Ideas: Be knowledgeable about each of these items; know their context, terminology, and why they’re important in the religion(s) mentioned. 1. Buddhist Eightfold Path• The 8 principles are not sequential: they must work together• 8 Principles:o Right understanding (Four Noble Truths)o Right thought (free of sensuous desire, ill-will, and cruelty)o Right speecho Right conducto Right livelihoodo Right efforto Right mindfulnesso Right meditation2. Buddhist 5 Aggregates• Buddhism teaches that the person is composed of five bundles (complexes) called skandhaso AKA Five Aggregates• The first skandha produces the physical body.• The remaining four-sensation, perception, mental formations, and consciousness-together produce all od the individuals mental processes3. Buddhist Five Precepts• No killing• No stealing• No sexual misconduct• No lying• No intoxicants4. Buddhist Four Noble Truths• Suffering• Thirst/Craving• Cessation of Suffering• The Path5. Buddhist four sights• Suffering• Thirst/Craving• Cessation of Suffering• The Path6. Buddhist Three Signs of Being/Characteristics of Existence• Suffering• Impermanence• No Self7. Buddhist Triple Gem• Buddha• Dharma• Sangha8. Chinese notions of universal flow and organic unfolding• The flood-like vital force, spirit or energy that appears simultaneously to give substance to virtue and to be nourished by it9. Confucian Rectification of Names and Five Relationships• Names:o To know and use the proper designations of things in the web of relationships that creates meaning o Then behaving accordingly to ensure social harmony• Five Relationships:o Ruler/subjecto Parent/childo Husband/wifeo Elder brother/youngest brothero Friend/friend10. Hindu caste system• Social and occupational divisions• 4 divisions:o Brahmins (priests and teachers)o Kshatriyas (rulers and warriors)o Vaishyas (merchants)o Shudras (servants)11. How many gurus in Sikh history and how many were human• 11 gurus• 10 of them were human12. Initial Chinese attitudes towards Buddhist monasticism• There is a continuing order of Mahayana nuns following a disciple (vinaya) of the Dharmagupta sect in China and Taiwan, and some of their bhikshunis may now be found in many countries• There is no specific mention of monasticism in relation to Buddhism and China within the book.13. Jain attitudes towards idols• Idol (murti) veneration became an established feature• Idol-veneration continues to be central religious activity for most Jainas.14. Jain Cosmology• Jainas believe that the entire cosmos (loka) is made up of six eternal substances called drayva, and that knowledge of these drayva is an important step towards self-perception.15. Main difference between rebirth and reincarnation• Reincarnation-belief in the transmigration of the “soul” of a person after death to another body• Rebirth-belief in the continuity of karmic tendencies from one life to another16. Scientology’s view of reincarnation• A “thetan” (soul) is thought to be billions of years old• The thetan is reincarnated, passing from one body to another at death17. The basis of the shramana movement• Gave rise to Buddhism• Shramana’s had a need for salvation18. The connections between Shinto and Japanese nationalism• Shintoism is a religion that is followed mainly in Japan. • It is tightly associated with the traditional Japanese lifestyle that in turn runs alongside nature• Sacral things are embodied in the natural objects, like stones, trees, ponds and plants• Japanese people are very respectful of the ancestral traditions and keep up the tradition of Shintoism19. The differences between religious and philosophical Daoism• Religiouso Widely associated with colorful ritualso Belief in deities, ghosts, and spiritso Pursuit of immortality or transcendence• Philosophicalo Concerned with maters such as nature of virtue, cultivation of the heart-mind, and attainment of good governance20. The different understandings of karma in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism• Hinduismo System of rewards and punishments attached to various actionso This system of cause and effect may require several lifetimes to work out• Buddhismo The energy of the individual’s past thoughts and actions, good or bado Determines rebirth within the ‘wheel’ of samsara or cycle of rebirth that ends only when parinirvana is achieved o All of us must make our own karma• Jainismo Every activity of the mind as well as the body causes vibrations that create ever more particles of sticky, binding karmao Two types of karma: Auspicious• Good karma (punya) Inauspicious• Bad karma (papp)o All forms of karma must be purged21. The general history of ISKCON (Hare Krishnas) and the argument if they are a new religious movement or not• Founded by a 70 year old holy Hindu man named A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupadao He chanted a mantra with the words “Hare,” “Krishna,” and “Rama”o He established the ISKCON and the “Hare Krishna” movement • Argument:o The media deemed ISKCON a cult22. The general history of the label “cult”• Originally a neutral term, used as a synonym for ‘worship’ or even ‘religion’23. The general history of the label “Hinduism”• Derived from ‘Sind’: the name of the region (now Pakistan) of the river Sindhu (Indus)• To British colonizers (in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries) “Hinduism” meant the religion of those Indians-the majority of the population-who were not Muslims24. The notion of the caste duty in Hinduism (especially in the Bhagavad-Gita) • Underlying this hierarchical system is the idea that people are born with different spiritual propensities• According to the Law of Manu, it is better to fulfill one’s own dharma obligations imperfectly than to fulfill another person’s dharma well (the Bhagavad-Gita makes the same point)25. The proportion of women in the early Jain community• There were more nuns (women) than monks (men)26. The story of King Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism• Buddhist accounts claim that it was Ashoka’s reflection on the horrible carnage of his bloody war with the kingdom of Kalinga on the eastern coast that led him to convert to Buddhism and begin promoting the ethic of non-violence27. The story of Nanak Dev’s mystical experience• Early one morning, he disappeared without a trace. Family
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