A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE CONCEPT OF DEATH AND
AFTER LIFE IN JUDAISM AND BUDDHISM
BY
A RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, EKITI STATE UNIVERSITY,
ADO-EKITI IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE
OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (ED) IN CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE
DECEMBER 2017
DEDICATION
This
research work is humbly dedicated to Almighty God for granting me inspiration;
wisdom, knowledge and understanding with figures of strength and ability for
the successful completion of this project and making it come to reality and
also to my Parent Mr. and Mrs. Adenola.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
My profound
gratitude goes to Almighty God for his abundant mercies upon me and my family
and his wisdom and strength to complete this project. To Him be all glory,
honour and adoration.
Moreover, my
indebtedness continues to haunt until I give thanks to my Dean and supervisor,
Mr A.O.A Okebukola who has taken his time to give me all attention needed,
words of encouragement. May the Lord be with you and your family.
My sincere
thanks go to my lovely parents, Mr. and Mrs. Adenola for their care, love and
support. May God in His infinite mercy continue to bless and support you.
Thanks for being a good parents.
My appreciation
goes to my family members, Mr. Udofa Kingsley, Seun Oresanya and my sisters
Bunmi, Kemi, Biola and Funmilayo.
And also to my
collegues, Jide, Subami, Kola, Anderson, Suliat, David and others, thanks for
being there. To cap it all, I appreciate the effort of my dear Kola who has
been the joy of my life and other thanks for being there.
My gratitude
goes to all lecturers of Ekiti State University in Affiliation with Michael
Otedola College of Primary Education. Generally to all my love ones who have
contributed to my success.
I also
appreciate the efforts of Omotoprecious Ventures in the typesetting of this
research work.. I love you all.
iv
ABSTRACT
This research was carried out to analyze the concept
of death and life after in Judaism and Buddhism such as to investigate the need
of all human life to die, to know what happens after death, to know whether
there is life beyond the grave, where the soul go after death, what happen o
the dead and whether there is anything called reincarnation. It explained the
meaning and concept of death, soul, the historical background of Buddhism and
Judaism; their basic teachings, the approaches to Buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Buddha’s perception
on the concept of death and afterlife, the beliefs and practices of the Jews,
Jews perception on the concept of death,
the similarities between Buddhism and Judaism on the concepts of death and
afterlife, and the conflict on the concept of death and afterlife. The findings
showed that the Jews and the Buddhists are definite above the fact that death
is inevitable and another life comes after death but the major requirement as
they conclude for anyone to enjoy the life after death, he/she must walk in the
path of righteousness and try to ride on the path of God, keep every
commandment that has been given and expect a time of afterlife bliss.
v
TABLE OF CONTENT
TITLE PAGE
CERTIFICATION
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER
ONE
1.1 Background
Of The Study 1
1.2 Statement
Of The Problem 6
1.3 Significance Of The Study 6
1.4 Limitation
Of The Study 7
1.5 Definition
Of Terms 8
CHAPTER
TWO:
2.1 The Historical Background 9
2.2 Buddhism Basic Teachings and
Principles 15
2.3 The Specific Approaches to Buddhism 22
2.3.1
Theravada or Hinayana 23
2.3.2 Tibetan Buddhism 24
vi
2.3.3 Zen Buddhism 26
2.4 Buddha’s Perception on the Concept
of Death and Afterlife 27
CHAPTER
THREE:
3.1 Historical Background 30
3.2 The Beliefs and Practices of the
Jews 35
3.3 Jewish Perception on the Concept of
Death and Afterlife 41
CHAPTER
FOUR:
4.1 The Similarities between Buddhism
and Judaism on the Concept Of
Death And
Afterlife 43
4.2 The Conflict on the Concept of Death
and Afterlife 47
CHAPTER
FIVE:
Summary 53
Conclusion 55
REFERENCES 58
vii CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Death
is a fearful, often traumatic event. Sometimes it is preceded by suffering, the
result of the influence of age, disease or injury. Often death is shocking and
unexpected family and friends suffer the pain of loss. The scripture refers to
death as “the last enemy to be conquer” (1 Cor. 15:26) and not mankind’s inmate
fear of death (Heb. 2:15). Death remains one of life greatest mysteries.
Religion
offer a variety of answers, some credible and some beyond belief. Their
explanations often contradict one another, adding to the confusion and
uncertainty about what happens after death. Some teach that people are born
with immortal souls; some say people are immortal souls. Many believe that
after death the soul is conscious and proceeds to a literal place or condition
of bliss or torment. Others teach that upon death the soul is absorbed into a
“greater consciousness” some expect to be reincarnated, coming back to earth as
another person or as an animal.
Going
by Biblical account of the first human beings. God personally instructed Adam
and Eve, but they choose to disobey Him. They let Satan influence them into
choosing their own will rather than obeying God’s instructions. God informed
Adam and Eve that, because they had disobeyed Him, their lives would grow
difficult and as He had warned, they would die. “In the sweat of your face”.
God said to Adam “You shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of
it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19).
Our
lives are physical, we age and eventually die. Like Adam and Eve, we eventually
return to dust Solomon made an elegantly simple but profound observation.
When
he wrote that there is “a time to be born, and a time to die” )Eccl. 3:2). Look
around the world at the example of nature. All living process eventually breaks
down and cease, then physical remains being to decay.
Solomon,
after observing the cycle of life that we human being yearned for an eternal
existence. Knowing that death is inevitable we search for a deeper meaning of
life.
What is Soul?
Much
understanding about death is directly related to confusion concerning the word
“soul”.
The
Hebrew word most often translated into English as “Soul” or “Creature” in the
Bible is “nephesh”. Strongs exhaustive concordance of the Bible succinctly
defines this word as “a breathing creature”. When used in the Bible, nephesh
usually means a living, breathing creature. Occasionally it conveys a related
meaning such as breath, life or person.
The
first place we find nephesh referring to mankind is in the second chapter of
Genesis. “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of ground and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7).
The
word translated “Soul” in this verse is given the Hebrew word nephesh, other
translation of the Bible state that man became a living “being or person”. This
verse does not say that Adam had an immortal soul; rather it says that God
breathed into Adam the “breath of life”, and Adam became a living soul. At the
end of his days, when the breath of life left Adam, he died and return to the
dust. In death his life and consciousness simultaneously ceased.
The
soul (nephesh) is not immortal, because it dies. This is clear in the Bible.
For example, Prophet Ezekiel quoted God, “Behold, all souls are mine; the soul
of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine; the soul who sin shall
die” (Ezekiel 18: 14, 20). Again, the Hebrew word translated “Soul” in this
verse is nephesh. Ezekiel states that the soul can die, it is mortal – it is no
way immortal, because it is subjected to death.
Superstitions
and assumptions, all kinds of beliefs, abound about the state of dead. Many
enjoy being frightened by books and moves about ghosts and other weird twists
on the afterlife. Movies and television programs portrays appantons and angels
sent back to accomplish some final good deeds or rescue people from difficult
situation, cartoons entertain children with ideals about animals going to
heaven and the antics of friendly ghost.
Of
course, many religious groups teach that at death one goes immediately to his
reward or punishment. But the reality of what happen after death is quite
different. There are no disembodied spirits of dead people wandering about and
haunting houses, frightening or taking revenge on people or even helping them.
The
Bible analogously refers to death as sleep. How could people who had died be
asleep in their graves and profoundly unconscious as revealed in the Bible yet
be residing in heaven and looking down at us on earth (or presumably, in hell
looking up)?
Solomon
noted that the dead have no awareness, nor are they in some other state of
consciousness. “For the living know that they will die: but the dead know
nothing…” (Ecclesiastes 9:15). The person who has died is unconscious and
unaware of the passing time.
The
Hebrew scripture. Commonly called Old Testament, teach that upon death, the
soul ceases to exist. It does not live on in some other condition; it does not
transmigrate into another form it is not reincarnated into another creature. It
simply dies.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
This
research work is designed to look into the concept of death and afterlife from
the perception of the two world greatest religion, Judaism and Buddhism. The
problem this long essay focused on deals with the belief
of every human being on the concept under study.
It also looks at the conflict between
the human mind and religion stand as a barrier of influence which constituted a
serious obstacle to have the people independent on their own view about the
concept and the difficulty to really stress out the true fact6 about the issue.
1.3 Significance of the
Study
The significance of this study is
focused on the statement of problem, as stated before that there are various
barriers by different religious whose influence constituted a serious obstacle
on the belief of different people on the concept under study.
Therefore, the importance of this
study is to bring light into the darkness concerning the issue of Death and
afterlife with particular reference to Judaism and Buddhism.
1.4 Purpose of the Study
The
research work seeks:
v To
investigate the need of all human to die.
v To
know what happens after death.
v To
know whether there is life beyond the grave.
v To
investigate where soul go after death.
v To
investigate what happens to the dead.
v To
know whether there is anything call reincarnation etc.
1.4 Limitation of the
Study
The research work is
affected by time frame given to the researcher to carryout and complete the
research work, financial constraints is another obstacle to this research work,
more so, inadequate materials for the research are anticipated, so the research
projects is limited and restricted to this two world greatest religion Judaism
and Buddhism.
Efforts will be made to control them
effectively.
1.5 Definition of Terms
Afterlife: An
existence that is thought by some people to follow death.
Death: The
end of life, the power that destroy life.
Immortal: Living
forever, never dying or not experiencing death.
Religion:
Belief in the existence of God or gods, especially the belief that they created
the universe and gave human beings a spiritual nature which continues to exist
after the death of the body.
Soul:
The spiritual part of a person believed to exist after death. A person’s moral
or emotional nature or sense of identity.
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