Morruchan to Falkayn:
"'If we surrendered the right and freehold they won, the God would cast back the souls of our ancestors to shriek at us.'" (p. 214)
Arjuna to Krishna:
"For the spirits of their ancestors fall, deprived of their offerings of rice and water."
-Bhagavad Gita, 1. 42.
Similar concepts. We are told almost nothing about the monotheism of the Merseian Roidhunate. Morruchan expresses the idea that souls that have gone to the God can be cast back.
The Gita is a compendium of Indian ideas. Arjuna expresses the primitive idea that the ancestors will fall if deprived of offerings. The predominant idea, of course, is that everyone is reincarnating.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But not all peoples thought like that. The Chinese believed in "ancestor worship," but unless they also believed in Buddhism, orthodox Confucians did not believe in reincarnation.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, technically orthodox Confucians are pretty much neutral on an afterlife.
Confucius didn't mention an afterlife, gods, or spirits. The 'offerings' to the ancestors are a gesture of respect.
It's not really a religion in the sense we use the term.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I agree Master K'ung disclaimed any special knowledge about the afterlife, gods, or spirits, but neither was he an atheist. More than once in the ANALECTS I've read of Confucius believing in Heaven, in a monotheistic sense.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: well, yes, but Confucius was a man of his time and place and atheism, in our sense, wasn't part of their 'mental equipment'.
His emphasis was thoroughly this-world.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Yes, but I still got a sense of real conviction in those parts of the ANALECTS where Confucius mentioned Heaven.
And, IIRC, Confucius believed a dream he had of the Duke of Chou was a real apparition of a hero of the past to him.
Ad astra! Sean
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