afterlife myths. additional afterlife myths i.hindu

Afterlife Myths

Additional Afterlife Myths

I. Hindu


I. Hindu

A. Early Indians- souls to world of bliss with the gods if good, punishment in Hell if evil.


B. Indian religions: after death soul loses its individuality, merges with a greater being.


C. Vedas (holy texts) set down belief in reincarnation.

•Rebirth is one facet of law of Karma -a soul must keep returning to mortal existence until it has learned all lessons of spiritual evolution.


1. Human soul evolves gradually from lower forms, starting with minerals and vegetables


2. Soul progresses up through lower animals, higher animals, then attains human state.


3. Human state allows escape from round of births and deaths.

•Eliminate desire

•Become aware of the unity of self with Brahman

•Rebirth will cease- not the end of being, but perfect bliss, and all will attain it in time.


D. At death, soul goes to land of the dead, ruled over by Yama


1. Does not judge; assigns region in hells or heavens where soul stays for varying lengths of time


2. Good soul= rewards in heaven


3. Bad soul punished for

•neglect of family obligations,

• lack of respect for teachers,

•incorrect bodily habits, (taking animal life, eating flesh, associating with dead things, or body fluids)

•murder, theft, lying, etc.

•assigned to one of various hells.


a.Punishments include • being boiled in oil • pecked at by birds • encircled by snakes • and worse.


b. After required time in hell, soul reborn to earth in a lowlier status.


c. Serious crimes, reincarnated as a worm, insect, cockroach, rat, or bird.


d. Crime causing defilement, returns as an untouchable.

Caste System- India

Hindus believe a person is born into one of four castes based on karma and "purity"—how he or she lived their past lives. Those born as Brahmans are priests and teachers; Kshatriyas are rulers and soldiers; Vaisyas are merchants and traders; and Sudras are laborers. Within the four castes, there are thousands of sub-castes, defined by profession, region, dialect, and other factors.

Untouchables are literally outcastes; a fifth group that is so unworthy it doesn't fall within the caste system.

Because they are considered impure from birth, Untouchables perform jobs that are traditionally considered "unclean" or exceedingly menial, and for very little pay. One million Dalits work as manual scavengers, cleaning latrines and sewers by hand and clearing away dead animals. Millions more are agricultural workers trapped in an inescapable cycle of extreme poverty, illiteracy, and oppression.


e. Criminal of worst sort returns as plant


II. Buddhist (Tibetan)


II. Buddhist (Tibetan)

A. Everyone has returned from death


I. Buddhist (Tibetan)

A. Everyone has returned from death

B. Supreme goal is to be born no more


C. Accomplished when one understands that the world and your self are illusions


D. liberates one to merge with the Universal Mind in the state of enlightenment known as Nirvana.


E. At moment of death, deceased enters the Bardo state, afterdeath plane, lasting about 49 days between death and rebirth.


1. Chikhai Bardo begins at moment of death

•deceased has vision of liberating Truth

•may remain several days in trancelike state, unaware that s/he has separated from the physical body.


2. Chonyid Bardo: deceased encounters dreamlike state of karmic illusion

•thought forms generated by deceased person’s own mental content take on terrifying reality

• None of these deities or demons has real existence

•If deceased could realize this, s/he would enter Nirvanic state.


3. Sidpa Bardo: deceased descends into new physical birth, unable to profit from experiencing two previous Bardo states.


III. Celtic


III. Celtic

A. Believed in life after death, evidenced by burial of food, weapons, ornaments with dead.


B. The Druids, early Celtic priesthood, taught doctrine of transmigration of souls


C. Irish believed in an "otherworld," imagined as underground or islands in the sea


1. Country where there was no sickness, old age, or death,

2. Happiness lasted forever, and a hundred years was as one day.


IV. Ancient Greek


IV. Ancient Greek

A. Hades was given Hades, land of the dead, as his inheritance.


B. When 3 Fates fix hour of person’s death, red-robed deities (called dogs of Hades) seize dying mortal, carry her to land of shadows.


C. Shade wanders bleak region of black poplars called Grove of Persephone until it reaches gate of Kingdom of Hades.


1.Encounters Cerberus• 3-headed watchdog• mouth dribbles black

venom• Will wag tail and ears

if given honey cakes, shade permitted to proceed.


2. Shade must cross Acheron, 1 of 5 underground rivers


3. Souls taken over river by old Charon, ferryman, who demands an obol. If not buried with obol in her mouth, Charon will pitilessly drive her away.


D. After crossing Acheron, soul sent to a trial led by Hades, assigned eternal home.


1.Ordinary soul remains in neutral region

• Dull, drab place • No sun • Few things grow other

than asphodel


2. For great crime, cast into Tartarus •somber place with gates of bronze•surrounded by a triple wall •on the burning river Phlegethon


3. Blessed soul who has led pure life goes to the Elysian Fields (Islands of the Blessed);

•Pleasures you enjoyed on earth

•Sunlight, flower-filled meadows.


V. Islamic (Hadith, not Koran)


V. IslamicA. At death, soul in tomb visited by the Examiners, Munkar and Nakir


1. Black angels, breath like violent storms, eyes like lightning flashes.


2. Question terrified soul concerning its faith.


2. Question terrified soul concerning its faith

a. Answers satisfactory, sweet breezes from paradise blow upon soul, tomb filled with light until Final Judgment.


b. Unsatisfactory answers, walls of tomb crush soul; awaits Final Judgment while being stung by scorpions, beaten with iron mace.


B. On day of Final Judgment, angel Jibra’il will hold up a scale, half covering Paradise, half covering Hell.


1. Your deeds will be weighed, and exact

justice will be done.


2. Each person given a book, record of her life.


2. Each person will be given a book, record of her life.

a. right hand = blessed


b. left hand = damned, awaits sentencing in shoes of fire, skull boiling like a pot


C. Allah passes sentence


D. All souls cross Bridge of Sirat, spans from Earth to Paradise, passing directly over Hell.


1. Bridge is hair-thin and razor-sharp, but broadens beneath steps of the faithful


2. Infidels lose balance, topple into hell


E. In Hell damned will suffer various tortures, based on fire.


F. Dividing Hell and Heaven is wall, al Araf, covered with contemptible beings whose good works exactly cancel out evil ones


G. In Paradise every desire of soul and body shall be satisfied.


VI. Shinto


VI. Shinto

A. Native Japanese religion, veneration of nature and ancestor worship

In Japan, most “life” events are handled through Shinto ritual, while “death/afterlife” events use Buddhist ritual.


B. Every person after death becomes a kami, supernatural being who continues to have a part in the life of the community, nation, and family.


VII. Norse

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VII. Norse

A.Positive afterlife is in Valhalla• hall of slain heroes in Asgard• ruled by Odin, king of gods

• Note: Odin gets half of the warriors slain in battle; other half goes to Freyja’s hall, Sessrumnir.


B. Hall has 540 doors, through each of which 800 heroes can walk abreast, roof made of shields.


C. Souls of soldiers killed in battle brought to Valhalla by warrior maidens called Valkyries.


D. Heroes fight during the day, wounds heal at night, then banquet with Odin.


E. Negative afterlife is realm of goddess Hel

Dante’s Divine Commedy

Literary Hell


VIII. Dante’s Divine Comedy

A. Alighieri Dante wrote poem between 1308-1321, 100 cantos


VII. Dante’s Divine Comedy

A. Alighieri Dante wrote poem between 1308- 1321, 100 cantos

B. Poet is guided through hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio) and heaven (Paradiso)


B. Poet is guided through hell (Inferno), purgatory (Purgatorio) and heaven (Paradiso)

C. Hell is divided into 9 levels, on each level, punishment fits crime (contrapasso)

1. Divided into sins of incontinence, violence, and fraud


First Circle (Limbo)

•Unbaptized

•Virtuous pagans (not sinful, but didn’t accept Christ)

•No punishment other than separation from God

•Like Elysian Fields of Greeks


Second Circle- Lustful

•Naked and blown about by a violent storm without hope of rest

•Famous romantic couples


Third Circle- Gluttons

•Guarded by Cerberus

•Lie in mud under rain and hail

•Forced to eat own excrement (poop)


Fourth Circle- Avaricious and Prodigal

•Greedy and miserly punished with those who spend unwisely

•Abused material possessions

•Each group pushes a great weight against the heavy weight of other


Fifth Circle- Wrathful, Sullen and Slothful

•All in the swamp-like river Styx

•Wrathful fight each other on the surface

•Sullen or slothful lie gurgling under the water


Lower levels of hell (active rather than passive sins) are within walls of city of Dis- guarded by fallen angels


Sixth Circle- Heretics

•Those who go against the Catholic Church

•Trapped in flaming tombs


Seventh Circle- Violent

•Outer ring

•Violent against people and property

•Immersed in Phlegethon, river of boiling blood



•Middle ring- Suicides

•Transformed into gnarled trees

•Torn at by harpies



•Inner Ring- Violent against God, nature, art

•Desert of flaming sand, fiery flakes raining from the sky

•Against God (blasphemers) lie on sand

•Against nature (sodomites) wander in groups

•Against art (usurers) sit on sand


Eighth Circle- Fraudulent

•Bolgia 1- Panderers and seducers walk in separate lines opposite directions, beaten by demons

•Bolgia 2- Flatterers steeped in human excrement

•Bolgia 3- Simony (selling church pardons/positions)

•Bolgia 4- Sorcerers and false prophets have heads twisted backwards

•Bolgia 5- Corrupt politicians in lake of boiling tar, poked by demons


Eighth Circle- Fraudulent

•Bolgia 6- Hypocrites wear gold-gilded lead cloaks

•Bolgia 7- Thieves chased and bitten by snakes, causes transformations

•Bolgia 8- Fraudulent advisors encased in flames

•Bolgia 9- Sowers of discord hacked by sword-wielding devil, Mohammed is here

•Bolgia 10- Alchemists, counterfeiters, perjurers afflicted with various diseases


Ninth Circle- Traitors

•Frozen in a lake of ice

•Zone 1- Caina, traitors to family

•Zone 2- Antenora, traitors to party, city or country- Ugolino gnaws on head of Ruggieri


•Zone 3- Judecca, traitors to lords or benefactors, completely encased in ice

•Center is Satan, weeping

•Three faces- red, black, yellow

•Brutus, Cassius feet first

•Judas Iscariot head first

Hieronymous Bosch,Garden of Earthly Delights

Hieronymous Bosch,Garden of EarthlyDelights

afterlife myths. additional afterlife myths i.hindu

Documents

additional afterlife

hindu slide

plant slide

heaven slide

yama slide

buddhist tibetan slide

varying lengths of time

human soul