Asceticism Religion And Biological Evolution

Author(s): Johannes Bronkhorst
Publisher: Johannes Bronkhorst

Page 21

414
JOHANNES BRONKHORST
brought to light a common theme that manifests itself in many forms of asceticism as well as in other practices, such as initiations, and in certain wide-spread popular as well as philosophical notions about the nature of the soul and of spiritual beings. But many steps separate the shared predisposition to consider one's 'self' different from one's body and mind from the decision taken by some few determined individuals actually to stop taking care of their body, or to face the most extreme of circumstances (including torture and death) with indifference. Those steps need to be explored, but that task cannot be undertaken in the present study.
What has been gained by the current study, I believe, is that a basis has been provided for "a comprehensive theoretical framework for the comparative study of asceticism", which was mentioned as a desideratum at the beginning of this study. It is, henceforth, possible to determine the extent to which different forms of asceticism belonging to different cultures are expressive of the shared human predisposition here identified. Cultural differences can then be studied against the background of this common predisposition.
Perhaps some insight has also been gained into other aspects of what is commonly called religion. Frequently attested ideas about the nature of the soul have now lost their status as curiosities and can take their place within a broader understanding of 'human nature'. We have also come one step nearer to an explanation of the widespread occurrence of ideas about an inactive, highest god. Here, however, tantalizing problems remain: For example, it remains unclear why symbolic representation should give rise to the idea of an inactive, highest being. More precisely, it is not clear why the idea of an inactive self should be transferred, so as to give rise to that of an inactive highest being. There are, as is well known, numerous examples of religious beliefs that conceive analogously, or even identify, the essence of the individual, i.e., the soul, and the essence of the universe, i.e., the creator or universal spirit. The transfer of properties from one to the other is not, therefore, surprising. The difficulty is to understand how and why symbolic representation should encourage or even facilitate such a transfer.
Section de langues, et civilisations orientales
Université de Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland
ASCETICISM, RELIGION, AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION
415
Abbreviation
NHL: The Nag Hammadi Library in English, translated by members of the Coptic Gnostic Library Project of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity (James M. Robinson, director), 2nd ed. E. J. Brill: Leiden, 1984.
References
Baumeister, Theofried (1980). Die Anfänge der Theologie des Martyriums. Münster. Aschendorff. (Münsterische Beiträge zur Theologie, Heft 45). Bickerton, Derek (1981). Roots of Language. Ann Arbor: Karoma. Blackmore, Susan (1999). The Meme Machine. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Boyer, Pascal (1998). Creation of the Sacred: A cognitivist view. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 10 (1): 88-92.
Braun, Willi (1998). Introduction: Walter Burkert's Creation of the Sacred. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 10 (1): 84-88. Bronkhorst, Johannes (1993). The Two Traditions of Meditation in Ancient India. 2nd. ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
(1993a). Remarks on the history of Jaina meditation. In Rudy Smet and Kenji Watanabe (ed.), Jain Studies in Honour of Jozef Deles, 151-162. Tokyo: Hon-noTomosha.
-(1995). The Buddha and the Jainas reconsidered. Asiatische Studien / Études Asiatiques 49 (2): 333-350.
-(1998). The Two Sources of Indian Asceticism. 2nd ed. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. (1998a). Did the Buddha believe in karma and rebirth? Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 21 (1) 1-19.
(1999). Is there an inner conflict of tradition? In Johannes Bronkhorst and Madhav M. Deshpande (eds.), Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia: Evidence, Interpretation and Ideology. Proceedings of the Michigan-Lausanne International Seminar on Aryan and Non-Aryan in South Asia, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 25-27 October 1996, 33-57. Cambridge: Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University. Harvard Oriental Series, Opera Minora Vol. 3. Distributed by South Asia Books, Columbia, Missouri.
-(2000). Die buddhistische Lehre. In Heinz Bechert, Johannes Bronkhorst, Jacob Ensink, Jens-Uwe Hartmann, Petra Kieffer-Pulz, Hans-Joachim Klimkeit, Siegfried Lienhard, Ian William Mabbett, Der Buddhismus I. Der indische Buddhismus und seine Verzweigungen, 23-212. Stuttgart: W. Kohlhammer (Die Religionen der Menschheit, vol. 24,1). -(forthcoming). Sramana. In Sushil Mittal and Gene R. Thursby (eds.), The Hindu World. London: Routledge.
-(forthcoming a). Ajivika doctrine reconsidered. In Marek Major (ed.), Aspects of Jainism. Warsaw.
(forthcoming b). The riddle of the Jainas and Ajivikas in early Buddhist literature. Journal of Indian Philosophy.
Burkert, Walter (1996). Creation of the Sacred Tracks of Biology in Early Religion. Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England: Harvard University Press. (1998). Response: Exploring religion in a biological landscape. Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 10 (1): 129-132.