Before I discovered Hinduism, I thought that it was the Buddha who introduced the ideas of karma and reincarnation. However, he actually took them from Hinduism. The Buddha himself contributed his own insights – that the root of suffering lies in desires, and by escaping from desires, one becomes happy. But here’s my question: is that even possible through an act of will? I mean, if you try to force yourself to “stop wanting,” aren’t you just suppressing that energy and ending up wanting it even more?
So the ideas of reincarnation and karma are eternal… they have existed and will continue to exist for as long as humanity itself exists, while the ancient teachings are merely the written records that have survived to our time.
And Buddhists and Hindus do think about monotheism. And monotheists think about reincarnation and karma.
What I mean is that we need to separate the eternal Dhamma (reincarnation and karma), which is universal, and the ideas introduced by the Buddha, which are essentially his personal vision.
Ёлки палки смешались с грязью.. Ванна набрана третий день. , погадай на руке мне бритвой , новогодняя моя тень. По раздавленным, по ухабам, талоснежной могильной мглы, Я гроб собственный нёс устало не вытаскивая иглы. не разбрасывая надежды, не раскалывая новогодних шаров, я как порванная одежда на шалаве пляшущей для ментов. Стервенелый пёс на закваске, ебануто влюблённый поэт, коронованный в своей маске ,от больничной кареты в след . От тюремного чая Майский и от морга где тишина, новый год мне сделает райским в храме выпивший старшина. И колючей сосны под венку и со ста до нуля в метель. И больничную ту постельку и с артерии кровь потерь. Мама спрятала меня в подарке, под ночнушками в старом шкафу . Подарила меня мне в закладке и на пропись подложки в графу Поднесет к губам тихо палец и шепнет раздевайся урод, Я твой порваный школьный ранец ты мой любящий новый год.
Fir trees, sticks — all mixed with mud. The bath’s been steaming three days straight. Tell my fortune: razor, blood — My New Year’s shadow, my dark fate.
Over ruts, over crushed debris, Through thaw-snow, grave-dark, deep and vast — I dragged my own coffin tiredly, Not pulling needles out, not holding fast,
Not smashing any Christmas balls — just passed.
I’m like torn clothes on a whore Dancing for the cops with a nasty grin. A rabid dog on sourdough starter’s core, A poet sick with love within,
Still crowned inside his mask of tin, Trailing the ambulance’s track so thin —
May prison tea, The morgue where silence holds its breath. New Year will make a saint of me In the temple where a drunk sergeant deals out death. A spiny pine branch under the wreath’s debris,
And from a hundred down to zero in the blizzard’s sheath.
And that hospital bed, And the artery’s blood of loss. Mom hid me in a gift — unsaid, Under nightgowns.
She gave me to myself as a drug to toss, As a scribble in a ledger’s cross.
She’ll bring a finger to her lips, Whisper: undress, you freak. I’m your torn school backpack’s ripped-out strips, You’re my loving New Year, my peak.
The analogy with reincarnations as dominoes is interesting – when they are lined up in a row and the first domino falls on the second, and so on – that is samsara. And no questions arise when it is a closed circle, i.e., if the end is the beginning.
But if the circle is broken by Nirvana (Moksha), then a question immediately arises – one that the Buddha refused to answer: if someone who has completely paid off their karma has no more bad karma and has attained Nirvana (timelessness), then what initiates a new cycle of samsara? Where does the karma for a new life come from?
Confucius’s fundamental idea was “ren\jin” 仁 – humanity, kindness. And its essence is that you need to think of others more than of yourself. This resonated with me, and I remembered the words of one christian monk: that you should do good without expecting gratitude from people, that you should do good not for the sake of thanks, but for God, and God\Karma will repay you.
I’m studying ancient philosophy now. It’s interesting that in the 5th-4th centuries BCE, ideas that would later appear in world religions and political systems had already been articulated.
For example, Plato’s idea of the Demiurge as a creator is quite close to the biblical narrative – in both a man was first created after a women. He also had his own version of a socialist system, according to which the ruling class (philosophers and warriors) should own no property, money, or families – neither men nor women. The lower classes, however, may have all these things.
It’s also interesting that Pythagoras believed in reincarnation and was a vegetarian for that reason. The first recorded idea of saṃsāra and karma appeared in Upanishads in India earlier, in the 8th century BCE.
It’s also worth noting that the Christian ethic of humility was preceded by the ideas of the Stoics, who taught that an ascetic life elevates the spirit.
In short, the Buddha Gautama said that the Dhamma (the teaching) has always existed, and the role of past and future Buddhas is to rediscover the eternal teaching for people who have forgotten it.
