Death and revival, an infinite chain of lives

Here is another example of the image of inochi which refers to the universe, which reminds me of passages from Pascal’s Pensées (29).

Inochi is sacred on the one hand, and fleeting (30) on the other. Inochi is sacred in that it was born from only one mother and one father who live on the earth, which is only a small planet among innumerable ones with living creatures throughout the universe. However, it is fleeting in that it is no more than one inochi among an astronomical number of inochis in the universe. (30-39/male/office worker/no religion)

There are a number of replies which stress a chain of inochis on this planet. The following are typical illustrations. We human beings are only one species out of all living creatures supported and sheltered by nature. A chain of all inochis has circulated, from the past to the present, in the bosom of the natural world on earth…. Inochi can exist only in a circulating plane where a new inochi repeatedly revives from the death of former individual inochis. (60-69/male/farmer/—)

Just as a line consists of an infinite number of points, our individual inochis are connected from the past to the present, and to tomorrow….I have three children, ten, seven, and two years old. My children’s inochis have come out of me, but my children’s inochis are not mine. They are theirs. (30-39/female/housewife/—)

Both respondents grasp a finite individual inochi in contrast to an infinite chain or line of inochis. The former stresses the importance of the chain, and expands the extent of the notion to include all creatures on earth. It is interesting that in this reply there is the notion of ‘death and revival’. We often encounter this notion in such materials that approach the phenomenon of life in a religious or holistic way.We should note that, in this type of approach, the death of an individual inochi is sometimes made light of, while more importance is placed on the chain itself. The latter seems to stress, to the contrary, the individuality of each inochi, while admitting that each individual inochi cannot exist apart from the line. She restricts the extent of the line to include only humans. This illustrates the variety of images of life amongst the Japanese. [91/92]

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The Concept of Inochi (life) (1991)
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