Rebirth – Truth or Myth?

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An old colleague from IITK (my alma mater) sent the following opinion to a bunch of old friends. I think it is worth publishing here for a discussion:
Note: “In my opinion the elements of the body (atoms and molecules) as well as the elements of the soul (memories and pictures) get recycled. Neither the body nor the soul (identity) gets passed on as such.” ~ Vinaire

See Theta, MEST and Death.

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During one of the discussions a point was raised – what is rebirth? Is it a truth of life or pure figment of imagination? Is it a pure hypothesis to explain some unexplained phenomena related to fate? Is it just to satisfy the people who are poor so that they do not rebel? Is it propounded to direct the mankind on the path of virtue and create an orderly peaceful progressive society? Is it to befool people who are oppressed to work harder and harder? Well so many questions arise. Most of the time negative gets more prominence over positive. So rational thinking is abandoned.

At first instance, it is to be clarified that Hindu religion makes fine distinction between Reincarnation and Rebirth. Reincarnation is generally referred to as God coming to Earth in human form to give message and do correction in the society which deviates from path of truth. Rebirth is different – it refers to continuous journey of soul of a man – entering in flesh again and again. I shall delve upon it in greater detail. But rebirth cannot be interchangeably used with reincarnation as per Hindu Philosophy.

Abrahamic Religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam do not believe in theory of rebirth but some groups within these religions do refer to rebirth/reincarnation.

Greek philosopher Plato makes his teacher Socrates, prior to his death, state – “I am confident that there truly is in such a living again and that the living spring from the dead.”

Pythagoreans say – “The souls of men are immortal and that after a fixed number of years, they will enter into another body.”

Julius Caesar recorded that druids of Gaul, Britain and Ireland had metempsychosis as one of the core doctrines —

The principal point of the doctrine is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body to another – the main object of this education is, in their opinion to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the in-destructivity of the human soul – which robs death of all its terror – can the highest form of human courage be developed.

According to Tao –

Birth is not the beginning, death is not the end. There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without starting point. Existence without limitation is space. Continuity without a starting point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in.

According to Plato number of souls must be finite because souls are indestructible.

Carl Gustav Jung, a well-known Western Philosopher said –

This concept of rebirth necessarily implies the continuity of personality – that one is able at least potentially to remember that one has lived through previous existences and these existences were one’s own.

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Hindu Point of View –

In nutshell, so many around the World believe in philosophy of Rebirth but Hindu Religion has propounded the theory in great detail. In fact it is the backbone of the Hindu Philosophy.

  1. Like all religions, Hindu religion also establishes a God – Great Infinite Indestructible Source of Energy. He is Supreme and controls everything directly or indirectly. Something beyond our comprehension. Beyond time and all-pervading in space. As per science – There is a law of conservation of energy. So it applies to cosmos also. Total sum of cosmic energy has to be constant all the time.
  2. He wishes to play a game. No answer can be given why He is doing so. He creates Souls out of his part – pure, sublime.
  3. Soul starts journey in this universe with ultimate aim to reach Him and to again get immersed in Him. At this point one more quality of God may be enumerated – He is source of Supreme Ultimate Bliss – Paramananda (permanent bliss). It is desired of Soul to get to ultimate bliss so as not to go into the pain of cycles of birth and death – Moksha (ultimate salvation).
  4. Soul enters into body. Soul being part of God is real – (indestructible) whereas body which it acquires is unreal – destructible.
  5. Soul somehow gets distracted and starts thinking body as its own. It is supposed to have its own clear identity. Swami Vivekananda says Hindu admits that he does not know why pure soul (real) starts thinking body (unreal) as its own.
  6. Body consists of five indriyas, five jnanendriyas, mind and intelligence. Here the game begins. Intelligence is supposed to control indriyas, jnanendriyas and mind so as to put Soul on the right path – to reach God – ultimate bliss-moksha.
  7. Now Theory of Karma needs to be explained. Soul (as per Hindu philosophy it can be called as Atman which emanates from Paramatman – God) manifests in this Universe in flesh—body from time to time – birth. In which place? In which form? — all depends upon theory of Karma .
  8. If we say in nutshell, Theory of Karma says – you reap what you sow. There is a bank account (fate). Good and bad acts (karma) accordingly create credit and debit on continuous basis for the account holder Soul. Good credit history ensures that Soul gets healthy body and good place to live. Ultimately if Soul gets on collecting good credit points – scores enough brownie points – it qualifies to merge with God – the ultimate residence – ultimate bliss – happy ending to journey .
  9. If soul fritters away its credit and goes into bad debts by doing bad Karmas, its credit history becomes bad. Soul deviates from its path (poor use of Intelligence to control mind and indriyas and jnanendriyas) and it has to suffer.
  10. Soul may have to go to Bhog yoni or Karma yoni. Do not know who decides? Some auto subtle mechanism? Do not think that God has time to take care of micro-details .
  11. Bhog yoni means other than human form – some creature. In this Bhog yoni there is no intelligence. It is only punishment period. Let us say heavy debt and bad loans so soul is put in jail for specific period.
  12. In Karma yoni, soul manifests in human form. He is given intelligence to redeem Himself. He is again given opportunity to create good credit history towards his ultimate goal.
  13. There is one more form in which soul can get manifested .One can aspire to join the ranks of Devtas – Dev lok – all good things but no ultimate bliss. Dev also suffer from pain and sorrow. It is like very rich people having all worldly pleasure but still not happy at times. Dev have also to come down to Human form to get redemption after they have completed their term. So to say vacation gets over and come down to work again. (Dev- Lok being imaginary some say it stands for all those who are born with silver spoon in their mouth.)
  14. So as per Hindu Philosophy, it is very fortunate that one is born as Human because it is only yoni which allows to improve and go for Salvation – moksha –ultimate bliss and permanent happiness – the final goal .

So it is all mixed bag of actuals, imaginary, deep rooted thinking, and conjectures. But our rishis and munis have a final word. They went into deep meditation and fathom deep into the deep sea of intelligence and mind and they have come out with the truth. It is question of faith  and belief only. However, Hindu religion gives a wide rope and you can question everything; but underlying principal is let us work for the good of the Mankind. Work is worship.

~ Written by R. K. Dixit

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August 17, 2013 – 7:18 AM Categories: Uncategorized | Comments (60)

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

I shall be reading THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH by William L. Shirer. I found the above video to go along with it. This is going to be a long project.

I know that this work has been criticized as having flaws from an academic perspective. I shall be commenting on this great event of the 20th century, and would welcome any feedback.

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August 14, 2013 – 12:50 PM Categories: General | Post a comment

Philosophy Definitions #2

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CAUSE

Wikipedia

“Causality (also referred to as causation) is the relation between an event (the cause) and a second event (the effect), where the second event is understood as a consequence of the first.”

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Scientology

“1. Cause could be defined as emanation. It could be defined also, for purposes of communication, as source-point. 2. A potential source of flow. 3. Cause is simply the point of emanation of the communication. Cause in our dictionary here means only ‘source point’.”

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KHTK 

When an event is identified as the consequence of another event, then the former is called an effect of the latter cause. Cause is actually the starting point of effect. It is the same event extended in time. It is an error to look upon cause and effect as separate events.

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COMMENTS:

Cause and effect are abstractions gleaned from associations observed among events. The ‘effect’ event is understood as a consequence of the ‘cause’ event.  A closer look shows cause and effect to be aspects of the same event that is essentially extended in space – time.

All ’cause-effect’ events seem to be concatenated with each other with no absolute beginning or ending. The point to be emphasized is that cause and effect are relative to each other. Neither cause nor effect exists in isolation. The idea of a potential cause is balanced with the idea of potential effect.

Cause-effect association is not necessarily linear or one-dimensional. It can easily be observed to be 2-dimensional since an event may be caused by many causative factors, and a causative factor may influence many events.

Cause-effect associations may even be perceived as a three or multi-dimensional matrix.

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BEINGNESS

Dictionary

“1. the state or fact of existing; 2. a point of view gradually coming into being; 3. laws in existence for centuries.”

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Scientology

“1. the assumption or choosing of a category of identity. Beingness is assumed by oneself or given to oneself, or is attained. Examples of beingness would be one’s own name, one’s profession, one’s physical characteristics, one’s role in a game—each and all of these things could be called one’s beingness. 2. the person one should be in order to survive. 3. essentially, an identification of self with an object.”

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KHTK

Beingness is the state or fact of existing. It may be looked upon as a matrix of events that are associated with each other through cause-effect relationships.

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COMMENTS:

If something exists then it is being. The two words ‘existing’ and ‘being’ seem to be synonymous.

An event seems to come into being by virtue of another event. So the beingness of existence, as such, may be looked upon as a matrix of events that are associated through cause-effect relationships.

Scientology seems to look at beingness as the property of a being (see below), in terms of a role or an identity. Thus, in Scientology, beingness is defined in terms of a being.

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BEING (INDIVIDUAL)

Wikipedia

“Being is an extremely broad concept encompassing objective and subjective features of reality and existence. Anything that partakes in being is also called a ‘being’, though often this use is limited to entities that have subjectivity (as in the expression “human being”). So broad a notion has inevitably been elusive and controversial in the history of philosophy, beginning in western philosophy with attempts among the pre-Socratics to deploy it intelligibly.”

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Scientology

“1. a viewpoint; he is as much a being as he is able to assume viewpoints. 2. an energy production source (thetan). 3. essentially the beingness of theta itself acting in the mest and other universes in the accomplishment of the goals of theta and under the determination of a specific individual and particular personality for each being. 4. when we say the individual we are talking about something as precise as an apple. We are not talking about a collection of behavior patterns which we all learned about in the study of rats. We are talking about something that is finite. We are talking about somebody. The somethingness that you are and the capabilities you can be and this is what we are talking about. We are not talking about the color of your hair or the length of your feet. We are talking about you.”

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KHTK

A being is a part of beingness (the cause-effect matrix) that has acquired a sense of individuality and has separated itself from rest of the beingness. This is a specialized “beingness”, which has the purpose to survive as itself.

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COMMENTS:

A being is thought to be that part of overall beingness (existence) that has developed subjectivity. The subjectivity provides a sense of individuality, which separates it from rest of the existence. This is the view in general philosophy as well as in KHTK.

Scientology, however, looks at beingness as the consequence of a being. The being is the innermost sense of individuality. In Scientology, the universe exists simply because we all agree that it exists. Thus, Scientology believes that all existence emanates from the individual being.

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August 11, 2013 – 2:54 PM Categories: Postulates | Comments (4)

The Premise of KHTK

Reference: What is KHTK?

The premise underlying KHTK is that the reality of this universe is consistent and coherent.

Any inconsistency would come from one’s assumptions.

As one tracks down the inconsistencies and removes one’s assumptions, the reality becomes more consistent, coherent and clear.

It does not matter what viewpoint one approaches with, the personal viewpoint shall gradually disappear as inconsistencies and assumptions are removed.

What will remain shall be the actual reality in all its glory.

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Further references: KHTK Mindfulness

August 10, 2013 – 1:58 PM Categories: KHTK | Comments (5)

A New Model of Universe

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References:

The Sixth Sense

The Fundamental Dimension

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This universe includes all that exists. It doesn’t exclude anything. Our senses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body perceive the concrete reality of matter, energy, space and time. But, beyond this concrete reality, the universe also includes the underlying abstract patterns, which are grasped by the mind.

The concept of abstraction is nothing new. We perceive it through our mind as we gain more experience. As a child we saw three cups, three plates and three spoons through our physical senses. As we grew up we could then also perceive the underlying abstraction of three.

Abstraction is the awareness of the patterns underlying concrete reality.

Mathematics deals in abstraction, and so does the subject of Logic. Scientific principles are also abstractions. When we are thinking deeply, we are looking into the abstraction of concrete reality.

Space may be abstracted as awareness of some sort. Energy may be abstracted as consciousness of some sort. Matter may be abstracted as identity of some sort. So we can have mental space as the deepest sense in which ripples of consciousness exist as beliefs. When we perceive something, ripples are generated in consciousness. Recognition comes about as these ripples go into resonance with some existing consciousness in mental space. This may represent mental energy. As we settle on meaningful conclusions in terms of relationship among identities, we have mental matter.

Mental space, energy and matter are patterns underlying concrete space, energy and matter.

Thus, the universe not only includes the concrete reality, but it also includes the abstract relationships that define the reality for us. And, in addition, it includes thoughts, assumptions, and speculations that come about when direct perception is missing. Such assumptions and preconceived notions tend to color the reality, and further distort it into unreality. It then takes resolving of inconsistencies to straighten out the unreality.

If we have to model this universe, let’s start with a spherical shape that is symmetrical from all directions (we can always modify this shape as this model evolves). The surface of this “sphere” of the model universe would represent the concrete reality of matter, energy, space and time as perceived by the five physical senses. The inside of the “sphere” would represent the abstract patterns underlying the concrete reality as perceived by the mind.

There would be increasing abstraction as one traverses from the surface to the center of this model of the universe.

This model represents a 5-dimensional universe. The four concrete dimensions of the material universe shall apply to the surface of the sphere. The fifth dimension of abstraction shall apply in the radial direction. Please note that this model is a metaphor that attempts to relate the various elements of this universe.

The center of this Substance theory model of the universe shall represent the ultimate abstraction that could be reached. The spherical layers around the center would represent increasing definition as they move away from the center. Each spherical layer may represent some abstract form of matter, energy, space and time. For example, some spherical layer may define thought as “matter”, computation as “energy”, the matrix of previous layer as “space”, and a different sense of ‘time”.

If this sphere represents all existence, then the center may represent God.

Just as the center anchors the sphere, God grounds this universe of all that exists.The deeper into this sphere one goes, the rarer abstraction one encounters.

God at the center is then the abstraction of all abstractions.

Many of the conclusions derived from this model may run counter-intuitive to traditional beliefs. For example, this model indicates that all cause and effect must lie within this spherical model of the universe, because it represents all existence. Any and all potential would then also lie within this model.

If there is no universe, then there is no God or potential either.

Yes, this is counter-intuitive; but that is what mindfulness seems to be leading toward.

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August 1, 2013 – 10:34 PM Categories: Science | Comments (28)