Abstract
In the spirit of the Dalai Lama’s interest to provide an account of a secular foundation to ethics in Beyond Religion (2011, p. xiv), on the basis that everyone wants to avoid suffering, what I aim to develop in this paper is a secular foundation to the concept of reincarnation that is consistent with the different ways in which this concept is understood across a number of Buddhist traditions, drawing in particular upon the doctrinal understanding of reincarnation in the Mahāyāna or Madhyamaka tradition as presented in the work of Śāntideva and Nāgārjuna.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
(1) The truth of dukkha (suffering, anxiety, unsatisfactoriness); (2) The truth of the origin of dukkha; (3) The truth of the cessation of dukkha; (4) The truth of the path leading to the cessation of dukkha.
- 2.
Indeed, I would argue that Deleuzian difference is a correlate of Madhyamaka emptiness, however this argument is beyond the purview of the current paper.
- 3.
Amélie Rorty explores the implications of such a relation in Rorty (1991).
- 4.
Genevieve Lloyd writes extensively on this letter of Spinoza’s in Lloyd (1996).
- 5.
Deleuze writes that “The obscure formulation reflects the difficulties of a finite understanding rising to the comprehension of absolutely infinite substance” (Deleuze 1992, p. 37).
Bibliography
Dalai Lama. 2011. Beyond Religion: Ethics for a Whole World. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
Deleuze, Gilles. 1988. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy (trans: Hurley, R.). San Francisco: City Lights Books. (Original work published 1981)
———. 1992. Expressionism in Philosophy: Spinoza (trans: Joughin, M.). New York: Zone Books. (Original work published 1968)
———. 1994. Difference and Repetition (trans: Paul Patton). New York: Columbia University Press. (Original work published 1968)
Duffy, Simon B. 2006. The logic of expression: quality, quantity and intensity in Spinoza, Hegel and Deleuze. Aldershot: Ashgate.
——— 2013. Deleuze and the History of Mathematics: In Defense of the New. London: Bloomsbury.
Garfield, Jay L. 2002. Empty Words: Buddhist Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Interpretation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lloyd, Genevieve. 1996. Spinoza and the Ethics. London: Routledge.
Nāgārjuna. 1995. Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (trans: Garfield, J.L.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nishitani, Keiji. 1983. Religion and Nothingness (trans: Jan Van Bragt). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Rorty, Amélie. 1991. Spinoza on the Pathos of Idolatrous Love and the Hilarity of True Love. In The Philosophy of (Erotic) Love, eds. R.C. Solomon and K.M. Higgins, 352–371. Lawrence, KS: The University Press of Kansas.
Śāntideva. 2008. Bodhicaryāvatāra (trans: Crosby, K. and Skilton, A.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Spinoza, Benedict. 1966. The Correspondence of Spinoza (trans: Wolf, A.). London: George Allen and Unwin.
———. 1985. The Collected Works of Spinoza vol. I (ed. and trans: Curley, E.). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
The Questions of King Milinda. 1890. (trans: Rhys Davids, T.W.). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Duffy, S. (2016). Deleuze, Spinoza and the Question of Reincarnation in the Mahāyāna Tradition. In: See, T., Bradley, J. (eds) Deleuze and Buddhism. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56706-2_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56706-2_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-56705-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-56706-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)