Exploring Perspectives on Afterlife: A Comparative Analysis

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Afterlife. Many people are curious but afraid, they want to know what happens, but don't want to experience it themselves. Each person has their own belief about it, whether it be that we are reincarnated, that our spirit stays here on earth, that there are a heaven or hell, or simply that we die and that’s it there’s nothing to it. No matter what it is, we believe in something, and religions are shaped in a variety of ways to fit their own idea about the afterlife. Science has gotten really close and basically proved that there is an afterlife for the non believers and Religions have each explained what the afterlife is thought to be like for them specifically. According to Brian Harley and Glenn Firebaugh from the Journal for the Scientific
As Farnaz explained, in Hinduism we are said to live a continuos cycle of rebirths into different things, could be a plant, an animal, or human again, but the purpose of our lives is to end this cycle. The only way to end it, is to live a life with no imperfections or sins and since that is basically impossible to do, everybody will live this endless cycle. The Samsara doctrine states that our current life is a representation of our past and even earlier actions from our current lives (Farnaz). It is believed in “karma” and if we were evil in a past or even our present life we will live a miserable current life. Since Hinduism is a complicated and as Farnaz describes it complex religion, many Hindus have a variety of theories on how to end the cycle of living. Apparently in one of the most popular Hindu scriptures,The Bhagavad Gita, there are three paths to freedom from this cycle (Farnaz 10). The first path being “The Path of Knowledge” involves the process of meditation and yoga to learn about your true self (Farnaz). The second path is “The Path of Disinterested Action,” which states that we must engage in religious and non sinful actions without looking for something in return (Farnaz 11).This path claims that the reason people have to go through the cycle is because we only engage in righteous
Like Hinduism, they believe in karma and that everyone is responsible for their own life and “pointing the finger of blame at external forces such as deity, demons, or fate is not acceptable” (Farnaz 44). Or so to say, our life is a consequence or reward (depending on your living status) of any actions we have taken, so blaming it on anything other than ourselves would be wrong. Although their beliefs are quite similar, they do have their differences for example, Buddhism doesn’t seem to directly mention a soul while Hinduism does. The belief is that people are made up of; a physical body, feelings, the senses, volition and consciousness (Farnaz 44). The mind is what they believe to continue onto another life along with the karma. Buddhism has a path to end the cycle, known as the “Noble Eightfold Path” which leads to Nirvana (literally to be blown out or to achieve enlightenment) (Farnaz 48). This includes to have the right view, the right intentions (free thoughts of cruel to others and lust), the right speech (to not lie or speak badly of others), the right actions (to not steal or kill), the right livelihood (to have a job that doesn't cause harm to anybody or anything), the right effort (to stay away from bad thoughts), the right mindfulness (pay attention to every state of the body, mind and feelings) and finally the right

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