8 results for “karma rebirth”
Around the sixth century BCE, the growth of states, towns, trade, crafts and new social groups coincided with major religious and philosophical questioning. Shramana traditions, including Jainism, Buddhism and the Ajivikas, developed within this wider social and intellectual transformation.
Vedic literature extends beyond the four Vedas. The Samhitas contain hymns and mantras, the Brahmanas explain sacrifice and ritual, the Aranyakas explore deeper symbolic meanings of ritual, and the Upanishads increasingly focus on philosophical questions concerning the self, ultimate reality, karma, rebirth and liberation.
Major Buddhist teachings include the Middle Way, impermanence, dukkha, not-self, dependent origination, karma, rebirth, Nirvana, ethical discipline, meditation, wisdom, loving-kindness and compassion. Buddhism analyses experience as a changing process conditioned by causes rather than as the expression of an eternal unchanging self.
Digambara and Shvetambara are the two major Jain traditions. They share the core Jain framework of non-violence, karma, liberation and the Tirthankara tradition, but differ on monastic clothing, scriptural authority, women's liberation and some biographical traditions concerning Mahavira.
Buddhism developed into many schools and traditions. Hinayana is a later polemical term and is not an exact synonym for Theravada. Theravada preserves the Pali canonical tradition, while Mahayana strongly developed the Bodhisattva ideal, additional sutras and major philosophical traditions.
The Jain path aims at freeing the soul from karmic bondage. Its core includes the Three Jewels of Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct, rigorous non-violence, the five vows, non-attachment and the philosophical doctrine of Anekantavada.
Mahavira was the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of the Jain tradition, not its first founder. Jain tradition places him within an older lineage that included Parshvanatha. He emphasised rigorous asceticism, non-violence, self-control and liberation from karmic bondage.
The Four Noble Truths form a central framework of Buddhist teaching: there is dukkha, it has an origin, its cessation is possible, and there is a path leading to that cessation. That path is the Noble Eightfold Path of right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration.
