Hinduism / Buddhism

In the novel, Hinduism and Buddhism are two religions at each other's throats. Sam specifically resurrects the forbidden religion of Buddhism to both annoy and combat the Firsts who have fashioned a despotic society around Hindu mythology, and the Firsts attempted to stamp out any and all references to Buddhism in their perfect—well, perfect for them at any rate—world.

But are these two religions really at such odds? Not really. Sure, they are two different religions with different beliefs and different solutions to life's burdensome problems. But Hinduism and Buddhism do share a common ancestry as well as many core concepts, so we thought we'd take a quick look at the actual religions for a moment and set aside their fictionalized counterparts.

Oh, and quick warning: Hinduism and Buddhism are two religions with some seriously long histories behind them. Whatever we say in this little survey is in no way meant to be comprehensive. Like, say, Christianity, each religion contains many different sects that look at their religion in different lights.

Righto, now we can do our thing.

Axialmatic

Hinduism is by far the older of the two, so let's start there. In Hinduism, there is a period known as the Vedic age. It's called this because the religion's main holy texts, the Vedas, were composed during this time period (roughly 1500-800 BCE). During this period, ritual, fire sacrifice, and chanting of mantras were the main religious concerns, since these were the ways to communicate and gain favor from the gods. The supreme gods also tended to be the gods associated with nature and the elements, such as Agni, Indra, and Vayu. (Source)

Enter the Axial Age. Conceived by Karl Jasper, the Axial Age is a historical period where religious, philosophical, and intellectual pursuits began to flourish and develop into something more akin to what we'd recognize as "modern." It was an age where the axis of thought spun from ancient to modern. Zoroaster, Confucius, Lao Tzu, Socrates, and Plato are just some of the thinkers to pop up during this time period. (Source)

In India during the Axial Age, Hinduism grew out of its Vedic age and came into its Classical period with the writing of the Upanishads. Whereas the Vedas were concerned with concepts like ritual, the Upanishads began to develop Hinduism's more philosophical and ethical teachings with concepts like samsara, moksha, karma, atman, and Brahman,or the absolute. Although Hinduism would continue to grow and change, this era gave birth to something more recognizable as Hinduism by today's standards. (Source)

Also during the Axial Age, a man named Siddhartha Gautama reached a state of enlightenment while sitting beneath a Bo tree. Building on many of the concepts found in the Upanishads, Gautama would preach an end to suffering for humanity and took the title of the Buddha. Since Gautama borrowed so many concepts from Hinduism, some have debated that Buddhism is actually heterodox Hinduism (Source). As for us, we'll stay clear of that debate, thank you.

Does your brain hurt yet? Well take five, and then we'll figure out what some of these terms mean…. Ready?

Oh, wait. Just a quick reminder: Hinduism and Buddhism will have a nuanced understanding of all these concepts, but we're going to try to explain them with a comfy middle ground approach.

All right. Let's do this.

Karma

Karma is a concept dealing with the cause and effect of deeds and actions. When you perform an action, that action ripples forth and into the world. Like a sound wave in an amphitheater, over time, the ripple of the action makes its way back to the source. If the deed was a good deed, it returns as positive karma, while bad deeds get negative karma in return. As a result, both religions see human beings as the architects of their own fate, a scary yet liberating notion. (Source)

Two things to note:

• Karma is seen as a law of the universe in both religions, much like gravity. Even the gods and goddesses cannot escape the karmic ripples of fate.
• Karma may not come back to get you in this life—but though you may have to wait one or several lifetimes, rest assured that it will return.

Samsara

Samsara is the name of the continuous cycle of death and rebirth. While continuous rebirth might seem pretty awesome, let's not forget that every life is not a human one—it takes an awful lot of positive karma to keep your human status, and many of our past lives have been spent in the form of fish or insects or water buffalo and such. Also, keep in mind that even the best human life is filled with suffering, pain, and death. Yeah, samsara is definitely a mixed bag. (Source)

Moksha

If samsara spins us right round like a record, then how do we get the cosmic DJ to stop? In a word: moksha.

Moksha comes from the Sanskrit word muc, meaning "to free," and it's exactly that: freedom, or liberation from samsara. Now, Hinduism and Buddhism each have their own paths for obtaining liberation, and different sects within each religion will offer even more variation. But moksha is the ultimate goal of each. (Source)

Wheel in the Sky Keeps on Turning

Boom: Journey reference for the win. What were we talking about again? Oh, right.

Wheels show up as important symbols in both religions. Hinduism has the wheel of life, which is used to represent the circling of samsara (Source). Buddhism has the Dharma wheel, an eight-spoke wheel representing Buddha's Eight-Fold Path.

Zelazny even gets in on the action and creates the Great Wheel of the Law for his futuristic version of Hinduism. This wheel is meant to suggest the divinity of society's laws while hiding the Firsts' involvement in creating said law (2.94).

So… Now What?

Are there any difference between Hinduism and Buddhism? Yes, plenty. We just felt it was important to point out their similarities, since they can be easily missed amongst the great battles and epic conflicts between Sam and the Firsts. One important difference is the Hindu caste system or jati. But perhaps we'd better take this up in our discussion of technology as a symbol. See you over there.