Naomi Appleton
Centre for the History of Religion in Asia, Cardiff University, Wales, UK
Buddhism and Jainism share the concepts of karma, rebirth, and the possibility (and desirability) of escape from rebirth, though each has a different interpretation of these. Within the literature of both traditions we find many stories about remembered past births and predicted future births, which have much to reveal about Buddhist and Jain attitudes towards the mechanisms of rebirth and the pursuit of long-term (multi-life) religious goals.
In this paper I will explore the representations of karma and rebirth in early Buddhist and Jain stories, focusing in particular upon the notion of change between births. Firstly I will look at what the two traditions say about the likelihood of a change in species between births, and what the karmic causes for such a change might be. Secondly I will examine the motif of gender change in Buddhist and Jain narratives of rebirth, and what this contributes to wider ideas about the spiritual capabilities of women. Thirdly I will ask what the narratives say about the possibility of progress towards the ultimate goals (buddhahood and jinahood).
By investigating these three themes in early Buddhist and Jain narratives, I will highlight the broad differences between the ways in which rebirth stories are used in each tradition. It will become clear that whereas Buddhist narratives tend to promote the ideas of karmic stability and steady progress, Jain rebirth stories emphasise the inevitability of karmic chaos that makes complete inaction the only possible escape.
(Presented in the International Conference – Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond, 9-11 August 2010, Imperial Queen's Park Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University with support from The Thailand Research Fund (TRF), in co-operation with Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Institute of Asian Studies, The Confucius Institute, Chulalongkorn University and l’École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO))