Reincarnation

There are many explanations within our grasp of why Socrates accepted his death in Plato’s The Last Days of Socrates. It often comes as a surprise to those reading the dialogue Crito, after gaining knowledge of the type of rebellious character that Plato portrays Socrates to be, that Socrates reveals his admiration and loyalty to the state and the laws which govern societies. This explanation plays a key role in his willingly accepting death which will feature greatly in my essay. I will also…

Death. Death is something many people fear and don’t see as a joyful part of life. Instead of reacting positively about the ending cycle of life, people choose to react negatively or distraught over the thought of death. Society today has not only changed the thought of death but it also has changed the way people gain knowledge. No one is willing to gain knowledge by personal experience but by teachings and lessons being presented to them. The novel “Siddhartha” by Hermann Hesse and the poem…

examples of reincarnation. There are many people that I first met, but I felt like I knew them. However, they did not know me, or had any mutual friends or anywhere near my radius. Besides, there are places, in which I feel like I know pretty well since my first visit. It is quite hard to describe, but I believe this life is the continuity, or repetition of the previous life. Therefore, even though there is no sufficient evidence for my belief about life after death and reincarnation, I still…

extracts itself completely unscathed from the physical body at our death then enters another body at birth. The soul, which always brings life, is eternal and enduring. The resulting conclusion is not solely immortality – it is an boundless cycle of reincarnation. If life goes into death but death never back into life, then there will be no life and all things will remain in the state of death. Further, if there is no everlasting cycle of death and life, and if there are a finite number of…

One ironic truth that is shared among all living organisms is the matter of death. As fatality is inevitable, death and its relation with one's existence has always concerned thinkers, and philosophy, being the field of evaluating ideas, has given the chance to these thinkers to explore the true meanings of life and death. Among all great philosophers who have tackled this subject in their lifetime, the similarities between Socrates and Buddha's approach towards death is astonishing. In his…

do not believe in philosophical enlightenment while the body is alive. Full spiritual awareness can never exist until we are released from this realm, since in the world of becoming things are constantly changing. Buddhism teaches the theory of reincarnation of the soul, until the soul reaches complete enlightenment. Then it too is released from the imprisonment of a body. Empedocles and Pythagoras both believed that plants have souls (though Empedocles preferred the word daimôn), and that…

Everyone experiences death in their life because death is inevitable. When a loved one dies, the most comfort that can be felt during the loss is through religion. There are many different religions in the world, but all of them have a positive aspect on death. This slight similarity between all these religions brings a relieving feeling. A lot of people do not know their own stance on religion until dealing with the loss of loved one. Every religion has a different way of dealing with death of…

Theravada Buddhism, however, this is not the case. Theravada Buddhist karma is synonymous with intent, and accounts for the belief that both thoughts and actions can have motives. It resembles that of the Jains’ in that it drives the cycle of reincarnation. Karma, therefore, remains a prominent motivator in each of these religions—major differences between the two are found only in intent. (Ulrich—lecture,…

Life and Death: Buddhist Perspective Joloraine B. Ang Polytechnic University of the Philippines Introduction Life is impermanent and death is inevitable. The loss of ones existence is something nobody can escape from—it follows life as surely as night follows day, winter follows autumn or old age follows youth (Ikeda, 1998). Death is a sensitive issue for some people and although most people fears death, it is a stage that is unlikely to be prepared of. What becomes of us after we die? We can…

In this essay I aim to present both the Cyclical and Recollection arguments proposed by Socrates in the Phaedo, to prove the immortality of the soul. I will discuss the criticisms of the first to demonstrate its fallibility as an account for the soul’s immortality. The weaknesses of the second argument will also be mentioned. In evaluating which of the arguments better proves the soul’s immortality, the responses to the criticisms of the Recollection theory will indicate why it holds as the…