RN 106 Final Exam

RN 106 Final Exam

1. ancestor veneration

   • Chinese Buddhism
     • Ritual practices- continued relationship human to dead
     • reciprocity, interdependence- honoring for fortune
     • Qingming ("Tomb Sweeping") Festival
       • families annually visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites and make ritual offerings, including food, money, etc.
     • restless dead- uncared for ancestors, ghost festival
       • Chinese Ghost Festival
         • fifteenth day of seventh month- full moon, new season, fall harvest, buddhist monastic holiday, assembly local community
         • operas and dances with Mulian and mom, burnable offerings, joss paper, rituals by monks to transmute and absolve sufferings of deceased
       • Buddhism as a ghost mediator
         • Yulapen Scripture, aka Ullambana Sutra
           • prominent from 300 CE, attempt by Mu-lien, filial son and close monk-disciple of Buddha, to rescue mom from HG realm
           • food to coal in mom's hands
           • Buddha tells him to, on fifteenth day of seventh month, prep food for ancestors and give to monks of sangha
           • offerings release many generations from suffering
           • once a year
         • Mulien Saves His Mother From Hell
           • 8th century ce
           • needs to rescue mother from lowest Buddhist hell
           • mom in tenth court- then reborn as stray dog in monastery
         • Spell For Saving Burning Mouth Hungry Ghost
           • 8th c on, new rituals
           • esosteric text
           • Buddha's monk Ananda is the protagonist
           • Ananda learns he will die and be a hg in 3 days, asks burning mouth if way to escape
             • gives bushel to each hungry ghost and brahmins and seers, and gives these to three jewels, via spell with buddha belief
     • Buddhism moves to China through the creation of festivals and rituals geared towards appeasing unhappy dead
       • 3rd century on
   • Japanese Buddhism
     • family altar with names, fresh foods
     • rituals- 7, 49, 100 days after ancestor death, also 1, 3, 7, 13, 17, 23, 27, 33, 50, 100 yr anniversaries of death
     • Obon- Japanese Ghost Festival
       • Aug 13-15
       • clean house/offerings
       • paper lanterns to guide home
       • then guide back to grave with lanterns at end or float down rivers
     • Mizuko-kuyo mid 20th c
       • at buddhist temples for miscarried, stillborn, or aborted
       • mizuko- fetus, kuyo- rituals to offerings
       • 1960s
         • legalization of abortion in Japan (1949)
         • trend towards seeing aborted fetus as having individual identity
         • media fascination- help or exploitation?
       • jizo shrines at crossroads or riverbanks or land/sea intersection
         • Jizo- protector of children in Japanese Buddhism, pray to him
         • want to have reborn in good life
         • abortion sends an almost-life back into other world for rebirth- you BECOME fully human after going back to gods
         • sets up Buddha as patron/God figure? More about ritual/practicing than this element, protect child

2. Buddhism

   • an-atman
     • fundamental insight needed to escape samsara
     • idea that there is no permanent, autonomous "thing" in humans that can be called "the soul"
     • no permanent, autonomous "thing" in humans that can be called "the soul"- the "self" is constantly changing and is a process, not a fixed thing
     • karma in life is continuation- actions and thoughts are energy, continue in every moment
       • process of rebirth is conditioned by mental factors that are cultivated either consciously or unconsciously
     • acorn/oak tree metaphor
   • Buddha born 563 or 483 BCE
   • Kisagotami- 6 ce, learns of death when buddha won't bring son back
   • Wheel of Existence
     • Buddha in top right showing way
       • outside wheel- escaped cycle
       • Buddha points to Yama and wheel to teach followers true nature of existence
     • Yama
       • frightening figure holding wheel
       • three eyes, crown of skulls
       • symbolizes the impermanence of everything- beings he holds are trapped in suffering by ignorance of universe nature
       • death is not the end and isn't something to fear
     • Three Poisons
       • middle of wheel
       • three causes of all suffering
       • greed- rooster
       • ignorance- pig
       • hatred- snake
     • human realm
       • Buddhist texts describe as most fortunate
       • best chance of enlightenment
       • not suffering as heavily as some but not lengthly bliss
     • realm of Gods (and Titans)
       • heaven- six levels of increasing happiness
       • only real release in enlightenment
     • hungry ghosts
       • edges of mortal realm
       • trapped by overattachment to the world
       • Pretas
       • unfulfilled desires
       • huge bellies/tiny mouths- can't satisfy
     • animal realm
       • used by humans
       • lack awareness for enlightenment
       • Buddhists don't see as good to be reborn here but treat kind
     • hell realm
       • bottom
       • torture
       • only until bad karma worked off

3. Hinduism

   • the Upanishads
     • concluding section of Vedas
       • collection of esosteric religious and philosophical texts
       • 800-500 BCE
       • earliest discussion of process/logic reincarnation
       • new goal for the afterlife- deathlessness state that allows atman/brahman unity
     • Katha Upanisad- new worldview (800-500 BCE, part of Upanisads
       • our atman (soul) is ultimately non-different from the one permanent and eternal principle: the God, Brahman
       • REINCARNATION- what is the self??
         • versus RESURRECTION
           • Judaism/II Maccabees
             • bodily resurrection- God will raise the martyred sons to new life, will give back body eventually
             • reward and punishment in afterlife
             • resurrection is collective and individual- connotes redemption of whole people
             • martyr = witness
           • resurrection is allied to the reversal of death and injustice
             • Earth will give up its dead only in the context or the righting of Israel’s wrongs, the punishment of the wicked, the restoration of the lost, the reconstruction of the holy city and of the Temple, and the universal recognition of the Lord as the faithful God of justice
           • Christianity
             • trumpet raises dead
             • become imperishable/changed (not die)
             • continuity to body but transphysical
             • because of Jesus' sacrifice, humanity can now attain immortality and be saved from human sinfulness
             • Paul/Corinthians
               • 51 ce- Paul goes to Corinth
                 • followers ask about resurrection of ordinary people
               • Christ died for sins/sins of Adam
               • Christ was buried/raised/seen multiple times
               • Christians will also be resurrected in end times
               • seed metaphor
           • Islam
             • Israfil's trumpet- first asleep, second time wake
             • fear belief?
             • people believe in different kinds of return
               • corporeal return- state of body? both body and soul resurrected
               • spiritual return- soul with subtle body or immaterial soul, is it disembodied experience?
               • What happens when prophet dies?
                 • other humans- soul leaves body and body in grave
                 • Prophet- soul does not leave body
             • heaven and hell- islam
               • Heaven- jannah
               • hell- jannaham
       • same time as Phaedro
       • story leading to new version of Hindu self
         • Nachiketas teen Yama lord of death
         • three wishes because he waits for three days after volunteering to go as sacrifice
         • wants to know what happens after death, no riches placate
         • the secret of immortality is to understand the self- alignment of senses/understanding
   • Brahman/Atman
     • Atman, one's inmost soul, is also Brahman, the ultimate reality pervading entire universe
     • Reality beyond is also within
     • Can come and go free from Samsara if you have this understanding
     • Brahman-atman is origin and end of all things
   • Reincarnation
     • younger more likely to believe, but less than half of US
     • Originates in Vedic culture (1500-600 BC)
       • Indus Valley Civ from 4,000 years ago
       • Vedas from 1200 BC- Sanskrit Hindu texts, ritual sacrifice
     • Hinduism
       • samsara is cycle of unenlightened
       • karma drives person through samsara- CAUSALITY
       • moksha is liberation from samsara, highest state of being
         • if die in Kashi, with blessed waters of Ganges, get moksha
       • dharma maintains order in universe
         • live in accordance with society in role
         • need for harmony and happiness
         • "knowledge about nature of reality" for liberation/moksha
     • Buddhism
       • karma- three elements
         • action- don't steal, rape, kill
         • speech- don't lie, quibble, ridicule, boast
         • will- don't crave, hate, obsess
       • Four sights: old man, sick man, dead body, life of buddha/renunciant
       • Buddha's insights under the Bodhi tree
         • samsara is informed by how we act
           • six realms of Samsara
         • need awareness of Buddha/teacher importance, an-atman, etc. to reach nirvana
           • qualified teacher!

4. transhumanism

   • cryogenics
     • preserving corpses low temp
     • waiting for future tech
     • it is wrong to discontinue care if this is an option
     • legal death as a social construct
       • determination of death act (us) 1981
         • dead is "irreversible cessation of circulatory and pulmonary functions"
         • brain dead is "irreversible cessation of all functions of the whole brain"
     • who owns this?
     • Kim Suozzi cancer at 23- raises money reddit
   • post-humanism
   • modern tech lets humans live for eons unshackled from body
     • death neither natural nor part of human ev
     • tech improves us
     • self is brain
     • death is moving target, not irrevocable
     • Calico (aging), Ambrosia (blood mix), Nectome (memory) projects
     • Max More's amendments
       • won't tolerate tyranny of death
       • expand perception
       • improve neural org/capacity
       • meta-brain and modulation
       • genetic programming
       • reshape motivations and emotions
       • not just carbon
     • reject classic humanism divisions
       • self and other, mind and body, society and nature, human and animal, organic and tech

5. Abrahamic Religions

   • Islam
     • day of judgment
       • fast trumpet
       • reward or punishment after seeing deeds/being judged
       • second act of witness- grave
     • Ishmael- Son of Abraham- development of Islam in 600 ce
     • Qur'an
       • 610-632 CE
       • dialogue between Muh Divine Sp and primary listener
       • idea of self in Qur'an
         • one soul to start, then more made from that
         • Lord's spirit in Adam
           • God breathes into Adam- humanity from one soul
         • soul vs. spirit distinction, nafs and ruh
         • idea of promise with God
           • connection to Judaism covenant
           • connection between humans and God- human needs to remember God to understand self
         • self is imagined based on relationship with Divine and with creations- whole community
   • Christianity
     • resurrections of christians in end times, according to Paul
     • Gospels
       • Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in New Testament
       • All about Jesus
         • Messiah will lead Jews through cataclysm while righteous take place
         • Jesus leads apocalyptic Jews in first c Palestine
         • "Christos" is Hebrew "Messiah"
         • Sacrifice of Jesus lets humans become immortal, devout rise with him at end times
         • martyrdom elements
           • torture by Roman state
           • crucifixion
           • empty tomb- find his body gone
           • resurrection
           • post-death encounters
   • Judaism
     • Tanakh
       • Hebrew Bible, 1200-100 BCE
       • composed of Hebrew and Aramaic
       • 24 books in 3 sections
         • Torah/teaching- Pentateuch or "Five Books of Moses
         • Nevi'im or Prophets
         • Kevutim or Writings
       • around same time as Israelites/Gilgamesh
         • Plato 400 BCE, Aeneid 30-19 BCE, II Maccabees 124 BCE
           • II Maccabees is not part of Tanakh
       • body and soul intertwined, less dualistic
       • sheol- final destination of dead, neither punishment nor reward

6. Ernest Becker

   • 1924-1974
   • American cultural anthropologist, thinker, writer
   • wrote several motivation behavior books
   • wrote The Terror of Death
     • part of nature and also beyond us
     • dreams, symbols, etc are beyond matter
     • we are disembodied yet mortal, and we are self-conscious
     • we repress to avoid the fear of death
       • live decisively
       • create to transcend
       • heroism
       • projects that outlive us
       • the greatest victory is to conquer the fear of death
       • ancient hero can go into spirit world and return alive
         • religion as a path to immortality
     • live fully is awareness of death
     • duality of humans as flesh and symbolic
     • hero's journey as a social event

7. Dante's Inferno

   • 14th c italian poet- Divine Comedy
   • hell is nine circles by sin, divine justice, contrapasso
   • Geryon
     • monster in canto xvii
     • "fraud's foul emblem"
     • multiple animals and things
     • mesmerizing but fraud
     • mythical king of spain that killed hercules
     • lives between 7th and 8th circles of hell
       • Dante and Virgil ride him to the eighth circle
   • humans and the power of reason
   • Origins
     • Divisions of Europe between pope and emperor support in 13/14 cent
       • Aristotle's use of non-Christian ideas to make sense of world
     • trajectory of soul before final judgment?
       • Augustine of Hippo (354-430)
         • at death the soul leaves the body for an intermediary state to await resurrection
         • marks emergence of a trend moving away from last judgment concentration and to immediate fate of soul
       • Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
         • human as a body-soul composite, not soul in body
         • afterlife is physical, not just spiritual
         • heaven, purg, hell- hell is eternal, purg is heaven eventually
         • particular/individual judgment at time of death decides fate of soul between death and Last Judgment
         • Final Judgment decides fate of souls for all eternity

8. Phaedo

   • by Plato (428-328 BCE)
     • Greek philosopher
     • writings about a lot
     • Academy in Athens founder
   • recount events on Socrates (470-399 BCE) trial death day
   • final episode in series of dialogues about Socrates' trial and death
   • 5 dif sections, this is last
   • idea of pleasure/pain balance
   • psyche and soma
   • Socrates- philosophy prepares us for death and dying
   • Socrates final moments
     • drunk poison
     • legs heavy, so lays down
     • administering man kept asking if he felt pinch
     • last words- "Crito, we should pay the doctor"
     • usually, hemlock is heart attack or violent diarrhea
   • body as hindrance?

9. Kalanithi

   • Student p 30-72
     • Stanford
     • Christian family
     • doctor fam lit
     • explore for meaning
     • science and God?
   • neurosurg b4 cancer p 72-115
     • identity
     • no time focus
     • lang
     • humanist doctors
     • communicate, connect
   • cancer patient p 119-196
     • weak
     • passive to his care
     • ambition to return to surgery
     • has kid
     • back to work
   • present p 196-199
     • cancer to brain
     • comfort over vent
     • passing of time
       • science vs now, stopping, meaning
   • legacy gilgamesh