Re: So stand up and introduce yourself.

J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Thu, 29 Oct 1998 17:37:05 -0500 (EST) 

Nice to hear from you :)

Here's my understanding of reincarnation.  I make a comparison between
Judaism and Christianity to help make Hinduism and Buddhism a little
clearer, but that's just me.  If it doesn't work for you, just ignore it.
 I've read a bit around these subjects but it's been awhile, so I'm a bit
rusty...

The Vedas are sacred texts written in Sanskrit consisting of the
Upanishads and...eh...one other major section that I can't recall right
off the top of my head.  I think the two major divisions are knowledge
and experience.  There are probably well over a hundred upanishads, but
something like 15 or so of them are considered the principal ones (BOY do
I need to catch up again).  The Vedas, in the history of Eastern
religions, are something like the Hebrew Scriptures for Western
religions.  Hinduism was the first major religion to develop from the
Vedas--like Judaism was the first major religion to develop out of the
Hebrew Scriptures (but not to be completely identified with the religion
established in the Hebrew scriptures because that religion revolved
around the temple and animal sacrifice).  

Buddhism is the next major religion to develop out of the Vedas, and is
something of a reaction to Hinduism like Christianity is something like a
reaction to or deviation from Judaism.  New teacher comes along and gives
a new understanding of the old texts in both cases, I think.  I do think
the relationship between Judaism and Christianity is much more intimate
than the relationship between buddhism and hinduism, but this is just an
analogy.  

So we have two different major religions to develop from the
Vedas--Hinduism and Buddhism.  And we have two different views of
reincarnation.  The view most commonly held by Hindus is that the soul
maintains some kind of continuity from life to life and develops (or
regresses) in future lives based upon the karma of its past life. 
Ultimately, though, everything is One--God, there isn't God and US, but
just God, and being unenlightened we just don't perceive that.  So
ultimately as we grow from life to life that boundary between self and
Self (God) becomes smaller and smaller, and depending on what kind of
Hindu you are it eventually disappears, or becomes something like a clear
piece of glass--a clear and porus piece of glass.

Now, in Buddhism, there is no continuity from life to life in this sense.
 My life may influence a future life like the movement of one pearl may
influence the movement of a pearl next to it on the string--but they are
still two separate pearls.  Of course, the idea of "separate" is itself
unenlightened, but...

Anyways, when we die in Buddhism that's pretty much it for this
particular Self, while in Hinduism one self moves from life to life.  And
Buddhism emphasizes apophasis--or negative theology.  That's pretty well
unheard of in the West except for Greek and Russian orthodoxy, but even
then it's a bit toned down compared to buddhist thought.  The idea here
is that we get close to God through negation--we learn what God is Not in
order to get to what He/She/It is.  Once we've negated everything, down
to that illusion called the self, the boundaries vanish and we are
assimilated in the One like a drop of water in the ocean. 

Teddy is...eh...well, it has a Buddhist Feel to it, let me tell you.  I'm
not sure that the view of reincarnation in Teddy is completely buddhist,
but I'm pretty sure there are variations in buddhist thought about
reincarnation just as there are variations in Christian theology from
denomination to denomination about many different subjects. 

Good luck wading through this :)  Get a copy of the Upanishads.

Jim


On Tue, 27 Oct 1998 18:58:47 -0800 (PST) embling@mailexcite.com writes:
>Hello.
>Just writing to introduce myself to every1. (And now, a brief bio....) 
>I
>started to read JD Salinger books about two years ago and have been
>constantly rereading them since. I heard (although this could be a 
>myth)
>that there has been a reprint of an early short story , I think it's 
>called
>"Hapworth..." or something similiar. Can anyone verify this please? 
>Also -
>I'm probably becoming obscure here - would any1 be able to point me in 
>the
>direction for more info regarding "...the Vedantic theory of re
>incarnation." from the story TEDDY.
>     Thanks. 
>
>                       Leigh Ferguson.
>                       Melb, Australia.
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________________
>Get your free, private e-mail at http://mail.excite.com/
>

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