Major Religions: A Comparative Study of Hinduism, Its Teachings, Texts, and Figures, Study notes of World Religions

Download Major Religions: A Comparative Study of Hinduism, Its Teachings, Texts, and Figures and more Study notes World Religions in PDF only on Docsity! REL 100 Lecture 12 1 We’re beginning a section of the course now where we’re going to look at five of the major world religions. Certainly there are other significant religions, other religions we could look at, but we’re gonna look at five of the major religions out of which most other religions have come or have been spawned. So we’ll look at Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. We’ll look at each of those, really a pretty surface view of them. We’ll look at their major teachings, major religious text, major figures from their history, major beliefs that they each have. I think once we’re finished, you’ll feel like you could have a conversation with someone about one of these religions and know a little bit about what you’re talking about. I think that you’ll understand the distinctions between them a little better, but not in a lot of depth — especially philosophically. If you would like to understand any of them in more depth than what we cover them in these lectures, we offer full semester courses in the Department of Religious Studies at SMS in each of these. Those are all 3-hour and I believe all 300 level courses. So if you want to know more about Buddhism than what we cover in this course, then there’s a Buddhism course that you can take here at SMS. So to give a little recruitment speech to you, if you’d like to check those out, you can do that in the future. Also as we begin this unit I want to make you aware that you should have a supplemental material that just says “Terms List” at the top and then it has each of these five religions in sections with several terms under each. Those are gonna be important vocabulary for you in this section of the course. I’ll cover all those in our REL 100 Lecture 12 2 lectures. I won’t necessarily do them in the order that your list is in, so you’ll need to keep that list next to you and make sure you’re getting the definitions for each of them as we go through the material. But we will cover all those in class. Also I want to just say a little bit about time as we start this unit. Most students understand this and have been familiarized with this by now, but many aren’t. And so just to make sure we’re all on the same page, as far as noting time historically, what a lot of you may be most familiar with is to talk about time in terms of B.C. and A.D., Before Christ and Anno Domini which means in the Year of the Lord, Anno Domini. And so those are ways of measuring time that traditionally are believed to be based on the life of Jesus, before His birth and then after the year of His birth. And that way of measuring time and denoting time has been used for many years, but over the past several years another way of noting time has emerged and that is to talk about time in terms of B.C.E. and C.E. B.C.E. is Before the Common Era and C.E. is the Common Era. Those are denoting the same things. B.C.E. is the same is B.C. So 1700 B.C. is the same as 1700 B.C.E. 2003 A.D. is the same as 2003 C.E. So it doesn’t really change any — it does not change anything as far as the noting of the years. Rather, it’s a way of noting time that you might call a secularized version. To secularize something is to remove the religious influence from it. And so by noting time as the Common Era and Before the Common Era puts it in a way that it removes the religious influence and makes it secular as far as talking about that. So as we talk about time, I will probably go back and forth a little bit in noting those, but I want you to understand that there’s really no difference as far as the years that it’s talking REL 100 Lecture 12 5 these Aryans, these Indo-Europeans who migrated into northern India, and they did that in the 18th century B.C.E. And so it began sometime pre that century. But there is no founder for Hinduism. Another thing about Hinduism that it does not have is it doesn’t have a common god. Again, when you look at Islam, Allah is the god. You look at Judaism, Jehovah or Yahweh. Christianity, God or Jesus Christ and an understanding of divinity of Jesus if there isn’t Christianity. But when you come to Hinduism, you do not have a common perspective on a particular god or even a particular view of divinity. Some Hindus are polytheistic, meaning that they believe in many gods. Traditionally, people would say that Hindus believe that there’s 330 million gods and goddesses. So it’s quite polytheistic in some people’s minds. Other Hindus are what we would call pantheistic. They believe that God is in all things. God’s in trees and animals and rivers and in all people. So it’s much more of an earth oriented or closer to kind of what we think of as an animistic sort of belief, that God is in all things. There’s a spirit quality in all things. Other Hindus are monotheistic. They just worship one god. They practice a devotion to just one god. Now, this is a little bit different monotheism than the monotheism that most of us are familiar with. In Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the belief is that there’s one God and that’s the only God, and that’s the God that should be worshiped. But in Hinduism, for those who are monotheistic, they believe that their personal obligation is to be devoted to a particular god or goddess. But they would understand that there are other Hindus who are devoted to different gods and REL 100 Lecture 12 6 goddesses and that’s okay. So you could come to my house and I might have a shrine to Shiva. And then you could go to your house and you might have a shrine to Brahma. And what’s important is that you’re devoted to Brahma and that I and my family are devoted to Shiva. And that’s okay. There’s not some competition about which god is best, but it’s just an understanding that that’s each of our obligation personally is devotion to that one god. So it’s monotheistic in a different sort of setting. Some Hindus would appear to be atheistic. God or gods don’t seem to figure in at all to their path of spirituality. Rather for them, their religion is much more of a philosophy. It’s much more of a way of life. Their emphasis is not on worship of personal deities of any sort. So there’s not a common god which is different than most of our perceptions of religion. Also with Hinduism there’s not a common book. Again, we are familiar — most of us, at least here in the United States, we’re familiar with religions that are based on historical text. And so in Christianity, wherever you go in the world where there’s Christianity, you have a Bible with the Old Testament and the New Testament. Wherever you go in the world where there’s Islam, you have the Qur’an. Wherever there’s Judaism, you have the Torah. But when it comes to Hinduism, there’s not a consistent sacred text. As a matter of fact, some Hindus have no text at all. So there’s not a common book. And so because of that, there’s also not a common set of beliefs. You can find Hindus that believe a variety of things. We tend to think of Christianity as not being very REL 100 Lecture 12 7 consistent in its beliefs, that you find all these people with different belief systems, but there is a certain amount of consistency within Christianity. Jesus is always a part of that, the New Testament is always a part of that, some sort of redemption to the cross is a part of that. But you don’t find those kinds of similarities in Hinduism. There’s a huge variety of beliefs that we’ll talk a little bit more about here shortly. Also, Hinduism is not a common congregation. You can be a good Hindu and never go to a temple. There are Hindu temples to different gods and goddesses, and there are ceremonies and festivals at those temples that Hindus attend, but that is not a sign of devotion. You don’t have to be somebody who attends temple to be a good Hindu. Actually, the locus of Hinduism tends to be in the home. Most devoted Hindus have a shrine in their home or a particular room in their home that’s set aside for their worship of the particular deities that their family might worship. So the temple and the congregation is not important. So if your box of religion says, “Well, it’s when a group of people all come together and worship the same god and read the same sacred text, have the same beliefs and that’s a religion,” well, Hinduism is not gonna fit in that box because it has none of those. It’s not necessarily a group of people coming together. They don’t necessarily have the same beliefs. They don’t necessarily read the same sacred text and they don’t necessarily have the same beliefs about divinity. So what is Hinduism? Two things you can say about Hinduism. First of all, it’s very diverse, which hopefully you’re starting to get the idea of that — that there’s great diversity within the Hindu religion. Secondly, it’s also a very tolerant religion. It’s a REL 100 Lecture 12 10 reincarnated to a higher caste. Now, we’ve got some terms we need to define here. First of all, as far as talking about the practice, that the idea is doing enough of the right stuff. Well, the right stuff is called dharma, one of your terms. Dharma literally means duty and it’s the idea of the obligations that you need to fulfill. Most of those obligations are defined by the caste that someone is born into. Now, let’s define caste. Most of you are probably familiar with caste. You’ve probably had that in history classes or sociology classes, but a caste is simply a level of society that people are born into that’s believed to be determined by their actions in their former life. Okay. So it’s a level of society that people are born into that’s believed to be determined by their actions in a former life. So if people fulfill their dharma, if they fulfill the obligations that are again mostly relegated by their caste, then they can be reincarnated into this higher caste in the next life, the goal of that path. Now, let’s step away from the chart here for a minute and talk a little bit more about those terms. First of all, as far as reincarnation. Reincarnation simply means to take on flesh again. Rebirth. And the belief is in Hinduism that there is this soul — and one of the terms that you have on your list is the term atman — and the atman is what we would equate with the soul. Certainly there’d be Hindu philosophers who would say the atman is deeper than the soul. But what the atman is is it’s the part of each of us that is eternal. It’s the part of us that moves from one life to the next. It’s the part of us that, according to Hindu philosophy, takes on flesh again. It’s the part of us that’s reborn. And so you have this atman and if you do enough of the right stuff, this atman can be reborn to a higher caste, a higher level of society. REL 100 Lecture 12 11 In the Hindu way of thinking, there are four major castes. There’s the priestly caste, sometimes called the Brahmins. Then there is the warrior caste and then there’s the merchant caste, and then there is the servant caste. Those are the four major levels within a society. And the belief is — there’s a lot of beliefs, there’s a lot of legends, there’s a lot of myths around where these castes came from, whether there was some sort of ultimate being at one time in history and that ultimate being broke up into these parts, and so they’re often considered parts of the body. The priestly caste is considered the head of the body, of society. The warriors are considered the shoulders, the strength of the society and the protection of the society. The merchants are considered the hands. Those that transact business, that make things happen, the makers and shovers of the society, the ones that make things come along in the society. And then there are those that are the feet of society, the slaves. The society stands on them. They’re essential. Now, some of you may be going, “Well, what about this other group called the untouchables: are they the servants?” And the untouchables are actually a group of people that are considered not even in the caste system. Essentially they are outcasts, outside the caste. They’re lower than the caste system. They are people that if they don’t do enough of the right stuff in this life, then, you know, they’re on the borderline between the human race and something else because of their previous behavior in previous lives. So you’ve got these levels of society that people are born into, and if they do enough of the right stuff, according to the path of ritual action, then you can be REL 100 Lecture 12 12 reincarnated, reborn into a higher caste. And so with this path, this path of ritual action, you never get out of the cycle of reincarnation. The best you can hope for is to be reincarnated to a higher caste. Now, probably if you’re thinking you’re going, “Well, four castes. I mean, how hard can it be to not get out of that system eventually over time?” But what has happened over time in the understanding of the caste system is that each of these castes have several sub-castes. And so there are some paths of Hinduism that would understand that there is as many as 2,800 to 3,000 different castes that really are all just sub-castes of these four major castes. That makes it a little more complex. And so by this path of ritual action you never get out of that system. You’re kind of on a two steps forward, three steps back in each lifetime sort of movement. That continual path of reincarnation is called samsara, another one of your terms. Samsara is the continuous cycle of reincarnation based on the understanding that you never get out of that cycle. It’s an eternal cycle that all souls are always caught in. Okay. So this path of ritual action — to get back to your chart, we’ve talked about the practice of it and the goal of it. This would be the path that would be the oldest path, so it began sometime pre-18th century B.C.E. This would be the path that the Aryans that we talked about earlier would’ve been some of the early practicers of that, practitioners of that. The god of this path — this path would typically be polytheistic. They believe in many gods and goddesses. Again, possibly as many as 330 million. Each of these gods are considered personal gods. They have a personality. They have a function. And each of them are pictured in different ways. REL 100 Lecture 12 15 again, it means release and that’s the idea. It’s being released from the cycle of reincarnation, being released from samsara. That the atman never has to be reborn again. The way that you practice this path, as maybe you could deduce here, is that if the path of ritual action is about doing enough of the right stuff, then what the path of knowledge is going to be about is knowing enough of the right stuff. It shifts. Now, out of your knowing, then you’ll do the right stuff. But the core is a more philosophical approach, gaining a spiritual understanding. And so dharma here begins to take on more the idea of teaching rather than just action, just the things that you do. And so you come to know the right stuff. And if you come to know enough of the right stuff, then you can be released from the cycle of reincarnation and you can achieve moksha. Part of the right stuff that you need to know of this path would be what you could put under the God column on your chart, and that would be this concept, this entity, called Brahmin. Or sometimes it’s called the universal self. The Brahmin is believed to be an undefinable reality of this concept, this entity, called Brahmin. Or sometimes it’s called the universal self. The Brahmin is believed to be an undefinable reality. And so every time we try to define it, then we are making it less than it is. And so in traditional, philosophical path of knowledge understanding, you can’t really put a definition on Brahmin because then you’ve limited the Brahmin. And it’s a limitless entity, it’s a limitless reality. One way that I think you could think of or picture the Brahmin is from “Starwars” movies, the force. Basically, the force is a Brahmin principle. And so if you could think REL 100 Lecture 12 16 about the — if you’re familiar with “Starwars,” familiar with the idea of the force, then you could give at least some similarity from the idea of the force and take that, and that’s kind of the idea of the Brahmin. It’s this ultimate reality that’s in all things and in which all things reside. So it kind of permeates all things and all things permeate it. One thing that the text that reflects this path would say about the universal self or the Brahmin is that it is that thing by which we see but we cannot see it, it’s that thing by which we hear but we cannot hear it, it’s that thing by which we speak but we cannot speak it. That’s the kind of way to show the pervasiveness of it and yet sort of the abstractness of this idea of the Brahmin. But as you come to understand the Brahmin and come to know the Brahmin, then that’s the ultimate knowledge to escape samsara, is coming to know the Brahmin. That text that I referred to that you could put here on your chart would be the Upanishads. The Upanishads are texts that mostly were collected again around the 6th to 8th century B.C.E. They were the texts out of which this path would’ve emerged and so this path reflects those texts in many ways. Often you’ll find the Upanishads is just another section of the Vedas, a later to the Vedas, but that would be the text. As far as with that practice on this path, one of the terms that you have that we could talk about here is the practice of yoga. A lot of us are familiar with yoga. Probably some of you have done yoga. Typically in our culture that’s kind of a relaxation exercise. It’s a way to get yourself a little more focused and certainly there’s some credibility to that. But yoga in Hindu teaching and Hindu philosophy is a spiritual practice. And basically it’s a series of physical, mental, and spiritual exercises through REL 100 Lecture 12 17 which one comes to recognize the Brahmin or through which one finds release from reincarnation. And so the goal is to shut out all these outside things so you get to where — you know, physically you’re not attached to the physical realm. You can sit on beds of thorns and it doesn’t bother you. Then you get to where, you know, you can be awake and alert, but anything you hear does not distract you from the focus on this spiritual reality. And it just goes deeper and deeper, kind of like peeling off the layers of an onion, until finally you come to understand this Brahmin. And then when you’re released from the cycle of reincarnation, then what happens is the soul, the atman, is united with Brahmin, becomes a part of this larger entity. And so that’s where the soul returns to. So that’s some basics with the path of knowledge. The next path that emerged that we want to talk about is the path of devotion. The path of devotion is the path that was emerging around the 2nd century B.C.E. to the 2nd century C.E. And this is the path that you could call monotheistic as far as it’s god concept. This is a path where people see themselves as having a primary obligation to be devoted to a particular god or goddess. And so the practice or the way that you follow this path is being devoted enough to god or being devoted enough to the goddess. And the goal is, then, if you’re devoted enough in this lifetime to god or to the goddess that you worship, then you can be released from samsara and go to a paradise or heaven type place where you are united with this god or this goddess. So this path sounds a little bit more like a Judeo-Christian understanding of spirituality. That you have this god or this goddess that you worship. If you’re devoted