| If we go back to look at the Vedas, the oldest | | | | millions and millions of lifetimes. |
| surviving religious texts in India, we find that the view of | | | | So, whatever those challenges were that you wanted |
| the afterlife is really quite similar to the view that is | | | | to meet in some new life began to seem very small in |
| found in some of the European traditions familiar to us. | | | | the large scale of cosmic history that you are involved |
| It is a view that probably belonged in some way to all | | | | in. |
| the people who called themselves Arya and who | | | | One of the best ways to get a sense of the emotional |
| migrated across Europe and down into India. | | | | impact of this idea is to consider one of my favorite |
| This view is that the people who live a virtuous life in | | | | stories: |
| this world, play by the rules, express themselves in | | | | Indra has just won a great victory, he actually slayed a |
| some sort of heroic way, and perhaps achieve some | | | | demon that held the waters of creation in its belly, and |
| kind of eminence, go to live to the land of the | | | | he has released the waters of creation over the world. |
| ancestors when they die. This believe persists in some | | | | It set the whole process of creation in motion. And in |
| aspects in Hinduism today. | | | | order to celebrate this, he decides to build a palace. |
| Sometime during the first half of the first millennium | | | | He gets the divine architect Viswakarma to design the |
| BCE, this ancient view began to be replaced by | | | | most perfect throne room, guest houses, kitchens and |
| another one. We call it the doctrine of reincarnation. By | | | | all that sort of thing. And he builds and builds. So, the |
| the time of the classical Upanishads, Indian sages, the | | | | Viswakarma architect eventually becomes tired of all |
| sages of the Upanishads took the position that human | | | | this. He goes to the god Brahma and asks him for help, |
| beings didn't live just one life, but cycled around again | | | | just to cool down some of the enthusiasm that was |
| and again, life after life, death after death, in a process | | | | driving Indra to make this massive building. |
| of death and rebirth. | | | | Brahma manifest himself as a Brahmin boy, as a child. |
| Some Indian text says that when human beings are | | | | And he goes to visit Indra in his palace. Indra is required |
| cremated, the smoke rises up into the sky and there | | | | by the custom in that culture to provide lavish |
| the soul can move in three different directions: out of | | | | entertainment and a beautiful welcome for the child. He |
| this world into the world of Brahman, back into this | | | | brings food, music, entertainment and all that sort of |
| world as a human being or into one of the lower | | | | stuff, presents it to the child and the boy begins to |
| realms of rebirth as into the body of a worm, an insect | | | | weep. |
| or a snake. | | | | He is down at the floor and breaks out into tears. Indra |
| At first, this doctrine is depicted as being a rare and | | | | is stunned by this, so he looks at the boy and he asks: |
| secret teaching. So, at first it was not something | | | | "What's wrong?". And the boy points at a line of ants |
| accepted by everybody. But very quickly, by the time | | | | running across the floor, and he says Indra: "Each one |
| of the Buddha, it became the fundamental assumption | | | | of those ants was an Indra just like you in a previous |
| of Indian religious life. The doctrine of reincarnation is | | | | life, and not only one time, but millions and millions of |
| simply the starting point for Indian religious reflection. | | | | times, and that will happen to you. You too some day |
| Now, let's look at the effect this doctrine had on the | | | | will fall down from your position as the king of the |
| lives of believers. In the West, we sometimes think that | | | | gods and you'll be an ant crawling across the floor of |
| reincarnation is an opportunity to have something we | | | | someone else's throne room." |
| may have missed. In India, the doctrine of reincarnation | | | | And Indra, of course was stunned by this new vision |
| didn't work out that way. It came not to be viewed as | | | | of himself in this vast scale of time, in which even the |
| being an opportunity, but to be viewed, instead, as a | | | | most extraordinary achievements eventually decayed |
| burden. Indian civilization, in the centuries that it began to | | | | and slipped away. |
| lead up to the life of the Buddha, came to view | | | | It is obvious about this doctrine that is important for us |
| reincarnation not as a single life or two or three lives | | | | to consider it intellectually, but I think that is important |
| strung together, but on a time scale that involved | | | | from the very beginning to understand it emotionally. |