As in the case of the brotherhood copied from the Egyptian priesthood, so must we here set aside this oriental and un-Greek idea of the transmigration of souls.
It is implied in the transmigration of souls that the organization of the body is something accidental to the human soul; this refutation by Aristotle is complete.
The doctrine of the transmigration of souls extends even to India, and, without doubt, Pythagoras took it from the Egyptians; indeed Herodotus (II.
There is still something worthy of attention in what is said by the Pythagoreans in reference to the soul, and this is their doctrine of the transmigration of souls.
Among a portion of these, the cycle of evolution and transmigration is perfectly known; we may instance the Distomum nodulosum.
May I be permitted to state by what means we have arrived at the knowledge of the transmigration of worms?
The epoch has come of the total downfall of Europe, and of transmigration to America.
They had no belief in the transmigration of souls either into animals, inert bodies, or into different human bodies.
If a man be niggardly either in a financial or a spiritual regard, giving nothing of his money to the poor or not imparting of his knowledge to the ignorant, he shall be punished by transmigration into a woman.
Possibly in this belief," I remarked, "is found the reason for preserving the human body as long as possible by embalming it, thus keeping off the transmigration of its soul into a brute as long as possible.
Without doubt," he replied, "embalming the dead grew out of the doctrine of transmigration of souls.
This transmigration is not connected either with reward or punishment, but it is a necessity of its creation that the soul should accomplish the whole circuit of the kingdom of animated nature ere it again enters a human body.
He teaches that to break the endless rotation of transmigration the soul must be prevented from being born again, by purifying it even from the desire of existence.
I have been tossed hither and thither in the direction of the ruling wind, like a flower falling in filthy places; but the six paths[28] of transmigration are inscrutable indeed, and I have no right to complain.
So he went back in anger and told Chu, who ground his teeth with rage, saying, "If I die, she shall not obtain her transmigration thereby.
And Josias begot Jechonias and his brethren in the transmigrationof Babylon.
And after the transmigration of Babylon, Jechonias begot Salathiel.
And from David to the transmigration of Babylon, are fourteen generations: and from the transmigration of Babylon to Christ are fourteen generations.
Transmigration was not, with them, part of the order of things.
He condemned, for instance, the prevalent belief in the transmigration of souls.
In the existing superstitions of the people, and especially in the idea of the transmigration of the soul after death, though this idea was contrary to the Master's own teaching, they found stuff of fear they could work upon.
The world of transmigration has neither beginning nor end nor meaning: to those who wish to escape from it the Buddha can show the way: of obligation to stop in it there can be no question[441].
Considering how fixed is the belief in immortality among Europeans, or at least the desire for it, the rarity of a belief in pre-existence or transmigration is remarkable.
Now all Indian theories as to the nature of transmigration are in some way connected with the idea of Karma, that is the power of deeds done in past existences to condition or even to create future existences.
The second doctrine is commonly known as metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls or reincarnation, the last name being the most correct.
It is anterior not only to Brahmanism but to the doctrines of transmigration and karma, and the main occupation of Buddhist priests in China and Japan is the performance of ceremonies supposed to benefit the dead.
These metaphors suggest that the doctrine of transmigration or reincarnation does not promise what we call personal immortality.
Buddhists are concerned to show that transmigration is not inconsistent with this denial of the âtman.
They are incorrect as descriptions of Buddhist dogmas, which start by denying the existence of a soul, and they are not entirely suitable to those Vedantic schools which regard transmigration as part of the illusory phenomenal world.
As Deussen observes, Kant's argument which bases immortality on the realization of the moral law, attainable only by an infinite process of approximation, points to transmigration rather than immortality in the usual sense.
Like most Indian sects, Jainism considers the world of transmigration as a bondage or journey which the wise long to terminate.
The idea underlying the transmigrationtheory is that every state which we call existence must come to an end.
To see the transmigration of natural agency, trace only through a few of its links the effect of the sunshine on the tropic seas.
Is, then, thetransmigration of forces altogether an illusion?
Paganism at the time, the Roman was exasperated at the Druids' assertion of the transmigration of souls.
But all was vague and uncertain, and he appears to have viewed the Druidical transmigration rather with doubt and unbelief, as a possible form of future or recurring life, than with scorn as an absurdity.
There is nothing in the Rig-Veda of a belief in the transmigration of souls[4], although the Vedic bards seem to have had some hope of immortality.
This theory of re-births, or transmigration of souls, is very strange and unnatural to our less imaginative and subtile Occidental minds; but to the speculative Orientals it is an attractive and reasonable belief.
One of the most distinctive features of the Egyptian religion was the idea of the transmigration of souls,--that when men die; their souls reappear on earth in various animals, in expiation of their sins.
The same dreamy pietism, the same belief in the transmigration of souls, the same pantheistic ideas of God and Nature, the same desire for rest and final absorption in the divine essence characterized both.
From them the Pythagoreans borrowed a great part of their mystical philosophy, of their doctrine of transmigration of souls, and the unlawfulness of eating animal food.
Here it is: Those who hold the doctrine of transmigration will hardly fail, after they have read this story, to think that the spirit of Edgar Allan Poe is once more abroad.
You almost make me believe in the theory of the transmigration of souls, Mr. Warlow.
Bopaul laughed but made no reply, and Ananda continued: "The hopeless retributive character of the theory of transmigration seems to militate against our faith in the transcendence of God.
Transmigration may seem just and right from a human point of view; but it is too full of tragedy to be seriously regarded as the deliberate work of an unlimited Deity.
Transmigration will be modified with a new theory of progression in a life in other spheres under different conditions of corporality from the earthly life; and Hinduism reformed will be greater than ever.
If you admit so much, why can't you accept the transmigration theory?
Buddhist story; and that the Jews believed in the pre-existence of souls and a modified form of metempsychosis (transmigration of the soul).
The Egyptians are related to the Hindus by their belief in metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls from animal to animal.
For observe that it is an essential part of the Hindu doctrine of transmigration or metempsychosis, that a soul without a body is incapable of feeling either happiness in heaven or pain in hell.
Through the six states of transmigration does the power of our actions lead us.
Gatis or courses of being--that is to say, on some one of the six kinds of transmigration or transformation through which every living individual has to pass (see p.
In short, to speak of transmigration of souls in Buddhism gives a wrong idea.
Now it is true that in Buddhism this kind of transmigration may be described as a continuous series of incarnations, although genuine Buddhism denies the separate existence of a soul between each incarnation (see p.
Mr. Gubb, one of my clients was greatly interested in transmigration of souls--greatly interested.
And you proceeded to go ahead and teach her about this transmigrationof souls that you don't believe into yourself," said Mr. Gubb helpfully.
