In the Indian Philosophy, there is always the same soul and the self is constant and permanent. Therefore, it does not exist in time because time changes. To elaborate, Charvaka is the world we perceive and is all that there is. Furthermore, Atman is the term used to describe that which experiences or that which is. It is the individual self, the soul of some individual being. It is not ultimately distinct from brahman, the universal self, or the "soul of the universe". It cannot be seen in its native state, Jaina. Jaina consists of the atoms that are material things, at the core of which are souls. All atoms are continuously moving and tumbling. In Jaina, they are always falling and rising, based upon past actions. They fall because they get heavy. The essense of Jaina is that it is where the cleaning up of your soul takes place. To discover this not as an idea but as a direct experience is the "conceptual" goal of the Indian Orthadox systems.
Samsara consists of the cycle of birth, rebirth and death. It can be described as the cycle of change. Brahman in Samsara is Atman. Therefore, Brahman can expand and contract but it itself does not change. More specifically, bra- means something that grows larger. The goal is to achieve liberation or Moksa where the discovery of the individual self really is brahman. Additionally, jana means to know. The knowledge (direct experiencing) of the unity of Barhman and Atman is like going beyond reason and into faith. Thus, as long as there are things, there will be suffering. Finally, Nirvana suggests the blowing out of things. Simply stated, it is where everything is gone and finished. However, it is not a place because it is an absence of place. Words just cannot go there.
The Buddhist notion of the "self" has three marks of existence. They include Anatman, no-self, Anlitua, non-permanent, and dukha, suffering. Moreover, every human body has these 5 attributes called skandas or "bundles". They are the body, or rupa, feeling, or vedana, conception (ideation), or samjna, karmic dispositions (inclinations to action based on a past action), or samskaras, and consciousness, or vijnana. None of these are permanent. Overall, every moment is another chance to wipe the slate clean and start over, however, this does not mean that it actually does happen.
The 12 Preconditions of Dependent Coorgination
ignorance -> dispositions -> consciousness -> name and form -> six-sense field (memory)
-> contact -> feeling -> desire -> appropriation -> becoming -> rebirth -> aging and
dying -> back to ignorance
1 comment:
I guess inevitably in presenting ideas as complex as these, and presenting furthermore several alternate views together and in a single session, is bound to lead to some confusions.
In Indian philosophy as a whole, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan identified nine major traditions. Six of these are called "orthodox" by Radhakrishnan. They all accept the existence of a permanent self, and further, the essential unity of the individual self with the universal self. The three remaining systems Radhakrishnan calls the "heterodox" systems: Carvaka (also called Lokayata), Jaina (also called Jainism), and Buddhism. Carvaka is atomistic, empiricist, and hedonistic (all in their technical meanings): it argues that all that is knowable is known only through the senses, that all that is can be explained by the action of very small particles colliding with each other to form larger particles, and that the goal of life is essentially to enjoy one's experiences as fully as possible.
Jaina is a philosophy. In this philosophy, the individual self or soul (atman or jivatman) is physical -- Jaina agrees with Carvaka in the atomistic nature of the universe, and souls are part of that atomistic situation. Souls are, indeed, the smallest or finest of all atoms.
The goal of the orthodox Indian systems is not a soul-clean-up, since the soul, in these systems, is not a material thing, but the realization of the unity of the individual self or soul (atman) and the universal self, Brahman.
The root word meaning"to grow large" is brh, usually written with a dot under the "r" indicating that it is a "retroflex" sound made with the tip of the tongue turned back towards the palate.
It is not the human body that has five bundles in Buddhism, but, well, the human as a whole. Since the first of the bundles is the body itself, and the others are not part of it, but are merely associated with it, it is not right to say that the "body has" the five bundles.
Although Buddhism and Jaina are related to each other philosophically, historically, and practically, they are not identical. The metaphor used in Buddhism is not to wipe the slate clean, which would imply the real existence of a slate (this metaphor might work fine for Jaina, which does propose an eternal, permanent, if very very small, soul): Buddhism prefers to talk about breaking the chain, or blowing out the lamp. While these are all metaphors for something quite different from the literal "objects" described, you can see perhaps the difference in their nature and implications.
But again, the main issue for us is less the details of Indian philosophical doctrine as that different visions of the self may yield quite different understandings of craft, art, science, and philosophy.
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