A great ethnic migration occurred in the area near the Black Sea around 3000-4000 B.C. The group moving west became the ancestors of today's Europeans, whereas the group moving east became the ancestors of today's
Persians and Indians. The group entering India called themselves Aryans. The Aryans (
) entered the Indus Valley from the northeast of India;
they conquered the aborigines and settled down on the upper reaches of the
Indus River around 1500 B.C. Then, they occupied the fertile land of the
Yamuna River (
) and the Ganges River (
) around 1000 B.C.
After the Aryans subdued the locals, they divided those people into four castes or Varnas (
) :
) (priests, scholars, and teachers of the law) ;
);
) (civilians,smiths,businessmen, landlords and
peasants ) ;and
) (despised people and slaves ) . The Brahmins are of
the highest class in this hierarchy and they are responsible for conducting
religious rituals, so Hinduism is also called Brahmanism. (
)
Over time, the Aryans' ideas of Brahmanism blended with those of the locals. Brahmanism is named after Brahmanaspati, the "spoken word" at the ritual sacrifice, which eventually gave rise to the names of Brahma, the Creator God, and Brahman, the all-encompassing world soul. Its main ideas include:
New social classes emerged from the Ganges Plain after 600B.C. Due to
better-arranged water irrigation, the fertility of the land, the prosperity of
trades and the revolutions in politics, the Kshatriyas () and wealthy businessmen raised their heads, new religious sects and new thinkers popped up, and many people broke away from the traditional religion. Two strong
forces among the trend of development are Buddhism and Jainism (
).
The Founder of Buddhism
The founder of Buddhism, Sakyamuni, also called Buddha, was born around 566B.C. He grew up in a Kshatrya ruler's palace, and received the religious education of Brahmanism since childhood. After his zealous search for the ideals and goals of his life in his youth, he realized that all the cares
of this life came from ignorance (
). He brought up new truths, which reformed the hierarchical idea in India and became the foundation of Buddhism.
Buddhism was spread into China during the Eastern Han Dynasty. During the reign of Eastern Jin Dynasty (
) ,the doctrines of Buddhism pacified many people over the political upheaval, so the thoughts of reincarnation took its roots in the folks' minds.
1. The Definition of Reincarnation
A. The Romanized Hindi word "Samsara" (
) means "to go or pass
through states," or "to flow together," meaning all creatures are involved in an endless cycle of life and death among three realms and six paths depending on their different karmas.
B. Its English translation "Transmigration" means the soul gets its rebirth after death.
C. Its Chinese translation "
" means the cycles of human cause and effect never cease.
2. The Genes of Reincarnation
A. The cause of karma (
): All of our behaviors can be good or bad, and our every "deed" or "act" has its good or bad effects, which is its karma. As
we die, we receive the accumulated effects of our karmas, just like the saying goes, "Good deeds have their good effects; bad deeds have their bad effects. It's not that man does not get what he deserves, but that the time of
retribution (
) hasn't arrived yet." The result of one's karma is completed
in the path of Reincarnation that one goes to.
B. The result of one's karma produces a cycle of cause-and-effect over three lifetimes (
)
) of gather and scatter.
3. The six paths of Reincarnation (
)
A. There are three good paths and three bad paths:
) The most blessed realm, full of pleasure.
The Realm of anger, jealousy and constant war.
) A bittersweet realm, full of the pains of life, senile
decay, illness and death.
) A realm of ignorance and stupidity, full of the desires to devour and to kill.
) The realm of eternal starvation.
) The worst realm, wracked by all kinds of
torture. B. Who can get out of the cycle of Reincarnation:
)
)
and thus ending the cycle of Reincarnation, free from rebirth.
) of the world; those who are able to see through fame, wealth and all kinds of
desires and reach the state of Nirvana are called Buddhas (
) .
) idea, which considers the
existence of all things to be without reality, and the self to be not real. Self
(atman) comes from causes. It is a combination of a series of conditions.
) sees through
), 
), and
the Four Truths of Suffering (
: 
), 
), 
), 
),
). ): 
), 
), 
), 
),and
) . ):
1
:'‘Nescience concerning ill, its rise, its cessation and
concerning the way going to the cessation of ill." 
): One's activities in deed, in speech and within the mind.
) : Eye-consciousness, ear-consciousness,
smell-consciousness, taste-consciousness, touch-consciousness, and
mind-consciousness.
) :"Feeling, perception, will, contact," and "work of
mind" are called "name." The shape is derived fiom them.
) :"The sense of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body," and
"mind."
) : Eye-contact, ear-contact, nose-contact, tongue-contact,
body-contact, mind-contact."
: Feelings that are born of eye-contact, of ear-contact, of
nose-contact, of tongue-contact, of body-contact, and of mind-contact.
): Carving "for things seen, for things heard, for odors, for
tastes, for things tangible," and "for ideas."
) :Grasping of desires, of opinion, of ritual, and of soul theory.
) : Becoming in kama (i.e., desire ), becoming in
rupa ( i.e., form ), and becoming in arupa (i.e., formless )."
) : "That which, of this and that being in this and that group, is
birth, continuous birth, descent, reproduction, appearance of component
factors, acquiring of sense spheres."
): "That which, of this and that being, in this and
that group, is decay, decrepitude, breaking up, hoariness, wrinkling of the
skin, shrinkage of a life-span, over-ripeness of faculties: this is called old age.
That which, of this and that being from this or that group, is falling or
decease, separation, disappearance, mortality or dying, accomplishment of
time: separation of component factors, laying down of the carcass: this is
called death." 
) that one dies because of "ignorance"; once the ignorance is removed, there will be no old age or death." As to what ignorance" is, there is no clear explanation.
4. The Stage of Antarabhava (
)
A. Between one's death and rebirth, there is an intermediate period of 49 days
called Antarabhava (
).
B. If the family of the deceased ensures that some rituals are duly performed, the departed is better able to take a favorable rebirth.
5. Western Paradise (
)
A. The differences between Theravada (
) and Mahayana(
) became
distinct in the 4th and 5th centuries.
B. To the believers of Pure Land Buddhist, the Pure Land of Bliss created by
Amitabha Buddha (
) is the place where souls go to after death.
C. Even a terrible evil-doer may enter the Pure Land, as long as he or she chants the name of Amitabha Buddha with his or her whole heart before death.
6. The Three Dharma Seals (
)
| "All phenomena are impermanent." | "All dharma are not self." | "Nirvana is Quiescence." | ||
 |
 |  |
Whoever owns the seals will not be bound up by anything. Nirvana means the most blessed state of complete quietness, wisdom, composure, happiness,
and absolution, with the cycle of reincarnation ceased and all karmas extinguished. Dharma (
) means the phenomena of life. (
)
7. The Three Kinds of Buddhist Reactions to Death
A. To cultivate one's "heart" according to the Buddhist belief. Mahayana ()
teaches its believers to "deal with death with the heart." (
) Its
doctrines emphasized "emptiness" (sunya ), which says that all things are not really existent, for they are just illusions (
). As the Heart Sutra (
) asserts,
"All dharma () are illusions.
They are neither
existing nor non-existing.
There are no such things as existence from
ignorance,
nor are there such things as the end of ignorance.
There are no
such things as old age and death,
nor are there such things as the end of old
age and death.
The heart is not troubled.
Since there is no trouble,
there is
no worries and also no fear."
Zen (
) Buddhism, Tendai (
) Buddhism,
Hua-Yen (
) Buddhism and Conscious-Only (
) Buddhism are the major schools of Buddhism; all of them agree with the idea of emptiness as advocated in the Heart Sutra . The most evident instance is Liuzu Hui-neng's poem (
):
The Bodhi is not a tree,
The mirror is also not a looking-glass,
There was nothing at all,
Where can dust alight?
(
)
B. To believe in Amitabha Buddha () and do some good deeds.
C. To believe in Mahavairocana (
) and do some good deeds. Tantric
Buddhism(
) thinks highly of Mahavairocana. According to its doctrines,
Mahavairocana is composed of earth, water, fire, wind, air and
consciousness. Since man is also composed of these six elements, he can be
a Buddha as long as he realizes that his self is one with Mahavairocana and
takes heed to observe the Three Mystic Practices.
The Three Mystic Practices are:
--Bodily mystic practice: to make offerings to the
Buddha with both hands; 
--Oral mystic practice: to chant six mantras
(
) with the mouth, and 
Mental mystic practice: to see reality with the heart. Those who observe the three mystic practices may
have their bad karmas canceled, get rid of their illness, and obtain incredible merits.
1The definitions are derived from Ronald B. Epstein, Buddhism A-Z. Buddhist Text Translation Society, pp. 208-209. Go back up to text.