Tolkien spiritualty... A hint of Buddhism?

[Wayland]

Originally Posted by THE Ka

As we all know, weither it came to Arda's languages or mythological structures, Tolkien strived to make a connection with that of Finnish mythology anf language.

This is somewhat true with his basic layout of arda's spirituality, the consept of Fëa and hröa (Spirit and matter(body) ). But, as i was looking at these consepts again, i found something that gave me the notion that the idea of basic buddhist principles were relative with the Fëa. For example, elvish Fea, is different from mannish Fea because, elves cannot die of old age or disease but, they can die if they are "killed" (Battle, shot, stabed, ect...) or of grief. When this happens, their soul (fea) leaves their hroa (Body) then the soul is reincarnated into a new-born body that is identical to the previous hröa. This is proably the most noticed element of Buddhism and older Teutonic (European) spirituality. Also is the consept of the "wait" in the Halls of mandos. If a fea performs many acts of evil, they are refused reincarnation. Also, men were quiet luckly because they could skip all of this and leave arda completely after death. in a way, this is a connection with the ideal of Nirvana, or Nibbana The mind experiences complete freedom, liberation and non-attachment. It lets go of any desire or craving. In this way, men get the easy way out.

As for elves, many in the lord of the rings discussed the idea of leaving "Arda" forever, instead of returning. This is an almost direct link with buddhism. In the story of Buddha, it explains how Buddha (originally prince Siddhãrtha Gautama) Sought a way to 'break free' from this cycle or reincarnation. An example of this in Arda might be the actions of Lúthien, who like buddha was left with the choice between two different paths.


What do you think of this connection?

If you would like to learn more about Buddha's life click on this link to use as a reference...
http://www.ancientindia.co.uk/buddha/story/sto_set.html

Tolkein drew much of his inspiration from the ancient myths of European tribes and in so much as there is a tenuous connection between them and the Aryan peoples who settled in Northern India we may expect to see some elements of commonality.

As far as I recall there was some belief in reincarnation amongst the Celts, although whether this was as systematic as the Buddhist view I do not know. There are strong elements of Celtic mythology underpinning the elven cosmos and thus, in my opinion, we see a form of reincarnation within this context.

This common Indo-Germanic heritage also contains Wyrd (or fate) / Karma and some *gods (Thor / Indra) which are similar, but do not feature in LOTR (see below).

As to the religious ‘tone’ of Tolkein’s LOTR, I would say it is monotheist, if not explicitly Christian, although any Christian reading it will find much material that accords with Christianity and I think would be able to make a fair claim that the work was essentially underpinned by a Christian, theological framework.

The “One” is hardly mentioned, but there are plenty of hints. The fallen Valar, Morgoth, is certainly Lucifer-like. As I read the book I could not help but equate Strider with Jesus; healing hands and all. *There are no other “Gods” mentioned, which is unusual for a fantasy work. The baddies all follow evil beings but they are never equated with gods, nor do the various tribes and races of Middle Earth have their own gods. Odd, if you think about it, but it makes sense within an implied monotheist context.

The work is a product of its times. C.S.Lewis delivers a similar ‘feel’ in his Chronicles of Narnia, for which he has been recently criticized (unfairly I feel).

Therefore, in my opinion, if there are any parallels between tLOTR and Buddhism it is thanks to the common heritage of the Indo-Germanic tribes. The subject is quite vast and interesting and this commonality manifests throughout the folklore, cosmology and native religions of East and West and will have, thus, seeped into tLOTR by default.

My knowledge of things Tolkein is poor, so I may be mistaken on a few points. Please feel free to correct me here.

[Formendacil]

Insofar as Buddhism is a philosophy that aims to explain life as we live it, and insofar as the Lord of the Rings goes to great lengths to seem "real", it is no wonder that one can make correlations... but I think you read too much into it, Master of Númenor. After all... a tripart harmony is fine, but explain how there are FOUR hobbits in the Fellowship, and whatever PJ may think of Merry and Pippin, there is no redundant, extra hobbit.

[HerenIstarion]

Tolkien's book is not about duality (Good vs Evil), but triality. Three examples are

Eru, Melkor, and the Ainur
Flame Imperishable, Void, and Ea (That Which Is)
Aragorn, Arwen, and Elrond

In the Tolkienian cosmology, each of the individuals in these trialities is both a free agent and divinely attached to the other two

Eru is Supreme One
Melkor is one who desire to be All
the Ainur are Many in the service of the One
The emergent conflict is Ea

Ah, but are those trialities real (as in: things of equal rank/order/nature/status)?

I believe they are not: There is a duality of Melkor vs Ainur. Eru is above. The very duality is measured agains a scale which is Eru - one of the sides in that conflict conforms to Eru's wishes, another does not. But the Scale you measure distance with is not in itself a distance, but thing different from it

Flame imperishable and the Void represent duality, Ea is a manifestation (for lack of better word) of the Flame, but not of the Void, there is no triality here as well

Aragorn, Arwen and Elrond - m-m, I doubt this can be strained to become a triality as well. There are three pairs here - Aragorn and Arwen, Aragorn and Elrond and Elrond and Arwen and the whole carpet of relation threads within pairs and between them. But this is an example which seems out of the line with the two above even thus paired.

Now, if Eru has a plan for Ea, there can be no conflict. Yet we all know that the stories in the Silm, LotR and TH are conflict narratives

And this requires special attention - I believe existence of the Plan does not exclude conflict. More so, the very Plan makes the Conflict possible. The story is not about attachments, it is about Love and Freedom among other things. The former is not possible without the latter, but the latter makes also pervertion of Love possible and thus makes Conflict possible.

As for the second post, I don't feel duly qualified to comment . Let me sum it up with maybe