Philosophy about Creation and its Relation with Soul

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

This is only for religious comparative for Muslim brothers and sisters to understand how non-Muslims such as Buddhists and Hindus think. Maybe a little bit high topic. I wrote about this a long time ago in Malay when I was alone and these matters floating again in my head while contemplating. So, I reproduce this again in English and non-Muslim friends may see how a Muslim understood your religion through the view point of "non-Muslim" and not in a preaching method. I encountered many kind of statements come out when I talked or listened to Muslim or Christian preachers talk about "non-celestial" religions or traditions since when I practiced Buddhism while I was a not scoring straight A's school pupil.  I didn't even understand what has been taught in school in subjects such as physics or chemistry but I clearly understood what has been taught by Buddhist and Hindu teachers, haha.

So, I would like to let my brothers and sisters know. These non-Muslims regard their traditions as celestial and for orthodox Brahmins or Orthodox Hindus, they do have canonized scriptures which are known as vedas and upanishads. They were revealed to the maharesis or great sages the progenitor of traditions through the devatas (sparks of light) when the question sparks in the maharesis' mind. The word deva in Sanskrit came from the root word, div which means a ray. When I studied Sirah Islamiah in the madrasah, there is a mention about the Zoroastrians being classified as resembling Jews and Christians. But there is no mention resembling the Jews and Christians to Hindus since their traditions are so broad and multi-layered. We don't talk about faith like changing-clothes. It is not an easy thing. It involves metaphysical views and the worldview of a certain person. 

The philosophies of Hindus and Buddhists are almost the same of the ancient Greeks. The difference between Hindus which also include heterodox Buddhists and the Greeks is that the Hindus have authoritative scriptures. There are also Greeks who embraced Buddhism and spreading its teachings even in Alexandria in ancient Egypt where their tradition was known as dharmmaguptakavinai. The bhagavadgita that we often heard of is some kind of gospel for Hindus. The matter of self-realization, self-awareness, life, death and stuffs are actually counted as some part of the cosmological system.     

Through Hindu philosophy and also well-known by some Buddhists, it is known that universe never came to be at some particular point. However, it always has been and always will be, but eternally flows. The space and time are cyclical in nature. Since the current universe flows, so it constantly changes. This belief is almost the same belief with the Harun Yahya's Big Bang theory. Just kidding, Harun Yahya has also mentioned this theory in his book and some copy-paste ustads used to put this forth to me or boasting about Ibnu Sina's achievements just like Christian missionaries who approached me talking about universe this and that to me when I told them I was a Buddhist since they wanted me to receive salvation in the name of Christ or I will be doomed if I bow down to Buddha idols, lol. I will tell the moral that we can benefit from this post.  

In the Big Bang, the creation of the universe is almost the same in the Hindu philosophy represented by brahma. The life and the universe which follows after the creation is represented by vishnu. The destruction of the universe is symbolized by siva. It is mentioned in few puranas too that there are continual creation and destruction of the universe. Both the creation and the destruction of universe is phrased as the inhalation and exhalation of gigantic cosmic symbolized by mahavishnu.  

Some misunderstanding that happens in the comparative religion studies especially when some Muslim students taking the course simply to fulfill the elementary unit for university paper is that, they thought brahma is equal to Allah, haha. There are many brahmas. How come Allah is equal to Brahma??? Perhaps they had mistaken it with another term which is Brahman? For all Hindus, Brahman is the source and sustains the universe. It is infinity of infinity. There are at least three conceptions of philosophical schools about Brahman whether it is impersonal without qualities, personal with qualities or supreme. In the upanishads, the Brahman is described by the resis (sages) as the ultimate essence of material phenomena. It also includes the original identity of human self which is what I has mentioned as attama or atman in previous post. It cannot be seen or heard by physical eyes and ears. However, its nature could be revealed through the development of self-awareness and knowledge. There are schools of non-duality known as Advaita which believes that Brahman is seen by human through the unattachment to materialism as his or her realize the true-self. I guess this is what has also been discussed in wahdat al-wujud discourses when it comes to "some" Sufi Muslims and Mu'tazila groups of Muslims such as Hamzah Fansuri and his opponent, Nuruddin Raniri of 17th century Acheh. Brahman for Hindus is some kind of universal spirit. It influenced their view about the God and the connection between God and human inner-self. It is not about physical body. Physical body is just a cage for the soul and inner-self.

Now when it comes to us the Muslims who follows the creed of imams such as imam bin Hanbal, we are not allowed to speak exceeding the limit about Allah. We only follow what Allah tells about Himself in the Quran. If Allah does not tell that He is in the form of spirit, so it is not our right to say or even think that He is a spirit. The same thing also if He does not tell that He resembles anything in the universe. We have no right to personify him, to portray that He has limbs like human-being or animals or symbolize Him or associate Him with anything in the universe.

I found that it is easy to understand some phenomena of physics such as oscillations or sound vibrations through the Hindu philosophy. I also was exposed to Hindu medicine studies through Sanskrit language studies though it is not taught in school curriculum. It is not separated from the surrounding life as compared to sciences from the West which was actually the reproduction of Greeks sciences. And there were also Greeks who were of ancient Hindu and Buddhist religions since the time Alexander of Macedonia conquered some parts close to Indus civilization, lol. I hate schools and I don't think it is a place for me to study. The real place to study is the wilderness of nature and in the real society.

The moral of this post is a person that we look like ignorant is not actually stupid. The same thing that I found about Muslims and Christians especially of the Western rites are that we tend to view others as stupid and talking about science, theories and others just to refute others, boasting around or simply raising a debate to decide who wins or who loses. I think that this is a pathetic attitude...  This is what makes me having difficulties mixing around with other brothers and sisters especially from Mahasiswa Islam or even the Tabligh Jama'at brothers though I love them and giving a huge respect to them behind them for da'awa works.

Allahumma salli 'alaa Muhammad wa 'alaa aali Muhammad wa sahbihi ajma'iin...

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace and love, amin!     

Introduction to Jataka Tales

Assalaamu'alaikum wa rahmatullah

Shwedagon Pagoda's Jataka tales in Myanmar: Pic by Mvanparys

In this post, I would like to introduce about what I had previously learned regarding Buddhism philosophies. These stories actually are those that had given me great influences in the way I behave with people around. Somehow, I feel very weird to see that South Asians were quite violent and insolent among each others, committing bribery and etc but these philosophies and pearl of wisdom came from their sub-continent. Bribery is not unique in South Asia but it is a global problem anyway. I am just wondering that Asia (including Middle East) and Africa could also be civilized nations if we could stick to noble morality and teachings.

Jataka is known as Phra Chadoq in Thai and it is originated from sub-Indian continent. Why I don't mention India as in modern India? Because India today is the result of British Raj which is another story of the sub-continent. Greater India actually consists of Western and Eastern Greater India. Western Greater India is now in the part of countries in South Asia such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Nepal while Greater Eastern India is in the area of today's South East Asian countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore. For Nepal perhaps it is not fully Indian since it is the area of the clash between Sino-Hindu civilization happens however those kind of human-being in Nepal could also be founded in Nepal and other countries in South Asia and South East Asia.

Jataka actually refers to the previous birth of Buddha before his final birth. It also includes the story when lord Buddha was born in animal form. According to Brahmanism understanding of spiritual and physical bodies, body is just a vessel which could be destroyed but the soul is still the same soul. It could be transferred to other bodies after the current body is expired and it could be placed in certain bodies according to the deeds of the soul while in the current body. Everything that happens in the future is actually the result of the past deeds of the particular soul. This is the theory of Brahmans or Brahmins regarding soul and non-material worlds. Future Buddha or the enlightened person will appear to people for example as a king, a lower caste or an outcast, a tewoda, animal or any form. Tewoda in Buddhism beliefs actually refers to angelic beings but they are invincible from mortal eyes.

In every Buddhist nations like Myanmar, Thailand, Japan, and etc; Jataka tales are the source to develop people characters to the better one. It is used by phrasongs (monks) and upasakas (laymen) to preach and deliver sermon to people. Some of these stories were used by lord Buddha himself to preach to his disciples and later they spread it widely into the society. The same type of stories like this also appears in Vedic literature. 

Greek myths for example Aesop Fables inherited the philosophies from Buddhism and Vedic literature. How come is this happen? I think I had read about the invasion of Alexander of Macedonia in his quest to establish Hellenistic empire. They had already reached Indian sub-continent. Some of those Greeks had also established Indo-Greek kingdoms such as Bactrian kingdom and some Greeks had also embraced Brahmanism and Buddhism. I guess Bactria is known in Middle Eastern name as Balkh and located near northern of Afghanistan today. Later, these Greeks were absorbed into Hindu or Indian society. One of the greatest Greco-Buddhist king is King Milinda. His Greek name is Menander I and he posed questions to a disciple of lord Buddha known as Nagasena regarding Buddha's teaching. This happens long before the rise of prophet Jesus a.s. Other than that, this stories were translated by Persian empire's court. They were also adapted into Chaucer's in England and Boccacio in Italy. Buddhist also have their own version of Ramayana which is the incarnation of Buddha in the form of Sri Ram and Phra Vishnu Narayann according to Brahmins' belief in what they call it as one of the Dasavatar of the 10 Incarnations.  

So, this question comes to my mind. What is so great about European and Western civilization when Greeks also embraced an oriental religion like Buddhism? What I had learned in European studies is that, they had to establish their Union because of the wars and the cause of the wars to happened in which it also involves the whole world because they had colonized lands in other parts of the world is none other than their own aggressiveness toward material. What about Enlightenment period after Medieval Europe? Nothing interesting at all for me. Lord Buddha had long reached Enlightenment before those in European caves came out and telling the whole world how civilized they are. And people from Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world trying to appease them to get some good life or wanted to be seen as modern because they have some kind of inferiority complex over themselves? The term modern itself needs to be redefined again. It is the matter of mentality and psychology. When we think that Europe or Western civilization is the greatest then it will be imprinted in our mind. It is later become like when some human-being offer sacrifices to 'genies' and 'genies' think that they're gods while in contrary they are just the same creature like human-being who worship them but people admire the 'genies' because of their different natures invisible to human eyes, hehehe.

Long time ago, people listen to these kind of stories to get moral lessons as well as to enjoy. These stories help people to develop humanity values, patience, loving kindness, sympathetic and joy, and compassion. Previously, these stories were played in wayang kulit or shadow play like in Northern Malaysian Peninsula and Southern Thailand. The prominent shadow play player in Kedah was the father of Pak Majid and today it is Pak Majid himself. Nowadays, many of wayang practitioners have to abandon the play because there are rituals which is not in accordance to Islamic faith such as the pujas to the tewodas to protect the stage. Pak Majid still plays his wayang but without any puja no more. He just plays the wayang to entertain people and it has no religious element like what elders had done. We could also listen to his voice in Kedah FM playing Ae Thong with his trademark laugh. In Kelantan state, I guess they have non-Muslim wayang players whom are of Chinese ethnicity. Other than Jataka tales, there are also Kathasaritsagara compiled by a Saivaite Brahman known as Somadeva.    

This post slightly reminds me to Abdullah Munshi who translated the Tamil version of Panchatandiram or Panchatantra into Malay. He also translated the Gospel of Saint Matthew into Classical Malay, hehehe. Panchatantra was translated into Persian and Arabic as Kalilah wa Dimnah by Abdullah bin al-Muqaffa'.

Just sharing a quote from Gautama Buddha's teaching about listening to old stories as a historical figure. He said that: "When we listen to what a monk says and wonders on its truth... Then, we should test its meaning, weigh or consider it, and it depends on our internal to know if it is the truth. Only after we are satisfied that we follow and later practicing with it." The God has given us mind to think and consider. He also sends us guidance and mercy in term of Revelation as the guidance together with mind. So, it is up to us to recite the Quran, to learn the meaning, and to practice with its morality teachings.  

Sealed with prayers for mercy, peace, and love, amin!