha is possible in both ways, and simply give personal preference to one of them. It is said that followers of Dvaita want to “taste the sweetness of sugar,” while followers of Advaita want to “become sugar.”

Reincarnation mechanism

In the Vedic scriptures it is said that the individual living entity resides in two material bodies, the gross and the subtle. These bodies function and develop only due to the presence of the soul in them. They are temporary shells of the eternal soul; they have a beginning and an end and are constantly controlled by the harsh laws of nature, which in turn operate under the strict supervision of God in his Paramatma aspect.

When the gross body wears out and becomes unusable, the soul leaves it in the subtle body. This process is called death.

The subtle body, which accompanies the soul in the interval between death and the next birth, contains all the thoughts and desires of a living being, and it is they that determine what type of gross body the living being will inhabit in the coming incarnation. Thus, according to the law of karma and under the guidance of Paramatma, a living being enters a body corresponding to his mentality. This change is called birth.

At the moment of death, the subtle body transfers the soul to another gross body. This process is similar to how air carries smell. It is often impossible to see where the scent of a rose comes from, but it is obvious that it was carried by the wind. Likewise, the process of transmigration of souls is difficult to follow. According to the level of consciousness at the time of death, the soul enters the womb of a certain mother through the seed of the father, and then develops the body that was given to it by the mother. This could be the body of a person, cat, dog, etc.

This is the process of reincarnation, which provides some explanation for out-of-body experiences, as well as the ability to remember past lives while under hypnosis, out-of-body travel, and many other altered states of consciousness. The key point is the fact that under certain circumstances the soul can move in the subtle body.

Physical bodies are created in accordance with the desires of the soul. Just as one can see many different things in the market - shirts, suits, trousers, T-shirts, jeans, etc., in the same way the soul has a wide variety of types of bodies - 8,400,000 forms of life. The soul can acquire any of them to fulfill its desires. Every form of life provides a certain type of pleasure and is given to a living being to satisfy his desires.

According to Vaishnava theology, every living being has a spiritual form - "svarupa" ("own form"), which is its eternal form in the spiritual world of Vaikuntha. This eternal form does not change when the living entity passes from one body to another. For example, a person can use his hands for different types of activities: performing an operation, repairing a telegraph pole, boxing, etc. In each of these cases, he must wear gloves appropriate for this type of activity, but the hand does not change. Likewise, the spiritual form of the soul remains unchanged, although the soul passes from one body to another during the process of reincarnation.

Buddhism
Although in popular Buddhist literature and folklore one can often find stories and discussions about the transmigration of souls, similar to Hindu ones (and sometimes clearly borrowed from Hinduism), Buddhist philosophy nevertheless denies the existence of the soul, atman, “higher self” and similar realities, therefore does not recognize reincarnation. However, in Buddhism there is the concept of santan - the extension of consciousness, behind which there is no absolute support (in any case, individual - in the Mahayana sutras (for example, the Avatamsaka Sutra) and tantras, “I” can act as a designation for the supra-individual Absolute, "Buddha nature"), santana is associated with constant change, like frames on a film reel, and is formed by recombinations of dharmas according to the law of dependent origination.

Consciousness wanders through the five (six) worlds of samsara (hellish beings, hungry ghosts, animals, people, asuras, gods), as well as the worlds of the sphere of forms and non-forms, which are divided into many locations. These wanderings occur both throughout life and after death; being in one or another world is determined by one’s mental state. The location is determined by previous deeds (karma). Only human existence, characterized by intelligent choice, allows one to influence the wanderings in samsara. At the moment of death there is a transition to another location depending on previous actions.

Tibetan Buddhism also introduces the concept of an intermediate state (bardo), when consciousness reaches the boundaries of samsara, in particular, at the moment of death the experience of clear light occurs.

Of particular importance in Tibetan Buddhism are certain high lamas, who are considered manifestations (tulkus) of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, preserving the line of rebirth. After the death of such a lama, a newly born child is sought, who is a continuation of the line. Candidates are tested using a complex system of tests.

Reincarnation in early Buddhism and the teachings of the Buddha

The idea of repeated births is characteristic of Buddhism: the enlightened state (buddhi) cannot be achieved in one life, it will take many thousands of years. Renowned Buddhist scholar Edward Conze writes:
“Buddhahood is one of the highest perfections that can be achieved, and for Buddhists it is self-evident that in order to achieve it, great effort will be required over many lifetimes. »

One of the foundations of Buddhism is the teaching of the “four noble truths,” which refers to the inherent desire of living beings and their subsequent suffering from material existence. They are very closely related to the laws of karma and reincarnation. According to the teachings of abhidharma, traced back to early Buddhism, a living being can be born at one of five levels of existence: among the inhabitants of hell, animals, spirits, human beings and celestial beings. Like Hinduism, this choice is determined by desire and karma, and the process of reincarnation continues until the living being either "disintegrates" at death or achieves shunyata, the "great emptiness" - a perfection that only a few achieve.

Numerous stories about the transmigration of souls are found in the Jatakas (Birth Stories), which were originally told by the Buddha himself. The Jatakas contain 547 stories about past incarnations of the Buddha. They describe, often in allegorical form, the reincarnations of the Buddha in various bodies and tell how a person can achieve enlightenment by following certain principles. Reincarnation plays a central role in almost all the Jataka stories. It details how the Buddha compassionately accepted the bodies of devas, animals and even trees in order to help conditioned souls achieve liberation.

Mahayana

Northern Mahayana Buddhism developed in Tibet, China, Japan and Korea. Perhaps because this tradition borrowed much more from the original Indian Buddhism, it is more characteristic of the idea of reincarnation, which is inherent in the religion of Tibet, where the doctrine of reincarnation occupies a central place. The Dalai Lama, the supreme representative of Tibetan Buddhism, states: “According to the Theravada school of philosophy, after a person reaches nirvana, he ceases to be a person, completely disappears; however, according to the highest school of philosophical thought, the personality still remains, and the existence of the “I” continues.” Mahayana Buddhism adopts abhidharma, as did early Buddhism. Depending on the ratio of righteous and sinful deeds committed earlier, a living being after death finds itself in the world of Non-Forms, the World of Forms, or one of six states of being in the World of Passions:

1. The abode of the gods is the highest abode of the gods;
2. Abode of the Demigods
3. Abode of Humanity
4. Animals
5. Spirits and ghosts
6. Naraka are hellish creatures

Selfishly pious souls end up in the abode of the gods, where they enjoy heavenly pleasures until the favorable karma runs out, and this pleasure is also associated with suffering - from the consciousness of the fragility of pleasure and the inability to make decisions.

Vicious souls end up in the world of naraks, where they remain for a time that corresponds to the severity of the sins they have committed. Aggressive individuals driven by jealousy are born as demigods; greed leads to the world of hungry ghosts. If the main defilement of a person was passion, and good deeds balance and overcome negative ones, then he incarnates in a human body. The human incarnation is considered the most spiritually valuable, although not the most comfortable.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the human body is also considered the most favorable for achieving a state of enlightenment. States of being, be it god, man, beast or someone else, appear as part of the illusion of carnal existence. The only reality is Buddhahood, which transcends the ordinary world of samsara.

The three main vices—stupidity, greed, and lust—characterize the absence of true Buddhahood.

Only after a living being has conquered these three vices does he cease to be a victim of bodily identification and, going beyond the six realms of illusory existence, achieves nirvana. Thus, nirvana is beyond the six post-mortem states of existence. At the same time, it is not recognized, unlike the Theravada doctrine, as something ontologically opposite to samsara; on the contrary, nirvana is the other side of any samsaric existence. Beings who have achieved nirvana transcend the cycle of birth and death of samsara, while at the same time their manifestation in any of the worlds of samsara is not considered problematic - due to the principle of the three bodies of the Buddha. The doctrine of reincarnation in Buddhism is a promising philosophy of life, affirming the continuous development of a living being, during which it breaks free from the shackles of illusion and, emerging free, immerses itself in the immortal nectar of reality.

Chinese Buddhism
In northern forms of Buddhism, the idea of reincarnation is expressed in a different way. Chinese Buddhism, which some characterize as "down-to-earth", often neglects the concept of reincarnation and similar "abstractions" in favor of such things as the beauty of nature. This influence came primarily from local Chinese teachers such as Lao Tzu and Confucius, whose earliest followers (dating back to the Tang dynasty) emphasized the beauty of the “natural world.” Reincarnation, however, played a prominent role in original Chinese Buddhism, the basic principles of which are set forth in the ancient scripture known as the Prajna Paramita Sutra (written on wooden tablets and said to contain the words of the Buddha himself).

Zen Buddhism
Traditionally, Zen teachers taught ideas about the transmigration of souls, but the main focus of Zen was on meditation techniques rather than on metaphysical issues, including, for example, the concept of reincarnation.
In the history of Zen, there were several prominent teachers who preached reincarnation and the eternal existence of the soul (understood not as the individual imperishable Atman, but as the universal “Buddha nature”). It was obvious to them that a living being is eternal and does not cease to exist after the death of the body. For example, the great teacher Chao-chow (778-897) wrote: “Before the existence of the world, the nature of Personality already exists. After the destruction of the world, the nature of the Personality remains intact.” Hui-neng (638–713), called the “sixth Chinese patriarch of Zen,” gathered his disciples around him before his death. Anticipating the teacher's imminent death, the students began to cry pitifully.
“Who are you crying about? Are you worried about me because you think I don't know where I'm going? If I didn't know this, I wouldn't have left you. In fact, you are crying because you yourself do not know what will happen to me. If you knew this, you would not cry, because the True Self undergoes neither birth nor death, it does not go and does not come...”

The ideas of reincarnation in Zen Buddhism were most clearly outlined in the 13th century by the teacher Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of the Soto Zen school. In his essay "Shoji" (the Japanese term for samsara), Dogen analyzes the philosophical views of his predecessors in Hinduism and Buddhism on the issues of birth, death and reincarnation, arguing for their importance for Zen practice.

Taoism

Starting from the Han Dynasty, Taoist documents say that Lao Tzu was reincarnated on earth several times, starting from the era of the Three Lords and Five Emperors. In one of the main scriptures of Taoism, Zhuang Tzu (IV century BC .), it is stated:
“Birth is not the beginning, nor is death the end. There is limitless being; there is continuation without beginning. Being outside of space. Continuity without beginning in time."

The basis of the belief in reincarnation in Taoism is the so-called “Lu Lu Lunhui” (六度輪回) or six stages of existence in the reincarnation of living beings. These six stages include both people and animals and insects - each of them respectively reflects more and more severe punishment for living beings who have sinned in previous incarnations, but do not yet deserve the extreme form of damnation on a plane of existence like purgatory. Individuals who have cleansed themselves of sins in their past lives and improved their karma are successively reincarnated from one level to another until they eventually reach the stage of complete purification or until they undergo the process of forgiveness or remission of sins.

Classical Greek and Roman philosophy

Among the ancient Greek philosophers who believed in the transmigration of souls and taught this doctrine, the most famous are Pythagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, Plotinus, Neoplatonists and Neopythagareans.

As Cicero notes, Pherecydes of Syros (6th century BC) was the first to teach about the immortality of the soul. Obviously, it is necessary to distinguish his views from the ideas of popular religion set forth in Homer, according to which the soul goes to Hades after death, but not to a new body returns. Various ancient sources claim that Pythagoras said that he could remember his past lives (Ephalis and Euphorbus). In antiquity, the connection between Pythagorean philosophy and reincarnation was generally accepted.

Empedocles described Pythagoras as follows:
“For as soon as he strained all the power of his mind towards knowledge, he without difficulty contemplated all the countless phenomena of the world, having foreseen for ten or twenty human generations. »

Empedocles said about himself:
“Once upon a time I was already a boy and a girl, a bush, a bird and a dumb fish emerging from the sea. »

According to Plato's dialogue "Phaedo", at the end of his life, Socrates, having outlined a number of proofs of the immortality of the soul, stated:
“If the immortal is indestructible, the soul cannot perish when death approaches it: after all, from everything that has been said it follows that it will not accept death and will not be dead!”

The phenomenon of transmigration of souls is described in detail in Plato’s dialogues “Phaedo”, “Phaedrus” and “Republic”.

The essence of his theory is that, drawn by sensual desire, a pure soul from heaven (a world of higher reality) falls to earth and puts on a physical body. First, the soul that descends into this world is born in the image of a person, the highest of which is the image of a philosopher striving for higher knowledge. After the philosopher’s knowledge reaches perfection, he can return to his “heavenly homeland.” If he becomes entangled in material desires, he degrades and in his future incarnation is born in the form of an animal. Plato described that in the next life, gluttons and drunkards may become donkeys, unbridled and unjust people may be born wolves and hawks, and those who blindly follow conventions are likely to become bees and ants. After some time, the soul, in the process of spiritual evolution, returns to human form and receives another opportunity to gain freedom.

Among the followers of Plato, Heraclides of Pontus expounded the original doctrine of the reincarnation of souls. The Platonist Albinus (2nd century AD) identifies four reasons why souls descend into bodies. The concept of the transmigration of souls was also adopted in Neoplatonism (for example, in the work of Porphyry “On the Cave of the Nymphs”). Cicero’s dialogue “Tusculan Conversations” (book 1) and the essay “The Dream of Scipio”, included in the dialogue “On the State,” talk in detail about concepts common in antiquity. Platonist Philo of Alexandria, commenting on Gen. 15:15, said that this passage of the Bible “clearly indicates the indestructibility of the soul, which leaves its abode in the mortal body and returns to its native abode, which it originally left to come here.” However, in another place he noted that “ nature has made the soul older than the body... but nature determines seniority rather by dignity than by length of time.”

Reincarnation is a central theme in the Hermetica, a Greco-Egyptian collection of texts on cosmology and spirituality attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.

Judaism

The authoritative Jewish historian Josephus (c. 37 - c. 100), being a Pharisee, in his famous work “The Jewish War” wrote about the views of the Pharisees on the posthumous state of the soul:
“Souls, in their opinion, are all immortal; but only the souls of the good move after their death into other bodies, and the souls of the evil are doomed to eternal torment. »

Apparently, reincarnation appeared in Judaism some time after the Talmud. Reincarnation is not mentioned in the Talmud or in earlier writings. The idea of transmigration of souls, called gilgul, became popular in folk beliefs, and plays an important role in Yiddish literature among Ashkenazi Jews.

The concept of reincarnation is explained in the medieval mystical work Bagheer, which comes from the 1st century mystic Nehunia ben-ha-Kana, Bagheer became widespread from the mid-12th century. After the publication of the Zohar at the end of the 13th century, the idea of reincarnation spread to many Jewish communities. Reincarnation was recognized by the following Jewish rabbis: Baal Shem Tov - the founder of Hasidism, Levi ibn Habib (Ralbah), Nachmanides (Ramban), Bahya ben Asher, Shelomo Alkabez and Chaim Vital. The rationale for reincarnation arises from considerations of why pious people and sinless children suffer or are innocently killed. This goes against the belief that good people should not suffer. From this it is concluded that such people are the reincarnation of sinners in a previous birth.

Some Kabbalists also accepted the idea that human souls could be reincarnated into animals and other life forms. Similar ideas, starting from the 12th century, are found in a number of Kabbalistic works, as well as among many mystics of the 16th century. Many stories about the gilgul are given in Martin Buber's collection of Hasidic stories, in particular those concerning the Baal Shem Tov.

Another view on reincarnation is that the soul is reborn again provided that it has not completed a certain mission. Followers of this view view gilgul as a rare phenomenon, and do not believe that souls migrate constantly.

The belief in the transmigration of souls is accepted in Orthodox Judaism. Works such as Sha'ar Hagilgulim (Gate of Reincarnation), based on the writings of Rabbi Yitzchak Luria (and compiled by his student Rabbi Chaim Vital), describe the complex laws of reincarnation. One of the concepts that appears in Shaar Hagilgulim is the idea that gilgul occurs during pregnancy.

In Orthodox Judaism, many siddurs (“prayer books”) contain prayers that ask for forgiveness for sins committed by an individual in that gilgul or in previous ones. These prayers fall into the category of prayers said before going to bed.

Christianity

All major Christian denominations do not accept the possibility of reincarnation and view it as contrary to the basic concepts of their religion. However, some Christian movements indirectly touch on this topic in their teachings about death, and some leave this issue open to individual understanding by believers, relying on a number of ambiguously interpreted passages from the Bible.

It is generally accepted that the doctrine of reincarnation has been rejected by its followers since the birth of Christianity. Traditionally, the presence of ideas of transmigration of souls in early Christianity is explained by the influence of pagan cultures. Since the birthplace of Christianity and the vector of its spread were closely connected with Rome and Greece, its formation was influenced by the legacy left by ancient thinkers. That is why the Gnostics combined Christian theology with the ideas of Pythagoreanism and Neoplatonism, the cornerstone of which was the doctrine of reincarnation, and that is why early Christian writers and apologists paid great attention to its discussion and criticism.

Subsequently, reincarnation was accepted by the medieval Gnostic sects of the Cathars and Albigensians, who considered each soul as a fallen angel, born again and again in the material world created by Lucifer.

There is also an alternative view of the history of reincarnation in Christianity, which gained wide acceptance among theosophists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was later adopted by adherents of the New Age movements. Proponents of this hypothesis argue that the doctrine of reincarnation was accepted by early Christians, but was later rejected.

Today there are attempts to reconnect Christianity with reincarnation. Examples include Geddes MacGregor's Reincarnation in Christianity: A New Vision of Rebirth in Christian Thought, Rudolf Steiner's Christianity as a Mystical Fact, and Tomaso Palamidesi's Past Life Recollection and Techniques, which describes several methods of recollection. past lives.

Currently, the theory of transmigration of souls is accepted by a number of fringe Christian groups, which include the Christian Society, the Liberal Catholic Church, the Unity Church, the Rosicrucian Fellowship and other communities committed to Gnostic, Theosophical and mystical ideas.

Islam and Sufism

The Qur'an makes no explicit mention of life after death and reincarnation of the soul. The Qur'an only scratches the surface of major theological and philosophical issues pertaining to the nature of the afterlife. Only later were extensive theological commentaries written that organize the hidden meanings of the canonical narratives of the prophet (the so-called "hadith") and the revelation of the Qur'an. Muslims, as a rule, strictly adhere to traditional ideas about death and the afterlife, and do not seek to study the works of mystics in order to discover the secret meaning of the lines of the Koran devoted to this issue.

Muslims have a rather complex system of ideas about the nature of death, the very moment of dying and what happens after death. According to the Islamic view of life after death, the soul of the deceased is placed behind a "barzakh" (barzakh), and the body, interred, decomposes and eventually turns to dust. Only on the Day of Judgment, by the will of Allah, will new bodies be created into which souls will rush. Resurrected in this way, people will appear before their Creator and will be held accountable for the deeds they committed during their lives.

Like other religions, Islam teaches that God did not create man so that he would one day die—the idea of rebirth and renewal runs through the Koran. A famous scripture verse says, “He is the one who gave you life, and He will send you death, and then He will give you life again.” The same idea is found in the Quran as a warning to idolaters: “God created you, took care of you, then you will die according to His will, then He will give you life again. Can idols (which you call gods) do all this for you? Thanks God!" In the Islamic tradition, however, these and other similar passages from the Qur'an, possibly related to reincarnation, are usually interpreted as a promise of resurrection. Frequent references in the Qur'an to resurrection, according to some researchers, may equally likely apply to reincarnation. For example, Sura 20:55/57 quotes God's words to Moses: “We created you from the earth, and We will bring you back again.” you into the earth, and then we will create you again.” Some researchers interpret the meaning of this verse as the body, which is constantly being created and destroyed, and the soul, which, after the death of the body, is born again, but in a different body.

In the Islamic tradition, a human being is a soul resurrected by a spirit. According to traditional interpretations of the Koran, lost souls go to the judgment of Allah after death. Disbelief in Allah and his prophet brings a curse on a person and dooms him to an eternal stay in Jahannam - Gehenna, or hell. Like Judaism and Christianity, jahannam is a place of eternal post-mortem torment. Although sinners will be fully punished only after the “final resurrection,” non-believers go to their eternal hell immediately upon death, and the souls of those who believe in Allah and his prophet are not subject to the judgment of the angels of death. Angels come to the righteous and escort them to heaven. Pious Muslims receive their full reward only after the resurrection, but, unlike the infidels, the righteous rest peacefully while waiting for the appointed hour.

It is believed that after a funeral, two angels, Munkar and Nakir, with black faces, terrifying voices, piercing blue eyes and hair flowing to the ground, come to the person in the grave. They interrogate the deceased about the good or evil deeds he committed during his lifetime. This interrogation is called "judgment in the grave"; such a judgment awaits all devout Muslims. In order to prepare the deceased for this trial, during the funeral, relatives and friends whisper in his ear various pieces of advice that will help him correctly answer the questions of the divine judges. If the deceased successfully passes this “exam”, he will taste “heavenly bliss” while still in the grave; if not, unbearable torment awaits him. However, in due course, both sinners and righteous will go through a “new creation” in preparation for the resurrection, after which the pious and the unfaithful will go to their final destinations - heaven or hell.

During the era of the rise of Islam, there was a slightly different theological understanding of death - it was likened to sleep. The idea of resurrection played a central role in the original concept of the afterlife, but was not formulated so strictly, and, according to some researchers, could well be interpreted from the point of view of the doctrine of reincarnation. The analogy to sleep was the only consistently espoused concept of death by early Muslim theologians. Ancient ideas in which death was likened to sleep, and the resurrection from the dead to awakening, can be found in the Qur'an (25:47/49): “The Lord has made the night a covering for you, and sleep a rest, and has created a day for awakening (nushur).” Night is the canopy that covers the sleeper; sleep is a prototype of death, and dawn is a symbol of resurrection (nushur)... The key word of these lines is nushur, which can be translated as “rise” or “awakening.” Later Islamic philosophers associated the term with the concept of resurrection. According to some researchers, the original Islamic ideas about death were closely related to the idea of reincarnation: the one who sleeps must inevitably wake up. Is this awakening some kind of final resurrection, or does it occur in the cycle of birth and death; in any case, the question of posthumous existence occupied an important place in early Islamic philosophy. In modern Islam, the majority of devout Muslims are inclined towards the idea of resurrection, while representatives of such mystical movements in Islam as Sufism have always explained death as the beginning of a new life and interpreted the word nushur as the awakening of the soul after entering a new body.

In Islamic scriptures, reincarnation is referred to as tanasuh, a term that is rarely used by orthodox Muslim philosophers, but appears quite often in the writings of Arab and Middle Eastern thinkers and theologians. Arab and Persian theologians, like Kabbalists, believe that the transmigration of the soul is a consequence of a sinful or failed life. The concept of "tanasukh" is much more widespread among Muslims in India, which can be attributed to the influence of Hinduism. Proponents of reincarnation claim that the Koran supports the doctrine of transmigration of souls and cite a number of quotations as evidence, some of which are given below: “To him who violated the Sabbath, We said: be a monkey, vile and despicable.” “He is the worst of all who angered Allah and brought upon himself His curse. Allah will turn him into a monkey or a pig.” “Allah gives you life from the earth, then turns you back into the earth, and He will give you life again.”

The meaning of these and other verses of the Qur'an was explored by such famous Persian Sufi poets as Jalaluddin Rumi, Saadi and Hafiz. The theme of transmigration of souls is also reflected in the spiritual lyrics of Mansur Hallaj, one of the most famous Sufi thinkers who lived in the 10th century.

Druze

Historically, the persecution that scientists who did not belong to the orthodox branch of Christianity were subjected to during the Middle Ages forced many thinkers and philosophers to leave Europe. Some of them moved to Persia, others went to Arabia or reached India itself.

Gnostic Christians introduced the Arabs to Greek philosophy and the Gnosticism that came from it; the Nestorians brought Neoplatonic teachings to Arabia, and the Jews brought Kabbalistic writings. The teachings of the Hermeticists also took root in the Middle East. Around this time, Al-Biruni traveled to India, where he studied the classical religious scriptures of Hinduism, some of which were then translated into Arabic and Persian and spread throughout Arabia. Thus, by the time the Druze “heresy” was born, the doctrine of rebirth of the soul had already entered Islam and was again expelled from it. According to some researchers, this is why it is difficult to judge what is heresy and what is the true and original teaching of the Koran. Over time, devout Muslims began searching for the secret, esoteric meaning in the Koran.

Muhammad himself argued that the wisdom of the Qur'an was mainly based on the hidden meaning of its words: the Qur'an was “revealed in seven dialects, and in each of its verses there are two meanings - the manifest and the hidden... I received from God's messenger a twofold knowledge. I teach one of them...but if I revealed the other to people, it would rip their throats out.” According to some researchers, this “secret meaning” of many texts included the theory of transmigration of souls, which over time was consigned to oblivion.

Reincarnation in heretical movements of Islam

In the series of articles “Reincarnation. Islamic Ideas,” Islamic scholar M. H. Abdi described the events that resulted in the rejection of the doctrine of reincarnation from orthodox Muslim doctrine:
“For several centuries, prominent followers of Mohammed accepted the doctrine of reincarnation, but hid it from a wide circle of believers. This position was justified by certain psychological factors. Islamic faith has always primarily called for righteous deeds. ...In addition, the defensive battles known as Jihad, or holy wars, fought by Muslims in the early days of the Islamic religion, and the later wars of conquest (and therefore not holy wars), significantly influenced the fate of Islam. Previously, philosophical, mystical and ethical movements received a powerful impetus for development, but later, as a result of certain political events, they weakened and withered. Over time, the Arab republics turned into monarchical states; philosophers and saints lost their former influence. Such sacred topics as the transmigration of the soul require a special approach. In order to judge them, it is necessary to have an understanding of the higher levels of consciousness, cause-and-effect laws and the operation of the laws of evolution. The monarchs were not interested in subjects so far from politics. Like many other teachings, the doctrine of reincarnation is accessible only to Sufis and specialists in the history of Sufism... However, a Muslim who openly believes in the transmigration of souls and is called a heretic is hardly in any danger.”

Followers of traditional branches of Islam are still afraid of being branded as heretics, therefore the doctrine of reincarnation is discussed and interpreted only in line with the Sufi tradition. Some orthodox theologians believe that without belief in the rebirth of the soul, it is difficult to reconcile the morality preached by Islam and religious teachings. For example, G. F. Moore notes that
“The impossibility of combining the suffering of innocent children with the idea of God's mercy or, at worst, justice, forces some quite liberal Muslim theologians (Mu'tazilites) to look for the causes of torment in sins committed in a past life... The doctrine of reincarnation is an integral part of the cult of the imam, professed by the Shiites; This teaching in a specific form also exists among the Ismailis and is the most important part of the doctrine of Babism.”

A specialist in the history of Islam, I. G. Brown, develops this meaning in his work “Literary History of Persia.” Talking about the esoteric trends of Islam, he mentions three types of reincarnation that are recognized by Muslim thinkers:

1. Khulul - a recurring incarnation of a saint or prophet
2. Rijat - the return of an imam or other religious figure immediately after his death
3. Tanasuh - the usual reincarnation of any soul

The Ismailis even claim that Krishna came into the world as Buddha and later as Muhammad; followers of this movement believe that great teachers are born again and again for the benefit of new generations.

Many modern Muslims admit that they are ready, at least in theory, to accept the existence of the forms of reincarnation mentioned by mystics. Just like in other Abrahamic religions, in Islam the theory of rebirth of the soul is in the background and belief in the transmigration of souls is usually regarded as heresy, or, at best, as the prerogative of mystics. However, according to some researchers, a careful study of the various directions and scriptures of Islam shows that the doctrine of reincarnation is part of the creed of this religious tradition. Muslim theologian Erla Waugh says the following on this matter:
“References to reincarnation are firmly woven into the rich fabric of Islamic culture and generated by its wisdom; it is not just an “optional element” of the Muslim religion. On the other hand, even those areas of Islam that have departed so far from the orthodox form that they are perceived rather as independent religions (for example, Sufism) initially separated from the main tradition not at all because of any special understanding of the doctrine of reincarnation, but rather , as a result of the influence of numerous factors generated by internal problems of the history and culture of Islam. This is clearly illustrated by the search for spiritual leaders who would bear the stamp of Divinity or Divine knowledge. I will take the liberty of suggesting that these forms of religion will not only continue to exist, but in the course of time will take on a new, more attractive appearance through contact with other teachings, both nurtured within Islam and created from without, as a protest against the restrictions it imposes. ."

Belief in reincarnation has two main components:

The idea that a person has a certain essence (“spirit”, “soul”, etc.), which contains the personality of a given person, his self-awareness, a certain part of what a person identifies with the concept of “myself”. Moreover, this essence can be connected with the body, but this connection is not inseparable, and the soul can continue to exist after the physical body has died. The question of whether only humans have a soul, or other (perhaps all) species of living beings, is resolved differently in different worldviews.

The idea that the soul, after the death of the body, immediately or after some time, is embodied in another body (the body of a newborn person or other living creature), thus the life of the individual continues beyond the life of the physical body (eternally, or within the chain rebirths completed in a certain way).

The belief in transmigration of souls is an ancient phenomenon. According to S.A. Tokarev, the earliest form of ideas is associated with totemism. Some peoples (Eskimos, North American Indians) believed that the soul of a grandfather or another representative of the same clan group enters a child. The doctrine of reincarnation is a central tenet in most dharmic religions, such as Hinduism (including its branches such as yoga, Vaishnavism, and Shaivism), Jainism, and Sikhism. The idea of transmigration of souls was also accepted by some ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Pythagoras and Plato. Belief in reincarnation is inherent in some modern pagan traditions, New Age movements, and is also accepted by followers of spiritualism, some African traditions, and adherents of such esoteric philosophies as Kabbalah, Sufism, Gnosticism and esoteric Christianity. The Buddhist concept of a series of rebirths, although often called "reincarnation", differs significantly from traditions based on Hinduism and from New Age movements in that there is no "I" or eternal soul that reincarnates.

Research shows that the number of people in the West who believe in reincarnation has increased markedly in recent decades. Reincarnation is often mentioned in feature films such as Kundun and Birth, modern literature, and popular music.

Some researchers, such as Professor Ian Stevenson, have studied the phenomenon of reincarnation and published works in which they set out the “factual basis” for the belief in transmigration. This base mainly serves as cases when people “remember their previous lives”, begin to identify themselves with a person from the past, and demonstrate unusual skills, for example, speaking in an unfamiliar language. Some are skeptical or critical of such research, while others point out the need for further study of the subject.

Transmigration of souls in Eastern religions and traditions

Eastern religions and traditions, such as various branches of Hinduism and Buddhism, believe that the soul, after the death of one body, moves into another; So, life after life, she takes on different bodies - better or worse - depending on her actions in previous incarnations.

Hinduism

Transmigration of souls is one of the basic concepts of Hinduism. Just like in the philosophical systems of other dharmic religions, the cycle of birth and death is accepted as a natural phenomenon of nature. In Hinduism, avidya, or the individual's ignorance of his true spiritual nature, leads him to identify with the mortal body and matter, an identification that maintains his desire to remain in the cycle of karma and reincarnation.

Reincarnation in the Vedas and Upanishads

The transmigration of souls is first mentioned in the Vedas, the oldest sacred scriptures of Hinduism. According to popular belief, the doctrine of reincarnation is not recorded in the oldest of the Vedas, the Rig Veda. However, some scientists point out that it also contains elements of the theory of transmigration of souls. As one example of the presence of the doctrine of reincarnation in the Rig Veda, an alternative translation of hymn 1.164.32 is quoted:

Whoever created it does not know it.
It is hidden from anyone who sees it
Hidden in the mother's womb,
Born many times, he came to suffering.

In this hymn of the Rig Veda, there are two meanings of the word bahuprajah: as “having many offspring” and as “born many times”. The ancient Indian grammarian Yaska gives both these meanings in Nirukta. The Yajur Veda says:

O learned and tolerant soul, after wandering through waters and plants, the personality enters the womb of the mother and is born again and again. O soul, you are born in the body of plants, trees, everything that is created and animate, and in water. O soul, shining like the sun, after cremation, mingling with fire and earth for a new birth and taking refuge in the mother's womb, you are born again. O soul, reaching the womb again and again, you rest serenely in the mother's body like a child sleeping in its mother's arms.

Just as the body grows due to food and water, so the individual “I”, feeding on its aspirations and desires, sensory connections, visual impressions and delusions, acquires the desired forms in accordance with its actions.

Just as a person takes off old clothes and puts on new ones, so the soul enters new material bodies, leaving behind old and useless ones.

Karma, samsara and moksha

The idea of reincarnation of the soul of any living being - humans, animals and plants - is closely related to the concept of karma, which is also explained in the Upanishads. Karma (literally: “action”) is the totality of an individual’s actions that serves as the cause of his next incarnation. The cycle of birth and death driven by karma is called samsara.

Hinduism states that the soul is in a constant cycle of birth and death. Desiring to enjoy in the material world, she takes birth again and again for the satisfaction of her material desires, which is possible only through the material body. Hinduism does not teach that worldly pleasures are sinful, but explains that they cannot bring inner happiness and satisfaction, called ananda in Sanskrit terminology. According to the Hindu thinker Shankara, the world - as we commonly understand it - is like a dream. By its nature it is transitory and illusory. Being in the captivity of samsara is the result of ignorance and misunderstanding of the true nature of things.

When the chain of birth and death is broken, the individual is said to have achieved moksha, or salvation. While all philosophical schools of Hinduism agree that moksha implies the cessation of all material desires and liberation from the cycle of samsara, different philosophical schools give different definitions of this concept. For example, followers of Advaita Vedanta (often associated with jnana yoga) believe that after achieving moksha, the individual remains eternally in a state of peace and bliss, which is the result of the realization that all existence is one and indivisible Brahman, and the immortal soul is a piece of this whole. After attaining moksha, the jiva loses his individual nature and dissolves into the “ocean” of impersonal Brahman, which is described as sat-chit-ananda (being-knowledge-bliss).

Reincarnation mechanism

The Vedic scriptures say that the individual living entity resides in two material bodies, the gross and the subtle. These bodies function and develop only due to the presence of the soul in them. They are temporary shells of the eternal soul; they have a beginning and an end and are constantly controlled by the harsh laws of nature, which in turn operate under the strict supervision of God in his Paramatma aspect. When the gross body wears out and becomes unusable, the soul leaves it in the subtle body. This process is called death. The subtle body, which accompanies the soul in the interval between death and the next birth, contains all the thoughts and desires of a living being, and it is they that determine what type of gross body the living being will inhabit in the coming incarnation. Thus, according to the law of karma and under the guidance of Paramatma, a living being enters a body corresponding to his mentality. This change is called birth.

At the moment of death, the subtle body transfers the soul to another gross body. This process is similar to how air carries smell. It is often impossible to see where the scent of a rose comes from, but it is obvious that it was carried by the wind. Likewise, the process of transmigration of souls is difficult to follow. According to the level of consciousness at the time of death, the soul enters the womb of a certain mother through the seed of the father, and then develops the body that was given to it by the mother. This could be the body of a person, cat, dog, etc. This is the process of reincarnation, which provides some explanation for out-of-body experiences, and also explains the ability to remember past lives while under hypnosis, out-of-body travel, and many other altered states of consciousness. The key point is the fact that under certain circumstances the soul can move in the subtle body.

Physical bodies are created in accordance with the desires of the soul. Just as in the market one can see many different things - shirts, suits, trousers, T-shirts, jeans, etc., in the same way the soul has a wide variety of types of bodies - 8,400,000 forms of life. The soul can acquire any of them to fulfill its desires. Every form of life provides a certain type of pleasure and is given to a living being to satisfy his desires.

Jainism

In Jainism, special attention is paid to reincarnation into the bodies of devas - an individual who has accumulated a sufficient amount of good karma can become a deva in the next life. Such an embodiment, however, is considered undesirable. Similar beliefs are also characteristic of some movements in Hinduism, such as Vaishnavism.

Sikhism

According to the teachings of Sikhism, a person does not begin his life from scratch - he already existed before his birth. His past life, the family he was born into and his place of birth determine his personality. A person has free will and therefore bears responsibility for his actions. In Sikhism, reincarnation is directly dependent on the grace of the guru and God. In Sikhism, karma is accepted, but at the same time the possibility of changing a person’s destiny through the blessing of the guru is recognized. The tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, after the initiation rites of the Sikhs declared the Sikhs free from previous family lineage (janma-nasha), faith (dharam-nasha), rituals (karam-nasha), duality (bhrama-nasha) and predestined occupation (krita). -our). Thus, according to the gurus of Sikhism, Sikhs are free from reincarnation.

Buddhism

Although in popular Buddhist literature and folklore one can often find stories and discussions about the transmigration of souls, similar to Hindu ones (and sometimes clearly borrowed from Hinduism), Buddhist philosophy nevertheless denies the existence of the soul, atman, “higher self” and similar realities, therefore does not recognize reincarnation. However, in Buddhism there is the concept of santana - the extension of consciousness, behind which there is no absolute support; santana is associated with constant changes, like frames on a film.

Consciousness wanders through the five (six) worlds of samsara (hellish beings, hungry ghosts, animals, people, asuras, gods), which are divided into many locations, while only two worlds of animals and people are associated with material embodiment. These wanderings occur both throughout life and after death; being in one or another world is determined by one’s mental state. The location is determined by previous deeds (karma). Only human existence, characterized by intelligent choice, allows one to influence the wanderings in samsara. At the moment of death there is a transition to another location depending on previous actions.

Reincarnation in early Buddhism and the teachings of the Buddha

Buddhahood is one of the highest perfections that can be achieved, and for Buddhists it is self-evident that in order to achieve it, great effort will be required over many lifetimes.

According to one opinion, Buddhism initially recognized both the existence of the soul and the doctrine of its reincarnation. According to one school of thought, the early Buddhists created a doctrine that denies the existence of the soul in opposition to Hinduism, thereby seeking to strengthen Buddhism as a tradition theologically distinct from Hinduism.

One of the foundations of Buddhism is the teaching of the Four Noble Truths, which refers to the inherent desire of living beings and their subsequent suffering from material existence. They are very closely related to the laws of karma and reincarnation. According to the teachings of abhidharma, traced back to early Buddhism, a living being can be born at one of five levels of existence: among the inhabitants of hell, animals, spirits, human beings and celestial beings. Like Hinduism, this choice is determined by desire and karma, and the process of reincarnation continues until the living being either "disintegrates" at death or achieves shunyata, the "great emptiness" - a perfection that only a few achieve. All forms of life (including gods) involve suffering of some kind, and are discussed in Buddhism primarily to emphasize the idea of suffering. Only human existence makes it possible to make a reasonable decision; all other forms (including gods who are in pleasure) have practically no power to counteract the flow of samsara, and only a person can decide to exit the cycle of suffering.

Among the early proponents of reincarnation in Buddhism is Vatsiputriya, a brahmana who was originally a member of the sthavira school. 250 years after the passing of the Buddha, he founded the Pudgalavada movement, with the aim of combating the then growing tradition of Buddhism, which rejected the doctrine of reincarnation. Vatsiputrya faced strong opposition and Pudgalavada was declared heretical, giving way to new groups emerging who did not accept the doctrine of reincarnation.

As in other branches of Mahayana Buddhism, Zen, along with regular meditation, prescribes an analytical study of death, which helps to overcome the fear of death and get rid of the illusion resulting from identifying oneself with the body. The typical illusion of the conditioned soul is to believe that death can be avoided in some materialistic sense. A person lives as if death would never come. Day after day people enjoy and suffer, with little thought about the inevitable end of life. Buddhist teachers guide their students on the path of realizing the nature of the body: the body must die, while the eternal self nevertheless continues to live. Material existence, with its illusion of bodily pleasure, is the main obstacle to achieving enlightenment - the individual must face death without fear, opposing it with full awareness of it.

The Buddhist scholar Buddhaghosa (5th century) was the first to systematize meditations regarding death in Buddhism. In one of his most significant works, Visuddhimagga (Path of Purity), he divides these meditations into two categories: meditation on the inevitability of death and meditation on the disgustingness of corpses. Buddhaghosa developed these meditation techniques into a complex system of eight stages:

Death is the executioner, raising an ax over the head of every living creature.

Death is the collapse of all well-being: all achievements, like sand falling through the fingers of time, are fragile, ephemeral.

More personal assessments: how will death affect me? What will my sensations resemble?

There is a delicate balance that maintains life, including breathing, body mechanics, nutrition; and at any moment a failure can occur somewhere.

Death waits for the right moment, and the enemy - fear - can always attack me.

Human life is short: at best, I have no more than a few years to live.

I die every moment of time... with every fleeting second my life fades and cannot be returned.

Supposedly, meditation on the disgustingness of corpses was necessary to heighten the practitioner's awareness of their mortality and prepare them to face death without fear. Buddhaghosa argued that if a person could clearly imagine a “disgusting body, rotting by its nature,” and realize that the body is destined to rot and decompose, then he would give up attachment to it. These meditations were aimed at freeing the individual practicing them from the bodily perception of life. Meditations on death were the first step aimed at focusing consciousness on the decisive, final moment when the soul passes from one body to another. One of the ancient Buddhist texts says the following:

With his Divine eye, absolutely clear and superior to human vision, Bothisattva saw how living beings died and were born again - in high and low castes, with prosperous and sad destinies, acquiring high and low origins. He discerned how living beings are reborn according to their karma: “Alas! There are thinking beings who perform unskillful actions with their bodies, do not have command of speech and mind, and hold erroneous views. Under the influence of bad karma after death, when their bodies become unusable, they are born again - in poverty, with an unhappy fate and a weak body, in hell. But there are living beings who perform skillful actions with their bodies, have command of speech and mind, and hold correct views. Under the influence of good karma, after their bodies become unusable, they are born again - with a happy destiny, in the heavenly worlds.

Theravada

According to the South Indian Theravada school of thought, a living being does not have an eternal soul (anatman), therefore, there is no “I” for rebirth. According to Theravada, the Self is the transitory combination of the five elements (five skandhas): matter, bodily sensations, perceptions, urges and consciousness. Theravada Buddhists state that an individual is more than a combination of these elements at any given time, and note that at the time of death these five elements disintegrate. At the same time, it is recognized that the “dissolution” of individuality at the moment of death is not the absolute end of life, but rather the beginning of a new phase of existence. It is believed that a certain subtle karmic quality, having absorbed the “five elements”, passes into a new body, bringing with it a new combination of skandhas, which helps to enter a “new life” with new life experiences. Some scriptures indicate that the "karma of the five elements" in the form of the "embryo consciousness" passes into the womb - this is associated with the early Buddhist concept of santana.

Mahayana

The abode of the gods is the highest abode of the gods;

Abode of the Demigods

Abode of Humanity

Animals

Spirits and ghosts

Naraka - hellish creatures

Pious souls go to the abode of the gods, where they enjoy heavenly pleasures until the favorable karma runs out, and this pleasure is also associated with suffering - from the consciousness of the fragility of pleasure and the inability to make decisions. Evil souls end up in naraka, where they remain for a time that corresponds to the severity of the sins they have committed. If the soul has lived a mixed life of virtue and sin, then it immediately incarnates in a human body.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the soul can only achieve the state of enlightenment in a human body. States of being, be it god, man, beast or someone else, appear as part of the illusion of carnal existence. The only reality is Buddhahood, which transcends the ordinary world of samsara. Three basic vices - stupidity, greed and lust - characterize the absence of true Buddhahood. Only after a living being has conquered these three vices does he cease to be a victim of bodily identification and, going beyond the six realms of illusory existence, achieves nirvana. Thus, nirvana is beyond the six post-mortem states of existence. Souls who have achieved nirvana transcend the cycle of birth and death of samsara. The doctrine of reincarnation in Buddhism is a promising philosophy of life, affirming the continuous development of a living being, during which it breaks free from the shackles of illusion and, emerging free, immerses itself in the immortal nectar of reality.

Chinese Buddhism

In northern forms of Buddhism, the idea of reincarnation is expressed in a different way. Chinese Buddhism, which some characterize as "down-to-earth", often neglects the concept of reincarnation and similar "abstractions" in favor of such things as the beauty of nature. This influence came primarily from local Chinese teachers such as Lao Tzu and Confucius, whose earliest followers (dating back to the Tang dynasty) emphasized the beauty of the “natural world.” Reincarnation, however, played a prominent role in original Chinese Buddhism, the basic principles of which are set forth in the ancient scripture known as the Pragya Paramita Sutra (written on wooden tablets and said to contain the words of the Buddha himself).

Zen Buddhism

Traditionally, Zen teachers taught ideas about the transmigration of souls, but the main focus of Zen was on meditation techniques rather than on metaphysical issues, including, for example, the concept of reincarnation. In the history of Zen, there have been several prominent teachers who preached reincarnation and the eternal existence of the soul. It was obvious to them that a living being is eternal and does not cease to exist after the death of the body. For example, the great teacher Chao-chow (778-897) wrote: “Before the existence of the world, the nature of Personality already exists. After the destruction of the world, the nature of the Personality remains intact.” Hui-Seng (638-713), called the “sixth Chinese patriarch of Zen,” gathered his disciples around him before his death. Anticipating the teacher's imminent death, the students began to cry pitifully.

Who are you crying about? Are you worried about me because you think I don't know where I'm going? If I didn't know this, I wouldn't have left you. In fact, you are crying because you yourself do not know what will happen to me. If you knew this, you would not cry, because the True Self undergoes neither birth nor death, it does not leave and does not come...

The ideas of reincarnation in Zen Buddhism were most clearly outlined in the 13th century by the teacher Dogen (1200-1253), the founder of the Soto Zen school. In his essay "Shoji" (the Japanese term for samsara), Dogen examines the philosophical views of his predecessors in Hinduism and Buddhism on the issues of birth, death and reincarnation, arguing for their importance for Zen practice.

Taoism

Since the Han Dynasty, Taoist documents state that Lao Tzu was reincarnated on earth several times, starting from the era of the Three Lords and Five Emperors. One of the main writings of Taoism, Chuang Tzu (IV century BC), states:

Birth is not the beginning, any more than death is the end. There is limitless being; there is continuation without beginning. Being outside of space. Continuity without beginning in time.

Shintoism

Shintoism recognizes the possibility of reincarnation, and it is usually believed that the soul of a deceased person reborn in a new body does not retain memories of previous incarnations, but can exhibit skills and talents acquired and demonstrated in a past life.

Transmigration of souls in Western religions and traditions

Classical Greek and Roman philosophy

Your bodies - whether the fire burns them or time rots them
If they are destroyed, they will no longer know suffering, believe me!
Souls alone will not die; but forever, leaving the monastery
The old one will live in new houses and be accepted again.
…
So: everything changes, but nothing perishes and, wandering,
Enters here and there; body occupies any
Spirit; from animal bodies it passes into human bodies, from our
Again in animals, but he himself will not disappear forever and ever.
Like malleable wax that molds itself into new forms,
Does not remain alone, does not have a single form,
But it remains itself, just like the soul, remaining
By the same thing, as I teach, he passes into various flesh.

Ovid "Metamorphoses" XV 156-159, 165-172, trans. S. Shervinsky

Among the ancient Greek philosophers who believed in or taught the doctrine of transmigration of souls, the most famous are Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato. As Cicero notes, Pherecydes of Syros (VI century BC) was the first to teach about the immortality of the soul. Obviously, it is necessary to distinguish his views from the ideas of popular religion set forth by Homer, according to which the soul goes to Hades after death, but does not return to a new body. Various ancient sources claim that Pythagoras said that he could remember his past lives (Ephalis and Euphorbus). In antiquity, the connection between Pythagorean philosophy and reincarnation was generally accepted.

Empedocles described Pythagoras as follows: “For as soon as he strained all the power of his mind towards knowledge, he without difficulty contemplated all the countless phenomena of the world, having foreseen for ten or twenty human generations.” Empedocles said about himself:

Once upon a time I was already a boy and a girl,
Bush, bird and dumb fish emerging from the sea.

According to Plato's dialogue "Phaedo", at the end of his life, Socrates, having outlined a number of proofs of the immortality of the soul, stated:

If the immortal is indestructible, the soul cannot perish when death approaches it: after all, from everything that has been said it follows that it will not accept death and will not be dead!

The phenomenon of transmigration of souls is described in detail in Plato’s dialogues “Phaedo”, “Phaedrus” and “Republic”. The essence of his theory is that, drawn by sensual desire, a pure soul from heaven (a world of higher reality) falls to earth and puts on a physical body. First, the soul that descends into this world is born in the image of a person, the highest of which is the image of a philosopher striving for higher knowledge. After the philosopher’s knowledge reaches perfection, he can return to his “heavenly homeland.” If he becomes entangled in material desires, he degrades and in his future incarnation is born in the form of an animal. Plato described that in the next life, gluttons and drunkards may become donkeys, unbridled and unjust people may be born wolves and hawks, and those who blindly follow conventions are likely to become bees and ants. After some time, the soul, in the process of spiritual evolution, returns to human form and receives another opportunity to gain freedom.

Among the followers of Plato, Heraclides of Pontus expounded the original doctrine of the reincarnation of souls. The Platonist Albinus (2nd century AD) identifies four reasons why souls descend into bodies. The concept of the transmigration of souls was also adopted in Neoplatonism (for example, in the work of Porphyry “On the Cave of the Nymphs”). Cicero’s dialogue “Tusculan Conversations” (book 1) and the essay “The Dream of Scipio”, included in the dialogue “On the State,” talk in detail about concepts common in antiquity. Platonist Philo of Alexandria, commenting on Gen. 15:15, said that this passage of the Bible "clearly indicates the indestructibility of the soul, which leaves its abode in the mortal body and returns to its native abode, which it originally left to find itself here." However, in another place he noted that “nature has made the soul older than the body... nature determines seniority rather by dignity than by length of time.” Reincarnation is a central theme in the Hermetica, a Greco-Egyptian collection of texts on cosmology and spirituality attributed to Hermes Trismegistus.

Many ancient authors, expounding the views of the Brahmans, say that, according to their teaching, the soul lives after the death of the body, but do not mention anything about its return to the body. However, according to Megasthenes, the Brahmans “weave into their stories, like Plato, myths about the immortality of the soul, about the judgment in Hades, and others of the same kind.” Some researchers believe that Plato and other ancient Greek philosophers gained knowledge about reincarnation from mystical theories like Orphism or from the religious and philosophical traditions of India.

Judaism

While ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Socrates attempted to prove the existence of reincarnation through philosophical arguments, the Jewish mystics who accepted the doctrine of reincarnation did not go this route, but instead presented an explanation of why reincarnation was able to solve the intractable problem of theodicy - how combine the existence of evil with the concept of an all-good God.

The concept of reincarnation is explained in the medieval mystical work Bagheer, which comes from the 1st century mystic Nehunia ben-ha-Kana, Bagheer became widespread from the mid-12th century. After the publication of the Zohar at the end of the 13th century, the idea of reincarnation spread to many Jewish communities. Reincarnation was recognized by the following Jewish rabbis: Baal Shem Tov - the founder of Hasidism, Levi ibn Habib (Ralbah), Nahmanides (Ramban), Bahya ben Asher, Shelomo Alkabez and Chaim Vital. The rationale for reincarnation arises from considerations of why pious people and sinless children suffer or are innocently killed. This goes against the belief that good people should not suffer. From this it is concluded that such people are the reincarnation of sinners in a previous birth.

Many rabbis were negative about the idea of reincarnation, notably Saadia Gaon, Hasdai Crescas, Yedaya Bedershi, Joseph Albo, Abraham ibn Daud and Leon de Modena. Questions were asked why people do not remember past births, what specific soul will God address on the day of judgment, how can it be that people are weighed down by the sins of past births. Saadia Gaon, in his work Emunot ve-de'ot, refutes the doctrine of reincarnation, and argues that Jews who accept reincarnation have adopted non-Jewish beliefs.

Christianity

Modern Christians reject the doctrine of transmigration. According to Christian doctrine, the soul lives in the body one single life and with the death of the body, awaits the verdict of the Last Judgment, which should decide its further fate - eternal bliss in the Kingdom of God or eternal torment in hell. However, the famous Russian religious philosopher N.O. Lossky adhered to the theory of reincarnation of the soul. So in his work “The Doctrine of Reincarnation” he wrote:

The theory of the pre-existence of the soul and reincarnation, developed by Leibniz and adopted by me... has never been condemned by the Church. ... At church prayers, for example. The doctrine of reincarnation should not affect the content of the memorial service in any way. In the requiem service, all attention is focused on the ultimate goal of a person’s life, on his entry into the Kingdom of God, where there is “no illness, no sorrow, no sighing, but endless life.” But in individual prayer for the deceased, a supporter of the doctrine of reincarnation can, of course, turn to God with a request to bless the deceased on new paths of his life, to send him the gifts of the Holy Spirit, etc...

In addition, some theologians and scientists, including Christian ones, acknowledge the possibility that early Christians were more inclined to the theory of rebirth than to the idea of \u200b\u200bresurrection and entry into heaven or hell. According to proponents of reincarnation, the theory of transmigration of souls follows simple logic and common sense: could a merciful God give his children only one opportunity to reach the Kingdom of Heaven? Is it possible to admit that an all-forgiving God doomed a person to eternity in hell, giving him one and only chance to atone for his sins?

The Bible does not mention the term “reincarnation” and does not directly acknowledge the doctrine of transmigration. However, a number of basic doctrines of various branches of modern Christianity are also not directly mentioned in the Bible. An example is the Catholic dogma that souls can go to purgatory to atone for sins: there is no direct mention of it in the Bible. A number of researchers believe that the Holy Trinity is also an example of dogma that does not have biblical origins.

Possible references to reincarnation in the New Testament

Some episodes from the New Testament have been interpreted as references to the theory of transmigration. In one case described in the Gospels, Christ and his disciples met a man blind from birth, and the disciples asked: “Rabbi! Who sinned, he or his parents, that he was born blind?” (John 9:2). Researchers point out that the very fact that Jesus' early followers asked him such a question suggests their belief in previous existence and reincarnation and the widespread belief in punishing children for the sins of their parents (Lam. 5-7). Among them is John Calvin, who rejected the idea of transmigration of souls, but believed that this verse may be talking about reincarnation. Apparently, the disciples of Christ were sure that before his birth the blind man lived in another body. Otherwise, how could a person who was blind from birth be punished with blindness for allegedly committing a sin?

According to one Christian interpretation, Christ’s answer to his disciples implies that the cause of the blind man’s illness was not the sins committed by him or his parents. He was born blind so that Jesus could heal him and thereby “increase the glory of the Lord.” Proponents of reincarnation point out that Jesus answered this way, but did not say that the question asked by the disciples was incorrect. From a number of biblical quotations it is clear that Christ, as a rule, pointed out to his disciples that their questions were inappropriate. Proponents of reincarnation also point out that Jesus' answer does not explain why such things happen in the first place. After all, there are other people born with the same disease.

There are indications in the Gospels of the belief of some people of that time that the prophet Elijah returned in the form of John the Baptist, and other Hebrew prophets also came in other guises.

“When Jesus came to the countries of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples: Who do people say that I, the Son of man, am? They said: some for John the Baptist, others for Elijah, and others for Jeremiah, or one of the prophets” (Matthew 16:13-14).

“Then the disciples asked Him, “How come the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answered them: it is true that Elijah must come first and arrange everything, but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him as they wanted; so the Son of man will suffer from them. Then the disciples understood that He was speaking to them about John the Baptist” (Matthew 17:10-13).

“Truly I say to you, of those born of women, none was exalted higher than John the Baptist; but the least one in the Kingdom of Heaven is above him. For you can accept that he is Elijah, who must come. He who has ears, let him hear! "(Matthew 11:11, 14-15).

According to supporters of reincarnation, this is a clear reference to the transmigration of souls. Christian scholars try to refute this by citing verses 19 and 21 of the Gospel of John, which describe how John the Baptist was approached by the Jerusalem priests and asked if he was Elijah. John rejected all attempts to identify him with Elijah, and generally denied that he had a prophetic gift.

“And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him: Who are you? He declared, and did not deny, and declared that I am not the Christ. And they asked him: what then? are you Elijah? He said no. Prophet? He answered: no." (John 1:19-21)

Proponents of reincarnation point out that this can be explained by the modesty of the Forerunner. When the priests gave John the opportunity to speak, he did not directly tell the priests who he was. Some researchers explain this by saying that he simply did not remember his previous incarnations.

Gnosticism

Since the birthplace of Christianity and the vector of its spread were closely connected with Rome and Greece, its formation was influenced by the legacy left by ancient thinkers. That is why the Gnostics combined Christian theology with the ideas of Pythagoreanism and Neoplatonism, the cornerstone of which was the doctrine of reincarnation. Thus, the idea of the transmigration of the soul entered the Gnostic doctrine of the early Apostolic Christian tradition. The concept of transmigration of souls was accepted by the Gnostics Carpocrates and Apelles. Basilides interpreted the words of the Apostle Paul, “I lived when there was no law” (Rom. 7:9) in such a way that “before being incarnated in this body, he lived in another, which is not subject to the law, for example, in the body of an animal or bird.” .

Early Christianity and the Transmigration of Souls

In Christianity, it is generally accepted that the views of the early Church Fathers on the doctrine of reincarnation were negative. However, some of the founders of the Christian Church, such as Clement of Alexandria (150-220), Justin Martyr (100-165), Saint Gregory of Nyssa (335-394), Arnobius (late 3rd century) and Saint Jerome (340-420), repeatedly mention ideas of reincarnation. Criticism of the concept of transmigration of souls is contained in the works of Irenaeus of Lyons “Against Heresies” (Book II, Ch. 33-34) and Gregory of Nyssa “On the Constitution of Man” (Ch. 28), while Aurelius Augustine in his autobiography “Confession” seriously considered the possibility of reincarnation.

Lord, answer me, did my infancy come after some other dead age of mine, or was it preceded only by the period that I spent in my mother’s womb? ...And what happened before this, my Joy, my Lord? Have I been somewhere, been anyone? ...You're laughing at me asking this...

Aurelius Augustine, Confessions

Because of their inclination towards evil, some souls... enter bodies, initially human; then, due to unreasonable passions, having lived the human life allotted to them, they turn into animals, from the level of which they degrade to the level of... plants. From this state, through the same stages, they rise, and their place in heaven is returned to them...

Origen, "On the Beginnings"

The theory of reincarnation in early Christianity was called the “pre-existence of souls.” The most outspoken supporter of this doctrine was Origen (185-254), later recognized by the Christian Church as a heretic, who is often called “the most significant and famous of the early Christian theologians.” Origen's views on the subject of reincarnation were outlined in the Gifford Lectures by the Rev. William R. Inge (1860-1954), Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London and Professor of Theology at Cambridge University:

Origen... taught that the soul lives even before birth in the body. The soul is immaterial, therefore its life has neither beginning nor end... This teaching seemed so convincing to Origen that he could not hide his irritation at the orthodox belief in the Day of Judgment and the subsequent resurrection of the dead. “How can one restore dead bodies, each particle of which has passed into many other bodies? - asks Origen. - Which body do these molecules belong to? This is how people plunge into the quagmire of absurdities..."

In his treatise “On Principles” (III 8, 3), Origen interprets the biblical text of Ps. 114, 7 (“Return, my soul, to your rest”) as alluding to the pre-existence of the soul.

Although most historical sources claim that the doctrine of the transmigration of souls in the Christian world was accepted only by individual thinkers who were influenced by the ideas of Pythagoreanism, Platonism or Gnosticism, a different opinion is expressed about the history of this doctrine in the Christian religion, according to which Christianity recognized the doctrine of reincarnation (in the form doctrines of the pre-existence of souls or in other forms) from the very moment of its inception. This view of history was widely accepted among theosophists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and was later adopted by adherents of the New Age movements and a number of scientists and authors.

At the local council of the Church of Constantinople in 553, Origen's teaching on the pre-existence of souls was condemned as incompatible with Christian doctrine. At the Council, 10 anathematisms against Origenism, written by Emperor Justinian, were considered and approved. The first one states:

If anyone says or holds the opinion that human souls pre-exist, being, as it were, ideas (νόας) or sacred powers; that they fell away from divine contemplation and turned to the worse and, as a result, lost divine love and therefore were called souls (ψυχας) and were sent to bodies for punishment - let him be anathema.

Many Christian theologians and researchers argue that it is not entirely correct to perceive Origen as a teacher of the theory of reincarnation due to the fact that Origen's theory was not a theory of reincarnation in the sense in which the latter is understood by Platonists, Hindus or Buddhists. Christian researchers often argue that criticism of the idea of transmigration of souls is found in St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian, St. Methodius of Olympia, St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Cyril of Alexandria. Some researchers also note that if the ideas of reincarnation are seen in Origen’s early works, then in his subsequent works he criticizes them. Similar contradictions in the works of Origen, Gregory of Nyssa and some other apologists, in some quotes speaking positively about reincarnation and in others negatively, are explained by supporters of reincarnation by the fact that after the doctrine of reincarnation was officially rejected, their works were purposefully changed and they added negative statements regarding the doctrine of transmigration of souls.

Middle Ages and Modern Times

During the Renaissance, the Christian community's interest in the idea of transmigration increased dramatically; while Kabbalistic teachings emerged in Judaism, Christians reinterpreted their own mystical traditions. The Church, however, considered the idea of rebirth a heresy and took harsh punitive measures against heretics. Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake partly because of his belief in the transmigration of souls. The doctrine of transmigration of souls was professed by such Christian Gnostic movements as the Albigensians (Cathars), Paulicians and Bogomils.

Islam and Sufism

Like other religions, Islam teaches that God did not create man so that he would one day die - the idea of rebirth and renewal runs through the Koran. A famous scripture verse says, “He is the One who gave you life, and He will send you death, and then He will give you life again.” The same idea is found in the Quran as a warning to idolaters: “God created you, took care of you, then you will die according to His will, then He will give you life again. Can idols (which you call gods) do all this for you? Thanks God!" In the Islamic tradition, however, these and other similar passages from the Qur'an, possibly related to reincarnation, are usually interpreted as a promise of resurrection. Frequent references in the Qur'an to resurrection, according to some researchers, may equally likely refer to reincarnation. For example, Sura 20:55/57 quotes God as saying to Moses: “We created you from earth, and We will turn you back into earth, and then We will create you again.” Some researchers interpret the meaning of this verse as the body, which is constantly being created and destroyed, and the soul, which, after the death of the body, is born again, but in a different body.

Everything that we see has a prototype, a basis outside of us,
She is immortal - and only what the eye sees will die.

Don't complain that the light has gone out, don't cry that the sound has died down:
It was not they who disappeared, but their reflection.

What about us and our essence? As soon as we come into the world,
We make our ascent along the stairs of metamorphosis.

From the ether you became a stone, then you became grass,
Then to the animals - the secret of secrets in alternation!

And now you are a man, you are endowed with knowledge,
The clay has taken on your form - oh, how fragile it is!

You will become an angel after going through a short earthly path,
And you will become related not to the earth, but to the heights above.

O Shams, plunge into the abyss, give up the heights -
And in a small drop, repeat the life of the endless seas.

Jalaluddin Rumi

In the Islamic tradition, a human being is a soul resurrected by a spirit. According to traditional interpretations of the Koran, lost souls immediately after death are judged by angels who act as messengers of Allah. Disbelief in Allah and his prophet brings a curse on a person and dooms him to an eternal stay in Jahannam - Gehenna, or hell. Like Judaism and Christianity, jahannam is a place of eternal post-mortem torment. Although sinners will be fully punished only after the “final resurrection,” non-believers go to their eternal hell immediately upon death, and the souls of those who believe in Allah and his prophet are not subject to the judgment of the angels of death. Angels come to the righteous and escort them to heaven. Pious Muslims receive their full reward only after the resurrection, but, unlike the infidels, the righteous rest peacefully while waiting for the appointed hour.

During the era of the emergence of Islam, there was a slightly different theological understanding of death - it was likened to sleep. The idea of resurrection played a central role in the original concept of the afterlife, but was not formulated so strictly, and, according to some researchers, could well be interpreted from the point of view of the doctrine of reincarnation. The analogy to sleep was the only consistently espoused concept of death by early Muslim theologians. Ancient ideas in which death was likened to sleep, and the resurrection from the dead to awakening, can be found in the Koran (25:47/49): “The Lord has made the night a covering for you, and sleep a rest, and has created a day for awakening (nushur).” Night is a canopy that covers the sleeper; sleep is a prototype of death, and dawn is a symbol of resurrection (nushur)... The key word of these lines is nushur, which can be translated as “rise” or “awakening.” Later Islamic philosophers associated the term with the concept of resurrection. According to some researchers, the original Islamic ideas about death were closely related to the idea of reincarnation: the one who sleeps must inevitably wake up. Is this awakening some kind of final resurrection, or does it occur in the cycle of birth and death; in any case, the question of posthumous existence occupied an important place in early Islamic philosophy. In modern Islam, the majority of devout Muslims are inclined towards the idea of resurrection, while representatives of such mystical movements in Islam as Sufism have always explained death as the beginning of a new life and interpreted the word nushur as the awakening of the soul after entering a new body.

In Islamic scriptures, reincarnation is referred to as tanasuh, a term that is rarely used by orthodox Muslim philosophers, but appears quite often in the writings of Arab and Middle Eastern thinkers and theologians. Arab and Persian theologians, like Kabbalists, believe that the transmigration of the soul is a consequence of a sinful or failed life. The concept of "tanasukh" is much more widespread among Muslims in India, which can be attributed to the influence of Hinduism. Proponents of reincarnation claim that the Koran supports the doctrine of transmigration of souls and cite a number of quotations as evidence, some of which are given below: “To him who violated the Sabbath, We said: be a monkey, vile and despicable.” “He is the worst of all who has angered Allah and brought upon himself His curse. Allah will turn him into a monkey or a pig.” “Allah gives you life from the earth, then turns you back into the earth, and He will give you life again.” The meaning of these and other verses of the Qur'an was explored by such famous Persian Sufi poets as Jalaluddin Rumi, Saadi and Hafiz. The theme of transmigration of souls is also reflected in the spiritual lyrics of Mansur Hallaj, one of the most famous Sufi thinkers who lived in the 10th century.

Druze

For the Druze, also known as the Syrian Sufis, reincarnation was the fundamental principle on which their teaching was built. This syncretic branch of Islam formed in the 11th century and is considered heretical by orthodox Islam. Its founder was Fatimid, the caliph of al-Hakim. Some Druze claim to be descendants of persecuted mystics who took refuge in Persia. Others point to their kinship with Khemsa, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, who visited Tibet in 625 in search of “secret wisdom.” They believe that he subsequently appeared as a Hamsa mission and founded their order, just as Buddhas incarnate in Tibetan lamas. This teaching is widespread mainly among the inhabitants of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria, but recently it has become increasingly influential among orthodox Muslims. Historically, the persecution that scientists who did not belong to the orthodox branch of Christianity were subjected to during the Middle Ages forced many thinkers and philosophers to leave Europe. Some of them moved to Persia, others went to Arabia or reached India itself. Gnostic Christians introduced the Arabs to Greek philosophy and the Gnosticism that came from it; the Nestorians brought Neoplatonic teachings to Arabia, and the Jews brought Kabbalistic writings. The teachings of the Hermeticists also took root in the Middle East. Around this time, Al-Biruni traveled to India, where he studied the classical religious scriptures of Hinduism, some of which were then translated into Arabic and Persian and spread throughout Arabia. Thus, by the time the Druze “heresy” was born, the doctrine of rebirth of the soul had already entered Islam and was again expelled from it. According to some researchers, this is why it is difficult to judge what is heresy and what is the true and original teaching of the Koran. Over time, devout Muslims began searching for the secret, esoteric meaning in the Koran. Muhammad himself argued that the wisdom of the Qur'an is mainly based on the hidden meaning of its words: the Qur'an was “revealed in seven dialects, and in each of its verses there are two meanings - the manifest and the hidden... I received from God's messenger twofold knowledge. I teach one of them...but if I revealed the other to people, it would rip their throats out.” According to some researchers, this “secret meaning” of many texts included the theory of transmigration of souls, which over time was consigned to oblivion.

Reincarnation in heretical movements of Islam

For several centuries, prominent followers of Mohammed accepted the doctrine of reincarnation, but hid it from a wide circle of believers. This position was justified by certain psychological factors. Islamic faith has always primarily called for righteous deeds. ...In addition, the defensive battles known as Jihad, or holy wars, fought by Muslims in the early days of the Islamic religion, and the later wars of conquest (and therefore not holy wars), significantly influenced the fate of Islam. Previously, philosophical, mystical and ethical movements received a powerful impetus for development, but later, as a result of certain political events, they weakened and withered. Over time, the Arab republics turned into monarchical states; philosophers and saints lost their former influence. Such sacred topics as the transmigration of the soul require a special approach. In order to judge them, it is necessary to have an understanding of the higher levels of consciousness, cause-and-effect laws and the operation of the laws of evolution. The monarchs were not interested in subjects so far from politics. Like many other teachings, the doctrine of reincarnation is accessible only to Sufis and specialists in the history of Sufism... However, a Muslim who openly believes in the transmigration of souls and is called a heretic is hardly in any danger.

Followers of traditional branches of Islam are still afraid of being branded as heretics, therefore the doctrine of reincarnation is discussed and interpreted only in line with the Sufi tradition. Some orthodox theologians believe that without belief in the rebirth of the soul, it is difficult to reconcile the morality preached by Islam and religious teachings. For example, G. F. Moore notes that the impossibility of combining the suffering of innocent children with the idea of God's mercy or, at worst, justice, forces some quite liberal Muslim theologians (Mu'tazilites) to look for the causes of torment in sins committed in a past life... The doctrine of reincarnation - an integral part of the cult of the imam, professed by Shiites; this teaching in a specific form also exists among the Ismailis and is the most important part of the doctrine of Babism.

A specialist in the history of Islam, I. G. Brown, develops this idea in his work “Literary History of Persia.” Talking about the esoteric trends of Islam, he mentions three types of reincarnation that are recognized by Muslim thinkers:

Khulul – recurring incarnation of a saint or prophet

Rijat - the return of an imam or other religious figure immediately after his death

Tanasukh - the usual reincarnation of any soul

The Ismailis even claim that Krishna came into the world as Buddha, and later as Muhammad; followers of this movement believe that great teachers are born again and again for the benefit of new generations. Many modern Muslims admit that they are ready, at least in theory, to accept the existence of the forms of reincarnation mentioned by mystics. Just like in other Abrahamic religions, in Islam the theory of rebirth of the soul is in the background and belief in the transmigration of souls is usually viewed as heresy, or, at best, as the prerogative of mystics. However, according to some researchers, a careful study of the various directions and scriptures of Islam shows that the doctrine of reincarnation is part of the creed of this religious tradition. Muslim theologian Erla Waugh says the following on this matter:

Mentions of reincarnation are firmly woven into the rich fabric of Islamic culture and generated by its wisdom; it is not just an “optional element” of the Muslim religion. On the other hand, even those areas of Islam that have departed so far from the orthodox form that they are perceived rather as independent religions (for example, Sufism) initially separated from the main tradition not at all because of any special understanding of the doctrine of reincarnation, but rather , as a result of the influence of numerous factors generated by internal problems of the history and culture of Islam. This is clearly illustrated by the search for spiritual leaders who would bear the stamp of Divinity or Divine knowledge. I will take the liberty of suggesting that these forms of religion will not only continue to exist, but in the course of time will take on a new, more attractive appearance through contact with other teachings, both nurtured within Islam and created from without, as a protest against the restrictions it imposes. .

System of religious beliefs of the peoples of the North

Many peoples of the North are characterized by the idea of the immortality of the soul and reincarnation - the return of the soul to people in the guise of a newborn baby. Such ideas caused not only a very calm attitude towards death, but also the existence of a stable institution of voluntary death. Among the Eskimos, Chukchi and Koryaks, a person, being sick, old, weak or wanting to die from grief, poverty and other reasons, asked relatives or friends to kill him with a spear, knife or strangle him with a belt - it was believed that such a request could not be ignored. It was also believed that in the world of the dead a person would need the same items that he used during life, so everything he needed was placed with the deceased.

Reincarnation in Western culture

In the West, the Christian Church, and later, materialistic science, for centuries suppressed manifestations of interest both in reincarnation and in the problem of pre-existence and the possibility of the existence of consciousness separately from the body. However, throughout the history of the West there have been thinkers who understood and tried to defend the concept of the immortality of consciousness and the transmigration of the soul. And a large number of philosophers, writers, artists, scientists and politicians have seriously thought about this idea. The 19th century German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once remarked:

“If an Asiatic asked me to define the concept of “Europe,” I would be forced to answer him as follows: “It is a part of the world where they blindly and stubbornly believe that man was created out of nothing and that this birth is his first appearance on light".

Western thinkers

Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Catholic Inquisition partly because he accepted the doctrine of reincarnation. During the Renaissance there was a surge of interest in the topic of reincarnation. The famous Italian philosopher and poet Giordano Bruno played a major role in this. Because of his teachings (including those about reincarnation), Bruno was convicted and burned at the stake by the Inquisition. In his final response to the charges brought against him, Bruno fearlessly declared that the soul “is not a body” and that “it can be in one or another body and pass from one body to another.” In conditions of severe persecution by the Church, the doctrine of reincarnation could only exist in deep underground; Thus, in Europe it managed to survive only in the secret societies of the Rosicrucians, Freemasons, Kabbalists, etc.

During the Age of Enlightenment, some thinking people in Europe, freed from church censorship, accepted the doctrine of reincarnation. The great philosopher Voltaire wrote that the doctrine of reincarnation is “neither absurd nor useless,” and that “to be born twice is no more surprising than to be born once.” In the United States, the result of the interest in the question of transmigration that spread here from overseas was not only the deep influence of the idea of reincarnation on some of the fathers of the nation, but also their complete acceptance of this idea. The belief in reincarnation is permeated by the words of Benjamin Franklin: “Having found that I exist in this world, I believe that in one form or another I will always exist.” In 1814, former US President John Adams, who had read books on Hinduism, wrote about the doctrine of reincarnation to another former President, Thomas Jefferson:

Some souls who rebelled against God were cast into a region of complete darkness. Then they were released from prison and allowed to rise to earth so that they could transmigrate into all kinds of animals (reptiles, birds, beasts and people), depending on their position and character, and even into vegetables and minerals, and there, in service, pass your probationary period. If they successfully passed the required gradations, they were given the opportunity to receive the bodies of cows and people. If they behaved appropriately in the human body...they were restored to their original status and enjoyment in heaven.

Napoleon told his generals that in a previous life he belonged to the Charlemagne family. During the classical period of German literature, the topic of metempsychosis attracted the attention of a number of German writers and philosophers, such as Goethe, Gotthold Lessing, Johann Herder and Arthur Schopenhauer. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one of the greatest German poets, famous playwright and scientist, also believed in reincarnation: “I am sure that, just as now, I have already been to this world a thousand times, and I hope to return a thousand times more.” David Hume also showed interest in the topic. Irish poet and Nobel laureate William Yeats introduced the theory of reincarnation in his occult treatise, The Vision. According to Yeats, reincarnation does not occur within the framework of linear time - all future and past lives of an individual occur in the eternal present, and decisions made in any of these lives also affect all other lives. The idea of reincarnation also attracted the attention of one of the most influential artists in the West, Paul Gauguin. In the last years of his life, spent on the island of Tahiti, he wrote that when the physical organism is destroyed, “the soul survives.” Gauguin believed that the soul puts on another body, degrading or rising, in accordance with its merits or demerits. According to the artist, the idea of constant rebirth was brought to the West by Pythagoras, who heard about reincarnation from the sages of ancient India. In Russia, the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy accepted reincarnation.

Many naturalists and psychologists also believed in reincarnation. Carl Jung used the concept of the eternal self, which survives many births, as a means of understanding the deepest secrets of the self and consciousness.

The English biologist Thomas Huxley noted that the “doctrine of transmigration of the soul” was “a way of giving a convincing explanation of the action of the cosmos in relation to man,” and emphasized that “only the most impatient of scientists would reject this doctrine because of its supposedly deliberate absurdity.” The American scientist Erik Erikson, one of the leading experts in the field of psychoanalysis, who worked, in particular, on the problem of human improvement, is convinced that reincarnation underlies the human belief system:

Let's not close our eyes to this: deep down, no sane person can imagine his existence without admitting that he has always lived and will live after this life.

General George Patton believed in reincarnation and, like other members of his family, claimed to have had visions of his previous incarnations on a number of occasions. In particular, Patton declared himself the reincarnation of the Carthaginian commander Hannibal. In his literary works, Nobel Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer often talks about past lives, rebirth and the immortality of the soul: “There is no death. How can death exist if everything is a part of God? The soul never dies, just as the body is never alive.” The idea of reincarnation was also reflected in the work of the English poet John Masefield and one of the former members of The Beatles, George Harrison, who converted to Hinduism in the 1960s.

In the teachings of the American mystic Edgar Cayce, reincarnation and karma act as tools of a loving God, and as laws of nature, the purpose of which is to teach the individual certain spiritual lessons. Cayce argued that animals have "group" souls and lack individuality and consciousness. In the process of spiritual evolution, the soul passes through a series of animal incarnations and reaches the human body, after which it never returns to animal forms of life. Cayce's views on the subject of spiritual evolution are very similar to the interpretation of this concept in Theosophy.

Henry Ford was a staunch supporter of reincarnation. In particular, he believed that in his last incarnation he died as a soldier at the Battle of Gettysburg. Ford describes his beliefs in the following quote from the August 26, 1928 San Francisco Examiner:

I accepted the theory of reincarnation when I was twenty-six years old. Religion did not provide me with an explanation for this phenomenon, and my work did not bring me complete satisfaction. Work has no meaning if we cannot use the experience accumulated in one life in another. When I discovered reincarnation, it was like discovering a universal plan - I realized that there was now a real chance for my ideas to come true. I was no longer limited by time, I was no longer a slave to it. Genius is experience. Some seem to think that it is a gift or talent, but in reality it is the fruit of experience gained over many lifetimes. Some souls are older than others and therefore know more. Discovering the concept of reincarnation calmed my mind. If you record this conversation, write that it helps calm the mind. I would really like to share with everyone the peace that such a vision of life brings.

Transcendentalism

Interest in reincarnation and Indian philosophy was characteristic of American Transcendentalists, including Emerson, Whitman and Thoreau. Henry David Thoreau, author of Walden, or Life in the Woods, wrote: “As far as I can remember, I have always, without knowing it, turned back to the experience of one of the previous states of my existence.” Further evidence of Thoreau's deep interest in reincarnation is the manuscript of The Transmigration of the Seven Brahmins, found in 1926. This short work is an English translation of a story about the transmigration of the soul, taken from an ancient story written in Sanskrit. The episode related to the transmigration of souls traces the successive reincarnations of the seven sages into hunters, princes and animals. The idea of reincarnation was also reflected in the poetry of Walt Whitman.

Theosophy

The Theosophical Society was the first organization to widely disseminate the concept of reincarnation into modern Western society. Concepts such as karma, reincarnation and spiritual evolution formed the basis of the doctrine of Theosophy, and they, according to one of the Theosophical authors, “are the key to the solution of modern problems,” including the problem of heredity. In theosophical doctrine, the human soul is considered to be inherently pure and possessing great spiritual potential. Reincarnation acts as a process through which the soul gradually reveals its spiritual potential in the world of form and realizes its true nature.

First, the soul descends from its free, spiritual habitat and incarnates in the body of a child. While in the human body, she accumulates experience through her attempts to express herself in this world. At the time of death, the soul transitions from the physical plane to a successively higher level of existence. This involves a process of purification and assimilation of knowledge and wisdom from past incarnations. Ultimately, having completely abandoned the tools of personal experience, the soul regains its original spiritual, formless nature. At the completion of this process, the soul is ready for its next rhythmic manifestation and descent into the material plane to make a new attempt to discover its spiritual potential and gain consciousness of its divine nature and origin.

From this point of view, what is called human life represents no more than one day in the existence of a truly spiritual human being. This spiritual being continually moves forward along the long path of pilgrimage, with each life getting closer and closer to the completion of the process of self-realization and self-expression. According to theosophical doctrine, that which is reincarnated represents that part of the individual that originally belongs to the formless and immaterial worlds that are outside of time. It is not the physical body with all its characteristics that goes through the process of reincarnation, nor the emotional nature with all its likes and aversions, nor the mind with its accumulated knowledge and habits of reasoning. What goes through the process of reincarnation is above all these aspects of the individual. When, however, the formless essence of a living being begins the process of reincarnation, it attracts old emotional, mental and karmic patterns and forms a new personality out of them. Thus, the soul, with the help of abilities developed in past incarnations and in the posthumous process of assimilation, gains the ability to cope with those obstacles and shortcomings that it could not cope with in its past reincarnations.

Anthroposophy

Reincarnation plays an important role in the ideas of anthroposophy, an esoteric spiritual movement founded by Rudolf Steiner. Steiner describes the human soul as gaining experience from incarnation to incarnation in different races and peoples. Individual personality, with all its weaknesses and abilities, is not just a reflection of genetic inheritance. Steiner describes the reincarnating soul as seeking or even preparing its family line.

In anthroposophy, the present is formed as a result of the confrontation between the past and the future. Moreover, our present destiny is influenced by both the past and the future; Some events happen as a result of the past, and some happen to prepare us for the future. Interspersed between them is the concept of free will; we not only live our destiny, but also create it ourselves, just as we build a house in order to later live in it.

Anthroposophy has developed various spiritual exercises with which it is possible to acquire the ability to recognize past lives and to know the deep nature of the individual. Steiner also explores the karmic relationships of various historical figures, from Karl Marx to Julian the Apostate.

Reincarnation and Science

Canadian-American psychiatrist Ian Stevenson studied reincarnation cases from a scientific point of view, studying memories of a past life in children aged between two and four years. The number of cases he describes exceeds two thousand. According to the author, only cases were investigated where the contents of the memories could be documented, and in many cases he was able to find documentary evidence relating to past lives: confirming the names of relatives, descriptions of place of residence, and other verifiable details.

However, there is also a critique of some of the cases examined by Stevenson. At one time, for example, the story of Edward Rael made a splash, who remembered that he lived in the 17th century in one of the counties of England under the name John Fletcher, was a farmer, had two children, etc. Ian Stevenson even encouraged him to write a book about his past life. However, a check of the parish registers of births and deaths did not confirm the “memories” of Edward Rael.

Reincarnation Research

Research on children's memories

In this method, researchers collect surveys of young children who claim to remember a previous life and describe events and people they knew in that life. Typically, a child will begin to talk about these memories around age three, and lose these memories after age seven. In some cases, these memories are confirmed by actual people and events. If it is possible to conduct an interview before contact is made with people familiar with the imagined previous family, then the data can be considered objective.

Psychiatrists at the University of Virginia have published books on studies of past-life recall in early childhood. The most detailed evidence in favor of the theory of reincarnation was published by Professor Ian Stevenson, who spent more than 40 years researching children who talked about past lives. In each case, Stevenson systematically documented the child's statements. Stevenson believed that his examination of 2,500 children ruled out all possible "normal" explanations for a child's memories. He believed that reincarnation was not the only explanation, but still the best one for most of the cases he considered.

Psychologist Dr. Elendur Haraldson, a professor at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, has been studying reincarnation for a long time. In one of the cases he cited, a boy named Nazih Al-Danaf told many details about his supposed past life.

In Lebanon, Haraldson, along with local researcher Maj Abu-Izzedine, interviewed members of the boy's family and relatives of the deceased man, whom Nazih believed to be his past incarnation. The most striking testimony came from the wife of the deceased man, who decided to ask the boy questions about her life with her husband.

At 1.5 years old, Nazikh told his mother: “I’m not small, I’m big, I have two pistols and four hand grenades. I am a kabadai (fearless person). Don't be afraid of hand grenades, I know how to handle them. I have a lot of weapons. My children are small and I want to see them.”

He used words completely inappropriate for his age, showed an unusual interest in cigarettes and whiskey, talked about a mute friend who only had one arm, said that he had a red car, and that he died when people shot him. He said he was taken to the hospital and given a painkiller injection along the way. He wanted to go home to Kaberchamoum, a small town 17 km from where Nazih lived.

Nazih said that his family was in Kaberchamoum, although he had never been there. After years of persuasion, when he turned 6, his parents finally took him to Kaberchamoum in 1998. Several of his sisters also went with them.

They arrived at a crossroads of six roads. Nazih pointed to one of the roads and said to go along it. Then he said to go to the next fork. His father Sabir Al-Danaf went that way. But then he was forced to stop the car because the road was wet and it was difficult to drive. Nazikh got out of the car and ran forward. His father followed him and the women began talking to the locals.

When one of the residents heard what the women had to say, he was amazed. The description of Nazih's past reincarnation was similar to his father's life. Dr. Haraldson questioned this man named Kamal Haddaj. His father Fouad Assad Haddaj died many years ago.

Nazih did not recognize any of the houses, so he and his father returned to the car. Haddaj called his mother Najdiya to talk to the boy. She decided to test him to find out if the boy really was the reincarnation of her husband.

She asked him: “Who laid the foundation of the gate at this house?” Nazih replied: “A man from the Faraj family.” It was true.

She asked if something had happened to her when they lived in Ainab. Nazih said she dislocated her shoulder one morning. He took her to the doctor when he returned from work. This was true.

She asked if he remembered why their daughter Fairuz fell ill. He said: “She poisoned herself from the medicine I gave her and I took her to hospital.” This was indeed true.

Nazih pointed to one of the cabinets and said that he kept his weapon there. The boy then asked Fouad's widow if she remembered how, on the way from Beirut, their car stopped twice and Israeli soldiers helped start it. Such a case actually happened in their lives. The boy mentioned a barrel in the garden that he used to teach his wife to shoot. He ran into the garden to see if he was still there. He was there.

Najdiya showed Nazih a photo of Fuad and asked: “Who is this?” The boy replied: “It’s me, I was big, but now I’m small.”

Professor Stevenson also compared matches for moles and birth defects, children and wounds, scars on the bodies of the deceased, data that was confirmed by medical reports such as autopsies or photographs. Stevenson's research on birthmarks and birth defects supports the possibility of reincarnation by providing objective and graphic evidence of reincarnation, more than just the (often fragmentary) memories of children or reports of adults.

Stevenson's Arguments

Stevenson's research concluded that reincarnation was the best explanation for the following reasons:

The large number of witnesses and the lack of obvious cause and opportunity, due to the verification process, make the hypothesis of fraud extremely unlikely.

The large amount of information given by the child is not at all compatible with the hypothesis that the child received it through some kind of contact between families.

The demonstration of personality traits and skills that have not occurred in current life makes the hypothesis of a child receiving his memories and behavior through non-sensory perception most likely.

When there is a correlation between congenital deformities or birthmarks that a child has and a person (his previous reincarnation), then the hypothesis of a random coincidence is unlikely.

Signs of reincarnation

The following elements are most often taken into account when studying the phenomenon of reincarnation:

Memories that can be verified: They are more significant the less likely it is that the person remembering could have learned this information elsewhere. Therefore, great attention is paid to the possibility of earlier contact between all affected families.

Behavioral qualities that make sense psychologically in relation to past life memories. These qualities include:

Phobias are fears of things that have caused injury, mutilation, or violent death (for example, water, if in a previous life death occurred as a result of drowning).

Predisposition to things that were most attached to in a past life (for example, certain foods)

Emotional relationships with certain people in the same way as the deceased or deceased indicated or would indicate in a similar situation.

A collective enemy is a relationship that is expressed, for example, in nationalism.

Religious attitudes, beliefs and degree of religiosity.

Speech habits.

Claims to own property in a previous incarnation.

Social self-imaginary image.

Sex-specific behavior (most noticeable during gender reassignment).

Sexual behavior.

Children's games that correspond to the (private or professional) activities of a previous life.

Hygienic standards.

General characteristics (eg, courage).

Physical signs and features in connection with the past: Moles on the sites of former (and often fatal) wounds. This is very important evidence for research because it is possible to establish such physical phenomena absolutely objectively and indisputably. Dr. Stevenson photographed a large number of such evidence.

Research based on regression hypnosis

In this method, the researcher-hypnotist places the patient in a hypnotic trance to turn off consciousness and reveal memories of past lives. The advantage of this procedure is that almost anyone can provide evidence of their reincarnation, not just the rare cases of children who talk about past lives. The method of regressive hypnosis also made it possible to identify the repetition of the process of reincarnation in individual patients.

The disadvantages of the method are that hypnosis sometimes produces false memories, and also that the events described happened so long ago that they are not recorded in history, and there is no objective data for comparison between what was seen and the actual events of the past. But, since quite a lot of data has accumulated about memories of past lives, some psychologists have become convinced supporters of the existence of this phenomenon.

Peter Ramster, a psychotherapist, used trance and hypnosis, which allowed many patients to talk about past lives. Some of them, housewives who had never left Australia, but under the influence of hypnosis (trance), described many details, and the names of people and places where they had lived previously in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1983, Ramster and local historians searched the archives for this information. Some of the villages mentioned under hypnosis were found on old maps. Other villages no longer existed; many of the given names turned out to be correct. But Ramster's research was almost completely ignored by the scientific community.

One of the psychologists who worked on regressive hypnosis was Michael Newton. Michael Newton, Ph.D., is a Certified Certified Hypnotherapist in California and a Fellow of the American Counseling Association. He dedicated his private hypnotherapy practice to correcting various types of abnormal behavior, as well as helping people discover their higher spiritual selves. While developing his own age regression technique, Dr. M. Newton discovered that patients could be placed in intermediate periods between their past lives , thus confirming and demonstrating with practical examples the real, meaningful existence of an immortal soul between physical incarnations on Earth. He did not search for documentary evidence of other lives of his clients, since he was interested in the life of the soul in the spiritual world between lives on Earth. Michael Newton's long practice resulted in 2 books, “Journeys of the Soul” and “Destination of the Soul.”

In this regard, it is worth mentioning the Welsh hypnotherapist Arnol Bloxham, who has been conducting experiments with regressive hypnosis for 20 years.

Bloxham made over 400 tape recordings showing hypnotized people reliving their previous lives. Moreover, much of what is reported in the detailed records has been proven as fact. According to Bloxham, this compelling evidence strongly supports the ancient belief in reincarnation as a fact.

One of Bloxham's remarkable cases is that of Jane Evans. Jane's return to her past lives began in 1971 when she saw a poster that read, "Arnol Bloxham says rheumatism is a psychological problem." Jane, a 32-year-old Welsh housewife who suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, found the claim incredible, so she decided to meet the man responsible for the poster. She actually did this through a friend of her husband's and ended up "visiting" six of her past lives in which she was the wife of a teacher in Roman times; a Jew who was killed in the 12th century in York; servant of a French medieval king; maid of honor to Catherine of Aragon; a poor servant in London during the reign of Queen Anne and a nun in 19th century America.

The story of Jane Evans and several other examples of reincarnation were described by BBC television producer Geoffrey Iverson in his book More Lives Than One? In 1975, while working to confirm the reincarnation theory, Iverson asked Jane's permission to allow Bloxham to hypnotize her again, this time with a BBC camera and tape recorder. Iverson then intended to find out whether she had actually lived several lives.

Iverson examined the details of these lives and determined that the details of Jane Evans' recorded regressions were indeed based on fact. At the end of the book, he believes that Bloxham's 20 years of work provide powerful support for the concept of "reincarnation." He also made a BBC documentary called The Bloxham Tapes, based on uncollected footage.

Just like the soul transmigrates
from a child's body to a youth's
and from it to senility, so at the moment of death
she passes into another body.
- Bhagavad Gita, 2.13.

In India, the ancient sacred land of Krishna, Rama, Buddha and countless avatars (Divine incarnations), reincarnation is perceived as a reality, obvious to the humble street sweeper, to the erudite pandit (scholar), and to the righteous sadhu (holy saint). .

Reincarnation or reincarnation(in Sanskrit पुनर्जन्म - punarjanma) is one of the basic concepts of Hinduism. The cycle of birth and death is accepted as a natural phenomenon of nature.

In Hinduism, avidya (that is, ignorance) of a person regarding his true spiritual nature leads him to identification with the mortal body and matter, which supports his desire to remain in the cycle of karma and reincarnation.

Reincarnation in the Vedas

First the transmigration of souls is mentioned in the Vedas- the oldest sacred scriptures of Hinduism. According to Indologist Vladimir Erman, the doctrine of reincarnation is not traced in the oldest of the Vedas, the Rig Veda.

However, some scientists point out that it also contains elements of the theory of transmigration of souls. As one example of the presence of the doctrine of reincarnation in the Rig Veda, an alternative translation of hymn 1.164.32 is quoted:

Whoever created it does not know it.
It is hidden from anyone who sees it
Hidden in the mother's womb,
Born many times, he came to suffering.

In this hymn of the Rig Veda, there are two meanings of the word bahuprajah: “having many offspring” and “born many times”.

Such references literally permeate the Avatara Veda, Manusamhita, Upanishads, Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Mahabharata, Ramayana and other ancient texts of India, included either in the original Sanskrit Veda or being among the Vedic literary works which are considered to be supplementary.

The ancient Indian grammarian Yaska gives both these meanings in Nirukta. The Yajurveda says:

O learned and tolerant soul, after wandering in waters and plants, the personality enters the womb of the mother and is born again and again.
O soul, you are born in the body of plants, trees, everything that is created and animate, and in water.
O soul, shining like the sun, after cremation, mingling with fire and earth for a new birth and taking refuge in the mother's womb, you are born again.
O soul, reaching the womb again and again, you rest serenely in the mother's body like a child sleeping in its mother's arms.

The hymn “To Yama” (Rigveda, 10.14) contains a hint of possibility of returning to earth: “Having left (everything) sinful, return home again! Connect with the body, full of vitality!”

Reincarnation in the Upanishads

A detailed description of the doctrine of reincarnation is contained in the Upanishads - ancient philosophical and religious texts in Sanskrit, adjacent to the Vedas.
Namely concept of transmigration of souls reflected in the Shvetashvatara Upanishad 5.11 and the Kaushitaka Upanishad 1.2.

In Hinduism, the soul, called atman, is immortal, and only the body is subject to birth and death.

The Bhagavad Gita, which, according to most Hindus, reflects the essence of Hindu philosophy and the main meaning of the Vedas, says:

Just as a person takes off old clothes and puts on new ones, so the soul enters new material bodies, leaving behind old and useless ones.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4.4.1-4) further explains how how is reincarnation accomplished?:

[At the moment of death] the area of its [soul's] heart begins to glow, and this light helps the soul to come out through the eye, through the head or through other openings in the body. And while she departs, pranas [various streams of vital air] accompany her to her next place of stay... Her knowledge and deeds follow her, as does wisdom, although individual details of her past life are not preserved.

Just as a caterpillar, crawling to the tip of one blade of grass, having collected itself, drags itself to another, so the soul, having thrown off one body, along with its ignorance, is transferred to another, new body.
Just as a jeweler gives a gold bar a new, more attractive form, so the soul, having thrown off the old and useless body, puts on new and, perhaps, better bodies than before, which it receives in accordance with its past actions, capabilities and desires.

Karma and samsara

The idea of reincarnation of the soul of any living being - people, animals, plants - is closely related to the concept of karma, which is also explained in the Upanishads.

The word karma comes from the verbal root Kri - “to do” or “to act” - a word expressing causation. In other words, it indicates not only an action, but also an inevitable response to it.

Karma has a negative aspect known as vikarma, which roughly translates to " bad karma" “Bad” in the sense that it is associated with vicious or base activities that lead to subsequent birth in lower species of life and, as a negative result, bind the soul to the world of birth and death.

Positive karma implies charitable, merciful activity, the result of which is the desired reaction - a reward in the form of material well-being, which also binds the soul to the material world.

Only akarma frees us from the cycle of birth and death, relieves us of any reactions - positive and negative, that bind us to this world of duality; it enables the soul to return to its original nature.

Spiritual activities are of pious origin. The sacred scriptures of world religions generally share the same opinion about spiritual activity, believing that it elevates a person above both “good” and “bad” karma.

The Vedic texts contain provisions that clearly and definitely distinguish between three types of activities: good, bad and transcendental.

Hinduism does not teach that worldly pleasures are sinful, but explains that they cannot bring inner happiness and satisfaction, called ananda in Sanskrit terminology.

According to the Hindu thinker Shankara, our world is like a dream. By its nature it is transitory and illusory. Being in the thrall of samsara is the result of ignorance and misunderstanding of the true nature of things.

After prolonged spiritual practice (sadhana), the individual realizes his eternal spiritual nature, that his true “I” is the eternal soul, and not the mortal material body.

At this stage he no longer desires material pleasures, since they seem insignificant compared to spiritual bliss. When all material desires cease, the soul is no longer born and is liberated from the cycle of samsara.

Moksha

When the chain of birth and death is broken, the individual is said to have achieved moksha- salvation.

While all philosophical schools of Hinduism agree that moksha implies the cessation of all material desires and liberation from the cycle of samsara, different philosophical schools give different definitions of this concept.

For example, followers Advaita Vedanta(often associated with Jnana Yoga) believe that after achieving moksha, the individual remains forever in a state of peace and bliss, which is the result of the realization that all existence is one and indivisible Brahman, and the immortal soul is a part of this one whole.

After attaining moksha, the jiva loses his individual nature and dissolves into the “ocean” of impersonal Brahman, which is described as sat-chit-ananda (being-knowledge-bliss).

On the other hand, followers of philosophical schools of full or partial dwights(“dualistic” schools to which the bhakti movements belong) carry out their spiritual practice with the goal of achieving one of the lokas (worlds or planes of existence) of the spiritual world or the kingdom of God (Vaikuntha or Goloka), for eternal participation there in the games of God in one of his forms (such as Krishna or Vishnu for Vaishnavas, and Shiva for Saivites).

However, this does not necessarily mean that the two main schools of Dvaita and Advaita are in conflict with each other.

A follower of one of the two schools may believe that achieving moksha is possible in both ways, and simply give personal preference to one of them. It is said that followers of Dvaita want to “taste the sweetness of sugar,” while followers of Advaita want to “become sugar.”

Thus, in Hinduism the emphasis is placed on the fact that material things are perishable and one must gradually abandon material joys in favor of spiritual ones. But, on the other hand, we come to the material world in dense bodies, and each experience has its own value too.

Which point of view is close to you: exclusively spiritual aspirations or the value of physical life with all its pros and cons?

Materials used in the article:

Stephen Rosen, “Reincarnation in world religions”/>“Yajurveda”, 12.36-37/>Translator’s commentary on hymn 10.14. Rigveda, translation by T. Ya. Elizarenkova/>“Shvetashvatara Upanishad” 5.11/> Lysenko V. G. Karma. New Philosophical Encyclopedia

A dying European will never be able to take his bank account or family, his experience, or his long and difficult career to the next world. He almost always feels discomfort and a feeling that he has lost or lost something. Many people at this moment feel the absurdity of their life’s path, as if they were playing some incomprehensible game, written according to someone else’s rules, and now the end has come. There is a fundamentally different attitude towards death as such in India. This is not grief, this is not fear, this is happiness and the same phenomenon as rain or wind. This is inevitability, subject to certain laws. It is simply a change in state of existence. A market trader dying may assume that his next incarnation will be much more comfortable or enjoyable. For him it's just a change of form.

Every devout Hindu is sure that death is just a transition of the soul’s existence from one layer of reality to another plane of existence. The concept of karma and rules of behavior during life runs unshakably and as a thick line through the life of every Indian. Here again we encounter the wheel of samsara, a complex structure that initially implies a place for everyone according to his behavior. Closing his eyes on his deathbed, an enlightened Hindu hopes that his new life will be better.

And ideally, it will not exist at all. It is possible that either the hall of fame of the god he has chosen, or a new caste, or new respect from people has already been prepared for him. But this is if he lived according to all the rules. The clearly defined rules of life and happiness forced Hindus to develop a unique attitude towards death, philosophical, but at the same time pragmatic and clear.

Here, of course, one cannot help but touch upon the differences in different directions of Hinduism as such; its traditions have their own discrepancies, depending on the school, on the confession and on the interpretation of the sacred scriptures. But there are three main traditions. As they are called, "sampradaya". The famous trinity of Hindu gods is familiar to almost all of us since childhood: Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma. These three rays diverge to the sides, providing rich ground for discrepancies and disagreements, but in this case we are only interested in the attitude towards death. Everything is simple here. There is a devotee of the chosen god, for example, one of the three named. After death, having lived a righteous life, he either joins his deity, merging with him in an esoteric temple of veneration, or continues his circle of incarnations, placed in a new body. There are many interpretations in the design of rituals and methods of glorification, but the essence is the same. Even if we take the world-famous Hare Krishnas, without whom not a single city in Russia can survive, then in essence they all came from the school of Vaishnavism.

Some gurus who have studied the Vedas have suggested that Krishna is the supreme incarnation of the god Vishnu. From this a whole religion emerged. Among the Hare Krishnas, after death a devotee has a hall of fame for Krishna with a very clear hierarchy, which is known to each of them during his lifetime. The same can be said about representatives of other schools, about Brahminists or Shaivites. Although supporters of Shiva, for example, have one of the branches, Kashmir Shaivism, which says that the soul is God himself, and after death the soul simply knows its essence. But the main thing in all of this is that for Hindus, death is not a loss, misfortune or grief. This is simply a transition to another state, quality.

They are preparing for death, waiting for it. And there are essentially two options. Either you continue the cycle of incarnations, or you simply recognize your god and dissolve in him. This state is described both in Buddhism as nirvana and as the highest enlightenment in many religions of India. That's the point. For the average European, death is a tragedy, the end of everything. For a Hindu, this is simply one of the stages of existence for which one must be prepared. Don't look for tears and lamentations on funeral pyres - they are not there. This is simply the process of the soul transitioning to a new state.

Of course, if an accident occurs, such as a fire, plane crash or flood, then Indians will, like everyone else, save their lives and property. In this case, an Indian, a Russian, and an American will behave in the same way. But each of them will act for different reasons. And the only reason why a Hindu will not sit idly by while a plane crashes is because he must be convinced that his death came on time, that dharma has been fulfilled, that there is no responsibility on him. Only if all of the above is true will he close his eyes and accept death. Otherwise, he will be saved, like any of us.