readoldthings

Reincarnation

There are some questions in human life that admit of two nonconensurable answers of which every person seems disposed by temperament to pick one and only one. Speaking on one of these questions, Coleridge once famously remarked that

Every man is born an Aristotelian or a Platonist. I do not think it possible that anyone born an Aristotelian can become a Platonist; and I am sure that no born Platonist can ever change into an Aristotelian.

On the everyday level, it also seems to be the case that every man (and woman) is born a cat person or a dog person. Cat people like all, or nearly all cats, and if they like any dogs they do so on an individual basis; dog people like dogs in general, and may or may not like this or that cat. That is to say, cat people like the species "cat," with which, on a certain level, they identify; dog people like the species "dog" in the same way. If a dog person likes a cat, he likes it for its individual qualities (which often include being somewhat doglike). Tangentially, this is also the way that a dog person likes human beings-- not as a species, but individually.

Given the theory of transmigration of souls, which claims that each of us passes through successive animal incarnations before arriving at the level of the human being; and given the large populations of both dogs and cats and their proximity to human beings; it's tempting to wonder whether cat people are in fact human beings who lived many previous lives as cats, while dog people rose to humanity through the ranks of dogs. Whether or not this is the case, it brings us neatly to the thing I actually want to talk about today, which is the nature of reincarnation. For reincarnation is another one of these questions on which people tend to fall on one side or the other. Those who don't believe in it generally can't believe in it, while those who do believe in it often find that they can't believe otherwise.

What I'd like to do in this post-- which is likely to turn into several-- is to go into more detail on the doctrine of reincarnation or the transmigration of souls in the Western tradition, including the question of precisely what reincarnates and how it does so; objections to the doctrine; and whether there is a secret tradition of reincarnation within Christianity and other traditions which explicitly reject it.

Reincarnation in Plato

Plato taught the theory of reincarnation in many of his dialogues, including Meno, Phaedo, Phaedrus, Republic, Timaeus, Statesman and Laws. Of these, the Phaedo and Republic give the most extensive treatments of the topic. Let's look at what he has to say in these.

In the Phaedo, Plato has Socrates, facing execution, give an account of the fate of souls after death.

When the dead arrive at the place to which the genius of each severally guides them, first of all, they have sentence passed upon them, as they have lived well and piously or not. And those who appear to have lived neither well nor ill, go to the river Acheron, and embarking in any vessels which they may find, are carried in them to the lake, and there they dwell and are purified of their evil deeds, and having suffered the penalty of the wrongs which they have done to others, they are absolved, and receive the rewards of their good deeds, each of them according to his deserts. But those who appear to be incurable by reason of the greatness of their crimes—who have committed many and terrible deeds of sacrilege, murders foul and violent, or the like—such are hurled into Tartarus which is their suitable destiny, and they never come out. Those again who have committed crimes, which, although great, are not irremediable—who in a moment of anger, for example, have done violence to a father or a mother, and have repented for the remainder of their lives, or, who have taken the life of another under the like extenuating circumstances—these are plunged into Tartarus, the pains of which they are compelled to undergo for a year, but at the end of the year the wave casts them forth—mere homicides by way of Cocytus, parricides and matricides by Pyriphlegethon—and they are borne to the Acherusian lake, and there they lift up their voices and call upon the victims whom they have slain or wronged, to have pity on them, and to be kind to them, and let them come out into the lake. And if they prevail, then they come forth and cease from their troubles; but if not, they are carried back again into Tartarus and from thence into the rivers unceasingly, until they obtain mercy from those whom they have wronged: for that is the sentence inflicted upon them by their judges. Those too who have been pre-eminent for holiness of life are released from this earthly prison, and go to their pure home which is above, and dwell in the purer earth; and of these, such as have duly purified themselves with philosophy live henceforth altogether without the body, in mansions fairer still which may not be described, and of which the time would fail me to tell.

Some of these ideas are familiar from the Christian tradition. We have a pure home in the World Above, in which the good find release from earthly existence; we also have a dark world far, far below, into which the wicked are hurled, never to return. But we also have a middle realm, which is the Underworld as we usually think of it-- that is, Hades or the World of the Dead. This is not the same as Tartarus, the place into which those who commit massacres and sacrileges are cast. We are told in Homer's Iliad, in fact, that Tartarus is as far below Hades as our Earth is below Heaven. It thus forms a kind of middle term in the possible afterlives, for all of us who are not quite good enough for Heaven nor bad enough for Hell. Here the wicked are purified of their misdeeds, but after this receive their just reward. The presence of the middle term is important, as we shall see; it is one of the important differences between the thought of Plato and that of his wayward pupil Aristotle. And as we shall also see, Christianity for its first millennium followed Plato in most things, but Aristotle in this.

Notice, too, that there are two more middle terms, between the middle term itself and the extremes. Some among the worst are indeed cast into Tartarus, but after a year of torment they are given a chance to repent of their crimes. If their victims forgive them, they are allowed into the pleasant part of the Underworld, with everyone else; if not they must continue to undergo suffering and purification until they are forgiven. And note well-- it is not by God that they beg forgiveness, but those whom they have wronged. This idea is something that, from what I can tell, was totally lost in later traditions. Finally, we are told that those who have followed the disciplines of philosophy will be conducted to Heaven and never have to return to the Earth, but that they are are others will sojourn in Heaven for a time, and again descend.

So far, then, we have five possible conditions for a spirit after death: 1. Tartarus; 2. Tartarus temporarily; 3. Hades; 4. Heaven temporarily; 5. Heaven. To this list we might possibly add a sixth, potentially the same as the third, which is a kind of ghost, so attached to the physical form that it wanders about graveyards until the time comes for it to return to incarnation. Of all of these, groups 2, 3, 4 and 6 can all expect to return to incarnation in a body:

After death, as they say, the genius of each individual, to whom he belonged in life, leads him to a certain place in which the dead are gathered together, whence after judgment has been given they pass into the world below, following the guide, who is appointed to conduct them from this world to the other: and when they have there received their due and remained their time, another guide brings them back again after many revolutions of ages.

Those who return to earthly incarnation return to a form suited to the life that they previously lived:

Socrates: Men who have followed after gluttony, and wantonness, and drunkenness, and have had no thought of avoiding them, would pass into asses and animals of that sort. What do you think?

Cebes: I think such an opinion to be exceedingly probable.

Socrates: And those who have chosen the portion of injustice, and tyranny, and violence, will pass into wolves, or into hawks and kites;—whither else can we suppose them to go?

Cebes: Yes....

Socrates: Some are happier than others; and the happiest both in themselves and in the place to which they go are those who have practised the civil and social virtues which are called temperance and justice, and are acquired by habit and attention without philosophy and mind.

...they may be expected to pass into some gentle and social kind which is like their own, such as bees or wasps or ants, or back again into the form of man, and just and moderate men may be supposed to spring from them.

This treatment of the subject in the Phaedo is the most extensive in all of Plato's works, and fittingly, since the Phaedo is entirely concerned with death. In the Republic we are given a brief summary of the same, but with the added detail that the Dead are given the opportunity to choose what life they will live upon return to Earth. This is very much a mixed blessing, as many, without thinking, choose lives which appear good but which lead them to disaster:

...he who had the first choice came forward and in a moment chose the greatest tyranny; his mind having been darkened by folly and sensuality, he had not thought out the whole matter before he chose, and did not at first sight perceive that he was fated, among other evils, to devour his own children. But when he had time to reflect, and saw what was in the lot, he began to beat his breast and lament over his choice, forgetting the proclamation of the prophet; for, instead of throwing the blame of his misfortune on himself, he accused chance and the gods, and everything rather than himself. Now he was one of those who came from heaven, and in a former life had dwelt in a well-ordered State, but his virtue was a matter of habit only, and he had no philosophy.

And so we see that the system of reincarnation given by Plato is somewhat similar to that in Tibetan Buddhism. The ultimate goal of the spiritual life is to attain release from incarnation. This is done through the practice of philosophy, a word which we should understand similarly to the Sanskrit word yoga. Failing that, a temporary sojourn in the Heavenly realms or in the more pleasant part of the Underworld is possible for those who are relatively virtuous. Following a time spent in the spiritual worlds, most of us return to incarnation, and the specific form we take is determined in more ways than one by the life we lived previously.

Tomorrow we will talk about reincarnation elsewhere in the Graeco-Roman traditions, including in Pythagoras and Virgil, and hopefully come to Aristotle's objections to the doctrine.

Steve's Note

I've been neglecting this blog lately because my time has been limited. Last week I started several posts but ran out of time. This week and from henceforward I hope, I'm simply going to post whatever I have completed, even if it means cutting off in the middle of a sentence. See you tomorrow!