Article – Afterlife
In August, Taoists and Buddhists celebrate the Ghost Festival in China, as an occasion on which the dead come to dwell among the living, who in turn provide these departed spirits with offerings and o
In August, Taoists and Buddhists celebrate the Ghost Festival in China, as an occasion on which the dead come to dwell among the living, who in turn provide these departed spirits with offerings and other rituals designed to alleviate any suffering they might experience in the afterlife. In Japan, a variation of this festival, known as Obon, will be held between Saturda August 13 and Monday August 15.
The question of what happens after death has eternally confounded mankind. All religions have been forced to address this big existential question. The commonality in all is the belief that what happens after death in some way impacts how we live our present earthly lives. While death is inevitable, yet most people live their lives as if it will never happen.
The Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam basically believe that we have one life on earth, after which there is an eternal afterlife. According to these faiths, those who are righteous in life will be resurrected after death. In all three traditions, it is believed that the soul continues after death, but there is a foretold future Judgment Day. On this day, the souls of the dead will be judged according to their deeds in life.
In the religions of India, like Hinduism and Buddhism, the specific concepts and narratives differ quite a bit, but the overall message and implications are actually quite similar. Hindus, for instance, speak of a soul that never dies, which is reminiscent of the enduring quality of the soul in the Abrahamic traditions. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs all believe in reincarnation — meaning that we live many lives on earth, and therefore experience many deaths and rebirths in a cycle known as samsara. The long-term goal is to escape samsara so that our souls no longer return to earth, while the short-term goal is simply to achieve more meritorious births while we remain in samsara. And the way this is done is — as with the Abrahamic traditions — by doing good deeds while on earth.
Ancient Egyptians believed in gods depicted as mythical animals, some of whom had important roles in the afterlife. Anubis, a god with the head of a jackal or wolf, would judge dead souls by weighing their hearts to determine whether they lived righteously or not. If they did, they would be guided to the afterlife, but if not their hearts would be eaten by Ammit, the god with a crocodile head, thus denying them of an afterlife. And so the element of judgment in the afterlife existed even before the Abrahamic traditions, marking an important commonality that spans across religions both ancient and modern.