Confucianism And Karma Essay

The Hindu concepts of dharma, karma and samsara are the complex laws and rules of time and the universe that determine one’s role in life and society. There is a strong sense of social hierarchy present, not only within this world but also in the different stages of life in the cycle of life and time. An individual’s actions in life determine his cycle of rebirth or whether he will be born into a higher level of life upon rebirth. There are similarities in some practices and beliefs in the Hindu spirituality which can be compared to that of Taoism and Confucianism. Karma, or the law of karma is a Hindu belief that basically states one’s actions affect themselves as well as others in this life. Karma, “In itself…means nothing more than “action”

In order for there to be Samsara there must be Karma. As long as karmic actions are taking place, or as long as people are reacting to life in negative and positive ways, there will always be Samsara. This is contradictory to Taoist beliefs because Taoists believe in inaction. Inaction, would not work in Hinduism simply because there would be no Samsara; no cycle of rebirth. Taoist spiritual self-cultivation is trying to get back to the “uncarved block”; to return to a state of simple existence without thought, language etc. What is interesting about Samsara, is the belief that not just people are reborn, or, should rather, but also the universe itself can be reborn and has been reborn. There is more than just one or two spiritual universes. In Confucianism and Taoism, there are only two worlds and universes; the world we live in now and the spiritual realm/ plane of existence. In Hinduism, as seen through Samsara, there are many. “Cosmically, samsara describes innumerable rebirths of “worlds” – that is, the cosmos itself, which goes through vast ages of existence, degeneration, eclipse, and regeneration over eons and eons of time.” (Nadeau, 2564-2566) Time is cyclical in Hinduism as opposed to the Western concept of linear