Final Study Guide REL 1300 Terms Hinduism Atman atman is the individual self held by Upanishadic and Vedantic thinkers to be identical with Brahman the world soul Brahman the world soul sometimes understood in impersonal terms supreme being infinity everything god Brahma A creator god Karma action good and bad as it is believed to determine the quality of rebirth in future lives actions and their consequences Samsara the continuing cycle of rebirths reincarnation Brahmin a member of the priestly class Dharma religious and social duty including both righteousness and faith duty law proscribed behavior Caste System Brahmins priests from the mouth of Purusha warriors from the arms of Purusha merchants producers from the legs of Purusha servants from the feet of Purusha Bhakti loving devotion to a deity seen as a gracious being who enters the world for the benefit of humans Holi spring festival celebrated by throwing brightly coloured water or powder Gurus a spiritual leader Wheel of Dharma Mantra an expression of one or more syllables chanted repeatedly as a focus of concentration in devotion Murti a form or personification in which divinity is manifested Vedanta end of the Vedas most important school of Hindu philosophy refers to a system of thought based on a coherent interpretation of the Upanishads together with the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras a collection of roughly five hundred aphorisms summarizing the teachings of those texts Yoga a practice and discipline that may involve a philosophical system and mental concentration as well as physical postures and exercises Tantrism Hindu refers to both a body of ritual practices and the texts prescribing and interpreting them which are said to be independent of the Vedic tradition Now it has developed its own forms of yoga to awaken the power of the kundalini and allow it to unite with the divine resulting in visions and psychic powers that eventually lead to emancipation moksha Bhakti loving devotion to a deity seen as a gracious being who enters the world for the benefit of humans Syllable Om a syllable chanted in meditation interpreted as representing ultimate reality or the universe or the relationship of the devotee to the diety Naga one of the earliest symbols in the Hindu tradition a serpent important in the iconography of Shiva and Vishnu Linga a conical or cylindrical stone column representing the creative energies of the god Shiva Bindi red dot marked on the forehead of married women in Hindu culture Navarati 9 nights an autumn festival honoring the Goddess Puja ritual household worship of the deity commonly involving oil lamps incense prayers and food offerings Sati the self sacrifice of a widow who throws herself onto her deceased husbands funeral pyre Shudra a member of the lowest of the four major classes usually translated as servant though some groups within the shudra class could be quite prosperous Deepavali Divali Festival of light in October November when lamps are lit Moksha liberation from the cycle of birth and death one of the three classical aims of life Tilaka a dot or mark on the forehead made with colored powder Vaisya vaishya a member of the third or merchant caste in the ancient four fold class structure Tatra tantrism an esoteric school outside the Vedic and brahminical tradition which emerged around the fifth century and centered on a number of controversial ritual practices some of them sexual Ayurvedic Medicine Ayurveda a system of traditional medicine understood as a teaching transmitted from the sages Ashramas p 280 stages of life student householder retiree renouncer Three ways to liberation 1 The way of Action karma yoga act not for a reward but to please God by doing 2 The way of knowledge jnana yoga insight into the universe Brahman and the 3 The way of devotion bhakti yoga surrender yourself and your actions to god dharma Selfless action soul Atman Love god wholeheartedly North Indian Bhakti poetry and silent meditation worship formless divine being no temple based worship and Brahmanic rituals explicit in their rejection of the caste system Buddhism Anatman no soul the doctrine that the human person is impermanent a changing combination of components Dharma teaching or truth concerning the ultimate nature of things Koan gongan a paradoxical thought exercise used in the Chan Zen tradition to provoke a breakthrough in understanding by forcing students past the limitations of verbal formulations and logic paradoxes illogical riddles reflected on in Zen Buddhism Stupas originally a hemispherical mound built to contain cremation ashes or a sacred relic in East Asia the stupa developed into the tower like pagoda Pagoda a multi story tower characteristic of southeast and east asia Buddhism that developed out of the east Asian mound or stupa Tantrism the esoteric element in some branches of Buddhism especially vagrayana and shingon a tantra is a tantric text Mudras a pose or guesture in artistic representations of Buddha figures by convention each mudra has a specific symbolic meaning Mandala a chart like representation of cosmic Buddha figures that often serves as a focus od meditation and devotion in the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions Parinirvana the ultimate perfections of bliss achievable only on departing this life as distinct from the nirvana with remainder achievable in the present existence Nirvana the state of bliss associated with final enlightenment nirvana with remainder is the highest level possible in this life and nirvana without remainder is the ultimate state Sangha the congregation or community of Buddhist monks and nuns in some contexts the congregations of lay persons may also be referred to as a sangha Pure land the comfortable realm in the western heavens that is reserved for those who put its trust in its lord the celestial buddha Amitbha Amida Sutra a discourse or sermon attributed either to Shakyamuni himself or to an important disciple Theravada Teaching of the Elders the dominant form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia Mahayana Greater Vehicle the form of Buddhism that emerged in India around the first century and spread first to China and then to Korea and Japan Vajrayana the tantric branch of Buddhism which became established in Tibet and the Himalayan region and later spread to Mongolia and eventually India Dana a giving ritual in which Therevada families present gifts of food at their homes or a temple to bhikshus who conduct rituals including
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