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BUDDHISM
Kindred religions
Common elements
Emphasis on:
Acceptance of things the way they are
Overcoming desire
Humility
Recognizing that a human life is always
extremely short and personal
achievements are strictly limited
Belief in a particular way of life: dharma
Belief in a universal principle of merit:
karma
Common elements
View of good and bad is more like
learning to ride a bicycle than learning
spelling
Rather than a personal god who
metes out punishment for breaking
rules, these religions are based on
universal forces or principles which
lead to pain and discomfort if they are
ignored (like someone who rides a
bicycle recklessly can get hurt)
Hinduism
HINDUISM
A label that includes a wide range of:
Religious practices
Customs
Beliefs
Sacred places
Deities
Origins of Hinduism
Indo-Europeans were polytheistic and
worshipped cattle
Brought their beliefs to the Indus Valley by
relocation diffusion from 1,400 BC
Rig Veda (oldest Indo-European document,
written ca. 1,200 BC) is the foundation of
Hinduism
The diversity of religious practice in India
suggests a process of syncretism
(combination of cultures) during a phase of
expansion diffusion
Brahman/Paramatman
Brahman is the supreme reality
Brahman has two aspects, transcendent
(impersonal and unknowable) and immanent
(personal and knowable)
In the impersonal aspect, Brahman lies outside the
realm of human description and can only be
sensed as a presence within oneself and the rest
of the universe
God is immanent, the universe is the manifestation
rather than the creation of God
Deities (gods/goddesses)
Brahma: creative
force
Vishnu: sustaining
force (incarnated as
Krishna and others)
Shiva: force of
renunciation, release,
self-mastery
Hanuman (incarnation of
Shiva who has Rama in
his heart) : epitome of
devotion
Ganesha (son of Shiva &
Parvati): remover of
obstacles
Saraswati (Brahmas
consort): human
creative force, arts &
sciences
Lakshmi (Vishnus
consort): prosperity,
love, beauty, delight
Kali/Parvati/Durga
(Shivas consort):
power, transformation,
destroyer of evil
Representations of Deities
Hanuman
service,
devotion,
intelligence,
strength
Krishna (an
incarnation
of Vishnu)
divine love
Saraswati
arts and
sciences,
knowledge,
purity
Shiva
Renunciation,
self-mastery
Ganesh
Remover of
obstacles
Source of
knowledge (legend
attributes the
Mahabharata to
Ganesh)
One of the most
commonly-seen
icons
Hindu iconography
Images are meant to
recall the various
aspects or powers of
a god, not to be literal
representations of a
physical form.
For example, four
arms on a god are
not meant literally to
represent a fourarmed god.
Ganesh
Son of Shiva and Parvati
Was protecting his
mother while she
bathed. His father
returned and cut off
Ganeshs head, not
knowing the person who
kept him from his wife
was his own son.
Shiva solved the
problem by replacing his
sons head with the head
of a passing elephant
Taoism
A spiritual philosophy
TAOISM
A philosophy about how to live life well
Derived mainly from the writings of Chuang Tzu
(ca. 250 BC) and Lao Tzu (6th c. BC)
Teaches a way or path that is beneficial to one
who follows it
Eliminates unhappiness & conflict
Facilitates achievement of goals by abandoning striving
Aligns oneself with universal forces
Teaches that one who lives life well lacks nothing,
because he or she desires nothing that is difficult to
obtain
Encourages people to accept that things need to run their
course, and not to resist the tendency of things to work
out in a certain natural way
Lao Tzu is
conventionally
shown riding
an ox
Quietism
Love of colors bewilders the eye and it fails to see right.
Love of harmonies bewitches the ear, and it loses its true hearing.
Love of perfumes fills the head with dizziness.
Love of flavors ruins the taste.
Desires unsettle the heart until the original nature runs amok.
Tao
To name Tao is to name no-thing.