[INDOLOGY] sources for the idea that reincarnation is a semi-random process?

Tue Nov 17 08:26:46 UTC 2020

 Thanks James.
Do you happen to remember the title?
Dean

    On Tuesday, November 17, 2020, 1:38:21 PM GMT+5:30, James Hartzell <james.hartzell at gmail.com> wrote:  

 Hi Dean
Great question. Back in the 1990s we read a Tibetan medical text with Bob Thurman at Columbia (some of my fellow students at the time might remember the title) and it had an interesting bit on reincarnation, with the incarnator feeling Freudian-like sexual attraction towards the new mother if being born as a male, or towards the new father if being born as a female, and seeing the house as a palace regardless of its actual appearance. If I recall correctly there was something in the text about the incarnator's karma playing a key role in the parental/home selection/perception, and there may have been something there about a certain randomness or uncertainty in the process that may be relevant to your question.
CheersJames

On Mon, Nov 16, 2020 at 9:15 PM Dean Michael Anderson via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

 Thanks to everyone who's replied so far. None of these seem to go as far as the claim that I'd heard about.

I'll have to try to look into the original texts that you all recommended.
Best,
Dean

    On Monday, November 16, 2020, 8:02:44 PM GMT+5:30, Rolf Heinrich Koch via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:  

Dear Dean,
 another aspect may be helpful:

 because I am doing some research on the concept of karman and hell, I see that already in the Gilgit-manuscripts (Āyuḥparyantasūtra)  a systematically composed description (Sanskrit-Śloka) connects specific actions (karman) with the rebirth in certain hells.
 When someone kills his mother his rebirth takes place in hell 1. If he is a robber in hell 8 etc.
 This description is adapted in several later works and found also his way, probably via Burmese monks, in the later Pali-literature and is still observed in Thailand, Sri Lanka etc.

I did not translate the complete Āyuḥparyantasūtra. If you can read Sanskrit (there is also a Tibetan translation) you may find the answer of your question beyond the rebirth in a hell. 

Best
 Heiner

 Am 16.11.2020 um 13:50 schrieb Rupert Gethin via INDOLOGY:

Dear Dean, 
  Not sure if the following is relevant to you query. 
  The idea that good karman doesn’t invariably immediately lead to pleasant rebirth and bad karman doesn’t invariably immediately lead to unpleasant rebirth is discussed in the Mahakammavibhaṅga-sutta (MN III 207–15, with parallels surviving in Chinese and Tibetan translation). 
  Later Buddhist systematic thought in the Abhidharma traditions of both the Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda refers to the following categories of karman in the context of determining which of a being's infinite past actions might determine rebirth: 
  weighty (garuka/guru)
 near to death (āsanna)
 habitual (āciṇṇa/abhyasta) something previously done (kaṭattākamma/pūrvakṛta) 
  See e.g. Vism 601–602 (XIX.14–16), Abhidh-k-bh (Pradhan) 477, Abhidh-k-vy (Wogihara) 719. 
  In other words, if you have done something really ‘weighty' in this life (killed your mother or father, etc.) you're going to experience the unpleasant results in your next rebirth come what may. If you haven’t done anything weighty (most of us?), then either something done close to the time of death or something done habitually will tend to come into play (there is some hesitation in the sources on whether to give precedence to near-death actions or habitual actions). Failing these two, then any past action from any past life may, depending on a variety of conditions, come into play. The sources add that only buddhas can really see and understand the complex of conditions that govern which karman ripens when. Thus from the perspective of ordinary folk it may appear random, but from the perspective of a buddha it is not. 
  Best wishes, 
  Rupert        --  Rupert Gethin
 Professor of Buddhist Studies
 University of Bristol

 Email: Rupert.Gethin at bristol.ac.uk

 On 15 Nov 2020, at 23:53, Dean Michael Anderson via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote: 
    Dear fellow members of the Indology list, 
  Most people think of reincarnation being a somewhat deterministic process based on past karma. 
  I read someplace, however, that Tibetans, and maybe other Buddhists, consider the process of assigning one's karma for the next life as something akin to reaching into a box of chips and grabbing a random collection of karmas that set in motion the next life. Thus, it is not so strictly deterministic.

  I'm sorry if I'm not describing this accurately. 
  Can anyone point me to some original sources or commentaries for this idea ? 

  Also, is this something that is mentioned in Hinduism or other reincarnation-based religions? 
  Best, 
  Dean Anderson 

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James Hartzell, PhD(2x)
Donostia-San Sebatián, Spain
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), The University of Trento, Italy
Center for Buddhist Studies, Columbia University, USA

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