Death and Afterlife test #2

Tantra

an esoteric school outside the Vedic and brahminical tradition, which emerged around the fifth century and centered on a number of controversial ritual practices, some of them sexual

Brahmanas

hinduism; commentaries on the Vedas dated from the seventh century; the concept of judgment appears in these texts but the emphasis still remains on reward for the dead versus the punishments of the evil.

Dalai Lama

for tibbetan buddhists, this is the incarnation of a bodhisattva who determined that it would be easier to help the living achieve nirvana if had a physical body rather than a spiritual form; spiritual head; "oceanic master"; the incarnation of Chenrezi, the bohisattva of Compassion and patron of Tibet; this is no clearer example of a continued being living from one life to the next than this dude

Middle Way

A basic Buddhist teaching that rejects both the pleasures of sensual indulgence and the self-denial of asceticism, focusing instead on a practical approach to spiritual attainment which is literally somewhere in the middle; Buddha sat under a Bodhi tree and waited in deep meditation underl the enlightenment came to him and he realized the doctrines that would become the foundations of this Buddhism

Upanishads

appeared around 800 BCE; A group of writings sacred in Hinduism concerning the relations of humans, God, and the universe; often in the form of dialogues that explored the Vedas and the religious issues that they raised; though the Vedas offers a rudimentary picture of life after death, this group of writings demonstrates an acquired sophistication in philosophical thinking; there is an attempt in these works to deal with the problem of evil through the introduction of an alteration in the usage of the word karma where it introduces its connection with rebirth; became the official doctrine of the more educated higher castes

Anatman/Anatta

as opposed to the hindu atman, this is the true nature of the self as "not-self", emphasizing the ever-changing qualities of everything and everyone such that there is no permanent, ongoing self from one life to the next or from one moment to another; the doctrine that the human person is impermanent, a changing combination of components.

Li Chi

"Classic of Rites," discussing the meanings of rituals; described the spiritual nature of humans and outlines the methods of proper ancestral worship

Mahayana

"Greater Vehicle" - The largest of Buddhism's three divisions, prevalent in China, Japan and Korea, encompasses a variety of forms, including those that emphasize devotion and prayer to the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.

Theravada Buddhism

"Way of the Elders" branch of Buddhism followed in Sri Lanka and much of Southeast Asia. Theravada remains close to the original principles set forth by the Buddha; it downplays the importance of gods and emphasizes austerity and the individual's search for enlightenment; hinayana or "Lesser vehicle" -- name of this school of buddhist thought by the Mahayana

Vijnana

"consciousness"; in buddhism, this is made up of ever-changing aggregates that manifest a semblance of continuity through the effect of memory; Vasubhandu said tha this is the essential element in reality -- he was the second great father of Mahayana buddhism; consiousness = that which thinks; necessary in order to make the distinctions between relative truth and untruth

Yoga

"discipline"used as "karma yoga" or "jnana yoga" or "bhakti yoga; a system of exercises practiced as part of the Hindu discipline to promote control of the body and mind; mentioned in the vedas and upanishads, same kinda thing as marga? cause it's a path? i guess :/

T'ien Ming

"mandate of heaven", explanation given to Shang people by Chou when they were conquered; the logic is that heaven sets up new rulers as soon as the previous one turns away from virtue; came after the belief in yellow springs

margas

"paths," in Hinduism, many different interpretations for devotion, ritual, and religious practice; there are three of these

Shakyamuni

"sage of the Shakyas," one of the titles applied to Gautama Siddhartha as a historical personage; his final incarnation

karma marga

"the path of dutiful action" - One of the three Hindu paths to salvation, emphasizing performing right actions according to dharma; Paradise in the form of the World of the Fathers was available to any who carried out their duties while alive, including bearing offspring (males!) to continue the lineage, caste, and ritual obligations. The emphasis lies squarely in ritual actions taken in this world, with little detailed thought of the next, except for the notion that individuals will enjoy continued material happiness so long as the necessary actions are taken in the world of the living; this is open to those who perform the requisite rituals of the older faith

jnana marga

"the path of knowledge and wisdom" - one of the three Hindu paths to salvation, emphasizing knowing the true nature of reality through learning and meditation; also referred to as Brahmanism; details in the Upanishads; the truly faithful and pure follow this instead of the other marga; in theory, this path was open to people of any station. all that was necessary was the renunciation of this world and the acceptance that everything was an illusion hiding the true reality of Brahman and the interconnectedness of all things; in practice, most people had little to no exposure to the details of this path and many who did simply rejected them because they had the promise of more immediate rewards of an afterlife in the world of the Fathers

PVS/ANH/VSED

- PVS: persistent vegetative state ○ The higher brain is impaired, no idea how though - ANH: artificial nutrition hydration ○ More common name is feeding tube , originally meant for temporary measures - VSED: voluntarily stopping eating and drinking

Pure Land Buddhism

A denomination of Buddhism that taught that believers would be reborn in a blissful, pure land (a heavenly realm just shy of nirvana in which the enlightened might enjoy an imagineable paradise of untold beauty; the idea realates aspects of buddhism with taoist expectations for the afterlife) or paradise; most closely associated with the Way of Faith; through devotion to a particular Buddha, the most common of which is a figre variously names Amitabha, Amitayus, or Amida, a person might be reborn in a heavenly Pure Land; these Pure Lands are similar in many respects to the devaloka (a heavenly plane) but they are concieved as much closer to nirvana; the ultimate goal here is still to transcend the pure land and get to nirvana; came about because some idiot made a promise to this god dude to be reborn into the pure land

Brahman

A single spiritual power that Hindus believe lives in everything; the liberation (moksha) from life on this world involves the realization that all things are interconnected and that the individual soul will merge into the underlying reality of all things which is called this term; seen as the only reality, out of which all things come and go; it is the overarching absolute of the universe; it is composed of every atman and can be viewed as a kind of universal mind in which all souls lose their individuality and merge with the collective

sati

Hindu custom that called for a widow to join her husband in death by throwing herself on his funeral pyre; lots of limitations on this with only willing women of age could do it; has become illegal and can now only be done very rarely or just symbolically

pret

Hinduism; a malevolent and hungry ghost in the first thirteen days after death where offerings must be made to both the ghost and various priests, who in turn perform the requisite rituals necessary to aid the spirit to successfully transfer from life to death; a being to be feared for it demands offerings in order to sustain it under threat of inflicting such repercussions as disease or natural disaster

Eightfold Path

In Buddhism, the basic rules of behavior and belief leading to an end of suffering (which is dukkha); the path to nirvana, comprising eight aspects in which an aspirant must become practiced: right views, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, and concentration; instructs followers to be vigilant in their conception of the world and everything in it as merely temporary and thus to behave accordingly; describes the prescription for living appropriately so that eventual enlightenment will take place, but it is a process that could take eons

Bodhisattva

In Theravada, a being who is on the way to enlightenment or buddhahood but has not yet achieved it; in Mahayana, a celestial being who forgoes nirvana in order to save others -- those who have attained enlightenment but have delayed nirvana in order to save the masses; it is thought that because of their desire to see every person released from suffering, they are incapable of refusing any request for help; to get help from them, all one has to do is ask

Wu-wei

In philosophical taoism, this represents the "active inaction" which is a doing without trying in ultimate harmony with the owrold and oneself -- one is simply to do as the Way of Tao dictate without personal will or thought interfering with the natural order of things, so death is seen as another one of those things that you should just accept

Lotus Sutra

One of the earliest and most influential Mahayana Buddhist texts, which reveals the cosmological nature of a Buddha and the universal character of Buddhist truth; also called saddharmapundarikasutra; first written source that describes the buddha as a universal savior; these texts as a whole outline the methods by which every person might achieve transcendent nirvana -- no longer a higher quest for enlightenment in terms of endeavoring to the means to correct living but simply the escape from general suffereing of daily life

Nagarjuna

The Buddhist philosopher of the second century C.E. who established the Madhyamika school of philosophy meaning "School of the Middle Way"; one of the great fathers of Mahayana Buddhism; scholars place him in this revolutionary time period when the Mahayana texts came into existence and Buddhism most radically changed upon entering China; made efforts to harmonize the new scriptures with the traditional ones to keep the new doctrines closely aligned with the original teachings of Buddha; most famous for blurring the line between samsara and nirvana, arguing that there in fact was no distinction between the two at al -- both are the same but also different at the same time; came up with three levels of truth: untruth, relative truth, and ultimate truth (the last one can only be experienced through Nirvana and enlightenment)

Moksha

The Hindu concept of the spirit's 'liberation' from the endless cycle of rebirths; this liberation involves the realization that all things are interconnected and that the individual soul will merge into the underlying reality of all things; happens when the individual atman becomes one with the essense of reality which is Brahma

Pali Canon

The authoritative Buddhism scripture of Theravada Buddhists written in the Pali language, and important, but not definitive, for Mahayana Buddhists. Another name for the Tripitaka; provides the earliest written source to the historical Buddha, thus providing the closest insight into the original idead of the Buddha that is possible

Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)

The prince who is said to have founded Buddhism, the most pervasive religion in Asia; from the Shakya clan, eventually known as Buddha; likely that he was a real person who was born circa 563BCE and lived for 80 years; after years of his father keeping him locked inside the castle, he snuck out and encountered sickness, old age, and death which put him in despair because he realized there's nothing he could do to stop this natural course of life, then he encountered a fourth dude who inspired him to follow certain ascetic methods of the Indian tradition to find escape; this term means the awakened one, potentially given to anyone who achieves nirvana

Bardo Thodol

Tibetan Book of the Dead, recited to guide the deceased through the bardo and to a better rebirth; "the great book of natural liberation thorugh understanding in the between"; written by Padma Sambhava around 8th century; read to the dead while consiousness is still around

Rig Veda

a collection of 1,017 Sanskrit hymns composed between 1500 BC and 800 BCE; Hinduism's oldest sacred text, oldest of the four Vedas; the first scripture in Hinduism, it has information about spiritual, scientific, and philosophy; influence of this one is clear in the other three; the dead are described her as sharing rich banquets with the gods in a realm of light; places no particular emphasis on the ritual of cremation as a necessary factor in bringing one safely to the hereafter

Vedas

a collection of hymns, tales, and rituals that had been transmitted through the ages by an oral tradition until their time of being written down; the ultimate scriptural authority of Hinduism, written in the second millennium BCE; provide the first written records from the Indus valley areas and give us the first inklings of Hindu beliefs; seen as an alien religious system superimposed upon an earlier native tradition -- according to one theory; gradually composed from a combination of new and old ideas formed by the people of one geographical area -- according to cultural transmission thesis; this collection of writing views postmortem judgement as based upon dutiful action in sacrificing to the deceased ancestors rather than on any concept of right or moral actions; those who rejected the philosophies of either the Vedas or the Upanishads are reincarnated in the form of some insect; common people tended to continue to participate in the rituals of the traditional ancestral cult, relying on experts of this text to oversee their performance

stupas

a dome-shaped structure erected as a Buddhist shrine; sites of veneration for relics of buddha, buddhist temples were often later erected here

Confusious

a foundational thinker in chines history; argued for the benefits to society of maintaining orderly rituals of respect, including those of offerings to ancestral spirits, even though he was noncommittal on the actual existence of the spirits themselves because he was a hummanist who preferred to deal with the issues of this life over those of the next; the evolution of this thinker's philosophy through his student (Mencius/Meng Tzu) who incoporated egalitarian philosophy derived from some other dude's Moist philosophy

kwei

a ghost in early chinese religions that was thought of as a shade-like spirit that left the body to inhabit a subterranean realm called Yellow Springs; this ghost was coaxed to return to the corpse by a candle or other light

Mahabharata

a great Indian epic poem, reflecting the struggles of the Aryans as they moved south into India; the popular Bhadavad Gita was a small part; this poem appeared in written form along with the series of tales known as the Puranas in the centuries after Christ; this is one of the works that describes in detail folk traditions dating back as far as the original Vedas, which was also similarly passed down orally for generations

Hinduism

a kind of umbrella term for the wide variety of spiritualistis that exist and have existed in India over centuries; in practice, this is a flexible and innclusive system allowing many different interpretations for devotion, retual, and religious practice, with the Vedas as the recognized sacred text

Period of the One Hundred Schools

a number of competeing schools of thought emerged as attempts to rescue the country and its people from political strife; of the "100" confusianism and a couple of others came out as very important foundation to Chinese thought

hygiene school

connected to taoism; a school of thought encouraging special breathing special breathing techniques, specific dietary restrictions, and particular bodily postures with the aim of increasing bodily health and thereby extending the human lifespan, potentially without end

Hsein

described in taoist texts, these were individuals who, through various method, had achieved enlightenment and in so doing overcame death, a state that might be taken literally as physical immortality or metaphorically as either spiritual immortality or a mystical understanding beyond life and death; described as living the life of a hermit in the mountains, living offf of nothing but dew and air while climbing into the clouds and riding a flying dragon; would attentivey listen to entreating prayers by the faithful

bakhti marga

devotional theism; the third of the hindu paths to dalvation, spring from a need for personal salvation in a way not offered by the other two; does not deny the cycle of rebirth or the escape from the cycle to achieve moksha, but instead proposes a new path to moksha, a way of devotion that is simpler t follow and provides a more personally rewarding relationship with one's god; provides every person with the possibility of some kind of afterlife

Harappan Civilization

hinduism; An ancient civilization that developed along the Indus River; linked with Dravidian culture

aryan

hinduism; a term used to distinguish between this lesser ancient civilization and the other more ancient one; a northern race that descended into the Indus valley circa 1500 BCE and dominated the indigenous Dravidians -- according to one theory -- they imported their religion and culture (the Vedas) and imposed it upon the existing culture

devas

hinduism; angelic beings that inhabit certain realms described in the Puranas

Gita

hinduism; eventually gained a place of great popularity as a text appropriate to all persons of all castes or no caste at all, its message transcends the limits of classical hinduism

Dharma

hinduism; following the duties of one's station in life; if one were to lead a good and honest life, which means doing this thing, one could be guaranteed a future life better than the present; in buddhism, this is the doctrines that would become the foundation of Buddhism and Buddha gained them from enlightenment after sitting under the bodhi tree waiting in meditation

Gana

hinduism; ghosts believed to make up the personal entourage of Shiva who is the god of creation and destruction; to become one of them is considered one of the highest boons attainable by the followers of this god

Dravidian Culture

hinduism; linked with Harappan civilization; a term used to distinguish between this more ancient civilization and the other lesser ancient one

Yama

hinduism; lord of the dead; one of the gods commonly associated with death of the realm of the dead; one version of the story paints this god as the first mortal, the primordial human being. He attained a state of immortality through overcoming selfishness and the fear of death itself through his loyalty to the gods.

karma

hinduism; the dead person had to follow these prescribed ritual actions as outlined in the Vedas throughout his or her life; the Vedas mentions this almost forty times in the sense of ritual works and sacred actions, whereas the Upanishads introduce the notion in connection with that of rebirth; En route to eventual salvation every person must suffer a series of incarnations each determined by this, which is further determined by one's actions from on life to the next//// in buddhism, this thing can be attained just by doing good deeds and following the eightfold path, not by reliance on the brahmin priests and their rituals like in Hinduism; here that which is being remembered and that which is doing the remembering are connected through a series of cause-and-effect relationships, called this term

Soma

hinduism; the entire ninth book of the rig veda is devoted to this god; closley associated with a drink of the same name. The true concoction of this magical beverage is unknown, but poetic passages in the sacred texts describe its ecstatic effects. The drink is also often called NON-DEATH

pitri

hinduism; the transformed spirit from pret; a benevolent ancestor that travels to the land of the dead

World of the Gods

hinduism; this heavenly realm is another form of paradise, not completely unlike the World of the fathers, but more opulent and befitting a god rather than a human.

Brahmaloka

hinduism; world of formless Brahman located behind sun barrier; written about in Puranas

Puranas

hindusim; a series of tales which give us rich, detailed descriptions of all manner of demon and spirit, as well as the otherworldly abodes of all of these creatures; there are said to be seven heavens, seven nether regions, and twenty-one hells; the world of the fathers described in the vedas appears among the seven heavens, as do the world of the gods and the ultimate reality of brahmaloka, the world of the brahman, found in the upanishads; also introduce the notion that one's fate after death might depend upon which god or goddess one chooses to venerate

pinda

hindusim; a special rice-ball mixture offered with milk by some hindus to the priests that perform the rituals in the Vedas on the dead; their purpose is to fortify the ghost so that it will not go hungry during the yearlong journey to join the ancestors in the World of the Fathers

Brihad-arabyaka Upanishad

hindusim; describes how those who know the divine truths will travel to the World of the Gods after being consumed in the funeral fire

brahmin

hindusim; the indian caste system was organized with this group at the pinnacle of a strict hierarchy, being the closest to spiritual salvation, and so the goal of the lower castes was to eventually accrue enough positive karma to be reborn into this priestly caste. Beyond this lay: the way of the Gods, then the brahman and moksha

Agni

hindusim; this god is associated with the purification of the cremation rituals, as well as the fires of damnation. The rig veda described how Agni, through cremation, carries the individual from the world of the living to that of the dead, thus safeguarding a continued existence in the hereafter

Pitrloka/"world of the fathers"

hindusim; vague afterlife location; a place where individuality is almost nonexistent, though descriptions of it are quite a bit more hospitable than Homer's account in Greek tradition; found in the vedas; likely the one idea concerning death and afterlife of greatest antiquity; in order for a person to travel here, they had to follow prescribed ritual actions (karma) as outlined in the Vedas throughout his or her life and this had to be continued by their family

Atman

in Hindu belief, a person's essential self; the inner soul which the Upanishads place the emphasis on; thought to move from one life to the next after death in a succession of reincarnations aimed at a spiritual perfection that will result in liberation from life on this world -- this one returns to brahman so it's the big S

humans, asuras, devas

in buddhism, these are the three higher modes of being; 2nd = lower gods, 3rd = higher gods

animals, pretas, maraka

in buddhism, these are the three lower modes of being; 2nd= hungry ghosts, 3rd = hell-beings

Four Noble Truths

in buddhism; 1) All life is full of suffering, pain, and sorrow. 2) The cause of suffering is nonvirtue, or negative deeds and mindsets such as hated and desire. 3) The only cure for suffering is to overcome nonvirture. 4) The way to overcome nonvirtue is to follow the Eightfold Path;

Nirvana

in buddhism; also nibbana, literally "to extinguish"; the liberation from samsara and all suffering therein through the realization of the truth that all things are temporary and attachment to anything will always result in suffering; sanskrit which means "to extinguish" ignorance, desire, and anger, not the self because according to buddha the self doesn't actually exist but is an illusion that we must surpass in order to escape samsara; it is the state in which all attachments to the illusions of the self and this world are utterly eliminated; it is a state of mind in which no attachments whatsoever iminge ipon teh peacefulness of simply being without striving to become or cease;Buddha found out about this after his three visions: memories of his past incarnations (revealing that he lived through this cycle of samsara for eons), awareness of the procession of humankind through suffering of birth and old age and death, knowledge of the workings of the universe (it was in this last vision that he understood that nirvana and space do not pass away, while the existence of everything else depends on different causal conditions); the human mode of being is the only one that may lead to this term

Dukkha

in buddhism; suffering stemming from the impermanence of all things in this world, not just physical suffering but also the kind when a happy time ends or when you reach the knowledge a person you love will one day die ; cessation of this and escape from this torturous cycle of samsara can only come through the elimination of ignorance and desire and attachement to the world; the first noble truth realized by gautama

Tao

in china -- the overarching law of the universe, most often translated as the Way, it exlains that when everything is moving and acting in its proper way, according to its own nature, then there is balance and harmony; life and death are seen as interconnected in the grand scheme of the universal order, and so acceptance of both is critical to harmony in one's self

possession

in hinduism, refers most commonly to domination by spirits of the dead or by goddesses (more so than gods) rather than by demonic forces; it provides a means through which a ghost might thus live, even if vicariously through some other person

Atharva Veda

interesting for its differences; contains ritualistic info that harks back to a more ancient pat; according to this, those who perform the requisite rituals are promised the sensuous rewards of women, food, and drink in the comfort of a lush, breezy landscape; contains descriptions of an abyss into which evildoers are hurled or a place of lowest darkness or black darkness

Zamani

more distant in time and space from the present; whether it's in the past or the future, this thing in removed from the here and now, yet it still overlaps as if there were a larger circle of sasa sits, at the center of which is

Way of Faith

one way to salvation for the common person in buddhism; offers a more comfortable route to bliss; it is thought that maintaining a devout faith in Gautama and others who have attained buddahood will lead to salvation; school of Mahayans that is closley related with it is called Pure Land Buddhism

Cultic Way

one way to salvation for the common person in buddhism; provides a means to nirvana for even the most superficial Buddhist; Lotus sutra described how the worship of relics, stupas, and images of the Buddha, as well as offerings of flowers and incense, combines with music making at the temples are a ritualized path to nirvana -- these practices and others like them are easily practiced by even the most noncommital Buddhist, because they place the emphasis on actions rather than intentin

Bodhisattva Way

one way to salvation for the common person in buddhism; relies heavily on the compassion of the bidhisattvas; seems at first to be quite simple, but the commitment required of it remains too lofty for many of the weaker willed

Hindu

originally used by the Persians and the Greeks to mean those people who lived east of the Indus river; Muslims and British colonialists further expanded the term to mean residents of india who were neither muslim nor christian; moderm scholarship: "those who follow the mainstream indigenouse religious tradition of india and accept -- at least nominally -- the authority of the ancient scriptures known as the Vedas"

cultural transmission thesis

part of Hinduism; this theory states that the Aryan culture developed from the preexisting culture of the Indus valley; also states that the vedas were gradually composed from a combination of new and old ideas formed by the people of one geographical area

maya

pre-exists and co-exists with Brahman - the Ultimate Principle, Consciousness; this is perceived reality, one that does not reveal the hidden principles, the true reality; this is unconscious, Atman is conscious; this is the literal, Brahman is the figurative Upādāna - the principle, the cause; this term is born, changes, evolves, dies with time, from circumstances, due to invisible principles of nature, state the Upanishads, while Atman-Brahman is eternal, unchanging, invisible principle, unaffected absolute and resplendent consciousness; this concept in the Upanishads is "the indifferent aggregate of all the possibilities of emanatory or derived existences, pre-existing with Brahman", just like the possibility of a future tree pre-exists in the seed of the tree

Sama Veda

repeats much of what is contained within the rig veda in the form of chants

Yaju Veda

repeats much of what is contained within the rig veda in the form of chants

Jiva

soul with a small s in hinduism; this is the one that comes and goes with the body; the self that gets you reincarnated

alaya-vijnana

storehouse consciousness; introduced to explain the transmigration of a person from one life to the next; it is underlying regular consiousness in the same way the ocean underlies a wave -- each lifetime is one wave that rises and falls, always drawing from the same storehouse; once the string of lifetimes related to a particular storehouse aschived enlightement, then the underlying storehouse conciousness would literally just disapear

Yogacara

the Buddhist school of philosophy that teaches that neither the phenomenal world nor the mind is real. Founded by Maitreyanatha in the third century C.E., it was made famous in the fourth by Asanga.

Syncretism

the creation of new religious tradition through the meeting of other established traditions, notably appearing in the New World due to the African slave trade, which saw a range of African traditions forced together along with the imposition of colonial beliefs, especially Catholism; often, such new religions reinterpret or re-purpose traditional symbols and rituals to match with retained or revised common beliefs

Samsara

the cycle of life and rebirth in Hinduism; the soul (atman) moved from one body to another in consecutive life cycles, a process which might continue ad infintium unless appropriate action is taken. One might eventually break the cycle of births and deaths by coming to a specific understanding of the nature of reality. In order to break the cycle, one must understand that atman, at the heart of every being, is but an aspect of Brahman and thus not truly a part of the transient day-to-day reality we know through our senses.

Yellow Springs

the earliest chines conception of the afterlife; it is a bleak underworld similar to those found in ancient judiasm's Sheol, greek hades and mesopotamian culture; this realm existed just below the surface of the earth and so the kwei was thought to either inhabit the underworld of to actually reside in the grave itself - this was the fate of the dead regardless of class or merit

Tipitika

the first buddhist council met soon after the buddha's death, around 483 BCE, with the purpose of preserving the central doctrines of buddhism and organized them into three sections/baskets known as this term;

Tsou Yen

the founder of taoist alchemy, he encouraged the pursuit of immortality (whether physical or spiritual) through the communion of spirits and the construction of magical elixers that might succeed in perfectly mixing elements in balance such that its imbiber would experience perfect harmony

bon

the indiginious religion of tibet which held a number of beliefs that seem at face value to be incongruous with buddhist tenets; each person was believed too have twin spirits: the pho-lha and dGralha which separated and left the body at death; different rituals like exorcism were required to ensure that these departed spirits would not haint the site of the individual's death or grave

sasa

the present -- this period is not the momentary instant in which we immediately exist but extende out in time to include the near future, in which we might plan for things with some reasonable certainty, and the recent past, which moght remain fresh in our memories

Tao Te Ching

the second eminent text of taoism attributed to the pen of Lao Tzu but we don't think this dude actually existed, because he's mentioned in Chuang Tzu so he definitely existed before this dude; anyhoooz, this text echoes Chuang Tzu about death -- always a consistent group integrating a number of ideas that seem contradictory; where the message chuang tzu and lao tzu sought to inculcate was that life and death are natural processes, both to be embraced, the other all-to-human taoists focused upon the fact that death would mark the end of life and therefore should be staved off indefinitely sooo they're looking for immortality which they gain through meditative breathing and yoga-like body postures

Vasubandhu

the second great father of Mahayana buddhism; helped by his brother (Asanga) to convert to Mahayana buddhism; built off of Nagarjuna's philosphy; accepting first that absolute truth was wholly ineffable and second that our concepts of truth and falsity in this realm are subjective and relative, this dude said that the essential element in reality was consciousness -- vijnana; yogacara is the school of this dude and his brother and it's also nown sometimes as "consciousness-only school" or Vijnanavada; argues that hell is not a thing and that it's probably just a place where people are reborn in order to purge themselves of bad karma and become reborn

Taoism

the second quintisentially Chinese school of thought o emerge during the Period of the 100 schools; this approached the political problem from a different angle; promoted an extreme laissez-faire style of government and of living in general; first there was the Philosophica one, then there was the development with Tao Te Ching; a range of practicies coalesced under the banner of this school of thought toward the end of Chuang Tzu's time with teh common goal of discovering the secret of physical immortality; always a consisted group integrating a number of ideas that sometime seem contradictory

tibetan buddhism

the third of the schools of buddhism; called tantrayana because of its scriptures or The third of "the three wheels of buddhism"; Mantrayana or "the vehicle of mantras" also Vajrayana or "The diamond or thunderbolt vehicle"; incorporated some ideas from bon into this; shamans of the place where this buddhism is were incorporated into the buddhist framework as mediumistic mount pieces of both the gods and the dead -- considered possessed by the entities, which is a strict contrast to theravada buddhism; describes consciousness or vijnana as that which leaves the body at death

meditation sutra

the third of the three main texts of Pure land Buddhism; points out that the heaveny realms mentioned in the first and second surtas are not mere fantasies but places that can be seen through the practice of sincere meditation;

Yin-yang

theory which described the world in terms of cooperating opposites; according to the evolving ancestral cult, the lower, animalistic or yin, sold, would go down into the ground upon death to reside either in the grave or the Yellow Springs (these may be seen as identical) and there were thought to be as many as seven such lower souls called p'o, which would become kwei upon death; the higher or yang souls would leave the body and drift upward toward heaven to unite with the ancestors, or for the exceptional few, become deified; these deified higher souls were thought to number as many as three called huhn and would become synonymous with spirits known as shen after death

Bardo

this is the in-between state after death but before rebirth in tibetan buddhism; during this state, the individual adopts a spiritual body, in effect an etheral double similar to that described in ancient Egypt; without guidance the person might not realize they are dead and will remain a ghost until the next rebirth; the intermediary state may last for as long as 49 days after which rebirth is certain; in this state, nirvana is seen as a kind of light and the natural tendency is to shy away from it, so only those who have mastered the appropriate methods will be able to overcome it

Philosophical Taoism

which was an early form of this religion and credited to Chuang Tzu (which is the name of the dude and the book :/) -- Tao here represents an anonymous divine will linked to heaven or simply nature, permeating all things, so in order to live well, one must not strive after success but should passively obey the Way of Tao, and death according to this dude lead to a bleak afterlife with nothing to do but there is a blissful statis and total removing of one's troubles