Introduction to World Religions Final Study Guide Traditions Buddhism Story of Siddhartha the Buddha Prophecy that he would be either the next king or the next Buddha His father shelters him so he will not know suffering so he can not be the next Buddha Siddhartha leaves the house and sees the 4 sights o Shows him the reality of suffering He flees the palace and becomes a wandering month he becomes an ascetic o Eats drinks very little becomes very thin renounces all belongings meditates o He is not brought to enlightenment through this practice o He begins eating drinking again and searches for enlightenment elsewhere Sits under a tree and decides to sit there until he reaches enlightenment Nirvana Visited by Mara god of deception tries to tempt Siddhartha into giving up the meditation Siddhartha touches the ground and causes an earthquake that drives Mara away o He begins to meditate trying to become more conscious more aware and more mindful rather than the opposite Siddhartha then reaches enlightenment o He sees all of his past lives understands karma understands how to end suffering sees the four noble truths reaches Nirvana with remainder he is still a physical presence on earth and will stay on earth to live out the rest of his karma but he will not be reborn after death the highest attainment for anyone still living He spreads his teachings over the next 45 years then he eats something gets sick and dies reaching Parinirvana Siddhartha is the Buddha of this cycle there have been previous Buddha s and there will be future Buddha s but there is only one at a time 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 believe that there are different ways to achieve enlightenment but their way is the ideal way it developed as an alternative to Theravada when Theravada became too rigid much more lay involvement in the monastic community women can be monks focus is on the bodhisattva someone who takes a vow not to attain enlightenment until everyone else does people can attain enlightenment through grace bodhisattvas have technically achieved nirvana but their purpose is to help other people achieve it through grace prayer and intercession Christianity Pure Land Amida is a Buddha in heaven Siddhartha tells stories about him that we would take 42 vows to help others achieve enlightenment more easily Pure Land claims that nirvana can only be achieved in the heavenly realm through Amida s grave There is a place between life and Parinirvana Zen a tradition centered on the practice of meditation and the teaching that ultimate reality is not expressible in words or logic but must be grasped through direct intuition Theravada Teaching of the Elders the dominant form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia considers itself to be the oldest and most authentic form of Buddhism There is a strict division between monks and lay people only monks can attain enlightenment the purpose of lay people is to support the monks Vajrayana the diamond cutter way of the lightning bolt way It came to Tibet from India in the 5th century and developed differently There are tantric practices combined with local indigenous traditions They have the Four Purities They also have the Dalai Lama Jehovah s Witnesses a millenarian group centered on the belief that the Advent is imminent predicting the world to end their main practice is door to door missionary work they reject the Trinity and regard Jesus Christ as a created being they view themselves as citizens of another kingdom and reject the authority of secular states Mormonism Mormons commit to living together as a community they begin gathering forming large communities where they can practice Mormonism intensely One of the early gatherings was in Missouri where they believed the Garden of Eden to have been located caused problems because they bought most of the land and took over the political realm the government of Missouri issues a policy telling the Mormons to leave or be killed Mormons then move to Navoo Illinois at its peak it has 15 000 inhabitants They form a Mormon army and Joseph Smith crowns himself the king of God s kingdom Mordern Mormons consider themselves deeply rooted in traditional American values and have a significant place in the American government They abstain from alcohol tobacco and caffeine Mormon Cosmology there is a preexistent realm with many souls waiting for bodies they are then born on earth and given a body and can receive sacraments the souls can move around in the three realms of heaven The afternoon is eternal progression The goal is to progress to the highest level and eventually become a god Some ways to propel eternal progression is to have a lot of children do a lot of mission work and have a lot of kinship Eternal darkness is the afterlife for Satan and apostolates People s Temple led by Jim Jones it began as an outset of the Disciples of Christ a normal Protestant church Jim Jones was affiliated with the Methodist church but was rejected from becoming a minister The Disciples of Christ church ordained him and he began a mission in Indianapolis He wanted a multiracial community and he and his wife adopted children of different races They moved to California when they began receiving death threats His church grew and became politically significant Jim Jones was involved in San Francisco politics and worked on social service projects He was a well respected minister He moved his community to Guyana and founded Jonestown where the People s Temple s community would be located Jim Jones began taking drugs and having sexual relations with both men and women There are charges of abuse and imprisonment in his community They practiced Biblical communism the idea that everyone in the community should share everything Jim Jones wrote new scriptures that were considered the Word of God and became part of their Bible Many people would work 20 hours a day for the good of the community Finally a U S congressman went to Guyana in 1978 to investigate Jonestown The mass murder mass suicide took place in which men women and children consumed poison either by choice or by force Unification Movement led by Reverend Sun Myung Moon began in the 1940 s taught that the Bible could not be understood without the Divine Teaching which is a collection of his personal teachings he made millions of dollars through his movement had a mass wedding of
View Full Document
Unlocking...