text:
Discovering World Religions

A Guide for the Inquiring Reader

Gabriel J. Gomes

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington
Discovering World Religions

A Guide for the Inquiring Reader

Copyright © 2012 Gabriel J. Gomes

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Meaning and Matter of Religion

Chapter 2: Native American Religions

Chapter 3: African Traditional Religions

Chapter 4: Hinduism

Chapter 5: Jainism

Chapter 6: Buddhism

Chapter 7: Early Chinese Religion and Confucianism

Chapter 8: Daoism

Chapter 9: Shinto

Chapter 10: Zoroastrianism

Chapter 11: Judaism

Chapter 12: Christianity

Chapter 13: Islam

Chapter 14: Sikhism

Chapter 15: The New Horizon

Appendix

Credits

Selected Bibliography
For my mother,

Veronica Maharani Gomes,

who taught me compassion
Introduction

A journey of discovery can be a thrilling experience. There will be so much to see, to explore, to expand your horizons and to enrich your life. This is equally true of exploring world religions. At the same time, encountering new beliefs and practices can be bewildering by their sheer variety or unfamiliarity. When you not only encounter other people's religions but also see your own in a historical, objective light, you may have questions you had never considered before. Globalization and the technological revolution have made facing religions of the world unavoidable. Their presence in American society, not to say in your own neighborhood, is bound to raise questions to which you need to find answers. You do not have to accept other people's religions to appreciate them. Rather, you may consider each religion as people's attempts to solve some of the recalcitrant problems they face in their personal lives within their social and cultural contexts.

What can you hope to gain from reading this book? Genuine discovery leads to new knowledge. If knowledge is power, then knowing religions of the world will empower you. Learning about alternative ways of dealing with life's problems, puzzles, and perplexities will endow you with greater confidence and freedom when facing them and enable you to navigate through your life more confidently and joyfully.

Each of us needs to contribute to building a more peaceful and just world. Religions can assist mightily in this endeavor. But they have not done so. One reason for this situation is that most people have not objectively examined other people's faiths. This has created a breeding ground for misunderstanding and mistrust. But a good knowledge of the world's religions can lead to a discovery of common ground and shared global perspectives among people of different faiths, as well as an understanding of the uniqueness of each religion. This can move people to come together to identify the world's most pressing needs, enabling them to create plans to reduce violence, eliminate hunger, alleviate poverty, and promote justice and fairness for all peoples. A first step in this direction is a journey of discovering world religions.

For that to happen, you need to approach each religion with an open mind and a welcoming heart. When the mind is open, insights flood in. Then you come to appreciate religions other than your own. When you discover a shared humanity between your own and other people's religions, you may return to your own with new insights and exclaim, in the words of the Roman poet Terence, "Homo sum, nil humanum alienum a me puto" (I am a human being. I consider nothing human to be alien to me).

So you need an experienced guide—one that will lead you deftly through the maze of myriad beliefs and practices. The guide will make the experience more rewarding by making even familiar-but-vague ideas clear and palpable with fresh understanding and surprising insights. It will reveal how human beings throughout the world have approached the most fundamental problems confronting them and arrived at different answers because their experience of the world and themselves was different from your own.

From 1963 to 2007 I taught religion at Marymount College, Tarrytown, NY. It was in about 1973 that I initiated a course on world religions at Marymount College. While teaching full time at Marymount College, I also taught a course on world religions at Pace University, Pleasantville, NY, for several years. After Fordham University closed Marymount College in 2007, I taught a course on world religions at Westchester Community College, Valhalla, NY, from 2008 to 2010. And I began teaching humanities, philosophy, and comparative religion at Western Connecticut State University, Danbury, CT, in 2008.

As I began to teach world religions, I became increasingly dissatisfied with existing texts, finding their explanations of central ideas inadequate or misleading, or their interpretations unsatisfactory. Some omit essential ideas because they are deemed difficult. In an effort to simplify teachings for beginners, others make hasty, and consequently false, generalizations. Many texts simply present teachings and practices in their generally accepted standard form without actually analyzing the sacred texts themselves, when doing so would yield deep, new insights that would illuminate those religions. These and many other considerations prompted me to embark on this project.

This book is an outsider's or objective (as opposed to the insider's, or subjective), account of each religion. I am, of course, mindful of whether total objectivity is possible. However, this book is focused mainly on understanding each religion as if from the inside. There is no judgment on the teachings or practices of any religion. Judgment on religions other than one's own is a subjective (or believer's) perspective. From the objective standpoint, no judgment is possible simply because there is no completely objective, neutral standpoint from which one can judge the truth or falsity of religions other than one's own.

Rather, my standpoint is affirmative of all religions, as they represent an essential aspect of human attempts in every culture and society, at least in premodern times, to understand themselves and their world and to cope with them. I found that when I approached each religion with an open mind and heart, I began to gain deeper understanding and insight into it. I invite the reader to approach each religion with the same attitude of openness.

However, the objective standpoint is not bereft of a critical perspective in the same way that literary or film critics examine their subject matter. Therefore, I do not avoid the need to point out controversial or negative consequences of some beliefs or practices, especially as they pertain to the social sphere.

Discovering World Religions: A Guide for the Inquiring Reader provides essential knowledge and broad understanding of religion as part of a cultural system that both shapes and in turn is shaped by it. Each chapter is organized around four broad themes common to most religions, which are the following:

• Belief in the Sacred in its various manifestations

• Practices serving as paths of transformation aimed at reconnection with the Sacred, achieved through (a) the medium of worship, prayer, and other rituals, rites of passage, and festivals; and (b) self-transformation through meditation and related practices

• Ethics and the good life

• Community, institution, organization, and action

To provide full understanding of the nature, origin, development, and uniqueness of each religion, relevant texts are analyzed to reveal their meanings and to show how the teachings and practices evolved.

Combining the best features of both thematic and historical approaches, this text focuses on main themes, beliefs, and practices of each religion in their historical context and from an evolutionary perspective. The term "evolutionary" refers to the internal development of each religion from its origin, as far as that can be determined, to what it is today. Most religions have experienced development of their doctrines, practices, structures, and organization in response to social and cultural changes ushered by paradigm shifts.

One feature of this text is to examine the original event or revelatory experience (where it is available in the traditional materials) that led to the founding of a religion, such as Buddhism, Jainism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, and Mormonism. If there are multiple or conflicting accounts, I present them as they are found in their respective traditions rather than how believers consider them today. It is, of course, impossible to determine what actually happened in the revelatory encounters, since they took place so long ago and since neither their founders nor eyewitnesses recorded things as they actually happened. So I will present the divergent perspectives as they are available from traditional materials. This will allow the reader to see that the believer's perspective is itself an interpretation, not necessarily a representation of what actually happened.

Analyzing and interpreting crucial sacred texts is another important part of this book. In doing so, I have arrived at important and surprising insights into many religions. I must admit that this makes it more difficult reading than other texts. But I believe the rewards are great.

Having found it an important omission in other texts, I trace the evolution of the concepts of the Sacred in each religion. I also do the same in regard to other beliefs and practices, beginning with Native American religions and concluding with Sikhism.

Another special feature of this book is a sustained discussion of the status of women in each religion. It is an important aspect of religion that everyone should know, especially as we are attempting to promote justice and equality and thereby build a better world in which men and women are treated as equal.

While other texts take notice of mysticism in many religions, I attempt to show how mysticism is organically related to the rest of the religion and addresses a dimension in the individual without realizing which, say the mystics, human life remains incomplete. I lay out the steps (e.g., meditation and other practices) through which mystics aim to reach the goal of union or identity with the Sacred. To connect the two aspects of religion, I make a distinction between transforming the medium, such as worship and other rituals, through which the faithful aim to contact the Sacred in faith, intention and meaning, and direct experience of the Sacred, which requires self-transformation, without which the goal of mysticism cannot be realized.

Some Highlights of the Book

Native American Religions: Creation myths; some myths that illustrate the evolution of the Sacred from the female to male-female to male supreme deity; rituals such as sweat lodge, sun dance, ghost dance, vision quest; shamanism, healing rituals, women in Native American religions.

African Traditional Religions: Creation myths; in some myths, evolution of the concept of Sacred from female to male-female to male supreme deity, similar to Native American religions; various rituals, male and female initiation rites (circumcision and genital cutting, respectively); healings and healers; prophets and mediums, women in African traditional religions.

Hinduism: Evolution of the concept of God from the many to one supreme to the infinite Brahman to the personal Gods and Goddesses; karma, reincarnation, the five main types of yoga; discussion of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; teachings of the Bhagavad Gita; various rituals, such as early morning bathing; the four castes, four stages, and four goals of life; modern reforms; Gandhi; Hindu nationalism.

Jainism: Mahavira's life and experience of enlightenment guided by two beliefs—extreme asceticism and nonviolence; karma and suffering and how to attain liberation through five great vows and meditation; image worship; women in Jainism.

Buddhism: Buddha's life, his discovery of the middle path, and experience of enlightenment; Nirvana; the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path; Buddhist meditation practices; main Mahayana teachings; main Mahayana branches: Pure Land, Zen (and koan; the Ten Ox-herding Stages to Buddhahood), Nichiren; Tibetan tantra, the Dalai Lama, The Tibetan Book of the Dead; women in Buddhism.

Confucianism: Confucius's teachings culled from the sayings scattered throughout the Analects; later Confucians, such as Mencius and Xunzi; transformation of Confucianism into religion and in turn its shaping influence on Chinese society and civilization; Neo-Confucians—Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming; women in Confucianism.

Daoism: Taking a totally different approach from others, I begin with a mystical explanation of the Dao, tracing it from the Daodejing through Zhuangzi; wu wei, naturalness, meditation, and other practices aimed at experiencing oneness with the Dao; later developments aiming at longevity and immortality through diet and drugs, taiji, qigong and breath control, alchemy, sexual yoga; yoga of inner fire, other meditative practices and ascension aimed at ultimate transformation; Daoist sects; women in Daoism.

Shinto: Full explanation of Kami; myth of the founding of Japan; rituals, Kamidana, Butsudan and rituals for the dead; shame-based culture and conflict; women in Shinto.

Zoroastrianism: Zoroaster's life and experience of revelation; teachings on eschatology—individual and cosmic; ethics of compassion; women in Zoroastrianism.

Judaism: Incorporating insights from biblical criticism, archeology, anthropology, I interpret creation myths, the patriarchal period, Moses and the exodus; evolution of the concept of God, the teachings of the prophets, the historical period, the rise of various institutions and rituals; composition of the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud. In the medieval period, a paradigm shift raised the issue of the relationship between revelation and reason faced by Jewish philosophers; next, the rise of Kabbalah and Hasidism; modern branches of Judaism as responses to the modern world; a discussion of women in Judaism.

Christianity: The life and teachings of Jesus, the concept of God in the New Testament, composition of the New Testament, the teaching of Paul on salvation; development of rituals and institutions; development of the doctrine of God through the early councils, the explanation of the Trinity by the Cappadocians, Augustine, and Aquinas; the rise of monasticism and mysticism; the split in Christianity between the Eastern and the Western Church. The Protestant Reformation was a response to a paradigm shift from the medieval to the modern world, the rise of Protestant denominations; development of Christian theology in the twentieth century; women in Christianity.

Islam: Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia; Muhammad's life and first experience of revelation; the doctrine of God, composition and teachings of the Qur'an; the Five Pillars of Islam; expansion of Islam from Muhammad through the Caliphs, guided by the concept of jihad; Islamic Law—Sharia; ethics and community; division of Islam into Shiites and Sunnis, Sufism; women in Islam; Islamic philosophy and theology; responses to the modern world; jihad and why the terrorist fringe has waged war on modernity as represented by the western world.

Sikhism: Nanak's revelatory experience; the essential teachings of Sikhism, the doctrine of God as a blend of Hinduism and Islam; various rituals; how a peaceful religion turned militant and the ritual of Khalsa; women in Sikhism.

The New Horizon: The concluding chapter highlights representative new religions, such as Vodun, Santeria, Falun Gong, Soka Gakkai, Aum Shinrikyo, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latterday Saints (or Mormonism), the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the Bahai Faith, Neo-paganism and Wicca, Scientology.

I discovered eastern religions after teaching theology for a number of years and nearing the end of my doctorate in philosophy. I was, of course, familiar with many of their doctrines and practices and had some vague understanding of them. However, the impact of the discovery was profound. It changed my idea of religion. From this new perspective, I undertook a thematic exploration of what is known as mysticism in Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The result assumed the shape of two books, Song of the Skylark I: Foundations of Experiential Religion (1991) and Song of the Skylark II: Meditation—Teachings and Practices (1991). I found that Ken Wilber was on the same trajectory, as his books (beginning with The Spectrum of Consciousness) and subsequent writings clearly demonstrate. The discovery also led me to search out various types of meditation and to finally commit myself to practicing vipassana, or insight meditation, as taught by S. N. Goenka.

I hope this book encourages you to embark on a similar or more exalted voyage of discovery of your own.

Although this is a work of a solitary author, many friends and colleagues have inspired me and contributed their suggestions to me. I want to thank them all, especially my friend and colleague Professor Richard Stojda for his inspiration and his help with the computer. Critical comments and suggestions of many readers have been most helpful. Above all, I want to thank my friend Professor Eugene Kelly of New York Institute of Technology for initially editing this manuscript, correcting errors in grammar, punctuation, and syntax, challenging some ideas, and making numerous suggestions for improvements. I want to thank my friends Professors Carl and Charlene Hoegler, who supplied me with valuable articles from the National Geographic. And I want to thank my friend Professor Patrick Munroe for proofreading the manuscript before it went to print. Any deficiencies that remain are purely my own.

When converting foreign words to Roman letters, I have omitted all diacritical marks except for the Arabic words Kab'a and Qur'an. As this is a book addressed to general readers, this omission was designed to avoid distraction and to keep the main focus on understanding the content of the text.

Gabriel J. Gomes

Fishkill, NY 12524
Chapter 1: The Meaning and Matter of Religion

Stepping into the twenty-first century, we are faced with continuity and change and unprecedented diversity. In the modern period, science and reason claimed to determine what is real and what we can know. Since the scientific account was considered the only true and objective view of reality, any view that deviated from it was thought to be symbolic or mythological, not a description of reality as it is. Thus religion came to be viewed as an imaginative construction of reality relative to each culture and was consigned to the private domain.

The new horizon, described by some as a postmodern world, is marked by a change in worldview. Instead of considering science as the source of the only valid account of reality, objective truth, and certainty, it is now thought to present a construction of reality based on empirical evidence. It acknowledges that other constructions are possible and that no one construction has absolute validity over others.

Religion, too, has now been relativized, yielding to pluralism and diversity. Pluralism is a result of the postmodern contention that cultures represent constructions of reality. Because religion is a point of view within a construction of reality, in the face of plurality of constructs, any claim to absolute truth by one construction over others is considered not an objectively valid claim but relative and subjective, a standpoint of faith. There is no objective, neutral ground from which a person can judge the truth of one religion over others. Insofar as they are witnesses to the manifestations of the Sacred through the prisms of cultural constructions, all religions (or none) have validity and legitimacy. This opens up unprecedented choices that many find liberating but others find bewildering, confusing, or threatening. In the latter case, some religious extremists tend to react violently against the loss of meta-narrative (that is, a grand story believed to have universal validity and legitimacy) and normative center in the postmodern world and strive to restore the premodern form of meta-narrative and absolute center of unquestioned values, ethical norms, and religious beliefs.

A major contributing factor to this pluralism is globalization, which involves the interconnectedness of people, ideas, information, goods, and resources across regional, national, and continental boundaries. As described by Thomas Robbins, globalization "facilitates transnational and trans-cultural diffusion of symbolic movements and meaning." In the intermingling of ideas, beliefs, and insights from different cultures and traditions, globalization "tends to increase religious diversity within societies and implicitly deregulates religious markets" (6).

Globalization has been facilitated by information technologies. Not only television but also communication technologies and social media have brought the world closer than ever before. A global economy has now interlinked the world. Any change in one sector of the world causes a ripple effect on the rest, as the current near-depression in the global economy amply demonstrates. Multinational corporations have brought the world together, thereby contributing to globalization.

Another player is immigration. In the modern period, Europeans colonized Asia and Africa. The middle part of the twentieth century saw the demise of colonialism. In the aftermath, the colonized peoples started migrating to the countries that colonized them. A change of immigration policies and the need of workers for the reconstruction of postwar Europe opened up a flood of immigrants in search of jobs and a better life. As the workers settled down in their host countries and their families joined them, eventually new ethnic communities sprang up, so that at present nearly all European countries have become multiethnic and multicultural. With new arrivals from sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe, even Ireland is no longer monochrome.

The new immigrants have brought their religions and cultural values with them. The United States was founded by Protestants who shaped its ethos, policies, perspectives, and values. With Protestantism slated to slip below the majority line, and along with it the loss of its meta-narrative and normative center, and with the rise of multiethnic communities, the United States has become more pluralistic, relativistic, and eclectic than ever before. Having brought to America representatives of nearly every religion, new immigration has contributed to the current religious pluralism and diversity. Already Muslims have made an impact. Their influence will grow once their numbers surge past those of the Jews. Hindus, Buddhists, Confucians, Daoists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and others are also beginning to make their presence felt.

Pluralism and diversity have opened up unprecedented choice of religion to everyone, especially in the United States. No longer are people tied to the religion of their birth, ethnic group, or country. One can choose any established religion or try out another religion one has come across, either through reading about it or communicating with a follower. Or, discouraged by organized religions, one may decide to cobble together a religion of one's own by combining teachings and practices from different, often incompatible, religions and other sources, which is known as syncretism. Or, while remaining faithful to one's particular tradition, one may pass over to other traditions and return to their own with new understanding and insight. Or, one may choose to follow one of the "new religions."

Before turning to new religions, however, we need to explore the nature and content of religion. We need to examine the attempts by various classical authors to define religion, to briefly review scholars' attempts to explain how religion originated in the distant past and how it evolved to what it is today. In the subsequent chapters, we will then devote our attention to the established religions: Native American religions, African traditional religions, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto, Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism. In the concluding chapter, we will turn our attention to some representative new religions.

The drive to know is imbedded in our genes. Humans have been trying to discover how and when the universe originated, how life began on this planet, and how the human species emerged. Modern science has provided detailed answers to some of these inquiries. The attempt to discover how religion originated is part of this human quest.

Beginning in the nineteenth century, many writers have proposed theories on the origin of religion. Most of these theories stemmed from their particular disciplines. Thus, from the psychoanalytic point of view, Sigmund Freud explained that humans conjured up the idea of God as an exalted and mighty father who would come to their aid in the face of threats from the external world, demands of society, and the eventual decay of their own bodies. Only such a being could understand their needs, be softened by their prayers and placated by the signs of their remorse to come to their aid. As science advances and humans become able to cope with reality more rationally, they will give up this illusion and their infantile dependency on religion.

On the other hand, in his recent book, The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes, molecular biologist Dean Hamer claims that he has located a "God gene" responsible for spirituality or the feeling of self-transcendence. Thus, a sense of the divine is preloaded in our genetic makeup. Based on archeology and related fields, others have argued that religious behavior existed in every society at every stage of development. Religion became an evolved behavior favored by natural selection. They hold that from around the time of hunter-gatherer stage of human evolution, some fifty thousand years ago, religion served as an invisible government, binding people together and committing them to put community needs over self-interest. As religion conferred compelling advantages in the struggle for group survival, it became firmly wired into human neural circuitry and was passed down into succeeding stages of societal evolution (Wade, New York Times, November 15, 2009).

Similar conclusions have been drawn by archeologists from their recent discoveries at Gobekli Tepe (c. 9600–8200 BCE) and other archeological sites in Turkey. The site at Gobekli Tepe contains at least twenty circular structures supported by massive, cleanly-carved limestone pillars interconnected by low stone walls. The pillars display gazelles, snakes, foxes, and wild boars. The carvings on the two taller pillars in the center of each ring resemble human beings. Did they represent powerful humans or divine beings? Did the structures form a temple complex constructed by a group of hunter-gatherers who would gather at the site for religious rituals? If so, as the discoverer Klaus Schmidt thinks it is, then we have evidence that religion gave rise to agriculture and civilization, rather than the reverse, as it was once believed. The human impulse to gather for sacred rituals shows that at this time religion was a communal affair, an organized, shared experience. The animals might have been guardians of the spirit world, and the reliefs on the T-shaped pillars might have served as symbols of the divine world invoked to protect the people from the dangerous world outside (Charles C. Mann, in National Geographic, June 2011). However, no written records have been found to confirm this conjecture.

Others have proposed that religion arose from human attempts to deal with fearful unknown forces and destructive people outside the secure boundaries within which they lived. Through rituals, people turned to other, more powerful forces beyond the ordinary world. Though mysterious, unknown, and fearful, the latter could be propitiated through rituals to provide protection, overcome the dangerous forces, and grant other blessings. These superior forces came to be called religious.

Another approach was to explain the origin of religion by maintaining that from their experience of death and dream "primitive peoples" derived the idea of the soul, which they believed existed everywhere in nature—in water, stones, trees, volcanoes, and mountains. This was called animism (in Latin, anima means soul). The nature worship theory maintained that religions originated from human experience of those forces of nature that can be life giving and destructive. Humans gave names to these powerful forces in order to personalize them and then devised rituals to obtain power from the life-giving forces and to control destructive ones.

There were, of course, many other theories. Today, however, most scholars have abandoned this line of inquiry for lack of conclusive scientific evidence of how exactly religion originated. Therefore, this approach will not be pursued any further.

What Is Religion?

Difficulties abound when we try to define religion. Even though most people at some point in their lives have engaged in some form of religious activity, if you asked them to define religion, few would agree on what it is. Even definitions of experts are too vague, ambiguous, narrow, or arbitrary. Thus, the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead defined religion as "what man does with his own solitariness" (10). While it may be true that in solitude, inner silence, or stillness of the mind we can encounter the Sacred, Whitehead's definition remains vague, as it does not identify the kind of solitude that opens the mind to the Sacred from other activities in which humans engage when they are solitary. And it is decidedly narrow because it leaves out the communal aspects of religion, such as rituals, ethics, and shared experiences of a group or community.

Another well-known definition is that of Rudolf Otto, who, in his classic work, The Idea of the Holy, defined religion as being concerned with an awesome mystery that evokes fear and fascination. This may be true of religions that view the Sacred as an "other power" confronting believers with an overwhelming presence that they find threatening. It is not true of religions that do not believe the Sacred to be anything separate from the ultimate dimension of each thing. In this case, the believers' goal is just the opposite—to realize oneness with the Sacred in order to find ultimate meaning and fulfillment. Moreover, while feeling is important, religion is concerned with more than just feeling.

The idea of religion as belief in God is also too narrow, as it excludes nontheistic religions, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Jainism. Moreover, religion is more than just a system of beliefs. The heart of religion involves an approach to the Sacred, in which belief is put to the service of practice: worship, prayer, meditation, rites, and festivals. Religion not only has a vertical thrust, aiming to connect the believer with the Sacred, but it also has a horizontal dimension of relationship to fellow humans that involves ethics and community.

As most definitions of religion appear unsatisfactory, instead of proceeding to define religion, in this text, the main concern will be to describe its nature in terms of four main characteristics, which are the following:

• A system of belief in the Sacred in its various manifestations

• Rituals and other practices serving as paths of transformation, aimed at reconnection with the Sacred, achieved through (a) the medium of worship, prayer, and other rituals, and (b) self-transformation through meditation and related practices

• Ethics and the good life

• Community, institution, organization, and action

These four characteristics will serve as a template for discussing the nature of religion in this chapter and also for organizing subsequent chapters.

Our task in this text is to understand religion as it exists throughout the world today. To that end we will trace the unfolding of each religion through the ages during which it confronted shifts in worldviews, sometimes called "paradigm shifts," resulting from scientific and other breakthroughs that prompted new understanding of reality or the world and of ourselves. Such epochal changes challenge people to rethink religion and their position in relation to the world, leading to the rise of new movements and directions. Beginning with the analysis of original teachings and practices of each religion as they were expressed in written or oral traditions, we will swiftly sail through subsequent periods, pausing to examine the most important of such developments. We will note the relevance of religion in resolving the most deep-seated, pressing, and persistent problems endemic to the human condition.

Belief in the Sacred

Amid a great diversity of beliefs, one point on which religions agree is that reality is multidimensional, and not all its dimensions are confined to the empirical realm. Recently, some physicists have proposed that the universe is made up of eleven dimensions. Even if the additional dimensions besides the acknowledged four (length, width, height, and time) existed, they would still be within the empirical world. The foundation of all religions, however, is the assumption that there are other dimensions of reality beyond the empirical. Therefore, they are not subject to scientific proof or disproof. These dimensions are variously called sacred, supernatural, or spiritual.

In many systems, such terms such as Sacred or "spiritual" are contrasted with the natural world. The Sacred is ordinarily thought to be the higher, deeper, or transcendent order of reality beyond the natural. In many religions the Sacred is believed to have many dimensions. These levels are generally thought to be arrayed in a hierarchical, ascending, or more comprehensive order of reality—from ancestral spirits, spirit beings, angels and demons, gods and goddesses, to the Supreme Deity.

It follows that the term "God" is not identical with the Sacred. Nor is it as inclusive. The Sacred embraces all levels of the spiritual universe, including the Supreme Being. But God in the monotheistic sense applies only to the Supreme Being, whereas everything else is regarded as part of the created order.

The term Ultimate Reality refers to that which is final, beyond which nothing exists. It is the Beyond that has no beyond; otherwise, it would not be ultimate. This term covers more objects of religious belief than do God or Supreme Being, but it is more limited than the Sacred. For while the personal God of monotheism and Supreme Being are terms that refer to Ultimate Reality, the latter is also applied to impersonal power believed to be ultimate by many religions, such as some Native American religions, some African traditional religions, and Shinto. Ultimate Reality also applies to the Infinite, which is beyond all forms and limitations, and so beyond the personal Supreme Being or God and beyond impersonal power. And Ultimate Reality applies to the ultimate state of reality and consciousness, such as the Buddhist concept of Nirvana. Since the Sacred includes everything signified by all these terms, in addition to the more limited spiritual realms, such as gods, goddesses, spirits, and ancestors in many religions, in this book the term "Sacred" will be used to signify the general object of religious belief.

Expressions of the Sacred: Scripture or Sacred Text

Religion is a symbolic map of the sacred, invisible world expressed in language. Because religion is a record of human encounters with the Sacred that took place beyond ordinary consciousness, when we attempt to describe that experience in ordinary language, we need to use symbols, paradoxes, images, metaphors, myths, and stories to convey our meaning. The terms "scriptures" and "sacred text" refer to the writings accepted by a religious community as authoritative expressions of individual or group encounters with the Sacred from which its essentials are derived.

The sources of many religions have consisted, until quite recently, of oral traditions. Even the scriptures of various religions began as oral traditions before being codified in written form. During the oral period, later experiences and interpretations modified or transformed the original so that in most cases the latter is virtually irretrievable.

Myth

Ordinarily, the word "myth" brings to mind something fictitious. But in religion, a myth is a vehicle for conveying, in symbolic language, deep meaning, basic truth, or an encounter with the Sacred. Myths answer ultimate questions of the origin of the universe, humans, and the meaning and direction of human life. This is reflected in some well-known definitions of myth. According to Mircea Eliade, every myth shows how a reality came into existence and that it "narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the 'beginnings'" (5). For Ake Hultkrantz, a myth "takes place at the beginning of time, its acting personages are gods and mythic beings like the culture hero, primeval man, and the prototypes of animals, and the scene for action is the supernatural world, having a fixed pattern of events" (10).

There are five main types of myths: creation myth, institutional myth, the hero's journey, ritual myth, and eschatological myth. Creation myths seek to answer questions of the origin of the universe and the origin, nature, meaning, and purpose of human life. The same cognitive imperative that drives scientists to explain things was hardwired into the human brain in ancient times to fashion myths. However, whereas science grounds its explanation on factual evidence, creation myths seek the ultimate source of all things beyond the empirical, in the realm of the Sacred. It is believed that because something happened through the intervention of the Sacred, it is true, meaningful, and holy. This is because of one important implication of a creation myth: what happened at the beginning illuminates the reality people experience in the present and provides a meaningful direction of life for the future. Some myths declare that the Creator preexisted creation. Others assume that the Creator existed along with a state of chaos, in which case creation is believed to consist of fashioning the world out of chaos. Most creation stories on human origin speak of humans being created in the image of the Creator. Such depiction does not mean that humans project the divine in their own image, as Robert Wright and others would have us believe. Rather, humans draw the image of the Creator from their experience of the most powerful being on earth in order to establish significant relationship with him or her so as to gain the favor they seek or to answer the question of their origin and destiny.

Institutional myths attempt to explain how cultural and religious institutions, laws, and customs were established by mythic beings or culture heroes as a result of encounters with the Sacred. Such are the covenant and laws of Moses; the laws of Manu in Hinduism; the Qur'anic laws and Islamic Community; the Christian Church; shamanism and priesthood; rituals and taboos (various forbidden behavior). It is believed that by living according to these laws and communal structures, people can find their identity and meaning and fulfill their destiny.

The hero's journey is reflected in savior myths, founders of religions, or stories of mythical heroes of various cultures. Their activities set patterns of meaning and models of behavior for later generations to follow. They journeyed through life, confronted and gained mastery over negative conditioning and forces of the unconscious, and opened pathways following which others can experience self-mastery and fulfillment. Such reconnection brings healing, wholeness, salvation, or liberation.

Ritual myths seek to explain the origin and justification of rituals and institutions that bind a community together and give it structure and meaning. Because of its centrality in providing communal cohesion and worship services, some consider this type of myth to be the model in determining the meaning of all rites and significant human activities (Eliade 98). Often creation myths serve to explain the etiology of a ritual—an explanation of how it originated as a result of encounter with or action of the Sacred. As pathways of reconnection with the Sacred, these myths serve communities to renew themselves, illuminate significant stages of life, and empower and guide individuals' progress through them. Such are the sacred pipe in Native American religions, circumcision and genital cutting in some African religions, the Sabbath and the Passover in Judaism, the Eucharist in Christianity, purification rites in Shinto, and so on.

Eschatological myths are concerned with the end of the universe and final human and individual destiny. In some religions, such as Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam, these myths have to do with death, judgment, heaven, and hell. Themes of heaven and hell are also found in Hinduism, Buddhism, and many ancient religions.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

The Ordinary World

In the ordinary state or the human condition, humans have no direct access to the Sacred. From the religious point of view, this is the deepest source of the problems that afflict humankind. Many religions express this crucial issue in their myths, legends, and oral traditions or written scriptures. Some religions consider this condition as a state that is fragmented, disordered, or insufficient in itself. To others, the world may appear riddled with paradoxes, conflicts, or contradictions that defy resolution (Daoism). Some see humanity as pervaded by ignorance of the nature of reality as it is and unaware of their actual condition, resulting in suffering (Buddhism, Hinduism). To others, the human condition may appear like the branches of a tree, happy and full of sap, unaware that the tree has been cut off from its roots (Sufism). Or this state may be called the fallen condition, in which humans are shut out from contact with the divine (Christianity). To yet others the entire cosmos and humanity may appear split and enmeshed in conflict between good and evil (Zoroastrianism).

From infancy and childhood, humans are cut off from the Sacred. In the ultimate depth of our being, we are born with the potential for realizing the connection. But as the synapses of our brain get connected through experiences in infancy and childhood and consciousness becomes programmed, those synapses that are not activated are snipped off. As a result, the programming and construction of our consciousness cuts us off from the Sacred. Designed to perceive limited, finite objects in the ordinary world, our consciousness is unable to directly experience the Sacred, which comes to be thought of as a realm beyond this world. Thus, if we were designed to perceive things only two dimensionally, we would not perceive three-dimensional objects. Living in a three-dimensional world (plus time), we are not able to perceive any dimension lying beyond it. So we come to believe that it does not exist (atheism), or that it is a matter of belief (religion). As a result, in the ordinary state, we remain cut off from the Sacred.

The Need for Transformation and Reconnection

Out of this disconnection arises a sense of separation, limitation, and incompleteness at the unconscious level, which in turn triggers the need for reconnection with the deepest dimension of our being and thereby experience completeness. This may be a reason for the feeling of transcendence or going beyond what is given, which, according to Dean Hamer, got hardwired into our genes. The primal separation at birth triggers the quest for transcendence as the brain accelerates the process of making connections among nerve cells.

According to some psychologists, at first, the infant experiences no boundaries, no inside distinguished from outside, no subject separate from object, no duality from self and world. The survival drive prompts the infant to organize his sensations to form a stable world, out of which what we call "the world," or an object-pole, is constructed. The child constructs a sense of self, or subject-pole, out of experiences of objects and interactions with significant others, who are essential for his survival. This sense of self is nothing but a thought, an image or representation around which consciousness identifies and attaches its contents or objects. Because this emergent self is not anything real in itself, a feeling of incompleteness or insufficiency remains at its very core. Out of this fundamental sense of absence or lack arise desire or want, and the drive for transcendence to overcome the sense of incompleteness by becoming real, complete. With the birth of self-consciousness, the ego casts its drive of transcendence on the world in which to find completeness and thus overcome the feeling of insufficiency. But nothing in the world or within the human condition—no object, person, or relationship—can provide the ultimate transcendence and completeness humans crave. For everything in this world that constitutes the object-pole remains separate from the subject-pole, and so fails to make the self real and complete. And anything humans create remains within the conditioned world and therefore cut off from the Sacred. Hence the paradox: humans cannot realize what they most deeply desire within this world in the state of being cut off from the Sacred. All our attempts to do so yield the opposite of what we intend. To become free of this fundamental paradox and experience transcendence and completeness, we must become reconnected with the Sacred. Central to religion, therefore, is this reconnection, reflected in the Latin word for religion—religio from religare—which means to bind back or reconnect with the Sacred.

Ways of Reconnecting with the Sacred

Since nothing in the conditioned world can reconnect one to the Sacred, there must be a change, or transformation, in humans that can lift them out of the ordinary conditioned states of reality, consciousness, or self and into the realm of the Sacred in order to effect the reconnection. That, precisely, is the heart of religion.

There are two main ways that this transformation and reconnection can take place. One way is transforming the medium, when an object serves as a medium of reconnection between an individual or a group and the Sacred. This method of reconnection is not direct but occurs in faith, intention, and meaning. Such is the function of rituals. Through prayers, chants, and other rites ordinary, natural objects—such as offerings of grain, food, drink, and livestock—are intended and believed to be transformed and lifted to the realm of the Sacred. At that point, the ritual object no longer remains merely a natural entity but is made sacred in faith, intention, and meaning, in the mind of the worshipper. It is through that sacred object that the worshipper believes that he becomes reconnected with the Sacred. This is evident from the meaning of the word "sacrifice" (sacer \+ facere)—to make sacred. The animal sacrificed no longer remains ordinary but becomes sacred so that in offering it to the deity and participating in it, the worshipper believes that he communes with the deity and receives the favor sought. This holds true of other rituals and worship services, such as prayers, rites of passage, and festivals as well. This form of transformation and reconnection is true of all religions that seek to reconnect their followers with personal or impersonal ultimate in the ordinary state of consciousness.

A second type of reconnection requires self-transformation. As ordinary consciousness is cut off from the Sacred, in its present state, it cannot directly experience the Sacred. Nor can the experience take place through the medium of an object. For all objects remain disconnected from the Sacred. So one must go beyond or transcend ordinary reality, consciousness, and self through inner purification and transformation, thereby making oneself sacred (sacer + facere), to arrive at a direct experience. Thus, one's consciousness must be lifted to the same level or state as the Sacred in order for union or identity between the two to take place. Such is the aim of meditation and mysticism in various religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Ritual: Transforming the Medium

Although we use the word "ritual" loosely to mean any repetitive or patterned performance that may have little or no meaning, in reality a ritual is a significant action. And it is not confined to humans. Animals not only have mating rituals but also bonding and group membership rituals, which are necessary for their survival.

Humans have generated rituals in response to the cognitive imperative to resolve the problems and paradoxes of existence, to manipulate and master the environment, and to bring harmony to life. Whether rituals originated in connection with the hunt or the preverbal interplay between mother and infant, society is steeped in rituals. Each stage of life has its specialized rituals, such as teenage group membership, high school proms, courtship, marriage, and death. Central to rituals are mutual recognition, affirmation, and certification that provide one a sense of belonging, overcome separateness, and yet affirm distinctiveness. In making the strange familiar, rituals help us to overcome ambivalence and ambiguity, impulsive excesses, and overly compulsive self-restrictions. Rituals provide a connecting thread that holds society together, thereby contributing to bonding, stability, and assurance in the face of change. As such, they have survival and adaptive value, as well as emotional and practical necessity. And by providing cohesiveness and an effective outlet of creativity in each generation, rituals contribute to the preservation and renewal of society. A failure to properly appropriate rituals at each stage of life can result in neurosis, alienation, depression, aggression, or other destructive behaviors (Erikson 201–211). Some secular rituals include the Fourth of July celebration, Thanksgiving, saluting of the flag, birthday parties, and New Year's Eve celebrations.

On the psychological level, rituals can resolve conflicts and remove psychological blocks. Such is the power of confession, prayer, meditation, music, dance, theatre, and other artistic endeavors. They can also bring new awareness by conjuring up or reawakening those deeper layers of the psyche that lie beyond the psychological (Roose-Evans 9).

In religion, rituals are designed to invest ordinary actions with meaning by lifting them out of their ordinary context and setting them within a larger historical and sacred sphere, thereby connecting participants to a deeper source of meaning and transforming power. Symbolism, which is at the heart of religious rituals, evokes and embodies the power to reconnect participants with the Sacred. Ritual performance seeks to connect the past with the present, thereby symbolically bringing the Sacred to the present so as to enable participants to connect with the power and meaning of the original act or event. This provides meaning for the present and gives direction for the future. As explained above, in worship services, ordinary objects serve as mediums or meeting ground for worshippers and the deity. Through this reconnection, worshippers aim to become reconciled and renewed, receive the power to face the vicissitudes of life, secure blessings, and find meaning and fulfillment.

Rites of Passage: Transforming Life

Rites of passage are rituals associated with the pivotal junctures of life, when an individual passes from one significant stage to another and when life may take a good or bad turn. The latter consequence ensues if a person remains attached to the old stage and fails to make the transition. He may then experience stagnation and arrested development, conflict, confusion, or destructive behavior. But by letting go of the old and making a successful transition to the new stage, he is able to experience self-growth by assimilating the possibilities opened up by the new stage and assuming the new status and role in the community.

Four rites of passage—birth, puberty, marriage, and death—are commonly recognized as fundamental. Each of these stages involves three phases. The first is the end of one stage, usually marked by a ritual. The second involves crossing over the threshold to another, which is symbolically staged by leading participants through such rituals as being stripped naked, buried, immersed, or exposed to danger or to the elements, signifying that they must dis-identify or let go of the old. The third is the emergence of the new, which is signified by rituals that provide knowledge and commitment to it. It aims to empower participants to become reintegrated into the community and assume responsibilities of the new stage (Van Gennep 11–21).

Rituals surrounding birth illustrate the three phases of a rite of passage. The first, separation from the womb, is symbolized by a pre-birth ritual. The second is illustrated by such rituals as washing and oiling, baptismal rites by immersion or pouring of water, putting on new garments, and naming, which gives the candidate a new identity. The third phase of incorporating the candidate into the communal life is ritualized by formally introducing the candidate into the community.

In most religions, puberty is regarded as the end (death) of childhood and adolescence and the birth of young adulthood. Puberty rites mark this significant transition. Examples of such rituals are the vision quest (Native Americans), circumcision and genital cutting (African), receiving the sacred thread of the twice-born (Hinduism, Zoroastrianism), Bar and Bat Mitzvah (Judaism), and Confirmation (Christianity).

Another important stage is marriage, in which individuals leave the single life behind and enter a new stage as full-fledged members of the community. Because of the importance of family life, every religion and society has some sort of marriage ritual to celebrate the event and to welcome the couple and help them assume their new role in society.

Death is the end of the present life and transition to a stage beyond the grave. From the very beginning—whether they were yesterday's Neanderthals or today's neuroscientists—it seems humans have guarded this final passage with some kind of ritual.

Festivals: Transforming Time

Most religions have rituals to celebrate special times, seasons, and events in the life of a community in the form of festivals. Some examples of festivals are the planting and harvest festivals in Native American and African religions, various pujas in Hinduism, the Buddha's birth and enlightenment, the New Year and other festivals in China and Japan, Passover in Judaism, Easter in Christianity, and 'Id al-Fitr in Islam.

The heart of festivals is transformation of time by being lifted above its ordinary course and symbolically reconnecting the present with mythic events of the past. The aim is to make the possibilities for transformation that is believed to have existed in the original available in the present in order to renew and empower participants. In linear time (as envisioned by Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), the renewal is believed to come out of the past, energizing participants in the present and empowering them for the future. In nature-based religions, which view time cyclically, regeneration is believed to come from the cyclic renewal of the seasons that pose dangers or usher new possibilities for sustaining and enhancing life. The four seasons are aligned with the four stages of human life as follows:

• Spring with birth, new life, renewal, resurrection, emergence of new consciousness

• Summer with adulthood, fullness of life, fulfillment

• Fall with maturity, old age, decay

• Winter with death, latency, descent into the unconscious

Some festivals, such as the Passover in Judaism and Christmas in Christianity, combine elements of both linear and cyclical time, usually the former superimposed on the latter to give it a new meaning. Festivals also involve thanksgiving for what is received and hope for a better future.

Ethics and the Good Life

Central to religious ethics is the recognition that without avoiding evil, doing good, becoming reconciled with others, restoring broken relationships, and helping those in need it is impossible to be reconnected with the Sacred. A vertical relationship with the Sacred is not possible without establishing a harmonious horizontal relationship with fellow humans and the social and environmental contexts in which they live.

Ethics guards humanity from deteriorating to the subhuman level. It provides guidelines for life as it ought to be lived as well as normative behavior establishing ideal patterns of relationship that aim at a concrete realization of what it means to be fully human. Ethics is concerned with the nature and validity of the moral dimension of human life. It aims at what ought to be, based on the principle that an action is not its own justification but must satisfy norms of goodness and rightness.

This justification is based on rules that must be consistently applied to all individuals without distinction of age, race, ethnicity, gender, or social status. Such rules are prescriptive, not descriptive, although they are not devoid of factual basis. They embody norms or standards that are applied to judge the goodness, rightness, or obligatory nature of an action in a particular situation. And they must be universal, that is, equally applicable to all in similar circumstances.

While ethics is a component of every religion, not every system of ethics presupposes religion or even the existence of God, or Ultimate Reality. Many modern ethical systems do not presuppose religion. Where religious ethics differs from nonreligious ethics is on the meta-ethical level, which is concerned with the very basis of ethics or morality, answering the question, "Why should I be moral?" A variety of beliefs on this issue can be found among religions. According to one set of approaches, the reason one should be moral is that it is the will of God (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), the gods, the primal ancestor (Hinduism), or ancestors (African traditional religions). Another is that morality is an expression of the sacred cosmic patterns, which everyone ought to follow in order to live in peace and harmony (Confucianism, Daoism).

There is also a diversity of motives for observing God's will and being ethical. Nearly universal are reward (blessings, good health, and long life; going to heaven; a good rebirth) and punishment or fear of punishment (misfortune, disease, and death; going to hell; a bad rebirth). For a few, the motive is pure, disinterested love of God and fellow human beings. In meditation and mysticism, ethics is the foundation of the path that is aimed at purifying the minds and emotions of participants, freeing them of negative conditioning, and uprooting the tendency to commit evil. Without this purification, participants cannot experience transformation and attain union with the Sacred.

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

Like humans, religions are basically communal. Not only are humans born in a communal context, they also come to recognize their humanity and realize their identity in interaction with other human beings. We come to know and have faith in the Sacred in the context of a religious community. Not only is faith nurtured, sustained, and strengthened in interaction with members of a religious community, it also comes to full development and maturity in such a context. Without a community of faith, personal faith would atrophy. Even in the ultimate religious experience, which involves transcending the self and experiencing union with God or identity with the Infinite, one comes to realize one's deepest connection with all things. Even solitary religious pathfinders (Moses, Mahavira, Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Nanak, Zoroaster) communicated their discoveries to others and became founders of new religions.

Because a community needs organization for its proper functioning, a wide range of institutions and organizations have evolved in religions—loose or tight; formal or informal; democratic, collegial, or monarchical. Within each religion, various branches have developed a diversity of institutions and organizations. Thus, the three main branches of Christianity—Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism—exhibit all three of the above patterns. Different arrangements prevail in other religions. Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam have no central authority. Some Native American religions, African religions, Daoism, and Shinto are rather loosely organized. On the other hand, cults have the tightest organization, with every part of life mapped out and controlled by the leader. Unquestioned acceptance of every teaching and practice is the norm. No independent thinking or criticism is allowed. Any deviation from the norm is severely punished, to the point of killing or threatening anyone who tries to leave, as was true of the Jonestown Massacre, the Heaven's Gate cult, and the Branch Davidians.

Function prescribes structures, organization, and regulations within which a harmonious relationship among members can be established, maintained, and promoted. In general, we notice three types of institutions.

Priests/Priestesses

Priests/priestesses are the ministers who serve the religious community. Their main function is to officiate at communal rituals (worship, rites of passage, and festivals), organize the community, instruct the members in its beliefs and practices, and act as guardians of orthodoxy. They also provide help in times of difficulty and guidance throughout life. They supervise the faithful, guard against infringements, and judge violators so as to maintain the organization and its structure. In religions whose structures are hierarchical, such as various Christian churches, Tibetan Buddhism, and others, the priesthood is also hierarchically organized.

Most religions have a priesthood or ministry to which both men and women are admitted. Some, such as Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Orthodox Judaism, admit men only. Others, such as Islam and most Native American religions, have no official priesthood.

Community Leaders

Besides (in some cases instead of) an official priesthood, all religions have community leaders who assume various functions within the community. Thus, shamans or holy men in Native American and other religions have one of the most important functions within their communities. Not only do they officiate at many rituals, instruct, and heal the people, but they also act as intermediaries between the people and the spirit world. Hinduism and Buddhism have various leaders, such as gurus (teachers), swamis (spiritual masters), rishis (sages), and sadhus (holy men). In ancient Israel, prophets spoke on behalf of God and communicated his will to the people. In Islam, imams act as community leaders and teachers and lead the faithful in communal prayers.

Communal Associations

These are organized locally, such as local parishes or congregations, temples, synagogues, and mosques, where the faithful gather not only for communal rituals but also for instruction and various activities that promote communal welfare. In addition, many religions have national and international associations and organizations that call for periodic gathering of leaders to resolve issues or set policies affecting the entire religion or denomination.

The relationship of a religion to the world depends on the attitude it adopts toward it. If the world is viewed as a godless, hostile, or dangerous place, the stance may be one of withdrawal, condemnation, opposition, or attempt at subversion. If it is seen as good but flawed, the attitude may be one of compassion and active involvement. If a religion views the world as an embodiment of the Sacred, it adopts an attitude of trust and embraces the world. Those that see the world as neutral tend to separate religion from the public sphere and relegate it to the private sector. This standpoint not only leads to a separation between religion and society in the public domain, but the separation also extends to individual lives.

Our attitude toward other religions will determine our stance toward them. In general, we discern three main approaches people take toward religions other than their own—exclusivist, inclusivist, and pluralist.

Exclusivists view their religion as the only true religion or the only true path to salvation. This view is expressed in the scriptures of some religions, such as Christianity and Islam. It has generated the impetus to convert unbelievers and members of other religions. It may also give rise to an attitude of intolerance toward other religions.

Inclusivism maintains that while truth may be found in all religions and that by sincerely following their religion people can gain salvation, the fullness of truth resides in one's own religion. Some Christian theologians and the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church hold this view. This approach brooks a greater tolerance but still maintains that one's religion contains the ultimate truth.

The pluralist approach holds that various religions are diverse paths to the Sacred. This view follows from the idea that as the Infinite is beyond all forms, and yet all forms are its manifestations, It can reveal itself in any form. So, every religion, insofar as it is a witness to the Infinite or the Sacred, is true and valid within its own sphere. Religious differences arose as a result of the ways different peoples experienced the Infinite within their cultural contexts and articulated their views within them. By their very nature, such views are relative to the cultural and religious frameworks. They cannot claim the status of absolute and exclusive truth. It is not possible in the ordinary state of consciousness to stand outside all constructs or conceptual frameworks and judge the truth of religions different from one's own. All such claims are subjective, faith-based standpoints. As witnesses to revelations of the Sacred, all religions are legitimate.

The pluralist model can generate an open, egalitarian, inquiring, and experimental attitude. It may also lead to the phenomenon of what the Catholic theologian John Dunne calls "passing over to other religions and returning to one's own with new insights" (152). This certainly has been a phenomenon in the West with the influx of gurus, or teachers, from the East and westerners journeying to the East and learning directly from eastern masters. Some of those who embarked on this journey abandoned their former religions and took on new ways. Others, dissatisfied with organized religions, have cobbled together unrelated practices from disparate sources and formed an amalgam of syncretistic beliefs and practices. Still others, having become disillusioned with both the West and the East, or who have grown indifferent to all religions, have simply abandoned religious practices. Some have embarked on their own spiritual paths. Others have sought refuge in what are called "new religions."

Compassion in Action

A keen sense of responsibility toward the world has moved many religious persons to devote themselves to social causes or social ethics. Members of some religions have developed a very active stance, while others are more passive. In general, western religions, being outwardly oriented, are more active. Compassion has moved them to become actively involved in fighting disease, hunger, poverty, oppression, injustice, and inequality. Many are involved in developing social and economic infrastructure, promoting peace, establishing educational systems, and building hospitals to combat diseases. Others have dedicated themselves to saving the earth by working to reverse global warming, pollution, or the destruction of the environment. Being inwardly directed and emphasizing inner purification and self-transformation, followers of eastern religions have generally been more passive, convinced that the disease is internal and that no amount of external activity will bring about a change of consciousness. Yet many of them today have embarked on social and environmental causes.

Mission to the World—Religious Dialogue

Acting as agents of social and political change, followers of many religions have become engaged in secular projects, such as turning to politics with the avowed aim of transforming politics according to their religious agenda. Others have organized themselves to oppose certain practices in their society, such as abortion, cloning, and single-sex marriages. Islamic fundamentalism has sworn to transform Islamic societies according to the teaching of the Qur'an, and their extremist fringe groups have declared jihad or holy war on godless, secular, societies that they believe pose a threat to their religion and way of life. Hindu nationalists are bent on making India a Hindu society.

Members of some religions, such as Christianity and Islam, have sought to convert the nonreligious population as well as members of other religions. Both Christianity and Islam are active in Africa, seeking converts. Many Protestant denominations, especially the Evangelical and Pentecostal Churches, are active in Latin America, bent on winning the masses away from their traditional Catholic faith.

More recently, there has been a growing recognition of an urgent need for dialogue among religions not only to overcome suspicion, hostility, or distrust, and to recognize one another's legitimacy as religion, but also to come to the aid of a fractious world in desperate need of healing. In a world plagued by poverty, hunger, and starvation among one third of the earth's inhabitants; unjust distribution of wealth and wages; terrorism, victimization, and violence; and the impending environmental crisis, there is widespread recognition that dialogue among religions is imperative. To be effective in combating these persistent and recalcitrant problems, the religions must identify the problems, agree on common goals, and adopt plans of action and determine strategies for implementing them.

Let us now turn to individual religions and see to what extent they embody all the characteristics of religion discussed in this chapter.

Oglala Girl in front of a Tipi

Chapter 2: Native American Religions

It has been said that America is a nation of immigrants. This is also true of the people we call Native Americans. However, since they arrived so long ago, they are natives in comparison to Europeans and later arrivals from other continents. Recent archeological discoveries strongly support the theory that bands of people migrated down the Pacific Coast of North and South America, beginning perhaps some thirty thousand years ago. But based on artifacts found in South Carolina, some archeologists think that early migrants might have come from Europe. Others dismiss this view as conjecture. Examination of some Native American creation myths seems to reveal traces of epic journeys of these peoples from their homeland, which was perhaps in the Lake Baikal region of Russia, to the New World.

One thing that should be kept in mind as we proceed is that the composite sketch to be presented here cannot do justice to the many patterns of religion that evolved among Native Americans, even if we limited our exploration to the United States alone, as we intend to do here. An adequate discussion of the rich variety of the beliefs and practices of each tribe or nation is beyond the scope of this text. It is hoped that this limited exploration will stimulate the reader to undertake further study.

Beginnings: Creation Myths

Native Americans have evolved many kinds of creation myths. The most common are tales of creation from nothingness, chaos, an earth-diver in search of soil to create landmass (usually a fowl or an animal), and the interaction of complementary forces. There are also creation myths involving the emergence from another world. These myths are some of the major sources of our knowledge of Native American religions. We will briefly summarize the Hopi myth of creation from nothingness, the Jicarilla Apache story of creation from chaos, and the Iroquoian story that embraces both the earth-diver and the interaction between complementary primal forces.

Hopi: Myth of Emergence: In the beginning, only the Creator, Taiowa existed. To quote the text from Barbara Sproul's anthology, "All else was just an immeasurable void in the mind of Taiowa. Then he, the infinite, conceived the finite" (269). He created his nephew, Sotuknang and instructed him to carry out his plan of creation.

Sotuknang created nine universes. To bring forth life, he created Spider Woman, who formed twin gods to solidify the earth and created sound as an instrument for carrying messages. Next she created plants, birds, and animals. Finally she created humans: four males of four colors—yellow, red, white and black, representing the four directions—in the image of Sotuknang, and four females in her own image. In turn, Sotuknang gave them speech and reproductive powers and commanded them to live in harmony and respect the Creator at all times.

At first humans lived in unity and harmony, but gradually they forgot the divine command and resorted, in the first world, to discord; in the second, to violence, greed, and acquisitiveness; and in the third, to finding fulfillment in their own creations. So the three worlds had to be destroyed—by volcanic eruptions, ice, and water, respectively. But Spider Woman saved the faithful by sealing them up inside hollow stems of tall plants. They traveled long distances, northeast and southeast, first floating in these hollow reeds and then in round, flat boats. At last they came to their place of emergence, which was the fourth world, where they dispersed in different directions (Sproul 269–284).

However, according to the Keres Pueblo version of the myth, Spider Woman, also called Thought Woman, was the one who existed before everything. At the Dawn of Being, she spun one line from north to south and another from east to west and sat astride the universe. As she sang, two daughters were born. They created the sun and the moon. Then Spider Woman took red, yellow, white, and black clay and created human beings. To each she attached a thread at the top of the head. But people forgot this connection and became cruel and corrupt. So the first three worlds were washed away by great floods. But Spider Woman brought those who remained faithful to the place of hollow reeds, which were used as boats. They traveled very far and at last emerged into the fourth world (Stone 289–290).

Jicarilla Apache: Creation Out of Chaos: In the beginning nothing existed except the Hactcin (the Sacred present in natural forces), as well as darkness, water, and cyclone (i.e., chaos). The Hactcin made the earth, the underworld, and the sky. The Earth was called Mother, and the Sky Father. Everything had a Hactcin. Their leader, Black Hactcin, gave form to all life. First he created animals and birds, who asked him to create a human being, which he did in his own image. The animals and birds again asked Black Hactcin to create a companion for the man. He did so with their cooperation. These first humans were called Ancestral Man and Ancestral Woman (Sproul 263–268).

The Iroquois: Earth-Diver and Complementary Forces: There are many versions of this story. According to an Iroquois/Seneca version, the Celestial Beings lived beyond the dome of the sky. In the center of that world stood a Great Tree, the fruit of which sustained the gods.

Furious to find his bride, Mature Flowers, pregnant (he had previously embraced her), the Sky Chief uprooted the tree and pushed her down the hole. While going down, Mature Flowers grabbed the soil that contained various seeds. When she drew closer to the water below, ducks knitted their wings to break her fall, and the great turtle made a floating island with his back on which she came to rest. To create the earth, after many creatures tried and failed, at last the beaver succeeded in touching the bottom of the water with his tail and scooping up enough mud to smear the turtle's back, which expanded and filled the horizon. The seeds from Mature Flower's fingers formed the earth's vegetation, and the roots of the heavenly tree germinated to form a great tree, under which she gave birth to a daughter who, in some versions, is called the Fat-Faced Lynx.

Impregnated by the wind, the Lynx gave birth to twins, the older of whom was called Sapling and the younger one was called Flint. As the Lynx died giving birth, the twins took over the task of completing creation. Sapling tended to create only pleasant things. Flint modified and completed his brother's work by introducing difficult matters. Thus did they become the principles of cosmic equilibrium (Mann 2–89; Tooker 35–47).

Belief in the Sacred

Native American religions profess belief in three forms of the Supreme Being—the Infinite, personal God, and impersonal power. In addition, they believe in a variety of other forms of the Sacred—gods and goddesses, spirits, and ancestors. In many cases these deities are hierarchically organized. One special feature is belief in a trickster deity (a belief also found among African traditional religions). Another is the view of the natural world, in which humans are not above nature but exist in continuity and interrelationship with it. What follows is a brief look at these dimensions of the Sacred in Native American religions.

Ultimate Reality: The Hopi Ultimate Reality, Taiowa, is infinite, eternal, and formless, manifesting itself in the highest forms of the Sacred. All creation takes place and exists in the divine mind, which acts like their container. Ultimate Reality as personal beings, such as Spider Woman and the Iroquoian Sky Chief, are the more common.

Some writers think that Native American Supreme Deity was initially female. It was called by various names, such as Mother Earth, Hopi Spider Woman, Navajo Changing Woman, Keres Pueblo Thought Woman, Iroquois Sky Woman, and Cherokee River Goddess. These beliefs originated during the prior goddess-worshipping culture and matriarchal society. As the societies fell under the influence of patriarchy, male gods assumed supremacy and power over goddesses (Allen 13–41; Ferguson 60). Others, however, dispute this view. Thus Sam Gill observes that far from Mother Goddess being a universal belief among Native Americans, western influence led some Native Americans to transform their initial symbolism of the earth as female into the supreme Mother Goddess and universal female Creator, and to identify with her the abovementioned Native American figures. Native Americans adopted these ideas, along with other concepts of deities. In some cases, such as the Shawnee, the initial supreme male creator was transformed into a female (4, 74–86).

For some Native Americans, the Ultimate is a mysterious, impersonal power, who may be supreme in a hierarchy of deities that share in the work of creation or enlist the cooperation of the sacred forces of nature and the animal kingdom. Black Hactcin is such an impersonal power. Another is the Sioux Ultimate Reality Wakan Tanka, the Great Mysterious. Some consider Wakan Tanka to be both the name of a personal God and a collective term for sixteen spirits. But the sixteen spirits could simply be attributes or manifestations of Wakan Tanka.

Many Native Americans believe the Supreme Deity to be a primary polarity of male and female cocreators. The male principle is often addressed as Father and sometimes as Grandfather, and the female as Mother or Grandmother. Father God is often identified with the sky or the sun, and Mother Goddess with the earth. The Iroquoian traditions consider complementarity, in which reciprocity, cooperation, and mutuality among equals receive greater emphasis, to be central to this primary polarity—whether conceived as twins or male and female.

In some myths, such as those involving the trickster, the Ultimate can assume various physical forms, such as coyote, raven, blue jay, eagle, fox, wolf, and other animal figures. Often the trickster serves to explain the problems and paradoxes of the human condition. He represents the principle of transformation, which, by throwing the boundaries of the existing order wide open, brings new things to life.

Gods, Goddesses and Sacred Powers: The Sacred manifested through beings and forces of nature is believed to be present in the sky, atmosphere, earth, and underworld. In these spheres, each deity presides over a certain function or a particular power of nature. Besides the Supreme Deity in the form of the sun and the sky, other beings in the sky include the moon, the stars, and the Milky Way. Among the spiritual entities in the atmosphere are the four winds, the four directions, whirlwind, rain, thunder, and thunderbird. The eagle was regarded especially sacred, serving as a link between God and humans, bringing down messages from and carrying prayers to God. On earth, the life-sustaining buffalo was sacred to the hunting tribes of the plains. For the agricultural societies, the main staple in their diet, corn, called Corn Mother, often synonymous with Mother Earth, was especially sacred. In addition, mountains, stones, deserts, swamps, waters, and trees, especially the world tree, were sacred.

The Spirit World: The spirits, including the ancestors and ghosts, are everywhere on earth. Especially important are the guardian spirits, sacred powers, or energies, revealed in animal forms during vision quest or shamanic journey. They confer specific powers upon individuals, give them a sacred song which is used to call the spirit to come to their aid, and instruct them to make a bag (misleadingly called "the medicine bag"). The ritual objects associated with the vision and the spirit are kept in that bag.

The Natural World: On the earth, which is the middle level of their three-tiered universe, Native Americans see no separation between humans, animals, and the environment. Things exist in continuity, interrelationship, and interdependence. Humans form part of the landscape, which they incorporate into their most fundamental experience. Native Americans have a moral relationship of reciprocity with nature.

However, Native Americans were not conservationists seeking to preserve nature and maintain ecological balance. Sometimes they overexploited and abused the land, overkilled the buffalo, and caused deterioration of the environment. But what is of fundamental importance is their vision of unity and sense of humanity's intrinsic relationship with nature. Their experience of nature as the realm of mystery and the locus of divine revelation gave them this sense of sacredness of nature and feelings of unity, interdependence, and reciprocal relationship. Within this fundamental unity, some myths assume that since animals were created before humans, they are equal, and in a sense superior, to us. But basically they are relatives. Aiming to acquire their powers, Native Americans imitate animals in dress, actions, and projective thought.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

Native American religious goals are diverse: getting a sense of identity, meaning, and fulfillment; healing, both physical and mental; receiving powers for sustaining life on earth; and living in harmony with the sacred forces and the entire world. To attain these goals and other blessings, they seek to contact the Sacred through rituals, worship, rites of passage, and festivals. These serve as mediums, transformed in faith, intention, and meaning, for communing with the Sacred. Some of the main rituals for this purpose are the sweat lodge, the sacred pipe, the sun dance, and the ghost dance.

Rituals: Ways of Contacting the Sacred

The Sweat Lodge: As a purification rite, the sweat lodge either stands by itself or is preliminary to other rituals, such as the vision quest, sun dance, or any major undertaking that calls for purification. The steam for purification in the ritual lodge comes from heated rocks. As the leader sprinkles water on glowing rocks, heat and steam rise, which purify the participants' bodies. The leader offers prayers aimed at purifying the participants' minds, awakening a communal spirit among them and fostering a sense of oneness with the forces of nature and spiritual powers. Each participant then smokes the sacred pipe four times, facing the four directions, beginning with the west, and offers prayers after each puff. A prayer for unity with all things concludes the ritual.

The Sacred Pipe: For many Native Americans, the sacred pipe represents the total universe and the symbolic integration of all rituals. Four ribbons of four colors that hang from the stem represent four quarters of the earth. From each of them a specific blessing is sought. Knowledge and understanding, and the power to walk on the path of life in unity are sought from the west, represented by a black ribbon because "thunder beings" reside there. White represents the north, the source of "cleansing wind," which bestows the power of healing and mental purity and protection from disease. Red represents the east, the source of light, and the morning star intended to bestow wisdom for walking on the sacred path. Yellow represents the south, which is associated with the summer and the power to grow and prosper. The eagle feather represents and is a vehicle for carrying people's thoughts and prayers to Wakan Tanka.

Smoking the pipe is a sacred act, and only men and women of integrity are allowed to do so. Smoked ceremonially before religious events and war, the sacred pipe serves to seal bonds between groups, make vows to Wakan Tanka, and validate prophecies. A desecrated pipe can be purified, but an ineffective one is buried.

The Sun Dance: As a spring ritual, the sun dance is performed to give thanks to the Supreme Being for the past year and to offer petitions to guarantee a happy and healthy year to come. Additionally, in reenacting creation, the people participate in cosmic renewal, experience newness of life, and rededicate themselves (Brown 3:193). If performed in the summer, it is intended to purify the people and give them power, endurance, and wisdom to live in unity with all things. More recently, prayers for good health, curing diseases, and maintaining communal unity have become major concerns. For the Lakota, the sun dance signifies the affirmation of identity and tradition and a belief in the interrelatedness and reciprocity of all life.

In the evening of the first day, dancing and singing begin after the main leader offers prayers to Wakan Tanka. During the ritual, the dancers, oriented to the center tree, which represents the World Tree, dance toward it as often as they wish. Healing rituals take place on the second or the third day. The ritual leader offers prayers over the sick and draws out the illness with the aid of a fan made of eagle wings. As they intensify their dancing and smoking of the sacred pipe on the third day, the dancers may see visions, resulting from exhaustion or trance induced by the dance.

The curing and blessing end around noon of the fourth day. Later that afternoon, the ritual leader blesses the water, some of which is poured on the ground as an offering to Mother Earth. The participants complete the ceremony with a sweat bath and by bathing in the nearby creek. Money, clothes, and blankets donated in thanksgiving by the cured and the relatives of the dancers are distributed among the needy. The ritual is capped with a celebration in the evening.

The Ghost Dance: The ghost dance developed in the wake of the Native Americans' confinement to reservations and destruction of their way of life. It was at once a prophetic protest against oppression and injustice, and adjustment to the new world that required changing old rituals and identities and forging new ones. This is clear from the fact that the ghost dance was influenced by Christian millennialism of that time and the belief in the Second Coming of Jesus.

Inspired by Wodziwob in 1870, the ghost dance was renewed by Wovoka (also called Jack Wilson) in 1889. During a solar eclipse he fell into a trance, during which the Supreme Deity is said to have shown him the land of the dead, and the happy condition of its inhabitants, and to have promised the living a reunion with the dead if they performed the dance. Wovoka told the white settlers that the reunion would take place in the other world if people lived morally and performed the dance. But, he told the Native Americans, the game animals and the dead would return, accompanied by Jesus. There would be no sickness and everyone would be young again if they did not harm anyone, did what was right, and did not cause any trouble for the white settlers.

The round dance was performed on four or five consecutive nights. Interlacing their fingers, men and women formed a circle and danced counterclockwise around a pole in slow, shuffling steps. Prolonged dancing made some dancers fall to the ground in a trance and have visions or communications from the dead about their return.

However, the Plains tribes misinterpreted the message to mean that a great flood would come and drown the white settlers, that they would be driven off, or that a landslide would exterminate them. The Sioux contemplated but took no military action against the whites. They covered their bodies with "ghost shirts" (white shirts painted with the sun, moon, and stars), which they believed would protect them against bullets.

Alarmed by the frenetic dancing in the summer and fall of 1890, the government ordered the dancing stopped. When the Native Americans refused, the soldiers surrounded the Wounded Knee camp, disarmed the twenty armed men, arrested and assassinated Chief Sitting Bull, and massacred 370 people, 250 of whom were women and children. After this catastrophe, and with the federal government making all Native American religions illegal, the dance gradually petered out.

Rituals of Healing: All tribes engage in mental and physical healing conducted by shamans, medicine persons, or herbalists. The first two types of healers receive their power of healing and curing through visions or dreams of spirits in animal forms, which speak to them, give them power, and teach them methods of healing. The herbalists use herbal medicines and magic formulas for curing.

Many Native Americans believe that there are two kinds of diseases: physical illnesses and "soul loss." The first is believed to be caused by harmful external agents, hostile energies or spirits entering the body (i.e., toxins or germs). The second, involving a change in consciousness, is thought to be caused by physical conditions (e.g., high fever or coma), psychological problems (e.g., mental illness), or spiritual transgressions. Correspondingly, there are two types of healing: healing diseases by sucking, blowing, and drawing the affliction out with a feather fan; and restoring lost souls through shamanic journey.

In the sucking method, healers locate the afflicted area, suck out the disease, and spit it into a container until they detect no sensation of heat or energy as they pass their hand over the patient. In many cases healers may use plants and spirit helpers. In the blowing method, healers may first draw out the disease with a stick or with an eagle feather fan and then blow it away, or simply blow it away with the eagle feather fan.

Only shamans undertake psychic restoration, which requires them to go into a trance and travel to the lower world to retrieve the patient's soul. A common method consists of the shaman lying down beside the patient, going into a trance, journeying to the lower world, and retrieving the patient's soul. After retrieving the soul, he blows it first into the chest of the patient and then on top of his head.

The Navajos use sand paintings—painting the sun, moon, stars, snakes, spirits, and gods with multicolored sand, corn pollen, powdered flowers, and leaves—and an "evil-chasing chant" to remove the evil force that is believed to have invaded the patient's body. Patients ritually enter and progress through the paintings while the chant and other rites are performed. They are healed when they feel realigned with the forces of the universe.

Agricultural Rituals: Many Native Americans, especially the agricultural societies of the southwest, practice other rituals, such as prayers and chants for rain and good crops, songs and ceremonies at times of planting and harvest, and rituals involving dances, songs, and chants for restoring the fertility of the earth. The Zuni kachina societies, whose members are both male and female, perform kachina dances. Kachinas are spirits of the dead, animals, birds, and other beings. The dance ritual wearing kachina masks serves as an invocation for the spirits to appear and cause rain. When clouds do appear during or after the ritual, the Zunis believe them to be the spirits who have come to give rain.

Rites of Passage: Transforming Life

Rites of passage serve to secure transition from one stage of life to another. To successfully negotiate through the four stages—birth, puberty, marriage, and death—Native Americans observe various rituals.

Birth: For some tribes, one of the rituals surrounding the birth of a child is confining the mother and child in a lodge for a month after childbirth. At the end of the period, the mother and her baby go home, and the parents and child take a bath in the creek and put red paint (a blessing) on themselves. The Omaha Indians offer the neonate to the cosmos and invoke the sacred powers to protect and guide it through the four stages of life and beyond. Other tribes take the umbilical cord, dry it, place it in a bag, and hang it over the child's cradle. Then they burn incense at each corner of the cradle and have the child blessed by a medicine person.

Among the Hopi, after the birth, the mother and child were kept in darkness for nineteen days, during which various rituals were performed. At the naming ceremony on the morning of the twientieth day, the Corn Mother was passed over the child four times, wishing him or her good health and a long, productive life. For a boy, the mother wished him a good wife; for a girl, the mother wished her to grow up to be a good mother. Finally, the mother, facing the east, offered the child to the sun saying, "Father Sun, this is your child." Although the child had a godmother, the Corn Mother remained the child's spiritual mother (Sproul 273–274).

Puberty: The Vision Quest: As a puberty rite, the vision quest marks the passage from childhood to young adulthood. It consists of one's search for identity, epitomized by the new name the initiate receives from the spirit, for the direction of one's life, and one's place in society.

For girls, puberty officially begins with the onset of menstruation. The Oglala Sioux required menstruating girls to withdraw to a tepee, away from the campsite, where a shaman first performed a rite that alternated between smoking the pipe and offering prayers to the four directions. The rest of the ceremony took place in the tepee.

For the Apache and Navajo, girls' puberty rites are more important than those of boys, because girls become the focus for renewal of economic and spiritual life for the entire community through their association with corn, the sun, and Changing Woman. The Hopi initiate adolescent girls into the higher order of medicine societies for women.

For an Oglala Sioux boy, the vision quest can last for a period of one to four days or more, as the candidate wishes. A shaman serves as a guide and performs the necessary rituals. First, the candidate fasts for a period and purifies himself in a sweat lodge. He then proceeds to the hilltop, which symbolizes the center of the universe. Because of this symbolism, the rituals performed there aim to enable him to discover his personal center, from where he can experience a sense of connection with all things. The rite performed at the site symbolizes four seasons and four stages of life.

Entering the location, the "lamenter" goes first to the center pole and then to each of the four corners and offers prayers to the Supreme Deity. Next, he takes his sacred pipe and, raising it to the sky, asks for help from winged and celestial beings. Then he points the pipe downward for help from the earth and all that grows on it. He repeats this pattern of prayer all day long, alternating between one or more hours of prayer and rest.

He may encounter spirits while awake, in lucid dreaming, or in dreams while he sleeps. Spirits may appear in forms of talking animals, natural forces, such as thunder and lightning, or in human form. Sometimes the vision is induced through more extreme measures, such as laceration.

At the end, his shamanic guide instructs him to recount his vision in front of an assembled group, solemnly warning him that if he makes things up, he will be punished by the spirit world. If he received no vision or his experience was judged insignificant, he might be urged to try again.

Marriage: Traditionally, marriage consisted of a simple exchange of gifts between the parents of the bride and groom, followed by a feast and dancing. Marriage gave the young man access to a number of tribal rituals and activities previously closed to him.

Old Age and Death: Native Americans generally conceive life after death as an idealized state of life on earth. Hunting cultures believe in a happy land after death with an abundance of food and game, where people "spend time singing, dancing, and gambling" (Hultkrantz 2:59). The dead person arrives at this happy place by following the Milky Way or going beyond the horizon. Agricultural societies, such as the Zuni, believe the land of the dead to be the underworld or at the bottom of a sacred lake. After death the soul lingers for four days before departing to its destination.

Some tribes believe in the existence of two souls. One soul is empirical, which ceases at death. The other soul survives. It may go to a particular realm, such as the ones discussed above. It may remain on earth as a ghost. Or it may be born again as a human being or even as a bird, an insect, or an inanimate object.

Native Americans observe various rites for the dead. The Wind River Shoshoni have a period of mourning for three days. Then the corpse is taken to the burial place and buried together with the family tent. For a male, the best horse is killed to serve as his mount to carry him to the land of the dead. In some cases, the mourning continues for up to ten days and is concluded with a dance one to six months later.

Festivals: Transforming Time

Native Americans celebrate seasonal festivals tied to the rhythms and cycles of nature. For the hunting-gathering societies of the Plains, the sun dance is a spring/summer festival. The need to water cultivated fields prompts the Hopi to offer prayers to the four directions, place prayer sticks and sacred objects on an altar, sprinkle corn, recite the creation story, and perform song and dance. These rituals last eight days, followed by a dance on the ninth (Albanese 38–41).

From December through July, the Hopi engaged in kachina rituals. Masked dancers impersonated the kachina spirits and, through the dance, sought to become one with them. The aim was to cause rain, fertility of the soil, abundant crops, and blessings. Another ritual was the soyal, which took place before the winter solstice. It culminated in everyone breathing in cornhusk as a gesture for gaining fertility from the spirits. Male corn collectors simulated sexual intercourse to encourage fertility in nature. Seed corn was blessed, followed by a dance in the kiva (pit ritual lodge) and a distribution of prayer sticks to every house.

From August through November they engaged in non-kachina rites. Among the non-kachina rituals, Women's Societies engaged in various ceremonies in September and October. And November was the time for initiation ritual.

Ethics and the Good Life

For Native Americans, the moral order and vision of a good life are based on the ideal of universal harmony and unity pervading all relationships—between nature and human beings, among human societies, and between the society and the individual. Perhaps no group expresses this ideal more clearly than the Navajo. Therefore, they will serve to illustrate this important aspect of Native American religious systems.

Hozhq (pronounced hocjon) signifies the Navajo vision of the ideal state of perfect harmony among all powers, persons, and things in the three realms of existence. By observing this intrinsic law of the universe, the Navajo wish to reap good health and long life and create a healthy environment in which everyone can live in peace and harmony. Morality aims at promoting harmonious social relationships, as the central principle of interpersonal relationship—reciprocity among all relatives—indicates. Who is a relative? The general rule is "Behave toward everybody as if they were your relatives" (Kluckhohn 384–389).

Navajo ethics is primarily social, consequential, and relativist (or situational). An act is not good or bad in itself; it is good if it promotes peace and harmony, long life, and happiness; it is bad if it brings penalties. Drinking is bad if it leads to fighting, poverty, or loss of self-control. Serious crimes, such as rape, adultery, and murder, break the universal and social order, endanger health, and shorten life. They are not evil in themselves but in relation to external circumstances. To undo the damage and restore harmony, perpetrators must correct their error by doing the prescribed ritual.

Concrete morality involves promoting cooperation and group welfare, and avoiding social disruption and conflict through cultivating prudence, which involves independence and self-reliance. Social control is the objective of sobriety, self-control, trustworthiness, and truthfulness. The Navajo cultivate benevolence through generosity, friendliness, and peacefulness. Individuals are encouraged to take personal responsibility, avoid excesses, and help others by treating them as relatives. The Navajo also value hard work and regard poor people as lazy and incompetent. They value sex highly but disapprove of promiscuity. Their highest loyalty is to the family.

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

Many types of communities, organizations, and institutions have evolved among Native American religions. These communities undertake various types of action within and outside their boundaries. In this section, we will confine our discussion to some of the most prominent leaderships within these communities: shamanism, medicine societies, priesthood, prophetism, and women in Native American religions. This chapter will end with brief remarks on Native American religions today.

Shamanism: Shamanism is one of humankind's oldest and most pervasive practices. Aspects of it can be found in almost every religion. Besides the Americas and Africa, the Uralic tribes of Siberia, the Tungus and Mongols, the Australian Aborigines, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Shinto, and even Judaism, Christianity, and Islam show traces of shamanism in many of their most profound practices. Biblical prophetic movement originated from shamanism, as, perhaps, did mysticism. Native Americans brought shamanism with them when they came over from the Asian mainland, where it continues to be practiced today.

Roger Walsh defines shamanism as "a family of traditions whose practitioners voluntarily enter altered states of consciousness in which they travel to other realms and interact with spirits in order to serve their community" (142). Thus, central to shamanism is journeying to the spirit world in a state of trance. This differentiates shamanism from healers, who do not usually induce an altered state or journey to the spirit world, and from spirit possession, in which the individual lacks control.

The most characteristic element of shamanism is the out-of-the-body experience—so-called astral travel—in which the shaman's consciousness leaves the body and travels in the sky, on the earth, or in the underworld. These journeys begin with various types of rituals, such as purification in the sweat lodge, fasting, prayer, and contemplation in solitude. To induce trance, the shaman engages in such rituals as prayer, invocation of spirits, dreaming, singing power songs, dancing, and playing rhythmic musical instruments, such as drums and rattles. Some practice conscious dreaming, guided meditation, and visualization. Sometimes hallucinogenic drugs are used to induce trance.

For journey to the lower world shamans visualize themselves entering into a cave, hollow tree stump, water hole, or diving deep into the earth, and continuing the journey until they emerge in another world. Journey in the middle world involves visualization, in which shamans roam over the earth from any location. The journey to the upper world begins with shamans visualizing themselves as ascending, like a glider, from an elevation, such as a mountain, treetop, cliff, or mesa. They may experience themselves changed into birds and rising to the upper world or climbing up the world axis or World Tree (Walsh 142–148).

The journey to the underworld involves attaining healing powers, acquiring power animals, recovering lost souls or bringing about psychological healing, and placating spirits who had become angry due to infringement of some taboo. In the past, the journey to the middle world was undertaken to locate migrating herds and other game animals, to gain information about the weather, or to learn about one's prospects in warfare. In the upper world, shamans find teachers and guides, acquire wisdom and knowledge to guide their community, and obtain information about a new ritual or myth.

Shamans encounter and interact with the spirit world. According to Walsh, these spirits are images seen during trance. Their training enables shamans to recognize unclear and ambiguous images, which they interpret as coherent and meaningful entities (118). Alternatively, these spirits are subtle energies of the universe or forces of the unconscious. During trance or lucid dreaming, the shaman's awareness reaches down to these forces or states of consciousness lying beyond the ordinary state.

Medicine Societies (Zuni): While most medicine persons act alone, some tribes of the southwest, such as the Zuni, have organized medicine societies, which have twelve members. Who comprises the membership? All who had been ill and treated by a member of a medicine society. To become a member, one must give expensive gifts. The guardian spirits of these societies are called beast gods, of which there are six species, each ruling a specific direction. The north is ruled by the mountain lion (the most powerful), the west by the bear, the south by the badger, the east by the white wolf, the sky by the eagle, and the lower world by the prey mole.

In these medicine societies, the healing ritual usually consists of sucking the affected area. Diseases are believed to be caused by witchcraft. Each society specializes in healing particular kinds of diseases. The Red Ant people cure skin diseases, the Sword-Swallowers cure sore throats, the Cactus Society cures bullet wounds, and so on. Curing rituals involve altars, fetishes, or sacred objects believed to contain the power of a particular spirit, as well as other ritual implements. Not only does each society have its particular fetish, but each member also has his own fetish. Although both men and women can become members, women are not admitted to advanced curing rituals.

Priesthood: Among the Zuni and other agricultural societies, various associations of priesthood, in addition to medicine societies, take the place of shamanism and vision quest. Priesthoods are hereditary, and only a few may join. There are sixteen rain priesthoods, each with two or three members. The power of these priests resides in their fetishes. Secret rituals for rain are conducted in the houses where the fetishes are kept. The most active period for rain ceremonies is the rainy season (July–September). In contrast to these peaceful rain priesthoods, the Bow Priests were associated with war. Their members were usually warriors who had killed and scalped their enemies.

Prophetism: Contact with the West and Christianity gave rise to new institutions and movements. In the eighteenth century, prophets, or "messiahs," arose periodically to lead Native Americans in their struggle against the white settlers in order to preserve their land, traditional ways of life, and battle for independence. These prophets received visions and messages prescribing beliefs, rituals, and acts that promised an immediate change in their present condition and restoration of their earlier state. Some of them, such as Neolin the Delaware Prophet, Iroquois prophets, and the Shawnee Tenskwatawa, preached armed struggle to overthrow white oppression and restore Native American ways of life (Jorgensen 211–214).

Women in Native American Religions

According to a feminist theory, concepts of deity went through three phases of development. In the initial period, the Supreme Deity was female, identified with the earth called Mother Earth. This situation prevailed in the hunter-gatherer and horticultural periods, in which matrilineal organization of society may have been common. With the invention of the plough and the beginning of civilization that ushered in the second period, men gained political, economic, and social control. At the initial phase of this transition, male and female deities as cocreators, sharing power more or less equally, became the norm. After a period of struggle in which men wrested control of lineage, society, politics, and the economy, patriarchy and the male deity became dominant, subordinating the female deity. In the last phase, the male deity displaced the female deity and assumed unchallenged power and authority (Young 2–20).

However, in her recent book, Myth of Matriarchal Prehistory, Cynthia Eller says that there is no evidence of a universal rule of matriarchy during the prehistoric period before patriarchy overturned it. Sam Gill holds that, as noted before, among Native Americans, there was no universal belief in a female goddess called Mother Earth, the supreme Creator of all things. But this pattern may have held true of small-scale matrilineal societies where feminine symbolism and myths of matriarchy were common.

In some Native American religions, the female deity is also associated with the origin of rituals. Thus the White Buffalo Calf Maiden of the Lakota Sioux is the source of their seven religious rituals. The Calf Maiden mysteriously appeared at a time when the people were beset by hunger and lack of clear direction. In meeting the people's physical and spiritual needs, she became a savior figure. She gave them the sacred pipe and taught the rituals for the seven rites in which the pipe was to be used. After teaching the people methods of prayer to Wakan Tanka, she turned into a buffalo and then disappeared.

In the hunter-gatherer period, when their task was to collect edible plants, women may well have domesticated plants and given rise to horticulture. This is supported by both the Keres Pueblo story of Thought Woman and the Iroquois creation story, according to which various crops originated from the body of Mature Flower's daughter. Stories of sacrifice of the first woman to produce food are also very common.

In early hunting-gathering societies, responsibility and authority were fairly evenly distributed among men and women. In matrilineal (and some agricultural) societies, the position of women was dominant. Women were, in fact, leaders of family groups. Although the father was the legal head, his role was subordinate or marginal. Among the Iroquois, women were regarded as ancestors and owners of the land. They selected and raised male chiefs, regularly conferred with the chief's council (and removed them when necessary), and decided matters of war and peace. They had divine powers and important ritual roles.

In other societies, women exercised a variety of roles in ritual activities. For the Cheyenne, while the sun dance ritual was given to their culture hero, Erect Horns, his companion, the Sacred Woman, played a complementary role in the ritual. Among the Blackfoot and Oglala Sioux, esteemed women traditionally sponsored the sun dance, and young women of exemplary virtue and purity were allowed to cut down the cottonwood tree that served as the central pole of the sun dance lodge.

The sacred ball game, which symbolized their struggle to overcome ignorance, began with a young girl throwing out the ball to one of the four corners where men were standing. Moreover, after the people became confined to the reservation women exercised important leadership positions in Lakota society.

The Apache and Navajo gave a greater prominence to female puberty rites than did other Native Americans, such as the Plains Indians. The reason is that women's ritual became the context for renewal of relationship with the most important life-sustaining deities in their lives—the sun and the corn. On the other hand, even in matrilineal societies, such as the Hopi, where social organization revolved around women and both males and females were initiated, women were barred from the kivas.

As noted before, women could become healers and shamans in most Native American religions. Among the Navajo, women were believed to have superior powers, especially where herbal medicine was used. Being gatherers, women possessed superior knowledge of herbs and thus could become better healers. Yet they were barred from advanced healing rites. Usually those women who were past childbearing age could become healers. Where healers were hereditary, a woman could become a healer by assisting her husband, but she was not allowed to practice medicine on her own until after his death. While women usually learned healing from men, in some cases they learned it from their mothers or grandmothers. The call to become a medicine person could also come in a vision or as a result of a vision quest. The process of women becoming shamans was similar to that of men (Dugan 56–60). But shamans were mostly men.

Women are now gaining leadership positions that were once reserved mostly for men. In the past quarter-century, the number of women serving as top tribal leaders has doubled. In 1981, sixty-nine of the more than five hundred federally recognized tribes in the United States were led by women. By 2006, the number of women leaders of tribes was 133 among more than 560 recognized tribes. This trend is a consequence of women increasingly gaining leadership positions in other areas of their tribal communities, such as administrators, teachers, community organizers, and positions in higher education. In the late 1970s, more men than women received college degrees, but today the trend is reversed, with 5,945 women compared with 3,858 men receiving a bachelor's degree in 2005. But this growth in women's leadership positions has not come without tensions, especially among those tribes that were the first to elect women as leaders due, in many cases, to traditions of women's subordinate position in tribal societies (New York Times, 4 February 2006).

Native American Religions Today

The cultural upheaval of late 1960s and early '70s in the United States had a corresponding effect of awakening and mood of rebellion among many Native Americans, especially the young. After many of their leaders were jailed, Native American activism shifted to a reassertion of their culture, tradition, and identity by reviving and spreading the practice of many of their rituals, such as the sweat lodge, vision quest, sun dance, ghost dance, peyote, and dream drum.

With the ascendancy of multiculturalism in recent years, the practice of many Native American rituals has become more widespread, even of those rites and traditions that had hitherto fallen into disfavor where Native Americans are not numerous. More than two thousand powwows, or religious gatherings, are held annually throughout the United States and Canada. These religious gatherings and revivals help reclaim, celebrate, and renew Native American identity, living traditions, and religions, not only for Native Americans but for all today.

Traditional Dogon Mask, Mali, West Africa

Chapter 3: African Traditional Religions

From the present state of our knowledge, we can conclude that Africa is the birthplace of humanity. The most recent discovery of Homo sapiens skulls in Ethiopia has led researchers to the conclusion that Homo sapiens evolved first in Africa and then spread to other continents. Archeological discovery points to the emergence of civilization in Sudan—the so-called Nubian civilization—about 8,000 BCE, long before Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. Our study, however, will be confined to religions of sub-Saharan peoples.

Although the diverse African traditional religions cannot be reduced to a generalized perspective without distorting their forms and contents, a separate treatment of each religion is beyond the scope of this text. Fortunately, similarities between cultures and social systems, their patterns and developments, mutual influences, and similarities within the diversity of beliefs and practices, allow a generalized presentation in this chapter without distorting the diversity of traditions and practices.

As in the Native American religions, creation myths present a major source of knowledge of African traditional religions. Through them, sub-Saharan peoples of Africa express their beliefs about the Sacred and their relationship to it, their sense of who they are, their consciousness of their place in natural processes, and how they are to live meaningfully in relation to the Sacred, nature, and their social systems. We will explore only the Yoruba and Barotse creation myths. The first myth demonstrates the three stages of development of religion—matriarchal or female Supreme Deity, male-female divine pair, and patriarchal or male Supreme Deity—that we noticed among many Native American religions. The second myth portrays the uniquely African perspective on the origin of the human condition.

Beginnings: Creation Myths

Yoruba Creation Myth: One of the better known African myths of creation out of chaos is the Yoruba (Nigeria, West Africa) creation myth that has several versions. According to one, apparently later, version, the Supreme Deity Olorun sent his son, Obatala, down below with a snail shell or leaf packet filled with soil, a pigeon, and a hen, to create the world. After Obatala had emptied out the shell on the wasteland, the birds scattered the soil and formed the earth. Obatala molded the first humans, and Olorun breathed life into them.

Later Olorun sent Obatala back to earth to plant trees, among which was the palm tree. Becoming thirsty while performing other tasks, Obatala got drunk on palm wine and failed to complete his mission. So Olorun sent his second son, Oduduwa, to finish the task. The entire process of creation took four days. The fifth day was reserved for worshiping Olorun (Idowu 2:19–24; Ray 42–45).

However, in another apparently earlier version, Oduduwa is the Mother Goddess. As the chief deity of the Yorubas, she is the creator of the world and ruler of the gods. In yet a third version, Oduduwa is paired with Obatala, who is identified with Olorun. This divine pair created humans.

Barotse: God Retreats to the Sky: According to the Barotse, Zambia (Southern Africa) creation myth, in the beginning Nyambi created all things—animals, fishes, birds. At that time he lived on earth with his wife, Nasilele. One of his creatures, Kamonu, imitated Nyambi in everything he did. When Kamonu first forged a spear and killed a male antelope, and then went on killing, Nyambi became very angry. He said to Kamonu, "Man, you are acting badly. These are your brothers. Do not kill them."

Nyambi drove Kamonu out into another land. But after a while Kamonu returned. Nyambi allowed him to stay and gave him a garden to cultivate. But when animals wandered into his garden, he killed them. After Kamonu's child and dog died, and his pot broke, he went to Nyambi to tell him what had happened, only to find his dog, pot, and child at Nyambi's dwelling. When Kamonu asked Nyambi for medicine to prevent illness and death, Nyambi refused.

Finding the situation intolerable, but unable to flee Kamonu, Nyambi sought council from a diviner, who told him to ask Spider for help. Spider found an abode for Nyambi and his court in the sky. Then he spun a thread from the earth to the sky and Nyambi climbed up on the thread. On the advice of the diviner, Nyambi put out Spider's eyes so that he could never see the way to heaven again.

Kamonu tried to build a tower to climb up to Nyambi. But because Nyambi's abode was too high, the tower collapsed of its own weight. So Kamonu never found his way to Nyambi. But every morning when the sun appeared, Kamonu and all the other people greeted him, saying, "Here is our king. He has come." At the time of the new moon, men call on Nasilele, Nyambi's wife (Sproul 35–36).

Belief in the Sacred

Like Native American religions, most African traditional religions are polytheistic. Their beliefs in the Sacred range from supreme deities in personal forms, male and female deities, complementary male-female divine pairs, impersonal deities, various gods and spirits, and ancestors. Besides these levels of the Sacred, this section will discuss the African view of the origin of the human condition.

Ultimate Reality: For most African traditional religions, Ultimate Reality is a personal being, but for some it is impersonal power. As personal being, most traditions today believe God to be a male. Females are generally believed to be wives and mothers of gods, reflecting the patriarchal social order.

However, in many religions the Supreme Deity was originally female. Later she came to be paired with a male deity. And finally, the male deity emerged supreme, and the female became subordinated to the male. Thus in the Yoruba religion originally Oduduwa, the Mother Goddess, appears to have been the chief deity. In the middle phase, Obatala was the chief of the gods and Oduduwa was both the chief female deity and his wife. Portrayed as complementary co-creators, they were sometimes identified with the sky and the earth, respectively. Finally, with the development of culture and kingship, Olorun emerged as the supreme male deity, subordinating Oduduwa. In the first creation myth described above, Obatala and Oduduwa are reduced to the status of sons or creative powers of Olorun. That this is a later development seems clear from the fact that Olorun as the supreme personal deity is a transformation of Olodumare, the impersonal power. Researchers have found numerous examples of this process of evolution among African traditional religions.

When depicted as complementary, the male deity is associated with transcendence, portrayed as the sky, and the female, associated with immanence, is depicted as the earth. In most of these cases the male is dominant, and the female is subordinate. In matriarchal societies, of course, the female deity is dominant.

Some concepts of Supreme Deity, though cast in personal terms, are not clearly differentiated from impersonal power. Thus, for the Shilluk (Upper Nile), God, called Juok, is a supreme spirit, but it can also be experienced in material forms. In essence one, it appears in many forms, which are also called Juok. Anything that is mysterious is Juok. For the Dinka (Sudan), Nhialic is thought to be another impersonal deity, signifying the totality of dynamic power that manifests itself as particular powers that each of the gods—sun, rain, and so on—represents without being specifically identified with any of them. Some Dinkas, however, believe Nhialic to be a personal deity and call him Father.

Gods and Goddesses: In many African religions the sacred realm is hierarchically organized, with the Supreme Deity occupying the top position, located in the sky. Other gods occupy the atmospheric and earthly regions. Thus, for the Ashanti, below the Supreme Deity are abosom, the general term for the gods, who received their powers from him and act as intermediaries. The Yoruba call such deities orishas, the most important and popular of which is Orunmila, the god of prophecy and divination, who is sometimes identified with Olodumare. One of the most colorful of Yoruba deities is Ogun, the god of war and iron, whose emblem is the sword, and who is at times celebrated as the phallus, or male genitals.

For the Igbo of Nigeria, the earth goddess, Ala or Ani, mother of other deities and queen of the underworld, wields supreme power over society. She is the provider, protector, owner, and mother of her people. She controls fertility and productivity and, in association with the ancestors, is responsible for public morality. The ultimate judge of morality and human behavior, she punishes crimes and breaches of the social order and taboos. She also helps people who are troubled by other divinities. She commands the priesthood, shrines, and oracles.

The Spirit World: A common feature among African traditional religions is animism—the belief that the whole of nature, especially the earth, is teeming with spirits. Existing everywhere, they sleep during the day (except on the day of rest) and come out in darkness, which is feared. These spirits could be good or evil. Some tribal groups believe that they control female fertility and the male hunt. They could prevent women from conceiving, scatter the game, and strike a village with sickness.

Ancestors: Belief in ancestors is a prominent feature of African traditional religions. Serving as intermediaries between the other world and this one, they act as guides and protectors. As such, they are in contact with members of the family, generally the oldest, inquiring about family matters, issuing warning of dangers or rebuking them for failing to perform family obligations. However, their most important task is to serve as watchdogs of the moral behavior of the individual, the family, the clan, and the entire society with which they are associated (Magesa 48). For the individual, they provide a sense of identity and stability and cohesion to the social order.

For some groups, there are three categories of ancestors:

• family members, especially parents and forbearers, concerned with family welfare;

• spirits of clans who serve as guardians, and in some cases constitute the highest court of judgment; and

• spirits representing the nation as a whole. They are mythic founders of clans, tribes, and ruling dynasties. One such is Nyikang, the founding ancestor of the Shilluk, who led their migration from the south to settlement in their present location (Upper Nile). During the course of their wanderings, he is said to have raised winds and divided the river to lead his people across. He is believed to have disappeared, not died. Nyikang and his immediate successors are believed to have become immortal.

The Origin of the Human Condition

Through a variety of myths, African religions express their belief in an original state of close, harmonious relationships among all beings—God, nature, and humans. In this state, God provided humans with all the necessities of life. Humans were happy. There was no death. But this fundamental link that united all life and reality was broken due to human greed, divine anger or annoyance at pesky humans, pollution, human transgressions or accidents, or even animal agency.

The main consequence of this break in vital relationship is that God withdrew from humans, as in the Barotse creation myth. This resulted in divine remoteness and inaccessibility and human feelings of abandonment, alienation, and loss. The consequences of this condition are strife and disorder; warfare, disease, and death; and loss of peace and happiness. This is African "paradise lost." However, there is no suggestion of a reversal, a way out of this condition. The only hope the religions hold out for humans is to accept their condition and work to create in this world something of the original state.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

African rituals mainly aim at removing the evil consequences of the divine-human separation, establishing a harmonious relationship with all segments of society, and restoring balance in life. Communal sacrifices to God and ancestors (or to ancestors alone) are offered to prevent or recover from illness, resolve social conflict, and restore the moral order, social harmony, and peace. Rituals also aim at protecting individuals and families against evil spirits, danger, and death, achieving victory over enemies, and receiving such goods and blessings as children, abundance and prosperity, good health, and long life.

The rituals of African traditional religions constitute paths of transforming the medium through which the worshipers aim to contact the Sacred. The materials used in rituals—offerings, sacrifices, prayers, and so on—are transformed in intention, faith, and meaning, thereby lifting them from the mundane to the sacred realm. It is on this sacred plane that participants believe they make contact with the Sacred and hope to attain the goals for which they engage in these rituals.

Worship: Ways of Contacting the Sacred

Among a variety of rituals African traditional religions perform, animal sacrifices and offerings of food and drink are made to the Supreme Deity, gods, and spirits on formal occasions, such as rites of passage, plantings, harvests, and annual festivals. Sacrifices and offerings are also made to ancestors by families and clans on these and other occasions. Thus, one tribe offers oxen, sheep, or goats of one color. The Yoruba blacksmiths sacrifice dogs to Ogun twice a month. Others offer up a portion of their meat, fruit, and honey to avert evil and ensure future abundance. While some make daily offering of water to God, called libation, others do so only in times of great distress and at rare festivals. However, they sacrifice to spirits and ancestors frequently. The Dogon (Mali, West Africa) sacrifice of the chicken reenacts the original sacrifice by which God created and infused the life force into all things. As they consume the sacrificial victim, worshippers believe that they become re-energized by becoming one with the life force of the sacrificed chicken.

Rites of Passage: Transforming Life

Birth: The birth of a child is the occasion for various rites. In one tribe, women scream five times if the child is a boy and four times if it is a girl. They usually bury the placenta and umbilical cord in the house, an adjacent location, or an uncultivated field, or they throw it in a river. The mother and child are kept in seclusion for four days if the child is a girl, five days if it is a boy. A corresponding number of sugar canes are cut and their juice is given to the mother. Then the child is washed and oiled. At the end of the seclusion period, the mother's head is shaved (symbolizing rebirth), the father sacrifices a sheep in thanksgiving to God and ancestors, and the mother goes to the field to gather yams. People invoke the spirit and the human world to bless the child, protect it from disease, danger, and death, and give it health, long life, and success. Some tribes regard girls as a greater gift than boys, because a girl is a potential mother and a source of successors for the lineage.

In many cases, ancestral names are given to infants, incorporating them into the clan and lineage. Often the name is chosen with the help of a diviner or an elder. Ancestors themselves may indicate the name in a dream or through the child's persistent crying. Others give descriptive rather than ancestral names. The Igbo and others dedicate their children and name them to a spirit of the week. Some Igbo and Yoruba names express a philosophy of life, some significant event in the parents' life, or the condition of the child's birth.

Initiation: Initiation and puberty rites usually involve five significant steps: "Seclusion, instruction, physical impression (either actual or symbolic), integration, and covenant" (Magesa 96). For initiation, the candidates usually withdraw to the forest, or to huts away from the village. This separation symbolizes death, or end of childhood, and the threshold of adulthood, to which they will be reborn through initiation. In this secluded location they observe various rituals and receive instructions on the moral and cultural codes and values, as well as the rights, duties, and responsibilities of the new roles they are about to assume. The wisdom of the community, including proverbs, riddles, songs, and dances, are imparted to them at this time. The next step is circumcision for boys and genital cutting for girls. Upon completion of the ritual, they return home and assume their new status in the community. The initiates are now established not only as adult members of their clan or ethnic group and linked to the ancestors but also within their own age group. They are now ready for marriage, which is the stage of full adulthood.

For some, complete male initiation takes several years and involves several stages. All aspects of the rite symbolize a return to the womb in which the participants ritually enact the death or end of childhood, go through gestation or purification, and experience renewal or emergence of the new self.

For many peoples in Africa, the main form of female initiation consists of genital cutting. It may take any of three forms: clitoridectomy (partial or complete removal of the clitoris), excision (adds partial or complete removal of the labia minora), or infibulation (complete removal of the external genitals), leaving only a small opening in the vagina for the passage of urine and menstrual fluid.

This ritual is practiced by hundreds of ethnic groups in twenty-eight countries, stretching from Egypt in the north and Tanzania in the south to Mauritania in the west and Somalia in the east. The practice probably started in Egypt, Ethiopia, or Somalia more than two thousand years ago. It then spread across the continent. Besides the African traditional religions, Coptic Christians, Protestants, and Catholics in Africa and the Middle East also practice it. In fact, about 130 million women around the world have been subjected to genital cutting (New York Times Magazine August 23, 2009). But it is most prevalent among Muslims. Although the practice is more common among the illiterate, it is not uncommon among the educated. Thus, Hirsi Ali's father, who has a doctorate from Columbia University in New York City, subjected her to genital cutting. Born and raised in Somalia, and at one time a member of the Dutch Parliament, Hirsi Ali now resides in the United States.

Numerous problems and dangers are associated with the practice, such as transmitting HIV viruses, tetanus, and other diseases. Some have been known to die from massive hemorrhage. Other physical and psychological harms are urinary infections, obstetric complications, sexual frigidity, scarring, sterility, and depression.

Several factors have contributed to the continuation of the practice: a feeling of obligation to preserve a tradition; a feeling of being special for having undergone the rite; receiving lavish gifts; gaining respect as adults and becoming eligible for marriage; a fear of ostracism by other women, as many of those who refuse are treated as unclean, promiscuous, immature, or prostitutes. They are also afraid that without undergoing the rite, they will not find husbands. Even if they despise the practice, they feel they have no choice, since the decision is their father's to make, not theirs. And fathers are under pressure, because if they refused, they would lose their place in village councils; would not be able to find husbands for their daughters; and would consequently lose face. Some observers have concluded that, ultimately, genital cutting is a way of controlling women.

In spite of criticism, government officials are reluctant to oppose the custom. It is secretly practiced by recent African immigrants to Europe and the United States. Nevertheless, some governments, such as Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, Britain, France, Sweden, and Switzerland, have outlawed the practice. In 1998, a tribe in eastern Uganda discontinued the rite. In the United States, genital cutting is banned only on minor females. Some international organizations, such as UNICEF, are educating African women on the dangers of the practice and giving them assertiveness training to oppose it. Fortunately, many grassroots organizations are now springing up across Africa that fiercely oppose female genital cutting. They insist on calling it genital mutilation, and they are resourceful and determined to end the practice.

Marriage: In Africa, marriage is a requirement. Single status is regarded as a curse to society. Marriage involves the entire community—the extended family, even the clan—on economic, social, and religious levels. Some tribal marriages are arranged; in others, individuals choose for themselves. Some tribes have betrothal rituals, but most do not. The wedding itself involves a variety of practices—from rituals lasting for many days to fighting to get the bride to holding the wedding after the couple has lived together and had a child.

Polygamy was not only prevalent throughout Africa; it was also a status symbol. Divorce is infrequent, but among some tribes divorce is common. Temporary separation is more common for various reasons, such as disputes between husband and wife or among in-laws, infidelity, and jealousy among wives. Prolonged separation may lead to divorce. To forestall it, elders or other members of the clan may attempt reconciliation.

Sickness and Death: In traditional African societies, people commonly attribute sickness and death to offending gods or spirits, neglecting ancestral rituals, breaking taboos, and witchcraft. Once death occurs, various rites are performed to ensure a safe passage of the deceased to the world of ancestors. With a few exceptions there is no idea of judgment, heaven, or hell. If the hereafter is thought to be a distant place, food and weapons are buried with the body for a safe journey. Some believe that the journey takes nine days, while the Dogon believe that it takes three years to reach "paradise," which lies in the north. For some, the land of the departed is under the ground; for others it is around the family compound. Still others consider it in the sky or near God. The Lodagaa believe that the dead have to cross the River of Death to reach the other shore in the west. The good cross easily, but the bad fall from the ferry and must swim across.

Becoming an Ancestor: Following death, the deceased occupies an intermediate position between the world of the living and that of the spirit. The stage of personal immortality depends on the memory of the living. The relationship with the ancestor continues through offerings of food, drink, prayer and sacrifice, and a shrine near the household. This stage ends, and one becomes a part of the spirit world when there is no one to remember the dead.

For some tribes, the status of ancestor is reserved only for respected elders, those who have lived long and exemplary lives, garnered the highest esteem and exalted position in their communities, and acquired deep knowledge and wisdom in the ways of the people. In some societies, except for these ancestors and national heroes, who are thought to be close to God, there is no belief in life with God in the hereafter. Some Africans believe in reincarnation, but this is no more than detecting some features or character traits of the ancestor among some children.

Festivals: Transforming Time

African religious festivals are tied to the seasons of planting and harvesting. In general, festivals are concerned with thanking deities, spirits, and ancestors for their help, seeking their assistance in securing abundance of crops and game animals, averting evil, and securing the blessings of life. Festivals involve singing, drumming, dancing, stamping, and clapping, in addition to prayers, sacrifices, libation, and other offerings.

One of the harvest festivals the Igbo celebrate is the New Year Feast of the New Yam in thanksgiving to the earth goddess Ani. Old yam is discarded on the night before the festival. People clean and paint their houses in white, yellow, and dark green. Women paint themselves with cam wood and decorate children's hair. On the day of the festival they sacrifice new yam and offer palm oil to the family ancestors, followed by feasting with relatives and friends. The rest of the celebration includes drumming, dancing, singing, and other activities.

Another harvest festival is the Odwira, representing the dedication of the New Year to the royal throne or stool ancestors. On this occasion the royal family observes a fast, and people thank the Supreme Deity, gods, and spirits for the good harvest. A communal celebration follows, involving eating meat and yam, drinking palm wine and maize beer, followed by dancing in the streets, drumming, and merriment.

The Yoruba annual Ogun Festival involves offerings fresh game animal meat to Ogun to assure good hunting. Among the offerings are snails (to calm his anger), palm oil (to soothe his disposition), pigeons (to desire closeness), and dogs (to symbolize Ogun's dual destructive and protective nature). Initially, a priest invokes Ogun to accept these sacrificial victims and protect the people, ward off death and sickness, and give them health and long life. Then he sacrifices them, after which the participants share the consecrated flesh, thereby symbolically communing with Ogun through the life force of the victims, made sacred by the consecration, and receiving blessings. If the festival involves an entire town, time is transformed and made sacred. People set aside normal social restraint, and there is intense social communion and solidarity in which families are reunited, friendships are renewed, and a carnival spirit prevails.

Ethics and the Good Life

For most African peoples, while God is the source and final guardian of law and morality, he has delegated this task to the ancestors, other deities, and spirits. The immediate foundation and justification of morality are the ancestors. As their decrees are encoded in traditions, the basis of ethics is the customs and traditions, social and ancestral obligations, and taboos established by society. Ancestors, spirits, deities, and God are invoked to legitimize and enforce these traditions.

African ethics is fundamentally social. As E. M. Uka remarks, "All manifestations of evil that man experiences are blamed on somebody in the corporate society" (183). Within the communal context, relationships determine what is good or bad, desirable or undesirable. According to Laurenti Magesa, "The unity of the community... is the paramount good;" anything that weakens or threatens it is bad (64–65). Any breach of customs, traditions, ancestral obligations, and taboos is considered morally evil.

Personal acts, such as murder, theft, robbery, cruelty, adultery, rape, and lying are evil insofar as they affect relationships among members of the family, clan, or society. Evil is not intrinsic to the act but is tied to external behavior. Adultery is not considered evil if the two are not found out by the society that forbids it (Mbiti 213).

Accordingly, the aim of ethics is to maintain social order and peace. In the absence of a modern sense of individuality, not only the transgressor but also the entire community is punished. For the individual, punishment comes in the forms of incurable diseases, bad luck, bad dreams, snake bites, and so on. Natural disasters, famines, and epidemics are believed to be punishment for the entire community.

As the ancestors are the guardians of the moral order, people are subject to their wrath and punishment when they do not conform to public norms and obligations. For such a breach, an individual makes restitution through sacrifices and offerings. When this is not done, the ancestor punishes him by causing him or a member of his family to become ill or die. Libation (the ritual of pouring out water, oil, or wine upon the ground as a sacrificial offering) and food offerings are also made to placate ancestors.

The ancestors control familial, kinship, and clan relationships. They act as supreme arbiter of justice in a clan or tribe. Thus, among some tribes, the ancestors settle disputes about authority, whether it is between members of a family or clan. For the Igbo, ancestors generally enforce their authority through the Egwugwu Mask Dance. They also administer justice and resolve communal problems. On the individual level, they serve as the final court of appeal.

However, emphasis on individual responsibility is also prevalent in Africa. Many believe in conscience as a guide to human conduct.

Sayings and proverbs are used by some tribes to transmit ethical values not only in casual meetings but also on formal and important occasions. Some of the more common Yoruba and Akan proverbs are "You will be punished according to your deeds" and "The god who favors a lazy man does not exist" (Finnegan 54). According to a Bambara proverb, "self-mastery is the fruit of self-knowledge" (Zahan 110). And an Igbo proverb declares, "A man who pays respect to the great paves the way for his own greatness" (Achebe 22).

Community, Organization, Institution, and Action

Community is of supreme importance in traditional Africa. The individual forms an integral part of the cosmos and the human community. The tribe or clan has primacy over the individual. In the hierarchical ordering of society that parallels a hierarchical ordering of the Sacred, each higher unit has greater power than the one below it. Thus the individual cannot be greater than the clan or tribe, the tribe greater than the ancestors, the ancestors greater than the gods or spirits, or the latter greater than the Supreme Deity.

In this section, we will limit our discussion to the main types of leaders found in African traditional religions—sacred kings, priests and priestesses, prophets and diviners, healers, and the leadership function provided by women. We will end the chapter with a brief look at African traditional religions today.

Sacred Kings: In African societies, authority is invested with sacral aura. Kings and rulers are regarded as sacred, representing God on earth. As both political and religious heads of nations, they act as mediators between the gods and the people. In many societies they lead or take part in national rituals and annual festivals. In many cases, such festivals will not begin without their presence. Most have shrines, temples, or sacred groves near their palace where they perform various rituals. In the changing face of Africa today, however, kings are losing their sacredness and becoming politicians, if they have not yielded power altogether to the emerging democratic or socialist political organizations.

Priests and Priestesses: In African religions both men and women perform priestly functions. The distinctive mark of a priest/priestess is that he or she is, as Geoffrey Parrinder observes, "set apart for divine service and receive some kind of initiation and training for it. There are different methods of training, from very simple to highly elaborate, but the priesthood as a class is distinct and developed" (3:75). Priests and priestesses conduct rituals in a variety of situations and locations, including temples, shrines, and sacred groves. The rituals they perform include sacrifices, prayer for blessings, intercessions for the people, rainmaking ceremonies, and officiating at various festivals.

In addition, most often a priestess serves as a medium who contacts various gods or spirits or interprets the messages of other mediums. In this capacity she may also serve as an oracle or interpret the will of a god for the people.

Among some peoples, a priest-chief may serve as head of a council of elders who represent the original ancestors of a particular district. Together with other elders, he functions as the judge and transmitter of customs, taboos, myths and sacred lore, and oral history and tradition.

Prophets and Diviners: Prophets in African traditional religions give oracles and interpret or discern the will of the gods and spirits for the people. They give guidance in daily affairs, settle disputes, uncover the past, and look into the future. They are also experts in medicines and herbs. As such, they cannot be sharply differentiated from diviners, seers, and mediums who contact the spirit world.

Divination: The practice of decoding messages from the spirit world is extensive throughout Africa. A diviner, most often a woman, is usually attached to a shrine of a particular god or spirit. This is often a medium who goes into a trance, called spirit possession, and contacts a spirit who speaks through her.

While some diviners may be hereditary, others are especially chosen by a god or spirit, manifested through the onset of epilepsy or some other mysterious illness. Its cure is diagnosed by another diviner.

Diviners employ various methods. One of the methods the Yoruba use in consulting the god Orunmila consists in casting sixteen palm nuts or a chain of eight half-nuts or shells and calculating his message from a set of 256 possible permutations. Another method is calculating the message with a divining board. An Ashanti method consists in gazing at a bowl filled with water, leaves, cowries, and marbles. The priestess first offers a sacrifice. Then she stirs the mixture and invokes the god, takes the spoon out of the mixture, and interprets the will of the god by the nature of the object picked up by the spoon.

The Yoruba turn to divination on important occasions of life, including childbirth, settlement of disputes, and important undertakings. Others use it to determine the causes of misfortune, such as infertility, illness, and death, which are often believed to be due to witchcraft.

Healers: African healers may be hereditary, or they may be chosen by spirits or ancestors in visions, dreams, or the waking state. Once this initial step is taken, the candidate begins training by becoming an apprentice to a healer. The training may be formal or informal, lasting for a long or short period, depending on the society and the teacher.

During the training, the candidate must acquire knowledge of medicinal properties of plants, herbs, minerals, bones, dead insects, and so on. She needs to diagnose the causes; determine cures and prevention of diseases and psychosomatic disorders; and acquire the knowledge, use, and antidote of witchcraft. She must know the nature and use of spirits and ancestors and memorize secret instructions that are not usually divulged to the uninitiated.

Illness and misfortune are usually believed to be caused by the wrath or displeasure of a god or an ancestor, or by spells cast through witchcraft. A healer must determine the nature and cause of the disease, identify the agent responsible, apply the treatment, and take preventive measures against future relapses. Among methods of treatment are medicinal plants, herbs, seeds, and minerals. In addition, healers may apply massages, or may apply needles or thorns to bleed the patient, all the while repeating various magic formulas. To prevent recurrence, they may give the patient charms to wear and perform various rituals in the patient's home, putting it under a protective spell. They punish the evil-doers by exposing and purging them from the community.

In addition, healers act as counselors and therapists. They advise businessmen and politicians, perform various rites to increase agricultural productivity, and act as diviners, intermediaries, and transmitters of traditional knowledge and wisdom. They also treat impotence and infertility. Some Africans are now turning to healers, in addition to modern medicine, for the treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS.

Women in African Traditional Religions

As Joseph Omoyajowo remarks, "Generally and globally the superiority of men over women has always been taken for granted" (73). And Friday M. Mbon concurs when she states, "Even to this day, the African world is still to a greater or lesser extent a man's world in the sense that woman's position in society is still largely subservient" (9).

However, as noted before, parallel to the evolution of the deity in matrilineal societies, during the hunter-gatherer and horticultural periods, women were dominant. With the invention of the plough and development of agriculture, men wrested control and subjugated women. Finally, men established their dominance with the emergence of patriarchy. Such was the case with the Ekpo Society of the Ibibio (Nigeria). Not only was Mother Goddess supreme but women were also in power, thanks to a divine woman who taught them the secret cult. Men did the hard work. Realizing the importance of the secret society, men persuaded younger women to teach them the secret cult. Once initiated, men beheaded the priestess. Then they took over the shrine, learned the secrets of farming (part of the secret cult), and forbade women from planting yams. To assume complete control, they passed a law forbidding women membership (Hackett 73–74; Oduyoye 31–32).

At present women are initiated in some male secret societies. However, only postmenopausal women are admitted to the highest priestly office. Such women are considered virtually men, since the ability to bear children is believed to make a female a woman.

Women fare better as mediums and diviners. In most cases, mediums are women who have experienced spirit possession or trance in which state they communicate the messages of gods and humans to others. In some societies, women can attain the highest level of divination.

One of the most important means of control of women is religious sanction, such as genital cutting and taboos associated with menstruation. Yet the first menstruation is a sign of rejoicing, as it signifies a girl's readiness to enter womanhood and marriage.

On the social front, in some societies women are prohibited from growing yams (representing virility and the male sex symbol), drumming (symbol of manhood), or climbing a palm tree (associated with prestige and achievement). At the death of their husbands, women are subjected to lengthy rituals, seclusion, and physical ordeals (Young, 19).

Women are frequently blamed for infertility, adultery, and witchcraft. Some consider night witches to be women who perform evil deeds. Others blame women for the evil caused by witchcraft while they credit men with its beneficial effects, such as healing. Women are commonly viewed as agents of conflict, and their transgressions are considered more polluting than those of men. Some associate dangerous and undesirable spirits with women. Men use such social violations to justify controlling women (Hackett 84–86).

It is especially through proverbs that Africans express their attitude toward women. The basic one seems to be that women are men's property, be they father, uncle, or husband. The frequent mention of women together with livestock is indicative of this status. As a Lugbara proverb puts it, "A baby girl means beautiful cows" (Mbiti 63–64). Some societies view women mainly in terms of fulfilling biological roles as mothers, caring for their children, feeding, training, and disciplining, but never as destroying (Oduyoye 4, 59).

A woman's value lies in being a man's wife and the bearer of his children. In so doing she enriches her husband, attains her status in the family, gains the husband's and the community's respect, and brings security and joy to the family. A barren wife is worthless. And an unmarried woman has no role or status in society. As Mercy Amba Oduyoye observes, "An adult woman, if unmarried, is immediately reckoned to be available for the pleasure of all males and is treated as such. The single woman who manages her affairs successfully without a man is an affront to patriarchy and a direct challenge to the so-called masculinity of men who want to 'possess' her" (4–5).

Sexual polarity, male superiority, and women's subordination are imposed and maintained by many groups through control of land, laws, and religious sanctions of the community. Subordination is enforced by relegating women to the domestic sphere (Miller 80). From childhood on, girls are socialized into restricted roles and taught not to deviate from them. Moreover, as Oduyoye states, "Outside the sphere of biological functioning, the character of women is painted in colors that form an image of disharmony and sinister motivations. A woman who chooses to step out of line by refusing to marry or, if married, not bearing children suffers continually on all fronts" because "a woman has no dignity outside marriage" (60, 68).

However, a number of checks and balances, such as reciprocal duties, have made the relationship between the sexes more complementary. Women can shop around for sympathetic and supportive husbands. Women also form associations to protest against individual or group male behavior. Society also provides contexts for periodic, ritualized venting off of frustration and resentment through insulting songs. This is followed by the couple feeding one another, which demonstrates basic affection and mutual support.

Today, as in emerging nations throughout the world, as African women become more educated, enter the professions, and demand their rightful place in society, attitudes toward women and their status in society are changing. Although not yet widespread, the feminist movement is taking root in many countries of Africa. Recently, the first woman ever to be elected head of state in Africa was Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia.

African Traditional Religions Today

In their drive to transform themselves into modern societies, African peoples are going through vast economic, political, and social changes. As a result of influx of ideas, social and political institutions, and religions from abroad, traditional worldviews have come face to face with the modern world. In this faceoff, during the colonial period, under the influence of Christianity and Islam, many Africans abandoned or downplayed African traditional religions, deeming them inferior. Even after independence from colonial rule in the 1960s, there were those who wanted to discard the traditional ways of life and set out at once into the modern, technological age. These were mostly western-educated city dwellers, many of whom occupied the corridors of government and the academy. Even within this group, there were many who, while espousing secularization and modernization on the institutional level, remained deeply traditional in their personal ways of thinking and living. As a result, even if they did not practice traditional religion, many retained its various aspects in their daily lives, such as traditional methods of healing and magic; divination and consulting of oracles, especially in times of crisis; the cult of ancestors; festivals; and so on (Abimbola 50–58).

The spirit of nationalism led others to reevaluate African culture and religion and come to embrace them without any feeling of inferiority. As a result, African traditional religions were revitalized and restored to a position of honor. Rituals and festivals, which had been neglected or practiced in secret, were now being publicly celebrated as part of their social and cultural life and African identity. New shrines were built. Traditional music, dance, drama, and art began to be prominently featured.

For some, this revitalization has taken the form of universalization—claiming of equality for African religions with other religions. Thus they believe that their concepts of the Supreme Being are the same as those of the personal God of monotheistic faiths. In an effort to preserve their culture and national heritage, many have attempted modernization: propagating those traditional beliefs, practices, and values that are relevant to modern times and adapting them to modern urban life (Hackett 138). By politicizing various traditional practices, such as festivals, folklore, dances, and other rites as part of national cultural life, some governments have stepped forward to preserve them. This is civil religion in today's Africa. Some aspects of African traditional religions have been preserved by commercialization of such rituals as methods of healing, masquerades, and festivals, on the one hand, and continued private practice of various rituals, such as divination, the cult of ancestors, and libation, on the other. Resistance to change and a call to return to the traditions of their forefathers have aided the vast majority of Africans, who are still traditional, in preserving these religions.

Finally, Christianity and Islam are making rapid inroads into Africa and vying for African souls. Together with secularization, revolutionary ideals, globalization, popular culture, and technology drawing people away from their traditional ways of life, these two religions have contributed to the decline of traditional religions. At the same time, the influence of traditional religions is also reshaping African Christianity and Islam as a large number of Christians and Muslims attend festivals in honor of local deities, consult oracles of deities in times of stress and crisis, "worship" Ogun, venerate ancestors, perform rituals connected with death and burial, and practice magic and traditional herbal medicine.

The final state of African traditional religions will depend on how wisely and creatively Africans adapt to the currents of change sweeping over Africa and how far Christianity and Islam advance in capturing the African soul and replacing or transforming traditional religions.
Chapter 4: Hinduism

Timeline

c. 2500–1800 BCE | Indus Valley Civilization

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c. 1750–500 BCE | Vedic Religion

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Composition of the Earliest Vedas

c. 900 BCE | Composition of Brahmanas

c. 800–500 BCE | Composition of Upanishads

c. 400 BCE–200 CE | Composition of Ramayana

c. 400 BCE–400 CE | Composition of Mahabharata

c. 272–236 BCE | Life of King Ashoka, Maurya Dynasty, converted to Buddhism

c. 200 BCE | Composition of Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

c. 200 BCE–200 CE | Composition of Bhagavad Gita

c. 200 | Composition of Laws of Manu

c. 320–550 | The Gupta Empire: The Classical Period

c. 500 | Beginning of Tantric tradition

c. 600–1800 | Flourishing of Bhakti Movement

c. 700–800 | Shankara, Philosopher of Advaita Vedanta

711 | First Encounter with Islam

c. 1027 | Ramanuja, Vaishnava Philosopher

1556–1707 | Mughal Empire

1757 | British Capture Bengal, Founding of Calcutta

1827 | Founding of Brahmo Samaj: Ram Mohan Roy

1836–1886 | Life of Ramakrishna

1857–1947 | British Rule of India

1869–1948 | Life of Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi

1875 | Founding of Arya Samaj: Dayananda Saraswati

1893 | Vivekananda speaks at World Parliament of Religion

1947 | Independence, Partition of India and Pakistan

1947–present | Sporadic Hindu-Muslim conflict

1998 | Rise of Hindu Nationalism and Global Hinduism

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As you come upon an ancient Hindu temple in India for the first time, what hits you is its façade of a multitude of niches, each containing the statue of a deity, each in its distinctive pose, which reveals the nature of the deity or function the deity performs. On the one hand, Hinduism professes belief in proverbial 333 million gods and goddesses. On the other, it proclaims the existence of one infinite Ultimate Reality and everything else to be its manifestations. It encompasses systems of belief and thought that range from polytheism to monotheism to nontheism to atheism. You can find people in India practicing the most rudimentary forms of animism and also human beings who are among the most enlightened ever to grace the earth. Hindu religious rituals and practices range from ritual bathing to animal sacrifices to meditative practices intended to lead practitioners to the experience of union with a personal Supreme Deity or identity with the Infinite. There are more diverse ethnic groups, languages, and regional differences in India than any country on earth. And the sects grouped under Hinduism are so numerous and diverse that they practically constitute distinct religions. Of the more than a billion inhabitants of India, about 800 million are categorized as "Hindu," making Hinduism the third largest religion in the world.

For nearly five thousand years, the Indian subcontinent has been a home to numerous religious traditions and movements. The term "Hinduism" has been applied to this mosaic of diverse traditions. No single text, deity, tradition, or authority is accepted by all Hindus. No religion has more creation stories than Hinduism, none of which agree with one another. The term "Hinduism" is of foreign origin, as is the word "India" (the inhabitants call their country "Bharat"), both associated with the Indus River region, now in Pakistan. Whether they use the preferred expression sanatana dharma, the eternal order or way of life, or Hinduism, Hindus apply it to the entire range of beliefs, practices, institutions, and sects having their roots in the Indus civilization and continuing to flourish today. Western scholars, however, use the term to refer to the religious systems that evolved since the third century CE.

To understand this vast collection of religions, we need to begin with the rise of civilization in India and proceed down the various epochs, pausing to explore contributions of myriad religious traditions that have made Hinduism what it is today. No attempt will be made to present, even briefly, the vast panoply of sects and religious traditions grouped under Hinduism. Our only concern will be the contributions of major epochs in the formation of the diverse traditions for an overall understanding of Hinduism.

Indus Civilization (c. 2500–1800 BCE)

Initially, small farming villages dotted the valley of the Indus River, which flows southwest across what is now Pakistan. By at least 2500 BCE (during the Bronze Age), this village society had evolved into a highly developed civilization that extended over half a million square miles. Its central connecting links were two large cities, Harappa and Mohenjodaro. The inhabitants of this civilization, also called the Harappan civilization, developed some of the earliest religious ideas that, with contributions from other groups, evolved into Hinduism.

The Indus people developed a writing system; however, archeologists have not been able to decipher their script found only in small stone seals, used perhaps in commercial transactions. As a result, the story of Indus civilization can be inferred mostly from excavated cities and preserved artifacts. In the absence of any extensive written text, we have to guess the form of Indus religion from stone figures, terra cotta (fired clay) figurines, and stone seals.

Some scholars think that the original Supreme Deity of the inhabitants was a mother goddess depicted in a terra cotta figurine. However, we can arrive at a different conclusion from a prominent image in a seal that portrays a horned male figure seated in what is now considered a yoga posture and surrounded by animals. The yoga-like posture led some scholars in the past to consider him to be a prototype of the later god Shiva, who is often portrayed in deep meditation in yoga posture. His association with animals suggests another portrait of Shiva as "lord of animals." These two male and female figures might have been part of a pantheon of unrelated deities. Or they might have represented primal polarity of male-female deities or polar aspects of the Supreme Deity, as we find in later Hinduism. It is also possible that they were not deities at all.

Among other artifacts excavated were five or six male figures seated in yoga-like posture, which suggest that perhaps the inhabitants practiced yoga or meditation. One particular figure seated with half-closed eyes in yoga posture might have been a meditation master or priest-king.

A rectangular structure (39 by 23 by 8 feet) thought to be a pool was discovered at Mohenjodaro. It has steps going down to the bottom and double layers of brick walls made watertight with a layer of bitumen. This suggests that the Indus people might have practiced the rite of purification. This might be the origin of the later Hindu practice of taking a ritual bath in the morning, accompanied by prayers, to wash away their sins.

The Vedic Period (c. 1500 BCE–500 BCE)

Two main contending hypotheses about the founders of the Vedic religion exist today. One commonly accepted view holds that a branch of Indo-Europeans, who called themselves Aryans (the Sanskrit word "aryan" means "noble"), began to migrate to India from their ancestral homeland—southern Russia or modern Turkey—circa 1500 BCE. The Vedic religion is the product of these people.

The other view holds that the Aryan culture developed from the Indus civilization itself. Its language belongs to the Indo-European family, possibly spoken in the region as far back as the Neolithic Period. Thus, the Indus civilization is an early Aryan or Vedic culture. There was continuity on all levels—religion, language, and agriculture—from the Indus civilization through to the Aryan culture of the first millennium BCE. Whichever theory turns out to be true (nothing can be conclusively proved until Indus valley script is deciphered)—whether the Indo-Europeans came from outside or developed within India—our concern here is the religion they produced.

In this section, we will limit our discussion to the Vedic religion—beginning with Vedic scriptures, belief in the Sacred, and rituals. Particular attention will be paid to the second phase of development of the Vedic religion. That period witnessed the emergence of one Supreme Deity over other gods, the composition of creation myths, and the final phase of Vedic scriptures capped by the Upanishads. Their main teachings and their implications for understanding the ordinary world will be taken up below.

The Vedas: Sacred Scriptures

Our knowledge of Aryan religion is derived from their sacred books or scriptures, called the Vedas. The word veda means "knowledge." The Aryans, who were later called Hindus, believed these books to be revealed knowledge or shruti, meaning "what was heard." The Vedas were "heard" by seers, that is, they were divinely inspired. And they continued to be heard, recited, or chanted by Hindus through the ages down to the present. Originally handed down orally in priestly circles, the Vedas were not written down until about the fifth century CE.

The oldest Veda, and one of the oldest scriptures in the world, is the Rig Veda, consisting of 1028 poems. Its early poems implore various gods to be present in rituals and sacrifices and bestow the favors sought. Many poems contain myths of creation. Another Vedic text, the Sama Veda, is the Vedic hymnbook. It is made up mostly of poems from the Rig Veda chanted during sacrifices and other rituals. The Yajur Veda contains ritual formulas and instructions for performing rituals and sacrifices. Showing traces of Indus religion, the Atharva Veda contains spells, incantations, and magical formulas for healing and protection from demons and disasters. It speaks of shamans controlling spirits; ascetics (those who practice self-denial, self-discipline, fasting and prayer) gaining mastery over the forces of nature; and Rudra, a non-Aryan storm god, who caused death and destruction. Asceticism will become important in later Hinduism and contribute to the rise of Jainism and Buddhism, and Rudra will become identified with the god Shiva.

Each of the Vedas has three additional sections. The Brahmanas contain instructions for performing sacrifices. The Aranyakas or "forest treatises" for those who retreated to the forest, deal with the inner meaning of sacrifices. Finally, the Upanishads (the term means "to sit near" the teacher) contain advanced teachings revealed to sages who imparted them to disciples in their forest schools. The Upanishads are called "Vedanta," which means "the end of the Vedas," because they are the final part of the Vedas and represent the culmination of their teachings.

Vedic Religion: Belief in the Sacred

Like the followers of other nature-based religions, such as Native Americans and Africans, the Aryans who settled in India were polytheists. Their gods and goddesses represented the Sacred, manifested in three spheres of nature: the sky, the atmosphere, and the earth. As each deity represented some life-giving or destructive power of nature, the Aryans named the gods and goddesses accordingly. They invoked and appeased the benevolent deities to gain their favors, and they implored the malevolent powers to ward off evil and destruction.

Of the many gods in which the Aryans believed, three were especially important to their vision of the world, the good of society, and the well-being of the individual. One was Agni, the Sacred manifested in the form of fire, who united the three spheres of nature as fire on earth, lightning in the atmosphere, and sun in the sky. Because of this universal link, Agni was able to connect humans with other gods through the sacrificial cult and thereby serve as the source of well being of the gods, individuals, and society. Second, called the king of the entire universe, Varuna created the world by propping apart the sky and the earth, setting the sun in its course, stretching out space, and spreading the earth. Above all, as the guardian of the natural and moral orders he upheld the universal order against the forces of chaos, punished evildoers and forgave repentant sinners, and ensured faithful observance of rituals. A third key deity, Indra the god of the storm and of the monsoon, wielded the thunderbolt (like the Greek god Zeus) and represented the Sacred manifested in the forces of the atmosphere. He drank the sacred soma juice (considered a god because it was believed to be the elixir of immortality) and brought fertility back to the soil by killing Vritra, who symbolized drought and chaos.

One of the most important female deities was Aditi, the mother goddess. Being the boundless source of all things, she gave birth to the sky and the earth, gods and humans. Another prominent goddess, Vac, presided over speech and inspired the sages with the visions and illuminations that produced the Vedas. Embodying the universal vibratory energy, she gave sacrifices their effective power, it was believed, when correct chanting produced vibrations that tuned the worshiper into Vac. As the force behind language, she maintained social order and communication.

Vedic Rituals

Being pastoralists, the Aryans were mainly concerned with securing the material blessings of this world. They wished for prosperity, good health, long life, and posterity. They wanted strong, vigorous sons who would not only help with farming, herding, and other professions but also defend and secure their gains and provide a measure of immortality by carrying on their names.

To gain these benefits, Vedic worshipers addressed prayers and hymns to various gods, made ritual offerings, and offered sacrifices. Thus, agnihotra was a daily morning and evening ritual that continues to be practiced today. It required the head of the household to rise at dawn, take a ritual bath, stoke the sacred household fire (symbolizing the presence of Agni), and make grain offerings and recite sacred verses. During the ritual bath, as the sun rose, he faced it, and, raising his arms with joined palms, recited verses believed to strengthen and assist the sun to rise, perform its life-giving function, and bestow its favor on the worshiper. Sacrifices on open-air fire altars involved offerings of milk, honey, melted butter, and portions of slaughtered animals into the sacred fire (Agni), accompanied by priestly recitations and chants. The rest of the offering was distributed among the people as a form of communion with the deity.

By symbolizing and uniting the divine and human worlds, Agni became the center of the sacrifice. As the priest of the sacrifice, Agni carried human prayers to the gods. As the mouth of the gods, he accepted and consumed the sacrifice, which energized the gods who upheld the world order, thereby helping to regenerate nature. In turn, nature sustained and renewed humans. By sustaining Agni through sacrifice, humans participated in sustaining and regenerating the cosmic order and brought blessings down to themselves. Therefore, sacrifice became obligatory. No one could go to heaven without performing them.

These rituals constituted the path of transforming the medium. Prayers and ritual actions accompanying the offerings and sacrifices were made sacred in faith, intention, and meaning. Thereby, they became the sacred medium through which the participants aimed to contact the deities and receive the intended blessings.

Creation Myths and the Emergence of Supreme Deity

The significance of the sacrifice was steadily expanded until creation itself came to be seen as a sacrifice of the original divine unity. Accounts of creation appear in later Rig Vedic hymns. The following are two of the most important creation myths.

The Hymn of the Cosmic Man (Purusha-Sukta: Hymn 90, Book X): In this hymn, the Creator is called the Cosmic Man, (Purusha) who is one and beyond all things, but as Creator he becomes many as the within of all things.

The creation of the universe began with the gods dismembering the Cosmic Man's body into the Female and Male Principles. Continued sacrifice of his body gave birth to different aspects of creation: the gods of the sky from his head, the atmosphere from his navel, the earth from his feet. The rest of creation came from various parts of his body.

Creation Hymn (Nasadiya: Hymn 129, X): In this pivotal hymn the Rig Veda expresses a new concept of Ultimate Reality by calling it simply That One. The hymn says that in the beginning, only That One existed. All else was emptiness. Having alone existed before all things, it is said to be uncreated, eternal, and ultimate. Beyond the duality of being and nonbeing, it existed even before the gods, as they are manifestations of the One in the forces and forms of nature. Creation began with That One emerging out of the formless, watery chaos as the life force. It proceeded to create the universe when desire, "the primal seed of mind," welled up in it.

With this pivotal concept of That One, the Vedic religion lifted its head above duality and the stream of existence in which even the gods are part of the flow. Although the hymn raised many puzzling questions, the seminal idea of the Sacred it introduced experienced a sea of change in the Upanishads.

The Upanishadic Breakthroughs

A paradigm shift—a global change of outlook on the whole of reality—in the development of Hinduism began to take shape toward the end of the Vedic period. The Upanishads clearly reveal not only the nature and process of the inquiry that became the catalyst for the shift but also the breakthroughs in which the new paradigm was fully fleshed out.

The shift consisted of a search for the ultimate nature of things, enshrined in such questions asked by the sages as: What is it that abides in the midst of change? What is that from which all things spring, by which they live, move, and have being, and into which they are finally absorbed (Tait. III.1.1)? Like today's physicists, these sages sought to discover a single source that could account for the manifold universe. They wanted to find out what principles underlie, unify, and make up all things and the stages and states of the individual. Wanting to discover the ultimate source of all knowledge, they asked, "What is it that, when known, all things are known?" This pivotal inquiry into the ultimate source, nature, and reality of all things may be called "the unified field theory of the Spirit."

The search fanned out in two directions: One was the outer, which led to a breakthrough to the Ultimate Reality; the other was the inner, leading to a breakthrough to the deepest reality or inner Self of all things. The third was the discovery of infinite Consciousness, in which the Ultimate Reality and inner Self are experienced as identical. The sages came to identify meditation as the pathway to the experience of identity. And they declared the realization of the absolute freedom that flows from the experience to be the ultimate goal of life. These breakthroughs constitute the heart of the Upanishadic teachings.

Brahman: Infinite Reality: The first breakthrough is that Ultimate Reality is infinite. To express this epochal insight, the sages settled on the word Brahman. In the Vedas, the word "brahman" has various meanings, but in the Upanishads, although the term remains neuter, Brahman is not an impersonal entity, power, energy, or, except in some Upanishads, a personal deity. Rather, Brahman is infinite, the Godhead beyond any personal God (but for convenience I will use "It" to refer to Brahman).

It should be noted here that infinity is not dualistic, in which reality is split up into two separate realms—being and nonbeing, the subject and the object, the self and others or the world. Nor is it monistic, which reduces everything to one thing or considers everything to be the same. Rather, infinity is nondualistic. Nondualism means, briefly, that nothing is other than the Infinite—not the same and not different. Infinity is paradoxical. This is shown by the fact that while in itself the Infinite cannot have a form of its own (for any form would create a boundary or limitation), It is yet not separate from or other than any form, as separation from any form or thing would also impose a limitation, contradicting its nature. Thus, if it is said that the Infinite is purely spiritual, this would separate It from the material universe. It would then no longer be Infinite. So, in itself the Infinite is beyond the duality of spiritual and material, being and nonbeing, and yet not other than anything that exists.

The nonduality of Brahman is often expressed by the phrase "one without a second." Nonduality does not reduce everything to just one thing, called Brahman, which would be monism. But unlike monotheism, which is dualistic, in which God is separate from creation, nonduality means that nothing is the same as, and nor is it different from, Brahman. Other things are not unreal; they just do not exist as separate entities. Our ordinary view of reality is like the horizontal view of waves on the surface of the ocean, from which each wave appears separate. So while the empirical view that each thing is separate is true, it is not the ultimate truth. As the many waves on the surface of the ocean, when seen from the depth, appear to be the same water assuming different forms, so does the manifold universe constitute different forms of the formless Infinite. The ultimate depth of all things is the Godhead—Brahman.

Besides infinite, other negative terms used to speak of Brahman are formless, boundless, indivisible, undifferentiated (not different from anything), unconditioned (not modified or circumscribed by anything), and neti, neti—not this, nor that—not to be exclusively identified with any particular thing. For that would limit what is illimitable.

Paradoxically, the Upanishads say that Brahman remains unmanifest; yet everything that exists is its manifestation. The Infinite can assume any form—male, female, or anything in the universe—so that any form can reveal or symbolize It. It is called Nirguna (without or beyond attributes) Brahman because nothing is distinct from It or can modify its infinite nature, as that would cause a limitation. In affirmative terms, in relation to the created world, It is called Saguna (with attributes) Brahman, that is, Brahman having such attributes as personal God or Goddess, Creator, Ruler, Savior.

Atman: The Infinite Self: The second breakthrough is that our final identity lies altogether beyond the body, ego, and soul—in the infinite ultimate realm, called Atman. Initially, the term "atman" meant "vital breath," or the principle of life, but in the Upanishads, Atman is clearly infinite.

The realization of its limitless nature led the sages to speak of Atman as the inner reality or subtle essence of all things. This view is set forth in the following famous dialogue between a father and his son:

"Bring me a banyan fruit" [i.e., a fig].

"Here it is, sir."

"Split it."

"It is split, sir."

"What do you see inside it?"

"A number of rather fine seeds, sir."

"Well, split one of them."

"It is split, sir."

"What do you see inside it?"

"Nothing, sir."

He said to him, "That subtle essence which you do not perceive, it is by virtue of the subtle essence that this banyan tree stands so big. Believe me, son, that which is the subtle essence, this whole world has for its self. That is the truth. That is Atman. That thou art, Svetaketu" (Chandogya VI.12.1–3).

By "subtle essence" the Upanishad means that Atman is beyond the reach of ordinary consciousness but present in all things as their essence. Just as salt dissolved in water becomes indistinguishable from the water, so the Self is inseparable from anything in the entire universe.

To express the infinite nature of Atman, the Katha Upanishad says, "Smaller than the small, greater than the great, the Self is set in the heart of every creature" (I.2.20). Paradoxically, Atman is said to be in all things, and yet all things are in it (Isa I.6). Just as a glass of water when immersed in a larger body of water is identical with the latter and yet made distinct from it by the glass, so is each thing in relation to Atman. And the Upanishads repeat the same negation of exclusive identification as they applied to Brahman: "not this, nor that (neti, neti)" (BU IV.4.22).

From this insight into the nature of Atman, the sages came to realize that, as the ultimate depth of all things, Atman is identical with Brahman. So they attributed to Atman what they had said of Brahman. Thus, the Maitri Upanishad says, "[Atman is] unthinkable, formless, impenetrable, without any qualities, unproduced, immeasurable, without beginning or end, unborn, indescribable, the creator of all... [and] the innermost being of all" (VII.1). This is also the meaning of the above statement, "That thou art," where "that" refers to Brahman and "thou" to Atman. Thus our true, ultimate identity is Atman, which is identical with Brahman.

Turiya: Infinite Consciousness: The third breakthrough followed from the insight of the Upanishadic sages that realization of identity with Brahman is the final goal of human life and that this goal can be attained only in direct and unmediated knowledge of Brahman. Because Vedic religion operates on the level of ordinary consciousness, and Brahman is beyond it, they concluded that Vedic religion cannot know Brahman. It can, at best, secure a higher rebirth but cannot help anyone attain the ultimate goal. Searching for this knowledge, the sages successively passed through all the limited states of consciousness and arrived at the discovery of the infinite Consciousness, called "Turiya." So they concluded that infinite Reality can be known only by the infinite Self and only in the infinite state of Consciousness.

Unlike ordinary consciousness, the infinite Consciousness has no object, for nothing is other than it. Nor can it be an object of any kind of knowing, as all objects are finite. So it is unmediated, direct knowing, that is, it knows by being identical with that which it knows. Thus, its nature is infinite, is identical with, and constitutes the very nature of Brahman and Atman. Only in this infinite Consciousness can we experience ourselves to be identical with Brahman. That experience of identity is Atman.

The realization of this identity of Brahman and Atman in the infinite Consciousness is the experience of moksha, or liberation. That, precisely, is the goal of the Upanishadic breakthroughs and proclaimed by the sages as the ultimate goal of life.

We can see why the ultimate transformation that sheds all forms, conditions, and limitations is necessary to arrive at this realization. It cannot be achieved through any ritual, prayer, or worship. Meditation is the only pathway to the infinite Consciousness and the experience of liberation or ultimate freedom, called moksha.

Upanishads and the Human Condition or Life in the Everyday World

If the ultimate nature of reality, consciousness and self is infinite, how do the Upanishads view life in the everyday world? If the ultimate goal of life is liberation, what happens to people who die without realizing it? Do they go to heaven or hell? Or are they reborn? Is there a God who judges and decides people's fate? What determines our fate? Such questions led to the doctrines of maya, karma, and rebirth, or reincarnation.

The term used to describe the ordinary world is maya. Usually translated as "illusion," maya does not mean that for Hinduism the world as we perceive it is illusory. Rather, it means our view or belief that reality ultimately is as it appears to us is illusory. Maya has several meanings.

First, applied to the empirical world, it means that the world does not exist apart from Brahman, just as waves cannot exist apart from the ocean. All things proceed from, are founded on, sustained by, and are manifestations of Brahman. Nor does maya deny change. Rather, change is real on the level of manifestation of the dynamic powers of Brahman. The world of becoming is the changing face of Being or Brahman.

Second, we are not what we think we are. The ego or separate self we believe ourselves to be is a transitional stage in our development. To take it as our final identity is mistaken identification or maya.

Third, ordinary consciousness shuts out Reality as it is. To believe otherwise is ignorance, both in the sense of a lack of knowledge of Reality as it is and in the psychological sense of a lack of awareness. It is bondage to remain stuck in this belief. By remaining mentally and emotionally fixated in this belief, we miss the goal of life, the realization of which requires us to break free and go beyond.

Although Hinduism does entertain concepts of heaven and hell, these are not permanent states. People go to heaven or hell according to the way they lived. If their lives were good, they go to heaven; if they were bad, they go to hell. They stay there until their merits or demerits run out. Then they are reborn. There is no God who sends anyone to heaven or hell. Our actions determine our fate; we shape our destinies. However, we are not entirely free to do so. What governs our actions is the law of karma.

The law of karma does not refer merely to bad consequences of action; rather, it governs all actions, both good and bad. The word "karma" literally means "action," specifically ritual action. In the general sense, the law of karma says that actions program consciousness. If what we do is good, our actions program our consciousness to be good. Thereafter we tend to do what is good and develop good personalities. Similarly, evil actions program our consciousness to be evil. Psychologically, karma is conditioning. Once conditioned into something—love, hate, fear, anger, depression—when external stimuli trigger it, we automatically react according to its dictates. Thus we become fixated into our habit-patterns, which come to govern most of our actions.

This doctrine of karma came to be linked with the idea of rebirth: our consciousness, actions, and experiences shape what we are in this life and determine what we will become in the next. Thus combined, the law of karma has its echo in genetics, which says that we are born with a genetic blueprint, disposing us to think, feel, act, and be in a certain way. Similarly, the belief in rebirth holds that our present karma will become the blueprint for birth in the next life. Good conduct will lead to a good birth in a higher form, such as the divine state, or on a higher social ladder, such as the priestly caste. Evil conduct will yield a bad birth on a lower social order, such as outcaste, or in a lower form, such as animal or plant.

In the literal sense, the repeated cycles of death and rebirth is called samsara. In the psychological sense, samsara is the human condition, that is, human life caught in the net of desire and striving, habituation, and conditioned reactions. Rebirth is repetition of conditioned reactions in thought and feeling, expressed externally in behavior. This sets the pattern of our life and world. Once we become locked in our habit patterns, we repeatedly play them out—thinking, feeling, and doing the same things, day in and day out, propelled by desires; impelled by drives, dispositions, and compulsions; and impaled by identification, attachment, and craving. This repetition of conditioned reaction is samsara. And the fixation is bondage, which makes us unable or unwilling to step out of the circuitry of reactive patterns and start afresh.

Although conditioned reactions and habitual actions are not free, that does not mean we are mere puppets of our fate or that we cannot become free. Contrary to some psychological theories, Hinduism emphatically asserts that we can be free, that it is our destiny to be totally free, and that in the Unconditioned State of our being, which is Atman, we are free. From the time of the Upanishads, the ultimate spiritual quest of Hinduism has been the attainment of this total freedom and the delineation of the paths that lead to it, which are the various types of meditation or yoga.

The Classical Period (c. 300 BCE–1100 CE)

Toward the end of the Vedic period, new religious movements began to sprout that altered the face of religion in India and gave the classical shape to what scholars call Hinduism. First, in the later Upanishads, the concept of God or Brahman as a personal deity began to gain greater prominence. This helped the religion of personal gods and goddesses assume the center stage. Second, other philosophies threw down their gauntlets, challenging Upanishadic teachings, further decentralizing religious beliefs and practices. Third, in advocating liberation as the final goal of life and meditation the pathway to realizing it, the Upanishads shifted the weight of religion from Vedic worship rituals to meditation and made room for a powerful reaction that began to take shape against priestly control of religion led by wandering ascetics whose roots may well go back to the Indus civilization. Around the sixth century BCE, this ascetic movement gathered momentum as a result of political, economic, and spiritual developments. Discarding Vedic religion of rituals and sacrifices, the ascetics systematically developed asceticism and meditation. Out of this movement arose new religions, the most important of which were Jainism and Buddhism. The other movement that was to become the mainstay of Hinduism was bhakti—devotion to a personal god or goddess.

The first major topic of this section concerns the highest forms—male and female, gods and goddesses—in which the Infinite is believed to have manifested itself. Next, the discussion will shift to the concept of incarnations or avatars of one male Supreme Deity—Vishnu—and two of his main incarnations: Rama and Krishna. We will then proceed to take a look at the other form of sacred writings—the sacred traditions—that include the two Hindu epics. This section will end with a brief glance at some contents of these epics; and at one of the most popular texts, the Bhagavad Gita or "Song of God," and two of its main teachings.

Personal Deities: Supreme Forms of the Infinite

While the Upanishads declare Brahman to be infinite Reality, besides which nothing exists, they do not deny the reality of gods and goddesses. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad's declaration that the many are manifestations of the One set the standard Hindu view that the gods and goddesses are the forms in which the formless Infinite manifests itself. Among these manifestations are three supreme forms—Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer and Regenerator. However, once the Ultimate came to be conceived as a personal God, the followers of each deity began to assign all three attributes and additional ones to that God. As devotion to a personal god or goddess became the dominant feature of classical Hinduism, in the mind of their followers, the deities began to assume complex features by assimilating the characteristics, functions, and mythological accretions of the Vedic and non-Vedic deities. Our discussion here will be limited to two of the most popular gods and their consorts or wives. Their devotees make up nearly 90 percent of Hindus today.

Shiva, Lord of the Dance

Shiva: Perhaps originating in the Indus civilization as the male seated in yoga posture, during the Vedic period, Shiva acquired the dual nature of destroyer and regenerator-healer after being identified with the storm god Rudra. In the Upanishads, Shiva is identified with infinite Brahman and is said to be the personal Lord who is the source and ruler of all. This is the basis for the belief of his followers, called Shaivas, that Shiva is the supreme form in which Brahman manifests itself as the Lord who is the creator, ruler, preserver, dissolver, and regenerator of the universe.

Identification with the Infinite gave rise to the realization that as the Lord of all, Shiva is the ultimate unity which reconciles all opposites. At its most universal level, Shiva reconciles the polarity of wisdom and energy, eternity and time, permanence and change, life and death. This is portrayed by the image of Shiva as the Lord of the Dance. In the dance, his body is the center of reconciliation that holds opposites together and the pivot around which the entire universe of change and becoming turns. His trampling of the dwarf, symbolizing the destruction of ignorance or unawareness, signifies that his followers must overcome ignorance in order to attain liberation. His left hand pointing toward his raised left foot invites them to join him in the dance of liberation. And his lowered right hand bears the fearless gesture assuring them that they can attain it.

In relation to creation, Shiva is symbolized by the lingam, symbol of male energy, signifying the eternal source of all things. But lingam is incomplete without the yoni, which symbolizes the female, creative, and life-giving energy of the universe. The union of these two aspects is portrayed in Shiva temples in the mounting of the lingam on the yoni, symbolizing the union of Shiva and Shakti, Wisdom and Energy.

On the social level, reconciliation of the conflict between sexuality and spirituality, desire and renunciation, is portrayed by Shiva, the yogi, becoming a householder by marrying Parvati but still remaining a yogi, and Parvati performing extreme austerities, such as living on leaves or air, and sitting in the midst of four fires in the summer to win Shiva as her husband.

On the individual level, the reconciliation of opposites is aimed at through meditation, especially tantric meditation (to be explained below). Ultimately, as the union of opposite aspects of reality, Shiva is the symbol of completeness.

Vishnu: In the Vedas, Vishnu appears in a minor role, propping apart the earth, atmosphere, and sky. Later, he was catapulted to prominence by being identified with sacrifice and assimilated into various deities, especially Krishna. This transformation was brought about by the emergence of the ideas of a personal God as Ultimate Reality, incarnation or avatar, and the devotional (bhakti) movement. In the classical period, Vishnu's nature as Brahman in personal form became fully established.

Vishnu's followers, called Vaishnavas, came to believe that as the Ultimate, Vishnu is Brahman beyond attributes. But in relation to creation, he is Brahman with attributes. As the personal God, he is given the attributes of creator, ruler, preserver, dissolver, and re-creator of worlds. Thus, Vishnu is to Vaishnavas what Shiva is to Shaivas.

Goddesses

The general term for "goddess" in Hinduism is devi (and for "god" is deva). The evolution of this concept parallels that of the male deity. The practice of praising one goddess above others and the sectarian belief that the goddess of one's own sect is above the goddesses of other sects led to the idea of one transcendent female divine principle, the Great Goddess, Mahadevi. As the very essence of deity, she came to be identified with Brahman. As Infinite, she is the source of all the gods. Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva are her male manifestations. As Creator, she is the mother whose womb contains the universe. She is the supreme ruler and sustainer of all things. Her essence is Shakti—the ultimate creative Energy—which brings forth the universe and all things into being. On the complementary level, Shakti, the female Energy Principle, is the opposite of the male Wisdom Principle, portrayed in the Shiva-Shakti polarity.

The followers of Shakti are called Shaktas, who constitute a major sect in Hinduism. About fifty million in number, Shaktas follow Shakti as the ultimate.

Parvati: Parvati became the wife of Shiva after performing extreme austerities, thereby demonstrating that she was equal to and worthy of him as a partner. By so doing, she entered Shiva's world, but by marrying him, she made him enter the world of the householder. This union of opposites shows that life in the world and spirituality are complementary.

The Goddess Durga Mahisasuramardini: Goddess Durga Slaying the Buffalo Demon Mahisha

Durga: One myth of Durga's origin suggests that she is the essence of the powers of male gods and therefore self-sufficient primordial Energy. When the buffalo demon Mahisha (symbolizing chaos), endowed with the gift that no male deity could vanquish him, defeated all the gods, the latter united their powers, becoming one divine force called Shakti or Durga, to defeat the demon and save the world. Thus, Durga is the protector of dharma—the eternal, natural, social, and moral orders—whenever forces of chaos and destruction threaten it.

Goddess Kali

Kali: Kali is portrayed as terrifying and powerful, the mother goddess in her awesome creative and destructive powers. Her emergence from Durga shows Kali as the embodiment of Durga's wrath and symbol of the fearful, destructive energy of nature. In another myth associated with Parvati, when Shiva asked Parvati to defeat a demon, she entered Shiva's body, transformed herself, emerged as the fierce Kali, and defeated the demon. However, she got so intoxicated by the bloodlust of battle that she went on a rampage of destruction that no one could stop. Afraid that the world might be totally destroyed, the gods implored Shiva to intervene. Finding no other way to stop her, Shiva lay down on her path. As she stepped on Shiva, shocked at the monstrosity of her behavior, she protruded and bit her tongue as she came to her senses. Thus, Shiva saved the world from further destruction.

In this association, Shiva embodies wisdom, stability, eternity, and being. Meanwhile, Kali is pure, unbounded energy, embodying time and the constant process of change and becoming. When she symbolizes the female form of deity itself, Kali is identified with the Great Mother Goddess and is called Mahakali. The Shakta sect identifies her with infinite Brahman.

Goddess Lakshmi

Lakshmi: The wife of Vishnu, Lakshmi, represents wealth, beauty, and wellbeing; and peace and tranquility of the household. As the goddess of the good life, she is the ideal of traditional Hindu women. Early on she came to be associated with the lotus, on which she sits or stands flanked by two elephants. As the lotus grows above water from its roots in the mud, it symbolizes blossoming of life, purity, and spiritual transcendence above the contamination of the conditioned world. And elephants represent royal power and majesty—all of which Lakshmi represents.

Vishnu and Lakshmi represent the ideal couple. In this association, Lakshmi usually has two arms representing the social, subordinate role. But alone or in company with other goddesses, symbolizing her full female nature, she is portrayed with four arms, representing transcendent, divine powers and equality with Vishnu and other male deities.

On the cosmic level of primal polarity, Vaishnavas see Vishnu as the male principle and Lakshmi as the female principle equal to Vishnu and the manifestation of his powers. In some traditions, Lakshmi is the Mother Goddess, the Supreme Deity, and Brahman in female form.

Avatar: The idea of avatar is the belief in incarnation or the descent of the divine, specifically Vishnu, into this world. In the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred text (see below), Krishna explains the motive for this descent:

Whenever righteousness declines

and wickedness prevails...

To protect the good and destroy evildoers

and establish the order of sacred duty,

I appear in age after age (4.8).

Thus, whenever the world is threatened with chaos or the moral order declines, Vishnu becomes incarnated to protect the good, destroy evil, and reestablish order. There have been nine incarnations, with the tenth—Kalki—yet to come: fish, tortoise, boar, water buffalo, man-lion, dwarf, Rama, Krishna, and even the Buddha. The form of Vishnu's incarnation depends on the nature of the evil he has to combat. Thus, as a great fish, Vishnu saved Manu, the first man and lawgiver, from a cataclysmic flood. Of all the incarnations, Rama and Krishna are the most famous.

Krishna: Krishna is the most prominent avatar of Vishnu and the Vaishnavas' object of worship. As the name Krishna suggests (which means "dark" or "black"; dark or blue also symbolizes infinity), he may have been a non-Aryan king who became a friend and associate of Aryan clans through intermarriage. But there are many Krishna traditions: Krishna, the prankster child and youthful lover of milkmaids (gopis) or groupies; Krishna, the king of Mathura; and Krishna, the incarnation of Vishnu.

Above all, Krishna is portrayed as the divine lover and the center of the devotional (bhakti) cult. The music of his flute was irresistible to the amorous milkmaids. He played and made love to them all, multiplying himself such that each one felt that he was relating to her alone. On the symbolic and spiritual level, these tales illustrate love mysticism, with the milkmaids as human souls and Krishna's beloved Radha as the ideal lover of God. His flute calls humans away from their daily preoccupations and invites them to enter into the realm of the divine play that creates and sustains the universe. His dance with the milkmaids and union with them in love symbolize a divine-human union that is attained not through duty but through bhakti—the path of love, devotion, and self-surrender to God.

Smriti: Sacred Traditions: The Epics and Other Texts

In addition to revealed scriptures discussed above, Hindus have another set of sacred texts called smriti, "what is remembered," or past traditions. They are not part of revelation but sacred traditions that both shaped and reflect Hindu self-identity, social structures, and virtues and ideals Hindus should possess. There are three types of smriti: two great epics, the Ramayana (c. 200 BCE) and the Mahabharata (c. 400 BCE–400 CE); the Law Code of Manu (c. 200 BCE–200 CE), which contain codes of law, ethics, and customs that regulate Hindu society; and the Puranas (c. 800 CE), "ancient tales" that contain myths about gods and goddesses.

The Ramayana: "The Way of Rama" is the story of Rama and his wife, Sita, and their struggle with the forces of chaos and evil to establish a just social order. Originally Rama may have been a solar deity, perhaps representing the fertilizing function of the sky, while his wife, Sita, whose name means "furrow," symbolizes the productive earth (Brown 291). In the Ramayana, Rama is above all a culture hero and Sita the ideal wife: faithful and pure—an incarnation of Lakshmi. Rama is the ideal of the social order based on observance of sacred duty. In fulfillment of his father's vow made to one of his four wives that her son Bharata would be made king instead of Rama, he unhesitatingly renounces his title to the throne and willingly goes into exile for fourteen years, accompanied by his wife, Sita, and a faithful half-brother. There, the demon king of Sri Lanka, Ravana, abducts Sita and carries her off to his palace. In the ensuing battle, with the aid of the king of the monkeys and his general Hanuman (who is believed to be a deity), Rama finally slays Ravana and rescues Sita.

When Rama returns to his kingdom, Bharata gives the throne back. However, Sita has to endure a trial by fire to prove that Ravana had never touched her. In the final trial, proving her chastity, she returns to Mother Earth from which she came. Rama then rules his kingdom for ten thousand years, keeping it free of disease, crime, and death. It was a kingdom of abundance and unbroken peace—the Hindu vision of the golden age. As the righteous king, he was later declared to be an incarnation of Vishnu.

The Mahabharata: Here, too, the theme is the battle between good and evil, the establishment of a righteous kingdom, and the ideal human life. However, the legendary context of the Mahabharata is a battle that raged between two branches of the same family. The story pits the descendants of King Bharata (no relation to King Bharata above), the Kauravas and the Pandavas, against each other over unjust usurpation of the kingdom of Kurukshetra in northern India.

The Bhagavad Gita ("Song of God") is an independent composition inserted into the Mahabharata and set in the battlefield of Kurukshetra. It is essentially a dialogue between Arjuna, the general of the Pandavas, and Krishna, his friend, advisor, and charioteer. The Pandavas were reclaiming their kingdom from the Kauravas, who had unjustly usurped it. Besides the political conflict, the battle represented the ethical conflict of duties. Facing his opponents and about to engage in battle, Arjuna realized that as a soldier he was sworn to fight to preserve the social order and its foundation, the family, against the threat of destruction that the unjust usurpation posed. Yet he also clearly saw that in fighting injustice and killing his opponents—who were his own teachers and kinsmen—he would be destroying the very bedrock of the social order, which it was his sacred duty to protect and defend. Caught in this dilemma, Arjuna, terrified and in despair, threw down his mighty bow and refused to fight.

Seeing Arjuna's dejection, Krishna, through various arguments, urged him on to fight. But none of his arguments for engaging in war, it seems, appeared persuasive to Arjuna. So Krishna taught him karma yoga as a method of conflict resolution by telling Arjuna that the real issue before him was not whether to withdraw or engage but whether he should act to create more bondage or free himself by transforming karma into yoga. Krishna stated the essence of karma yoga as follows:

Be intent on action, not the fruits of action...

Perform action, firm in yoga,

relinquishing attachment;

be impartial to failure and success—

this equanimity is called yoga (II.48; Barbara S. Miller, p. 36).

Thus, karma yoga is the path of selfless action free from the desire for gain and the fear of loss, and other usual motives that move us to act—such as power, status, self-enhancement—and keep us tethered to our world. However, when we act without ego's desire for self-enhancement, without attachment to results, such actions do not create karma or bind us to our world (samsara). This disidentification and the nonreactive, equanimous mind that follows from it free us to do what truly needs to be done for the good of all.

But this is not liberation in the full sense of the term. Acting for the sake of duty is not a completely nonattached action. Can human action be purely sacramental or saving action? Can humans act as God acts?

As if in response to such questions, Krishna taught Arjuna that the ultimate secret of nonattached action is to unite ourselves with God and act. When we do so, the action that flows from that union is sacramental or saving action. For then we act as God acts, and our action becomes a channel of God's love and compassion for the world. The path for this union is bhakti yoga: the path of ecstatic union with God, which Krishna urges Arjuna to undertake:

By devotion alone can I, as I really am,

be known and seen and entered into, Arjuna. (XI.54; Miller, p. 108)

Take refuge in him [the Lord] alone—

from his grace you will attain

the eternal place that is peace. (XVIII.62; Miller, p. 152)

The path of devotion and self-surrender is now declared to be the path to union with the personal God, attained not through self-effort but through divine grace. The path of sacred duty is a preliminary step that must also be surrendered to attain union. In declaring divine grace to be that which draws a person to God and that in which the union takes place, the Gita further advances the idea of divine grace and becomes the guide for devotional religion that became the hallmark of later Hinduism.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

Hindus continue to practice many rituals that developed during the Vedic period. However, from the classical period onward, Hinduism has pursued a twofold path of transformation to reconnect with the Sacred. One is transforming the medium, or making the material used—food, sacrifice, other offerings, and prayers—the sacred meeting ground to reconnect with divinity. This is Hindu worship service, called puja. It includes the Vedic rituals—prayers, sacrifices, agnihotra—and rites of passage and festivals. The other is the path of self-transformation, the aim of which is to make the individual sacred by going beyond ordinary reality, consciousness, and self, and attaining a state of consciousness in which union with a personal God or identity with infinite Brahman takes place. This is attained through meditation or yoga paths. The following is a discussion of these two ways of reconnecting with the Sacred that developed during the classical period.

Worship Rituals

Puja, or worship service, generally begins with preliminary rites involving purification accompanied by prayers. Before morning rituals, the head of the household, or someone else in the family, first purifies himself by doing the morning ablutions and bathing, followed by prayers, which may take the form of mantra repetition—a continuous repetition of a god's or goddess's name. When accompanied by rosary beads, it is called japa, repeated silently or audibly. Mantras are not only chanted, but they can also be a part of kirtan, or singing and dancing (such as the Hare Krishnas perform) that may be accompanied by mudras or hand gestures (Indian classical dance originated in the temple as a form of worship).

Worship at home generally takes place in front of an image or picture of a god or goddess. A person may choose one god or goddess (besides worshiping other deities) as a special personal deity, who is called ishta deva, or chosen deity. Some of the more popular chosen deities are Shiva, Vishnu, Rama, Krishna, Lakshmi, and Kali.

Worship at the temple begins with the devotees removing their shoes and washing hands and feet as acts of purification. For greeting the deity, they may perform a full prostration; fold hands, kneel, and bow down with the forehead touching the ground; or simply fold hands and bow.

A votive offering consists of a metal plate containing flower petals, camphor tablets, coins, and sweets, which the devotee gives to the temple priest. He lights the camphor tablets and swings the metal plate counter clockwise in front of the statue. In this light the statue becomes the deity, and, in the mutual seeing, called darshan, a divine-human encounter is believed to take place. As Axel Michaels explains the meaning of darshan, "The deity sees this light, is in it, and the believer encounters the deity by seeing the light too, by stretching his fingers over the flame, touching his eyes, and thus taking the deity into himself" (245).

After performing other rituals, the priest touches a piece of the sweets to the mouth of the deity, keeps some of them for himself, and returns the rest to the devotee. In this act of communion with the god or goddess, a reconnection and interchange, which is essential to worship, takes place. Before leaving the temple, the devotee receives the vermilion dot on the forehead.

Each major deity has his or her own form of worship. Some, such as that of Kali, involve animal sacrifice.

Rites of Passage

Birth: Various rituals are associated with birth. The time of birth becomes the basis for an astrologer's preparation of the child's horoscope, for the child will be named according to the position of the planets at the moment of his or her birth. At that time also, women sing loudly to awaken the goddess of fate, who is to inscribe the destiny of the child.

The naming ceremony takes place forty days after the birth, the actual day set by the astrologer. The first letter of the name is determined by the horoscope, while the name itself is suggested by relatives and determined by consensus. During the worship ritual, the priest offers prayers, whispers the name in the infant's ear, invokes the blessing of Agni, the planets, and gods, and announces the name of the child. A celebration follows at the end of the ritual (Channa 82–87).

Initiation: The puberty rite that makes a boy a "twice-born" man is set down in The Laws of Manu (hereafter cited as Manu), the Hindu book of laws believed to have been given by the first man, Manu. The initiation for the priestly caste (brahmin) is performed in the eighth year, for the ruling class (kshatriya) in the seventh year, and for the commoner (vaishya) in the twelfth year (Manu 2.36).

For the initiation, except for a tuft of hair in the back, the boy's head is shaved. During the ceremony, the priest recites mantras to Shavitri, or Sun God, for the candidate's protection and then slips the sacred thread, which is made of three strands of white thread, over the left shoulder and down below the right arm. This second birth marks the end of childhood and the beginning of young adulthood. From this day until his marriage, the young man must observe celibacy and learn various rituals of purification, tending the fire, the evening ritual, and the rules of responsible conduct.

Marriage: Most traditional Hindu marriages are arranged, involving considerations of caste, social status, and parental decision rather than love and personal choice. It is the ritual duty of the father to marry his daughter into as good a family as possible. This practice has created the horrendous problem of "dowry death," which will be discussed later.

Traditionally, the wedding ceremony takes place at the bride's house. The ritual expresses a union of primal duality as the groom says to the bride, "I am... heaven, you are earth... Let us marry each other." This is followed by various rituals. The ceremony concludes with the bride uttering the mantra, "May all gods unite our hearts."

Marriage is indissoluble. Its unity is believed to continue into the world beyond. This belief was the basis for practicing sati or sutee—ritual immolation of the wife on the husband's funeral pyre—and unmarried widowhood. The law now allows both divorce and remarriage of widows. Sati has been outlawed.

Death: The dead are generally cremated. After the body is carried to the cremation grounds and is laid out, the eldest son circumambulates it three times and sprinkles water over the body from a pitcher. As he stands facing the head, he breaks the pitcher. The priest recites mantras, and the son, after going around the body, lights the fire.

While the pyre is burning, hymns to various deities are recited for the welfare of the deceased. When the body is half consumed, the eldest son breaks the skull to set the spirit free. Three days after the cremation, the sons collect the ashes and scatter them in the river. They place the bones in an urn and immerse the urn in the river, the Ganges, if possible. During the mourning period, other rituals are conducted in order to turn the ghost into an ancestor. Otherwise, the departed is believed to become an evil, hungry ghost.

Festivals

Hindus celebrate various festivals throughout the year or commemorate certain deities on fixed days. Cycles of the moon determine the date of each festival, which usually begins with worship rituals. Many also include processions and festivities. Some of the more famous festivals are those in honor of Shiva; Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, who is the son of Shiva and Parvati—one of the most popular in Hinduism; Durga; Kali; Lakshmi; and Sarasvati, the wife of Brahma and the goddess of learning and the arts—a later conception of the Vedic goddess Vac.

The Durga Puja is held in the fall (September–October) over nine days. It commemorates Durga's slaying of the buffalo demon Mahisha and celebrates the triumph of good over evil. The worship service involves consecrating a statue of Durga fashioned for the festival and imploring her with prayers and songs to banish evil and bless the good. The rituals may involve animal sacrifice—goat, sheep, or even buffalo. The festival concludes on the tenth day with a procession, lights, dancing, and music.

A particularly joyful festival, Divali, is the Festival of Light, celebrated in October-November. It is a sort of Hindu New Year's festival, when the old accounts are closed and new account books are blessed. It involves worship and prayers offered to Ganesha and Lakshmi, the god and goddess of wealth, prosperity, and good fortune. The festivities include a family gathering, like the American Thanksgiving. Houses are decorated with lights like Christmas and cities display a festive mood with fireworks.

Perhaps the most popular of all Hindu festivals, Holi, takes place during the full moon of the last month of the Hindu calendar (February-March). Although presently celebrated by all Hindus, it was originally a festival of the lowest caste. It commemorates the burning of the demon Holika, who wanted to burn her nephew for worshiping Vishnu. Rama's intervention saved the nephew but destroyed Holika. The rituals of the festival symbolize reconciliation and promotion of harmonious relationships.

The festival begins with a bonfire in which an image of Holika is burned. The second part of rituals is held in the temple. The third part outside consists of everyone sprinkling or dousing everyone else with colored water, accompanied by procession, dancing, and drumming. A kind of controlled anarchy and mayhem breaks down the general social barriers and caste distinctions as everyone interacts with everyone else.

Paths of Self-transformation: Yoga or Meditation

Yoga was perhaps a part of the original religion of India. It was initially transmitted orally from teacher to student before being set down in writing at a much later date.

In the West, the term "yoga" conjures up various bodily postures and exercises of hatha yoga, practiced mostly for health, fitness, stress reduction, and other proven mental and spiritual benefits. In fact, yoga has a much broader connotation. Derived from the Sanskrit root "yuj," yoga means to join, bind together, unite, aggregate sum, and so on. In this root sense, Maitri Upanishad defines yoga as the method of joining the breath, the senses, the mind, and the world, and going beyond conditioned states (VI.25). In the Vedanta tradition, yoga is the act, method, and state of union with a personal God or identity with the Godhead (Brahman). It is a path of self-transformation and liberation (moksha).

Traditionally, five major types of yoga have been recognized: the paths of knowledge (jnana yoga), devotion (bhakti yoga), action (karma yoga), concentration (Yoga Sutra of Patanjali, also called raja yoga, the royal road), and tantra. There are numerous offshoots of these superhighways to Self-realization. One well-known modern form of concentrative meditation is Transcendental Meditation (TM) taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. As karma yoga was already discussed, here we will briefly concentrate on four other types of yogas.

Jnana Yoga: The Path of Knowledge: The Upanishads were the first to teach the Path of Knowledge for the attainment of the final goal of life—liberation (moksha). During the classical period, six systems of "philosophy" arose that attempted to articulate the path of knowledge leading to liberation. But each had a different idea of liberation.

One of these systems is called Vedanta, two of the main forms of which are nondualist and dualist. The first sees no differentiation between the infinite Godhead and the world; the second views a fundamental duality between the personal God and the world. Within the nondualist traditions, there is yet another distinction—unqualified and qualified Vedanta, depending on whether the unity with Brahman is identity or union. We will discuss only the latter two forms.

Shankara (c.700–800 CE), the foremost exponent of unqualified nondualism, taught that the infinite Godhead (Nirguna Brahman) is beyond any form, attributes, condition, and limitation, and so cannot be literally described in any positive terms. Even the terms reality (sat), consciousness (chit), and bliss (ananda) do not signify anything distinct from each other and from the infinite essence of the Godhead.

Saguna Brahman—personal God with attributes—is the form the formless Godhead assumes in its dynamic and creative presence in the world and in relation to humans. This personal God orchestrates creation, preservation, and dissolution of the world.

According to Shankara, there is only one Atman. It is pure, infinite consciousness, "inwardly experienced as unbroken consciousness, the consciousness that I am I" (Crest-Jewel of Discrimination 68). So, Atman and Brahman are identical, which is the highest truth (69). The goal of life is to realize this truth.

However, through ignorance (maya) our mind mistakenly superimposes its construction and category system on the data of experience, which we perceive as real. We then proceed to believe the perception to be reality as it is. That belief is illusory, which prevents us from seeing reality as it is. Thus, becoming bound to the world, we keep the wheel of the human condition turning and repeatedly undergo death and rebirth.

Liberation from this ignorance and human condition can be attained "only through a realization that Atman and Brahman are one" (40). This experience is gained in the highest meditative state, in which awareness breaks through all limitations and directly experiences itself and all things as pure Consciousness, identical with the infinite Godhead. Liberation is attained when this consciousness becomes unbroken and continuous, and we are permanently established in this supreme identity (93–105).

Bhakti Yoga: The Path of Devotion: As discussed above, one form of the Path of Devotion consists of such rituals as worship, prayers, sacrifices, and offerings that serve as mediums for contacting the divine. The other is meditation, which aims at union with the personal God. Such was the teaching of Ramanuja (b. 1027 or 1157). His nondualism is called qualified because he believed that Brahman is qualified by and exists in relation to the world and is always perceived with attributes.

Ramanuja held that Brahman as the personal God is the Ultimate Reality. He is beyond both the world and the individual self. Atman and Brahman are different in nature and related as part to whole. This distinction allowed Ramanuja to hold that atmans are infinite in number and atomic in nature. The final goal is union, not identity.

Ramanuja believed that there are three major stages on the path of union with God. Following the Gita, he believed that the path of action or religious duties serves to purify the mind and open it to knowledge or illumination. When knowledge is perfected through worship, service, meditation, and the yogas, it blossoms into love, which swiftly leads to union with God. Liberation, however, can come only with death, when a person is completely separated from nature.

Ramanuja's three stages of the path—purification, illumination, and union—are also central to love mystics of other religions, as we shall see.

A modern exponent of Bhakti Yoga, the Hare Krishnas teach a form of mantra yoga involving mantra repetition, chanting while seated, and singing and dancing to attain ecstatic union with Krishna.

Concentrative Yoga: Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (c. 200 BCE): Patanjali defines yoga as stopping the ceaseless churning of the restless mind, which is like a drunken monkey. Sensory stimuli, thoughts or stream of consciousness, habituation, conditioning, memory, and imagination agitate the mind. Without stilling them, the student cannot go beyond ordinary consciousness and experience liberation. The mind becomes still when the student is able to disidentify with all its contents and go beyond them. Yoga is the path of attaining this self-transcendence and liberation.

Patanjali teaches a twofold approach to stilling the mind: "nonattachment" or letting go of attachment to all objects, mental contents and emotional fixations by disidentifying with them; and "practice" or formal meditation, for which he prescribes eight steps, which are as follows:

• Morality (yama) is the foundation of the Yoga Path. Patanjali lays down five moral precepts: nonviolence (ahimsa); not lying, stealing, or committing sexual immorality; and not being greedy.

• Mental discipline (niyama) is likewise fivefold: purity of mind and heart; contentment or accepting whatever happens; self-discipline or austerity; self-observation and the study of sacred texts; and devotion to the student's chosen deity.

• Posture (asana) consists of any yoga posture. What is essential in posture is keeping the back erect and the entire body stable, firm, and relaxed. A stable posture cuts off external stimuli that agitates the mind, and it frees attention to concentrate on stilling mental contents.

• Breath-control (pranayama) is aimed at making the student calm, relaxed, and alert. It helps to control mental and emotional states, cut down distractions, and deepen concentration.

• Sensory withdrawal (pratyahara) consists of an inward shift of attention that disengages the mind from the senses and the external world. This reversal of attention enables the mind to remain focused on the object chosen for concentration.

• Concentration (dharana) is holding attention on a single object. The object may be anything external, such as a divine image; or internal, such as silent mantra repetition, the breath, mental states, or visualization of a divine form. The goal is to unify attention by keeping it exclusively focused upon the object.

• Meditation (dhyana) is the advanced concentration in which the flow of attention toward the object remains continuous without being interrupted by thoughts or distractions. As a result, the mind becomes more aware, unified, calm, and present-centered.

• Samadhi is the state in which, Patanjali says, "awareness, as if empty of its own form, shines forth only in the form of the object," leading to "an identity of the knower and the process of knowing with the object to be known" (III.3; I.41). The experience of samadhi—absorption or oneness—is like when reading a novel or watching a movie, one identifies with the character so completely that all sense of separation between oneself and the character is lost. This identification is attained in two main stages: First, in oneness through concentration on an object, the oneness remains limited to the object. Second, in objectless oneness, awareness ultimately goes beyond all objects and ordinary consciousness, and arrives at an experience of identity between the meditator and all reality. At this stage, everything is experienced as the Ultimate, which alone remains as the only Reality there is. When this state becomes permanent, the student is said to attain liberation (IV. 34).

Tantric Chakras, symbolizing levels of consciousness

The Development of Tantra: Hinduism developed other yogas. It is not possible to discuss them all here, but Tantric Yoga should be briefly discussed because of its importance and some of the misconceptions surrounding it.

The word tantra means to weave, unfold, or extend. Originally it was applied to the totality of knowledge of the universe. In the religious context, tantra came to envision the universe as an interweaving of a polarity of forms and forces or energies that interpenetrate and interconnect in all their dimensions. This makes the universe a multidimensional and undivided whole. The primary polarity that weaves through all things, forming their very fabric, nature, and governing principle is called Shiva, or the principle of Wisdom, and Shakti, or primal Energy.

The aim of tantra is to attain a unity of the polarities within ourselves and with all things and thus arrive at liberation. As the Wisdom-Energy that constitutes the whole universe also makes up each thing, anything can symbolize and reveal the whole. And unification of the polarity within the individual leads to a unification with the universe. Thus, a journey to our own center is at the same time a journey to the center of the universe. In each human being, the body is the pathway for this unification. This view is grounded on the assumption that, as B. Bhattacharyya explains, "The structures of the microcosm and the macrocosm are identical and that the key to the knowledge of nature is to be found in the human body" (19).

There are basically two paths to achieve this goal: symbolic, in which the body serves as the pathway for the integration, and actual, in which unification is achieved through intercourse with a sexual partner.

The latter is usually assigned to more advanced practitioners, since the danger of sexual excesses and being stuck in sexual pleasure is too strong for beginners to overcome. The aim of sexual yoga is attaining oneness of duality by uniting with a sexual partner. This is called "meditation of the Five Ms," because each Sanskrit word for the five ingredients begins with an "m"—fish, meat, wine, parched grain, and sexual union. While ritually consuming the first four, the partners enter into sexual union. Visualizing each other as Shiva and Shakti, Wisdom and Energy, the partners seek to attain spiritual union through sexual union.

The most recognizable form of the first type is Kundalini Yoga, which is based on the idea that within each of us resides the primal Energy in a dormant or unconscious state, like a coiled-up serpent, at the base of the spine. The aim is to awaken it through various meditative exercises involving the body, speech, and mind. Once awakened, it has to be made to enter and rise through the central channel (sushumna), which is visualized as running along the spinal column. As the Energy rises, it activates the energies of the seven centers (chakras, literally meaning "wheels"). As each is activated, students need to transform negative aspects of energies associated with that center, expand their positive qualities, and integrate them with the next higher center.

Various meditative exercises are assigned by the teacher for raising Energy. Exercises involving the body are called mudras, which consist of various postures, hand gestures, and bodily movements. Speech involves mantras. And the mind is especially engaged in visualizing various deities for which yantras and mandalas are used. A yantra is a pictorial diagram for concentration. A mandala is a circular representation of reality in all its dimensions and the pathways for realizing oneness with it.

Ordinarily the breath, which represents Energy, entering through both nostrils, circulates through the left and right channels that run along the central channel. The method of raising Kundalini is to visualize the breath as Energy, make it enter the central channel, travel through the six centers (at the base of the spine, sex organs, power or navel, heart, throat, and third eye), and reach the seventh, the crown center on top of the head. Thereupon the student experiences oneness within herself and with the universe. From here she can proceed to the final goal of liberation.

Ethics and the Good Life

Hindu ethics is enfolded in the concept of dharma. In the widest sense, dharma is the eternal order that pervades and sustains the universe. It is the principle that governs the cyclic universal process of creation or emanation of the world from God, its preservation, dissolution, and reabsorption into God, only to start over again. The second meaning pertains to the laws that govern nature, such as gravitation.

Third, in the social sphere, dharma is a people's way of life. In this context, what conforms to dharma is good and right; what does not is bad and wrong (adharma). However, unlike Western ethics that applies equally to all persons and across all segments of society, Hindu ethics is tied to the caste system. Whatever conforms to the duties of each caste is right. Anything that deviates from them is wrong. In addition, as there are four stages of life, and each stage has its specific duties, their observance determines what is good and deviation from them what is bad.

Fourth, for the individual, dharma consists of the duties of one's caste (sadharma) and to one's specific stage in life. Everyone is expected follow their specific caste and stage duties. Equal attention is paid to the performance of one's duties and to the satisfaction of personal desires, pleasures, and needs within these parameters. Attaining a balance between these two poles is believed to be the ideal life for everyone. However, this scheme can be bypassed in exceptional cases.

Thus, dharma is social ethics. Goodness is not intrinsic but extrinsic to the action. It is caste duty that determines its goodness and value.

In addition, certain obligations are binding on all. A famous text of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad prescribes self-control, generosity, and compassion. Manu mentions "ten points of duty" for all: not stealing, not getting angry, patience, forgiveness, self-control, purification, mastery of the senses, wisdom, learning, and truth (6. 91–92). Another text adds nonviolence, not committing sexual immorality, avoiding transgressions, practicing truthfulness, purity, sincerity, liberality, and doing what is good. These common obligations form the foundation of ethics and have priority over caste and stage duties. However, in situations of conflict, caste duties have the greater force.

Moreover, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana not only paint portraits of ideal men and women who are set up as role models, they also contain ethical teachings and values that form the bedrock of Hindu society. In one passage, for instance, the Mahabharata teaches the Golden Rule and freedom from greed: "Treat others as thou would thyself be treated. Greed is the root cause of sin. Therefore, the self-controlled person constantly seeks to destroy avarice and the delusion it fosters" (Johnson 51).

In addition to these general ethical principles, Hinduism also takes a stand on specific ethical issues that pertain to everyday practical concerns. For instance, the general Hindu view on abortion is that it is permissible only when the mother's life is in danger.

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

We now turn to Hindu conceptions of community and its organization into various institutions. The lifespan of a Hindu came to be seen as consisting of four stages and having four goals. Society itself came to be divided into four castes, more than one thousand birth groups (jatis), and the outcastes who were excluded from participation in the main drama of life. We will also discuss another major group—women in Hinduism—and the encounter of Hinduism with Islam.

Four Stages of Life: The social teachings of Hinduism pertaining to the four stages and four goals of life are complementary to the yoga paths. These stages pertain to the development of the self in the normal course of life, whereas the yogas are concerned with transpersonal stages of growth beyond ego. Hinduism discovered that human development does not end with the unfolding of the biological and psychological stages of the self from childhood to adulthood, but it continues beyond the self, culminating in the realization of the true Self—Atman. In this progressive unfolding of identity, Hinduism recognizes four major stages: student, householder, retirement, and asceticism. The first three are concerned with the development of the personal stages; the last is for the transpersonal stage of growth.

• Student: The student stage begins with initiation. In the past, the initiate would live with his teacher for about twelve years, aiming to attain knowledge, develop character, and prepare for the householder's life. Today, the initiate lives at home and attends regular school.

• Householder: At the householder stage, with the ego fully developed the twice-born man is admitted to a full participation in adult life. This stage starts with marriage, which is a duty for all Hindus. After the wedding, the man assumes various duties of his stage, performs daily rituals and sacrifices, studies the sacred texts, and engages in his chosen profession.

• Retirement: When his duties to society are done, the man retires, either alone or accompanied by his wife. Today, the retiree forms a part of an offspring's extended family. This is primarily a stage of self-reflection and letting go—of wealth, social status, power, self-importance—in preparation for the final journey.

• Asceticism or Renunciation: This stage consists of cutting the cord of attachments that ordinarily keeps people limited to the ego-identity. Its aim is to free the person to embark on the final journey of Self-realization through nonattachment to anything other than Atman and by living the life of a wandering ascetic. Few undertake this step today.

While the division of life into four stages is designed for all men, only the first two are obligatory; the third is recommended; and the fourth is optional. The last two stages are essentially psychological and spiritual steps of letting go of attachments to everything connected with the ego and committing the Hindu to the ultimate stage of growth. The aim is to uncover and realize his final identity.

In recommending these stages, Hinduism realizes that in order to live a full life, people need to experience all the good things life has to offer. One has to become somebody first before becoming a no-body. Only a fully developed ego that has come to realize that satisfying desires is not enough to satisfy the human spirit, is ready to let go of itself without lingering attachment. When he realizes that nothing less than the Infinite can give humans ultimate happiness, he is ready to surrender the limited identity of the ego in order to realize the limitless identity of Atman.

Four Goals of Life: The four goals of life parallel the four stages of life. Like the first three stages, the first three goals—called the path of desire—pertain to the ego, its development, and fulfillment of its desires. The last goal—called the path of liberation—concerns ultimate fulfillment and happiness, which requires going beyond the first three. Hinduism affirms everything, gives desire and the world their due, and advises the Hindu to experience them and see their limitations. Only then will one be ready to pursue the ultimate goal.

• Pleasure (kama), or enjoyment in the variety of its forms, is a positive value for Hindus within the parameters of ethics, society, and religion. However, as the satisfaction of pleasure does not bring ultimate fulfillment, Hinduism holds that pleasure should not be confused with happiness.

• Success (artha)—economic, political, social, and familial—is another positive value. But greed, as we have seen, is considered evil. The value of success lies in its contribution to society, personal enjoyment, and psychological health and wellbeing.

• Duty (dharma) defines the Hindu way of life. Doing their duty makes Hindus religious. Hinduism has no word for religion. Dharma, in its encompassing sense (stage, caste, familial, and religious), serves for religion. The selfless performance of duty earns the Hindu a place in heaven. But heaven is not the ultimate goal; nor does it free the Hindu from the limitations of ego and rebirth or bring limitless happiness.

• Liberation (moksha) is the final goal of life. However, the idea of liberation has a wide range of meaning. For some, it is the extinction of the body. For others it is the cessation of suffering. Others see it as a separation of the Self from the world. Bhakti followers view it as the attainment of heaven, the world of Vishnu, eternal bliss, or union with a personal God. For the Upanishads, liberation is realizing the ultimate identity of Atman-Brahman, and being permanently established in this state as the center of one's being and consciousness.

Hinduism holds that while the other three are necessary and important, none can lead anyone to the ultimate goal. It insists that without realizing this supreme identity, life remains incomplete and subject to rebirth because one has not realized one's destiny and the final purpose of life.

Four Castes: As we have seen, hymn X.90 of the Rig Veda describes creation as a sacrifice of the Cosmic Man. It goes on to speak of the creation of the social system out of the further sacrifice of his body. His mouth became the priestly class, his arms were made into the ruling class, his thighs the people, and from his feet the servant class was born (X.90). Initially, the Aryan society consisted of the first three classes based on a division of labor. Priests were second to the ruling class in the social hierarchy. By the time this hymn was composed, the priestly class had risen to the top, and the non-Vedic Aryans and pre-Aryan population had been reduced to the subordinate servant class. What was initially a social system based on occupation is now declared to be dharma, or sacred order, established at creation and thus having unalterable divine sanction. In attaining the status of an unalterable sacred law or dharma, the observance of which is virtuous and breach sinful, this hymn testifies how a social system was given a religious justification and in time became the rigid caste system.

• The priestly caste (brahmin) had risen to the top because priests came to control religious knowledge and the sacred texts, teach the twice-born young men, establish and interpret the laws, perform public rituals, and guard the social order. For this reason, scholars call the Hinduism of this period Brahmanism.

• The ruling caste (kshatriya) became second. Manu summarizes the duties of the ruler/warrior as protecting his subjects, giving, guarding, and preserving the social order (1.89).

• The common people (vaishya) engaged in the professions making up the bulk of the population became the bulwark of society. This caste consisted of traders, farmers, artisans, bankers, and others who engaged in "honorable" professions (1.90).

• The servant caste (shudras) was said to have been made up of the original inhabitants among whom the Aryans settled. Manu dispatches them with one line, "The Lord assigned only one activity to a servant: serving these [other] classes without resentment" (1.91). They also included manual laborers and artisans. They were subject to various discriminations during the post-Vedic period—exclusion from initiation, religious rites and sacrifices, and studying the scriptures. However, during the Vedic times, the servant caste may have consisted of non-Vedic Aryans who did participate in some Vedic rituals and investiture of kings, have the right to Vedic studies, hold ministerial positions, and were members of political assemblies (Sharma 843–870).

• Untouchables performed menial tasks believed to make caste members ritually impure. And so they were placed outside the caste system. Manu specifies a variety of professions as unclean and hence reserved for them, including doctors, nurses, funeral directors, fishermen, hunters, butchers, leather-workers, and cleaners. The "upper" castes would become polluted if they came in contact with the outcastes and would have to undergo ritual purification. Initially, a concern for hygiene may have prompted the separation of the untouchables from the rest of society. But once the system was in place, outcastes were often forced to live in ghettos, forbidden to enter temples, and mistreated. B. R. Ambedkar, who in 1949 chaired the committee that drafted the Indian Constitution, in 1956, with many of his followers, converted to Buddhism. What made him take this decisive step was the realization that the Hindu majority would not reform itself and that the liberation of the untouchables lay no longer within but from Hinduism. The 200 million untouchables, called Dalits, continue to experience discrimination in education, jobs, housing, and, in general, suffer from poverty and inequality.

However, the caste system is undergoing vast changes in India today. This is especially discernible in southern India, where a breakdown of caste hierarchy has severed the link between caste and profession, releasing creative energies of the lower caste members. This has enabled them to prosper by focusing on economic development and education, which in turn has given them greater political power and has enabled them to move more quickly into the mainstream. But as their northern counterparts have concentrated mainly on political power and privilege, the lower caste people in the north have tended to be less educated and less prosperous.

Women in Hinduism

We have seen that in the spiritual sphere, Hinduism gives the highest recognition to women in the forms of the mother goddess, the female principle equal to the male principle, Shakti, as the essence of divinity, and the Infinite in female form. Even today, some sects conceive Brahman to be female. But are these ideals translated into the actual lives of women?

The image of the mother goddess suggests that perhaps women enjoyed a central role in religious rituals and commanded a corresponding social status in the Indus civilization. In the patriarchal Aryan society, men exercised the dominant role not only in public and professional life but also in religious rituals and social relationships. Within their restricted position, women exercised authority over children and servants with freedom and flexibility. Daughters could remain unmarried and had a voice in selecting a husband. They participated in Vedic chants and, if their fathers were Vedic teachers, some of them might have been initiated in Vedic studies. Judging from the number of Rig Vedic hymns women are said to have composed (15 out of 1028), some women were teachers and seers, though they did not generally appear as students or teachers in formal situations of learning (Roy 14).

During the Upanishadic period, some women appear to have aspired to spiritual knowledge. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, for instance, Maitreyi persistently questioned her husband, Yajnavalkya, about the nature of reality and knowledge of Atman. And Gargi challenged Yajnavalkya to a public debate concerning the nature of Brahman, implying that she possessed this knowledge. But these were exceptions.

From the classical period onward, women were regarded as important because they were necessary for men to fulfill their triple debts—to ancestors, teachers, and the gods—and the duties and obligations of the householder's life. Thus, as Katherine Young points out, "the presence of a wife was necessary for the presence of gods, and a home was considered auspicious (subha) only with the presence of both" (62).

Discrimination against women started at birth, which went unobserved by religious ritual. The desire for sons and the dowry system for girls led some to practice female infanticide from the medieval period onward. Female feticide and infanticide continue to be practiced throughout India today. Poor and lower caste women, who cannot afford to pay for abortion, may resort to female infanticide by allowing the infant to die or hastening her death by feeding her poisoned milk. Middle class and upper caste women resort to abortion once the fetus is determined to be female through ultrasound and amniocentesis. Though India outlawed sex-determination tests in 1994, their use has become common as ultrasound technology has spread to small towns. Even those who are allowed to live often suffer neglect, malnutrition, and denial of health care (Ferguson 98). This destruction of female fetuses—10 million in 20 years—has created a pronounced gender imbalance—933 girls per 1000 boys (Time, 23 January 2006).

Daughters were generally excluded from initiation and their education was minimal, limited to their duties of wife, mother, and mistress of the household. A woman's life spanned three main phases: maidenhood, marriage, and self-immolation or widowhood. In all three stages, a woman was always under the control and supervision of men. As Manu explicitly teaches, the woman is to be made dependent and kept under control: "Her father guards her in childhood, her husband guards her in youth, and her sons guard her in old age. A woman is not fit for independence" (9.1). The reason for control is, as Kumkum Roy states, "the widespread belief that women are by nature intellectually inferior, having a wooly brain and undisciplined mind, and being hostile and threatening toward men, especially with their sexuality and tendency to be promiscuous, dishonest, and polluting" (25–26). But force is not recommended in guarding women, because it does not work. So Manu admonishes the husband to keep his wife busy by "amassing and spending money, [having her engaged] in purification, attending to her duty, cooking food, and looking after the furniture" (9.10).

Marriages continue, for the most part, to be arranged, especially in rural areas and among the uneducated. While this affects both men and women, the latter's position is the more precarious. It starts with the dowry. Although the dowry is illegal, it is incumbent upon the bride's parents in most Hindu marriages. Negotiations over the dowry can be intense, creating a great deal of friction among the in-laws with whom the newlyweds have to live in the usually extended family arrangements. Recently, a young woman took the unusual and courageous step of calling off the wedding after the wedding ritual had already begun, when her future in-laws demanded a car, a house, and other expensive items as dowry. But when their daughter is homely, when she is darker than usual, or when few marriage proposals materialize and she is past "marriageable age" (late twenties), parents, worried that they may have an unmarried daughter living at home, may promise a dowry larger than they can afford. After the wedding when they fail to deliver, the bride is sometimes found dead. And her death is not always disguised as an accident. Women have been doused with gasoline or kerosene and set on fire. Such dowry deaths have occurred not just in remote villages but in the capital, New Delhi, even when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister.

Reverence for women is commended by Manu as necessary if men wish to gain good fortune. He says that gods rejoice where women are revered. Where women are happy, the family prospers. In a family where the husband is pleased with his wife there will be lasting happiness. But where women are not honored, or are unhappy, all rites are fruitless, and the family is completely destroyed (3.55).

In marriage, the primary duty of a wife was obedient service to her husband, even if he was abusive or useless. As Manu states, "A virtuous wife should constantly serve her husband like a god, even if he behaves badly, freely indulges his lust, and is devoid of any good qualities—it is because a wife obeys her husband that she is exalted in heaven" (5.155).

Throughout Manu, the woman is described in relation to the man. She is to take on his qualities and regard him as her god (9.22). It is true that Manu states, "There is no difference at all between the goddesses of good fortune [sriyas] who live in the houses and women [striyas] who are the lamps of their houses, worthy of reverence." However, a woman is revered not because she is a woman, but because she is a begetter of children (9.26). The ideal wife should be cheerful, thrifty, and a good manager of the household finances. She should provide her husband with pleasure, especially sexual pleasure, and cultivate her appearance and the beauty of the household. Her fulfillment lies in having children, especially sons.

The Kama Sutra (the book on the art of love) declares that in love the partners are equal, as love implies ecstasy, self-surrender, a union of two hearts and minds, and a fusion of partners, which cannot be achieved without equality. Thus, women, observes Madeleine Biardeau, "find their place by fully assuming their role as sexual partners, and it is in this area that they become truly complementary to men" (52).

The complementary status a woman enjoys in the domestic sphere vanishes with the death of her husband. Prohibited from remarriage, in the past she was forced into two extreme choices: sati or sutee, that is, self-immolation on the funeral pyre of her husband or widowhood. Self-immolation was considered good. It was her sacrifice, her yoga that won her salvation. In the nineteenth century, reform-minded Hindus campaigned for the abolition of sati, which the British governor, Lord William Bentinck, finally did in 1829. Despite the ban, the practice has survived.

The other extreme, widowhood, had and still has a negative connotation of failure as a woman. Socially a widow is treated as a parasite and excluded from participating in social life. She is forced to wear a white garment, go barefoot, and avoid jewelry and cosmetics as well as enjoyment or pleasure of any sort (Young 83–84).

Especially hard is the plight of widows of child marriage, women whose husbands had died leaving no children, or whose children are unable or unwilling to care for them. Reduced to the status of servant or abandoned by her husband's family and plagued by poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition, some are forced into prostitution. Others, especially young widows, faced with eviction, are forced to have sex with landlords, rickshaw drivers, policemen, and even holy men. Still others, lacking the means of supporting themselves, seek the shelter of temples or the holy city of Vrindavan, Krishna's birthplace, and similar locations, where they survive on handouts of rice and lentils and some money for hours of chanting in the morning and evening. Despite a change in inheritance laws, many are tricked out of the husband's property. Social pressures and fear of ostracism prevent many from remarrying. As a result, the plight of 34 million widows (as of 2001) continues unabated.

Women are increasingly organizing and fighting for changes in societal attitudes regarding their status. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, they began to organize and protest against rape and dowry death. This initial stand was gradually widened to include protest against subordination within domestic and social relationships, domestic violence and sexual assaults, harsh economic conditions, and patriarchal power structures. In short, women lobbied for empowerment. Although small in number, due to media attention, some of these "women's issues" have been adopted by political parties. This also corrupted or compromised the movement, as conservative groups painted strong and assertive women as western, that is, foreign, so that they had to turn to the symbols of Shakti, Kali, and Durga for their cause. In an inversion of feminism, nationalists enlisted women to advocate sati and dowry. Meanwhile, the vast majority of women, most of whom live in villages, are poor and illiterate and unaffected by modern movements. In urban centers, however, Hindu women are making great strides in education, the professions, politics, and positions of power and authority. One third of chief ministers of Indian states are now women, most recently in West Bengal, where, until now, the Communist Party ruled. Not only in India but also abroad, college-educated Hindu women have entered the professions in great numbers. Many have attained the position of CEOs. A Hindu woman is now the head of Pepsi Cola in its headquarters in New York.

Encounter with Islam

The relationship between Hindus and Muslims in India can be characterized as peaceful coexistence interrupted by occasional flare-ups of conflict and violence due to religious and political reasons. The establishment of Muslim rule in parts of India was followed by religious syncretism and cultural synthesis.

The first encounter between Hinduism and Islam occurred in 711, when the Caliph, the chief ruler of Islam, sent a military expedition to Sind, the territory around the mouth of the Indus River. This venture brought the first Muslim settlements in India. The next major assault on India was begun in 997 by the Turkish general from Afghanistan, Mahmud of Ghazni. His avowed intention was "to root out the worship of idols from the face of all India" (Firishta 52). For seventeen years, during yearly raids, Mahmud plundered scores of cities, destroyed countless Hindu temples and statues of gods and goddesses, and looted their treasures (Wolpert 104–109). However, Mahmud's raids had no abiding impact on Hinduism.

Lasting Islamic influence in India began with the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate (1206–1526) and the beginning of normal peaceful coexistence between the two communities, especially after Hindus were granted the status of dhimmi, or protected people, as long as they accepted Muslim rule and paid the head tax. This set the stage for the development of Islamic culture in India, especially after large numbers of Hindus converted to Islam.

The third phase began in 1526, when Babur, from Afghanistan, succeeded in seizing control of the Delhi Sultanate, thereby founding the Mughal Empire. His grandson, Akbar (1542–1605), was the first Muslim ruler to attempt to reconcile Hindus and Muslims (and followers of other faiths) by marrying a Hindu princess, eliminating forced conversion and the head tax, and enacting a policy of equal treatment and tolerance of everyone. The Mughal period saw the full flowering of Islamic culture, the most enduring monument of which is the Taj Mahal, built by Akbar's grandson, Shah Jahan, as a tomb for his beloved wife, Mumtaj Mahal.

However, following in the footsteps of Mahmud of Ghazni, Akbar's great grandson, Aurangzeb (1618–1707), set out to wipe out Hinduism in the land of the Hindus. He ended religious tolerance and equal treatment of Hindus, re-imposed the head tax, ordered obedience to Islamic law throughout his realm, and outlawed Hindu religious fairs and pilgrimages. He forbade Hindus to build new temples and repair old ones and set out to destroy temples in locations Hindus considered especially sacred.

In addition to politics, deep differences in religious outlook and vision of life kept the two communities apart. With its 333 million gods and goddesses, Hinduism appeared as the very opposite of Islam, which tolerates no association of anything with the one God. Such religious differences made any extensive contact or assimilation between the two faiths impossible. Muslims were confused and puzzled by the arcane caste system and resented the Hindu attitude of seeming cultural superiority. Hindu exclusivism stemming from the caste system (anyone who does not belong to a caste is technically an outcaste), made social intercourse with non-Hindus on anything but a superficial level difficult. As the historian al-Biruni, who accompanied Mahmud to India, perceptively observed,

They totally differ from us in religion, as we believe in nothing in which they believe, and vice versa... They call [foreigners] impure and forbid having any connection with them... because thereby, they think, they would be polluted... They are not allowed to receive (in their houses) anybody who does not belong to them, even if he wished it, or has inclined to their religion. This, too, renders any connection with them quite impossible, and constitutes the widest gulf between us and them (19).

Independence from British rule in 1947 and the division of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan on the basis of religion, and dispute over Kashmir became the source of the current hostility. Violence and tension boiled over again in 1992, when militant Hindu nationalists demolished the Babri Mosque and proceeded to erect a temple on the site. They claimed that this was (without any basis in fact) the actual birthplace of Rama and a temple had been built there as a memorial. A subordinate of Babur purportedly tore down the temple and built the mosque in Babur's honor—hence the appellation Babri Mosque.

On February 27, 2002, a fire broke out on a train and incinerated more than fifty-eight Hindus, mostly women and children, who were returning from a pilgrimage. Although it was an accident, Hindus blamed Muslim youths for throwing bombs that started the fire. Subsequently, a riot broke out in which 2,500 Muslims were butchered. The police and the chief minister did nothing to prevent the massacre or arrest suspects. On the contrary, according to Human Rights Watch, government officials systematically obstructed efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice. The court exonerated the chief minister, and he was re-elected.

Since then there have been waves of terror attacks by both sides. In 2005 bombs exploded on the eve of Divali in which sixty-two people were killed. Later that year, explosions at Delhi's main mosque injured thirteen. This was followed by a coordinated explosion of seven bombs hitting the Mumbai (Bombay) commuter train network, killing 209 and injuring more than 700 people. Even the Indian Parliament in New Delhi has not been spared the terrorists' attack. And the December 2008 attack on two Mumbai hotels, orchestrated by terrorists from Pakistan, killed about 183 people, including a young United States rabbi and his wife.

In spite of sporadic conflicts, for the most part, the members of the two religions have lived peacefully side by side. Hindus fought in the armies of Muslim rulers, just as Muslims fought for Hindu kings. More enduring developments are cultural and religious legacies that the encounter between the two faiths produced. Socially, for the most part, Hindus and Muslims lived apart. The mass of Hindus living in villages had remained politically indifferent not just to Muslim, but also later to British rulers. But Muslim cultural influence, especially in territories they ruled, was deep and pervasive, and evident not only in art and architecture, but also in language, literature, music, poetry, and cuisine. On the other hand, Hindus also contributed to the development of Islamic mathematics and science. At the height of Islamic civilization, according to Romila Thapar, "Indian mathematicians, astronomers and specialists in medicine had been in residence at the court of the Caliph in Baghdad, introducing Indian numerals and the notion of the decimal, among other discoveries, to Arab science, and from there the usage traveled to Europe" (432).

As for mutual influence, first, apart from exchanges of ideas among the elite, the two religions influenced each other on the popular level. Although the extent of the influence is debated, Islamic mystics or Sufis and the Hindu Bhakti movement influenced each other owing to the fact that both are focused on love as a path to union with a personal God. Hindu Bhakti movements and saints inspired Sufis in India, and they in turn converted thousands of Hindus to Islam. Even today, many Hindus, particularly in rural areas, visit tombs of Sufi saints for healing, psychological and spiritual help, and blessings, and Muslim peasants visit Hindu shrines and saints. Nevertheless, many Sufi masters and orthodox Muslim ulamas (learned jurists) have opposed any close association between the two faiths and have periodically called for reform against any easy accommodations and intermixtures between Hinduism and Islam. In the artistic and cultural spheres, such as theater, cinema, music, dance, architecture, and painting, there is a great deal of mutual influence among performers and their followers. As Gerald Larson points out, even in Islam, which has no caste system, the effects of the Hindu caste system is discernible in social hierarchy and attitude of superiority among the upper echelon. Thus the descendants of Turks, Afghans and Persians are at the top, followed by artisans and, finally, scavengers (102–119). This state of affairs is also prevalent among Christians and other religious groups. It is clearly behind the trend among Indians, particularly women, of making their skin lighter by using cosmetics and surgery.

Second, Hindu-Muslim syncretism or synthesis developed between 1100 and 1700 CE, centering especially on the Bhakti movement. One outstanding example was the poet-saint Kabir (c. 1440–1518). Discarding the ritual practices of both Islam (he was raised as a Muslim) and Hinduism, he focused on love as the basis for union with God. Another was Guru Nanak (1469–1539), who became the founder of Sikhism, as we shall see later.

The Modern Period (c. 1800–2006)

The other major change occurred when Hindu society came in contact with Christianity and the British rule. This contact spurred various reform movements in the modern period. Initially, according to legends, Christianity was introduced to India by the Apostle Thomas. Next, after Vasco da Gama sailed to India around Africa in 1498, the Portuguese established enclaves in western (Goa) and eastern (Bengal) India and converted Indians in these regions. The Jesuits also made inroads into India in the sixteenth century, the most renowned Jesuit missionary being Francis Xavier. Serious Protestant missionary effort did not get under way until after 1813. But the more important influence among Indian intellectual circles was a reaction against British rule and a reassertion of Hindu religious heritage to shake off a feeling of inferiority. The result was various reform movements, revival, and, in one case, a unique synthesis of politics and religion—Mohandas Gandhi. The nature of these movements depended on the kind of reaction they had to colonialism. Here we will concentrate first on two reform movements: Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj. We will then briefly examine the revival of Hinduism by Ramakrishna and his main disciple Vivekananda. We will go on to view the unique role of Gandhi, leading to independence of India from British rule. And we will briefly examine the rise of Hindu nationalism in reaction to state secularism and other factors. This chapter will conclude with a brief discussion of Hinduism today.

Reform Movements

Brahmo Samaj: The reform movement that was positive and forward looking was Brahmo Samaj, founded in 1828 by Ram Mohan Roy (1772–1833). Influenced by Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Christianity, he advocated a form of monotheism. Attempting to find a common spiritual ground, Roy concluded that the essence of all religions is the unity, personality, and spirituality of God the creator and preserver of the universe. This belief prompted him to advocate removing from Hinduism every vestige of polytheism and idolatry. He rejected the doctrines of reincarnation and liberation. Following Protestantism, Brahmo Samaj's worship service consisted of hymns, scripture readings, and sermons. Socially, the movement championed the abolition of sati, child marriage, and polygyny. Later, the movement split up over the issues of abolishing the caste system and allowing inter-caste marriages.

Arya Samaj: In the opposite direction, Arya Samaj, begun by Dayananda Sarasvati (1824–1883) in 1875, attempted to restore the original purity of Hinduism by accepting the Vedas as the only source of truth. For Dayananda, the Vedas were a direct revelation from the one God, free from polytheism, Upanishadic teachings, the incarnation of God, and the caste system, which he rejected. Socially, he rejected child marriage, and advocated the education of women and the remarriage of widows.

Revival: In Ramakrishna (1836–1886) we encounter a religious phenomenon that the Catholic Theologian John Dunne has described as passing over into other traditions and returning to one's own with new insights. Starting as a priest of Kali in Kolkata, Ramakrishna moved into mysticism and experienced deep absorption (samadhi) with Kali as the Great Mother Goddess and, ultimately, as infinite Godhead. His relationship with Kali became as that between a mother and child. His experience of oneness with Kali became so intense that he completely identified with her, to the point of imitating a woman in dress and manners. Does such behavior mean that he was a mystico-erotic or a transvestite, as some have alleged? Such behavior, though unusual and seemingly bizarre, is not uncommon among Vaishnavas, who regard all souls as female and God as male. Ramakrishna has been quoted as saying that one way for a man to overcome passion and male-female duality is to do the opposite, by adopting female attitude and dress. Becoming identified with Kali is a way to realize complete unity with Brahman (Raab 321–341).

For twelve years, Ramakrishna experimented with passing over into other religions and experiencing their truths. He experienced Brahman both as a personal God and as infinite Godhead. Praying and meditating like a Muslim, he experienced Allah. In Christianity, he experienced God in Jesus. And, returning to Hinduism, he experienced God as Krishna, Rama, and Sita. He encountered God everywhere and came to realize that all forms are manifestations of the formless Infinite and that all religions are different pathways to the Infinite.

Ramakrishna's disciple, Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), carried the movement to the West, first by appearing at the Chicago World Congress of Religions in 1893 and then by founding the Vedanta Society in New York in 1895. Later the movement spread to various cities of Europe. He also established the Ramakrishna Order and Mission in India and abroad. It is dedicated to charitable, missionary, and educational activities.

Gandhi: Many streams flowed into one in the making of the architect of nonviolent action. Jesus's teachings, especially the Sermon on the Mount, and Thoreau's seminal essay On Civil Disobedience were key formative influences in his development. Ruskin and Tolstoy inspired him. But what emerged at the confluence of these liberating views is uniquely Hindu. In the battlefield of India Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869–1948) was a twentieth-century Arjuna for whom the Bhagavad Gita was a constant companion.

Violence must forever be renounced. Evil, injustice, greed, and hatred must be rooted out. It must begin with oneself if it is to have any effect on society. This is the aim of satyagraha (truth-force), a movement of love and nonviolent action. This was politics transformed into religion and religion immersed in the arena of human affairs to liberate humans. It was an incarnation of eternal truth joined to love and engaged in the task of transforming society through political action.

For Gandhi, the turning point in his life came when he was thrown out of the first class compartment of a train bound for Natal, South Africa. In the course of his struggle there against oppressive measures by the government to disenfranchise the Indian community and impose a punitive head tax, Gandhi developed his movement of truth-force, a form of karma yoga for our times.

Back in India, Gandhi joined the nationalist movement and continued to evolve his nonviolent movement and apply it to the Indian experience to gain independence from British rule. Internally, he sought to purify himself by living a life of truth, purity, renunciation, simplicity, and selflessness. He wished to purify the people by founding a satyagraha community where these principles would be the nucleus of a new India. He sought to use its power to free Indians of what he called the "slave mentality" that made them feel inferior and subservient to the British, purify their hearts and minds of hatred and distrust of one another, remove the stigma of caste, and lead Hindus and Muslims to reconciliation.

Independence did come at midnight on August 14, 1947, but Gandhi was sleeping, heartsick at the slaughter of more than a million Hindus and Muslims, and the displacement of millions more. In the end, he had failed, by his own admission, in his main task of reconciling Hindus and Muslims. The very countervailing force that put an end to his life in 1948 gave rise to Hindu nationalism, which came to power in 1998.

The Rise of Hindu Nationalism

Muslim militancy in Kashmir led to tension, riots, and war with Pakistan. Terrorists' continued assaults in Kashmir and once on the Indian Parliament in New Delhi edged India and Pakistan to the brink of war. Sikh secessionists created a hotbed of unrest by killing thousands of Hindus, forcing many to flee, and assassinating Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Such unsettling tides made many Hindus feel insecure and under attack. The reaction to these events and to Islamic rule in India has been a resurgence of Hindu nationalism and an assertion of Hindu sovereignty.

In some respect, this nationalism is similar to Islamic fundamentalism in its response to colonial rule and modern secularism. In India both Gandhi and Nehru (1889–1964) advocated secularism as a way to unite religiously, ethnically, and linguistically diverse peoples. That remained the official position of the ruling Congress Party. Unlike the United States, however, India has no real separation of religion and politics and no Hindu church. So, when Congress began to enact various reforms that affected the Hindus (such as abolishing caste and dowry and allowing remarriage of widows), but not other faiths, the Hindus began to feel that Indian secularism was being directed against them. Some Hindus began to see themselves as a persecuted majority, while minorities were acquiring privileges beyond their due. This feeling led to the assassination of Gandhi in 1948. Secularism itself as a policy came to be seen as having failed to live up to its promise of realizing India's potentialities. Because secularism also neglected Hindu life and ideals, Hindu nationalists did not wish India to become a carbon copy of the West. They believed that the alternative was to make India a Hindu nation based on Hindu ideals.

Politically, with the gradual erosion of the national ideals that animated it in the beginning, Congress had slowly descended into moral chaos and the loss of its moral authority to govern. Political meddling, overregulation, and corruption had infected every sector of government like a cancer. Criminals had rigged elections and seized control of voting booths in large areas of most cities. In the absence of national ideals and goals, regional, ethnic, and religious interests had come to fill the vacuum.

Meanwhile, promoters of Hindu nationalism had been organizing the masses, with the result that the Bharatiya Janata Party steadily gained ground by representing nationalist groups to promote its agenda. After an initial failure, it succeeded in later elections.

Hinduism Today

There are at least three dimensions to consider in taking a measure of Hinduism today—diaspora Hinduism, that is, the faith practiced by Hindus who have migrated abroad; the impact of Hinduism on the West; and Hinduism in India. Complex dynamics can be observed on all three fronts in this transitional period.

Diaspora Hinduism is perhaps most clearly impacted by being implanted on foreign soil, where social and cultural conditions are vastly different from those in India. In the absence of social and cultural frameworks and myriad religious traditions and customs as support, immigrants are most directly facing the issue of self-definition. Yet it is precisely because this new context provides liberation from old restrictions that immigrant Hinduism has a greater advantage in reinterpreting and applying its sacred texts and traditions to this new context of life. This reinterpretation is contributing to a reconstruction of Hinduism as a world religion, shorn of the caste system and social strictures but retaining its essentials of faith, religion, and spiritual heritage.

As for its impact on the West, what began as an uncertain experiment with the appearance of Vivekananda at the Congress of World Religions in 1893 has now become, with the influx of gurus and meditation masters since the 1960s and 1970s, a more visible, viable, variegated, and assured presence of Hinduism in the West, particularly in the United States and the United Kingdom. Yoga has now entered the mainstream of western societies. Other well-known movements, such as Transcendental Meditation; the Hare Krishnas (i.e., the International Society for Krishna Consciousness); the Self-Realization Fellowship, founded by Yogananda, whose Autobiography of a Yogi has been read by millions; and the Siddha Yoga Foundation, initiated by Swami Muktananda, have become established in many western countries. This reverse "missionary" movement from the East will obviously continue, as will the journeying of westerners to the East and learning from the masters there—a crossing over and internationalizing of spirituality.

In India itself, Hinduism will continue to provide spiritual sustenance for millions of adherents of various sects and support for myriad of customs and rituals that fill their daily activities. India's rapid economic growth, its emerging middle class, and the educational and technological changes all sectors of Indian society is experiencing will bring greater social freedom for all. On the religious front, the breakdown of caste hierarchy may lead to a self-definition of Hinduism in India and articulation of its essentials, similar to what is being undertaken by immigrant Hinduism, constituting the other wing of globalization.

Hindu political nationalism, based on exclusive national identity formation that connects Hinduism with India, will continue to be a choice for many. This may continue to evoke periodic violence and intolerance as it has in the past.

Hinduism will continue to be revitalized by spiritual seekers who seem to arise from the very soil of India and the deeply experiential aspects of Hinduism. The yogas or the meditative traditions and the quest for the Infinite will continue to refresh, transform, energize, and witness the presence of Brahman in the world not only in India but also in the West, where such practices have taken root since the 1960s. And the changing face of Hinduism and its tradition of tolerance as practiced by the vast majority of the Hindus both in India and abroad may turn out to be one of the resources of peace and reconciliation, not only in India but also in other parts of the world.

Mahavira, Founder of Jainism

Chapter 5: Jainism

Timeline

c. 599–527 (or 510) BCE | Traditional dates of Mahavira

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c. 350 BCE | Split between Digambaras and Shvetambaras

2nd century BCE | Possible composition of Kalpa Sutra

6th century CE | Solidification of Shvetambara sect

17th century | Formation of Sthanakavasi sect

18th century | Formation of Terapanthi sect

|

Conquering others and founding empires has been the ambition of many national leaders. In the process, they destroyed innumerable lives and demonstrated the savagery of military power. The drive to conquer nature has caused the destruction of the environment and killed countless living beings. However, to refuse to conquer, to refuse to kill, to refuse to destroy life, and instead to conquer the chaos within oneself—such is the task the founder of Jainism, Mahavira, undertook for himself. And it is what he invited humanity to undertake.

Self-conquest! How many people have foundered on this, the most difficult of all undertakings! Yet that is the challenge of Jainism. We all want more—more of everything: money, power, property and possessions, sex, and enjoyment—the list goes on and on. But to root out greed, to discipline oneself by letting go of everything unnecessary to maintain life (i.e., asceticism), is the second challenge Jainism issues to humanity.

Asceticism and nonviolence. How did Mahavira come upon these twin necessities for attaining total freedom? This is what we want to discover in this brief chapter.

Jainism arose at a time of social, political, and spiritual ferment in India. In the central region of northern India, kingdoms and confederations of principalities began to replace tribal life. New cities began to crop up that served as capitals and business centers and provided an increase of wealth for businessmen and a comfortable living for many ordinary people. The great spiritual upheaval that gripped India toward the end of the Vedic period pushed religion in two directions. The Upanishadic breakthroughs carried Hinduism beyond Vedic sacrificial religion, placed the Infinite in the foreground, and promoted meditation as the pathway to oneness with the Infinite. In so doing, the Upanishads relegated priests, who controlled sacrificial rituals, to a secondary role. In the central and northern regions, where priestly control of religion was less dominant, the religious phenomenon of wandering ascetics, which may have existed in India from pre-Vedic times, began to gather momentum. Ascetics went from village to village, begged for their sustenance, interacted with rivals, and taught whoever would listen. Out of such practices, new directions of teachings began to emerge that blossomed into full-fledged religious movements.

These movements were led mainly by members of the ruling caste. Their political hegemony gave them independence from the priestly control of religion. Eschewing established religious beliefs and sacrificial rituals, they branched out into new forms of beliefs and practices, discarded Sanskrit and adopted Pali (the emerging language of the people at that time), and rejected the caste system. Moreover, the legitimization of asceticism as the fourth stage of life, together with the economic and political changes India was undergoing at that time, created the context for many to drop out of society and join the ranks of the wandering ascetics. As their numbers swelled, they began to gather around powerful teachers and form loose associations. Two of the most prominent of these leaders who forged new pathways to the spiritual universe were Mahavira, who founded Jainism, and Siddhartha Gautama, who founded Buddhism (Basham 57–67; de Bary 3–6).

The Life of Mahavira

Jntraputra Vardhamana, who came to be called Mahavira, meaning "Great Hero," is usually regarded as the founder of Jainism. However, the Jains attribute the origin of their religion to a lineage of twenty-four teachers called Tirthankaras, meaning "ford-makers."

The idea of ford-makers rests on the belief that the universe undergoes endless cycles of time, consisting of ascending and descending periods. During the downward spiral, twenty-four ford-makers appear, set the "three jewels"—right knowledge, right faith, and right practice—in motion and establish a community, which becomes a spiritual ford or shallow channel for crossing the ocean of this world and rebirth (samsara). Because they had overcome this world and become free from rebirth, they are called jinas, meaning "conquerors," whence the word "jain" is derived. During our present age, known as the age of darkness (kaliyuga), the first Jina to appear was called Rishabha. However, nothing factual is known about Rishabha. The twenty-third ford-maker was Parshva, and the last was Mahavira.

The exact dates of Mahavira's life are not known. One of the main Jain branches, the Shvetambara, set 599 BCE and 527 BCE as the dates of his birth and death. The other major branch, the Digambara, recognizes 510 BCE as the date of his death, though some scholars believe it to be 467 BCE. These two traditions also differ in their accounts of Mahavira's life, though both maintain that he died at age seventy-two.

Equally uncertain is the place of Mahavira's birth. The Jain traditions agree that he was born near the modern city of Patna in the state of Bihar, northern India, and that it was also the main theater of his activity. This would not only make Mahavira a contemporary of the Buddha but would also locate the main theater of their activities in the same general area, though there is no evidence that the two ever met.

Much of Mahavira's life parallels that of the Buddha. Like the Buddha, Mahavira is said to have been a prince. According to Shvetambaras, he married a princess named Yashoda (Digambaras hold that he never married), while the Buddha married a princess named Yashodhara. Mahavira had a daughter; the Buddha had a son. Mahavira renounced the world on his thirtieth birthday; the Buddha did the same, at age twenty-nine. However, unlike the Buddha, to avoid hurting his parents' feelings, Mahavira waited until they died by ritual starvation before distributing his property and renouncing the world.

Initially, Mahavira joined the community of Parshva's disciples. As a rite of initiation, Mahavira removed his finery and ornaments and donned the monk's robe, plucked out his hair, and pledged to neglect his body and suffer any misfortune that came his way. A few months later he left the company of the ascetics, discarded his robe, and eventually removed even his loincloth, going naked in order to become free of attachment to the body and selfhood.

For about twelve years Mahavira wandered alone, practicing extreme forms of asceticism and meditation. In his quest for liberation, Mahavira was guided by two convictions, that extreme asceticism and nonviolence to any living thing (ahimsa) were necessary for liberation. Like other ascetics, he begged for food. But, unlike others, he ate minimal food, never ate anything raw, and ate only leftovers lest he should be the cause of the death of any creature. He also abstained from food and drink for long periods. Furthermore, his practice of nonviolence was such that he unflinchingly endured verbal and physical abuse and torture from villagers, "like a hero at the head of a battle," says a scriptural text, thereby earning the title Mahavira. He moved about carefully, with eyes transfixed on a square foot of space at a time so as not to injure or kill any living thing. To prevent his stepping on any insect inadvertently, he carried a soft broom to sweep the ground. He would examine the ground or bed before lying down. To overcome aversion to heat and cold, in the winter, he refused to wear clothes or seek shelter and meditated while squatting in the shade. In the summer he squatted in the scorching sun. He never stayed in one village for more than one night or one town for more than five nights lest he should become a burden on the hospitality of others, develop attachment to anything or relationship with anyone. Only during the four-month rainy season did he stay in the same place, as otherwise he might injure the profusion of life that springs suddenly after the start of the monsoon rains. And he remained motionless during long periods of meditation while insects feasted on his body. Despite the pain this caused, he flinched not a muscle.

During his thirteenth year, as the Shvetambara text states, "in a squatting position with joined heels, exposing himself to the heat of the sun, after fasting two-and-a-half days without drinking water, being engaged in deep meditation," Mahavira attained enlightenment (Smart and Hecht 279).

What is the nature of Mahavira's enlightenment? The Shvetambara text says that it consisted of infinite knowledge, which made him "omniscient and comprehending all objects; he knew and saw all conditions of the world, of gods, men and demons... the open and secret deeds of all the living beings of the whole world... what they thought, spoke, or did at any moment" (Smart and Hecht 279). This enlightenment is said to be a direct and simultaneous knowledge of everything in the universe at all times and in all possible conditions, which would make Mahavira literally omniscient.

However, it must be noted that enlightenment does not bring an objective knowledge of everything in all realms of existence but entails a direct, unmediated experience of identity with all things. To put it in Jain terminology, enlightenment is not attaining omniscience in the literal, objective sense but rather having the subjective experience of oneness with omniscient Consciousness. It is a mistake to confuse the latter with the former.

Not much is known about what Mahavira did after his enlightenment. It seems that disciples gathered around him slowly, the first significant ones being three Brahmin brothers and their followers. Later eight other Brahmins joined the fold. All fourteen, including the last one, Jambu, are said to have become enlightened and omniscient.

Finally, at the age of seventy-two, at the town of Pava in Bihar, Mahavira fasted himself to death, thereby becoming the model for other Jains. His body was cremated and his ashes scattered in the Ganges.

Belief in the Sacred

Jainism is not based on a belief in an impersonal or personal Ultimate Reality or a deity who is the creator, ruler, or final goal of all things. For that reason it is a nontheistic religion. Because a Jain text argues against the existence of a creator God, some writers consider Jainism atheistic. However, the arguments boil down to a defense of Jain belief that the world is eternal, which would dispense with the need of a creator. On the other hand, the decisive factor for considering Jainism as having a belief in the Sacred is the characteristics Jainism attributes to the individual soul and to the goal of liberation. In this section we will explore these Jain beliefs, its views of the human condition and how humans become trapped in it, and what humans must do to become liberated.

While he rejected belief in Brahman and Atman, Mahavira rested his teaching on the dualism of spirit and matter, gods and the individual self. However, he retained a belief in the Ultimate as the individual's final destiny. Jain ideas of enlightenment as omniscience and liberation as realizing the Unconditioned State are, indeed, representations of Ultimate Reality. This state is also attributed to the individual soul, or jiva, which is believed to possess the characteristics Hinduism ascribes to Atman—omniscience, energy, and bliss (Dundas 94). Having made this switch, Jainism contends that there exist an infinite number of individual souls, whose essential nature is infinite, formless, and eternal, and they are endowed with the three above-mentioned characteristics.

Jainism professes a triple-decker, eternal universe. In the upper world, gods dwell in various dimensions of heaven, and beyond it are liberated souls. Humans and earthly creatures occupy the middle world. The lower world of hell is reserved for people who suffer for their bad karma.

The middle world is divided into living souls (jiva) and nonliving matter (ajiva). Souls are divided into five categories according to the number of senses they possess. In the highest category are souls with five senses (gods, humans, animals, and hell-beings). Next are souls that have four senses (larger insects, such as bees and butterflies). Third are souls with three senses (smaller insects). The fourth are species that have only touch and taste (shellfish and worms). Finally, the lowest category consists of souls with only the sense of touch (vegetables, trees, earth, air, water, and fire). All these souls in their purest form are believed to be identical and equally endowed with omniscience, energy, and bliss (Dundas 81).

Matter is eternal and consists of atoms. Clustering into various shapes, forms, and densities, atoms make up various physical things, bodies of souls, and, in contrast to Hinduism and Buddhism, karma. Atoms are the fundamental units of matter. They are ubiquitous. Even language, breath, pleasure, and pain are said to be composed of atoms.

Atoms cluster to form bodies of souls through karma, which is material substance pervading the universe. Like free-floating, neutral particles of matter in the atmosphere, ordinarily karma causes no harm. However, actions—in thought, word or deed—heat up the soul, making it sticky, enabling karma to attach to it, and causing it to suffer. Various causes heat up the soul: attachment to things of this world, possessiveness, and excessive consumption of food, clothing, and sex. It is also caused by mental states and lack of knowledge—ignorance, delusion, and carelessness—and false beliefs leading to destructive behavior. Above all, suffering is caused by desires and passions, such as hatred, anger, fear, pride, and greed.

The key to liberation is eliminating karma through nonaction, by practicing nonviolence, asceticism, and meditation. If we are careful in our actions and movements and ultimately cease to act or to move, thereby calming or destroying our desires and passions, no stickiness will be generated in the soul and no karma-matter can attach to it. That will free the soul of the body, karma, and suffering.

How can such a withdrawal from the material plane produce a transformation of consciousness on the spiritual plane? It does so because liberation is simply releasing the soul from all karma and rebirth. Enlightenment destroys bad karma, but nonharming karma—feeling, name, life—continues until one attains final liberation. Upon death, the soul rises to the abode of the liberated at the top of the universe, where it will exist in its pure state of omniscience, energy, and bliss. Jain liberation cannot be attained in this life, for to be free of all karma, we must be free of the body, matter, and life—that is, we must die. Hence, the Jain prescription for liberation is ritual suicide.

The Path of Transformation and Reconnection

Central to Jainism are three principles, called the three jewels, which are believed to be necessary on the Jain path of liberation. They are right knowledge, right faith, and right practice.

• Right knowledge basically refers to Jain teachings, which a prospective student must acquire to embark on the Jain path.

• Right faith requires the follower to believe in the truth of the teachings and be committed to them. Without such a faith, one will not undertake the journey of liberation as staked out by Jainism.

• Right practice consists of faithfully keeping the five vows.

As we shall see, these three jewels are parallel to the Buddhist tripod—morality, meditation, and wisdom—on which the Buddhist eightfold path rests.

Jain practices fall into two categories: transforming the medium and self-transformation. Jain rituals, such as image worship, rites of passage, and festivals serve as the medium for reaching a spiritual state. The five great vows and meditation are aimed at liberation, and to that extent they fall under the category of self-transformation. Although the five vows are basically ascetic and ethical in nature, still, together with Jain meditation, their ultimate aim is cessation of mental and physical activities with a view to stopping karma and attaining liberation. As such they can be viewed as aiming at self-transformation. Thus, together they constitute the two methods of transformation. This will become clear as we proceed.

The Great Vows: Ethics

The Five Great Vows—nonviolence, not lying, not stealing, renouncing sexual pleasures, and renouncing attachment—were not set down in the oldest of Jain scriptures. In time they came to assume the defining characteristics of full-fledged Jainism.

The First Vow: Heading the list is nonviolence or noninjury to any living thing. The scriptures state the vow thus:

I renounce all killing of living beings, whether subtle or gross, whether movable or immovable. Nor shall I myself kill living beings (nor cause others to do it, nor consent to it). As long as I live, I confess and blame, repent and exempt myself of these sins, in the thrice threefold way, in mind, speech, and body (Smart and Hecht 289).

Although this vow is stated negatively, its positive implications leave no doubt that this is a life-affirming philosophy. As Paul Dundas observes, quoting Jain texts, nonviolence, along with the motto "all living creatures must help each other," is the highest religious duty. It involves, Dundas continues, such positive "qualities as friendship, goodwill and peace which manifest themselves through gentleness and lack of passion" (Dundas 138–139). For this reason Padmanabh Jaini considers Jainism, as he told Michael Tobias, to be a religion of "unconditional respect for all forms of life" (57).

The ultimate motive of nonviolence, however, is not to benefit others but to avoid causing suffering to oneself. One's violent action toward others affects oneself in the same way that it does them. As a Jain text puts it, "If one does not wish to destroy one's own soul, then one should not destroy living creatures" (quoted by Dundas 139).

The unique nature of Jain nonviolence is its centrality and uncompromising character. Monks and nuns are required not only to carefully observe how and where they walk but also to carry brooms and sweep in front of themselves to avoid stepping on any creature. To prevent inhaling any microorganisms, they have to wear surgical masks. To avoid injuring any creature, they must place their bowls carefully and examine their food and drink to make sure that there is no organism in them.

Later Jains modified the uncompromising stance of early teaching by defining violence as "the removal of life through a careless action of mind, body, or speech" (Dundas 139). Additionally, they teach that whether an action is violent or nonviolent depends on the intention behind the action. Thus, a doctor performing surgery to save a life would be nonviolent, while someone planning murder but failing to carry it out would be just as guilty as actually doing it. While this distinction does not justify eating meat, it approves self-defense and even killing in defense of religion, which is believed to lead to liberation.

Jain nonviolence went beyond simple vegetarianism and adopted a policy of not eating such vegetables as onions and garlic, as well as fruits with many seeds. In addition, Jains were forbidden to consume milk, honey, and anything fermented. However, Mahavira and the early Jains were not vegetarians. They would eat meat provided it was not specifically killed for them. Today, however, Jains are strictly vegetarians.

In thought and speech, nonviolence not only includes refraining from abusive speech but also would extend to such modern phenomena as cyber-bullying and Internet defamation of others, negative thoughts, and thoughts of harming others. Nonviolence is anti-discriminatory, as it includes discrimination in any form—in thought, word, and deed. Positively it enjoins compassionate care for others. In their livelihood, Jains avoid any profession that entails harming any living being, such as agriculture and butchery, and pursue harmless professions, such as banking, law, and education.

The Second Vow: The second vow is not lying in any form, in body, speech, or mind. As a Jain text says, it includes lying resulting from "anger or greed or fear or mirth"; not causing others to lie; or to consent to the speaking of lies by others (Smart and Hecht 289). Positively, Jains are instructed to be scrupulously truthful and honest. This vow is the basis for the Jains' reputation for honesty, and it has made their lay community wealthier, on average, than other Indians.

The Third Vow: The third vow is not stealing, either in thought, word, or deed. It is not sufficient that one should not steal; one should also not alter or falsify records or cause others to steal. In addition, monks and nuns are prohibited from staying in one place for long or eating too much.

The Fourth Vow: The fourth vow is renouncing sexual pleasures and sensuality of any kind. In addition, monks and nuns are prohibited from singing, dancing, frequenting theaters, using perfumes, or indulging in luxuries. Laypersons are taught to be faithful to their spouses.

The Fifth Vow: The fifth vow is to renounce attachments to anything, "living or lifeless" (Smart and Hecht 289). For Jain monks and nuns, this means living as wandering mendicants with no possessions. For Digambara monks it means, in addition, going naked, as Mahavira did. Possession is seen as an obstacle to liberation because it can lead to greed, which leads to greater suffering. Dissatisfaction with what one owns and desire for more can lead to evil deeds. Nonattachment is the way to inner peace and freedom from suffering, as it eliminates greed and acquisitiveness.

Jain monks and nuns have to be free from attachment to family members, friends, enemies, and other monks and nuns. They also have to be free from attachment to sensory objects—those of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. This leaves them with only enough possessions to live a life of simplicity. Laypeople are advised to have only what is essential for a good and virtuous life.

Meditation

Unlike meditation in other religions, which works with attention, in Jainism, meditation is essentially reflective thinking and the contemplation of things good or bad. This is clear from the four-fold division of meditation in Jain scriptures. The first is sorrowful meditation, which includes thinking about things that cause suffering (such as worrying about getting rid of painful events or situations), anguishing over the loss of things, and craving for sensual pleasures. The second is "inclement meditation," which includes taking delight in hurting others, contemplating revenge, thinking of killing someone, and scheming for sensual pleasures. The aim here seems to be an awareness of one's negative conditionings for the purpose of eliminating them.

The third is righteous meditation, intended to purify the soul of the negativities and enhance right belief, right knowledge, and right conduct. To attain these objectives, the meditator is instructed to think about doctrinal matters, the nature and structure of the universe, and the soul residing in the body. Visualization and mantra-based meditation are aimed at eliminating karma.

The fourth, spiritual meditation, involves contemplating the meaning of various aspects of reality in order to remove ignorance and delusion. It also involves eliminating gross activities of body, speech, and mind (Jaini 253). To do this, adherents are encouraged to reflect on mantras, Mahavira's paranormal powers, Mahavira's form materialized in statues, and Mahavira as a disembodied arhat, or a fully liberated person (Williams 239–240).

In comparison to the meditative practices of Hinduism and Buddhism, early Jain meditation can be categorized as practices preliminary to meditation proper. Later Jain tradition expanded the practices to include contemplation of particular images and objects, contemplation of words or mantra meditation, visualization of Tirthankaras's forms to attain their qualities, and formless meditation, "in which the meditator concentrates upon his or her soul in its purest and most positive sense" (Dundas 144–145). These practices are considered as pathways for eliminating harmful karmas.

Additionally, Jain monks and nuns were instructed to practice six obligatory actions (Dundas 146–150):

• Equanimity, by stopping all bad activities in body, speech, and mind, accomplished by standing motionless for a short period

• Hymns of praise to the ford-makers

• Homage to the teacher

• Repentance, performed twice daily in the presence of the teacher by concentrating on nonviolence

• Abandonment of the body by remaining motionless

• Abstaining from transgressions and various kinds of food and drink

The aim of meditation is stopping all activities in order to eliminate all karma. Whereas other forms of asceticism are directed toward external activities, meditation is asceticism in the internal domain, intended to totally stop all activities, shed all karma, and attain liberation.

Rituals

Being a nontheistic religion, Jainism cannot be said to have worship services. Still, Jains engage in practices that are tantamount to acts of worship. Rituals crept into the religion from the cultural context of Hinduism.

Jains venerate Jinas, Siddhas (i.e., perfectly liberated ones), masters, and teachers. Except for Sthanakvasi and Terapanthi sects, all Jains are instructed to go to their temples daily and venerate the Tirthankaras. One type of ritual is meditation on Tirthankaras. Veneration of these statues, called image worship, based on the belief that Tirthankaras materialize in their statues, borders on worship. Images of Jinas or Tirthankaras serve as aids to remembering their qualities, developing faith and devotion, and imitating them (Balbir 128). By engaging in rituals, they hope to attain inner purity and gain merit for a better rebirth.

Jains anoint and offer food and flowers to gigantic statues of Tirthankaras. Other acts of devotion include standing in front of statues and reciting mantras and praises. Like Hindus, Jains practice ritual bathing in the morning, followed by a visit to the temple. In addition, they have domestic shrines for family rituals.

Most Jain rites of passage are adapted from Hinduism. There are rituals pertaining to the birth, naming, and shaving the head of a child. Like Hindus, Jains observe the initiation rite of investing boys, when they are about eight years old, with the sacred thread, thereby making them "twice born." The marriage rite is also adapted from Hinduism.

Although Jains cremate their dead, the ritual death is unique to Jainism. As a Jain prepares for the ritual suicide by fasting, he prays, repents of his misdeeds, and gradually abstains from food and drink until he dies while meditating. The vow of fasting to death, which is highly regarded, is an attempt to exert total control over one's final exit and rebirth into the next life (Williams 166–172).

Jains have also adopted belief in goddesses, who are female consorts of Tirthankaras. Like their Hindu counterparts, Jains have festivals in honor of these goddesses. In addition, they have various seasonal festivals that take place every year, such as Divali or the Festival of Light, which, in Jainism, commemorates Mahavira's final liberation. And they go on pilgrimages to their holy places. Jains observe many days of fast, especially during paryushan, the solemn season that closes the Jain year. During this period, many devout laypersons fast for eight days or longer. On the fourth day, they celebrate Mahavira's Birthday with a cradle procession. On the especially sacred last day of the year, called samvatsari, everyone fasts all day, and there is a communal confession of sins and asking pardon of all living creatures for injuries inflicted upon them. Paryushan concludes with a communal meal (Dundas 185).

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

Initially, Jains split into two groups, the Shvetambaras (the "white clad") and the Digambaras (the "sky clad"), over the issue of wearing clothes. Later, two other groups—Sthanakvasi and Terapanthi—emerged. In this section, we will briefly discuss these four groups and the status of laypersons and women in Jainism.

Main Branches: Shvetambaras and Digambaras

Relenting on the extreme asceticism of Mahavira and his early followers, Shvetambara monks and nuns wear clothes. However, adhering to the early practice, Digambara monks go naked. Furthermore, Shvetambaras use begging bowls, both for begging and eating purposes, and believe that the fully liberated, omniscient ones need to take food. Digambaras, on the other hand, use cupped hands for receiving and eating food, which makes them consume less food, and they reject the idea that omniscient ones need food. The former believe that women can attain liberation, while the latter, following statements attributed to Mahavira that women are the greatest temptation and cause of all sins and of men's downfall, believe that women cannot attain liberation. Their only hope is to live a good life, be reborn as men, and become monks. Thus, they exclude women from their monasteries and temples. The two groups have also developed separate scriptures that differ on many points of doctrine and practice, including stories about Mahavira's life. Digambaras reject Shvetambara scripture.

A third group that developed later is called Sthanakvasi. The name means "living in lodging houses," that is, lodging in ruined and deserted buildings. A distinctive practice of the Sthanakvasis is the permanent wearing of a square-shaped, white cloth covering their noses and mouths to prevent them from inhaling insects or microorganisms. They have no temples. They reject "image worship" and instead practice "mental worship," meditation, and contemplation.

In addition to rejecting "image worship," a fourth group, called Terapanthi, wears a narrow, elongated cloth to avoid inhaling microorganisms. Their rigorous adherence to nonviolence holds that any act of violence is bad, whether performed out of necessity or not. And the founder of the group insisted that while compassion for other creatures should be tied to nonviolence, the purpose of nonviolence is purification of the soul. The Terapanthis believe that true authority is vested in the scriptures. They are hierarchically organized, with a supreme guru as the head who presides over the entire community.

In 1949, the Terapanthi guru at that time, Tulsi, founded the Anuvrat Movement, dedicated to raising the moral awareness of Indians and the business community. To promote world peace, Tulsi invited other people to cultivate self-restraint. He admonished them to establish the values of "friendship, unity, peace and morality, [and] to create an unfettered society free from exploitation" (quoted by Dundas 223). He initiated a form of insight meditation, designed, he said, to "engage the mind fully in the perception of subtle, internal and innate phenomena of consciousness" (quoted by Dundas 224). It is similar to Buddhist insight meditation. He also initiated other reforms, such as allowing ascetics to travel to "nonaryan" lands, consistent with his aim to make the Terapanthis a worldwide movement.

Laypersons

Jainism accords laypeople a second-class membership. Jains believe that only one who is a monk or nun and fully practices Jain teachings can attain liberation. After death, laypersons can hope to gain only the status of a god and a higher rebirth—that of a monk or (in some communities) a nun. This hope for a better rebirth and enjoyment of heaven provides motivation for leading a good life.

Accordingly, laypeople are instructed to take a series of twelve vows, the core of which consists of five lesser vows. These are the same five vows as those for monks/nuns, but lesser because they are less rigorous. Thus, nonviolence for laypeople means no needless destruction of life. In effect, this excludes professions related to agriculture, fishing, and raising livestock, as well as the sale of their products. This vow has steered Jains toward professions in such fields as business, trading, jewelry design, metal working, education, law, banking, publishing, computer science, and environmental protection. Truthfulness and not-stealing are the same for laypersons as for monks and nuns. The fourth vow for laypeople involves abstaining from sexual immorality and, if possible, remaining celibate. And the fifth, nonattachment, implies limiting themselves to what is genuinely needed, living a simple, unpretentious life, avoiding excessive consumption, and giving excess wealth to charity.

Three subsidiary vows limit excessive travel or careless movements, excessive enjoyment, and an aimless or self-indulgent life.

Four vows of instruction enjoin staying in one area; practicing equanimity; fasting on certain days of the lunar calendar; and engaging in works of charity, especially almsgiving to monks/nuns and serving them in various ways.

Women in Jainism

Originally, the Jain community included laywomen and nuns, complementing laymen and monks. Not only was this not problematic, but Jain scripture, the Kalpasutra, states that there were two and a half times as many nuns as monks—36,000 nuns to 14,100 monks—and twice as many laywomen as laymen—310,000 laywomen to 150,000 laymen—in the community when Mahavira died. It notes that twice as many women as men attained liberation during his lifetime. Furthermore, the Shvetambaras claim that the thirteenth Tirthankara, Malli, was a woman, but the Digambaras reject this view (Dundas 49). Moreover, nuns were considered ideal followers in virtue and generosity.

Early Shvetambara texts make no mention that women cannot attain liberation. The issue became controversial only after the Digambaras began to claim that nudity was essential for liberation. Since women cannot go naked, they cannot attain liberation. They cannot be full-fledged Jains because the observance of Jain religious precepts requires a degree of seriousness and intensity that women are thought to be unable to muster. They must be reborn as men if they ever hope to attain liberation.

The Shvetambaras countered these arguments by pointing out that the scriptures say nothing against the possibility of women attaining liberation. On the contrary, as noted above, more women became nuns and attained liberation than men. Furthermore, the spiritual life makes no discrimination between men and women. Gender has no relevance to liberated souls. Since right faith, right knowledge, and right practice are the only essential conditions for liberation, women are as fully capable of liberation as men. Women are no more subject to delusion and immorality than men. The requirement of nudity for liberation is therefore invalid (Dundas 50–51).

Yet Jain scriptures contain statements that say women are the greatest temptation and the cause of all sin. But do they necessarily come from Mahavira? One cannot be certain about what his views were on this point. All that can be said is that the scriptures reflect the viewpoint of the Jain community that compiled them. It is curious that even the Shvetambara argument that Malli was a woman reflects an attitude of inferiority toward women, for she is said to have been born a woman for imperfectly observing austerities in the previous life as a king.

Women's impact on Jain communities was not proportionate to their numbers, owing largely to the fact that Jainism is male dominated and those who wrote the scriptures were men. Despite the fact that there are no recorded statements of inequality between monks and nuns and that the general rules for both communities are similar, there is evidence that nuns were discriminated against. They were subjected to additional, stricter rules. They were treated as inferior by monks and subjected to their authority. Even senior nuns were subordinated to junior monks and were required to pay homage to newly initiated monks. They could neither wander alone nor be alone with a superior, and they had to follow additional rules for going out and begging for food, places to stay, and implements to use. They needed a longer time to reach high ranks and their titles indicate that their ranks were inferior to those of monks (Balbir 520). This unequal treatment is confirmed by a recent survey in which 70 percent of Terapanthi nuns expressed a desire for a change in their status.

In the past, monks and nuns could study Jain scriptures equally. Today, however, some groups allow this; others deny nuns access to certain "difficult" texts on the alleged ground that they are intellectually inferior. Today a movement is afoot among some Shvetambara groups to more broadly educate nuns and laywomen. Still, the education of laywomen is uneven and directed toward practical matters, such as ritual preparation and food production, marriage, and the education of children.

On the issue of women's rights, the Digambaras deny women access to the veneration of images in the inner sanctuary. However, liberals allow women access to all rituals. Consistent with their negative view of women's liberation, the Digambaras see women as a threat to chastity and an obstacle to liberation. The Shvetambaras, on the other hand, cast women in a more positive light, noting the positive roles women played in Mahavira's life.

This tension between a negative image of women and the tendency to put some women on a pedestal as worthy of worship is a reflection of the tension in Indian society between life in this world and asceticism. The Jain polar attitude of attraction and repulsion toward women is as reflected in their assignment of female attendants to the main Jinas as their recognition of eight basic ethical concepts to be female (Balbir 519–523). On the issues of subordination and equality, Jain women's struggle for equality is part of a larger struggle of the religion itself to maintain its identity and flourish in today's world.

Kamakura Buddha, Kamakura, Japan

Chapter 6: Buddhism

Timeline

c. 563–483 BCE | Traditional dates of the life of the Buddha

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c. 528 BCE | Siddhartha Gautama's experience of Enlightenment

c. 272–236 BCE | Life of King Ashoka, who spread Buddhism abroad

c. 225 BCE | Spread of Theravada Buddhism to Sri Lanka

c. 80 BCE | Pali Canon composed in Sri Lanka

c. 100 CE | Emergence of Mahayana Buddhism in India

1st century CE | Spread of Buddhism to China

3rd century CE | Introduction of Theravada Buddhism to Myanmar

c. 372 | Buddhism introduced to Korea from China

c. 476–542 | Life of Tan Luan, founder of Pure Land in China

c. 500 | Emergence of Tantra in India

c. 520 | Rise of Chan Buddhism in China

552 | Introduction of Buddhism to Japan from Korea

538–597 | Life of Zhiyi, founder of Tian Tai Buddhism

589–845 | Peak of Chinese Buddhism

616–650 | King Songtsen Gampo introduces Buddhism to Tibet

c. 750 | Padmasambhava firmly plants Vajrayana in Tibet

767–822 | Life of Saicho, founder of Tendai Buddhism in Japan

845 | Persecution of Buddhism in China

12th century | Buddhism introduced to Cambodia

1133–1212 | Life of Honen, founder of Pure Land in Japan

1173–1262 | Life of Shinran, most outstanding disciple of Honen

13th century | Buddhism spreads to Thailand

1200–1500 | Decline of Buddhism in India

1200–1253 | Life of Dogen, who spread Zen Buddhism in Japan

1222–1282 | Life of Nichiren, founder of Nichiren Buddhism

14th century | Buddhism enters Laos

1600–1867 | Tokugawa Shoganate, state control of Buddhism begins

c. 1642 | Fifth Dalai Lama appointed ruler of Tibet

1893, 1905 | Zen Buddhism comes to the United States

1950–1959 | Chinese invasion and seizure of complete control of Tibet

1956 | B. R. Ambedkar and Untouchables convert to Buddhism

1959 | The Dalai Lama and other Tibetans flee to India

1989 | The Dalai Lama receives the Nobel Peace Prize

1998 | Full ordination of 135 nuns from 23 countries

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To discover the secrets of the Buddhist world, pause for a moment in front of a statue of the Buddha seated in meditation. What do you notice? While we ceaselessly pursue myriad objects of never-ending desires that leave us still unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and hungry for more, there sits the Buddha in utter stillness. Within and without him reigns total silence. No movement. Everything is in the vibrant present. The simplification needed to plunge into the infinite depths has been achieved. Unhooked from attachment and habituation that puts the rest of the world in unawareness and cultural trance, within him the drama of vast awareness unfolds.

Cutting through the tangles of contradiction and confusion of this world, what did the Buddha find in that stillness, silence, and awareness? Being! Unfathomable, immeasurable, infinite Being breaking through the darkness, arising like a radiant sun. Freedom! The total freedom of Being what you are. Peace follows. Not momentary respite from going in circles but the limitless peace of total Being that never ends. The story of how Siddhartha discovered it is the story of Buddhism.

As explained in chapter 5, the same economic, political, social, and spiritual ferment in India that gave rise to Jainism also led to the emergence of Buddhism. The rise of new kingdoms in northern India and the ensuing economic and social change gave the ruling class opportunities to branch out into new forms of beliefs and practices free from priestly control. The Upanishads shifted the focus away from sacrificial religion that the priests controlled and toward meditation. The social acceptance of liberation as the final goal and asceticism (sannyasin) as the fourth stage of life stimulated many to drop out of society and join the ascetics. Their coalescence around powerful figures gave birth to new religious sects and movements.

Within this shifting landscape, the story of Buddhism began with one man's quest for an answer to the fundamental problem of suffering. How Siddhartha Gautama discovered the pathway to liberation from suffering, and so became the Buddha—and how others came to experience the same liberation—is the story of Buddhism. The first part of this chapter will follow the footsteps of Gautama in his unswerving quest for freedom from suffering. The second part will trace the spread of his movement to other lands as Buddhism became a world religion.

We will begin with the traditional story of Gautama's early life—the experiences that made him abandon the householder's life in pursuit of freedom from suffering. Then we will pause to consider his experience of enlightenment and Nirvana that resolved his quest. Next we will delve into his subsequent founding of the monastic order, his teaching career, and his essential teachings. Turning to the development of Buddhism in India, we will discuss its branching out into two major groups and their essential teachings, the decline of Buddhism in India, and its spread in Southeast Asia and East Asian countries. Finally, we will concentrate on the development of Buddhism in China, Japan, and Tibet.

The Life of the Buddha

Few facts about Siddhartha's life can be established beyond doubt. Even the exact date of his birth is not known. The traditional date is 563 BCE, but some scholars consider it to be as late as 448 or 368 BCE. All agree, however, that he was about eighty years old when he died. Early on his life became enveloped in myths and legends. According to the traditional story, in a kingdom in southern Nepal, Queen Maya had a very unusual dream in which she saw a blazing star descend from heaven and a white elephant bearing a white lotus enter her womb. When the astonished queen woke up with a start, she immediately went to see King Suddhodana to tell him about her dream. The astrologers they consulted told the royal couple that they were to have a son. If he stayed in the world as a householder, he would become a great king, but if he left the householder's life, he would become a world savior. Even more pointedly, at their son's naming ceremony, a young brahmin predicted that four sights—old age, sickness, death, and a wandering ascetic—would prompt Siddhartha to leave the world and become a Buddha.

To make sure that Siddhartha grew up to be a great king rather than a holy man, his father brought him up in luxury. When Siddhartha turned sixteen, his father married his son off to a beautiful princess named Yashodhara. Thus he entered the householder's stage of life.

It wasn't until he was twenty-nine and Yashodhara was in advanced pregnancy that Siddhartha ventured out to the summer palace and saw the four sights the brahmin had predicted. The impact of encountering the sights for the first time made his carefully cultivated world collapse. From the depth of his mind questions began to well up in seismic shock waves: How could he continue to live a life that is subject to birth, old age, sickness, death, and rebirth? In the face of impermanence, how could humans gain freedom from this suffering?

Once the problem of suffering took possession of him, Siddhartha found it impossible to go on with the normal activities of his life. Even the birth of his son was a mixed blessing. The sheer joy of seeing his son came up against the shock of suffering and the world of meaning it had shattered. Neither his wife nor his son could hold him any longer. To find answers, he would have to leave. While everyone lay asleep in the palace, he stole silently to Yashodhara's chamber and bade his sleeping wife and son a last good-bye. Riding out to the edge of the forest, Siddhartha cut off his hair, put on a yellow robe, gave his clothes and horse to his attendant, and set off on foot. Thus, at twenty-nine, Siddhartha Gautama renounced the householder's life—called the "Great Renunciation"—and became a wandering ascetic.

Before long, Gautama came across other wandering ascetics. He had previously learned about the teachings of the Upanishads. What he now sought was the experience that brings ultimate freedom. To that end, he sought out two of the foremost meditation teachers in the vicinity, who helped him attain the highest stages of concentrative meditation. However, it failed to bring him freedom from suffering, so he left their company.

Gautama then joined five ascetics who engaged in extreme austerities. He tried the way of asceticism to its very limit, becoming so emaciated that when he touched his belly, he said, he could feel his backbone. This experience taught him that asceticism could not bring liberation. Thus he came to discover the Middle Path between luxury and self-denial. Having made this discovery, he accepted food from a village girl. When his five companions saw that he had given up fasting, they deserted him in disgust.

However, Gautama had now reached a turning point. He stayed near a banyan tree at the edge of a river. One morning, a woman named Sujata came to make an offering to the god resident in the banyan tree. Astonished to find Gautama there, she gave him the food instead. Thus fortified, Gautama proceeded to a forest grove where stood a majestic pipal tree (of the ficus family, now called the Bodhi tree). Feeling this was the perfect spot to resume his quest, he sat in meditation under the pipal tree, vowing never to get up until he realized his goal.

The Experience of Enlightenment

As Gautama sat in meditation and passed through all the stages of absorption (samadhi), he arrived at the state of complete cessation of ordinary consciousness. In the process, he experienced the final life-and-death struggle with the forces of ego, the unconscious, and the seeds of conditioning. These reared their heads in the form of Mara, the Tempter, his own shadow; and Mara's sons and daughters—discontent, delight, desire, fear, doubt, pretense, and pride. They enticed him to abandon his quest. But he did not react to these machinations of Mara. Defeated, Mara fled. A state of calm, peace, and equanimity descended upon him.

With a purified, stable, and nonreactive mind, in the first part of the night, Gautama saw his former lives, and so he came to accept the doctrine of rebirth. In the second part, he saw as in a mirror the arising and passing away of all things, governed by the law of karma.

In the third and last part, with pure and penetrating awareness, Gautama gained insight into "dependent arising" (to be explained below), that is, how the world of suffering (i.e., the human condition) dependently arises and is maintained. He saw the Four Noble Truths:

• The unsatisfactory nature of human existence

• Its cause

• How it can be stopped

• The path of ending suffering by breaking the causal links of dependent arising

Craving, aversion, ignorance, and delusion arose and passed away from him in wave after wave, until suffering and its roots were completely destroyed, never to rise again. Having gone beyond all conditioned things and limited states and arrived at the Unconditioned State of Consciousness, Gautama had arrived at full enlightenment, which freed him from anything that could condition him in any way. So he arose from his meditation seat a "Tathagata," one who had attained "thusness," that is, the Unconditioned State in which all things actually exist, which is the state of Nirvana. Gautama was now a Buddha—one who has realized bodhi, or full enlightenment. He was thirty-five years old.

Ministry

For some time, the Buddha remained in the vicinity in deepest meditation, enveloped in the afterglow of Nirvana. After overcoming the temptation of withdrawing from the world, he went to the Deer Park in Varanasi (Benares), where his five former ascetic companions were staying, to teach them what he had discovered. At first they decided to spurn him. But as he drew closer, such was the transformation brought on him by the experience of Nirvana that they were transfixed. So the Buddha preached his first sermon to them, called the Sermon at Varanasi, which contains the Four Noble Truths. The five ascetics accepted the Dharma, the law governing all reality as taught by the Buddha, and became his first disciples and the nucleus of the Sangha, or the Buddhist monastic community.

His experience convinced the Buddha that nothing that ordinarily passes as religion could lead anyone to attain Nirvana. Humans are all imprisoned in the conditioned state, whereas he had discovered that nothing conditioned could liberate anyone from the human condition. So he discarded all goals of Hinduism except the last one—liberation. All that concerned the Buddha was showing people a way out of suffering. He discarded anything that did not contribute to, or stood in the way of, that freedom. He had no use for any beliefs that could not be immediately applied to resolving the fundamental human problem of suffering. There was going to be no God to worship—no rituals, sacrifices, or prayers to offer. Belief in the existence of God was useless, he said, since it does not free the believer from suffering, whereas his was to be a religion that brings liberation from suffering. So he retained only what is essential for that journey—meditation—set his gaze on Nirvana, and described the path following which anyone can realize it. Thus Buddhism became a totally practical, life-transforming religion of liberation.

The Buddha also started a social revolution by sweeping away the Hindu caste system. Henceforward, all Buddhists were going to be on the same social footing. He undermined the Aryan claim to nobility by calling his teaching "Aryan." Anyone who practices it is an Aryan (a noble person), without any distinction of race, gender, ethnicity, or social status.

For about forty-five years, the Buddha taught thousands of people who became his disciples. He established an Order of Monks, which his son, Rahula, later joined. Initially he rejected his stepmother's request to join the order. But at the request of his cousin and disciple Ananda, he established an Order of Nuns, which his wife also later joined. He established rules for the order. He gave many talks or discourses and conducted dialogues with many people who came to him with their questions. These formed the basis of early Buddhist scriptures.

Last Days and Death

At age eighty, the Buddha journeyed north again. When Cunda the smith heard of his arrival in his village, he invited the Buddha and his disciples for dinner at his house. He accepted. But the food Cunda prepared inadvertently included some poisonous mushroom or spoiled pork. Soon after the meal, a severe pain assailed him. Although he realized that he was mortally ill, the Buddha decided to go to a town where he had a teaching engagement. Realizing that the end was near, the Buddha lay between two oak trees in a forest grove. The last instruction he gave his disciples before he died was "Decay is inherent in all composite (things composed of parts) things. Work out your liberation with diligence!"

Early Buddhist Teaching (Dharma)

To preserve his teachings and to prevent a breakup of the order due to disagreements, the First Buddhist Council was held, allegedly soon after the Buddha's death. In the presence of five hundred monks gathered at the council, Upali recited the Rules of the Order and Ananda recited the Discourses. They have the form Ananda gave when he began to recite, "Thus have I heard." The implication was that what he was proclaiming was firsthand knowledge—a new revelation.

The First Council provided the basic form and content to early Buddhist teachings. Initially the Buddha's teachings were passed down orally by different groups along with their own variations, interpretations, and additions. Written on palm leaves that formed three distinct groupings when collected, they came to be called Tripitaka, meaning "three baskets." Each collection has a different name. The Discourses are called the Sutta Pitaka ("Sutra" in Sanskrit), the Monastic Rules are called the Vinaya Pitaka, and the Supplementary Teachings, based on seven works, are called the Abhidharma Pitaka. Although the Pali canon (authoritative collection) is said to have been brought to Sri Lanka from India in the third century BCE, and written down in the first century BCE, the standard form that we have today was probably compiled in the fifth century CE, almost a thousand years after they were uttered and first collected.

While they do not contain the Buddha's exact words, the Discourses do reflect his teachings. As they were not written down at the time the Buddha taught or when they were recited at the first council, the real problem is layers of later additions that modified and reinterpreted earlier teachings. However, the repetitive nature of the Discourses, which was conducive to memorization and oral transmission, assured fidelity to the Buddha's teachings.

Our examination of the Buddha's essential teachings will begin with the Sermon at Varanasi, which contains the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path. After discussing the First Noble Truth, we will explain the three characteristics of the human condition. Similarly, a discussion of the Second Noble Truth will be followed by an explanation of how suffering arises and is reinforced and maintained through dependent arising. This will be followed by a discussion of karma and rebirth. Explanation of the Third and the Fourth Noble Truths, which is the Noble Eightfold Path, will be followed by Buddhist meditation and its goal—Nirvana. Finally, we will briefly note Buddhist rituals and festivals.

The Sermon at Varanasi: The Four Noble Truths

The Sermon at Varanasi, which is a distillation of the Buddha's teachings, opens with the declaration that the pathway to liberation is the Middle Path. Rightly understood, the Middle Path captures the very essence of Buddhism. It can be understood in three following ways:

• It is the path of avoiding all views, mental models, or ideas about the nature of reality—whether it is temporal or eternal, subjective or objective—so as to arrive at a direct experience of reality, exactly as it is.

• It is the path of becoming free of all conditioning, or all conditioned states—sensations, feelings, thoughts, or mental contents, whether pleasurable or unpleasurable—by not reacting to them. This nonreactive, equanimous mind is the key to disidentifying with all objects and mental contents, going beyond ordinary consciousness and shedding all limitations, and, finally, arriving at the limitless state of Nirvana.

• It is free of the extremes of self-indulgence and self-denial. Beyond mere moderation, it is the path of self-mastery and self-sufficiency, and simplicity in all things.

The Buddha goes on to explain that the Middle Path consists of the Four Noble Truths. Approaching these four steps like a physician, he first diagnoses the exact nature of the dis-ease afflicting humankind, then pinpoints its root cause. Next he describes the nature of the cure, and finally he issues a prescription for the cure.

The First Noble Truth—the diagnosis—is that conditioned existence is dukkha. Usually translated as "suffering", dukkha consists in our being cut off from Reality just as it is, settling down to being less than what we are, and constantly reacting to this self-diminishment. As conditioning cuts us off from the Unconditioned, whatever is conditioned is less than what is. The resulting insufficiency of whatever one experiences in the conditioned state from moment to moment is the Buddhist idea of suffering. This insufficiency breeds dissatisfaction that permeates human life. Thus, the very fabric of human existence comes to be woven with unsatisfactoriness, or "not-enoughness."

Psychologically, suffering is our mental and emotional reactions to sensations that arise from contact with any object and from mental contents that make all our experiences unsatisfactory. Human consciousness is pervaded by suffering because it is formed by such reactions. And it is programmed to operate by further reacting to overcome the feeling of insufficiency. In short, all conditionings, insofar as they limit us, engulf life in suffering.

Three Marks of Conditioned Existence or Everyday World: Besides suffering, just discussed, which brings into focus the entire landscape of the human condition, Buddhism adds two other key factors considered essential to mapping this territory: impermanence and no-self.

Anicca (Impermanence): Anicca refers to the ever-changing process of things arising and passing away, on both the microcosmic and macrocosmic level. Not only are subatomic particles constantly changing, but so are stars and galaxies. This impermanence is the Dharma, or Fundamental Law, that governs the entire observable universe. Being at odds with it, we create suffering by grasping at momentary experiences in attempts to make them permanent through identification and attachment, and by our inability to remain in the flow of experience. As Suzuki Roshi says, "Because we cannot accept the truth of transiency, we suffer" (103).

Anatta (No-Self): The Buddha denied that there is a permanent, unchanging, eternal self existing separately from the conditioned world of change and becoming. On the psychological level, no-self means that the ego is not anything real apart from the objects with which it identifies and from which it derives its sense of reality and permanence. According to Buddhism, people generally identify the self with five types of objects, called clusters (skandha):

• Form (body, name)

• Feeling (emotions)

• Perception (beliefs, views, outlook)

• Will or dispositions

• Consciousness

Apart from these object-relations, the self is nothing in itself. Even in relation to its objects, the self is only a thought or image forged by identification with objects. Thus, there is no permanent individual entity that exists separately from the universal process of change and the composite characteristics of body and mind.

Because the self is not anything real in itself, at its core is a feeling of lack or absence. Desire is harnessed to overcome this feeling by finding self-worth, meaning, and fulfillment—that is, to be complete. But because we search for completeness outside the self, in things that remain separate from the self—in possessions, power, status, and relationships—they can never overcome the core emptiness. Therefore, our striving becomes ceaseless. Desire turns insatiable and greed becomes part of ego's makeup. In trying to become real by identifying with objects and yet keeping itself separate so as to remain what it is, the self becomes an obstacle to the very thing it craves and locks itself into a prison. Thus, the core of unsatisfactoriness comes to solidify around and is maintained by ego.

The Second Noble Truth—the cause—is that craving (tanha) is the cause of unsatisfactory existence or dukkha. Craving is understood as a constant, gnawing feeling of wanting or desiring something. It is the perpetual human thirst to consume that nothing in the conditioned world can satisfy. This thirst is a formless, recurring, trapped, and pervasive sense of something missing that drives us to want this or that. It is not so much focused on any particular object as the sensation craving produces and the underlying wanting for more, like a drug addict who needs an ever-increasing dosage to keep going. It is expressed in our dissatisfaction at not getting what we want and getting what we don't want, when we want something other than what we have or things to be different from what they are. Even when we get what we want, dissatisfaction returns as the gratification wears off, and we are driven to hunt for something else. As this reactive pattern forms the very fabric of consciousness, and once programmed, it maintains itself through such reactions, the very structure and operation of consciousness cause and maintain the unsatisfactory condition of life.

The Twelve Chain of Causation and Six States of Consciousness

Dependent Arising of the Human Condition (Samsara)

The Buddha's explanation of how we create and maintain unsatisfactory existence (dukkha) through the twelve interconnected links of causation is called dependent arising. We can understand how the twelve links work by reflecting on our ordinary experiences from infancy.

• Ignorance: Ignorance governs our infancy. In this state, we do not experience reality as it is; nor are we aware of what is going on inside or outside of ourselves. This ignorance conditions our perceptions and experiences throughout life.

• Karma-formation: Beginning in infancy, ignorance programs karma-formation. Events and experiences deposit impressions, program drives and tendencies, and form habit patterns that hardwire our brains.

• Consciousness: Consciousness comes to be programmed with perceptual models supplied by karma-formation. Thereafter it responds to incoming data according to its conditioning and perceptual models.

• Mind and body: Our mental and bodily states come to be formed or conditioned by the perceptual models. As a result, we come to perceive things according to them and to names and forms supplied by our culture.

• Six sense organs: The six sense organs (i.e., the five senses plus the mind) begin to operate according to the fourth link, so that our senses perceive and label things according to our perceptual models and category system.

• Contact: Within such a framework, when there is a contact with an object, the data is filtered through the programming set by the prior links.

• Sensation: Upon contact with any object, when a sensation arises, we react to it by selecting, processing, interpreting, identifying, and judging it as pleasurable or unpleasurable according to prior conditioning.

• Craving: If the sensation is judged pleasurable, the mind reacts with craving. If it is judged unpleasurable, it reacts with denial, avoidance, dislike, aversion, and so on.

• Clinging and attachment: Thereupon we attach and cling to pleasurable sensations and crave for more; and we just as assiduously avoid or get rid of unpleasurable ones.

• Becoming: Thereafter we seek further experiences controlled by the reactive patterns of desire and aversion.

• Rebirth: We continue to give rise to or experience new things or repeat things within the set patterns formed by the prior links.

• Suffering: Thus life becomes engulfed in suffering, which further conditions and reinforces unawareness. So we go on repeating the entire cycle and become bound to our unsatisfactory world. This wheel of existence (samsara) is held in place by greed, hatred, and delusion.

Karma and Rebirth: These form part of the Buddhist explanation of how life is shaped in the everyday world and the consequences that follow. Karma has the same meaning in Buddhism as in Hinduism, namely that our actions shape our consciousness and personality, and that once conditioned we repeatedly react according to our conditioning. As the Buddha stated, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought... If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him... If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him" (Burtt 52). What we are and do arises from, confirms, and reinforces our conditioning. Becoming habituated, we repeatedly react accordingly and become bound by the chain of karma. These habit patterns not only determine present life but also our rebirth.

Buddhist explanation of rebirth is that our actions deposit "seeds" or impressions and tendencies in the unconscious mind. Together with the genes we receive from our parents, these impressions and tendencies determine rebirth in the next life. Thus, the effects of karma in this life become the cause of rebirth in the next life. Rebirth takes place into one of the six states: god (carefree state dominated by enjoyment), demon (drive for power, control, or domination), hungry ghost (feelings of emptiness and hunger to consume or possess), hell (powerlessness, inability to feel), animal (habitual, mechanical living), and human (ethical ideals). The state of consciousness in which we die determines the form of consciousness in the next life. Until the effects of karma are uprooted they continue to bear fruit in birth after birth.

The Third Noble Truth—the cure—is nonattachment. It has nothing to do with detachment or withdrawal from anything. Nonattachment is entirely a psychological and spiritual process of deconstructing normal consciousness, necessary to break out of the twelve links of causation by dissolving the link that holds the chain, hence the entire conditioned world, firmly in place. Because consciousness operates by fixating on its contents or objects so as to maintain itself, the Buddha says that as long as consciousness remains attached even to a single object, it will use the object as an anchor to maintain itself and its conditioning, remain bound to the conditioned world, and perpetuate suffering (Conze 71). Since nothing conditioned can liberate anyone from the conditioned state, so long as we remain attached to anything, liberation will be impossible. Thus, nonattachment is absolutely central to developing a nonreactive, equanimous mind, which is the key to breaking free of conditioned existence and attaining liberation.When no attachment remains in the mind, it sheds all limitations and arrives at the Unconditioned State of Nirvana.

The Fourth Noble Truth—the prescription for the cure of what ails humankind—is the Noble Eightfold Path—right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

The path is called "right" to differentiate it from other paths. The eightfold prescription, reminiscent of Patanjali's "eight-limbed yoga," can be grouped under three categories: morality, meditation, and wisdom. Like a tripod, these three form the foundations of Buddhist training and discipline.

• Right seeing, or wisdom, refers to the direct experience of things as they are. According to Buddhism, when a student sees things directly, she becomes convinced of the Four Noble Truths: suffering, how it is caused, how it can be stopped, and the path that leads to liberation from suffering. Such a realization opens the possibility of embarking on the path.

• Right intention is the resolution to practice nonattachment, to purify one's mind and heart, and to become liberated. Without this resolve, a student will not get very far on the path.

• Right speech is speech free of deception, gossip, backbiting, abusive language, and so on. Positively, the student's speech should always be truthful and purposeful.

• Right action consists of five moral precepts: noninjury to any living thing (ahimsa), not stealing, not lying, not committing sexual immorality, and not taking drugs or intoxicants.

• Right livelihood is any profession that does no harm to any living beings. This eliminates such professions as the military, arms dealership, butchery, fishery, liquor sales, and so on.

• Right effort consists of efforts to gain mastery over our mind by eliminating bad habits and preserving and nurturing good qualities. In meditation, it involves the effort to maintain a nonreactive mind, free of craving and aversion. It also means staying on the path when other concerns or discouragement from lack of progress in meditation tempt us to give up.

• Right mindfulness is awareness of what is going on inside and outside oneself from moment to moment. It consists of the mind directly and immediately observing whatever is happening at the exact moment of contact—before thought arises; before it is processed, identified, labeled, and judged; and before reacting to it. Pure or bare attention to the exact moment of contact is to be practiced on the body, sensations, mental states, and mental contents.

• Right concentration or oneness (samadhi) is an advanced state of concentration to be achieved by focusing on the object of concentration without reacting to anything that arises. This will make the mind calm, purified, and equanimous—free of reaction to pleasurable or unpleasurable sensations.

The first two paths pertain to the wisdom that gives students the ability to clearly see things as they are and what they need to do to attain total freedom. The third to the sixth paths prescribe how the Buddhist should live. The last two paths refer to Buddhist meditation that leads to total freedom. Thus, they constitute the path of self-transformation. Without going beyond limited forms of consciousness through self-transformation, no one can experience Nirvana—the goal of the Buddha's teaching.

Having rejected all rituals, the Buddha did not hold out any possibility of attaining Nirvana through any medium, because that would involve conditioning and limitation, not freedom from them.

Meditation: The Path of Self-Transformation

Early Buddhists practiced two types of meditation to arrive at the goal of Nirvana: concentration and insight. Concentration aims at making the mind calm and free from reaction to pleasurable and unpleasurable sensations. Insight begins with mindfulness, progresses through various stages, and culminates in enlightenment and Nirvana. Both are necessary. As Achaan Chah states, "To concentrate the mind is like turning on the switch, and wisdom is the resulting light. Without the switch there is no light. Concentration must be firmly established for wisdom to arise" (A Clear Forrest Pool 90).

The Path of Concentration: One method of developing concentration is "mindfulness of breathing," or observing the breath. Students begin by holding attention focused on one spot—inside the nose, at the outer rings, or the area between the nasal bridge and above the upper lip—where the breath is most noticeable during inhalation and exhalation. No special breathing is required. The normal, gentle, soft breath is most conducive to developing concentration.

The Buddhist tradition uses other objects for developing concentration, such as visualizing a disc made of light brown earth (kasina), a mandala, other external objects, sound, mantra, mental contents, and so on.

The aim of concentration is to reach absorption. The Buddhist meditation text, The Path of Purification, describes nine progressive stages of absorption; however, it recommends that students should progress through the first four stages before taking up insight meditation. In the first four stages, called absorption with forms, attention successively cuts through external sensory awareness, thoughts, reasoning, and deeper layers of conditioning and mental constructs until the mind enters into a state beyond opposites. At this point it becomes calm and free from craving and aversion.

In four stages of formless oneness (samadhi), the student goes beyond all objects by focusing attention on endless space, limitless consciousness, and the void. Thereupon, ordinary consciousness ceases to operate in the absence of any object. Nothing—no perception or nonperception—remains of the former states, as awareness becomes transparent, like a clear mirror.

The Path of Insight: Insight begins with mindfulness. Different traditions assign different objects for insight meditation. Traditionally, four objects of mindfulness—body, feeling or sensation, mind, and mental states—serve as the starting point. Whatever the method, the goal is to gain insight into the nature of reality as it is, from moment to moment, by holding attention directly on the sensation as it arises and before it is processed and interpreted by consciousness. One method consists of directly observing one's bodily sensations. Holding their attention directly on the skin, students scan the entire body from head to feet and feet to head, observing each sensation as it arises and passes with bare attention and clear comprehension of its nature. The key to insight meditation is clearly seeing the nature of all observable reality as impermanent (anicca), beginning at the level of bodily sensations arising and passing.

As meditation deepens and attention is directed from the outer to the inner parts of the body, gradually the entire body dissolves into a symphony of sensations rapidly arising and passing. No solidity or permanence remains anywhere. Thus, the student gains insight into the nature of conditioned reality on this bodily level as impermanent (anicca). And she sees that there is no self (anatta) existing separately from this ever-changing process. She then comes to see the inherently unsatisfactory nature of all conditioned things (dukkha) and to directly observe how it is created by the mind's constant tendency to grasp at and cling to pleasurable sensations, crave for more, and avoid the opposite. As she is able to observe all sensations directly without reacting to them, she does not reinforce ordinary consciousness, thereby breaking the link between sensations and conditioned reactions.

Next, awareness is able to cut its identification with physical and mental objects and gradually open out and extend the same process of insight to all forms. As awareness directly observes the arising and passing of all forms, it disidentifies with them and becomes free.

Continuing to meditate over long periods in this way, the student eventually goes beyond the space-time framework of ordinary consciousness. Thereupon the mind becomes coextensive with the entire universe. From this vantage point, she is able to directly experience simultaneous arising and passing of all things and events and is able to witness all things throughout the universe as an interconnected web existing in mutual interaction. No permanence, solidity, or separately existing things are found anywhere. She also gains insight into dependent arising and how suffering is created and maintained.

Having cut identification with all objects and conditioned states, the mind becomes formless, free of all limitation. Continuing to meditate and carrying on daily activities in this state, the student is able to cut through the residual effects of conditioning and experience the final breakthrough into the Unconditioned State. Thus awareness arrives at its ultimate nature as infinite Consciousness and experiences its identity with infinite Reality. This is the first moment of enlightenment or Nirvana.

Nirvana—the Goal of the Path: Nirvana (Pali: nibbana), the goal of the Buddhist path, literally means "to extinguish" or "to blow out." What is snuffed out is suffering. This requires one to become free of all the causes and conditions of suffering, which is impossible in any conditioned state. As the Buddha says, nothing in the conditioned state can liberate anyone from the conditioned state. If there were no Unconditioned, liberation from conditioned existence would be impossible (Burtt 113). Therefore, only a full realization of the Unconditioned State of Nirvana extinguishes suffering. Thereupon indescribable peace follows—permanent peace of total Being and freedom.

The same affirmation, negation, and paradox used to describe the Infinite by various religions is also used to depict Nirvana. For affirmation, a Sutra calls Nirvana the "Isle of No-beyond," that is, Ultimate Reality beyond which nothing exists. Because it is not an object or mental construct, Nirvana is called "no-thing." Being beyond space, time, causation, permanence and impermanence, and exclusive identification with anything, Nirvana is "where there is no coming or going or remaining or descending or uprising, for this is itself without any support, without continuance, without mental object." Additionally, Nirvana is said to be "unborn, not become, not made, uncompounded," that is, it is uncreated, unconditioned and indivisible. Paradoxically, Nirvana is beyond "is" and "is not," both "is" and "is not," neither "is" nor "is not" (Conze 93–95, 106).

In three progressive stages of Enlightenment leading to Nirvana, the causes, reality, and consequences of old karma and suffering burn down to their very roots, the unconscious tendencies are uprooted, and the Buddhist becomes permanently free from rebirth. In this state, called arhatship, consciousness is permanently transformed and its center shifts to the Unconditioned State, from which the liberated person lives and acts. Like a lotus that grows above muddy water, she lives in this conditioned world unsoiled by its conditionings or entanglements.

We now see that while the Buddha rejected any belief in God, the terms he used to describe Nirvana point to the same Infinite Reality. His main reason for rejecting belief in God is to avoid the illusion that belief or worship can ever bring anyone to a direct experience of the Unconditioned, which alone brings liberation.

Rituals

Although the above is the path of the Buddha in its pure form, after his death, various rituals cropped up that gave Buddhism the appearance of a conventional religion. One important early ritual was a gathering of the monastic community, first three times a month and later only once during half lunar months, and reciting the Rules of the Order. Among additional practices were receiving new robes, ordination, collecting alms by going from village to village, and so on.

Another important ritual is a vow recited by the Buddhists, called "taking refuge in the Triple Gems," which is stated thusly: "I take refuge in the Buddha; I take refuge in the Dharma; I take refuge in the Sangha." This vow does not make the Buddha a savior. Rather, the Buddha represents enlightenment. The Dharma is the truth about the nature of reality embodied in the Buddha's teachings. The Sangha is the community dedicated to following this path. Therefore, the vow consists of a firm resolve to realize what the Buddha had realized by following the path he had laid out for others and in a community of people who are dedicated to the same journey of liberation.

Other rituals Buddhism incorporated are more devotional in nature. These began soon after his death and include the veneration of relics of the Buddha and the establishment of mounds (stupas), for their preservation. In time, people began making pilgrimages to major stupas and other sacred sites, such as sites of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment (traditionally identified as Bodh Gaya in Bihar), first sermon, and death.

Festivals

Buddhists have also developed a number of festivals that reflect cultural adaptation of the Buddha's teaching to various lands. One of these is the New Year's Festival, celebrated in April in Theravada countries. Held over three days, in Myanmar (Burma) it has taken on aspects of the Hindu Holi festival. Specifically, Buddhist elements include rededication to Buddhism, visiting temples, and making offerings. In China and Japan, the New Year is celebrated in January.

Other festivals include the Buddha's Birthday, celebrated on the last full moon in May in Southeast Asia and on April 8 in China and Japan. On this occasion, Buddhists wash the statue of the Buddha to commemorate the gods' washing of Siddhartha, it is believed, after he was born. They also hold a street festival that includes a procession of Buddhist images, the burning of incense, and the setting off of firecrackers. We shall discuss the Festival of Ancestors in the context of Chinese and Japanese religions. The Robe Offering is held at the end of the rainy season in November. On this occasion, the laity presents new robes to the monks.

Ethics and the Good Life

The Five Precepts already described—abstaining from harming living beings, lying, stealing, sexual immorality, and drugs and intoxicants—form the foundation of Buddhist ethics. Although they are more rigorous for monks and nuns than for laypeople, all Buddhists are expected to observe them. Thus, while laypeople are not to commit sexual immorality, monks and nuns must be celibate. Besides the five precepts, there were many other precepts and monastic rules that formed part of Buddhist ethics.

Monks have to observe 227 rules, divided into eight groups: The first group, the violation of which leads to expulsion from the order, pertains to sexual intercourse, stealing, lying, killing, or destroying living beings. Other groups involve such rules as confession of sins, repentance and absolution, discipline of the order, and legal matters. Monks and novices (those who are in training) have to observe ten precepts. They are also required to abstain from eating at forbidden times, dancing, singing, playing music, attending theater, wearing jewelry or makeup, sleeping on luxurious beds, and accepting gold or silver.

In addition to the common five, laypeople have to observe the first three of the above rules concerning eating, entertainment, and luxuries, but only on one day every half lunar month.

Moreover, all Buddhists have to perform ten good actions, four of which are the same as the first four precepts. The rest are abstaining from slandering, harsh or abusive language, idle chatter, greed, hatred, and delusion. The last three, called the three poisons, are considered to be the root of all evil. Uprooting them is essential to liberation.

Theravada Buddhism

As mentioned before, within a hundred years of the Buddha's death, the Buddhist community split up into two major groups. By the beginning of the Common Era, there were about thirty different groups, or schools, with their divergent points of doctrines, practices, rituals, and rules. These differences contributed to variations not only in the oral tradition but also in the written ones. With the exception of one group, all others died out. This group came to call itself Theravada, or "The Path of Elders." Its opponents called it Hinayana, "The Lesser Vehicle" or "The Narrow Path," as monastic life became the ideal of Theravada Buddhism.

Since Theravada Buddhism embraces the Buddhist teachings and scriptures described above, here we will only briefly describe Theravada monastic and lay life and the spread of Theravada in Southeast Asia.

Monastic Life

Claiming a direct link to the Buddha and remaining faithful to his teachings, Theravada Buddhism emphasizes meditation as the only means of realizing Nirvana. Therefore, they came to consider monks and nuns as ideal members, since their avowed aim is to devote most of their time to meditation.

The ideal life for Buddhists is a life in which they are fully enlightened and permanently established in the Unconditioned State from which they live and act. Such a state is called arhatship. In Buddhist societies, monks had the highest standing, followed by nuns and novices. Laypeople were at the bottom of the social ladder.

While the initial Buddhist community of monks and nuns lived the life of wanderers, gathering and living together in one place only during the rainy season, social, political, and internal changes gradually led to the establishment of monasteries. As the community settled down, it needed rules and rituals for regulating monastic life.

The original organization of the monastery was democratic. In principle, all monks and nuns had equal rights and obligations; in practice, nuns were subordinated to monks. The practice of electing particular monks for special tasks, such as settling disputes, led to the development of a council of elders as the governing body of the monastery. The rules and regulations of the monastery formed part of morality and body-mind training that aided the practice of meditation. Even "confession of sins" strengthened monastic discipline by providing a psychological safety valve for clearing disturbances that might hinder meditation and have disruptive and harmful effects on the community.

While Nirvana remained the goal for all, they did not all proceed toward it at the same pace. The monks and nuns were most fully committed to its realization, but the laypeople had to assume a more gradual approach, as their life called for immersion in the world. They were not expected to attain Nirvana in one lifetime, simply because they could not devote as much time to meditation as the goal required. They were expected to build up merit by observing the precepts, living a good life, and serving monks and nuns by providing them with sustenance and supporting monasteries. All they could hope for by accumulating merit was a better rebirth as monks or nuns in which to pursue Nirvana full time.

This marginalization of the laity left a spiritual void. Being involved in the world, they were also more prone to cultural influences. As a result, popular Buddhism assimilated various devotional practices from their respective cultures, such as prayers, chants, altars, offerings, incense burners, candlesticks, images of the Buddha, flowers, bowls, and other elements of worship services. They came to treat the Buddha as a god. Other cultural practices assimilated were shamanic trance and healing.

The official Theravada position, however, is that the Buddha is strictly the teacher and guide. Being faithful to his final instruction that they were to take the Dharma as their refuge or the basis for working out their salvation, Theravadins do not look upon him or anyone else as saviors. For recourse to the Dharma, they accept only the Tripitaka as their scriptures.

The Spread of Theravada Buddhism

The first great agent of the spread of Buddhism was King Ashoka of the Mauryan Dynasty (272–236 BCE). Initially a Hindu king, he converted to Buddhism sometime after he inherited the throne. But following a particularly bloody battle that cost a great many lives, he renounced violence, publicly embraced Buddhism, and dedicated himself to its propagation. Thereafter he brought nearly all of India under his rule by peaceful means. He spread Buddhism through proclamations or edicts written on columns set up throughout India. He sent missionaries (his son and daughter) to Sri Lanka in the east and as far west as Cyprus. Among other East Asian countries, Myanmar became Buddhist as early as the third century. Cambodia embraced Buddhism in the twelfth, Thailand entered the fold in the thirteenth, and Laos accepted it in the fourteenth century CE. Today, Theravada Buddhism is the main form of religion in these countries.

Mahayana Buddhism

Mahayana Buddhism arose in Northern India and spread to Central Asia in the first century BCE. Various factors contributed to its formation: a major split in Buddhism and the rise of various schools, internal debates about the meaning of the Buddha's teachings, the influence of the Hindu bhakti movement and Upanishadic teachings, and the desire to systematically express the Buddha's cryptic statements on Nirvana and other teachings. As maha means "great" and yana means "vehicle," the word "Mahayana" reflects the fact that its different Sutras (or scriptures) and schools advocated a variety of means, including meditation, faith, devotion, and dependence on saviors. At one end, like the Buddha and Theravada, Chan/Zen Buddhism holds meditation as the key to enlightenment and Buddhahood. At the other end, Pure Land Buddhism advocates faith in the saving power of the heavenly Buddha Amitabha, the chanting of his name, and devotional practices.

Mahayana is also called the "great" or "wide path," because it flung open the ideal to anyone in any walk of life. Far from being the domain of a privileged few, Nirvana is open to all. Becoming a monk or nun is unnecessary to attain liberation. Anyone pursuing any lifestyle can attain it, because the state signified by Nirvana is the ultimate nature of all things.

While Theravada has the Tripitaka, Mahayana developed as many as 2184 new scriptures. To justify the scriptural status of its new texts, Mahayana had to show that they were derived from the Buddha. So they developed various strategies, one of which maintained that while the Tripitaka contains teachings intended for beginners, the Mahayana scriptures are concerned with his more advanced teachings, kept hidden from the former and revealed to the more advanced few. This phenomenon is not unique to Buddhism. Other religions, such as Christianity and Islam, adopted similar strategies of legitimization, as we shall see. In composing their Sutras, Mahayana turned back to the classical Indian tradition and wrote them in Sanskrit.

What follows is an explanation of the essential teachings of Mahayana Buddhism in India as developed by its two main schools. Instead of presenting particular teachings of these schools, we will focus on the teachings that formed the foundation of Mahayana Buddhism. Our attention will then turn to women in Buddhism and the decline and disappearance of Buddhism from India. The rest of the chapter will be devoted to major branches of Mahayana Buddhism in China and Japan, followed by a brief concluding exposition of Tibetan Buddhism.

Main Mahayana Teachings

As we saw, the Buddha refused to be drawn into speculation or develop a system. Casting this caution to the wind, Mahayana developed elaborate doctrinal systems. However, doctrines were harnessed to the goal of Nirvana and methods of attaining it. Thus they remained religious to their very core.

Mahayana in India developed several new doctrines contained in the Sutras, or scriptures. In this section, we will examine the teachings that form the foundation of Mahayana Buddhism. One is the Buddha-nature, which refers to the nature of Ultimate Reality. Three Bodies of the Buddha connects the formless Ultimate with the Supreme Forms in the heavenly realm and their manifestation in this world. Emptiness reveals a completely naked state of all things. The teaching on Nirvana as being not other than samsara erases the vestiges of dualism. Finally, Bodhisattva embodies the Mahayana ideal of compassion and service to others.

The Buddha-nature: This refers to the ultimate nature of reality revealed in bodhi, or enlightenment. As such, the Buddha-nature is infinite Reality, which is the nature of all things beyond any form, condition, or limitation. It is the Ultimate, Unconditioned State in which all things at all times exist. Outside the Buddha-nature there is nothing at all.

This doctrine grew out of the Mahayana emphasis not so much on the Buddha as on the state he realized in the experience of Nirvana. Because he fully realized it, the Buddha came to be seen as its embodiment. Buddhahood is the state in which a person fully realizes and completely identifies with the Buddha-nature and lives and acts from it.

While Mahayana does not reject the term "nirvana," it emphasizes the Buddha-nature and Buddhahood. As the Buddha-nature is our very nature and that of all things its realization is not anything alien to us. Enlightenment is not attaining something new but waking up to what we already are.

Three Bodies (Trikaya) of the Buddha: A doctrine that lays bare the full implications of the Buddha-nature is the Three Bodies of the Buddha. While the Buddha-nature refers to the Infinite, Unconditioned State, and the Buddha came to be seen as its perfect earthly embodiment, a middle step—comparable to the Hindu belief in the supreme forms in which Infinite Brahman manifests itself—was seen lacking. Hence the doctrine of the Three Bodies to explicitly connect the formless Buddha-nature with the highest forms in which it manifests itself in the heavenly realm and with Buddhahood realized by historical Buddhas in this world.

• Truth-Body (Dharmakaya). This refers to the truth about the nature of Ultimate Reality. As such it is the same as the Buddha-nature. As formless, it constitutes the reality of all things and the source from which all things originate. As the Ultimate Reality, truth-body is both identical with the world and different from it because it is beyond any limitation.

• Enjoyment-Body (Sambhogakaya). This represents the supreme forms in which truth-body manifests itself. Embodying the universal wisdom aspects of Buddhahood, enjoyment-body is the divine blissful state, devoid of suffering, represented by heavenly Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Serving as a bridge between truth-body and manifestation-body or this world, it partakes of both. As celestial in form, it represents the state of consciousness experienced in highest forms of oneness (samadhi). As historical, it can act as savior of humans in their need and help them both with earthly blessings and reaching the heavenly state.

• Manifestation-Body (Nirmanakaya). The Unconditioned in the conditioned world is called the manifestation-body. It is also called transformation-body, because the enjoyment-body transforms itself in order to appear in the world in human form, such as Gautama the Buddha. As historical Buddhas who embody ultimate truth, manifestation-body is an answer to the Hindu idea of incarnation of the Supreme Deity and may have been inspired by it.

Bodhisattva: The Bodhisattva ideal is built upon the motive of compassion to save others. The word "bodhisattva" is a combination of two Sanskrit words, "bodhi," which means "enlightenment," and "sattva," means "being." Therefore, a Bodhisattva is an enlightened being who does not proceed to final Nirvana nor cling to this world. Abiding in the state beyond the duality of Nirvana and this world (samsara), and overflowing with selfless compassion, the Bodhisattva takes the vow to save all beings (Burtt 133). Limitless compassion prompts him to be repeatedly reborn into this world of suffering to save even the lowliest of beings. Bodhisattvas are saviors who are not only earthly, but also heavenly beings, who work tirelessly for the liberation of all beings.

The Sutras mention many heavenly bodhisattvas. One of the most popular is Avalokitesvara (the Lord of the Present Age). As the embodiment of compassion, he is the protector who looks down from the heavenly realm to save people from various dangers and confer blessings on those who call upon him. Another prominent figure is Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom. A third is Maitreya, the future Buddha.

The Heart Sutra—Sunyata: A fourth pivotal Mahayana teaching is the doctrine of sunyata. Usually translated as "nothingness" or "emptiness," Mahayana proclaimed it as a new way of seeing reality—experiencing everything in a completely naked state of being as it is.

Expressed in its most succinct form, the Heart Sutra declares that from "the wisdom that has gone beyond," that is, in the Unconditioned State, "form is emptiness" (Conze et al. 152). This means that in their completely naked state, all things or forms are empty of definable nature or identifying characteristics. Whatever we consider a thing to be, such as that it is finite, or has such and such a form, is in fact empty of that limiting characteristic. When we remove from our minds everything in terms of which we perceive, identify, label, and describe something as this or that, what remains of its nature? Emptiness! Peel off everything from its thing-ness, and you see that precisely as such it has no separate nature or independent existence of its own. Nothing is other than this Emptiness.

The text goes on to say, "The very emptiness is form." Emptiness is void of an objective or definable nature separate from anything. It exists nowhere apart from the world of forms, just as subatomic particles do not exist separate from this world of solid, separate things. This is like saying that the Infinite has no existence except in and as the finite. When you reach Emptiness, you realize that it is not anything other than this very world of forms. It is nothing other than eating, breathing, talking, walking, or trees swaying in the breeze. Emptiness is not somewhere out there, in heaven, but in here, everywhere, not apart from you and me or anything whatsoever. As this realization dawns, you see that the person next to you is not other than you or me. Nothing is. All forms are forms of Emptiness.

The Sutra continues: In the completely naked state of things exactly as they exist, there are no distinctions. Nothing comes into being or passes away; there is no purity or impurity; nothing is complete or incomplete. There is no subject, no object, no ordinary consciousness, no self or other, no suffering, nothing at all. Thus, the movement from form to Emptiness reveals everything to be Emptiness. And the movement from Emptiness to form reveals Emptiness to be nothing other than this very world of forms.

Samsara is not other than Nirvana: We can now see why Mahayana declares that samsara, or this world, is not other than Nirvana. Theravada's emphasis on the transcendence of Nirvana over this world harbors a subtle dualism. Mahayana goes beyond any trace of dualism by insisting that there is not the slightest differentiation between Nirvana and ordinary activities or anything else when experienced in their true nature. Nirvana is not a reality separate from this world. It is wholly this present world, empty of conditioning and mental constructs, empty of how we perceive it. This view was made possible by the doctrine of Emptiness.

Although all things are in the Unconditioned State signified by Nirvana, our consciousness prevents us from experiencing them as such. We fall into the conditioned state as our conditioning boxes us in a world that dependently arises through the twelve-chain of causation. Nirvana is this world free of the conditioned state. It is being in this world with our consciousness totally transformed that enables us to experience all things in Emptiness, just as they are.

Women in Buddhism

The Buddha's reluctance to admit women in the monastic order seems to indicate his view of the status of women in Buddhism. When his aunt and stepmother Prajapati wanted to join the order, he is said to have refused her request three times. Undaunted, Prajapati prevailed upon Ananda to plead her cause. He too was rebuffed at first. Then he asked the Buddha,

"Are women not capable of enlightenment?"

The Buddha said, "Yes."

He asked again, "Are women not capable of progressing through the four stages of Nirvana and becoming arhats?"

He again said, "Yes!"

Then Ananda asked, "Would it not be a good thing for women to enter the order?"

The Buddha replied, "If Prajapati will accept the eight strict rules, she should be considered fully ordained" (Mitchell 110–112).

On that occasion, the Buddha's remarks seem to reveal his attitude of subordination of women. For the eight strict rules clearly subordinate nuns to monks, assume their inferiority, and subject them to discrimination and humiliation. The most egregious of these rules required even senior nuns to bow down to newly ordained monks. But no monk was required to bow down to nuns. Even though nuns had become famous teachers, they were required to seek monks' instruction and admonition. Nuns had to submit themselves to public confession before both orders and accept monks' criticism. If nuns were guilty of serious offenses, they were disciplined by both orders. But monks were not subjected to the same rules.

The Buddhist literature of that time depicted women as temptresses, tied to sensuality, sexuality, and attached to lower concerns. Extreme biases existed against women in Indian society at the time of the Buddha. Did he share these views and attitudes? There is no way to be sure whether the Buddha did so in this or in any other matters. Many scholars, however, regard the eight rules and the views attributed to the Buddha as later additions, reflecting the attitude of the order of monks, rather than the Buddha's own prescription of how things should be or his attitude toward women in general. As Anne Bancroft observes, "It is difficult to imagine the Buddha, having agreed to the possible arhatship of women, giving voice to some of them" (83). Many of the negative things ascribed to women and nuns' subordination in the order can be attributed to monks' fears and insecurities about their own sexuality and possible loss of power. So they came to regard women as obstacles to liberation and sources of temptation. And they set up the rules as shields against coming under women's authority or losing control over women.

In a fundamental sense, however, the Buddha's affirmative answers to Ananda's questions whether women can attain Nirvana and become arhats reflect his implicit recognition that in the spiritual life and in Ultimate Reality, there can be no inequality, no difference between women and men. As I. B. Horner remarks, "No distinction between what men can be and do and what women can be and do is hinted at, but on the contrary it is abundantly clear that with regard to the religious life women were thought to be as competent as men" (284). Many Buddhist texts show that the Buddha made no distinction between monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen. The rights and obligations of hearing the Dharma and practicing it were the same for all. Both women and men were said to possess the marks of a Buddha. No line was drawn between the mental capacity of monks and nuns. Many monastic women attained enlightenment, became arhats, and attained positions of prominence and prestige. However, the subordination of nuns to monks in the communal relationship and the ambivalent treatment of women in Buddhism in general remained. This attitude may be one of the reasons why women's opportunities and the nuns' order declined over time (Young 111).

Legendary stories paint both negative and positive pictures of the Buddha's association with women. On the occasion of his great departure from home, he is said to have seen women in a negative light—as temptresses and physically disgusting. However, instead of depicting how the Buddha actually viewed women, this story most likely reflects a method of meditation that instructs monks to visualize their bodies and those of others as corpses in order to cut off attachment. On the other hand, other texts portray women in a positive light. A familiar story tells us how the Buddha was grateful to the woman, Sujata, who offered him the food that set him on to his final quest for Nirvana (Young 110).

Many stories reflect the Buddha's care and concern for the welfare of women. One is the well-known story of a woman who, having gone nearly insane with grief at the death of her only child, at the prompting of others, approached the Buddha for help. He promised to help her if she could bring some mustard seed from any house in the town where no one had died. As she searched from house to house and found that not a single household was spared death, she gained insight into impermanence. Subsequently, we are told, she attained full enlightenment and liberation. A wealthy patroness of the Buddha and the Sangha was instrumental in the adoption of eight rules for the order. She had observed how monks had no provisions on their journeys, medicine and care for the sick, or clothes for the rainy season. And being told that nuns were bathing naked for lack of clothes, for which prostitutes taunted them, she offered to supply these necessities for the order. At her behest, the Buddha drew up rules for such provisions.

Entrance to the order must have been a liberating experience for many women both socially and spiritually, as their writings suggest. Following is a poem, composed in the sixth century CE by a Buddhist nun celebrating freedom from subjugation by her husband, the drudgery of everyday life, as well as spiritual liberation:

So free am I, so gloriously free,

Free from three petty things—

From mortar, from pestle and from my twisted lord,

Freed from rebirth and death I am,

And all that had held me down

Is hurled away (Tharu and Lalita 68).

Entrance to the order gave women freedom from subordination and implied that their lives had their own worth. Their identity or destiny needed no longer be defined in terms of marriage and motherhood. In addition, Buddhist marriage became more of an equal arrangement between partners. In marriage, both partners had duties toward each other. The wife was expected to be faithful, manage her husband's earnings, work hard, use her talents and skills, and show hospitality to her husband's parents. And the husband was expected to show his wife respect and courtesy, be faithful, give up authority over her, and give her presents. Buddhist wives shared authority with their husbands in choosing a child's career. Married women could inherit and manage their property. Buddhist widows did not have to commit sati. They could enter the order or remarry and carry on the householder's life.

The Mahayana doctrine of no distinction between this world and Nirvana and the possibility of gaining Nirvana in any lifestyle meant celibacy was deemphasized and the world of women, generally associated with worldly concerns, came to be seen in a more positive light. There was a greater leveling of the field and the recognition that anyone could attain enlightenment so long as spiritual requirements were fulfilled.

The Mahayana doctrine of Buddha-nature implies absolute equality of women and men. Because no discrimination or differentiation is possible in the Buddha-nature, it is as fully present in women as in men. Another doctrine that proclaims the equality of men and women is the female principle of the Supreme Wisdom (Mahaprajnaparamita). As the embodiment of compassion, she not only nurtures and sustains but also liberates humans from ignorance and suffering.

The doctrine of Bodhisattva gives the highest spiritual recognition to women, since a bodhisattva can be a male or a female. Moreover, as Mahayana spread to China, Japan, and Tibet, the male Bodhisattva figure in India, Avalokitesvara, became identified with the female goddess of mercy—Guanyin in China and Kannon in Japan. In Tibet, Tara is the savioress who protects, reassures, and fulfills the spiritual aspirations of her devotees. Buddhist Tantra came to regard the female principle of Wisdom as equal and complementary to the male as the Means. Their union is a necessary step to enlightenment.

Another important female spiritual principle is the Dakini. Representing the inner wisdom of the practitioner, she may appear as a playful and nurturing or a sharp and wrathful guide, showing the obstacles and weaknesses the practitioner must overcome. Or, symbolizing the wisdom of the guru and enlightened teachers, she may appear as the protectoress of the Dharma and transmitter of tantric practices and as a guide to the practitioner. Thus, the result of these developments is a strong inclination toward the equality of women in the spiritual realm.

However, these spiritual glimmers and hopes did not translate into equality of men and women either in the monastic order or in the social realm. Ambivalent attitude and inconsistent treatment of women are to be found in Mahayana as in Theravada. On the one hand, the image of the female Bodhisattva and the acknowledgement that women can become Buddhas provided women with the highest spiritual position among the Buddhist hierarchy of beings. Yet nuns were generally subordinated in the order. In the doctrines of the Womb or Source of the Buddhas (Tathagatagarbha) and Supreme Wisdom, women and motherhood are accorded the highest position in the spiritual realm. Yet in the social sphere, motherhood is given a lower status, as a woman's role is associated with suffering and subordination to male authority. Women were seen as tied to domestic and familial concerns, finding their fulfillment in the procreative role and welfare of the family. And, though the bodhisattva ideal opened up to women opportunities for freedom from social constraints, their subordination was still the rule in Asian patriarchal societies. Yet in the thirteenth century, the case for women's equality was clearly stated by the Japanese Zen Master Dogen in these words:

What is more worthy about a male? Emptiness is emptiness; the four elements are the four elements; the five skandhas are the five skandhas. It is the same with the female, and actualizing the Dharma is actualizing the Dharma in either case. Simply you should revere and honor the one who actualizes the Dharma and do not consider the matter of being male or female (quoted by Bancroft 99).

The position of women in Buddhism today is beginning to change. However, the winds of change are blowing slowly across traditional societies and cultures of Asia, where women are still subordinated and oppressed, considered inferior, and denied equal opportunity. In most Asian countries, it has not been possible for women to become ordained beyond that of the novice. The women's order in Sri Lanka had not been restored after it was squelched by the Indian kings who invaded Sri Lanka in the tenth century. Subsequently, in monastic communities in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Tibet, women had not been fully ordained until recently.

A movement for change was initiated in Thailand in 1971, when a woman traveled to Taiwan for full ordination. After being ordained as a novice nun in 1983 in Sri Lanka, a German woman received full ordination in the Chinese tradition in Los Angeles in 1988. She in turn became active in restoring full ordination of Theravada nuns in Sri Lanka, resulting in thirty Sri Lankan women becoming fully ordained at Bodh Gaya, India, in 1998. Since then the number of full ordination of women in Sri Lanka has steadily increased. Returning to Germany, the German Buddhist nun established thirty-seven new meditation groups.

In Tibetan Buddhism, nuns do not generally receive full ordination and women receive less education. Nuns still have to sit below monks and bow to them. Although the lineage of teachers has traditionally been men, there are now women teachers and reincarnate Lamas. After receiving full ordination in South Korea and Taiwan, an American nun initiated a movement of full monasticism for women in Tibetan Buddhism. In India she established a monastery and a project to educate future nuns. The Dalai Lama's office has also set up a similar project.

Nuns enjoying full ordination on equal terms with monks have existed only in China, Taiwan, and Korea. In Taiwan today women are highly active in leadership roles of the Buddhist community. More than 80 percent of the monastic communities are nuns. They run more than twenty-five of the thirty Buddhist research institutes. Buddhist laywomen also have assumed prominent roles. Of the five million members of the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu-chi Association, 80 percent are women dedicated to social welfare work. Another leading Taiwanese Buddhist organization has been active in supporting the full ordination of Buddhist nuns worldwide.

This spirit is awakening in Japan, where women have not only been ordained Zen nuns but have also been made fully certified Zen teachers, or roshis.

Lacking the cultural restraint on female advancement prevalent in Asian traditions, western women have generally taken the lead in promoting equality of women in Buddhism. S. N. Goenka's Vipassana Meditation Centers in India, the United States, Australia, and Europe have fully certified women meditation teachers. The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, has fully certified women teachers, and one of them, Sharon Salzburg, was instrumental, together with others, in founding the center. This is happening in greater numbers in the United States, where women teachers head several Zen centers. Thus, western Buddhism may emerge as the inspiration and guide to sweep away discrimination and injustice and set Buddhist women everywhere on the path of equality.

Decline and Disappearance of Buddhism from India

After its high creative period, Mahayana began to decline in India. As its social and political base ebbed, Buddhism came to increasingly depend on the patronage of kings for its support. When that evaporated, the situation of Buddhism became precarious. As the monastic communities became absorbed in academic pursuits in universities, they lost touch with the people, who in turn gradually lost interest in it. Reacting to this situation, Buddhists became increasingly insular, losing interest in spreading Buddhism to the surrounding communities and serving their needs. This situation further eroded the source of vitality and strength of Buddhism.

Meanwhile, the torch was passed to a new Buddhist movement that came to take the center stage: Tantric Buddhism. As Mahayana declined, Tantrism began to become dominant, especially after the founding of the University of Vikramsila in about 800 CE.

The Hindu devotional movement (bhakti) began to make strides and regain the territories it lost to Buddhism. The Hindu proclamation of the Buddha as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu also helped stem the tide of Buddhism. Hinduism absorbed many Buddhist ideas and practices, but absorption of Hindu rituals served only to weaken and dilute Buddhism (Lopez 2:56).

Finally, Muslim invaders sacked major centers of Buddhism, destroyed Buddhist universities, pillaged scores of monasteries, slaughtered thousands of monks, and drove others toward Nepal and Tibet. As Stanley Wolpert remarks, "The severity of Turko-Afghan persecution directed against centers of Buddhist monasticism was so unrelenting that the religion of the Buddha was now sent into exile from the land of its birth" (108).

Long before that happened, Buddhism had already passed its torch of Dharma to other lands in the East. Mahayana spread to Central Asia and China in the first century CE, to Korea in 372, and to Japan in 552 CE. Tibet embraced Tantric Buddhism in the seventh century.

Mahayana Buddhism in China and Japan

Entry into China

Buddhism made its beachhead on the Chinese soil as early as the first century CE through the trade route in the northwest. But as political, social, and economic breakdown were set in motion toward the end of the Han Period (206 BCE–220 CE), Confucianism no longer served as the ideology to bind society together. And Daoist naturalism proved unequal to the challenge of creating a viable society at a time of disintegration. So, in their quest to understand the causes and conditions of the breakdown and to find a solution to their predicament, the Chinese began to pay greater attention to Buddhism.

But Buddhism had to overcome many obstacles before being accepted by the Chinese. A major one was how to translate deep psychological and metaphysical insights expressed in discursive, abstract Sanskrit into the terse, concrete, pictographic Chinese language. Confucianism lacked the concepts, and Daoism had no exact parallels to Buddhist psychological and metaphysical insights. It was not until the appearance of Kumarajiva in 401 CE that really satisfactory translations of Buddhist scriptures were made available in Chinese (Wright 33–64).

Another issue was that the Buddhist goal of liberation, belief in rebirth, and leveling of class distinction clashed with the Chinese ideal of living in harmony with the cosmic pattern; its pragmatic, this-worldly outlook; and social hierarchy. And the Buddhist quest for purely individual salvation struck the socially-minded Confucians as selfish, the monastic ideal antisocial, and its exemption from government supervision subversive.

However, the concept of everyone having the Buddha-nature was immensely appealing to ordinary people, as it recognized their equal worth and offered them the possibility of enlightenment and liberation. And the Buddhist goal of freeing the individual from their plight of unsatisfactory life was seen not so much a rival as a complement to Confucianism and Daoism. Additionally, the upper class associated the monastic ideal with the Chinese tradition of retired scholars and Daoist recluses. The masses were drawn to monasticism because of exemption from military service, taxes, and forced labor. Buddhist devotional practices and rituals served as a consolation for the grinding poverty. Monastic support of families and monks officiating at various rituals, especially funerals and memorial rites for ancestors, helped overcome Chinese antipathy to monastic life.

Moreover, the non-Chinese tribes that invaded and established their rule in northern China came to patronize Buddhism. Government support led to an enormous growth of monasteries. This tendency reached a high point under Emperor Wu Di of Liang Dynasty (r. 502–549), who took the vows of a Buddhist layman (Zurcher 141–146).

Buddhism made several adjustments to Chinese beliefs. Some of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were transformed. The male Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, the compassionate Lord who manifests himself in various forms to save people from suffering, became identified with Guanyin, the popular goddess of mercy who answers prayers in times of difficulties and gives children to women who have difficulty conceiving. While in India, Maitreya, the future Buddha, was portrayed as a slender, elegant figure, in China, he became the fat Mi-lo, reflecting the Chinese idea of prosperity, fulfillment, and happiness in the future, perfect state.

Early Development in Japan

Buddhism had to go through a similar process of adaptation to Japan before becoming accepted as a part of the Japanese religious landscape. When Buddhism arrived from Korea in 552 CE, the Japanese lacked a system of writing and teachers to instruct them. This problem was solved by the Japanese adopting the Chinese form of writing, and an influx of Buddhist monks and nuns from Korea eased the problem of instruction. The conflict between Buddhism and Shinto came to a head when Emperor Shommu not only declared himself a servant of Buddhism, building a network of temples in each province and a national shrine in Nara in 752, but also had a gigantic bronze statue of Buddha Vairocana (called Lochana in Japan), the Sun Buddha, erected there. Lochana was perceived as a direct challenge to the supremacy of the Sun Goddess Amaterasu, Japan's patroness deity and the ancestress of Japanese emperors. Shommu sent Gyogi, the head of Buddhism in Japan, to consult the Sun Goddess at the Grand Shrine of Ise. In a dream, she revealed to Gyogi that Lochana was her manifestation and so could be worshiped as herself. This revelation removed the final hurdle for the acceptance of Buddhism in Japan.

Major Mahayana Branches in China and Japan

During the phase of its independent growth, Chinese Buddhism developed various branches, usually called "schools." One feature of these branches is their development around particular scriptures: each branch believed its scripture contained the final and highest teachings of the Buddha. Expanding on the Mahayana strategy mentioned before, many Chinese and Japanese branches began to rank all Buddhist teachings and scriptures in an evolutionary progression, culminating with their particular Sutra and its teachings. This tendency reached its apogee in the five-period and eight-doctrine schemes of the Tiantai branch in China and the corresponding Tendai branch in Japan. Discarding such strategies, Chan maintained that the Buddha silently transmitted his teachings outside the scriptures by directly pointing to the Buddha-nature.

At the height of the independent growth of Chinese Buddhism, by the eighth century, there were ten branches in China, but persecution decimated all but Pure Land and Chan. For the sake of brevity, we will examine three main branches of Mahayana in China and their counterparts Japan. The final discussion of this section will be devoted to the only branch that originated in Japan—Nichiren Buddhism.

Pure Land Buddhism in China and Japan

Pure Land Buddhism derives its name from its main scripture, the Land of Bliss or Pure Land Sutra (Sukhavativyuha Sutra), which depicts a pure land in western heaven, presided over by Buddha Amithabha, called Omitofo in China and Amida in Japan. It is a paradise of bliss where all wishes come true, where all the senses are gratified and all desires fulfilled, and where there is no evil, unhappiness, or suffering. It is a state attained by a perfect observance of the Buddha's teachings. This "objective view" of the pure land is a Buddhist equivalent of the western idea of heaven. A second, "subjective view" is that pure land is a metaphor for pure mind, which the student attains in the state of oneness (samadhi), when the mind, emptied of all concepts, contents, and thoughts, becomes a pure void (Tanaka 35–44). In either case, it is not Nirvana. In the first sense, being the heavenly irreversible state, whoever is reborn there is assured of Nirvana, which remains the goal. In the second, from this state of oneness the student can reach enlightenment and proceed to Nirvana.

The founder Tanluan (476–542) taught that attainment of the Pure Land or salvation lies in faith in the saving power of Amitabha, who has vowed to save all those who call upon him with sincere faith and devotion. Tanluan urged his followers to build a lifetime of faith so that when death approached, if they invoked Amitabha's name for ten uninterrupted moments, they would be reborn in the Pure Land through his merit. The invocation became the chant, "Namo Omitofo," meaning "Praise to Amitabha Buddha."

Pure Land Buddhists also practice meditation, which begins with five kinds of mindfulness. Focusing attention on body, speech, and mind, and with eyes closed, students visualize an image of Amitabha until it clearly appears in front of them. Another set of meditations consists of a detailed visualization of the Pure Land and a huge Amitabha, accompanied by attendant Bodhisattvas. Next, students visualize themselves born in the Pure Land, thus gaining a foretaste of the Pure Land in which they hope to be reborn. During meditation, students focus on various attributes of the Buddha—his name, characteristics, merits, and so on.

The founder of the Pure Land branch in Japan, Honen (1133–1212) spent twenty-five years at Mount Hiei, studying the Pure Land scriptures and meditating. In spite of fervent practice, he did not attain enlightenment. This led him to conclude that Japan had entered the age of decline of the Dharma, in which there was no hope of gaining liberation by self-effort. He became convinced that no monastic discipline, scripture studies, or ritual was the answer for the age. Enlightenment was impossible, and a perfect vision of Amida unattainable. Therefore, he began to teach that there is no way to be reborn in the Land of Perfect Bliss except by faith in the saving power of Amida, having no doubt in his mercy, and reciting the Nembutsu—an acronym for the chant Namu Amida Butsu (Praise to Amida Buddha)—with a sincere heart, accompanied by meditation.

A spiritual crisis led Shinran (1173–1262) to meditate for a hundred days, during which he had a vision that led him to become Honen's disciple. Putting a greater emphasis on humans' inability to find salvation by their own effort, like Martin Luther, Shinran got married to show his absolute faith in the saving power of Amida and humans' inability to do anything to be saved.

Shinran taught that Amida is the sole reality of the cosmos, the supreme form taken by the formless Truth-Body to manifest his compassion, which is absolute and all-sufficient. All human beings are already saved, assured by Amida's infinite merit and his vow to save all beings. Faith is not a human act but the mind of Amida in human consciousness and is itself the realization of the Buddha-nature. Faith brings the awareness of our powerlessness to save ourselves and the assurance of being embraced by Amida's compassion. The assurance of salvation comes as an inner light that moves one to a complete and unconditional acceptance of the gift of salvation through Amida's vow, reliance on his grace, and chanting his name. This recitation is not for rebirth in the Pure Land, but a spontaneous expression of gratitude to Amida for the assurance of salvation (Noriyoshi 167). This teaching is now the basis for the movement called Jodo Shin Shu—True Pure Land. In both China and Japan, Pure Land is the largest branch of Buddhism.

Chan/Zen Buddhism

Chan is the meditation branch of Mahayana Buddhism. The Chinese word "chan" (a shortened form of "chan-na") and the Japanese word "zen" are derived from the Sanskrit word "dhyana" by way of the Pali word "jhana," all of which mean "meditation."

Traditionally, the Indian monk Bodhidharma (c. 520 CE) is believed to have been the founder of Chan. After him and the patriarchal period, Chan split up into two major schools over how enlightenment comes about. The Northern School maintained that enlightenment comes gradually, like a fruit slowly ripening and falling from a tree. But the Southern School held that it comes suddenly and completely, like a flash of lightning. The Southern School further split into various sub-schools. Two of the most prominent were Caodong (Soto in Japan), which maintained that in silent meditation (shikantaza) the Buddha-nature gradually manifests itself. The other, Linji (Rinzai in Japan), favored sudden enlightenment. Both of these schools were transmitted to Japan.

The following lines express some of the main teachings of Chan/Zen:

A special transmission outside the scriptures;

No dependence upon words and letters;

Direct pointing to the nature of man;

Seeing into one's nature and attaining Buddhahood.

Being beyond words and concepts, ultimate truth cannot be gained by studying scriptures. It can be transmitted only through a direct experience of the Buddha-nature, which is "seeing into one's nature" or enlightenment—the initial goal of the path. The final goal is Buddhahood, in which the state of consciousness opened up in enlightenment becomes permanent.

Chan/Zen places primary emphasis on meditation, the pathway to enlightenment, and pushes to the periphery anything that will not lead to Buddhahood. In this single-minded approach, it harks back to the Buddha. In comparison to "other-powered" Pure Land, Zen is said to be self-powered. However, such characterizations are misleading, since the self that makes the effort must be transcended as it cannot realize the Unconditioned.

The essentials of the path are precepts, zazen or sitting meditation, and satori-wisdom (Kapleau 125). The precepts are derived from the Mahayana sutras, teachings of the schools, the patriarchs, and Chan/Zen masters. The main focus is meditation, which begins with zazen.

Zazen consists of concentrative meditation similar to the Theravada method. Nowadays the practice consists of focusing and holding attention on the breath and counting to ten, coordinating it with inhalation and exhalation, and then repeating. The aim is to develop oneness (samadhi) with the object of meditation, that is, the breath.

In addition to practicing sitting meditation, the Linji/Rinzai School developed a meditation method called "gongan" ("koan" in Japanese), intended to lead the student to a sudden experience of enlightenment. The koan grew out of dialogues between a master and his disciple about a spiritual problem, or an answer to a question the disciple had asked. At other times, the master would ask a question or set up a situation to gauge a student's state of consciousness or judge his progress. Sometimes the master would tell an illustrative story designed to halt his thinking mind, bring it to an impasse, and empty it out for awareness to break through to the experience of enlightenment.

The master's action or response is a direct manifestation of the Buddha-nature. For the student the koan is a gateway to the Buddha-nature. It has two functions:

• To shut down the thinking mind, empty it out by making it enter into absorption or oneness (samadhi)

• To allow awareness to swing open to the Buddha-nature

A koan is not for the thinking mind. It is only by going beyond it that the student can arrive at a direct experience of the truth the koan embodies, which brings the real solution to it.

This is clear if we examine a few koans, such as the koan wu (mu in Japanese). A monk asked Master Zhao Zhou (Joshu in Japanese), "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Zhao Zhou replied, "Wu," which literally means "no" or "nothing." But Zhao Zhou could not have meant it literally, since that would limit what is illimitable. He must have meant Emptiness; and his reply must have been intended to bring the monk's thinking mind to a halt so that he could come to a sudden experience of enlightenment.

Other examples:

• A monk asked Ummon, "What is Buddha?" Ummon answered, "Shit-removing stick!"

• Goso said: "When a buffalo goes out of his enclosure to the edge of the abyss, his horns, head, and hoofs all pass through, but why can't the tail also pass?" (Reps 106, 119)

What is the connection between the Buddha-nature and shit-removing stick, which the Chinese used at that time as toilet paper? And if the buffalo's entire body can pass, it is illogical to say that its tail cannot.

Such koans as "mu" or "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" are given to a beginner. A koan could be used like a mantra to reach a type of oneness (samadhi), similar to yoga. Or it could be used as a type of questioning aimed at bringing students to see their whole lives, the entire conditioned world, as a paradox that cannot be resolved in the ordinary state of consciousness. When students see that the thinking mind is the barrier to the experience of the Infinite, it dawns on them that the inability to resolve the koan by thinking or self-effort is the same as the impossibility of realizing the Buddha-nature in the ordinary state of consciousness. Upon such a realization, the mind halts its operations, enters into a state of fermentation and crisis, and arrives at the state of what Zen calls the "great doubt."

When the student enters into absorption with the koan and becomes identified with it, the master's intense questioning and insistent demand for an answer, and his urging to press the inquiry forward without interruption, gradually render the mind empty of all contents. It becomes a deep void, fixated in a state of self-transparency as if encased in a glass house. In this state called "mental ripeness," the master's jarring words, startling action, dramatic gesture or provocation, or a seemingly insignificant event can bring the student out of absorption in the koan and enable her to leap into the abyss of the Unconditioned, which is the experience of enlightenment. Thus, a monk experienced enlightenment upon hearing the word "unborn." Another attained enlightenment when he heard the sound of a heap of firewood tumbling down: his mental barrier or absorption in the koan tumbled down as well. This is the "buffalo's tail," which could not pass because of attachment in the mind. As the Buddha said, even a single attachment in the mind will act as a barrier to breaking through to the Unconditioned. So long as it remains, passing beyond the human condition into the Unconditioned—the abyss—will be impossible. Many koans reflect this final stage prior to breakthrough to enlightenment.

Both Rinzai and Soto practice zazen. At the advanced state, Rinzai uses the koan method, but Soto students practice shikantaza, which consists of just sitting with the attention kept focused just on itself, not on anything else. In both schools, a complete course of training, which results in the student becoming a Zen teacher, called roshi, takes many years after the initial experience of enlightenment, called kensho.

Zen graphically portrays the stages leading to full enlightenment through the pictogram called the Ten Ox-Herding Stages. The ox symbolizes the Buddha-nature. The journey begins with "searching for the ox" in scriptures and teachings of the masters. "Finding the tracks" refers to flashes of insight the student gains in deeper meditative states. The third stage, called "first glimpse of the ox," is the initial experience of enlightenment. The next three stages involve dissolving old conditioning and attachments, with the student reaching a balance between ordinary consciousness and the state of enlightenment at the sixth stage.

At the seventh stage, "ox forgotten, self alone," a shift in consciousness from the ordinary state to the Buddha-nature takes place. No awareness of separation from anything remains. At the eighth stage, "both ox and self forgotten," which is the Heart Sutra's "form is Emptiness," the shift is so complete that there remains in awareness only Emptiness, or the Buddha-nature, which is seen everywhere and in everything as all that is.

The ninth stage, called "returning to the source," is "Emptiness is form" of the Heart Sutra, in which Emptiness fully reveals itself as each thing—the Unconditioned as nothing other than this conditioned, everyday world. Established in the Buddha-nature as her identity, the sage experiences everything as the full embodiment of the Buddha-nature.

At the last stage, called "entering the marketplace with helping hands," the sage enters the world of ordinary activity prompted by limitless compassion. This is Buddhahood, in which the sage manifests the Buddha-nature by undertaking the care of all beings. The sage works with the transformed energies of ego to lead all to the realization of Buddhahood.

Tiantai/Tendai Branch

Dissatisfaction with Chan and his teacher's admonition that meditation should be balanced with scripture studies led Zhiyi (538–597) to emphasize intellectual content and meditative practice. In his zeal to reconcile all Buddhist scriptures and teachings, Zhiyi developed the scheme of Five Periods of Buddhism. Claiming that the Buddha gave different teachings at five different periods of his life, he divided Buddhist scriptures into five categories. The first was the Flower Garland Sutra (Hua Yen in Chinese). He listed Hua Yen before the Tripitaka, because he believed that the Buddha preached it in a state of ecstasy following his enlightenment. As people could not understand its subtle teachings, he taught them the simple fares of the Tripitaka. Later, when the people became ready for the higher truths, he preached the common Mahayana sutras. Next, he taught the doctrines of Emptiness and this world (samsara) is not different from Nirvana. In the final period, he taught the ultimate truth as the Buddha-nature, contained in the Lotus of the True Law Sutra (Sadharma Pundarika Sutra), which is the central connecting link of all his teachings.

Viewing Mahayana teaching of Emptiness as negative and static, Zhiyi held that the Buddha-nature is positive, dynamic, and substantial. To link this Buddha-nature to the everyday world, Zhiyi proposed Three Truths:

• The truth of Emptiness, which concerns the permanent, dynamic, and all-embracing nature of all things

• Temporary existence of all things of this world

• The Middle Path, which teaches that emptiness and temporary existence are aspects of the Buddha-nature

Thus Zhiyi connected the universal with the particular. From Hua Yen he incorporated the view that all things are interrelated and that all things exist in each and each in all. To this he added the Pure Land teaching of bodhisattva compassion and concluded that all things are one and all will be saved.

Saicho (767–822), the founder of Tiantai in Japan, called Tendai, initially studied at Todaiji in Nara. However, disenchantment made him eventually go to China in 804, where he studied Tantric Buddhism first but later switched to Tiantai. More than Zhiyi, Saicho placed equal emphasis on moral discipline, Pure Land faith, Zen meditation, and Tantric practices. He required monks to undergo twelve years of intensive training in seclusion, study Mahayana sutras, and practice Tiantai concentrative and insight meditation.

Believing that Buddhism was for everyone, Saicho taught three types of meditation: intensive meditation for monks; a gradual approach for laypeople; and a combination of the two. He believed that anyone can attain Buddhahood because it is universal. Saicho emphasized life in this world, and he added a devotional fire ritual called Goma Fire Ceremony, in which a priest builds a fire within a square bounded by colored cords. The priest casts wood and leaves slowly into the fire, symbolically destroying negative conditioning and mental blocks and purifying the mind. It is still practiced today.

Buddhism reached its highest development in China during the Sui (581–618 CE) and early Tang (618–907 CE) periods. Imperial patronage and lavish donations to the monasteries enhanced the power of Buddhism, which exercised a great influence on all segments of society and dominated the artistic and cultural life of China. However, Sui and Tang emperors also instituted various controls. They were especially suspicious of such subversive ideas as "three periods of Buddhism," in the last of which religion and governments would disappear. They ordered the suppression of the sect that propagated it. They also feared the followers of Mi-lo, who believed that the end of the world was near and that Mi-lo would inaugurate a new heaven and a new earth.

In the second half of the Tang rule, rebellion against the central government, growth of provincial centers of power, and the subsequent economic crisis turned emperors from patrons to persecutors. Old criticisms of Buddhism reared their heads. Buddhism came to be seen as the enemy and a call to purge China of this noxious influence and reestablish the classical Confucian and Daoist learning began to reverberate across the land. Full-scale persecution broke out between 842 and 846, when the Daoist emperor Wu-zong ascended the throne. He confiscated land belonging to monasteries, destroyed more than 40,000 temples, and forced 250,000 monks and nuns to become laypersons. The persecution ended when Wu-zong died in 846, but many branches never recovered their former health and vigor and steadily declined.

During the Song rule (960–1279) Buddhism further lost its grip over Chinese life and thought. Neo-Confucianism lodged a full-scale attack on Buddhism and sought to regain its dominance even as it assimilated Buddhist teachings. From the late imperial periods to the twentieth century, Confucianism became the dominant ideology of the land. Except for a minor revival during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), in the vacuum created by the decline of Buddhism, various popular devotional sects and cults mushroomed. These movements became syncretistic, incorporating elements of Daoism, shamanism, and popular beliefs and practices. Under Maoze Dong and Communism, Buddhism suffered from political control or suppression. In the present climate, there is greater religious freedom. Thus, Guanyin has returned to public favor, with the state allowing factories to make her images. Pilgrimage sites have opened up. And even Communist Party members are engaging in Buddhist devotional practices.

Nichiren

The only Buddhist branch to arise in Japan, Nichiren bears the name of its founder and the imprint of his personality. Finding the many branches of Buddhism confusing, Nichiren (1222–1282) began a quest for true Buddhism. Restlessness drove him from Tendai to Shingon (a branch not discussed here) to Pure Land to Zen, and finally back to Tendai. He became convinced that the Lotus Sutra was the final and supreme teaching of the Buddha and the only path to salvation. However, instead of reciting the name of the Buddha Amitabha, as did Pure Land Buddhism, he fixed his gaze on the name of the Lotus Sutra itself and issued a new mantra for chanting, called the Daimoku: Namu Myoho Renge Kyo (Praise to the Lotus of the True Law).

Convinced that the natural disasters and religious and political turmoil that plagued Japan at that time were a result of Japan's deviation from true Buddhism, Nichiren proceeded to denounce all other Buddhist branches as false and their leaders as traitors and hypocrites. He warned that grave calamities would befall Japan unless the government reformed itself, suppressed all other branches of Buddhism, and dedicated the entire country to the teachings of the Lotus Sutra—the sole bearer of Buddhist faith and authority. Such behavior aroused the hostility of both religious and secular establishments because of which he was twice exiled. Yet certain events, such as a huge meteorite flashing across the sky, seemed to confirm his predictions, and so his movement stayed afloat.

Nichiren staked his teachings on what he called the Three Great Mysteries and Five Principles. These principles are held in common with Pure Land, Shingon, and Tendai, the very branches he had condemned. They are as follows:

• The Lotus Sutra embodies the highest teaching of the Buddha.

• The teachings should be given according to the capacity of each person.

• The right time of teaching is the period of decline.

• The country in which it is to be preached must be in decline.

• Japan should act as the center for disseminating the teaching.

The Three Great Mysteries are stated as follows:

• The historical Buddha is identical with the eternal Buddha.

• Salvation is to be attained by chanting the Daimoku, which embodies the power of the Dharma. The chanting is to be accompanied by the Gohonzon: Placing a copy of the Sutra on an altar, flanked by flowers and candles, and synchronizing with the beating of a drum, the followers are to keep their minds concentrated on the names of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the Lotus Sutra.

• Establishment of a sacred place or seat of truth (kaidan) dedicated for the training of his followers who would embody the truth.

Such practices gave his movement a unity and enabled his teachings to be spread among common people.

During the centuries that followed, various Buddhist branches gained considerable land and military power in Japan. However, the ensuing conflict with the military weakened the influence of Buddhism. First the Buddhists began to fight among themselves. Then the conflict involved the military government. This led to the massacre of thousands of Pure Land Buddhists by Oda Nobunaga (1534–1582). While Buddhism gained official recognition during the Tokugawa Shoganate (1600–1867), it was brought under political control. Each branch was hierarchically organized, with one temple acting as the head. Although this organization brought stability to the branches, the wealth they gained contributed to their moral corruption and intellectual decline. With the Meiji Restoration of imperial rule in 1868, the rising tide of nationalism, and the elevation of Shinto to the status of state religion, Buddhism lost its privileged ground and was reduced to one of the many traditions vying for the soul of Japan. In more recent times, while the established branches of Buddhism have continued, they have spawned many new, syncretistic movements called "new religions." We shall study them in chapter 15.

Buddhism in Tibet

Tibetan Buddhism is considered the third vehicle because of major differences in beliefs, meditation methods, rituals, and institutions. For the Tibetan Buddhists, it is the third vehicle, because they believe it contains the Buddha's final teaching given to a group of his most advanced disciples. Tibetan Buddhism is given various names. One is Vajrayana, the thunderbolt or diamond vehicle, stemming from the belief that the Buddha-nature has diamond-like clarity and multidimensionality. Another is Lamaism (lama means "teacher") derived from the central role the teacher plays in guiding the student through the tantras. It is also called Tantrayana, as Buddhist tantras form the very core of Tibetan meditative practices and define its specific shape. Thus, Tibetan Buddhism is broadly based on Mahayana, especially its teachings on Emptiness, and on mind or infinite consciousness as Ultimate Reality. Its superstructure is tantra, which serves as a vehicle to reach Buddhahood. And its special tonality and coloring are supplied by Bon.

Prior to the introduction of Buddhism, Tibetans practiced a form of religion called Bon. The origin of this term is obscure, but it may refer to the use of mantras to invoke deities. Its adherents are called Bon-Po. Through shamanism, it is linked with most of the Asian continent. It believes in good and bad deities who reflect the forbidding and dangerous forces of nature that render life in Tibet precarious. Its spiritual goal consists in gaining control of the spirit world and elements of nature in order to obtain healing, health, and well-being; foretell the future through divination; and cast spells on enemies. The techniques for obtaining these favors are prayers, mantras, rhythmic chants, dances, divination, and consultation of oracles. These became staple practices of Tibetan Buddhism.

Into this world entered Buddhism at different times and in different forms. The first wave began in the seventh century, under the patronage of King Songtsen Gampo (616–650). But hopes for the spread of Buddhism died with the king. It was not until the arrival of the tantric master Padmasambhava from India in the next century that Buddhism got firmly planted in Tibet. He reconciled the two religions. Bon deities were transformed to represent states of consciousness. Spirits became peaceful and demons wrathful deities, serving the heavenly Buddhas as their guardians. He also incorporated the above-mentioned Bon rituals into the tantras.

Dubious doctrines and corrupt practices in the early phase of Buddhism prompted the scholar-monk Atisa to go to Tibet from India in 1042 to initiate reform. He imposed celibacy on the monks, taught tantric practices in which sexual language acts as symbolic of the union of duality, and limited sexual yoga to advanced practitioners. He emphasized both study and practice and integrated tantric meditation into the Mahayana framework. He systematized various Buddhist teachings as stages on the path, beginning with Theravada, proceeding through Mahayana, and culminating in Tantrayana.

Out of the four major orders (Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya, and Geluk—these are more like the Catholic monastic orders than "schools" or sects), the Gelukpas rose to prominence when the Mongol ruler of China, Gushri Khan, appointed the fifth Dalai Lama the temporal and spiritual ruler of entire Tibet, making it a theocratic state. This arrangement lasted until 1959, when the Chinese Communists seized complete control of Tibet, making the fourteenth Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, flee to Northern India, where he now resides at Dharamsala.

The belief that each succeeding Dalai Lama (which means the "Ocean of Wisdom") is a reincarnation of his predecessor assured the succession of the Dalai Lamas and the continuation of Gelukpa prominence and rule over Tibet. Behind this idea of succession is the belief that a highly advanced lama can project his consciousness to a young child or to one about to be born. It is a belief held in common with other orders (the Nyningmapas call a reincarnate lama tulku). An unusually gifted child is first thought to be a possible candidate. When he is able to successfully select items used by the deceased lama from other items with which they were mixed together, he is confirmed as a reincarnation of that lama. He is then trained to succeed his predecessor.

Another idea that acted as glue for the cohesion and continuity of the orders and transmission of their teachings is that of lineage. It consists of the belief that a special link is forged between teacher and student when the latter is able to realize the truth of the teachings, thereby receiving a transmission or spiritual inheritance, capped by a transmission ceremony.

In discussing Tibetan Buddhism, we will concentrate on its distinctive tantric teachings and practices. There will be no discussion of rituals such as dancing or the consulting of oracles, which are shamanistic practices derived from Bon, or ubiquitous prayer wheels, or the four major schools and their distinctive features. Instead, we will begin with the foundational teachings of Tibetan Tantra, which focuses on the body, speech, and mind. We will briefly describe the preliminary practices of prostration, purification, offerings, and initiation, which are necessary prior to engaging in tantric practices. We will then describe four or six (depending on who is counting) types of tantras that form the heart of Tibetan Buddhism.

Foundations of Tantric Buddhist Teachings

In Tibetan Tantra, students seek to purify their minds, awaken and raise primal Energy, and visualize deities to expand their consciousness by integrating each level of Energy and the states of consciousness the deities represent. This is attempted by simultaneously engaging three aspects of the self, called the "three doors of personality": body, speech, and mind. The body is associated with mudra (or symbolic hand gestures), speech with mantra, and mind with mandala. Using meditation methods involving body, speech, and mind, students aim to unify the polarity of wisdom and energy that exists within each person with the same polarity that exists in all things of this world. Once this unity of inside and outside is reached, the aim is to go beyond the polarity and finally arrive at the unity with all things that exists in the Buddha-nature.

The basis for this aim is the Tibetan Buddhist view that each thing is an embodiment of the universe. As the embodiment of primal Energy, the body (mudra) is the center of the circulation of Energy through its fifty channels. Since the basis of a mantra is the sound vibration it embodies or evokes—by awakening the vibratory energy within—a mantra links the student with the vibratory energy of the universe. As the individual mind is a manifestation of infinite Consciousness, when the mind is opened up to the latter through the mandala, it can suddenly experience itself to be none other than infinite Consciousness itself. Thus, through mudra, mantra, and mandala integration within oneself and with the universe is achieved. That is why these three factors form the very basis of Tibetan Tantra.

To awaken the primal energy-awareness locked in the body, students undertake preliminary practices accompanied by mudras, or hand gestures. Mudras are used extensively, not only in the preliminary stages, in which they accompany every activity, but also in meditation proper, especially in the lower tantras. Mudras evoke or dispose students to mental attitudes of openness, receptivity, and attentiveness. In meditation, they help visualization and are intended to awaken certain states of consciousness.

Mantra plays a central role in Tibetan Buddhism. This is because mantras are believed to be configurations of the vibratory energy, or primal Energy, that constitutes all things in the universe. And the deities are said to represent archetypal planes of reality and consciousness. As a result, mantras are attached to various deities as methods of attaining the corresponding states. This is especially true of seed mantras (bija), which are believed to embody the essence of the deities. For this reason mantras can range over the entire field of reality and consciousness. Properly invoked, mantras, especially seed mantras, not only can evoke and awaken the sound vibrations and the states they symbolize but they can also connect meditators to the universal vibratory energy and enable them to attain the corresponding states of consciousness and reality.

Such a mantra is om mani padme hum. Usually translated as "Praise to the Jewel in the Lotus," it symbolizes the goal of the path and works on all levels of the student's body, speech, and mind. As the mantra of Avalokitesvara, it symbolizes or embodies his wisdom and compassion. More specifically, its various syllables connote various meanings. Om serves as a form of invocation (like "hail" or "praise") and symbolizes infinity. Mani, which means "jewel," symbolizes the Buddha-nature. Padme, the lotus, symbolizes enlightenment. And hum represents the integration of various states and aspects of reality and consciousness. So the mantra invokes the Buddha-nature and invites the student to realize it in enlightenment. On another level, the jewel symbolizes primal energy and lotus supreme wisdom. Together they symbolize the unity of the primal polarity of energy and wisdom. In sexual yoga, the jewel is the penis and the lotus the vagina, and sexual yoga involves their joining. Since this union symbolizes the union of the primal polarity, what the mantra says is that enlightenment is to be found in the unity of the primal polarity through the yoga of sexual union.

The mandala is especially used to open the door of the mind. Literally meaning "circle," symbolizing completeness, a mandala is a symbolic representation of the entire field of multidimensional reality. As a circle, a mandala is also the sacred circle of a Buddha. Often mandalas are made up of concentric circles, at the center of which is a square with four gates in the four directions. The square represents the palace of the main deity. The center of the square is the most sacred space of the mandala. It is the center of the spiritual universe it represents.

Mandalas are extensively used in the highest Tibetan tantras. In its most developed and advanced form, a mandala symbolizes the boundless reality of the Buddha-nature and its concentric circles the various dimensions of reality through which the student must progress to attain enlightenment. The primary method is visualization and identification with the mandala. The student has to mentally picture or construct the entire mandala three-dimensionally, enter into it in full awareness, and become one with it.

Mandala of Vajradhatu

Preliminary Practices

Embarking on the tantric path, a student must complete preliminary practices, each of which is performed a hundred thousand times. Usually done in sets of four, students perform full body prostrations. While prostrating, they repeat the refuge formula: "I take refuge in the guru. I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. And I take refuge in the Sangha." At the same time, he visualizes an assembly of divine beings from whom rays of light come down and enter his body, speech, and mind, removing ignorance, negative emotions, and delusion. Next, the entire assembly dissolves into his guru, who dissolves into light and enters into him through the crown of his head.

A second preliminary practice is performing Vajrasattva Purifications by visualizing Vajrasattva, who represents the wisdom of Buddhahood, on the crown of the student's head. Mentally associating his perfections with those of the Buddhas, the student repeats his hundred-syllable mantra. The student also pictures his guru as Vajrasattva, who bestows blessings to purify his mind of negative conditionings and confusion.

A third practice is Mandala Offerings. The student first constructs a mandala of gold-colored rice, visualizes it as made of gold and precious jewels, and offers it to Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and the guru to gain their blessings and become free from attachments and impurities.

In Guru Yoga, the student visualizes his own form dissolving and arising as a deity, then visualizes the guru as a Buddha, surrounded by a succession of gurus and other deities. Next, the latter dissolve into his guru, who dissolves into light and flows into him, leading to his unity with the guru's body, speech, and mind. This creates a strong bond between the teacher and the student. This emphasis on the guru is unique to Tibetan Buddhism—one reason why it is called Lamaism.

Tibetan Buddhism requires a separate initiation for each type of tantra. The student must be initiated to each type of tantra by a guru before she can practice it. Higher tantras requiring mandalas involve elaborate initiations. The student is given the appropriate mantra, shown the mandala, and instructed on how to visualize it three-dimensionally, enter into it step by step, and become one with it.

Tibetan Tantras

Tibetan tantras represent one of the most complex systems of meditation. What follows is a glimpse into the major Tibetan tantras. In the context of the third type, we will note the Six Yogas of Naropa, the Indian tantric master whom the Kagyu School regards as their founder, before proceeding with the last three tantras. This chapter will conclude with a brief discussion of Buddhism in today's world.

Tibetan Buddhists follow essentially two paths: the path of forms and the formless path, which is called the Yoga of Emptiness and the Path of Liberation. The latter is somewhat similar to insight meditation in Theravada and to Zen Buddhism, as it directly focuses on the mind and works toward its unfolding in enlightenment. The path of forms occupies the bulk of Tibetan tantras, of which there are four or six, depending on how they are divided: Kriya, Carya, Yoga, Mahayoga, Anuttara, and Atiyoga. Although methods vary because of Tibetan Buddhism's heavy use of visualization, concentration and insight make up the core of Tibetan tantras. Beginning with Kriya Tantra, the student must first master each tantra before moving on to the next.

Action Tantra (Kriya Tantra) is designed for beginners. It employs mudras and mantras to purify the emotions, negative conditioning, and habit patterns. Thus, while taking a ritual bath, the student pictures her mental and emotional impurities being washed away with the bath water. In formal meditation, she places a painting or thanka of a deity, visualizes and attempts to identify with the deity, and then visualizes herself as the deity.

Performance Tantra (Carya Tantra) aims to develop concentration through visualization and insight through meditation on Emptiness. The first part of the meditation begins with the student visualizing Buddha Vairocana in front him, and visualizing himself as Vairocana. Then he repeats his mantra with the appropriate hand gestures while holding attention on the visualized image. The second part is meditation on Emptiness—seeing the nature of the deity and of all things as empty of objective, independent nature or defining characteristics.

Yoga Tantra focuses on internal bodily activities involving body, speech, and mind. The student aims to raise consciousness to higher states through postures, gestures, breath control, psychic channels, and energy centers (chakras). As energy-awareness rises to the Crown Center, the student experiences unity with all things in the universe. As such, this tantra closely resembles Kundalini Yoga.

The Six Yogas of Naropa consist of Yoga Tantra and five other tantras. In the second, the Yoga of Illusory Body, the student is taught to recognize not only her own body but also the entire world of phenomena as illusory or mental constructs. She is also taught to awaken and experience the subtle body or energy field.

The Dream Yoga involves consciously dreaming with one's eyes open and being able to recognize it as a dream. The aim is to observe the ordinary waking state as a dream projected by the mind onto phenomena and see how it is constructed and maintained. In this way, she can come to regognize that everything is empty of objective, independent nature or definable characteristics ascribed by her culture and imposed by the mind onto reality. This enables the student to begin to wake up and disidentify with the construction, which is essential to attaining enlightenment.

The Yoga of Clear Light aims to lead the student to attain oneness (samadhi) by visualizing in her heart a blue Buddha with a female consort, who represents primal Energy. Next she visualizes a blue hum in her heart center and dissolves the entire visualization to reach the void state of consciousness without any object and the bliss that arises from it. The aim is for her to come to realize the openness and transparency of all existence. This meditation is also of crucial importance to the next meditation.

One of the most distinctive teachings and practices of Tibetan Buddhism, taught in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is the bardo. It refers to the intermediate state in which one state has ended and another is about to begin. It has various meanings, such as the following:

• The interval between the end of one moment and the arising of another in the successive moments of existence (anicca)

• The state of oneness (samadhi) in which the mind has broken free of ordinary consciousness but has not broken through to enlightenment

• The human life from birth to death

• The intermediate period after death

In the literal sense, bardo refers to the intermediate period after death. Tibetan Buddhists believe that after death, a person has forty-nine days during which he can experience liberation, or be reborn in an earthly life at the end of the period. After death what first dawns is Clear Light, which is the essence of the Buddha-nature. If he recognizes and identifies with it, he becomes liberated. If he does not, owing to conditioning from previous life, the following other forms may arise:

• Dharmata or manifestation of Dharmakaya in one of the five luminous forms of Sambhogakaya

• Various forms of celestial light

• Peaceful and wrathful deities

If he can recognize any of these phases as his true nature, he becomes liberated. If he does not, but is drawn toward the dim light of this world, rebirth is set in motion. As the residual seeds of karma begin to sprout, he takes on a new birth in this world, according to one of the six states of consciousness that was dominant in the previous life: god, demon, hungry ghost, hell, animal, and human.

Finally, the Yoga of Transference of Consciousness is concerned with transferring the student's consciousness to Buddha's Pure Land, or transforming it into pure consciousness—or, failing that, transferring it to a higher rebirth. This yoga is the basis for the Tibetan belief in reincarnate lamas noted earlier. An advanced lama, who has mastered this meditation, is able to use it to project her consciousness to a child who has been or is about to be born and become reincarnated.

Mahayoga Tantra is an extension of Yoga Tantra. It is not considered a separate form of tantra. It works by first cleansing the body, speech, and mind. Then, by raising energy-awareness through the channels and chakras and attaining various types of oneness (samadhi), the student aims to gain paranormal powers, such as telepathy, mind reading, astral travel, and healing.

Anuttara Tantra aims to lead the student to the highest realization. By simultaneously engaging the body, speech, and especially mind, the student integrates breath-control, mudras, mantras, mandalas, and sexual yoga, symbolically or with a partner. The aim is to raise, unify, and expand consciousness, and bring energy-awareness to their ultimate unity in the Unconditioned State. One such tantra is the Mahamudra meditation, which consists of concentrative and insight meditation designed to lead the student to experience enlightenment. In its main structure and stages, it is similar to vipassana meditation.

At the level of Ati Yoga, the focus is the full flowering of the mind itself. The aim, according to Chogyam Trungpa, is to attain "that which transcends coming, that which transcends going, and that which transcends dwelling" (2:134). In this state, the student endeavors to live in the Unconditioned State opened up in enlightenment.

Buddhism Today: Revitalization of Buddhism

At present, Buddhism is undergoing revitalization in the East and setting down roots in the West. In India, the land of its origin, Buddhism is making a comeback through Buddhist pilgrimage sites, especially the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, where the Great Enlightenment temple and twenty Buddhist monasteries from around the world have been built. Revival has also been sparked by meditation teachers, such as S. N. Goenka, who has built his headquarters in India, where men and women from around the world are being taught insight meditation. An influx of Tibetan Buddhists, headed by the Dalai Lama, who have settled in several areas in India, particularly the Himalayan region in the north, has injected new life into Buddhism in India. However, by far the largest number of Buddhists in India, about 4.5 million strong, consists of untouchables who, following the lead of B. R. Ambedkar, converted to Buddhism.

Nepal has several million Buddhists. The capital, Katmandu, hosts Asia's largest center for international institutions connected with major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. And Theravada is a small but growing and active presence, with Nepalese monks and nuns. The country of Bhutan, north of India, is the only nation that has Tibetan Buddhism as its state religion. In Tibet today, China has allowed limited practice, monastic ordination and training of monks and nuns, and state-sponsored rebuilding of select monasteries. In China itself, the state has reopened numerous pilgrimage centers and has allowed lay devotees to set up home shrines. The cult of Guanyin is on the rise, prompting the government to reopen her pilgrimage sites and establish state-run factories to produce a variety of her images. In spite of government persecution, syncretistic new religions, such as Falun Gong, are also reviving Buddhism in China.

Various revival movements of Theravada Buddhism are afoot among Southeast Asian countries. In Sri Lanka, revival has occurred not only through emphasis on monastic reform of discipline and meditation but also through Buddhist participation in social welfare services, political reform, and economic development. In spite of emphasis on universal ideals of compassion, nonviolence, selflessness, and interdependence, however, the involvement of Buddhist monks in nationalistic movements has contributed to ethnic conflict with Tamil separatists.

Legends had it that a Buddhist revival would be set in motion 2500 years after the Buddha and that it would be launched in 1956. In conformity with this legend, Myanmar (Burma) established many meditation centers for monks and laypeople. Under the tutelage of famous teachers, such as Mahasi Sayadow and Sayagyi U Ba Khin, a renewal of insight meditation has taken place in Myanmar. The loan of the Buddha's tooth relic by the Chinese government added a spark of interest. Subsequent rulers facilitated pilgrimage and allowed Buddhists to build a new temple. More recently, Buddhist monks have clashed with the current oppressive regime, which in turn has persecuted them.

Through traditional and reformist scholarship, spiritual practices of forest monks, and pioneering reform initiatives, a vigorous and dynamic revitalization has taken place in Thailand. Forest monks have established programs of rigorous training of the native population and revitalization of their faith. Meditation teachers, such Achaan Chah, gained international reputation and drew many western followers, who have become teachers themselves and have established meditation centers in the United States. Others reintroduced strict ethical practices such as abstaining from meat, alcohol, and tobacco, ascetic lifestyle, and rigorous meditation practices. Still others have taken up social welfare services, environmental causes, and programs for modernizing the country.

Cambodia started a restoration of Buddhism after the withdrawal of the Vietnamese in 1989. In Vietnam itself restoration of Buddhist monasteries and temples is increasingly tolerated. And even in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, Buddhism has undergone a vigorous revival among its 2 percent Buddhist population.

In South Korea, Mahayana Buddhist revival is being spearheaded by ordination of monks and nuns, increased participation in Zen retreats by the educated young, and establishment of monastic schools and lay institutions. Since 1953, a reform movement called Round School has been focusing on Emptiness. Buddhists are also utilizing mass media and television to disseminate their teachings.

As discussed above, Mahayana Buddhism remains a major religion of Japan. One of the areas of revitalization is the Saikoku Kannon "pilgrimage boom" across the heartland of Japan. Another is the Kannon cult at Buddhist temples and memorial grounds throughout Japan, consisting of seeking forgiveness from the spirits of aborted fetuses. Since World War II, but especially since the 1960s, Zen Buddhism has experienced renewal not only from westerners traveling to Zen monasteries in search of enlightenment but also Zen masters going to the West and teaching Zen, establishing Zen centers, and training western teachers. Through scholarship, reform, and attraction of western students, as well as the rise of new religions such as Soka Gakkai (an offshoot of Nichiren), Buddhism is being revitalized in Japan.

In the United States, the first contact with Zen came in 1893 when Zen master Shaku Soen attended the World Parliament of Religions. A more lasting presence came in 1905, when Soen returned with three disciples to teach Rinzai Zen. In the 1950s it attracted many writers and artists, who developed what was called "Beat Zen." By the '80s, Zen had taken a firm hold in the United States with the establishment of monasteries in California, Hawaii, New York, and other places, staffed by American Zen teachers. Tibetan Buddhism established itself in Vermont, Colorado, California, and New York. Other branches of Buddhism, such as Pure Land, are also represented here not only among East Asians who have migrated here but also Americans attracted to Pure Land and other Buddhist traditions. Theravada Buddhism has flourished among Asian immigrants and non-Asians through the efforts of various teachers. Nearly all forms of Buddhism now have found their homes in the United States.

After the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1959 and the massacre of thousands of monks, many Tibetan monastic groups fled the country and settled in Great Britain and elsewhere in Europe. From the 1970s, Buddhism started to put down firm roots in Great Britain. At present, there are about 350 Buddhist groups throughout Britain, ranging from Theravada forest retreat monasteries to Zen to Tibetan Buddhism and many other traditions. At present, Theravada, Tibetan Buddhism, and Zen are the strongest in Britain.

Among other European countries, Germany has an estimated four hundred groups, the majority of whom represent Theravada, Zen, and Tibetan traditions. France has 140 Tibetan and numerous Zen centers. With many recent immigrants from Southeast Asia, Theravada is also well represented there. Italy is a home to more than thirty centers and monasteries, and many associations, mainly of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. Other Buddhist traditions have also been established in other countries of Europe, such as Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Holland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. In Eastern Europe, Buddhism has made a small presence. The global migration of Buddhists of all denominations has spread every major Asian Buddhist denomination—their monastic institutions, meditation centers, and teachings—on every continent.

Some observers see this global migration of Asian Buddhism as another source of revitalization of Buddhism in their home countries as monks travel back to them. This internationalization and cross-fertilization among Buddhist denominations and their Western expansion may also spell the future direction, even survival, of Buddhism. That was one of the motives of the Dalai Lama for authorizing translation of Tibetan tantras, hitherto the exclusive domain of the initiates. In the emerging global culture, as Buddhist ideas of human rights and the ideals of compassion, nonviolence, selflessness, and interdependence connect people with similar concerns in the West, new directions of social activism and reform may emerge for engaged Buddhists in the East. It may also offer incentives to western societies for reform and rooting out of greed, hatred, delusion, and violence, and bring renewed dedication to peace and justice.

Yang and Yin

Chapter 7: Early Chinese Religion and Confucianism

Timeline

c. 4000–3000 BCE | Beginning of civilization in China

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c. 2000 BCE | Rise of civilization in the Yellow River valley

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Legendary Yellow Emperor, Huang Di

c. 1750–1022 BCE | Shang Dynasty

c. 1022–221 BCE | Zhou dynasty

c. 551–479 BCE | Life of Confucius

c. 470–391 BCE | Life of Mozi

c. 371–289 BCE | Life of Mencius

c. 300–238 BCE | Life of Xunzi

221–206 BCE | Qin dynasty: Confucianism suppressed, books burned by first emperor Qin Shi Huangdi

206 BCE–220 CE | Han dynasty: Confucianism becomes state ideology, paving the way for reshaping China

1130–1200 | Life of Zhu Xi, Neo-Confucian grand synthesizer

1472–1529 | Life of Wang Yangming, Neo-Confucian Philosopher: mind as the source of all things

1911 | Last imperial dynasty overthrown

1949 | Maoze Dong, the beginning of Communist rule

1990–2000 | Confucian classics reintroduced in schools

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Confucius's birthday celebrated

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China is a very ancient civilization. Settled villages and civilized life date back to the Neolithic period (New Stone Age), around 4000–3000 BCE. Bronze Age civilization developed in the Yellow River valley around 2000 BCE. But in the absence of written records, this prehistoric period is shrouded in myths and legends. Chinese tradition speaks of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors who lived in the third millennium BCE, the most important of whom was the Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, who is regarded as the ancestor of the Chinese people.

Our exploration of Chinese religion will begin with a discussion of the main concepts of the Sacred that originated in the early period. We will observe how the concept of the supreme deity evolved from female to male and from tribal to impersonal, universal supreme deity. This early period also saw the emergence of such seminal concepts as yin and yang, dao, and li that became an essential part of the Chinese worldview throughout the ages. They were incorporated into the fabric not only of the two major religions that originated in China—Confucianism and Daoism—but also of popular religion today. We will then proceed to the main subject of this chapter: Confucianism.

Early Chinese Religion and Society

The Shang Period (c. 1750–1022 BCE)

Archeological evidence suggests that the historical period in China began with the Shang rule. Among the cultural developments at this time were ceramics, carving, bronze casting, architecture, chariot, calendar, writing, and the feudal system of government.

Religion: Hierarchical Order of the Sacred

It appears that before patriarchy and dominant male deities, the Chinese believed in the earth goddess, called She Chi, symbolizing the fertility of the soil. She was worshiped with offerings, celebrated with spring and autumn festivals consisting of prayers, offerings, dances and ceremonial songs. The aim of these rituals was to increase the fertility of the soil and ensure abundant harvest. The male deity that arose in time through assimilation of earth and grain was the earth god Tudi Gong, who became the god of civic virtue and community responsibility.

With the advent of Shang rule, a male deity called Shang Di emerged as the supreme deity. Although his name meant "Ruler Above," which would have made him a Sky God, Shang Di was a tribal deity, elevated to the position of the supreme ruler, in control of the natural and human worlds. He sent blessings or misfortune, protected his followers in battles, sanctioned undertakings, and even appointed or dismissed officials. She Chi and Tudi Gong were now placed below Shang Di. Below them were a multitude of other deities manifested in the forces of nature—sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, and the four directions—to be worshiped and served.

Below the deities were ancestors. Living and powerful, they were believed to be vitally concerned about the welfare of their living descendants and could cause harm if they were not propitiated. Prayers, sacrifices, and various offerings had to be made to them.

To determine the will of the gods and ancestors and gain their guidance, the Chinese practiced divination by heating bones and shells and reading answers off their cracks.

The Zhou Period (1022–221 BCE)

A new idea of supreme deity arose during the Zhou Period called Tian (Heaven). While assimilating the anthropomorphic characteristics of Shang Di, Tian was a more comprehensive, universal, and impersonal force. Apparently all-knowing, all-powerful, righteous, and purposeful, Tian was believed to get involved in human affairs and examine human conduct. He kept account of people's righteousness and regulated the span of their lives. This deity was not capricious but moral and righteous and expected humans to live by these principles. It was believed that when the people lived according to the Will of Heaven, they would prosper; when they did not, they would suffer, which was determined by their own good or evil deeds. Morality was the basis of righteousness.

To justify the overthrow of the Shang ruler and their right to govern, the founders of the Zhou dynasty developed the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven, which held that Heaven determined who had the right to rule. He gave mandate to the righteous and took it away from the unrighteous. A failure to fulfill their duties caused the Shang to forfeit their right to rule, which was given to the founders of Zhou because of their virtue, de.

An important practice that developed in this period was li—rites or rituals. As expressions of the cosmic order, the rites were intended to establish a harmonious relationship between the cosmic and social hierarchies and to confer blessings and prosperity on the people.

Originating perhaps as early as 1000 BCE, a key belief that became fundamental to Chinese thought and outlook is yin and yang. These concepts are not concerned with morality or good and evil. Rather, yin and yang are complementary, dynamic, and ever-changing processes of nature, like waves of energy, day and night, inhalation and exhalation, pulsation, or the beating of the heart. Yin is associated with the female, dark, mysterious, secret, receptive, fertile, wet element, while yang is concerned with the male, active, dry, clear, bright, procreative, dynamic element of each thing. Nothing can come into being without their interaction. Their balance brings harmonious ordering of nature and each thing. The dominance of one over the other spells the differentiation in things. In things above, such as heavenly spirits, the sun, and the stars, yang predominates. Yin is the dominant element in the earthly realm. While males are mainly yang, they have yin as the recessive element. The opposite is true of females.

The source of harmony and order in nature, such as the regularity of the seasons, the ebb and flow of the tide, and the cycles of day and night, is the pivotal concept of the dao. Literally meaning "way" or "path," dao is the way according to which all things in the universe operate. The totality of yin and yang, dao is also the cosmic pattern, establishing perfection, harmony, and well being through interrelationship, cooperation, and integration. If all things followed this cosmic pattern, it was believed, harmony would reign between heaven, earth, and humankind.

To determine how to act in harmony with the heavenly forces, as well as to discover the Will of Heaven, the Chinese developed a new method of divination based on trigrams of broken (yin) and unbroken (yang) lines. By placing one trigram on top of another, a system of sixty-four hexagrams was developed. Throwing yarrow sticks or coins six times yields a hexagram that provides answers to a person's inquiry. The meaning of each hexagram is described in the Yijing, the Book of Changes.

Hierarchical Order of Society

The cosmic order became the basis for organizing society, politics, and individual lives. For the Chinese believed that if society reflected the cosmic pattern, there would be order, harmony, peace, prosperity, and happiness. Therefore, to reflect the heavenly hierarchy, the society became feudal and organized hierarchically in three tiers, with the emperor paralleling Heaven, the nobility and regional rulers in the middle corresponding to the gods, and ordinary people paralleling the ancestors.

It was believed that a state of harmony and happiness existed during the mythical "golden age," when kings Yao and Shun reigned. As the "Son of Heaven," the king had the duty to establish such a paradisiacal state.

Eastern Zhou and the Period of the Warring States (771–221 BCE)

As long as the central government of the king was strong, the feudal system worked reasonably well. But a gradual erosion of feudalism occurred over time, due in part to a breakup of the old aristocracy, commoners rising to positions of power, and the inability of Zhou rulers to turn back invasion from central Asia. In 771 BCE the king was assassinated during an attack by non-Chinese nomads from the west of the capital city of Chang-an. So for greater security the capital was moved east to Luoyang. Thus began the Eastern Zhou, which ushered in a period of strife, increasing fragmentation, and disintegration, leading to the period of the Warring States (479–221 BCE). With the decline of the power of the central government, individual states began to vie among themselves for supremacy, plunging China into chaos.

In this period of social dissolution, fearing disorder as the greatest evil, the Chinese were confronted with one overriding problem: how to order society so that it would reflect the dao, or cosmic order, following which the people could live in peace and harmony. To meet this challenge, several rival systems put forward their agenda, each vying to gain the allegiance of the rulers and the people. Two of the earliest came from opposite directions. One was from Confucius, who believed that the disorder was a result of the people straying from the dao. To get the Chinese back on track, they would have to follow the traditions laid out by the sage kings of the Western Chou dynasty, Wen and Wu, and the Yellow Emperor. Confucius designed his teachings to restore society to its ideal state of perfection. The other was Daoism, whose answer we shall see in the next chapter. Let us now turn to a discussion of Confucianism.

Confucius, Founder of Confucianism

Confucianism

Reliable information on the life of Confucius is scant. Even the Analects, which contains the most authoritative account of his teaching and gives tantalizing glimpses of his life, cannot be taken literally. Compiled in the third century BCE, it contains materials incorporated from a later period that undoubtedly modified what Confucius himself taught. The biographical material from China's famous ancient historian Si-ma Quian cannot be taken at its face value. Therefore, we have to rely on elements culled from various sources to paint a credible portrait of his life. After presenting a brief account of his life, we will proceed to discuss the teachings of Confucius.

The Life of Confucius (551–479 BCE)

The name Confucius is a Latin rendering of the Chinese Kongfuzi (Master Kong), his given name being Kong Qiu. He came from an impoverished family in the feudal state of Lu (modern Shandong Province). His aristocratic ancestors are said to have fled there from the state of Song after its revolutionary takeover. His father was a soldier and his mother was a much younger woman than he. Although his father died when Confucius was very young, his struggling mother managed to give him the training of gentlemen who specialized in the "six arts": history, rites (or rituals), mathematics, poetry, archery, and charioteering. He also loved Chinese classical music and played the lute, and he enjoyed hunting and fishing. He married early in life and had a son and a daughter, but the marriage reportedly ended in divorce.

In his youth Confucius held unremarkable posts, such as accounting, overseeing livestock, and minor government offices. His mother died when he was in his twenties. After concluding proper mourning rituals, Confucius embarked on a career, teaching such subjects as history, poetry, government, morality, and music. He built up a reputation and disciples began to gather around him. At this time, it began to dawn on him that only by implementing his ideas could he help reshape society and restore order. To that end, Confucius visited the neighboring state of Qi. But having failed to secure any official position there, he returned to Lu at the ruler's invitation and was appointed police commissioner. His advice was not followed, he was ignored and sidelined, and so at age fifty-five Confucius left Lu.

For thirteen years Confucius wandered from state to state, accompanied by disciples, in a vain quest for a government post that would allow him to implement his ideas. Some states received him cordially, offering him government posts, others were suspicious, and yet others met him with open hostility when he told them that they should govern by moral force. At the town of Kuang he was mobbed and imprisoned; at Pu he needed an armed guard for protection. To avoid assassination, he had to disguise himself and flee on foot from the state of Song.

After observing much disorder and breakdown of government firsthand, in 484, at the age of sixty-seven, at the invitation of the duke, Confucius returned to Lu, where he was given a government post. He counseled the duke on wresting control of the state from the three leading families, but his advice was not heeded. He was occasionally consulted. Otherwise he passed his time mostly in retirement. Confucius died in 479 BCE at the age of seventy-two, which was the beginning of the Warring States period. Before he died, Confucius expressed disappointment that he was unable to implement his teachings and admonished his disciples to carry on the work. What Confucius could not accomplish in his lifetime was fulfilled after his death beyond his wildest dreams.

Confucian Texts

It is traditionally believed that Confucius commented on and edited the five classics:

• Book of Changes (Yijing)

• Book of Poetry (Shijing)

• Record of Rites (Liji)

• Book of History (Shujing)

• Annals of Spring and Autumn (Chunqiu)

He is also said to have compiled a sixth book, the Book of Music (Yuejing), now considered lost. There is no evidence that Confucius ever edited these texts. He used them for teaching and may have commented and even modified them, but as they stand today, it is hard to pinpoint what he contributed to their contents.

Only the Analects (Lunyu) bears the stamp of Confucius's own teaching. It is a collection of the sayings of Confucius and some of his disciples. The other three usually cited as his work—The Doctrine of the Mean (Zhongyong), The Great Learning (Daxue), and The Book of Mencius—are by later authors. The first half of the Doctrine of the Mean is attributed to Confucius's grandson; the other half is of later origin. It deals with human nature, which is endowed by Heaven and manifested through equilibrium and harmony; and with the Way of Heaven, which transcends the phenomenal world. The Great Learning—a work of the Confucian school—is devoted to educational, moral, and political training. The Book of Mencius represents the third century Confucian thinker who was second in importance only to Confucius. Thus Confucius's teachings as they have come down to us through the interpretations, additions, and editorial work of his disciples, can be found mainly in the Analects.

Some writers have argued that these texts constitute scriptures or sacred writings. However, nowhere in any of these books is there any statement that these teachings were derived from some revelatory source. They do not constitute a pathway for reconnection with the divine. Nor do they have any connection with the Sacred or any transcendent dimension of reality.

Belief in the Sacred

The idea of the Sacred brings up the question of whether Confucianism is a religion or merely an ethical system. Some scholars have sought to show that Confucius's teachings satisfy the criteria of religion, and that the Confucian concept of the Sacred is embodied in the concepts of tian (heaven) and dao (way). Contrary to such claims, nowhere does Confucius portray Heaven as the transcendent source or goal of all things. Rather, for him, tian is the highest ordering principle immanent in the world, like natural laws, such as gravitation. Confucius does not invest any additional significance to Heaven over what prevailed during the Zhou period and in his own time. He adopted it as part of his ideal of the "golden age" of the early Zhou rulers, which he sought to restore.

Nor does the concept of dao have for Confucius any avowed connection with the Sacred. He speaks of many daos—social, political, moral, familial, and personal—none of which refers to a transcendent principle from which all others are derived. Nowhere is it conceived as Ultimate Reality. In fact, such a claim is explicitly disavowed when the Analects states, "Tzu-kung said, Our Master's views concerning culture and the outward insignia of goodness, we are permitted to hear; but about Man's nature and the ways of Heaven he will not tell us anything at all" (V. 12). Confucius did not identify the dao with Heaven but frequently spoke of "the Way prevailing under Heaven," referring mainly to the human order.

Moreover, Heaven did not function as the foundation of his teachings. Nor were his teachings designed to reconnect anyone to Heaven but only to live in harmony with the way under it. Heaven was merely a personal belief, functioning in the same way as the Greek gods did in Socrates' teaching. Even his strong belief that he had a "Mandate of Heaven" to teach (vii. 22) acted only as a personal source of inspiration, guidance, and justification for his activity in the same way that the "daimon" did for Socrates. Thus, his system fails to qualify as religion in the strict sense. But from the central thrust of his teachings—a relational reconstruction of self and society in order to realign them with the ways (daos) of Heaven—one could claim that Confucianism is a religion in an extended sense of the term. However, starting with the Han emperor Wu, as we shall see, Confucianism began to take on the trappings of religion.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection: The Teachings of Confucius

Relationship, networking, and association are singularly important in life. As the Jewish Philosopher Martin Buber had said, "Life is meeting." Establishing the right or the wrong relationships, meeting the right or the wrong people can make or break a life. Such meeting extends life beyond a narrow, ego-bound existence. It is lateral transcendence that expands the horizon of one's being. In religion it is meeting the divine and the right teacher. In love it is meeting the right partner to share one's life. In adolescence, wrong relationships can lead us astray. Think of gang membership. Think of teenage smoking, or getting into drugs and alcohol. The latest research shows that obese friends can influence us to become obese. Therefore, we need to choreograph right relationships to create balance, establish lateral transcendence, and remain the masters of our lives. How could this be done on the social and political level that would establish peace and harmony globally and set the trajectory of individual lives? That was Confucius's concern.

In Confucianism, the path of transformation and reconnection is not religious but social in nature. So, Confucius's teachings do not constitute transforming the medium or self-transformation but social transformation necessary to establish a harmonious reconnection among members of society so that everyone would live in peace in a well-ordered society. It was assumed that such social conditioning would bring about personal transformation at the levels of thought, behavior, and way of life.

At the center of Confucius's system are those social relationships and ethical principles that he believed would transform Chinese society from its then current disorder to a harmonious, ordered whole. In such a society, each person would know his place; each would be involved in ideal relationships with others that would function as the glue to bind society together. When each lived in harmony with all, there would peace in China. To bring it about, Confucius orchestrated a set of ideas that became the foundation of his system.

After presenting the seminal ideas of Confucius's system, we will proceed to recount the rival answers during the Warring States period, including those of the two main Confucians, Mencius and Xunzi. We will notice a loss of ground for Confucianism during the Qin dynasty as law and order emerged victorious over others. We will see a reversal and triumph of Confucianism with the ascendancy of the Han dynasty when it became the official policy. This positioned Confucianism to transform and dominate Chinese culture well into the twentieth century. Our discussion of this classical period will end with a look at the status of women in Confucianism.

One of the concepts forming the hub of the Confucian system is ren. It has been variously translated as goodness, love for fellow human beings, humanity, and benevolence. Confucius himself did not define the term, but some interpret it in two ways: in a narrow sense, it is the ideal quality and character development people should possess. In a wider sense, it is an all-encompassing ethical ideal with which Confucius associated other desirable qualities, such internal qualities as compassion, reciprocity, righteousness, filial piety, good faith, imperturbability, resoluteness, and diligence. Externally, he tied it with such social behavior as good manners, proper relationships, loyalty, courtesy, and deliberate speech.

In addition, ren is connected with the concept of person. In contrast to the western concept of the self as an absolute, autonomous center of inviolable life, Confucius viewed the self as a "center of relationship" (Wei-ming 83). The Chinese characters for ren, literally meaning "man two," imply that a person is a relational being who becomes what she is and exists in interaction with others. To be a self is to be in relationship. For Confucius, our relationships define who we are.

One who embodies ren is junzi—usually translated as "gentleman" or "superior man." It is perhaps better rendered as the "exemplary" or ideal person. Initially applied to the nobility, like the Buddha's universalization of the term "Aryan," Confucius viewed junzi as a status anyone can attain by fulfilling the criteria he spelled out for it. Junzi is one who possesses ren—one who is a fully developed human being.

The criteria for becoming an ideal person are political and moral, internal and external, befitting the social self. The ideal person sets her heart on the moral force (de), lives by justice and rightness, rather than what is self-serving or profitable, even if that causes her to suffer, lose friends and gain enemies (IV.10, 11, 16).

Such a person is not self-centered but compassionate and helpful to the needy and has room for all (VI.3; XIX.3). Unlike the mass of humanity, he does not call attention to others' defects but only to their good points (XIII.16). He is demanding on himself, not on others (XV.19). Being unbiased, he can see a question from all sides (II.14). He is committed to personal growth by striving for self-improvement and leading an unblemished life, correcting his character defects, weeding out evil tendencies, and guarding against lust, strife, hatred, and greed (XVI.7).

Socially, an ideal person is courteous in private, prompt in attending to her duties, generous to those in need, and just in exacting service from them (V.15). In following the way (dao) she strives to remove all traces of violence or arrogance from her attitudes and gestures and shows good faith and good manners (VIII.4). Dignified and conciliatory, she observes moderation in all her dealings with others. She is guided by the desire to do what is right, and influence superiors in the hope of changing them.

The term li, usually translated as ritual or propriety but better rendered as proper relationship, lies at the heart of Confucian social ethics. In addition to religious rituals and observances, li refers to formal social interactions. For Confucius, all social relationships are ritualized behavior, choreographed interactions governing every aspect of society and human experience. He sought to standardize li as the centerpiece of his social ethics by prescribing the following set of five relationships as the glue to bind society together:

• Father (loving, kind) and son (reverential)

• Older sibling (gentle) and younger sibling (respectful)

• Husband (good, righteous) and wife (obedient)

• Older persons (considerate) and younger persons (deferential)

• Ruler (benevolent) and subject (loyal)

The model on which all these relationships are patterned is xiao—filial piety. By setting up the family on an ideal of harmonious relationship, Confucius sought to establish a secure foundation for the reconstruction of society. If it is set aright, then all other relationships would fall into place, political discord would vanish, and social harmony would be restored. At the center of this relational structure is the father-son relationship, which rested on the unquestioned obedience of the son to the authority of the father, not only when he is alive but also after he is dead, lasting for the entire course of his life. As Tu Wei-ming states, "The Confucian approach takes as its point of departure that the father-son relationship is absolutely binding... the son ought not to sever his ties to his father under any circumstances" (118). Although a son could correct his father if he was mistaken or did something wrong, he could not refuse the obedience due to parents. For the son to cultivate himself means learning to suppress his own desires and feelings and to identify with and internalize the desires, wishes, and aspirations of the father and strive to fulfill them. This makes the Confucian self entirely made up of roles and social interaction for which autonomy, privacy, and individual selfhood have no place.

While li regulates external behavior, yi, usually translated as righteousness or doing what is right, signifies the norm that makes an action right and just. Some think that for Confucius, yi is the universal norm that justifies the morality of all actions (Cheng 233–237). David Hall and Roger Ames think that, for Confucius, an action is right when there is "harmony of action and circumstance" (103). Confucius himself does not address this critical issue. For him, an action is right if it is in harmony with or contributes to the creation, maintenance, and promotion of the ideal social order he envisioned, wrong if it does not.

One teaching that could serve for Confucianism as the criterion for the justification of action is the doctrine of the mean (zhongyong). By the term "mean," Confucius implied moderation in the Aristotelian vein. For he says, "To go too far is as bad as not to go far enough" (XI.15). He taught his disciples to steer the middle course, for he believed that the moral power (de) of the middle course trumped all other sources of morality (XIII.21; VI.27). The mean, therefore, is the right amount of a quality or characteristic that makes a situation, event, or action right and leads to balance and equilibrium. This means that if li prescribes the proper relationship among all groups in society, the mean determines the right amount necessary for fulfilling it. Thus, if you are a younger person, li tells you that respect is the proper quality for relationship with an older person, while the mean determines the right amount of respect you should have. Too much respect may make you a doormat, while too little may make you haughty or contemptuous. The same would be true of filial piety and all other virtues in the Confucian canon.

Another important doctrine that can act as the foundation for the moral justification of action and was intended to create a harmonious social and political order is shu, usually translated as "reciprocity." This is Confucius's formulation of the Golden Rule—the one thread, he says, that unifies his teachings. It is a criterion for realizing fullness of humanity (ren) and the one principle on which everyone can act every day throughout his life. Confucius formulates it thusly: "Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you" (xv.23). Shu requires action to move out of self-centeredness by bringing others within the sphere of self-concern. In so doing, we should take ourselves as the standard of evaluation but from the viewpoint of others.

Confucius had another teaching that would make an action morally right and lead to the harmonious ordering of society. This is the doctrine of zheng-ming, the rectification of names. For him, names are codification of roles and relationships that we must assume to shape our identity. Names signify ideals and values we must creatively appropriate and realize to the fullest of our ability, thereby becoming a role model. If you are a student, you need to become a model student so that your behavior fully exhibits what it means to be a student. The same is true of a teacher, father, son, husband, wife, mother, sister, friend, ruler, and subject.

De is the moral power, which is the true virtue (xiv. 35–36; xix. 2). Everyone needs to acquire and cultivate this moral force, which provides the strength of character needed to navigate through the complexities of life and stay on the straight path. For the ruler, it is the basis for his moral authority to govern. Confucius believed that if the ruler governed by means of de—that is, held up his example as a standard by which his subjects would make their decisions and guide their actions—the people would become virtuous, and the entire country would turn into a well-ordered society. Thus, for Confucius de became another important principle of social engineering.

Such a prescription could work where the group is the basic unit of a stable society rather than one in which each group strove to become the dominant power, as was the case in China at the time of Confucius. This might be a reason why no ruler adopted his ideas as the basis for his policy. So, besides his disciples, Confucius left few followers when he died. How, then, did Confucianism come to transform and dominate Chinese culture so long, and become transformed into a religion?

Confucian Triumph and the Cult of Confucius

The first important phase in the development of Confucianism can be traced back to the period of the Warring States when rival doctrines vied with one another, offering solutions to the problem of disorder in China. At opposite ends were Mohists and legalists. Occupying the middle ground were the Confucians: Mencius and Xunzi.

Mozi (471–391 BCE) advocated the path of universal love. Looking at the situation in China at that time, Mozi asked, "Whence did the harms—mutual attacks among states, mutual usurpation among families, mutual injuries among individuals—arise?" He answered, "They arise out of want of mutual love." Therefore, he proposed to transform society through universal love and mutual sharing by maintaining love, brotherly kindness, and good will toward all. This is to be accomplished by regarding other countries and families as one's own and other persons as oneself. If mutual love prevailed among all groups and individuals, all strife would end, and peace and harmony would prevail. If someone asked why they should do it, Mozi pointed to the benefits of practicing love for all. Besides, Heaven hates unrighteousness and wants righteousness. Since Heaven loves life, wealth, and order, and hates death, poverty, and disorder, those who obey the Will of Heaven by practicing universal love will gain these rewards; but those who disobey will incur punishment (Sommer 51–52).

Going beyond Confucius, Mencius (Mengzi 372–289 BCE) explicitly taught that in the original state, human nature is "naturally good just as water naturally flows downward." If people are allowed to follow their original nature or deepest feelings, they will do what is good. Humanity (ren), righteousness (yi), propriety (li), and wisdom are part of our original nature. They are innate, and not merely a result of training. The very core of human nature is ethical.

Mencius shores up his view by explaining that if a child is on the brink of falling into a well, everyone will, without exception, have a sense of distress and rush to save the child, not out of a desire for reward or praise but out of compassion (II.A.6). Thus "evil or [moral] failure is not original but due to the underdevelopment of one's original endowment" (Chan 55). As we fail to develop and preserve the original goodness and lose it in the process of socialization and the effects of the environment, we become ignorant of our original nature. Being unaware when we act, we are led astray by material things as they act on our senses (Chan 58–59). Thus, in the nature-nurture controversy, Mencius takes his stand on nurture as the cause of evil.

For Mencius, the cure for societal ills lies in earnestly cultivating our natural goodness and fully developing our nature. Thereby everyone can fulfill themselves, since all are equally born with the seeds of goodness. This can be achieved by following Confucius's teachings, which is a way of "finding the lost mind" (Chan 58). Moral training is recovering what was lost in the process of growing up. It does not consist in acquiring something new but in the full blossoming of our original nature.

Taking a diametrically opposite, hard-headed stand, Xunzi (300–238 BCE) held that "the nature of man is evil; his goodness is the result of his activity" (Chan 128). Evil is not due to Heaven, gods, spirits, ancestors, or some natural process but to "man's inborn nature." Since "man's inborn nature is to seek gain... is envious and hates others," if people are left to follow their nature, there will be greed, hatred, strife, violence, and disorder (Chan 128). Thus, in the nature-nurture controversy Xunzi takes the side of nature as the source of evil.

Goodness and virtue are a result of learning and effort. If people are to do good and become good it has to be done through the civilizing and transforming effects of propriety and righteousness, education, strict discipline, laws, and social control. Human nature is not straight but is like crooked wood; it has to be made straight by the government of sage-kings, their laws and organizations, and the transforming effects of propriety and righteousness. Thus, coming from the opposite end, Xunzi agrees with Mencius that moral education is necessary and that it is to be supplied by the teachings of Confucius.

The Legalists were the law and order "realists" who believed that human nature is evil. Goodness must be imposed by the state rather than left to self-cultivation. So they sought to dismantle the feudal system and establish a centralized government having the power to impose a universal rule of law, with tough sanctions of reward and punishment.

Subsequently, with the demise of Zhou and the triumph of Qin Shi Huangdi (221–210 BCE), who unified China, became the first emperor, and founded the Qin dynasty, the views of Xunzi and the Legalists won out. A harsh, authoritarian rule was imposed. Writings contrary to the views of the Legalists were burned. Confucianism was banned.

Confucianism Becomes Official Policy

Fortunately for Confucianism, the Qin dynasty was short lived (221–206). When the Han dynasty (206 BCE–200 CE) came to power by overthrowing the Qin dynasty, with the ascent of Emperor Wu Di to the throne, Confucianism triumphed. In an effort to concentrate power in his own hands, Wu established a central bureaucracy. At the behest of the Confucian scholar Dong Zhongshu, he founded a national university and made the Five Classics and Confucian teachings the university curriculum and the basis for the civil service examination, which everyone had to pass in order to be eligible for government posts. Confucians were put in charge of designing the curriculum and training officials. Wu declared Confucianism to be the official ideology of the state, thereby becoming the dominant force in shaping Chinese culture and identity. Confucius's dream had at last come true—even surpassing his vision. It remained in force until Mao Zedong and the Communist Revolution overthrew it.

In addition, with the establishment of state sponsored temples for Confucian ceremonies throughout China, a state cult of Confucius began. Confucius and his disciples began to be venerated with special rituals. He came to be viewed as a god and his home became a national shrine. Thus he won a place among divine sages and primal ancestors of China.

Women in Confucianism

Religious, political, social, and familial factors contributed to the formation of the Confucian view of women. A general cultural attitude of women's inferiority and the oppressive condition in which they lived can be surmised from such occasional practices as female infanticide and imposition of foot-binding on women. In the religious sphere, the yin-yang polarity exercised pervasive influence in shaping the Chinese view of female-male relationship. Though in itself yin-yang is gender neutral and connotes complementarity, in China's strongly patriarchal culture they came to be associated with female and male, respectively, with implied subordination of the female in society. Following this cultural trend, Confucianism viewed yang as positive and superior and yin as negative and inferior. Summarizing the general attitude of inferiority spun around yin in Chinese society at that time, Richard Guisso states, "The female was inferior by nature. She was dark as the moon and changeable as water, jealous, narrow-minded, and insinuating. She was indiscreet, unintelligent, and dominated by emotion. Her beauty was a snare for the unwary male, the ruination of states" (quoted by Theresa Kelleher 59).

The desire to live in harmony with the cosmic order played its part in the subordination of women. As the king became the head of the political order, so males came to assume the position of authority in the society and the household, and women were placed in the subordinate position.

In the Instructions for Women, the woman scholar Ban Zhao (d. 116 CE), who was a tutor at the imperial court, draws a portrait of the ideal young woman. She is perfectly subservient and embodies the following four virtues (Jochim 197):

• Womanly virtue: being chaste and demure

• Womanly words: being polite, never clever or quarrelsome

• Womanly bearing: being erect and clean, never slovenly or dirty

• Womanly work: being domestic and industrious

At birth, a girl's subordinate status in the family was fixed. As Ban Zhao states, "On the third day after the birth of a girl, the ancients observed three customs: first to place the baby below the bed; second to give her a potsherd with which to play; and third, to announce her birth to her ancestors by an offering" (quoted by Kelleher 144). A girl was generally considered inferior to a boy, even if the latter was a cripple and the former was outstanding. The potsherd indicates her subordinate position in the domestic sphere. She was not deemed a part of the family of her birth or its ancestral line. She had them only after she was married and her name was inscribed on the ancestral tablet kept on the family altar.

The education of young girls was aimed at preparing them for their future roles as wives and mothers. They were confined at home from the age of ten and taught such skills as weaving and sewing, cooking, and other domestic chores; traits that would make them pleasing in speech and manners, submissive, and obedient; and activities such as watching the sacrifices and assisting at rituals and ceremonies. A woman's fulfillment lay in virtuous service to the men in her life. She was excluded from formal education and state examinations, required for a career in public service from the Han Period onward.

Marriage was extremely important for the Chinese, as it initiated the basic unit of the Chinese society and continued the family line started by the ancestors. The Book of Rites points out that the continuity of the ancestral line is the purpose of marriage. For the woman, marriage was her whole life. As Ban Zhao puts it, "To obtain the love of one man is the crown of a woman's life, to lose the love of one man is to miss the aim in a woman's life" (quoted by Kelleher 148). A woman's identity flowed from her marriage. The roles of wife and mother defined who she was. However, her relationship to her husband gave a woman a measure of equality. The Book of Rites notes that in marriage the husband and wife form one body, are of equal rank; and it was a pledge of mutual affection, symbolized by the bride and groom eating and drinking from the same bowl and cup (Legge 2:430; Ferguson 102). However, this equality vanished in the larger context of her role and status in the patriarchal family hierarchy.

Before the wedding ceremony, the father instructed his son, "Go meet your helpmeet, and so enable me to fulfill my duties in the ancestral temple. Be diligent in taking the lead as husband, but with respectful consideration, for she is the successor of your mother." But the bride's father instructed her, "Be careful and reverent. Day in and day out disobey no command of your new parents" (quoted by Kelleher 141–142). These admonitions not only show how the man was regarded as the active principle like heaven and the woman as the passive instrument like the earth, but they also set down some of her primary obligations—obedient service to parents-in-law, and producing male heirs who would continue the family sacrifices.

In the husband-wife relationship, the wife was expected to exemplify yin by being submissive to her husband's, parents-in-laws', and older sons' active and dominant yang role. As the entire fivefold familial relationship was set from the male point of view, the basic position of women was subordination to male authority. In the three socially accepted roles women were allowed to perform, submission to male authority was the key feature: daughters to their fathers, wives to their husbands, and elderly mothers to their grown-up sons (Kelleher 140). These "three followings," together with the "four virtues" mentioned above, were crystallized into a prescription similar in content to that of the Laws of Manu in Hinduism. These roles were sometimes enforced through physical abuse. Daughters were under the constant threat of being sold as concubines, wives of being divorced and sent back to their parental homes in shame or mistreated by husbands' families, and widowed mothers of being abandoned by their sons.

The hierarchical family structure meant that women faced various types of exclusion and denial of rights that were the privilege of men. For instance, as the bearer of the familial and ancestral line, only the son or a male member of the family could perform ancestor worship. A daughter was not considered a part of the ancestral lineage, since she would marry out of her family and enter her husband's family lineage. And she would not be a part of the latter until she produced a son. If she did not, the husband could divorce her or take a mistress.

Marriage could be dissolved under certain circumstances. Traditionally, seven reasons are cited as grounds for divorce: disobedience to parents-in-law, failure to produce a male heir, promiscuity, jealousy, incurable disease, excessive talking, and stealing. However, a husband could not divorce his wife if her parents were dead, because she would have no one to return to; if she had participated in the mourning rites of one of his parents, which would make her a part of his ancestral line; or if he had acquired wealth after the marriage and simply wanted to get rid of her through a divorce (Kelleher 143). Women, however, could never initiate divorce. Upon the death of her husband, the widow could not remarry, as that would disturb the cosmic order, upset the ancestral line, and leave the performance of mourning rites after her death in doubt (Ferguson 101).

Today, however, the situation of women regarding divorce has greatly changed. In urban areas in particular, the hot new trend is "flash divorce," in which a woman can get a divorce in just fifteen minutes after filing for one at the civil-affairs bureau. An overwhelming number of women are now initiating divorce, especially when they discover that their husbands are cheating on them by keeping mistresses. They are also resorting to divorce when they do not find marriage fulfilling or meeting their expectations. Social acceptance and economic independence have made divorce without guilt or shock possible for women (Time, 6 November 2006).

The central importance of ancestor veneration, the family, and the continuation of the family line is reflected in Mencius's assertion that "the worst of unfilial acts was a failure to have descendants" (127). The inability to produce descendants would disgrace the wife, because she would be unable to fulfill her duties as wife, daughter-in-law, and mother. In addition, she would be unable to gain heaven in the absence of a son performing the "blood bowl" ritual, which would release her from her polluted state in life. And the disgrace would be even greater were she to return to the family of her birth (Sangren 13). Such beliefs and practices demonstrate that women's lives were of value only through the social roles assigned to them and the men in their lives. The lack of a secure and significant position in the family caused great distress and hopelessness in women (Wolff 111).

Neo-Confucianism contributed to women's distress and degradation by pressuring them to remain chaste and pure, not to remarry when widowed, and be willing to die for their chastity. Those who did so were regarded as honorable and virtuous, while those who did not were judged evil, shameful, and repulsive. The pressure that such demands put on women led to an increase in suicide. Ironically, such suicides were revered as martyrs, thus achieving their social status in the very act of opting out of society.

There were, however, exceptional cases, as the Biographies of Exemplary Women by Liu Xiang (77–6 BCE) reveals. It contains not only stories of self-sacrificing women but also women as upholders of social morality as well as women whose sensual and selfish demands destroyed their husbands, social morality, and even dynasties. Liu especially emphasizes, "Mothers who reared their sons well and gave their husbands moral guidance" (Jochim 196). One such exceptional woman was Confucius's single mother, who gave her son the gentleman's education despite the financial hardships she must have endured.

In spite of constricted lives, many women were able to become poets, writers, and artists. Although their works do not question or challenge male superiority, within the patriarchal framework these women sought to depict a way of life and how to find fulfillment in it, thereby securing their position within the roles assigned by society. In addition to Ban Zhao's Instructions for Women, Empress Xu wrote Instructions for the Inner Quarters to advise women to restrain their desires and thoughts, cultivate purity and chastity, and become moral advisers.

The Communists criticized Confucianism for being the main obstacle to reform, pressing for women's rights and equality among men and women. Confucians countered these charges by maintaining that Confucianism is compatible with economic, social, and cultural modernization. The Communist Revolution in China brought at least one good thing: it improved the lives of women by offering them equal opportunities in education and employment, and equal treatment.

Despite attempts to improve women's lives, traditional attitudes of women's inferiority continue to be in force, especially in rural China. This is clear from the prevalence of female infanticide, which seems to be even worse in China than in India. The government policy of limiting families to one child—two if the first is a girl—in an attempt to control population has created a severe shortage of women. A preference for boys, because they can support their families, has led many couples to abort fetuses, kill newborn daughters, or neglect them to death. The result is that China has 32 million more boys under the age of twenty than girls. In some rural villages, nearly 80 percent of the children from ages five to ten are boys. In 2005, there were 120 boys born for every 100 girls. And the situation is getting worse, as increasingly western families and single parents are adopting Chinese baby girls. The resulting desperation has led many to resort to incestuous marriages among first cousins and even siblings. This is causing many birth defects, leading to further abandonment of children (Time, 1 July 2002).

Neo-Confucianism

For many centuries, Buddhism and Daoism had eclipsed Confucianism. But as it acquired the features of religion and began to command the hearts and minds of the Chinese, with Buddhism and Daoism in decline, the appearance of a number of important thinkers enabled Confucianism to reassert itself. Although they attacked Buddhism and Daoism, these Confucians were greatly influenced by them. The philosophical systems they spawned were a blend of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Since they reshaped Confucianism, they are called Neo-Confucians.

After discussing the teachings of two of the most important Neo-Confucians, we will conclude this chapter with a look at popular Chinese religion, which displays elements of Confucianism, Buddhism, and popular Daoism as well as early Chinese religion. It continues to be practiced today.

Neo-Confucianism reached its fullest development in the synthesis of Zhu Xi (1130–1200). While other Neo-Confucians introduced the concept of the Great Ultimate, with Zhu Xi it attains the status of Ultimate Reality beyond all form, activity, or tranquility. Echoing Chan and Daoist thinkers, Zhu Xi says that it has no limitation, for "there is no spot where it may be placed." Like Mahayana Buddhism, he says that it is one only, "yet each of the myriad things has been endowed with it and each in itself possesses the Great Ultimate in its entirety" (Chan 639). It is nondual and paradoxical, for it is beyond and yet includes both being and nonbeing, but in itself it is neither being nor nonbeing. It is beyond activity and tranquility, and yet all activity and tranquility proceed from it. It is the supreme good, primary source, and final purpose of all things (Chan 641).

Out of the Great Ultimate arose the vital force (qi) and the universal principle (li). While for Confucius li is social, Zhu Xi holds that li is the highest rational principle that governs all things. Qi is the material principle and the polar opposite of li. Their interaction is the origin of all things. In the process of creation, li impelled qi to produce movement and change and thereby generated first yang, activity, and then yin, tranquility. Out of them arose the five elements of water, fire, wood, metal, and earth, and from these all things came into being. Li and qi are not separate principles. Rather, they interact in mutual dependence so that every object in nature embodies them, and through them the Great Ultimate.

The dual principles of li and qi enabled Zhu Xi to explain how humans commit evil and what they must do in order to attain the Great Ultimate. He explained that in humans, li constitutes the original nature and is the source and norm of goodness, but qi produces selfish desires and evil tendencies. When qi predominates in the mind, desires and emotions take control, creating an imbalance between it and li, leading one to commit evil. Incorporating the Confucian program of moral training, Zhu Xi maintained that humans need to cultivate themselves so as to correct their minds, penetrate to the principle (li), and thus arrive at the Great Ultimate.

A different explanation for the nature and source of all things and the origin of evil was given by a group of Neo-Confucians whose thought was best articulated by Wang Yangming (1473–1529). Like a Mahayana Buddhist school, Wang taught that consciousness, or the mind, is the Ultimate Reality. He said, "The original substance of the mind is man's nature. Human nature being universally good, the original substance of the mind is originally correct" (Chan 665). However, like Zhu Xi, he held that while the original substance of the mind is the highest good, in its operation it cannot remain free from evil. Therefore we must make an earnest and concerted effort to correct the mind where it operates. To rectify the mind and solve the problem of evil in the individual and disorder in society, we must make the will sincere by following the impulses of the mind's innate knowledge and thus return to the original state of correctness. Once the mind is rectified, it will naturally perceive things as they are and do what is right. The essence of self-cultivation, therefore, consists in "realizing through personal experience, the true substance of one's mind and always making it broad and extremely impartial without the slightest incorrectness" (Smart and Hecht 314).

After Wang, during the centuries spanning the Ming (1368–1644) and the Manchu empire (1644–1911), Neo-Confucianism entered a self-critical period in which some championed Zhu Xi, others followed Wang Yangming, and others rejected both and returned to the purer form of Confucianism that prevailed during the Han dynasty.

In these intervening centuries, and well into the period of the Chinese Republic a decade after the collapse of the empire in 1911, in addition to Confucianism, various Buddhist and Daoist sects, religio-political groups, and popular religion prevailed in China. In the aftermath of World War I, student movements advocated dethroning Confucius and establishing democracy. In the 1930s, Jiang Jie-shi (Chiang Kai-shek) sought to restore Confucianism. But the Communist Revolution led by Mao Zedong ousted Jiang, and suppressed Confucianism and other religions. Today, there is a cautious revival of Confucianism.

Popular Religion

Early Chinese beliefs and practices persisted in China over the centuries in the form of popular religion, which subsequently incorporated elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, and popular Daoism so that today it is thoroughly syncretistic. Although practiced mainly on the local level, it prevails not only among the uneducated masses, but also among highly educated people, who have incorporated it into their daily lives and for special occasions. Most religious people in China today, even Christians and Muslims, practice some aspects of popular religion. Its main focus is belief in the Sacred manifested in nature in forms of gods and goddesses, patron deities, spirits and ghosts, and ancestors. Worship services include rituals and local cults, and the cult of the dead.

Rituals and Worship

Alvin Cohen has classified the goals of popular religion into six categories as follows (290):

• Health, long life, and protection from accidents, disease, and evil spirits

• Favors from deities who control rain and drought; protection from guardian deities; and guidance in determining auspicious sites for temples, buildings and graves—called feng-shui—to be in harmony with the energies of the earth

• Prayer and offerings for domestic tranquility, easy childbirth, sons, protection of children, and the well-being of ancestors

• Worship services for prosperity, abundance, and success

• Forgiveness of sins and release from suffering

• Favorable rebirth sought by Buddhists

These goals can be summed up in three words: prosperity, posterity, and longevity, each of which is represented by a god. Worship depends on reciprocity between gods and humans. Offerings and promises are made with the expectation that the deity will grant the desired favor. If it is not forthcoming, the offering may be withheld or the deity replaced by a more responsive one. However, ancestors may harass the living if they are not propitiated by offerings.

Heaven (tian), or the Jade Emperor, does not receive much cultic attention because of his remoteness. People mostly turn to those deities who are connected with the daily lives of the people for the abovementioned favors. Each deity is usually in charge of a particular department and is believed to be able to deliver the favor requested. Thus gate deities are believed to guard doors preventing evil spirits from entering the house. An image of the lord of the hearth, or kitchen god, who reports the family's good and bad deeds to the Jade Emperor, is printed on paper and kept above the kitchen. A few days before the New Year his mouth is smeared with honey or stick candy and then burned in the hope that he will report only the good deeds or remain silent. Some deities cure illnesses; others control epidemics. Each town and administrative district has its patron deity. Earth deities, Tudi Gong and She Chi, control the fertility of the soil. A deity presides over a shrine or temple. Worshippers usually make offerings to all these deities, or at least pay respects and offer incense. Lowest in the spiritual realm are ancestors and ghosts.

Temples of popular religions do not have resident clergy. A temple is administered by a caretaker whose only religious duty may be reading oracle slips. The presiding deity appoints the chief ritual official for the year, called the Master of the Incense Brazier, through divination.

Ancestor worship is as important for the Chinese as it is for African traditional religions. Burial of the dead and rituals for ghosts are important aspects of Chinese popular religion. Buddhist and Daoist priests perform funeral rites to save the dead from severe judgment and punishment in hell. The funeral involves a festive procession to the cemetery. Most Chinese bury their dead; Buddhists usually choose cremation. Believing that the dead have needs similar to those of the living, the Chinese give them paper houses, furniture, cars, servants, and money, which are burned at the burial site. The dead are mourned for a set period, after which mourning gradually diminishes until it is done only on the anniversary of the birth and death of the deceased and on the festival of the dead. A wooden tablet inscribed with the deceased's name and titles is deposited in the family's ancestral altar. It is believed that the yang aspect of the deceased's essence comes to reside in the tablet. Thus the deceased joins the ancestors.

The yin aspect of the deceased's essence descends to hell to face judgment, punishment for evil committed in life, and the level of reincarnation. As in Hinduism and Buddhism, although the punishment might be grizzly, there is no eternal hell. After the dead expiate their punishment, they proceed to the Tenth Court, where reincarnation to one of the five realms—god, demon, human, animal, and hell, which are the same as Buddhism minus the hungry ghost—is determined. The reason for this omission may be Chinese belief in ghosts.

If graves are maintained and ancestors are given proper ritual offerings, they do not cause any harm to the living, but may, instead, confer blessings on them. But if these rites are not performed, ancestors may visit the family with misfortunes, such as quarrels, business or crop failures, illness, and lack of sons. If the family suffers from any of these afflictions, it may try to determine the cause by consulting a medium, who may go into a trance, perform a séance, or resort to methods of divination to identify the ancestor, determine their grievance, and prescribe the remedy. After the family performs the prescribed ritual, it is believed that the ancestor is appeased and stops troubling the family.

Sometimes the cause of disturbance may be a demon or a ghost. In such a case, exorcism is prescribed. "Homeless ghosts" may harass a family or community. These ghosts are appeased with small offerings placed outside the back door. They are also given offerings during the festival of the dead (Cohen 290–293).

Festivals

Every temple or shrine holds at least one Annual Festival for its primary deity, usually on the deity's birthday. On such an occasion, the temple is cleaned and decorated, the image given new clothes or headdress, and carried through the community in an elaborate procession to let the deity survey his realm and confer blessings. Participants come to pray and offer incense, candles, food, and paper money. After the deity receives the essence of the food, the worshippers take their offerings home for their own consumption and thereby receive the deity's blessings. Food offerings consist of rice, meat, fruit, and pastries. Later on, groups perform theatrical and puppet shows on themes of morality and social values for the entertainment of the deity and the community.

Celebrated at the end of January or the beginning of February, the New Year's Festival is one of the most important. The theme is cleaning out the old and making an auspicious new beginning. Businesses are closed, old debts are paid, and houses are cleaned and prepared for the feast and arrival of guests. People usually buy new clothes and presents for children. On the eve of the New Year, families gather at the local temple to worship various gods and venerate ancestors. Then everyone gathers for the feast. Firecrackers, processions, and parades add final touches to the festivities. The New Year cycle ends with prayers for the Jade Emperor on the ninth and the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day.

Among other major festivals is the Pure and Bright Festival, held in early April. It is associated with renewal of yang forces in nature and rituals for ancestors, whose graves are cleaned and redecorated, and to whom food offerings are made. The family enjoys a picnic. In June, the Dragon Boat Festival includes boat races and the consumption of rice cakes.

Similar to the Japanese festival, as we shall see, the Festival of the Dead is held in late August. It is believed that during this time, the gates of hell are opened and all the souls—ancestors, hungry and homeless ghosts—are loosed upon the world. To propitiate them, all the temples perform rites of salvation. Money and other offerings are made to the ancestors. Food and flower offerings are set out to propitiate hungry ghosts. And families come together for a feast.

Other festivals include Autumn Harvest Festival in September and the Daoist Holiday during the winter solstice for the renewal of the universe. The rest of the year is strewn with festivals honoring heroes, gods, goddesses, such as Guanyin, founders of religions, primal ancestors, and saints.

Laozi, the Putative Founder of Daoism

Chapter 8: Daoism

Timeline

c. 604 BCE | Legendary birth date of Laozi

---|---

c. 350–300 BCE | Composition of Inward Training (Nei-yeh)

c. 3rd century BCE | Composition of Daodejing

c. 369–286 BCE | Zhuangzu, third founding source of Daoism

142 CE | Composition of the present version of Zhuangzi

c. 2nd century | Zhang Jue, founder of Yellow Turban sect

c. 3rd century | Zhang Daoling, founder of the Way of Heavenly Masters sect

367–370 | Yang Xi, founder of the Mao Shan Sect of the Highest Purity

748 | First compilation of the Daoist Canon

1113–1169 | Wang Zhe, founder of the Quan Zhen sect

1966–1976 | Cultural Revolution, suppression of all religions

1990–2000 | Restoration of Daoist temples and sects

|

It is a question of finding a balance in life. Balance is so difficult to achieve in our multicultural, multitasking world, as we are perpetually in a mad rush to somewhere. Daoism says balance is to be found at that pivotal center where all affirmations and denials converge, which allows you to view all things in their right relationship. If you desire balance and such a center, then be natural. Nothing artificial. No additives, please! No compulsion, no addiction. Cease striving. Abandon greed, acquisitiveness, and competitiveness. Be fluid, like a gurgling spring bouncing off rocks, bounding at its own pace toward ever deeper and wider currents until you flow into the ocean of the ultimate Dao. How do you get started? Start where you are now. Do nothing. Just be yourself.

The origin of Daoism is shrouded in the mist of China's legendary past. Nothing is known for certain about its supposed founder, Laozi. According to the traditional tale, Laozi was in his mother's womb for eighty-two years before he was born, in 604 BCE, with white hair (a sign of wisdom) and fully able to speak. He became the curator of the imperial archives in Luoyang. His wisdom and spiritual depth drew many disciples. However, dissatisfied with the disintegration of Chinese society and failing to persuade people to follow the Dao, Laozi decided to leave the country for greater solitude in the west. As he proceeded to leave Luoyang through the western gate, the guard, recognizing the unusual character of the man and failing to persuade him to stay, prevailed upon him to leave behind a record of his wisdom. So he stayed at the gatehouse long enough to write the treatise consisting of five thousand characters (eighty-one poems) that came to be commonly regarded as the founding scripture of Daoism, the Daodejing—meaning the Classic of the Way and Its Power.

However, scholars now think that the above story is a fiction concocted in the third century BCE. Moreover, many do not consider the Daodejing the original scripture of Daoism. That honor goes to the Inward Training (Nei-yeh), composed about 350–300 BCE and later incorporated into an anthology of the Daoist texts known as the Guanzi. Toward the beginning of the third century BCE, a different branch of the same general tradition began to add not only materials dealing with living in accord with the Dao through meditative practices but also teachings on how to transform society by transforming the individual. Eventually, during the Han rule, all these and other materials were brought together by some redactor, who produced an initial text of the Daodejing. At about this time, a similar process of evolution went into the making of the third Daoist scripture, the Zhuangzi, by a different branch of the Daoist community—the present version having been emanated from the third century CE.

Belief in the Sacred

As explained in the last chapter, "dao" literally means "way" or "path." Generally, it refers to the way according to which all things in the universe operate. It is also the totality of yin and yang, and the principle of order in nature. It is the pattern of perfection, wholeness, and harmonious integration of all things. Confucius applied it to "the way under Heaven," that is, to the natural order, and more specifically to social harmony, political order, moral rightness, and right relationships in all dimensions of society, including familial and personal. As it will be presently clear, Daoism gave it a deeper meaning.

Daoism is a nontheistic religion. Some scholars consider it philosophy. Others regard it an amalgam of teachings lacking organization and a central core. In reality, the core of Daoism offers an encompassing vision of

• The Dao as Ultimate Reality

• Its relation to the natural world and to human nature and society

• The persistent problems endemic to the human condition caused by human beings

• The transformation they must undergo to become free of them

The central features of this comprehensive vision show that Daoism fulfills the criteria of religion outlined in chapter 1. This will become clear as we proceed.

Another common belief is that the early, classical period of Laozi and Zhuangzi is philosophical, that religious Daoism evolved at a later date, and that the two are discontinuous. However, as Harold Roth and others have argued, all three founding scriptures originated in communities that engaged in meditation and related spiritual practices. The group that produced Inward Training practiced, among others, circulation of Qi, or primal Energy, through taiji (slow, dance-like bodily movements to circulate Qi), qigong (Energy cultivation exercises), and guided breathing meditation. It was also, says Harold Roth, "concerned with cosmology and the inner transformation of the individual leading to the mystical experience of attaining union with the Way" (Original Tao 7). Similarly, the Daodejing was centered on specific mystical techniques shared in common by a community of Daoists who passed on their tradition to others. The Zhuangzi likewise stemmed from a community that practiced meditation. This is clear from instructions on meditation strewn throughout the text. All three scriptures are, therefore, religious texts to their very core. To be sure, Daoism did assume an outwardly religious face when it added popular religious practices. But its classical, mystical goal of going beyond the self and realizing oneness with the Dao was never abandoned in the later period, although other practices and goals did come to the foreground. Thus, there is continuity between the Daoist classical period and later developments. This will become presently clear.

This section will be concerned with an exposition of the concept of ultimate Dao as found in the Daodejing and the Zhuangzi, its relationship to the natural world, and Daoist view of the human condition.

The Dao as Ultimate Reality in the Daodejing

The opening lines of the first poem of the Daodejing immediately plunge the reader into the deepest mystery of the Dao in the following words:

The dao that can be expressed in words

Is not the Ultimate Dao;

The name that can be named

Is not the Nameless in itself.

Nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth;

The named is the mother of the myriad creatures. (57)

There are many daos, or ways—of nature, physics, society—that we can describe. But the Ultimate Dao cannot be literally expressed in positive terms. Language was forged to describe limited objects. But the Ultimate Dao is beyond any limitation. Therefore, It cannot be grasped by the ordinary mind, named, or described in language. Hence it is called indescribable and nameless. Like the Upanishadic concept of Brahman and Buddhist concepts of Nirvana and Emptiness, negative terms, metaphors, analogies, and, above all, paradoxes are the best ways to speak of the Ultimate Dao.

Furthermore, the Daodejing says that the Dao is "undifferentiated and yet complete" and is "formless" (XXV.159). Unlike amorphous matter prior to the emergence of forms, Ultimate Dao is undifferentiated because It is beyond any form. Moreover, It is not something potential but actual, because It is all things as they actually exist in their ultimate state and complete because It is wholly all things in its infinity. Negatively and paradoxically, the Daodejing states:

Infinite and boundless, it cannot be named.

It belongs to the realm of no beings.

It may be called the shape of no shape.

It may be called the form of no-form (quoted by Kohn 1:46).

Being boundless and infinite, nothing can limit the Dao. Beyond the duality of being and nonbeing, the Dao is called nonbeing to emphasize that It is not a limited object or definable thing. Another term for the Dao is emptiness (IV.60). Unlike the Buddhist concept of emptiness, the emptiness of the Dao is a consequence of its being beyond any form—like a boundless container that holds and sustains all things. Emptiness refers to its essential nature as Nonbeing out of which beings emerge in innumerable forms, to which people assign names, labels, values, and distinctions.

Two of the similes the Daodejing uses to speak of the Dao as the original nature are newborn infant and uncarved block. Like a newborn infant before conditioning programs its responses, the Dao is the state in which no condition or limitation exists. Similarly, just as an uncarved block has no set form that could limit its possibilities, the Dao is the formless, inexhaustible source from which all things emerge bearing in their forms potencies for further development. Thus, as Benjamin Schwartz explains, these similes "assert that things emerge from nonbeing in their soft, undefined, fluid, and therefore truly potent states. They are thus closer to the heart of the Tao [Dao]. As they progress to hardness, crystallization, and clear differentiation, they are more isolated and cut off from the source of being" (196).

The Dao in the Zhuangzi

Further illumination on the Ultimate Dao comes from Zhuangzi (369–286 BCE). We have little information about Zhuangzi's life. According to the historian Sima Qian, his name was Zhuang Zhou, a native of Meng in southern China, today's Henan Province. He died around 290–286 BCE, making him a contemporary of Mencius. The present form of the Zhuangzi was probably compiled in the third century CE.

Using humor, fantasy, affirmation, negation, and paradox, Zhuangzi tries to jolt the mind out of its habitual dualistic thinking of separating reality into being and nonbeing or nothingness, the world into subject and object, and truth into yes and no. He uses language to cancel language, to silence the mind, and to bring it to a direct experience of the Dao. This method exerted a powerful influence in the development of Chan /Zen koan.

Paradoxically, Zhuangzi says that the Dao is beyond any duality and relativity. You cannot say that it is or that it is not, since both "is" and "is not" represent only a partial, limited point of view. The Dao is not a point of view but the ultimate unity beyond opposites that embraces and reconciles all points of view. On It all multiplicities converge, and in Its unity their distinctions dissolve and disappear. So he says, "The pivot of Tao [Dao] passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge. He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which all movements and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship" (Merton 42–43).

To express the omnipresent and all-embracing nature of the Dao, Zhuangzi uses affirmation in the following dialogue, which resembles the Zen koan about the Buddha being a shit-removing stick (i.e., toilet paper):

Master Tung-kuo asked Chuang Tzu, "This thing called the Way—where does it exist?"

Chuang Tzu said, "There is no place it doesn't exist."

"Come," said Master Tung-kuo, "you must be more specific!"

"It is in the ant."

"As low a thing as that?"

"It is in the panic grass [a kind of millet]."

"But that's lower still!"

"It is in the tiles and shards."

"How can it be so low?"

"It is in the piss and shit!"

Master Tung-kuo made no reply. (Watson 241)

Since nothing is other than the Dao, there is nowhere where It is not and nothing that It is not. Tung-kuo's mistake was to look for It in some separate realm labeled holy or celestial, and not in things we discard as unworthy of our consideration. The infinity and omnipresence of the Dao imply that even the smallest particle of matter is not other than It.

Lest affirmative terms and statements are taken literally as definitions, which would make the Dao relative and finite, Zhuangzi goes on to issue denials using paradoxical language when he says,

The limit of the unlimited is called "fullness."

The limitlessness of the limited is called "emptiness."

Tao is the source of both. It is in itself neither fullness nor emptiness.

Tao produces both renewal and decay but is neither renewal nor decay.

It causes being and nonbeing, but is neither being nor nonbeing.

Tao assembles and it destroys, but it is neither the Totality nor the Void. (Merton 124)

As affirmations create limitations, we need to correct our perspective by seeing the limit of the limitless as fullness (i.e., in its infinity the Dao is fully present in the limited) and the limitless nature of the limited as emptiness. However, the Dao is neither exclusively fullness nor emptiness. To arrive at the truth, we have to remove the limitation of the affirmative and affirm the reality of the negative, then affirm the denial of both. This is conveyed in the following story:

Starlight asked Non-Being: "Master, are you? Or are you not?" Since he received no answer whatever, Starlight set himself to watch for Non-Being. He waited to see if Non-Being would put in an appearance. He kept his gaze at the deep Void, hoping to catch a glimpse of Non-Being. All day long he looked, and he saw nothing. He listened, but he heard nothing. He reached out to grasp, and he grasped nothing. Then Starlight exclaimed at last: This is IT! This is the farthest yet. Who can reach it? I can comprehend the absence of being, but who can comprehend the absence of nothing? If now on top of all this, Non-Being IS, who can comprehend it? (Merton 125)

For Starlight, reality is some identifiable thing that can be detected by the senses or understood by the mind, or it is nothing at all. But since Nonbeing or the Dao, here called "Master," is not a being or any limited object, it is impossible for anyone to see, hear, grasp, or comprehend It. So It made no reply. But the Dao is not mere absence either. As Nonbeing, the Dao is infinite, which is beyond the duality of being and nothingness. Its indivisibility means that each thing is nothing but the Dao. Its universality assures Its presence everywhere and in everything. As the center of all reality, the Dao embraces and reconciles all in Its totality.

Dao as the Natural World

The infinite Dao relates to the world of finite things mainly as their nature and source. As their source, the Dao is called "the mother of the universe" and "the ancestor of myriad creatures." But the source is not other than what flows from It. So, as their nature, the Dao is de that determines the nature of all things and enables them to operate in harmony with the rhythm of the universal process. Thus de is the manifestation of Dao as existing things. As Tateno Masami says, de is "the corresponding existing phenomenal expression of Dao in the realm of actual being" (182). Proceeding from the Dao, de is the primary form or Supreme Being, alternately called the One, from which the world came into being (Daodejing 42: Lau tr. p. 103).

The Human Condition: Although the Dao is our original nature, we do not live according to It. The reason is our consciousness. While in itself it is an expression of the Dao, because of conditioning, our consciousness comes to perceive, interpret, identify, and impose categories and value judgments on things. Thereby we create a world in separation from and opposition to the Dao. We are then propelled by desire and striving and impelled by greed and acquisitiveness. Competitiveness and self-assertion separate and insulate us from the natural state and make us swim against the natural current—against the flow of the Dao in which all things live, move, and have their being.

As a result, we create a disordered world, which we find unsatisfactory. The drive to find happiness and fulfillment in our world puts us at odds with our true nature, making us unhappy. We then harness desire, striving, and self-assertion to find happiness. But they serve to fuel the original discontent. Greed, attachment, and selfishness drive us to zero in on certain things and proceed to control the world according to the socially imposed value judgments. But that only gets us caught in an ever-expanding cycle of wanting and striving without finding fulfillment (Daodejing 18, 38, 64). So long as we remain in this state, we cannot attain the goal of oneness with the Dao.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

Given the Daoist view of the human condition, it would follow that nothing short of going beyond it will enable anyone to realize the final goal of oneness with the Ultimate Dao. The corresponding path necessary for attaining this goal is that of self-transformation. No medium will enable anyone to reach it. Since the Dao is our ultimate nature, a medium would create a distance, and therefore would keep us separated from the Dao. It would present a version or idea of the Dao rather than the Dao itself, preventing the experience of identity. Thus, only direct and unmediated experience of oneness can lead to an identity with the Dao. So, everything that is other than the Dao must be transcended or set aside.

However, there are many different interpretations of the Dao. Consequently, there are different views of the goal of the Daoist path. The view presented in this chapter is that in the classical period, Daoism was essentially a mystical path of attaining oneness with the Dao and living in harmony with its manifestation in the natural processes. While the Daodejing also addresses the political issue of how to transform society by transforming the individual and thus bringing peace and harmony in society, the Zhuangzi is more concerned with mystical living. The mysticism of all three founding texts is clear from their prescription of meditative methods, breath circulation, and circulation of qi.

A second major interpretation is that Daoism is concerned with nature or a form of nature mysticism. According to this interpretation, the Dao is primal energy or force, and the goal is to live spontaneously, in organic harmony with nature.

Most writers who see a form of nature mysticism in the Daodejing think that the goal is to merge with some impersonal force and live in unity with it. But for other mystical interpreters, the Dao is formless Infinite and unity with It is an experience of identity with no differentiation between the individual and the Dao.

For mystical interpreters, there are two main goals and two methods for attaining them. One is naturalness, that is, the state of nature prior to conditioning and cultural fashioning of the individual, the method for attaining which is wu wei. The other is realizing oneness with the Dao, and the method for attaining it, in addition to wu wei, is meditation. In later development of Daoism other goals and methods came to the foreground, but realizing oneness with the Dao remained the ultimate goal.

The first step in attaining the goals is the reversal (40: Lao 101) which, in the naturalistic sense, is a return to naturalness or spontaneous way of nature. But in the mystical sense, it consists in a reversal of the orientation of consciousness from the action mode of striving to shape the world according to our designs and purposes to a nonaction mode of effortless being. It entails turning consciousness from its outward orientation toward the world to the inner realm of the Source, which is the Dao.

The second step is being without knowledge and without desires (III. 9). This expression does not refer to being without all desires but those that are concerned with socially imposed priorities and excessive desires tied to greed. Such desires reinforce the present condition and take us further away from the Dao (I.1). They multiply when we satisfy them, keep us tethered to discontent, and make us lose the way to the Dao. Freedom from these desires is essential to naturalness. Since desires drive the action mode, being without them enables nonaction mode or wu wei to come to the center stage as the guiding principle of action and life.

Thus, naturalness is the state and wu wei or nonaction is the method for attaining it and the Dao. Naturalness entails a fundamental interconnectedness embracing people, things, and the universe as a whole. It calls for a life of simplicity, spontaneity, and freedom from artificiality. It discards socially engineered values and the profit motive as the dominant impetus for acting, eliminates selfishness, and fosters internal developmental tendencies inherent in all things. In politics, it shuns external imposition of values, laws, or government programs to make people live together in peace and harmony, such as Confucius prescribed, but allows people to spontaneously come to a harmonious state by following their own inclinations (Xiaogan 215–232).

The method of wu wei is a process of undoing the action mode based on conventional knowledge and acting to satisfy our desires for happiness, self-worth, and meaning as determined by social norms and values. Positively, it calls for being centered in the Dao and acting freely, spontaneously, and effortlessly from inclinations that arise from the depth of one's being. Action flowing from this center is free of craving and grasping, as well as conditioned reactions; in this way, it opens up the creative possibilities of a situation. Free of self-interest, we are able to see how things are and respond according to what is most fitting, constructive, or helpful instead of imposing our will or mental model of what is or ought to be. Such actions become spontaneous expressions of effortless being.

The second method of self-transformation is meditation. The centrality of meditation can be gauged by recalling that, as Harold Roth points out, "the foundational texts of the tradition were produced within one or more closely related master-disciple lineages whose principal focus was on learning and practicing techniques." Among the meditation practices in which the tradition engaged, he says, "the single most important technique was of guiding and refining the flow of vital energy or vital breath (qi) within the human organism." The techniques used were movement exercises such as taiji and qigong and seated meditation involving breath circulation aimed at "removing the normal contents of the mind to produce a profound tranquility" leading to realizing oneness with the Dao (Roth 60–62).

One of the passages in the Daodejing that deals with instruction on meditative techniques is the following from chapter 10:

Amidst the daily activity of the psyche,

can you embrace the One and not depart from it?

When concentrating your vital breath until it is at its softest,

can you be like a child?

Can you polish your mysterious mirror and have no blemish?

The first line refers to a technique of keeping attention focused on the One until the student experiences oneness (samadhi) with it, and keeping that unitive consciousness in the midst of daily activities. The second has to do with a refined and subtle level of breathing in concentrative meditation until the breath becomes as soft and supple as that of an infant. The third hints at the advanced state of meditation in which the "mysterious mirror" or mind, void of any thought or content, becomes a mirror on which all things are reflected as they are. "Mysterious mirror" is also a metaphor used by Chan Buddhist masters.

In the following verse the Laozi uses metaphorical language to give instructions on how to meditate:

Block the openings;

Shut the doors.

Blunt the sharpness;

Untangle the knots;

Soften the glare;

Let your wheels move only along old ruts.

This is known as mysterious sameness. (56; Lau 117)

The first two lines instruct students to block the openings of the senses and shut the doors of sensory perception. Next they have to soften or diminish thinking, blunt or stop the rational mind, and cultivate wu wei, thereby untangling the knots of desires and attachments. As the mind flows along the nonaction mode, or "old ruts," it eventually merges with the Dao, called "mysterious sameness."

One of the methods the Inward Training recommends, as the passage below makes it clear, is concentration on the breath to unify attention. This requires keeping the body erect, with the limbs aligned in meditative posture, the senses calm and drawn inward, and making the breath tranquil—all of which are reminiscent of Patanjali's instructions in the Yoga Sutras:

When the four limbs are aligned

And the blood and vital breath are tranquil,

Unify your awareness concentrate your mind. (XIX. Roth 82)

Next, the student has to circulate the vital breath through the various centers of the body. When this circulation empties out the contents of the mind so that it goes beyond any separation from anything, his awareness expands to the level of unity with the cosmos. As the Inward Training again says,

When you enlarge your mind and let go of it,

When you relax your vital breath and expand it,

When your body is calm and unmoving:

And you can maintain the One and discard the myriad disturbances.

This is called "revolving the vital breath":

Your thoughts and deeds seem heavenly. (XXIV. Roth 92)

The Inward Training repeatedly states that a tranquil mind that does not react to stimuli and is free of attachment is essential. When the student relaxes his body, reduces sense perception, discards thoughts, and expands awareness by emptying the mind to the point of limitlessness, he attains the Dao. (XVII. Roth 78)

Unmistakable references to meditation are strewn throughout the Zhuangzi. Thus, it instructs students to "keep still" and not to "sit but race around" (Watson 58). As anyone who sits in meditation realizes, the mind is like a wild, untamed horse, racing from one thought or thing to another, never staying anywhere for long. So, the Zhunagzi says that when students sit in meditation, they should hold attention on the object of meditation and not let it race around like a galloping horse.

To make the mind still, the Zhuangzi teaches students the method of "fasting of the mind," which consists, first, of stopping sensory perception and freeing themselves of attachment to likes and dislikes. The more advanced stage of fasting consists of emptying the mind of all its thoughts and contents, whereupon it becomes still. As he says, "The Way gathers in emptiness alone. Emptiness is the fasting of the mind" (Watson 205, 58). From this void-state, the student can attain oneness with the Dao.

On breath-circulation, the Zhuangzi says, for instance, "The True Man [i.e., the sage] breathes with his heels" (Watson 78). This well-known Daoist meditation consists of concentrating on the breath, visualizing, and drawing it up through the heels into and up the central channel to the crown center, where the student experiences oneness with the universe. The Zhuangzi calls this guarding the "pure breath," which is clearly the pure mind, void of any content. This method nourishes the breath, or qi, unifies our nature, and "communicates with that which creates all things" (Watson 198).

Finally, in a spectacular passage, Zhuangzi not only unmistakably refers to meditation but also clearly indicates the stages of consciousness students must progressively deconstruct and go beyond until they arrive at the realization of identity with the Dao. He relates this through a fictitious and humorous dialogue between Confucius and his beloved disciple, Yan Hui:

Yan Hui said, "I'm improving!"

Confucius said, "What do you mean by that?"

"I've forgotten benevolence and righteousness!"

"That's good. But you still haven't got it."

Another day, the two met again and Yan Hui said,

"I'm improving!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I've forgotten rites and music!"

"That's good. But you still haven't got it!"

Another day the two met again and Yan Hui said,

"I'm improving!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I can sit down and forget everything!"

Confucius looked very startled and said, "What do you mean,

sit down and forget everything?"

Yan Hui said, "I smash up my limbs and body, drive out

perception and intellect, cast off form, do away with

understanding, and make myself identical with

the Great Thoroughfare. That is what I mean by

sitting down and forgetting everything."

Confucius said, "If you're identical with it, you must have

no more likes! If you've been transformed you must have

no more constancy! So you really are a worthy man

after all! With you permission, I'd like to become

your follower." (Watson 90–91)

"Sitting down and forgetting everything" means emptying the mind of all contents and objects. The first stage in this deconstruction consists of "forgetting" or stilling sense perception, emotions, and desires (smashing up limbs and body). The next is stopping discursive thought and the rational mind (driving out perception and intellect). "Casting off form" means cutting through identification with and attachment to objects and mental contents. As the subject-object duality thereby collapses, the mind becomes formless or pure void. In this state of total self-transcendence, nothing remains in the mind to separate awareness from anything else so that it goes beyond intuition or wisdom ("doing away with understanding"). It is in this state beyond all limitation and duality that the Daoist experiences identity with the Dao ("identical with the Great Thoroughfare"). This is "return to the Source"—the final goal of the path.

Ethics and the Good Life

Ethics is an essential component of every religion. That is also true of Daoism. But from apparently disparaging remarks by Laozi and Zhuangzi about doing away with benevolence and righteousness, it may appear that Daoism gives a short shrift to ethics. Thus Laozi says, "When the great Dao falls into disuse there are benevolence and rectitude" (XVIII. Lau 74). He advises the Daoist to get rid of sages who preach these virtues as well as the virtues themselves. Similarly Zhuangzi observes that benevolence and righteousness change the inborn human nature by imposing external societal standards, values, and distinctions of right and wrong, good and bad. This confuses people, makes them lose their "constant naturalness" and veer away from the Dao and its power (de), thereby losing their goal in life (Watson 100–103, 149–150).

One reason for this critical stance is that, for Daoism, ethics is a part of the values of the conventional world that cannot eradicate the fundamental human problems but can act only as an external hedge against chaos and disorder, like pouring water on a dying tree the roots of which are being eaten away. They are emphasized in a world where people have no knowledge of natural goodness because they are unaware of the Dao and de.

For Daoism, the Dao and de form the foundation and norm of goodness and ethics. As the manifestation of the Dao, de is our "inborn nature," the original nature we are born with prior to conditioning and socialization. Since this nature is wholly good, if everyone lived "following the true form of their inborn nature," called "constant naturalness," goodness, order, and harmony would prevail throughout the world (Watson 103). When we live by the power of the Dao, we have true virtue. So Zhuangzi says, "You have only to go along with Virtue in your actions, to follow the Way in your journey, and already you will be there" (Watson 74, 150).

Because in our conditioned state we have no knowledge of our original nature, Zhuangzi says that we must discover it by following wu wei, meditation, the values conducive to the Dao and enhancing of de, and adhering to a life of simplicity (Watson 152–153). The reason is that, as Jung Lee explains, at the most general level, ethics, for early Daoists, can be called "an ethics of metanoia: a call for the radical revaluation and reordering of one's fundamental orientation of life to coincide with the underlying structure and pattern of ultimate reality [i.e., Dao]" (511–512). Ethics has the same function in Daoism as it does in yoga and Buddhism—a preliminary step to a total reorientation and transformation of consciousness. Anything short of that we remain tethered to partial viewpoints and external rules that are socially determined and maintained by consensus. On this level all values are deemed relative and therefore of equal worth.

Such a relativistic stance seems to land Daoism in amoralism, nihilism, or skepticism. Actually, while Daoism rejects conventional values of society and its ethical norms, the natural state Daoism speaks of is an ethical norm in relation to society. Moreover, as Edward Singerland explains, "throughout the Zhuangzi we see the theme of effortlessness cognized in terms of a normative order—either the Way or Heaven, or simply the disposition of things-in-themselves" (195). Eske Mollgaard calls this normative stance a "meta-moral attitude," that is, an ideal perspective that elevates moral distinctions on a higher plane of one's "inborn nature" that serves as an ideal or moral imperative according to which one should act (356–363). This imperative frees the mind and will from conventional moral rules of acting and views of right and wrong. Instead, it places us at the threshold of the meta-ethical choice of seeking the reality of our true nature and destiny. When ethical action proceeds from this foundation, it can bring about personal and social transformation, and peace and harmony in society.

Perfectly embodying these values and goals is the sage or the perfected person whom Daoism holds up to society like a mirror. Unlike Confucius's junzi—ideal person—for Laozi the sage embraces the One and becomes a model for the world by going beyond ego (49). For Zhunagzi, the sage or "the Perfect Man is godlike" (Watson 198). Through nonaction (wu-wei) the sage rectifies the world by being emptied of everything extraneous to the original nature (45). Seeing things directly in the light of the Dao, she acts spontaneously and effortlessly (wu-wei) as is most fitting and beneficial in any given situation (47). Such a person has attained the state of naturalness and radiates the Dao.

Having realized identity with the Dao the sage lives naturally and effortlessly from this limitless center. Because his identity has shifted from ego to the Dao, Zhuangzi declares, "The Perfect Man has no self; the Holy Man has no merit; the Sage has no fame" (Watson 32). Established at the pivot of the Dao, which enables her to see all sides of a situation, instead of taking a stand on conventional values, she is able to respond effortlessly and unselfconsciously to do what is truly right and fitting. Thus, her every action becomes a norm of goodness and rightness.

This state of perfection is what Zhuangzi calls "free and easy wandering," in which the sage fully embodies and manifests the Dao. Because her mind is free of mental or emotional fixations, it is free from limitations and can wander in limitless Reality in unfettered freedom.

If everyone lived in this state of oneness with the Dao, everything would be in harmony with the cosmic order. There would be a restoration of the original state and peace and harmony in society. Daoist ethics is a stepping-stone to such a realization.

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

Not much is known about Daoist communities, their organization, or the types of institutions they developed. In the early period, the communities that produced the three foundational texts formed a context of master-disciple relationship. These may have been loose associations. Under the influence of Buddhism, Daoism developed monastic organizations that continue to exist today. There were also Daoist recluses, solitary individuals who usually inhabited temples tucked away in some remote mountains. Daoist sects that began to form in the second century CE continued to exist throughout Chinese history. They were more tightly organized. Some of them became embroiled in politics and suffered as a result. And, of course, Daoist laypeople existed in every walk of life—from being emperors and imperial advisers to ordinary citizens. Many of them were involved in popular religion that was mostly syncretistic in character, consisting of elements of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism blended with belief in ancient deities. They also practiced shamanism, magic, and healing. As popular religion was discussed at the end of the last chapter, this section will be primarily concerned with women in Daoism.

Women in Daoism

If Confucianism can be described as yang, or male gender–based, then Daoism is yin or female gender–based. The former would be patriarchal with women assigned a subordinate position in society, whereas the latter would envision a more complementary role for women. In fact, Daoism does envision women as expressions of the pure cosmic force of yin, equal and for some schools even superior to yang (Despeux and Kohn 1). However, the evidence of the classical texts and later historical records in support of this interpretation is quite mixed. In the Zhengi traditions of Taiwan and coastal China, women have had little or no significant role. However, in the Longmen tradition women were quite prominent. At times Daoists made sincere efforts to provide relatively equal opportunities to all, regardless of gender. And in the course of history, virtually all Daoist practices have been fully accessible to women.

In the classical period, the Inward Training and the Zhuangzi both seem gender neutral. As for the Daodejing, the early Guodian bamboo slips have few of the later text's use of "mother" or "the feminine" (Kirkland 128). However, the present text calls the supreme form in which the Dao manifests itself "the Mother" and "the Mysterious Female," whose "gateway" is "the root of heaven and earth" (4; Lau 62). As Mysterious Nonbeing, the Mother is emptiness, the inexhaustible source of all beings. The term "mother" is also associated with the earth and spoken of as "the mother of myriad creatures." As such, the Mother is the primal Being; the womb, source, and sustainer of all things. Thus, for Daoism, the creative, protective, sustaining dynamic energy of the unmanifest Dao is manifested in female form as the Mother.

It seems that the Daodejing's use of the term "mother" reflects Daoist assimilation of the ancient belief in the mother goddess She Chi. That may explain why Daoism accords primacy to the female, and places the intuitive mode of consciousness (yin) above the rational mode (yang).

Moreover, the present text of the Laozi abounds in female imagery used to depict the Dao on the natural plane, such as womb, breast, mother, and valley. These images are also connected with nonaction (wu wei), naturalness, and spontaneity. The core values of Daoism, such as nonassertiveness and receptivity are associated with the female. And by assuming the passive position, says the Daodejing, the female conquers the male: "The female always gets the better of the male by stillness" (16. 72). In stillness, the very nature of the Dao is revealed. In nature, the female plays the leading role in the procreative process, thereby becoming emblematic of the Dao.

Besides She Chi, Daoism also incorporated many goddesses from popular religion, such as river goddesses and rain goddesses. Among these goddesses one is of special importance—the Dragon Goddess, Nu-Gua, who is depicted as the creator of humanity and savior of the world. Complementary to the tiger (yang), the dragon (yin) represents a force of cosmic and spiritual transformation.

The most prominent and important Daoist goddess is the Queen Mother of the West, Xiwang mu. As the source of immortality, she became the object of veneration by Daoist immortals. Two other prominent goddesses are the Empress of Heaven, who protects sailors, and the Sacred Mother, who protects women and children (Reed 179–180).

In the human sphere, the pursuit of spiritual perfection was open to everyone. In Daoist institutions, women had the same chance of achieving Daoist goals as men. While women were subordinated to men in Chinese society, holistic and inclusive Daoist values did not place any gender-specific restrictions on women (Kirkland 133–145).

From the beginning, sectarian Daoism accorded women various official positions. Although the leadership developed was in the main patriarchal, in the Way of the Heavenly Masters sect that originated in the second century CE, women were admitted to the priesthood on an equal footing with men in all ranks save the highest. They also served as libationers—those who cured illness by using rituals involving consecrated water and other rites—and were made officials over large districts. Women founded Daoist sects and were respected as masters and scholars. Not only was Wei Huacun (251–334) a libationer, she was also the inspiration for the founding of Mao Shan Sect. In the fourth century CE the revelations of Lady Wei and other Heavenly Masters contributed to the formation of the Shanqing Movement. They taught the members a type of meditation that involved visualizing and projecting Energy (qi) into the goddess called the Mysterious Woman of the Nine Heavens. Such female sages or "Perfected Persons" gave evidence that women could achieve the highest goals.

Women also served as leaders of shamanic practices incorporated into Daoism. In addition, they conducted alchemical rituals for changing, it was believed, base metals into gold in order to produce the elixir of immortality. Even today, women serve as mediums for Redhead Daoist priests in Taiwan (so called from the color of their hat) (Reed 163–172).

Women admitted to a Daoist monastery enjoyed respect and sponsorship of the highest strata of society. During the Tang dynasty (c. 700 CE), not only imperial princesses but also women from the lower social class were admitted to ordination. They also enjoyed such respect as to be called on by officials to restore shrines. In the medieval period, not only did women feel free to pursue the religious life, but some of them also attained the highest goal of unity with the Dao. From the Song dynasty onward (960), while priestesses officially held the same title as priests, women's participation in religious life steadily declined. In 1077, there were only about 700 ordained Daoist women, compared to 18,500 men. By 1677, no woman was recognized as a priest, and by mid-twentieth century there was no mention of women in the White Cloud Monastery in Beijing. Increased restrictions placed on women by Chinese society reduced opportunities for women to play public roles comparable to those of men. After the Communists allowed religious freedom in 1982, visitors have come across priestesses and nuns who participate in worship rituals at Daoist abbeys.

In the social sphere, Daoism accepted the traditional subordinate roles assigned to women. However, it offers the female role as an alternative ordering principle for overcoming violence, disorder, and chaos, establishing harmony, and returning to the Dao.

Later Development of Daoism

Three major streams contributed to later development of Daoism. First, early Commentaries on the Daodejing gave Daoism a cosmological interpretation and emphasized restoration, preservation, and enhancement of qi or primal Energy found in various forms in the body. This allowed Daoists to incorporate traditional Chinese medicine, diet, drugs, and austerities into their search for longevity and immortality.

Second, shamanism spurred the integration of the desire for immortality and becoming immortal with mystical journeys and ecstatic experiences. This led to the cultivation of alchemy, trance, visualization, and astral travel and journeying to the spirit world. As a result, Daoists practiced alchemy and ascension to gain immortality (Chan 91–97).

Third, the impact of Buddhism led Daoism to emphasize transformation of consciousness through meditation. As a result, Daoists cultivated the Yoga of Inner Fire, and sexual yoga resembling Hindu and Buddhist tantras, monastic discipline, and delineation of Zen-like stages of transformation leading to an identity with the Dao and sagehood. But in the culminating stage Daoism combined it with the shamanic practice of ascension (Kohn 1:6; 3:62–69).

Other changes came about, beginning with the deification of Laozi in the later Han period (25–220 CE), when the king of Zhu and the Emperor himself made offerings and sacrifice to Laozi. This deification was a result of the belief that Laozi is the embodiment of the Dao as the Buddha is of the Buddha-nature. Like the Buddha, Laozi began to be addressed as the "Venerable Lord." He was elevated to the position of the highest deity in the Daoist pantheon. And he gained membership in the Daoist trinity, called the "Three Pure Ones"—Laozi, the Jade Emperor, and Pangu, the Primal Man.

Paths of Self-Transformation: Return to the Source

The above confluence contributed to the following three progressively deepening stages of self-transformation leading to oneness with the Dao:

• Physical transformation, aimed at good health, long life, and eventually becoming an ascended master or an immortal. To attain these goals, Daoists engaged in various practices ranging from diet to drugs to ascetical practices.

• Transformation of Energy into subtle essence through breath circulation exercises and sexual yoga.

• Transformation of subtle essence into Spirit through various meditative practices aiming to attain oneness with the universe, and, eventually, with the Dao.

Let us now examine in detail the practices that were meant to bring about these self-transformations.

I: Transforming the Body into Qi: Longevity and Immortality

In their quest for good health, long life, and immortality, Daoists centered their endeavors on qi. The aim was to preserve, strengthen, and expand it. As one form of qi is derived from food, Daoists believed that by controlling their diet they could attain harmony with the Dao, so they added fasting, special diet, drugs, and elixirs, as well as taiji and qigong exercises. Dieting consisted of abstaining from rice, millet, wheat, and soybeans, as well as anything hot or spicy; and subsisting on sesame seeds, pokeweed root, deer bamboo, and drugs distilled from pure plants. They also ingested the essence of pine resin, sesame, pepper, ginger, and calamus [climbing palm]. In addition, the Daoists frequently swallowed air through their mouths to suppress hunger and nourish their bodies with qi, purge the "defiling qi of ordinary foods," and eliminate "the internal demons" of their bodies (Eskildsen 44–60).

To live on Energy (qi), Daoists resorted to imbibing the five qi from the five elements issuing from five directions (the usual four, plus center). Practiced at dawn, the method consisted of directing five short chants to each of the five directions, then stimulating the salivary glands by rubbing various parts of the mouth with the tongue and swallowing the saliva three times.

Another method widely practiced was imbibing the essence of the sun and the moon by visualizing the sun in the Daoist's heart, and inside the sun a black canopy under which resides a small red child. Red vapor permeates and surrounds him, then rises from his head and envelops the sun. Next he visualizes the essence of the sun coming down and entering into him through the nostrils and mouth, which he has to swallow twenty-seven times. After the solar essence fills his heart, he is to visualize three deities dwelling there. The aim of this exercise was to free the Daoist of hunger and thirst and help attain long life. A similar exercise with the moon had the same aim.

Blood circulation involved concentration, visualization, and bodily movements. Bodily exercises included various kinds of stretching and massages, acupuncture, qigong, and taiji. Such exercises were said to expel various diseases, prolong life, and prevent aging.

Outer Alchemy: In their quest for long life, immortality, spiritual transformation, and ascension to heaven, Daoists developed a twofold approach, which may be called the outer alchemy and the inner alchemy. The former consisted of producing a pill, called the Elixir of Immortality, by using various metals, such as a mixture of cinnabar or mercury ore, gold, silver, lead, tin, and other ingredients. Cinnabar turns to mercury when heated, but if firing continues, after successive transformations, it is said to revert to cinnabar. This might have given Daoists the idea that cinnabar elixir yields immortality. But when the mixture is heated, the pill or elixir produced is extremely toxic. One alchemical text describes nine such elixirs and specifies the number of days the Daoist would have to ingest the pill in order to become an immortal. Depending on the potency of the pill, immortality—that is, death—could be instantaneous!

II: Inner Alchemy: Transforming Qi into Subtle Essence

Inner alchemy follows three basic stages of transformation leading to oneness with the Dao. Since qi is especially manifested in the breath, to transform it into subtle essence, Daoists practiced various breath circulation exercises. One was womb breathing, which required the Daoist to hold the breath, concentrate the mind, and visualize the colored qi of the five viscera (liver, lungs, heart, spleen, and kidneys) and their resident gods. This exercise was aimed at transforming the Daoist into an immortal. Breathing through the heels combines concentration, visualization, and circulation of the breath by drawing it up from the heels, through the central channel, to the top of the head, and then taking it down again. Other methods include abdominal breathing, involving deep, slow, gentle inhalation and exhalation until the breath becomes imperceptible.

A second type of meditation, called sexual yoga, was practiced to transform sexual energy into subtle essence in order to gain long life and immortality. As sexual energy, called "essence," is believed to be embodied in the semen in men and in menstrual blood and sexual fluid in women, the key to longevity and immortality was to conserve it rather than letting it flow out and be lost, which was believed to cause death. Conservation consisted of reversing the flow from outward to inward and upward to nourish the brain through sexual techniques and meditation. Men were instructed to have frequent intercourse with young female partners, induce them give up their essence (sexual fluid), and then, without ejaculating, to draw it up into themselves, mix it with their own fluid, and direct it upward to the crown center on the head. Similar instructions were given also to women.

III: Transforming Subtle Essence into Spirit

The third stage of meditation consisted of transforming subtle essence into Spirit by attaining oneness with the universe. One of the main methods was the yoga of inner fire, which is similar to Kundalini Yoga. It divides the body into three fields. The lower field is the abdominal center, the focus of generative force; the middle field is the heart center, which is the center of the mind; and the upper field is the third-eye center, called the "mysterious portal." The crown center is the seat of the Spirit. Using methods of posture and breathing, the qi is circulated through various channels until the immortal fetus—cosmic consciousness or spiritual self—is produced in the abdominal center. It is then raised up through the six centers until it emerges through the crown center, whereupon the Daoist attains oneness with the universe.

Ascension: On the final stage of the journey, ascension is the passage from a realized life on earth to eternal life in heaven. It consists of leaving this life and becoming immortal and assuming the heavenly life. In heaven earthly immortals assume the status of administrators and attendants to the higher Daoist deities. Prior to ascension, the Daoist receives a summons from heaven. Two kinds of ascension correspond to the two kinds of alchemy: bodily or mythical, and metaphorical or spiritual.

The bodily ascension can take three forms. The highest form consists of ascending on a celestial chariot, like Elijah, accompanied by a heavenly retinue. After receiving a summons to an office among the heavenly bureaucrats, on the appointed day, the immortal is formally met by a dragon-drawn chariot surrounded by clouds and escorted to heaven by a retinue of guards, horsemen, and attendants.

The second form consists of ascending on one's own steam by using clouds and streams of air for support and vanishing into thin air, like magicians.

In the third way, the immortal leaves his body behind. The method for this type of ascension consists of taking the cinnabar pill ritually and shuffling off this mortal coil. As a text explains, "The essence of ascension to immortality is the divine cinnabar alone!" (Kohn 3:303–312). This is, of course, a form of ritual suicide, the usual way Daoist masters are said to go. Reportedly, seven emperors, including the first Emperor Qin Shih Huangdi, took the pill and made his ascent to heaven.

The spiritual ascension is the process whereby the Daoist undergoes the ultimate transformation and realizes identity with the Dao. The final phase of spiritual ascension is "free and easy wandering," that is living effortlessly in the ultimate state of the Dao.

The first step toward this ascension consists of using inner alchemy to produce the immortal fetus in the third-eye center. It is then raised to the crown center, from where the doorway on top of the Daoist's head opens up and the spirit leaves her body to appear in the form of countless bodies in space (Lu Kuan Yu 3:161–176). At this stage, awareness breaks free of the space-time-causal matrix and the Daoist experiences an interface of the mind and the universe, which is ascension to the celestial realm. The ultimate state is reached when her consciousness becomes permanently established in the infinite realm. As one text states, "Only with this level have you truly reached the source of the Dao! Here all the myriad paths come to an end! This is called the final ultimate!" (Kohn 2:324). Thereupon the Daoist begins the immortal life, which consists of living effortlessly in the absolute freedom of the Unconditioned Dao.

Sectarian Heyday

Of the many Daoist sects that arose throughout the centuries, we will briefly discuss only a few noteworthy ones. The Yellow Turban sect broke out in rebellion and brought an end to the Han dynasty. The Way of Heavenly Masters was believed to have been inspired by ascended masters. The Mao Shan Sect of the Highest Purity was initiated by the immortal Lady Wei. The Quan Zen sect was a monastic group dedicated to rigorous discipline and meditative practices. After discussing these sects, we will conclude this chapter by briefly noting the state of Daoism today.

The Yellow Turban Sect: The Way of Great Peace

Inclusion of popular religious rituals, the desire to practice Daoist rituals, techniques, and meditation, and Buddhist influence led Daoists to form many voluntary associations and monasteries. Such organized groups began to develop in the second century CE and in time spread across the Chinese landscape.

Inspired by the Classic of Great Peace, which taught longevity and immortality, Zhang Jue and his brothers founded the Way of Great Peace Sect, which spread over eastern China. By curing people using magic formulas, incantations, and confessions, Zhang gathered many followers, who were then divided into troops, each led by a general. They wore yellow turbans, representing "Yellow Heaven," intended to replace the "Blue Heaven" of the Han dynasty. Their rebellion, called the Yellow Turban Rebellion, broke out in 184 CE. It spelled the end of the Han dynasty. Although the heart of the rebellion was crushed in nine months, the movement survived for several decades longer.

The Way of the Heavenly Masters: The Five Pecks of Rice Sect

Officially called "The Way of the Heavenly Masters" because its leaders were believed to be Heavenly Masters, it was also called the Way of Five Pecks of Rice (Wu-dou-mi Dao) from the five pecks of rice each convert was required to contribute. Laozi, who by this time was believed to be divine, is said to have appeared to Zhang Daoling in 142 CE on a mountaintop, appointed him the representative of the Dao, and given him the title of Heavenly Master. Subsequently, Zang founded the sect and instituted a system of parishes and priest-like libationers, who could be both men and women, controlled by his family. He started communal rituals of faith healing in which libationers used consecrated water, prayer, confession of sins, spells, and talismans (seals, figures, images, diagrams, or charts of stars or heavenly signs believed to have magical powers) to cure diseases and confer longevity. Zhang devised charms to protect people and claimed to exorcise evil spirits. In addition to prescribing meditation to his followers, he discovered an alchemical formula for the elixir of immortality and, at age 122, it is said, ascended alive to heaven.

The succession of Heavenly Masters Zhang initiated proved enduring over the course of centuries. Imperial support and recognition of Daoism as a major religion in return for political support of the regime led to the Sect's prominence and prestige. These hereditary Masters performed imperial investitures and conducted village festivals. Their line has continued unbroken to the present.

The Mao Shan Sect of the Highest Purity

This sect originated with revelations granted by the Immortal Lady Wei to Yang Xi between 367 and 370 CE. As it was situated on Mount Mao, it came to be called the Mao Shan School. And the name of "Highest Purity" is derived from the scripture (Shangqing) on which the teachings were based. It combined concern for longevity and immortality with meditation, visualization, and astral travel. It sought immortality and extraordinary powers through visualization and recitation of formulas for invoking deities. For longevity and immortality, the members visualized and invoked deities, which they believed resided in almost every part of the body. To purify the body, the adherents visualized the spirits of the viscera. Sexual yoga was practiced to produce not only bodily immortality but also the immortal fetus or cosmic consciousness. To absorb the energies of the deities, they practiced visualization of cosmic energies and astral bodies, recited formulas, and invoked the gods to come down and reside in their bodies. They also engaged in shamanistic journeys to the sun, moon, and stars. And accompanying the sun and the moon, they journeyed throughout the world. Through meditation, they aimed to realize cosmic unity and oneness with the Dao and to become immortal. Their influence continues to be felt today (Robinet 19–225).

Quan Zhen Sect

Other new sects and scriptures developed as centuries rolled on. One of the most important of these was the Quan Zhen or Total Perfection Sect founded by Wang Zhe (1113–1169). Initially a military man, Wang became a Daoist after experiencing two visits from Daoist immortals. He established monasteries and set up rigorous disciplines, including abstinence from meat and wine. The sect emphasized monasticism, asceticism, and self-cultivation. Influenced by Buddhism, Zhe prescribed celibacy and sitting meditation for controlling the mind and nourishing qi. For the members, self-cultivation meant dedicating themselves to realizing the ultimate goal, which required them to purify their minds by keeping it absolutely still at all times, especially during meditation. Their inner alchemy consisted of emphasizing the cultivation of their nature and life so as to attain immortality.

Today China is experiencing an awakening of religious belief. There is a religious building boom everywhere. While the Communist rule has engineered unprecedented prosperity, its ideology no longer holds sway over people's minds and hearts. As a result, there is a resurgence of religion in China. It is estimated that about 300 million Chinese are actively religious and about 85 percent of the population believes in religion. In cities, the young and upwardly mobile are turning to Christianity, while the middle class, small towns, and the countryside have shown a preference for Buddhism and Daoism. Even Islam is on the rise, especially in the West, albeit under tight government control because of recent disturbances in that area.

In 1982, China amended its constitution to allow freedom of religion, but under government control. The people are free to practice religion as long as they support the Communist regime. Within such limits, religion is thriving. Thousands of government-sponsored Catholic priests have been ordained. Hundreds of Protestant churches have opened each year. The central government has recently sponsored international conferences on Buddhism and Daoism. Local government has taken to rebuilding temples as a way to raise money from tourism. In the morning many flock to parks to do taiji. Some go to Daoist temples to offer incense and perform other rituals, while others engage in popular religious practices. Thus Daoism is recovering in mainland China. There are about 5,000 Daoist temples in China (up from 1,500 in 1997), and 10 in Beijing (up from one temple in 2000). But its greatest influence is in the daily life of the peasantry, especially in the countryside, and on the level of popular religion and sectarianism. However, the places where Daoism is said to be alive and well today are Taiwan and among the Chinese population in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. In these localities, Daoism has become syncretistic, combining shamanism and magic.

Itsukushima Torii

Chapter 9: Shinto

Timeline

c. 10000–250 BCE | Jomon Period, belief in mother goddess

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c. 250 BCE–250 CE | Yayoi Period, migration of peoples from mainland Asia and Pacific Islands

c. 250–600 | Kofun Period, emergence of Imperial Clan

552 | Introduction of Buddhism to Japan

c. 712 | Composition of Kojiki

c. 720 | Composition of Nihongi

1185–1333 | Kamakura Shoganate, blending of Shinto and Buddhism

1798–1887 | Life of Nakayama Miki

1868 | Emperor Meiji, restoration of imperial rule

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Establishment of State Shinto

1945 | Abolition of State Shinto

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Establishment of Shrine Shinto

1946 | Emperor Hirohito renounces the title of divinity

1989 | Death of Hirohito; ascension of Akihito as Emperor

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Among the many religions that grace the spiritual landscape of Japan, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto are the most prominent. More recently, many so-called new religions have cropped up that have combined elements of these religions with shamanism and popular practices. As in China, many Japanese people adhere to elements of Buddhism, Confucianism, and Shinto as each religion satisfies their different needs. Confucianism may guide people in forming proper associations and loyalties, cultivating familial and social cohesion and filial piety. Buddhism may provide the answer to the quest for personal identity, the vision of ultimate reality, and the paths for realizing them. It also enables the Japanese to understand death and conditions beyond, as well as supplying rituals for dealing with them. And, being a part of the Japanese culture and way of life, Shinto, the native religion of Japan, may help people to become fully participating members of the Japanese society. Thus, as Masaharu Anesaki has observed, "Shinto is the root embedded in the soil of the people's character and national traditions; Confucianism is seen in the stem and branches of legal institutions, ethical codes, and educational systems; Buddhism made the flowers of religious sentiment bloom and gave the fruits of spiritual life" (8).

The word Shinto means the "Way of the Gods," derived from two Chinese words: "shen," meaning "gods," and "dao," meaning "way" (the Japanese equivalent is Kami Nomichi, which means the same). The mainstream view is that this term was coined to differentiate the native Japanese religion from Buddhism. Toshio Kuroda, however, contends that not only the term but also the creation myths, rituals, shrines, and other features of Shinto are Chinese cultural imports derived from Daoism.

Our discussion of Shinto will begin by first noting Japanese prehistoric periods and some of the significant developments that took place at each time. We will then proceed to briefly outline the myth of the creation of Japan and the early development of Shinto.

Prehistoric Periods (10,000–250 BCE)

Japan went through several prehistoric periods before emerging in the light of history. In the Jomon Period (10,000–250 BCE) people believed in the mother goddess, or the earth, as the goddess of fertility and practiced fertility cults or some kind of phallic ritual. Ethnic groups migrating from East Siberia, Mongolia, Korea, and the Pacific Islands to Japan during the Yayoi Period (250 BCE–250 CE) brought their social, tribal, and religious traditions with them. Among these were matrilineal clans, one of which believed in the sun goddess as the patron of agriculture. The folk religion that emerged at this time was diffuse. Its prominent feature was a belief in kami, the word for the Sacred or deity in Shinto. Each clan had a guardian deity who was believed to be, and worshiped as, the founder or ancestor of that clan. The Kofun (tomb mound) Period (250–600 CE) witnessed the emergence of the imperial clan as the dominant power; its myth, and the main deity of that myth, the sun goddess Amaterasu, became the center around which the myths and deities of other clans were organized.

The myths about these deities were finally collected and written down in the early eighth century in two works, the Records of Ancient Matters (Kojiki) and the Chronicles of Japan (Nihongi or Nihon Shoki). Apparently written to legitimize the myth of a divine descent of the imperial clan and its rule, these works are not regarded as scriptures but national classics, containing myths of the creation of Japan, national origin, and Japan's special destiny.

The Myth of the Creation of Japan: Inconsistency between two accounts of creation speaks for the different sources the compilers of the Kojiki and the Nihongi used to form their connected narratives. Both of them betray Daoist influence, bolstering Kuroda's contention of their Daoist pedigree. Piecing the two together, we get the following picture.

In the beginning there was only chaos, out of which an egg appeared. As the egg split up, the purer and lighter element rose up and formed heaven, while the heavier element condensed below to form the earth. Various deities were born out of these two initial deities until, finally, the primal parents, Izanagi (Male-who-invites) and Izanami (Female-who-invites) emerged in the heavenly plane.

Descending to the Floating Bridge of Heaven, Izanagi stirred up the salty water below and the brine that dripped from the tip of his jeweled spear coagulated and formed an island. Izanagi and Izanami descended on it and gave birth to various deities—of other islands, wind, trees, mountains, and plains. Izanami's genitals got burnt when she gave birth to the god of fire. She died and descended to the underworld, with Izanagi in hot pursuit. But becoming polluted and greatly shaken by coming in contact with her hideous, putrefying form, he hastened to return. In her rage, Izanami and her retinue of evil spirits pursued him. Escaping his pursuers, Izanagi at last came to the border between life and death and rolled a huge boulder across to keep the two worlds separate.

Upon his return, Izanagi needed to purify himself of the pollution caused by his descent into the underworld and contact with the dead. The washing of his left eye gave birth to Amaterasu, the sun goddess; that of his right eye Tsukiyomi, the moon god; and from his nose emerged Susanowo, the storm god.

Izanagi made Amaterasu the ruler of the Heavenly Plain and gods of heaven; Tsukiyomi ruler of the night; and Susanowo the ruler of the ocean. This move did not sit well with Susanowo, who wreaked such havoc that Amaterasu hid herself in a cave, causing everything to go dark. To bring her out of the cave, a female deity performed a nude dance, which caused much laughter and merriment among other gods. Intrigued by this commotion, Amaterasu poked her head out, whereupon another deity yanked her out, causing light to return. Susanowo was exiled to the Izumo district (western Honshu), where he settled down. Later, Amaterasu sent messengers to claim the region for herself. He agreed, provided she would build him a heavenly palace.

When the gods of the earth became unruly, Amaterasu sent her grandson, Ninigi, with three emblems—curved beads, a mirror, and a sword—to rule the land. Ninigi first descended to the Floating Bridge of Heaven and then went to the peak of Mount Takaciho to begin his divine rule. He married the daughter of a local deity and they had three children. One of them married the daughter of the deity of the ocean. And one of their children was the legendary first emperor, Jimmu. All Japanese emperors are believed to be direct descendants of this line—justifying the belief in the divine status of Japanese emperors.

Early Development of Shinto

In the early period, most worship services took place in a clearing, around rocks, in rice fields, or on seashore. The chief of each clan led in the worship of the clan deity, and local and regional centers were established for various festivals. Following the institution of priesthood at the imperial, regional, and local levels, the rituals were organized. After the introduction of Buddhism in the sixth century, Shinto began to be organized as a distinct religious tradition in contrast to Buddhism, which continued to influence the former. The Kojiki and the Nihongi were part of this effort to establish a national identity, an imperial claim to divine origin, and a religious identity for Shinto.

However, Toshio Kuroda contends that Shinto as an autonomous religion is an invention of nineteenth century Japanese scholars, such as Motoori Norinaga during the Meiji Restoration, which decreed the separation of Shinto from Buddhism. Before that policy was set, Buddhism essentially defined Japanese religious culture. Others point out that while the influence of Buddhism was pervasive and fundamental in the evolution of Shinto, belief in the Sacred, shrines, worship rituals, and priests existed in Japan prior to the advent of Buddhism.

The influence worked both ways. The Buddhism that developed in Japan thoroughly assimilated Shinto on all levels. Shinto deities were declared to be guardians or manifestations of the Buddha, Buddhist deities, and Bodhisattvas. Shinto shrines were built at Buddhist temples, and Buddhist rituals were integrated into Shinto services. Buddhist doctrines assimilated Shinto beliefs, and Shinto texts were believed to contain the very essence of Buddhist teachings. These assimilated cults and doctrines became the basis of subsequent Shinto schools of thought, leading Mark Teeuwen to conclude, "It was this kami thought and practice, pioneered among monks of the esoteric Buddhist sects that opened the way for kami cults to develop into something that may be meaningfully referred to as 'Shinto'" (95–96).

Belief in the Sacred

In this section we will discuss the nature of the Sacred in Shinto. Being a nature-based religion, Shinto is polytheistic. It believes in deities in every realm of nature: the sky, the atmosphere, various realms of the earth, and the lower world. In addition, deities were also seen in the social, political, and cultural realms.

The word kami has two different senses: one is the kami nature, signifying an impersonal, sacred quality that permeates things. The other refers to specific beings that are endowed with the kami nature (Kitagawa 36). In the first sense, Motoori Norinaga defines kami as "anything whatsoever which is outside the ordinary, which possesses superior power or which is awe-inspiring" (quoted by Holtom 23). Kami is any nonordinary experience that differs from the world of everyday, common experiences. The Sacred nature does not depend on higher goodness, merit, or nobility. Things that have awesome destructive power or are dreadful, such as a volcanic eruption, a twister or tsunami, or an exploding supernova, also fall under the category of Sacred. In the second sense, as Daniel Holtom explains, it designates "a world of superior beings and things which are thought of as filled with mysterious power" that evokes "strange, fearful, mysterious, marvelous, uncontrolled" responses (79).

The Sacred does not refer to a realm of reality beyond this one. For the Japanese of this period, the universe was one-dimensional. Even the triple-tiered universe consisting of heaven, earth, and underworld assumed by Shinto cosmology, existed in continuity. The term "heaven" did not signify a spiritual realm beyond this world but simply stood for the sky where the heavenly bodies dwelt, the chief of which being the sun. The sun did not represent the Sacred. Rather it is sacred only insofar as it possesses an awe-inspiring quality. This world is not sacred because a spiritual world manifests itself through it. The Sacred is the total universe itself, insofar as it is infused with the sacred quality that evokes awe and wonder and is embodied in any natural force, place, object, person, or manmade object that exhibits such a quality.

There is no supreme Creator God in Shinto—no ideas of infinity, eternity, or immortality. The deities are mortal, as we saw Izanami dying after giving birth to the fire god and the heavenly weaving deity dying when she was driven by terror to dash her genitals against the shuttle. Izanagi disappears after his creative function is over.

Although anything can possess the sacred nature, nevertheless the presence of the sacred nature renders the embodied object nonordinary. For the early Japanese, in what is called the Age of the Gods, everything was endowed with the sacred nature. Later the differentiation between ordinary and nonordinary beings, events, and experiences emerged.

First, on the celestial plane we have already encountered many of the main deities, believed to be the source and sustenance of Japan. Besides Izanagi, Izanami, the sun and the moon, other heavenly bodies, such as stars, galaxies, and the milky way, are also sacred. In the atmosphere, besides the storm god, there are other deities, such as thunder, lightning, rain, tsunami, and tornadoes.

Second, on the terrestrial plane, natural objects that possess the sacred nature are oceans, high mountains (such as Mt. Fuji), forests, tall, gnarled or unusually shaped trees, mighty rivers, and even rocks, peach blossoms, and leaves. So are animals, such as foxes, tigers, dragons, and whales.

Third, on the human level, mythical or actual human beings can be deities. These include such people as the primal ancestor of the imperial clan, as well as the patrons and protectors of each clan. Moreover, ancestors of ordinary people are also deities. And both past heroes and people who live in the present are regarded as deities, such as the emperor, as well as people in each province, village, and family.

Fourth, even agricultural products, such as grain, and manmade objects, such as swords, mirrors, and beads (especially the ones Amaterasu gave to Ninigi as emblems of imperial power) are considered deities.

Belief in ancestors is something that Shinto holds in common with other religions. In Shinto, however, not everyone becomes an ancestor. In the past, usually the male members of the family who married and had children, thereby extending the line, became ancestors. More recently, other members of the family, including children, have come to be considered ancestors. This familial basis is essential, since ancestors act as guardians and protectors of the family and provide continuity and prosperity to the household. The Japanese are akin to the Chinese in linking ancestors primarily to the family.

The Japanese believe that after death, the soul travels to the underworld but maintains an interest in the affairs of the living. When the Buddhist funeral and memorial rites are properly performed, the departed soul is transformed into an enlightened being and ancestor. These rites remove any residual resentment the soul may have toward living members of the family, ensuring its happy adjustment to the new condition and preparing it to assume its new role as the guardian and protector of the family and work for its prosperity, happiness, and blessings. However, if the rituals are not performed and the deceased are not turned into happy ancestors, they are doomed to roam the earth and cause havoc for the living.

Meiji Shrine with Torii, Tokyo, Japan

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

In Shinto, various rituals serve as the medium of transformation for contacting the Sacred. In this section, we will examine some of the most prominent rituals—purification rites, domestic and temple worship, rites of passage, and festivals.

Due to its focus on life in this world and its agrarian origin, Shinto has been primarily concerned with agricultural fertility, abundance of crops (particularly that of rice), prosperity and other blessings, and nowadays success in business. For the continuation and enhancement of this life, followers seek protection against sickness, misfortunes, and various types of pollution that threaten life. Worship and other rituals aim at happy marriage, easy birth, and children for the continuation of the family line. For mutual benefit and enhancement, religion became a reciprocal relationship between the deity and ancestors on the one hand, and believers on the other.

Shinto has no idea of humans' separation from the Sacred and the need for salvation or reconnection with it. Sin (tsumi) is not personal guilt but rather ritual impurity and impediment that can arise through contact with a corpse, harmful interaction between humans, desecration of the environment, or offense against the deity or ancestors when required rituals are not performed.

Tsumi is removed through ritual purification, which is especially emphasized in Shinto. Even Izanagi had to undergo purification after coming in contact with the dead and the underworld. In the social sphere, transgressions can be removed by resolving problems and destructive relationships and restoring harmony. Purification can also occur through contact with nature, in which the faithful connect with something greater than themselves or which fills them with awe or wonder, such as a starry night, tranquil water, or something majestic, like Mount Fuji.

One of the unique Japanese purification rites is called misogi—purification by standing beneath a waterfall, the aim of which is restoration of one's natural purity and renewal of a sense of purpose or mission in life. Before entering a waterfall, the participants begin by performing a preliminary exercise of greeting the deity of the waterfall. Clasping hands in front, they move them up and down and put themselves in a reverential attitude toward the sacred. In the next step, called Bird Rowing, the participants chant or shout invocations to energize themselves for harmonious relationship with the deity of earth, water, and life, and to receive guidance. Before entering the waterfall, they do deep breathing in order to raise and retain Energy, called ki. The ritual leader sprinkles salt over the participants to purify them. Then everyone sprays three mouthfuls of sake (Japanese rice wine) into the stream. To remove the impurities of the world, the leader counts to nine (signifying the impurities), then exclaims "Yei!" Finally, they enter the waterfall while continuously chanting "Harae-tamae-Kiyome-tamae-ro-kon-sho-jo" (invoking the deity to drive out evil spirits and wash away impurities from the six senses—the five senses and the mind)—accompanied by shouts and claps. The ritual concludes with the participants meditating for some time and sharing a drink that signifies communion with the deity and among themselves.

Another purification rite called oharai, performed at the national shrine of Ise and elsewhere in June and December, has the character of national purification. For a month before the ritual, the officiating priests seek inner and outer purity by abstaining from strong drink, sex, and food not purified by ritual fires. During the ceremony, they wave above the participants a ritual rod made from the sacred sasaki tree, to which white strips of paper are attached, giving it the appearance of a pompom rod, recite the ritual, and accept purification offerings. Today, this rite is also performed on new cars and buildings to whisk away evil or misfortune. Other purification rites form part of worship rituals.

Shinto Worship

Worship at Home: Unlike many religions, Shinto worship is not primarily carried out in a shrine. One of the main places of worship is the home, where a small altar, called kamidana, is kept for this purpose. Before a house or building is erected, a Shinto groundbreaking ceremony may be held, performed by a Shinto priest, who invokes the local kami to give their blessing and protection to the structure. Once the house is built, a kamidana is installed for the purpose of domestic worship, which is regularly performed in those households that have kamidana.

The altar contains memorial tablets of wood or paper on which the name of the guardian deity of the household or locality is written. It may also contain the emblems of Amaterasu (such as a sacred mirror) or the rice goddess Inari, strips of paper with sacred inscription on them, charms or talismans from the national shrine at Ise, or important regional shrines believed to have special powers.

Before ritual offerings, worshipers purify themselves by washing their hands and rinsing their mouths—sources of physical and mental impurity. Next, they place fresh offerings before the deity—rice, water, and salt, representing the staples of life for the deity's sustenance—in thanksgiving for favors received and asking for protection and blessing in the present and the future. Then they pray. In the past, only the male head of the household performed this rite. Now women members are also eligible.

Worship at the Shrine: Two of the most prominent sacred sites in the traditional Japanese village are the Shinto shrine of the guardian deity and the Buddhist temple. Each village or community has its own shrine (more than one depending on the size of the population), where the local deity is worshipped. Families are usually attached to a particular shrine, forming its congregation. Communal rituals include prayers for good harvest and continued fertility of the land, protection from evil and misfortune, and celebration of various festivals. Traditionally, the shrine is the focal point of the locality, giving it a real sense of group identity.

Individuals or family groups perform a range of rituals, from simple prayers to elaborate rituals for blessings, protection, good health, and thanksgiving, or to avert evil. Misfortune and death call for purification rituals.

On special occasions individuals or families may go to a shrine to worship. Proceeding on foot, worshipers pass through the torii, the shrine gate, representing separation of the sacred, pure space from ordinary space outside the gate. At the ablution pavilion, they purify their hands and mouths with water from a tank drawn with a wooden dipper. Next they stand in front of the worship hall and ring a bell to arouse the deity, put a coin in the offering box, and bow and clap hands to draw the attention of the deity. Then they pray silently.

The communal ritual performed at the shrine also has four aspects. First, before entering the shrine or temple, everyone purifies as stated above. In the shrine itself, the priest purifies the congregation by donning a ceremonial dress and waving a purification stick and sprinkling salt. Second, special food offerings, such as rice, sake, salt, vegetables, seafood, and fruit, are passed to the priests and placed before the altar. Third, the priests recite prayers, after which they take the offerings for their families. Fourth, the worshipers may come forward to make an offering and have a sip of the wine offered to the deity. This act of communion again demonstrates the reciprocal relationship between the deity and worshipers at the heart of Shinto, as is true also of other religions. People offer thanks and petition the deity for various favors. In return they are believed to gain spiritual energy and experience renewal and regeneration through the offering and sharing of the ceremonial wine, whereby the sacred life of the deity is believed to flow through their veins. At this point the shrine maidens may perform a sacred dance. At the end of communal worship, there may be ceremonial dances, procession, and other festive activities.

Ancestor Worship: As in China, Buddhism was pressed to provide the rituals that turn the dead into benevolent ancestors and prevent unhappy ancestors from showering misfortune. This adaptation gave Buddhism a major role in Japanese life. Various rituals form the cluster of ancestor worship. Besides the burial rite (described below), a ritual is performed before the Buddhist family altar, called butsudan. At least 60 percent of households have such altars. A butsudan is usually made of lacquered wood. It contains, among other things, candles, an incense burner, a bell, a Buddhist slate or scroll, an image or photograph of the deceased relative, and an ihai, or memorial tablet, containing the Buddhist new name that signifies the new identity given to the deceased seven days after death. The memorial tablet represents the spirit of the ancestor, who is believed to reside in it.

Often, daily rituals are performed at the altar in the form of various offerings: rice and water for spiritual food, candles and incense, prayers, and even conversation with the memorial tablet, informing the ancestor about family affairs, thereby keeping their memory alive and continuing the tradition. Periodically, a priest may be invited to read Buddhist prayers before the altar for the benefit of the ancestor. In addition to the religious rites, the altar can serve to discipline children and act as a psychological safety valve in times of difficulties or as the setting for reconciliation.

Rites of Passage

Japanese rites of passage are both individual and communal, involving the participant(s), the sacred world, and the human community.

In the past, at birth, the mother and child were isolated, because of the pollution associated with birth, and returned to the family after they had gone through a purification ritual. Today, however, the infant is taken to the local shrine a month after birth, when the impurities are believed to end, and placed under the protection of the guardian deity to receive its blessing. This presentation ritual establishes a special relationship between the infant and the deity, making him a part of the worshipping community and entitling him to participate in all the rituals.

At rituals marking the passage to young adulthood, traditionally boys received loincloths in a group ceremony, while each girl received an underskirt after her first menstruation. Today a national holiday is observed for the coming of age of young men and women who turn twenty during that year. For young men, the privilege of carrying the portable altar in a procession for the first time also acts as a form of initiation into adulthood.

Marriage in Japan is not just a union between two persons; it is also a joining of two families. Even today, many marriages are arranged, a family friend acting as a go-between. In the past, weddings took place at home with the exchange of sake between the bride and groom, without requiring the presence of a priest. Today, weddings usually take place in a Shinto shrine before a priest, who waves the purification rod and recites prayers for protection against misfortune and for blessings, prosperity, and happiness in the couple's joint venture together. Although many traditional marriage rites have disappeared with the passage of time and modernization, others have been retained in a modified form.

Rituals surrounding death begin with preparatory funerary rites, which are handled by undertakers today. To remove the pollution of death and install the spirit in the Buddhist altar, the body is cremated and the ashes, as well as a small piece of bone, are placed in an urn. At the funeral service, the family members offer incense, and a Buddhist priest reads from Buddhist scriptures, after which the urn is interred at the grave. At the time of the funeral, or on the seventh day after death, two temporary memorial tablets are made—one to be placed at the grave, the other in the altar.

The period of mourning lasts for forty-nine days, because it is believed that the spirit of the dead lingers around the house for that period. However, unlike Tibetan Buddhists, the Japanese have combined their intermediate period with Shinto belief in the transformation of the dead into ancestors. At the end of forty-nine days, the spirit is believed to leave the family compound and enter the realm of the ancestors. At that time a permanent memorial tablet is placed in the butsudan.

Memorial services are held on the first anniversary of death and at regular intervals thereafter. In addition, the Japanese visit the grave and pay respects to their ancestors at specific times during the year, such as spring and autumnal equinoxes and during the Obon festival in August. At such times they clean the grave, make offerings of food and drink to sustain the ancestors, and have a priest recite Buddhist prayers to assist them in their journey to the other shore. A special altar with offerings is set up at the house during the Obon festival to greet the ancestors who are believed to return to earth to be with their living relatives. Graveyards and temples are decked with lanterns, light bulbs, or small fires lit to guide the dead. Families visit the temple for further memorial services and to receive a Buddhist amulet to be placed on the grave, and community dances are held at temples. This is a time for family reunion.

Festivals

Festivals (matsuri) form a major part of Shinto rituals. They are held at the national, regional, and local levels and occur regularly, marking seasons and other special occasions. While national festivals are held at such locations as the grand shrine of Ise and regional ones at shrines of special importance, most people attend festivals at the local level. Established by imperial edicts, regular festivals include national rituals held on specific days of each month. Occasional festivals include pacification of the deity of water, well, or hearth, and so on.

Each community stages seasonal festivals at the local shrine to seek blessings for a rich harvest, health, and prosperity. Besides the New Year Festival and the Obon festival, most festivals are connected with the planting, growing, and harvesting of crops, especially rice.

The New Year's Festival, besides being a national holiday, is a religious celebration. It involves purification of the past year's pollution, ridding people of misfortunes or bad luck, and renewal in the coming year. Purification begins on December 31 with a communal meal. Before midnight, people assemble in front of a straw ring at the Shinto shrine set up for purification. Just before midnight, the bells of Chionin, a famous Buddhist temple in Kyoto, ring 108 times (signifying the number of human impurities). As the tolling of the bells ends and midnight strikes, the assembled go through the arch, clap their hands, toss coins into the offertory box, and pray. Then they proceed to the shrine office to purchase various ritual talismans, amulets, and charms for protection during the coming year: the special hamaya, a symbolic evil-destroying arrow to be placed in the home as a protection against bad luck, and votive wooden tablets inscribed with petitions to the deity. The previous year's talismans are discarded and later burned, symbolizing getting rid of last year's impurities and misfortunes. In the shrine hall the priest chants Shinto prayers, and shrine maidens perform a dance to dispose the deity to bestow its blessings on the people, who also pray to the deity for good fortune, prosperity, and protection throughout the coming year. They also make New Year's resolutions.

Other festivals include the Change of Season festival on February 3 to drive out evil and impurities. The Doll Festival for girls is held on March 3, while boys' day is May 5. The Spring Festival is celebrated on a day close to the vernal equinox, as determined by the almanac. The participants make offerings and ask for protection and blessing at the shrine of the guardian deity.

The Flower Festival is on April 8, because on that day the mountain deity is beleived to come down from the mountain, enter the rice fields, and become the rice goddess Inari. This festival signifies the coming of spring, and the planting and growing of rice, the staple food of Japan. At the shrine, in the presence of the assembled congregation, the priest makes an offering of rice, wine, fish, and grass and asks the goddess to protect crops from flood and storm and provide an abundant harvest.

The Fall Harvest Festival varies from August to November according to the time when the rice crop ripens. This is basically a thanksgiving festival, as the main theme is thanking the deity for protection and abundance of crops and other blessings.

Ethics and the Good Life

Shinto ethics is fundamentally tribal, based on the belief in the primacy and sacredness of communal life. In the past—and to some extent even today—there was no concept of individuality in the western sense. The fundamental unit of society is not the individual but the family or the clan. Submission to authority and tradition, and the taboos and sanctions imposed by society, became the hallmark of moral life. Being a shame-based rather than a guilt-based culture, morality is primarily social rather than individual. The culture of shame emphasizes outward social standards. Action is directed to the outward, behavioral level of observance and nonobservance. In a guilt-based culture, action is directed to the conscience of the individual. But in the culture of shame, the sense of guilt a person may feel for the violation and betrayal of the trust of the group does not make him feel any inner inadequacy or culpability. Sin is something external, concerned with ritual impurities and breach of social taboos. Ritual purification and submission to social sanctions are prescribed for removal of sin or breach of order and social reinstatement.

Prior to the introduction of Confucian and Buddhist morality, Shinto had not developed a full-fledged ethical system. And only those aspects of Confucian ethics that are social became normative. Filial piety and loyalty became the governing principles of behavior. Obedience and deference to parents, loyalty to one's family, group, clan, and country, and reverence for ancestors became primary virtues governing one's conduct. The Confucian ideal of junzi, or the ideal person, was not emphasized.

Other normative values are also social and modeled after the parent-child relationship. One is indebtedness (on), which binds the giver and the receiver in a hierarchical relationship and imposes loyalty, especially on the receiver. Another is social obligation (giri), which requires one to behave according to social expectations in relation to others, especially the group to which one belongs and with which one has some significant relationship. Giri may entail a third factor, ninjo, or subordinating one's personal desires and feelings to the family, group, or society.

This situation may present a person with a moral dilemma: to honor society's moral code requires suppressing one's inclination, desires, and feelings, thereby becoming unhappy, but to follow one's heart and break social obligations and betray one's group identity is to face social censure. Caught in the dilemma of being unable to endure personal unhappiness and face social censure, which would result in shame, loss of face, and disgrace for betraying one's group, the Japanese might choose the third alternative of sepuku, or ritual suicide, the basis for many traditional and modern stories (Harumi Befu in Reader 2:25–28). During the recent economic slump, having lost jobs or fortunes, some Japanese committed suicide by throwing themselves under oncoming trains. Overall, the predominant characteristic of ethics in Shinto is social and aesthetic in nature. This is clear from the fact that goodness and beauty are almost synonymous.

The Shinto ideal is to live in harmony with humans, nature, and the Sacred. To that end, Buddhism has contributed to the Japanese ethics in the personal domain. Mahayana Buddhist precepts and Mahayana schools have had a considerable impact. Pure Land has contributed to the sense of gratitude and compassion, Nichiren and Soka Gakkai to the affirmation of the positive value of this world, and Zen to selflessness and compassion.

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

In this section, we will first discuss the more prominent leaderships in Shinto—priests and priestesses, mediums, and shamanism. This will be followed by a brief recounting of developments of Shinto beyond the classical period up to the present. We will then conclude the chapter with a discussion of women in Shinto. Japanese new religions will be treated in the final chapter.

Initially, the political and religious leaderships were reserved for the head of the family or the chief of each clan. When the imperial clan became dominant and established its rule, the emperor himself offered worship to Amaterasu as the ancestor deity of his clan. This practice started to change when Emperor Sujin established a shrine for Amaterasu and appointed Princess Toyosukiri as priestess. During the rule of the next emperor, Amaterasu revealed that a shrine for her worship was to be built at Ise. This shrine became the Grand National Shrine.

By the seventh century, several hereditary Shinto priestly families claimed to have descended from Amaterasu. Out of these, the chief of Imbe family, Sakashi, was made head of Shinto priesthood to administer various functions, including supervisor of court rituals and construction of shrines. The Sarume chief was appointed supervisor of the ceremony for calming the emperor's spirit. And the chief of the Nakatomi family was placed in charge of the Department of Shinto Affairs, which enjoyed a prestige and power greater even than the council of state. Similarly, on many occasions, the chief priest in a province enjoyed a greater prestige than the governor.

At the local level, in time some of these positions became hereditary, while in other cases individuals were chosen to be priests. A shortage of priests during World War II led to women performing the duties of priests. Today priesthood is no longer hereditary.

Besides conducting worship services, in the past some priests also served as mediums who could be possessed by the deity and pronounce oracles and perform other forms of divination. By the eighth century, the various types of Shinto priesthood were incorporated under the jurisdiction of the Department of Shinto Affairs.

In addition to the priesthood, another equally important religious leadership is shamanism. There have been several types of shamans in Japan. Female shamans, who had to be virgins, engaged in divination for their families or clans. Hereditary shamans were attached to a shrine, serving as mediums for the resident deity, or a nonhereditary shaman was chosen by the deity to act as a medium. Professional traveling shamans engaged in fortune-telling, communicating messages from the spirit world, and healing. Still another type specialized in possession by spirits of such animals as the fox, snake, or badger. Today, shamans still engage in healing and exorcism. And the spirit of shamanism is alive among the founders of some of the New Religions.

Later Development of Shinto

The amalgamation of deity cults and Buddhism continued to the point that they became interchangeable. Buddhism came to dominate the Japanese religious landscape during the Kamakura Shoganate or military dictatorship (1185–1333). However, blended with Buddhism, Shinto continued to be influential, especially at the local level. The flowering of culture, resulting from a synthesis of Shinto, Buddhism, and Confucianism during the Muromachi Period (1333–1600), helped define the distinctiveness of the Japanese Way, evident especially in Noh drama, poetry, painting, caligraphy, architecture, and gardening. However, during the Tokugawa Shoganate (1600–1867), a power struggle between Oda Nobunaga (1434–1582) and Pure Land Buddhists led to the massacre of thousands of them and the weakening of Buddhist influence. A Tokugawa shift to Neo-Confucianism led to a Confucian-Shinto alignment. An attempt was afoot to equate Shinto cosmology with its Chinese counterpart, the way of the gods with the way of the true kingship in China, and the use of Confucian principles for ordering society.

With the restoration of imperial rule by Emperor Meiji in 1868 and the rising tide of nationalism, leading Shinto thinkers, such as Motoori Norinaga, were moved to restore the authentic Shinto Way and reestablish a pure Japanese society based on Shinto texts. Edicts were issued to separate Shinto from Buddhism, define the Japanese worldview on the basis of Shinto, and make it the national ethos. As noted before, Toshio Kuroda sees this movement to shape national identity based on Shinto as the real beginning of Shinto as a religion.

The Meiji regime also established State Shinto, which united state and religion. Although freedom of religion was granted in the Constitution of 1889, Shinto was declared to be the cultural heritage of all Japanese, rather than a religion, and on that basis all were expected to participate in Shinto rituals and festivals. This nationalization of Shinto is one of the main reasons why today most Japanese do not consider Shinto worship services, rites of passage, and festivals as religious nor their participation in them as engaging in any religious activity. So the label "Shinto" has no meaning for them. Combined with the cult of the emperor and the myth of the manifest, special destiny of Japan, such nationalism contributed to Japan's leading role in World War II.

In the Postwar Period, under the directives of the Occupied Forces, universal religious liberty was promulgated, State Shinto was abolished, and a separation of state and religion followed so that Shinto—now called "Shrine Shinto"—became one of the religions of Japan. Emperor Hirohito remained the symbolic head of state but was forced to renounce his claim to divinity. In the absence of a unifying ethos, and with the emergence of a modern secular, technological society where traditional parameters of permissible behavior have become loose or nonexistent, so-called New Religions have proliferated.

Women in Shinto

Going at least as far back as the Jomon Period, in matrilineal clans the highest deity was female. At the same time, the patriarchal social structure of other clans not only had male chief deities but also assured a conflict between their male deities and the female deities of matrilineal clans as is clear from the myth of the creation of Japan. Correspondingly, there was a struggle for power and hegemony on the political front among the clans, resulting in the emergence of the imperial clan as the dominant power and the supremacy of Amaterasu.

Most religions that do see the manifestation of the Sacred in the sun and the moon depict the sun as male and the moon as female. How did Japan come to reverse their roles? In her present form, Amaterasu seems to be an assimilation of the chief deities of two distinct clan groups. Originally, Amaterasu was a chief deity of the East Asian group (having a matrilineal social system) and presided over their farming, crops, and fertility. But the chief deity of the Altaic-speaking patriarchal group was the sun god Takamimusubi, who may have been the original chief deity of the imperial clan. The compilers of the myth first married Takamimusubi's daughter with Amaterasu's son, who begot Ninigi. It was Takamimusubi who ordered Amaterasu to send Ninigi to rule Japan. Next, the compilers assimilated the characteristics of Takamimusubi with those of Amaterasu as she emerged in the historical period as the chief deity of the imperial clan (Kitagawa 20–36). Thus, Amaterasu became the sun goddess and supreme deity of the land. During the medieval period she became the most encompassing symbol of Japan, going beyond the division of powerful clans and warlords. Her cult became enormously popular during the Muromachi period. In the Tokugawa Shoganate, the Grand Shrine of Ise became the center of pilgrimage for all Japanese. With the Meiji restoration, establishment of State Shinto, and the militarism of the 1930s, Amaterasu gained this association to promote the nationalistic ideology. In their nationalistic and militaristic fervor, the Meiji changed her into a male deity, so that her true identity had to be rediscovered (Yusa 113–115).

Just as the supreme deity of matrilineal clans was a goddess, so they also had female rulers. Women were not only heads of families and clan chiefs but also regional rulers and empresses. Queen Himiko of the Yamatai (a leading matrilineal kingdom) practiced magic and sorcery. After her death, a king was placed on the throne, but the people refused to obey him. He was assassinated and a period of turmoil ensued until Iyo, a girl of thirteen and a relative of Himiko, was made queen. Thereupon order was restored. Among other women rulers, the first Empress, Suiko, ruled with Prince Shotoku from 592 to 628. Empress Jingu was a powerful ruler who promoted cultural development. With the rise of the imperial clan during the next period, political power became mainly patriarchal. However, women rulers did not entirely disappear.

In the religious sector, women have been and continue to be shamans, especially in rural areas, engaged in healing, fortune telling, and helping those in need. One fifth of Shinto priests are women. Founders of some new religions, such as Tenrikyo, Omoto, and Tensho-kotai-jingu-kyo, were women. In Japanese Buddhism, of course, there are nuns. There are also Shinto nuns. Although their position has been subordinate to monks, nevertheless many nuns have gained considerable stature through their accomplishments.

Many women have excelled in literature and other artistic endeavors. Women authored some of Japan's literary masterpieces. Two of the most celebrated novels of Japan were written by women: The Tale of Genji, considered by many to be Japan's greatest novel, written by Lady Murasaki Shibiku, and The Pillow Book, by Sei Shoganon.

In spite of exceptional individuals, the position of women in Japanese society, in general, is subordinate and ambivalent. Even where women have been founders of religions, after they became established, men took over leadership positions. Traditionally, the woman's role has been in the home. Yet, unable or unwilling to assume traditional roles, many women entered the professions of performing arts, such as geisha dancing and puppetry. Others continued the shamanic roles of healers and mediums.

There are, of course, negative views of women. In purity and pollution-obsessed Japan, women came to be regarded as the unclean sex and inferior to men because of menstruation. Some observers believe that these beliefs of ritual uncleanliness and negative views of women came from India with Buddhism, and were reinforced by Neo-Confucianism. By the late Heian period, contact with death, childbirth, and menstrual blood were considered three defilements to be avoided. These beliefs were widespread by the end of the Tokugawa period. The Meiji government abolished the taboos related to menstruation in 1872. After World War II they completely disappeared (Yusa 115–117).

Today, as society is becoming technological and women highly educated, their traditional roles are changing. Most recently, a revolt is brewing among professional women. Called "parasite singles," these young women live at home with their parents, shun marriage, pursue their careers, and cherish independence and freedom from responsibility. They spend freely, travel widely, and pursue pleasure and the finer things of life. While traditionalists describe them as wagamamas (selfish, willful), perceptive observers consider their lifestyle a revolt against subordination, liberation from traditional roles, and a quest for equality. They postpone marriage because it means abandoning careers, becoming housewives, and subordination to their husbands. Even women in prominent positions find it impossible to juggle career and family, and they feel the need to drop out and become housewives. The workplace provides few incentives by way of childcare and time off, and husbands provide little help with the chores. The long hours one has to put in at work have become a disincentive for the simultaneous pursuit of marriage and careers. Few find positive models from their parents' generation to emulate (New York Times Magazine, 1 July 2001).

Perhaps a combination of an alarming decline in birthrate, refusal to consider allowing an influx of workers from abroad, severe economic conditions, the Fukushima nuclear disaster, and the revolt of the wagamamas will finally force Japan to give women the same status in Japan that women enjoy in the West. Thus parasite singles may turn out to be a uniquely Japanese form of women's revolt that will usher in equality and liberate both the women and men of Japan.

Shinto is a fundamentally ritualistic religion. It lacks a strong doctrinal foundation, and its religious concepts are aesthetically based. As a result, it has seeped into the minds and hearts of the Japanese without the vast majority being aware that when they participate in the rituals, they are doing something religious. For them, the label "Shinto" has no meaning at all. This does not seem sufficient to satisfy the spiritual needs of many Japanese. In the spiritual vacuum of the postwar years and the dissociation caused by the secular, technological culture, many new religions have arisen at this time of social change, dislocation, and anxiety to satisfy the spiritual hunger of many people. Generally, these offshoots of established religions have combined elements of several religions and struck out in directions of their own. Some of the more prominent of these will be discussed in the concluding chapter.

Ahura Mazda, a Persepolis Gateway Relief, Iran

Chapter 10: Zoroastrianism

The problem of evil has bedeviled religions perhaps from their very inception. It becomes particularly problematic for a religion that conceives God to be one Supreme Deity of absolute goodness who is the ultimate cause, who is all powerful, and who determines, governs, and guides all things to their final destination. While maintaining that the Supreme Deity was all good and all wise, Zoroastrianism approached the problem by envisioning an all-out conflict of good and evil below the Supreme Deity that will be resolved at the end of time with good overcoming evil.

Zoroastrianism originated from pre-Zoroastrian pastoral, polytheistic context. In that period, the people of Persia (later changed to Iran, meaning "the land of the Aryans") had tribal affinities with the Vedic Aryans of India. They were the same Indo-Aryans who split up into groups, as commonly believed, some of whom moved west to Europe, while others moved eastward. Some of the latter groups settled in Iran, and the rest moved further east to India. Their religion had such undeniable affinities with the religion of the Vedic Aryans that they likely had a common origin.

Being pastoralists and living close to the processes of nature, like the Vedic Aryans, ancient Persians developed a religion that was similarly nature based. They saw the presence and manifestation of the Sacred in such familiar forms as earth, water, fire, wind, sun, moon, and stars. These were called daevas, or gods, similar to the Vedic gods, called devas. The gods in the heavens who concerned themselves with the cosmic order were called ahuras, or lords. The greatest of the ahuras was Ahura Mazda, the lord of the sky and the moral order. Another important deity was Vayu, the same as the Vedic Vayu (wind), initially believed to be twins, good and bad winds—the basis for Zoroaster's cosmic dualism of good and evil spirits.

The gods were worshiped with prayers, and sacrifices of grain and animals, which were offered on fire altars. For this reason, just as in India, fire became an important element of worship, as was the juice of haoma plant, which was the same as the Vedic soma, with rituals that were nearly identical.

Like the Indian concept of avatar, the Persians also believed in prophets or reformers, called saoshyants, who would appear when people strayed from the righteous path to restore the purity of religion. The Persians believed that there had been a series of saoshyants.

The Life of Zoroaster

Zarathustra (Zoroaster is a westernization of his name) was the last and greatest of these prophets. How did he become the founder of a new religion? What new revelation did he receive? What were the teachings that formed the foundation of Zoroastrianism? After taking a glimpse at his life as it has been traditionally told, in this section, we will examine Zoroaster's teachings on the nature God; the dualism of good and evil spirits that enabled Zoroaster to explain the origin of evil and yet maintain the absolute goodness of God; and human nature and destiny, that is, eschatology, or the final state for both the individual and the world—a teaching that cast a long shadow on Christianity, Islam, and to a certain extent Judaism.

Little reliable information is available on Zoroaster's life. Even the date of his birth is uncertain. Some scholars set the date as early as 1000 BCE, but others place it in the late sixth century BCE. Equally uncertain is the place of his birth, but it was probably in eastern or south-central Iran.

The details of Zoroaster's life are again shrouded in obscurity. Tradition endows him with a normal life. He received instruction from a teacher early in life and at fifteen received the sacred thread (kushti). He was married and had two sons. A sensitive soul with a compassionate heart, he was repelled by the prevailing religion with its sacrificial rites, especially the sacrifice of bulls, which he considered evil, and ecstatic practices induced by drinking the hallucinogenic haoma. When he was twenty years old, he left home and family in search of answers to questions that were troubling him, chief among which were the truth about God, the problem of evil, and the ultimate destiny of humans.

After wandering about ten years, he finally received an answer to his quest. On the banks of the Daitya River near his home, the archangel Vohu Manah (Good Mind) appeared before him as a giant nine times the size of a man. He told him to leave his body and embark with him on an astral journey to the court of Ahura Mazda, who made Zoroaster his prophet and sent him to teach the true religion. At first Zoroaster had little success because of intense opposition from powerful priests at the court of King Vishtaspa in the east, where he had wandered. The situation changed dramatically after the king, his family, and the entire court were converted to the new faith following a miraculous recovery of the king's horse. Zoroaster spent the next twenty years spreading the faith and defending it against the invading northern nomads. But during a second invasion, a nomad killed Zoroaster while he was conducting the fire ritual at a temple. He was seventy-seven years old.

Belief in the Sacred

Zoroastrianism has been described as ethical monotheism. It does maintain belief in one Supreme Being (although some texts envision the dualism of good and evil on the level of the Supreme Being itself), but it does not do away with other deities, who are harnessed to explain the origin and existence of evil. Zoroaster came to see that the war between the forces of good and evil rages not only in human hearts but also encompasses the entire gamut of history, and, indeed, the entire universe from its origin to its dissolution. This history will be resolved at the last judgment, with the triumph of good over evil. This is called eschatology, the doctrine of the last things—the end of the world, final judgment, heaven, and hell. Let us now turn to these teachings.

Zoroaster's term for the Supreme Being is Ahura Mazda. Uncreated and eternal, he is the wholly good God, the Creator of all things. He is also the creator of other divine beings, heaven and earth, day and night, and light and darkness. He is himself moral and righteous, and he requires humans to observe the moral order he has established. Ahura Mazda, meaning the Wise Lord, appears to be identical to the Vedic god Varuna. He is the God of the sky and the lord and guardian of the natural, social, and moral orders. Prior to Zoroaster, Ahura Mazda was believed to be the supreme among the ahuras, but Zoroaster proclaimed him to be the one Supreme Deity.

Although Ahura Mazda is one, he revealed himself in six main attributes, called Amesha Spenta, which are the active, dynamic aspects of his wisdom manifested in relation to creation. These attributes are good mind (vohu manah), best truth (asha vahishta), loving service (khshathra vairya), beneficent devotion (spenta armaiti), wholeness (haurvatat), and immortality (ameretat). The first three are masculine, and the last three are feminine. Thus, what Ahura Mazda revealed of his nature as wisdom is an equal balance of male and female attributes.

To account for the origin of evil, Zoroaster resorted to a fundamental dualism pervading the entire created order—from angelic beings to humans to the rest of creation. Ahura Mazda carries out his will through Spenta Mainyu, the Holy Spirit. Opposing Spenta Mainyu is Angra Mainyu, the Evil One, who is the spirit of falsehood or "the Lie" (druj). They are twin children of Ahura Mazda. In this duality of opposing forces, good thought is opposed by bad thought, truth by lie, life by death, and light by darkness. The main focus of this dualism are in the cosmic and ethical realms. Spenta and Angra are not good and bad in themselves but became so as a result of choices they made "between good thoughts, good words, and good deeds and evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds" (Gnoli 581). Lined up in their respective camps are ahuras and daevas and other angelic and spirit beings. These two opposing camps represent forces of good and evil on the cosmic plane.

In a reversal of Vedic religion, in which devas are the gods and asuras are the demons, Zoroaster believed that ahuras are good and daevas are bad. This reversal may have been due to various facts:

• "Ahura" was associated with Mazda but "daeva" was not;

• The priests performed magical rites with daevas, which Zoroaster abhorred; and

• The nomads from the north who plundered the south, where Zoroaster is thought to have been from, worshiped the daevas.

In the infinite duration, before creation, there was no direct contact between Ahura Mazda and Angra Maynu (also called Ahriman, and later Satan). It was in the first three thousand years of the original six thousand years of creation, or finite time, that they made the initial contact. Ahura Mazda offered Ahriman peaceful coexistence, but the latter spurned it. In the ensuing conflict, Ahura Mazda defeated Ahriman, who fell into a stupor. During the second three thousand years, Ahura Mazda created spiritual beings. After reviving from the stupor, Ahriman created harmful spirits. When Ahriman attacked again, Ahura Mazda repelled him, and then he proceeded to transform spiritual creation into material creation. Ahura Mazda created the world in six consecutive days, as in Genesis—sky, water, earth, vegetation, animals, and humans. However, Ahriman spread evil (both physical and moral), death, and destruction on all levels of creation.

In the human realm, the battle between good and evil in thought, word, and deed began to rage in the heart and mind of every human being. When Ahura Mazda created humans from the Gayomart seed, he gave them freedom to choose between right and wrong and instructed them to think good thoughts, speak good words, do good deeds, and not worship demons. But Ahriman seduced humans into thinking that he was the creator. Taking the bait, they began to wander from the life God had intended and began to worship demons. Their work produced violence and malice, and they lost their desire for intercourse. However, Ahriman could not destroy the principle of life. As the first man died, his seed fell to produce the first human couple. And in spite of temptations and prevalence of evil, humans began to increase. So the entire human history turned into a conflict between good and evil.

Zoroastrian Eschatology

During the first three thousand years of the second six thousand years of finite time, which is the current period, Ahriman began to attack creation and pollute it, and as a result good and evil intermingled. Social strife, personal calamity, and pollution of body and soul followed.

During the second three thousand years, or the final stage, in response to Ahriman's attack, Ahura Mazda will initiate three millennial periods, that is, each period will last a thousand years. To save humanity, during each of these periods, three saviors will appear. The first savior, Aushedar, will be born one thousand years after Zoroaster of a virgin impregnated by Zoroaster's seed preserved in a lake. He will establish righteousness and humans will live in harmony. But after a while evil will gain strength, initiating a period of decline. At the end of the millennium, the second savior, Ausshetarmah, will be born like the first one. While wolves will disappear during the period of the first savior, snakes will vanish during the second. Humans will become vegetarians and drink only water, and paradise will draw closer. Evil will spread yet again with the release of the cosmic monster imprisoned in a cave.

The third millennium will begin with the appearance of the third savior, Saoshyant. In this period, disease, death, or destruction will end. Vegetation will be restored. Humans will eat spiritual food. The resurrection of the dead by Saoshyant will be followed by the last judgment, at which everyone will see all their deeds, good and evil. The good will appear like white sheep among the black wicked ones. After the judgment, the righteous will return to heaven and the wicked will return to hell for three days and nights. Next, everyone will pass through molten metal and become pure and immortal. Ahura Mazda and the angelic spirits will destroy all evil and demonic beings, and Ahriman will flee to hell, where he will be permanently sealed off. Human history will end, and the eternity of absolute perfection will begin, with humanity dwelling in happiness upon a restored earth. Ahura Mazda will then reign supreme.

The individual eschatology pertains to personal destiny. After death, the soul stays near the body for three days, contemplating its past life. The judgment takes place at dawn on the fourth day, based on one's thoughts, words, and deeds. If the good outweighs the evil, the soul proceeds to heaven; if the opposite is true, it goes to hell. But if good and evil deeds are equal, the soul goes to an intermediate place between heaven and earth—a sort of limbo, where souls experience nothing at all.

At the end of the judgment the good soul meets a guide—a beautiful maiden who is the embodiment of the soul's own good thoughts, words, and deeds—accompanied by a fragrant wind. The wicked one, on the other hand, is greeted with a foul stench and the most hideous, naked whore, representing its evil thoughts, words, and deeds.

Next, the soul has to cross the Chinvat Bridge. For the righteous, it turns into a super highway to heaven, where they will remain till the last judgment. But for the wicked, the bridge progressively narrows until the naked whore and the demons toss the evildoer off the bridge into hell.

As in Dante's Inferno, the punishment of hell is commensurate with the physical and psychological suffering one caused in life. Thus, adulterous women will be suspended by their breasts and noxious creatures will seize their bodies. Men who cheated in business will be forced to measure dust and ashes and eat them. Selfish men who had hoarded riches will be stretched on racks and demons will brutally trample upon them (Avesta 24, 27, 31).

On the other hand, souls in heaven will receive rewards commensurate to their deeds as follows:

• Those who have done outstanding good works will shine like the stars and sit on resplendent and glorious thrones.

• People of lesser accomplishments will shine like the moon.

• The station of the sun is reserved for good rulers.

• The rest will have appropriate stations according to the goodness they achieved in life.

Unlike Christian and Islamic views of eternal punishment in hell, for Zoroastrianism, the suffering of hell will last until the last judgment, when goodness will finally triumph over evil. Then all will be resurrected, experience final transformation and become immortal. And all will live in the original state of goodness and perfection in union with the all-good God. Eternal punishment is inconsistent with an all-wise and all-good God.

The main contribution of Zoroastrianism to other religions is its eschatological view of human destiny, both for the individual and for humankind as a whole. It has also contributed to the concepts of future saviors and millennialism, messianic kingdom of justice and peace at the end of time, the resurrection of the body, the final judgment, and heaven and hell. While most Jews did not accept these teachings, by the time of the New Testament the teachings were widely disseminated. The New Testament reflects the Zoroastrian teachings, down to its imagery of sheep and goats. Whereas Christianity spiritualized the doctrine, particularly of heaven, Islam accepted it both literally and materialistically, as we shall see.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

For Zoroastrianism, the path of contacting the Sacred is transforming the medium, which is made up of various worship rituals, rites of passage, and festivals. We will briefly describe some of the main rituals, rites of passage, and festivals.

Although Zoroaster condemned the sacrificial cult and many other rites, within centuries after his death, Zoroastrians reintroduced animal sacrifice and the haoma ritual. Like their Vedic counterparts, Zoroastrians believed that the correct performance of a sacrifice produced its effect by energizing the divine powers, who in turn aided humans. Without sacrifice, the world would cease to exist. Like the Vedic Aryans' belief in soma, early Zoroastrians believed that haoma made the participants immortal. It was also given to the dying to accompany them to the other world and ensure immortality and resurrection. It was believed that the final savior, Saoshyant, would blend the fat or marrow of a miraculous cow with the white haoma for the final transformation and resurrection of bodies.

The sacrifice of haoma in front of a fire (Yasna) is considered the main ritual. After the liquor is ritually prepared, two priests perform the rite. One reads from the scripture, Zend Avesta, while the other tends the fire. The ritual involves twelve steps, during which the Avesta is rhythmically recited. Other rituals that Zoroaster himself had retained, such as prayer, recitation of a type of mantra believed to have magical powers (similar to Vedic practice), and meditation during the fire ritual, continue to be practiced today.

Zoroastrianism also consecrates life with rites of passage, some of which are similar to Vedic rites. For instance, after the birth of a child, the mother and the household are purified.

Zoroastrian initiation differs from its Vedic counterpart. While the latter excludes women, the Zoroastrian initiation is for both boys and girls. At age seven to ten, boys and girls are initiated with the sacred thread, called kushti, made up of seventy-two threads representing seventy-two chapters of the sacred text Yasna and with tassels at each end to represent seventy-four sections of the Visparat Prayer Book. In addition to the kushti, the candidates are also invested with the sadre, or shirt, symbolizing their Zoroastrian identity, to be worn next to the skin at all times. At investiture, the candidates profess their faith and are blessed and received into the community. From that day forward, they are held morally responsible and resolve to perform the six duties of the faith (see below).

In addition to celebrating marriage, Zoroastrians observe various purification rites. One of the most distinctive rituals Zoroastrians observe is associated with death. Since death is considered a pollution, because it is caused by Ahriman, instead of disposing of the body after death to any of the four elements, it is washed, clothed in white, taken to an enclosed structure called the Tower of Silence, and left there for vultures. Since the soul is believed to hover near the body for three days, prayers are offered during the five parts of the day. Prayers are intensified on the third day, as on that day the soul passes to its judgment and crosses the Chinvat Bridge, to be judged at dawn on the fourth day. Then the corpse-bearers reenter the tower and throw the bones into the central well. During this period, excessive mourning, which is a sin, is discouraged. The emphasis is on celebrating the continuity of life and the hope of the resurrection. Some Zoroastrians now advocate cremation.

The New Year Festival celebrates the renewal of creation and life. During the first month of the new year, the spirits of the just, who are believed to be the doubles of souls on earth, are said to return to the earth. Zoroastrians also celebrate seasonal and agricultural festivals, such as midspring, midsummer, corn gathering, and midwinter. The pre-Zoroastrian god Mithra, to whom the seventh month is dedicated, is celebrated at the beginning of the autumnal equinox. Other lesser festivals are also celebrated.

Ethics and the Good Life

It is in its ethical teachings that Zoroastrianism emerges as a prophetic religion. So central are thoughts, words, and deeds to the measure of a human being that they are enshrined in the Zoroastrian creed, which is to pledge oneself to think good thoughts (humata), to speak good words (hukta), and to do good deeds (huvarshta). These constitute the basis for the last judgment. Right living (asha) is the highest Zoroastrian ideal. And in its emphasis on goodness, justice, and above all compassion and generosity, Zoroastrianism emerges as akin to the teachings of the great Hebrew prophets and the Christian New Testament. After briefly summarizing the essential ethical teachings, this chapter will end with a brief discussion of the status of women in Zoroastrianism.

Doing what is good and right is the cardinal principle of Zoroastrianism and the prescription for the good life. Since Ahura Mazda is the foundation and source of goodness, his will determines what is good and right. Thus, the foundation of Zoroastrian ethics is obeying God's will. When one's mind and will are in agreement with the Good Mind (the first of God's creation, similar to Wisdom in the Bible) and God's will, whatever one does is good and right. The Zend Avesta defines virtue in Aristotelian terms: "The essence of sin is excess and deficiency; whereas the essence of virtue is the mean" (Yasna 10.11. Quoted by Dawson 107).

How does one determine what is in conformity with the Good Mind and the mean between excess and deficiency? Apparently, Zoroaster believed that the Good Mind is similar to the Stoic concept of reason, which is the ordering principle of the universe, operating uniformly according to laws that human reason can discover. To live in conformity with these laws is to do what is good and right. What, then, are these laws?

For Zoroastrianism, the general norm for the rightness and goodness of human action is the Golden Rule: "That nature alone is good which shall not do unto another, whatever is not good for its own self." This formulation of the Golden Rule is similar to those of the Mahabharata, Confucius, and others we shall see later. Elaborating on the general principle, the Zend Avesta states more specifically, "And this, too, was considered by them, that one should become the friend of every man, and this is thy nature; also should bring them forward into a good life, this is thy wisdom; and think of them as thine own, this is thy religion; and, through them, bring happiness unto thyself, and this is thy very soul" (Dadistan-i-Dinik c.94.5. Quoted by Dawson 125). The criterion for the goodness and rightness of an action is determined by the result it produces: "That every thought, word, and deed, the consequence of which is joy, happiness and worthy of recompense... is well-thought, well-said and well-done" (Dadistan-i-Dinik c.38.2. Quoted by Dawson 126).

More specifically, the virtues that frame a holy and righteous life are said to be charity and hospitality toward all good people, care for livestock and all God's creatures, and generosity toward all, especially the poor and needy (9.555. Dawson 128). Resembling Jesus's statement in the final judgment in The Gospel according to Matthew, one text underscores the crucial importance of compassion and generosity as the criteria for goodness and final blessedness: "And whosoever shall give meat to one of the faithful, as much of it as the body of this Paordars bird of mine, I, Ahura Mazda, need not interrogate him twice; he shall go to paradise" (Fargard 18. c.2.29. Dawson 129). And loving service to others is the highest virtue: "When men love and help one another to the best of their power, they derive the greatest pleasure from loving their fellow men" (Dinkard 8.454. Dawson 129). The opposite, being selfish and amassing riches without sharing them with the poor and needy, is condemned in the strongest possible terms and guarantees a sentence in hell. On the other hand, one who intercedes for the poor in their distress will enter paradise. The general rule is as follows: "As far as possible, one should not partake of food till after feeding the needy" (Dinkard 9.638). Furthermore, compassion is identified with righteousness: "They seek not after righteousness; they seek not to succor and maintain the poor follower of the Holy Law" (Tahmura's Fragments, c.44.100). The Zoroastrian scripture sums up the duty to help others and transform them as follows: "The greatest concerns of men are these, to make him who is an enemy a friend, to make him who is wicked righteous, and to make him who is ignorant learned" (Shayast-La-Shayast c.20.6; Dawson 130–131).

Zoroastrianism also emphasizes other ethical principles, such as not stealing, not lying, and so on. Specifically, it forbids the breaking of contracts and regards nonpayment of loans as stealing. In addition, it lays down the six duties all initiates must observe: to confess the religion, to take a mate and procreate, to treat livestock justly, to shun asceticism, to worship in the fire temple, and to pray five times a day. Anyone who lives according to these teachings is assured of the "pastures of the Right and the Good Mind" (Yasna 33.3), for "man was created to do justice and to do for his Creator that which is acceptable to him" (Dadistan c.7.1.2).

Women in Zoroastrianism

As noted before, although portrayed as a male, Ahura Mazda is believed to possess both male and female characteristics equally. These attributes may have been an assimilation of ancient deities of father sky and mother earth. Among other ancient goddesses assimilated into Zoroastrianism were Asi, the goddess of fortune who bestows "good things of this world," and Ardavi Sura Anahita, the goddess of fertility, symbolizing the life-giving power of rivers that nurtures crops and herds. There was also belief in male and female good and evil spirits. The evil female spirits could beguile men by their extraordinary beauty and cause harm. On the other hand, Ahura Mazda is believed to have created women to destroy material and spiritual evil.

Zoroaster reformed the patriarchal system by introducing a more gender-inclusive religious and social ethos. He taught that both men and women could attain salvation. The requirements of good thought, good words, and good deeds applied to both. Women could be initiated by the investiture of the sacred thread and shirt; they could proclaim and teach the religion, and in fact in the early stages they were considered equal partners in the struggle against evil, participating in all rituals and acting as priests in minor rites.

In spite of such positive teachings, women in general were excluded from full participation in the religious experience (Gould 144). A subtle discrimination between the sexes seems to have reinforced the traditional patriarchal system. Although marriage is a requirement for both men and women, who are viewed as complementary, there is a definite emphasis on male over female children, one reason being that sons were necessary for burial rites. The scriptures emphasize the traditional duties of the woman as wife and mother. Both husband and wife participated in daily prayers and domestic and public rituals. The wife's role in the preservation of religion was deemed necessary because the religion was centered in the home. She passed on the faith by teaching her children. By sweeping away dirt and decay, she helped defeat Ahriman and preserve Ahura Mazda's good creation.

A girl was given training in the religious schools at the age of seven as a preparation for the initiation. The rest of her training consisted of domestic duties. Chastity was a requirement in the bride, but no mention of it was made in the groom. Her daily prayers included the wish for a husband. The ideal wife was expected to be beautiful and fifteen years old.

Infidelity is a sin for a woman, but nothing is said about it in a man. Adultery renders her unfit for prayers. She could be divorced only for adultery. Menstruation made her impure. As impurity is the work of Ahriman, menstruation came to be regarded as a demonic attack for which a woman had to purify her entire body three times with unconsecrated bull's urine and water, accompanied by prayers.

Although women were far from equal, they did enjoy some autonomy. Marriages were arranged, but women had a voice in it. They were not required to wear the veil, which was later imposed with the advent of Islam. They attended social and religious gatherings with men, could own and manage property, could act as the guardians of their sons, and could plead on behalf of their husbands and manage their affairs. They could serve as judges, give evidence in litigation, and take abusive husbands to court.

Over the centuries, various reforms have given Zoroastrian women greater access to education, so that they are more highly educated today than any other group of women in India. Yet in the matter of inheritance, while the Hindu code puts the daughter on the same footing as the widow and the son, in Zoroastrianism (as in Islam), the daughter still inherits half that of the son. Women are still denied access to the priesthood because of impurity and pollution attached to menstruation. Periodic waves of conservatism, adoption of Islamic practices in Iran, and cultural views and attitudes in India have kept women from further improving their status and making greater strides toward equality.

The development of Zoroastrianism over the centuries cannot be told here. In its prime, it was the official religion of the Persian Empire during the Sasanid Period (224–651 CE). However, within a hundred years after the overthrow of the Sasanid Empire and the conversion of Persia to Islam, a great many Zoroastrians migrated to India (where they are called Parsis), so that today the largest number of them live there (about 100,000). The few that remained in Iran have suffered intermittent periods of persecution and pressures to convert. But in the tolerant atmosphere of India, they have thrived and prospered and have become among its most educated, accomplished, and prominent citizens.

Mount Sinai with St. Catherine's Orthodox Monastery at base

Chapter 11: Judaism

Timeline

c. 1800 BCE | Traditional date of Abraham, the first patriarch

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c. 1250 BCE | Traditional date of Moses and the exodus from Egypt

c. 1020 BCE | Saul becomes the first King of Israel

c. 1000 BCE | David makes Jerusalem his capital

961–930 BCE | Solomon builds the first temple in Jerusalem

721 BCE | Destruction of the Northern Kingdom by Assyria

586–538 BCE | Babylonian destruction of the Southern

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Kingdom of Judah and the first temple; Babylonian Exile

515 BCE | Construction of the second temple

168–152 BCE | Maccabean Revolt, establishment of the independent Hasmonean Dynasty

160 BCE | Completion of the last books of the Hebrew Bible

63 BCE | The beginning of Roman control of Palestine

70 CE | Roman destruction of the second temple; beginning of Diaspora

90 | Canon of the Hebrew Bible is fixed

200 | Completion of the Mishnah

400 | Completion of the Jerusalem Talmud

600 | Completion of the Babylonian Talmud

1135–1204 | Life of the philosopher Moses Maimonedes

1250 | Birth of Moses de Leon, author of the Zohar

1492 | Expulsion of Jews from Spain

1666 | Shabbatai Tsevi proclaimed messiah

1698 | Birth of Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov: Founder of Hasidism

1729–1786 | Moses Mendelssohn: beginning of response to the Enlightenment

1810–1874 | Abraham Geiger, beginning of Reform Judaism

1762–1888 | Rise of modern Orthodox Judaism with Mosheh Sofer and Samson Hirsch

1801–1875 | Zachariah Frankel and Conservative Judaism

1897 | Theodore Herzl and the first Zionist Congress

1930s | Mordecai Kaplan, Reconstructionist Judaism

1938–1945 | The Nazi Holocaust

1947 | Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

1948 | Establishment of the State of Israel

1967 | Six Day War and the beginning of the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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Life is a journey in time. For an entire community of people, that journey shapes their historical existence. When we live through time and history, we do not see their trajectory. We try to define who we are and where we are going, even though we do not see the way. But sometimes, for some people, the veil is lifted, and they come face to face with who they are and where they are going. Judaism is the story of a people to whom the meaning of their journey and historical existence was revealed in their encounter with God. The encounter revealed the hidden hand of God shaping their existence and history. They also came to believe their journey as a paradigm of the way God shapes journeys of all peoples. Let us accompany the Jewish people as they journey through history and experience for ourselves how they discovered God's hidden purpose in their lives. This may, perhaps, open up the meaning of our own journeys in time and the trajectory of our own history.

As Judaism is a historical religion, it is essential that we begin our quest for understanding Judaism from its historical point of origin. However, not everyone agrees on where that commencement is. Some authors trace it to Abraham, others to Moses and the exodus, and still others consider a later date. Most scholars, however, agree that chapters 1–11 of the book of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, are a preamble. These chapters begin with creation and fall from the original harmonious relationship God intended for all things. These tales are regarded as mythic in nature, especially the story of creation, with which this chapter will begin. We will then briefly examine the story of Abraham and his descendants, called patriarchs, and their religion, particularly their belief in the Sacred.

In the Beginning: the Story of Creation: Of the two stories of creation in Genesis, in the first story (Gen. 1:1–2:4), creation begins from a watery chaos. Creation took place over six days. On five successive days, God created light, a dome to separate the water above from the water below, the earth and vegetation, the sun, the moon, stars, and all the creatures that occupied the sea, air, and land. On the sixth day, God created humans, male and female, in his image and gave them dominion over the earth and all that dwelt on it. He rested from work on the seventh day and made that day holy. At the end of six days of creation, God found everything he had made to be very good.

This creation myth parallels the ancient Babylonian creation myth, Enuma Elish, not only in its six-day creation and the deity resting on the seventh day but also in what was created on each day. In the Babylonian creation myth, the god Marduk slays the mother goddess Tiamat and out of her body creates the vault of the sky and the earth. In contrast, in chapter 1 of Genesis, God is a cosmic deity without gender, rival, or partner who creates the universe by his all-accomplishing word and will. In so doing, the biblical author not only transformed creation by conflict into creation by word but also transformed Israel's own earlier tradition and the broader cultural beliefs in other deities by making them a part of the created order. Thereby he was able to proclaim faith in one God and in the divine institution of the Sabbath and the priestly promotion of its observance.

In the second story (2:5–3:24), creation began from the original state of dry desert. Adam was created first, and the rest of creation followed, culminating with the creation of Eve. God then placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden ("Pleasure Park," the literal meaning of "Eden"). In this ideal state, Adam and Eve had no consciousness of death, good, or evil. Immortality, represented by the Tree of Life, was within reach, but to secure it, Adam and Eve had to pass a test. God told them that they could eat the fruit of every tree except that of the tree of knowledge or else they would die. The serpent, who was the tempter, told Eve that if she ate the fruit, she would not die but would become like God, knowing good and evil. Eve, of course, took the bait, ate the fruit, and gave it to Adam. For eating the forbidden fruit, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden.

Various elements of Ancient Near Eastern mythology are fused in the story of the Garden of Eden—the quest for immortality, its loss, and the aftermath, as we find in the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2000 BCE). One modern interpretation of the Adam and Eve story is that by following the serpent's advice (in Canaanite culture the serpent was a symbol of fertility, wisdom, and mother goddess), Eve chose to return to the older religion of the mother goddess. God's curse of the serpent represents the Bible's condemnation of goddess religion and fertility cult, in which the Israelites participated (Ferguson 84). Another explanation is that the Adam and Eve story represents hunter-gatherer societies. The serpent episode represents the transition to agriculture, which required men to toil long hours and eke out a living "by the sweat of their brows." As the man suffered in providing for his wife and children, so the woman suffered in delivering her harvest of offspring. The snake was condemned because it was worshiped in ancient Near East (Kugel 55–57).

Either way, the second story is highly etiological, that is, a narrative in which an ancient story serves to explain a current condition. The biblical story serves as a vehicle for the author to explain the origin of evil and how social and personal ills—hardships in making a living, suffering in childbirth, subordination of women, tribal conflict between Kenites and Israelites (Cain and Abel)—came about. The subsequent spread of evil became so pervasive that God decided to send a flood to destroy everyone and start afresh with Noah and his family, who alone survived. From among the descendants of Noah came Abraham, who became the primal ancestor of the Israelites.

Belief in the Sacred

Opinion is divided on who the ancient Israelites were, where they came from, and how they evolved in biblical times. Did they come from the city of Ur in Mesopotamia (Iraq) and settle in Canaan, or were they Canaanites from the start? What was the form of their religion? Were they monotheists from the beginning, as the Bible asserts, or were they initially polytheists who became monotheists in the course of time? Did they at first worship Yahweh or El, the Canaanite Supreme Deity, and other Canaanite deities? After examining such issues, we will turn to a discussion of what is regarded as the crucial formative period of Judaism, as narrated in the book of Exodus. Beginning with Moses, who is commonly regarded as the historic founder of Judaism, we will follow the Israelites as they leave their oppressive condition and make the exodus from Egypt, experience divine revelation at Mt. Sinai, enter into a covenant with God, and receive the Ten Commandments and other laws. Next, we will examine how Israelites came to establish themselves in the land of Canaan and subsequently formed the northern and southern kingdoms that were finally destroyed, and how the Israelites from the southern kingdom were sent into exile.

Patriarchal Religion: Abraham and the Patriarchs: Genesis traces the ethnic origin of the Israelites to Abraham. The Bible says that God called Abraham out of the city of Ur in Mesopotamia to go to Canaan, promising him land, posterity, and blessing. His special destiny was to become the father of a great nation and through him the Israelites, his descendants, and others would find blessing. Abraham followed God's call, journeying to Canaan (c. 1800 BCE), where God entered into a covenant (a treaty or formal agreement binding both parties to certain conditions, ratified by pledge or oath) with him, the sign of which was circumcision.

Posterity is based on having a son. But as Abraham's wife Sarah was barren and ninety years old, she advised Abraham to have a child with her young Egyptian maid, Hagar, a common practice at that time. Later, as God promised, Sarah conceived and had Isaac, who had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Rebecca, their mother, helped Jacob to trick Esau out of his inheritance. Esau became the ancestor of the Edomites (in the southeast of Palestine), while Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who was named Israel by an angel with whom he had wrestled, became the ancestors of the Israelites. Jacob had twelve sons, who became the ancestors of the twelve tribes of the nation of Israel. The story of these patriarchs occupies the rest of the book of Genesis, which ends with the Israelites in Egypt.

The biblical authors want to accentuate at the beginning Abraham as the model Israelite and believer. They depict God's call as prophetic in character and Abraham's unconditional response to God's call as the ideal form of faith, or divine-human encounter. The most crucial test of Abraham's faith came when God, seemingly going against his own promise of progeny, ordered him to sacrifice Isaac. Without the slightest hesitation, Abraham proceeded to carry out the divine command. As he was about to sacrifice Isaac, a celestial voice stopped him. For this demonstration of unconditional faith, God renewed his promise of innumerable descendants. The divine promises guide the trajectory of the entire biblical narrative, the linear view of time, and the shape of Judaism.

Traditional belief is that the stories of Abraham and the patriarchs are historical, embellished by tribal legends and storytelling. However, historians today tend to consider this material as etiological projections from a later period. There is no archeological evidence of the existence of Abraham or his westward migration from Mesopotamia to Canaan.

Who is the God who called Abraham? Genesis says it was Yahweh. But God introduced himself as El Shaddai, God of the Mountain. Now El was the Canaanite Supreme Deity. There is no hint that Abraham's belief was different from that of the Canaanites. Many personal and place names containing the name of El, such as IsraEl, IsmaEl, and BethEl, clearly show that El was the Supreme Deity of the Israelite ancestors. Moreover, the Bible itself identifies El with Yahweh for the first time in the book of Exodus. The God of the early Israelites was a finite, physical being. He walks, talks, and eats. He is not omniscient, for he does not know where Adam and Eve are hiding, he goes with two companions to visit Abraham, and so on (Kugel 108–111).

Mosaic Religion: Moses and the Exodus: According to Genesis, famine forced Jacob's family to settle in Egypt. Historical and archeological data show that during times of drought, famine, or warfare, the Canaanites sought refuge in the eastern delta region of Egypt. The rulers of Egypt at the time this story is set were the Hyksos, who were Canaanites like the Hebrews, so it is reasonable to assume that they were treated well. The Hyksos were overthrown and expelled by the Egyptian Ahmose I in 1550 BCE. Subsequent pharaohs Seti I and his son Rameses II embarked on vast building projects between 1310 and 1213 BCE.

According to Exodus, because the growing number of Israelites posed a threat, the Pharaoh ordered every newborn Israelite boy to be thrown into the Nile. When Moses was born, after hiding him for three months, his mother placed him in a papyrus basket and hid it among the reeds. The Pharaoh's daughter rescued and adopted Moses. This story is patterned after similar stories. Like Moses, Sargon I, king of Akkad (c. 2300 BCE), escaped by being placed in a basket of rushes. In the Egyptian myth, the goddess Isis saved her infant son Horus by concealing him in a delta thicket of papyrus. The story of Moses's infancy is an archetypal mythic tale like that of the founders of many other nations and religions.

While Moses was being raised in the royal household, the Israelites were enslaved and forced to provide cheap labor for building projects. When Moses, now grown to manhood, saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, he killed the Egyptian. In fear of his life, Moses escaped from Egypt and went to Median, where he married a daughter of the Medianite priest Jethro. It was while tending the flock of his father-in-law that Moses experienced the revelation of God in the burning bush. In this theophany, Moses saw a bush on fire, yet it was not consumed. Curious, he went up to take a look. As he drew closer, God called Moses out of the burning bush. He said that he had observed the misery of his people and had come down to deliver them. Then God commissioned Moses to go to the Pharaoh and bring the people out of Egypt. But Moses objected that the Israelites would not want to follow him if they did not know God's name. So God said, "I am who I am. Thus shall you say to the Israelites, 'I am has sent me to you.' The Lord, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you" (Ex. 3:1–15).

Thus the biblical author introduced the name "Yahweh" and identified him with El. The word "Yahweh" is usually translated as "I am who I am" or "I will be who I will be." Among various interpretations of the name, the best seems to be that Yahweh revealed himself as the God who acts in historical events. God revealed not his essential nature but his presence and relationship to Israel through the power of his mighty saving acts, the covenant that set up the fundamental terms of divine-human relationship, and the covenant laws that revealed his will for the people to follow.

Commissioned by God to deliver the Israelites, Moses returned to Egypt and told the Pharaoh to let his people go. It took ten plagues—the water of the Nile turning blood red, frogs, gnats, flies, cattle plague, boils, hail and thunderstorm, locusts, darkness, and the death of firstborn Egyptians—for that to happen. The plagues are common natural phenomena in the region, and there might have been fewer than ten, as we find in other biblical texts, but the expansion serves to heighten their dramatic effect and the belief in God's intervention in the processes of nature to deliver the Israelites. As for the death of the firstborn Egyptians, it is symbolic and etiological—explaining the origin of the belief and ritual practice of offering the firstborn to God and then buying back by offering a sacrifice—signifying that the firstborn belongs to Yahweh. It also signifies God's choice of the Israelites and rejection of the Egyptians—thus assigning the origin of the belief that Israelites are God's chosen people to this formative event. The words and ritual of the Passover Festival are derived from this plague. Moses had instructed the Israelites to smear the doorposts of their houses with the blood of the sacrificial lamb so that the divine avenger would "pass over" them.

The book of Exodus says that the Israelites crossed the "Reed Sea" (not the Red Sea), referring perhaps to the lake region, where "reeds" or papyri grow in abundance. The hot desert wind has been known to push the water back, making the ground passable on foot. By the time the Egyptians arrived and tried to follow, their chariots got stuck in the mud. Either that or, due to a southern shift of the wind and return of the water, they drowned.

Did the exodus really happen? It is generally believed that the exodus took place sometime around 1290 and 1250 BCE under the leadership of Moses and during the reign of Rameses II. However, there is no Egyptian record or archeological evidence of the Israelite slavery in Egypt, the existence of Moses, the plagues, the exodus, or the Israelites in Sinai. The earliest mention of Israelites in any Egyptian source is a stele, or inscribed monument, of Pharaoh Merneptah in the late thirteenth century. It suggests that Israelites were already a distinct group in Canaan before the time the exodus is thought to have taken place. This lack of external evidence has led some scholars to think that Moses and the story of exodus is an invention. However, most believe that there is a kernel of historical truth, but they doubt that things happened as the Bible describes. So they offer alternative explanations. One of these is that the exodus represents a conflation of two events: some of the Israelites were expelled together with the Hyksos in 1550, while another, smaller group of Canaanite rebels, who escaped about 1250, joined local Canaanite malcontents opposing oppressive local regime controlled by Egypt. Later these two stories were fused into one story of exodus (Kugel 380–382). Another theory is that the present text of the book of Exodus is a conflation of the expulsion of the Hyksos and King Josiah's (seventh-century BCE) dream of wresting from Egyptian control the territories that were once the Northern Kingdom of Israel and forging a united monarchy. These two conflicts were fused to create a great national epic of liberation to heighten its dramatic effect to show God's intervention in the creation of the Israelites as God's people (Finkelstein and Silberman 57–71).

After the exodus, Moses brought the Israelites to Mount Sinai, where Yahweh manifested himself in thunder, lightening, storm, and volcanic eruption. Leaving the Israelites at the foot of the mountain, Moses went up and received two stone tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. Through the mediation of Moses, God entered into a covenant relationship with the Israelites based on the pivotal covenant bond, hesed, which connotes kindness, loyalty, faithfulness, and abiding love—one of the permanent characteristics by which God was henceforth to be known.

Probably patterned after the Hittite (1400–1200 BCE) vassal treaty between a king and his subordinates, the biblical covenant was enforced by promises of protection and various rewards if they are observed and sanctions and punishment if they are broken. The Ten Commandments and other biblical laws became the terms of the covenant the Israelites were required to observe. It is by observing them that they were to make their lives holy. God instructed Moses to build an ark (a coffin-like box), which came to be called the Ark of the Covenant, in which the tablets of the Ten Commandments and other items were to be kept. The ark was placed in a tabernacle or tent. It signified God's special presence among his people, and the symbol of divine protection and blessings.

One of the most important consequences of the covenant is the ideas of God as King and a rewarding and punishing God. The Divine King imposes his will in the form of laws and demands exclusive allegiance, unquestioned obedience, worship, and fidelity. Rewards for such fidelity include the following: God's presence among and personal protection of his people; freedom from fear of enemies, sickness, and diseases; the land of Canaan; descendants; and the blessings of abundance and well being. Disobedience will garner God's wrath and punishment, which include sickness, poverty, famine, misfortune, and devastation at the hands of enemies.

As a result of this idea, prosperity came to be seen as a blessing from God for being faithful to the covenant and adversity as punishment for infidelity. People who were poor, sick, or suffering came to be seen as being punished for their misdeeds, but success was regarded as blessing for being good. So central is this idea in the Hebrew Bible that all history is interpreted in this light. All the biblical kings are judged good or bad in terms of whether they were faithful to the covenant. The nation's adversities, destruction, and exile came to be seen as divine punishment for infidelity to the covenant, not the Israelites' inability to withstand the military might of Assyria, Babylonia, or Egypt.

Another fundamental idea stemming from the covenant is that of the chosen people. It is enshrined in God's instruction to Moses before enacting the covenant, "If you hearken to my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my special possession, dearer to me than all other people, though all the earth is mine. You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation" (Ex. 19:5–6). This divine election set Israel apart from all other peoples. Just as the first step in becoming a prophet is God's choice and call, so here the entire people is chosen and called, thereby making them a holy, priestly, and prophetic people. The covenant made the Israelites one people, one nation. It would take centuries before they would develop a national consciousness, but the foundation was laid with the covenant, which gave them purpose, direction, meaning, and mission.

Early Tribal Life (1250–1020 BCE)

As told in the book of Joshua, after wandering in the Sinai Peninsula for forty years, during which Moses died, the Israelites swiftly conquered Jericho and most of Palestine and finally settled down in the land. However, there is no archeological evidence of the destruction of Jericho during this period. In fact, Jericho and the surrounding regions were uninhabited at the time this incident was said to have taken place. Archeological evidence suggests that Canaanite cities were destroyed by the "Sea Peoples," later called the Philistines, by social breakdown, and by civil strife occurring over a span of more than a century. According to Finkelstein and Silberman, to bolster Josiah's plan of unification of north and south, local legends and memories of these violent upheavals were stitched together into a rousing saga of conquest under God's command during Josiah's time and then projected to this earlier period—a case of "back to the future" (93–122).

There are several competing theories today to explain Israel's origins. One is that the Israelites were neither outside conquerors nor peaceful semi-nomads who gradually infiltrated in the vacant land. Rather, they were semi-nomadic highlanders who had always lived in the region or entered Canaan from the territory of Edom and Median. Around 1200 BCE, they began to settle down and farm the unoccupied Canaanite highlands. Most scholars today agree that the bulk of the future population of Israel consisted of people within Canaan (Kugel 373–385). Their mode of life was disrupted with the arrival of the Philistines, who were perhaps Mycenaean Greeks, after their civilization was destroyed by fire and after they were defeated by Rameses III. The Israelites came in conflict with them over the possession of the same territory. To expel threats from these neighboring peoples, several groups would unite under charismatic leaders, called judges. The legends and exploits of these judges, or folk heroes, make up the subject matter of the book of Judges.

As part of the Canaanite culture, the Israelites initially believed in the Canaanite hierarchy of deities, in which El was the creator and father of the gods and his consort, Asherah, was the mother goddess. Below them were Baal the warrior, the god of storm, vegetation, and agriculture; as well as Anat, Astarte, and others, sometimes collectively called "the hosts of heaven," making up the category of gods, or elohim. On this level, the Israelites introduced the Edomite God Yahweh, who was an outsider to the Canaanite system of divinity. The book of Deuteronomy (seventh century BCE) contains vestiges of the older tradition in which Yahweh is portrayed as one of the sons of El. At an assembly of the gods, El distributed the nations to his various sons. He gave Yahweh the nation of Israel as his patrimony and possession (32:8–9). Identified with El during the monarchy, Yahweh assimilated El's characteristics of Creator, Supreme Deity, and head of the divine assembly, with Asherah becoming Yahweh's spouse. The lowest level was occupied by messenger deities, or angels, who were part of the heavenly court (Smith 88–114). This explains why in some early texts the Bible imperceptibly slides from angels to God.

From the Kingdoms to the Exile (1020–586 BCE)

Toward the end of the period of the Judges, external threats and religion led the Israelites to desire permanent leadership in the form of a king. After first resisting the people's desire for a king, under God's command, the prophet Samuel anointed Saul as the first king of Israel (1020–1000 BCE). Initially, Saul scored brilliant victories over the Philistines, but eventually the Philistines regrouped and routed the Israelites. Saul's son Jonathan was killed in battle, and Saul committed suicide.

David (1000–961 BCE) was anointed King of Judah while Saul was still the official king. After Saul's death, the northern ten tribes acknowledged his surviving son Isbaal as their king. Isbaal's assassination and the betrayal of his general Abner, who switched allegiance and joined David, cleared the way for the northern tribes to accept David as their king. Thus, a united monarchy was formed. David defeated the Philistines, extended his kingdom to the Mediterranean Sea, took Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and made it his capital.

David wanted to build a temple and move the Ark of the Covenant from the tent, where it had been kept until now, to the temple. But the prophet Nathan told him that it was Yahweh who would build him a house (2 Sam. 7:14–16). Thus, God entered into a covenant with David, promising to make his dynasty last forever. This is the basis of messianism in Israel.

The word "messiah" means "anointed" and refers to the king who was anointed with oil at his coronation. Following God's covenant with David, the Israelites came to expect that the Davidic king would protect Israel from external threats to the realization of God's promises. When the Davidic kingdom fell, it was hoped that God would send a new son or successor of David to restore the kingdom and its glory.

Toward the end of David's reign, his son Absalom revolted against his father and was killed while fleeing. Another son, Adonijah, gathered his factions to take over the kingdom. These events prompted the prophet Nathan to conspire with Solomon's mother, Bathsheba, to urge David to make Solomon King, which he did in 961 BCE. Thereupon Adonijah surrendered and Solomon had him, his general Joab, and the priest Shimei put to death, thus consolidating his power.

Solomon established peace in his kingdom by marrying the Pharaoh's daughter and entering into an alliance with Hiram, the king of Tyre. Afterward Israel entered into an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity. Immense wealth from taxation and forced labor enabled Solomon to embark on extensive building projects. He built a royal palace and the first temple, with stones and cedars from Lebanon.

Two archeological findings—inscriptions mentioning "House of David" —and one of them bearing the date of 835 BCE, would seem to provide evidence of the existence of David, his reign from Jerusalem, and the establishment of a dynasty that lasted beyond 835 BCE. However, it is now believed that the inscription was made a century after Solomon. Some argue that it may not refer to the biblical David. Finkelstein and Silberman maintain that there is no evidence for a great, united monarchy which ruled from Jerusalem over large territories, or Solomon's building projects (129–190). However, others claim to have discovered David's and Solomon's palaces and copper-smelting operation, which reaches back to the time of Solomon.

At the end of Solomon's reign (961–930) things began to fall apart. The ten northern tribes, revolting against oppressive conditions and heavy taxes, withdrew and set up the Northern Kingdom of Israel, with its capital at Shechem. The Southern Kingdom of Judah was now made up of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, with Jerusalem as its capital.

Archeological findings, however, suggest that right from the beginning of their settlements in the highlands, north and south developed as two distinct societies. The north was the first to become a state, in the late tenth to early ninth century BCE. Omri established a dynasty that ushered in a golden age of prosperity, abundance, military power, and massive constructions of cities and palaces, including a splendid new capital, Samaria. Internal weakness, dissension, and repeated invasions brought about the demise of Israel. Tiglath-pileser III of Assyria devastated the land, annexed much of Israel, reducing it to the hill country around Samaria, and deported 13,500 people. In 721 BCE, Samaria fell to the forces of Sargon II, who deported 27,290 people.

With the demise of the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom of Judah became a fully developed state. Sudden population growth at the end of the eighth century, trade with the Assyrian Empire, and increased wealth led to the south's rise to power and prominence. This political ascendancy contributed to the rise of a "Yahweh-only party," which proclaimed worship of Yahweh alone and declared worshiping other gods to be a sin. However, this is not yet monotheism but rather monolatry, as cults of other deities continued even in the Jerusalem temple itself right up to the Babylonian Exile.

Rebellion against the Assyrian Empire prompted the Assyrian King Sennacherib to invade and devastate Judah in 707 BCE, annex much of the territory, and exact a heavy tribute from King Hezekiah.

For the "Yahweh-only" faction, Josiah was the ideal king. He was going to be their messiah who would unite north and south and annex territories beyond, centralize the Yahweh cult, and establish a Pan-Israelite state under Davidic rule. According to one view, the master plan for it was supplied by a copy of the book of Deuteronomy. At this time, the scribes collected and rewrote much of the material in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers and wrote the Books of Joshua, Judges, 1–2 Samuel, and 1–2 Kings from their perspective, now called Deuteronomic History. As a united national epic for the conquest of Canaan, it formulated the view that prosperity was a sign of divine blessing, while poverty, sickness, and suffering were signs of divine punishment. Others, however, believe that this writing took place a century later.

Such was the plan for a messianic empire and the fulfillment of Judah's destiny. The first step for centralizing control was to purify the temple of Canaanite cults. The ritual implements for worship of Baal, Asherah, and the "hosts of heaven" were removed and burned, statues of Asherah and pillars symbolizing fertility cults were destroyed, and the houses of the "male cult prostitutes" for ritual intercourse were smashed (2 Kings 23:4–7). In the end, this reform too failed to eradicate these cults. However, Josiah's tactical move of territorial expansion proved tragic. In 609 BCE, an infuriated Pharaoh Neco slaughtered Josiah at Megiddo.

After Josiah's death, Babylon rose to the position of superpower under Nebuchadnessar. In 605, he crushed the Egyptian army, conquered Assyria, and threatened Jerusalem, which refused to submit to him. In 598, he devastated and annexed most of Judah and laid siege to Jerusalem, destroying parts of the city. He took to Babylonia most of the aristocracy and priesthood, along with King Jehoiachin in chains, leaving his uncle Zedekiah in charge. When Zedekiah revolted, Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, and all the prominent people were deported to Babylonia. Thus began the Babylonian Exile (586–538 BCE).

The Prophetic Movement: A prophet usually experiences God's call and receives divine messages. The prophet is a medium of God's message. His heart and mind are attuned to discerning God's will and communicating it to the people. He diagnoses their actual condition, reminds them of their forgetfulness of God, and calls them to a right relationship with God.

The divine message may come to the prophet in a variety of ways, such as a dream, vision, intuition, mental illumination, or auditory experiences that leave no doubt that he has been chosen by God. Most incidents of divine communication occur in altered states of consciousness.

The Israelite prophetic movement arose from Canaanite shamanism. In Canaan, prophets were attached to temples, where they gave oracles. Apparently they lived in groups or formed guilds. They would enter into a trance, called "spirit possession," through music, singing, dancing, and other rituals. Sometimes laceration and other means were used. Prophets usually received divine messages in the trance state.

Similarly in Israel two types of prophets emerged. One was prophetic groups, or guilds, that were attached to shrines. They would induce trance by using "lute, harp, fife, and drum, and [be] filled with prophetic rapture" and utter prophecies or give oracles. Thus, after Saul was anointed king, Samuel the prophet told him that "the spirit of the Lord will suddenly take possession of you, and you too will be rapt like a prophet and become another man" (1 Sam. 10:5–6). The prophetic trance is here called becoming "another man" or experiencing an altered state of consciousness.

The other, more powerful type of prophets consisted of individuals who felt directly inspired or called by God to prophesy. Like the most powerful shamans, these solitary prophets received a call, interacted with God in a trance or other mediums, and received messages for the people. Some of the experiences of Elijah, the most prominent of the early prophets, are clearly shamanic, such as healing and controlling drought and rain. His four experiences at Mount Carmel preceding the epiphany of the spirit—a strong wind, an earthquake, fire, and, finally, the epiphany in "a sound of sheer silence," out of which God addressed him—were shamanic in nature.

Elijah's ascension to heaven is similar to the first Daoist method of ascension discussed in chapter 8. Not only Elijah and his disciple Elisha but even the guild prophets who accompanied them knew that Elijah would be taken up to heaven. Then a fiery chariot and horses came down and took Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind.

Later Prophets: Development of the Concept of God: Unlike early prophets, the later prophets (or writing prophets) gave prophecies that were collected in book form, bearing their names. These prophecies contain profound teachings that transformed Israelite religion in four fundamental directions:

• In doctrine, they developed monotheism and emphasized God's spiritual and moral character.

• In worship, they pushed religion from the external, ritual orientation to the internal dimension emphasizing love, compassion, and change of mind and heart.

• In ethics, they emphasized God's justice, concern for the poor, the exploited, the oppressed, the powerless, and the marginalized in society, thus linking ethics to worship as fundamental to religion.

• In perspective, they developed universalism: God deals equally and justly with all peoples alike, including his chosen people.

The prophets also insisted on faithfulness to the covenant and emphasized messianism, suffering, and redemption.

God called Amos to prophesy to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Amos burst onto the northern scene from the south, thundering against injustice and exploitation. He declared hypocritical and useless any religion that does not require doing justice first and then engaging in worship. This inseparable link between worship and morality emanated from Amos's new understanding of God as the Lord of justice and compassion who stands on the side of the powerless, exploited, and suffering humanity. By asserting that God's justice applies equally to all, the prophet pushed justice into the very heart of divine-human relationship and contributed to the development of moral monotheism and its universalism.

The only prophet from the north, Hosea preached a religion of the heart, of love and compassion, and the steadfast faithfulness of God toward humans. His God is not remote but a God of intimacy and everlasting faithfulness, like a loving husband ("I will take you for my wife forever" 2:19), and tenderness, like loving parents ("like those who lift infants to their cheeks" 11:4). Hosea came to this realization from the crucible of his marriage to Gomer, who had apparently run away from Hosea and either became a prostitute or resumed her prior profession. Out of this experience, Hosea gained the central insight that forged the heart of his message of divine-human relationship. Just as his love for Gomer remained constant in spite of her infidelity, so did Yahweh's love for Israel remain undiminished, unconditional, and everlasting, although Israel turned away and was prostituting herself by worshipping Canaanite gods. However, Yahweh was ever ready to take her back, just as Hosea was ready to take back Gomer. Thus Hosea revealed a new and profound understanding of God—a God of everlasting and unconditional love, intimacy, fidelity, and forgiveness. He also emphasized social justice, compassion, fidelity to the covenant, and the knowledge of God.

In a famous vision in which he received his prophetic call and mission in 742 BCE, Isaiah came to experience the holiness of God and the sinfulness of humanity (6:3). This emphasis on God's holiness—which means God is "wholly other," completely beyond creation—lifted Yahweh beyond any tribal identification and into a universal realm hitherto unknown in Israel. In his transcendence, Yahweh is the king of the universe. Yet Yahweh is also immanent, signified by the word "glory," which means his presence manifested in all creation and in a special way among his people of Israel, symbolized by the Ark of the Covenant.

From this new understanding of God, Isaiah issued a call to Israel to live in holiness and righteousness. Isaiah also envisioned a Messianic Age, a peaceful world in which, free of hostility, peoples will be united in justice and righteousness. It will be a world based on the knowledge and presence of God, radiating from Mount Zion (Jerusalem) and embracing all peoples.

Even in the seventh-sixth centuries, Jeremiah (627–586 BCE) testified to the existence of polytheism among Israelites (23:13). In declaring the Canaanite gods "empty idols" and "not gods at all" (16:9–20), and people's burning "incense to a thing that does not exist" (18:15), Jeremiah edged one step closer to monotheism. When the fall of Jerusalem was imminent, he proclaimed a new covenant between Yahweh and each person based on a transformed mind and heart. This idea relates to his emphasis on individual responsibility. Suffering is not due to the actions of a person's parents but their own: "All shall die for their own sins; the teeth of everyone who eats sour grapes shall be set on edge" (31:30). This idea of individual responsibility also contributed to the development of one universal deity responsible for the entire world.

After their deportation in 598, two great prophets exercised their ministry in Babylonia: Ezekiel and Second Isaiah. While we know the identity of Ezekiel, scholars simply call the other "Second Isaiah" because his prophecies were attached to the book of Isaiah (chapters 40–66).

The overwhelming medium of Ezekiel's prophecy was vision. He also had shamanic experiences: trance, ecstasy, dreams, and—unique among prophets—astral travels. Through visions and spectacular symbolic actions, Ezekiel went on to warn the people of the impending destruction. Once that happened, he proceeded to announce the return from exile, the purification of the community, the restoration of Israel, and a new covenant.

Second Isaiah began with announcing the comforting good news of return from exile. And he proclaimed a new revelation: monotheism. Various external and internal factors led to this development. First, with the destruction of both the northern and southern kingdoms, the link between the human king and his court and the Divine King and his court of other divinities was broken. Correspondingly, there was a de-linking of the power of the human king from that of the Divine King. As a result, Israel came to view its God in inverse relation to its own powerlessness and to see Assyrian and Babylonian deities in inverse relation to their massive political power. Thus, Israel came to believe Yahweh to have supreme power over all gods and peoples. Second, the loss of familial lands and demise of the family as the primary basis for social identity gave rise to the concept of individual responsibility. Correspondingly, there was a disintegration of the divine family and the ascent of the one Godhead accountable for the entire cosmos (Smith 120–123). Third, the destruction of the temple, which swept away the sacrificial cult, also eliminated the need to worship many gods who controlled the forces of nature. This removal of all links to its previous identity led Israel to redefine its identity in the light of a new awareness of divine identity. The instrument of this new revelation was Second Isaiah.

Isaiah's momentous proclamation ran through his prophecy like a refrain. Again and again the prophet proclaimed in words that would be echoed in the Qur'an a millennium later, expressing its own revelation of the one God: "I am the Lord, and there is no other; there are no gods besides me" (45:5). Yahweh had finally assimilated the attributes, powers, and functions of all other gods and emerged as the one and only God.

Yahweh exists from all eternity (44:13). He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end of all things. As the beginning, he is the Creator. As the end, God is the savior, redeemer, and deliverer of Israel, coming in the form of return from exile. This restoration is a new exodus, a new creation, in which God leads the people from bondage to freedom. And it became a model for reinterpreting the first exodus under the leadership of Moses.

Yahweh is no longer a tribal God but the God of all peoples. He no longer has exclusive concern for Israel but is the savior and redeemer of all. And he displays the same characteristics of justice, love, care, and compassion toward all. Israel was an example of how God deals with all peoples. He has a universal plan in which Israel will be "a light to the nations that my [God's] salvation may reach to the end of the earth."

There is another transformation—the meaning of the chosen people. Chosenness no longer means setting Israel apart but molding Israel as the instrument for spreading the knowledge and salvation of God. Mount Zion will be the center from which this knowledge and salvation will stream out to embrace the whole world and unite all humanity.

The themes of God as redeemer and savior of the entire humanity, and Israel as the bearer of this salvation, was crystallized in four suffering servant songs, through which Second Isaiah expressed the idea of redemptive suffering. The innocent sufferer takes upon himself humanity's sin and guilt and by his suffering and death he brings redemption, forgiveness, healing, and wholeness to others and reconciles and reunites God and humanity. While Israel is the servant in the first three songs, in the last, it is not clear whether the servant is Israel or an individual person. Some interpreters think the servant is the prophet himself, while others consider it to be Jeremiah, whose suffering became the epitome of Israel's suffering.

This is the second "model" or concept of God. As noted above, the first model is anthropomorphic. Like a human being, God has an actual body. He talks, walks, goes from one place to another, does not know everything, and is not almighty. According to the second model, God is one, personal, and endowed with individuality, uniqueness, intelligence, and will. He is the King with supreme power that no one can oppose, escape, or withstand. He is gender-neutral and spiritual. This is the basis for our idea of God as omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, and eternal (Kugel 108–109).

Exilic and Post-Exilic Developments

The subject matter of this section are the events that make up the second most important stage in the development of Judaism—the return from exile, the rebuilding of the temple, reconstruction of Jewish life under the leadership of Ezra the high priest, and the establishment of Jewish separateness. This will be followed by brief descriptions of the Greek rule, the Maccabean Revolt, independence from Greek rule, and the Hasmonean Dynasty. Then came the loss of independence under the Romans and the second most traumatic experience in Jewish history—the destruction of the second temple and the dispersion of the Jewish people. Next we will discuss the composition of the Hebrew Bible and the Talmud—the codification of the vast corpus of laws that originated in the oral tradition alongside biblical written laws.

King Cyrus of Persia, who overthrew the Babylonian rule and established the Persian Empire in 538 BCE, allowed the Jewish people to return to Jerusalem. Eventually, with the continued encouragement of subsequent Persian rulers, many of the descendents of the deported Israelites returned and rebuilt the temple (c. 515 BCE), called the Second Temple. With impetus from Nehemiah, who was appointed governor, and Ezra, the high priest, Israelites returned and reconstructed Jewish life on a new foundation. Ezra prohibited interfaith marriages and forced Jews to give up their gentile wives. He insisted on a policy of Jewish separateness as a way of preserving Jewish identity, chosenness, and mission to the world. He also restricted rituals to priests and Levites (derived from the tribe of Levi) and began rewriting the historical traditions. Modern Judaism has its beginning with Ezra.

The Persian Empire was in turn conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. Following his death in Babylon in 323 BCE, Alexander's empire was divided among his top generals. When Palestine came under the Egyptian Ptolemaic rule, the Jews were governed by the high priest in Jerusalem, who acted both as religious and political authority. That situation began to change when Palestine was ceded to the Syrian Seleucid rulers. When the High Priest Onias III refused to give them allegiance, the Seleucids removed him in 175. After Antiochus IV (called "epiphanes," God manifest) came to power, he sold the high priestly office to Onias's brother Jason. Jason and his successor proceeded to transform Jerusalem into a Hellenistic city-state—granting citizenship to aristocrats and establishing Greek institutions, such as a gymnasium and public baths. And Antiochus burned copies of the Torah, outlawed circumcision and traditional worship, and set up an altar to Zeus in the Jerusalem temple. This overt attempt at a cultural refashioning of Judaism and persecution outraged the more tradition-minded Jews. They began to organize political opposition, and by 168 BCE a civil war broke out between the supporters of the high priest's reform and opposing factions, under the leadership of Mattathias and his five sons, the most prominent of whom was Judas Maccabeus. Antiochus intervened on behalf of the loyalists, thus transforming, in the minds of the opponents, a war against reform into a war against foreign oppression. By 152 BCE, facing pressing matters at home, the Seleucids stopped supporting the loyalists and gave independence to their opponents. Maccabeus's (who was killed in battle) brother Jonathan set himself up as ruler and high priest. Thus he founded the Hasmonean Dynasty that ruled the kingdom until 63 BCE (Jaffe 34–41).

In 63 BCE, Rome intervened in Palestinian affairs after a struggle for succession broke out between two brothers, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, who had appealed to the Roman General Pompei for arbitration. Pompei sided with Hyrcanus II and brought Palestine under Roman control. But following several years of crisis and intrigue, an Idumean aristocrat named Antipater, gained control. After Antipater was poisoned, the region came under foreign rule. But his son Herod managed to expel the foreigners for which Rome made him King of Judea in 37 BCE.

Following Herod's death in 4 BCE, his kingdom was divided among his three sons: Herod Antipas, Archelaus, and Philip. Archelaus's despotic treatment of the Jews led to an outbreak of revolt and disorder in Jerusalem, which he was unable to control. So the Roman Emperor Augustus deposed him and brought the territory under direct imperial rule by appointing a Roman Prefect for Judea. Revolt broke out against Rome in 66 CE, when Governor Gessius Florus confiscated a large sum of gold from the temple treasury for payment of back taxes. The Romans laid siege to Jerusalem, and when Jews refused to surrender, in 70 CE they destroyed the city and the temple. Jewish resistance continued in various sectors until the last stronghold, the Masada, fell to the Romans.

A second revolt against Rome (132–135 CE) was led by Simon Bar Kochbah, who claimed to be the Messiah, a claim that many Jews accepted. He was crushed by the Romans, who proceeded to rebuild Jerusalem as a Roman city named Aelia Capitolina. Jews were forbidden to set foot in the city except once a year on the anniversary of the destruction of the temple to lean against the foundation of the still standing western wall and lament their loss. Thus began the practice of lamenting at what is now called the Wailing Wall. Thereafter Jews were dispersed throughout Europe and the Middle East, in an event known as the Diaspora. The Roman rule (Eastern or Byzantine Empire) of Palestine continued until the seventh century, when it fell to Muslim conquest.

The Hebrew Scriptures

God revealed himself to the Israelites through Moses and the prophets, and in historical events, such as the exodus, the covenant, and the giving of the law. This revelation is contained in the Hebrew Bible, called Tanakh in Hebrew (called the "Old Testament" by Christians), also written as TaNaKh, which is an acronym for Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim. It is not one but many books, having three major parts. The first part, the Torah, or the Law, consists of the first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The second major part is the Neviim, or the Prophets, which include the historical books and the prophetic pronouncements collected in written form. These are divided into the Former Prophets—from Joshua through 1–2 Kings—and Later Prophets, which are divided into Major and Minor Prophets. In the first category are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Second Isaiah. The twelve Minor Prophets include Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Jonah, a fictitious character whose book is more parable than prophecy. The third part is Ketuvim, or the Writings, consisting of the Books of Wisdom—Proverbs, Job, Psalms, Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes), Song of Songs, and Daniel. The Hebrew Bible does not consider Daniel a prophetic book, because the prophet portrayed in the book of Daniel is a fictitious character and the book represents a different type of literature—Apocalypse, which means revelation of secret knowledge, written to reassure the faithful in the face of persecution by Antiochus IV.

For centuries the Torah (and many books of the second and third categories) existed in the form of oral traditions. According to the Four Sources Hypothesis, the oldest strand is the "J Source," so called because it consistently uses Yahweh as the name of God. It was written for the first time during Solomon's reign. A second strand, called "E Source" because the name Elohim is used for God in this document, representing the northern tradition, came to be written around 750 BCE or earlier. A third source, called D for the Deuteronomic Tradition, was probably written about 650–622 BCE. And a fourth and final strand, the P for Priestly Tradition, came to be written after 500 BCE. These documents were combined sometime between 450 and 400 BCE. A compilation of prophetic books, early collection of psalms and proverbs, and compilation of Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah took place about 450–350 BCE. The rest of the Wisdom Books were written about 350–160 BCE.

As noted, archeology has seriously questioned the standard hypothesis. One view is that the initial writing occurred during the reign of Josiah. Another view holds that the books were written during and after the exile to preserve Israelite history and culture, and to redefine national identity, with Exodus and Deuteronomy providing blueprints for regaining Israelite statehood. A third view maintains that the Deuteronomist and Priestly authors rewrote the earlier traditions in light of their monotheistic beliefs. All agree, however, that the biblical canon came to be formed in stages. The word "canon" (qaneh) means a measuring scale or norm and refers to the standard used by a religious community to accept religious writings as especially sacred and authoritative. Canonical writings define the self-understanding of a community, express the fundamentals of its faith, and set the standard for determining the authenticity of other writings.

The first stage of canonization of the Tanakh occurred about 400 BCE, when the Torah became canonical. The Prophetic Books became canonical by about 200 BCE. These two parts became fixed by about 130 BCE. The Wisdom Writings continued to develop till about 160 BCE. The entire Tanakh was canonized by the rabbis probably at the Council of Yavneh (ancient Jamnia), in 90 CE. Those books that were not accepted as canonical but are found in the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible—such as Baruch, Judith, Tobit, The Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus or Sirach and 1–2 Maccabees, and others—came to be called Apocrypha.

Formation of the Talmud: Talmudic Laws

The Israelites, who were taken to exile in 586 BCE, were settled in villages and rural areas near Babylon. They were allowed to live their own lives and run their own villages and towns. Many prospered. In the absence of the temple, the Israelites began to study and apply the Torah to their new circumstances. As a result, new institutions began to sprout. In time they grew into the synagogue as the place of worship, study and the interpretation and application of the Torah to everyday activities. Rabbis, or trained experts, developed new interpretations of the Law in light of new life situations and championed new practices. The centers where this took place later came to be called Rabbinic Schools for the study of the Law.

Besides written laws, Judaism also has a tradition of oral laws, called Mishnah, believed to date back to the time of Moses. These oral laws dealt with agriculture, the Sabbath and the festivals, family matters (marriage, divorce, and inheritance), civil and criminal cases, sacrificial materials, and matters of purity and impurity. Such laws—evolved during the settled periods of agriculture, temple worship, and sacrificial cults—were collected and studied at various centers. New circumstances and conditions of life called for extension and application of the Law. Thus a whole body of supplemental material developed consisting of discussions, teachings, and commentaries on the Mishnah, called the Gemara.

The Tosefta was another body of legal material not included in the Mishnah and its commentaries. It is a compilation of traditions and sayings parallel to and originating from the same authorities that were responsible for the Mishnah. These sources were collected at prominent centers of Jewish life. The Jerusalem Talmud, the work of Rabbinic Schools of Galilee, was completed by the middle of the fifth century, and the Babylonian Talmud by 500 CE.

From the time of the Talmud, rabbinical literature developed two branches. One is called Halakhah, consisting of legal material that regulates Jewish religious and ethical behavior. The other is called aggadah, "teachings" or Rabbinic tradition comprising ethical, folkloric, historical, philosophical, and theological materials explaining the significance of various practices. The importance of Halakhah can be gauged by noting that, especially for Orthodox Judaism, it governs every aspect of life. It interprets and applies the Law to daily activities encompassing all aspects of religion: belief, worship and other rituals, ethics, and community. Thus, while the fourth of the Ten Commandments instructs the faithful to keep the Sabbath holy, Halakhah prescribes how to do it by abstaining from every activity not connected with the Sabbath.

Two of the most famous Rabbinic Schools at the beginning of the Common Era were those of Shammai and Hillel. While maintaining broad areas of agreement, they held different views on tithing and purity. In general, Shammai was more strict and literal than Hillel. The following anecdote, originated, no doubt, in the School of Hillel, well illustrates their differences: A Gentile went to Shammai and said to him, "Convert me on condition that you teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot." Shammai drove him off with a two by four. He then went to Hillel and asked the same question. Hillel replied, "What is hateful to you, to your fellow don't do!" This is the rabbinic formulation of the Golden Rule.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

Judaism has both forms of transformation—transforming the medium and transforming oneself—to reconnect with the divine. Rituals and worship service, rites of passage, and festivals involve transforming the medium. The material objects used as mediums, such as offerings, sacrifices (in ancient times), and words of prayers and hymns are transformed in faith, intention, and meaning. As the mediums are thus believed to become sacred, participants believe that they are thereby reconnected with the divine through them and attain their intended aim. Jewish mysticism, or Kabbalah, aims at self-transformation, which enables the student to go beyond the separate self, enter the sacred realm, and experience union with God. Let us now turn to the two types of transformation.

Ritual and Worship: The development of Israelite cultic life followed the same pattern as the concept of God—a gradual assimilation of and differentiation from Canaanite worship rituals. From their settlement in the Canaanite hill country to the end of the monarchy, the Israelites engaged in Canaanite forms of worship. In sanctuaries in honor of Baal and Asherah, they offered first fruits and sacrificed animals and partook of the sacrifice as a form of communion with the deity. The ancestor cult was prominent. There was also domestic worship. Sacrifices were offered at shrines within domestic compounds, at family tombs, and at open altars in the countryside.

With the building of the temple in Jerusalem, the forms of worship and ritual implements used were also essentially Canaanite. The temples of both religions had three parts: a porch, a rectangular sanctuary, and a special inner sanctuary, which was called the "Holy of Holies," containing, in Israel, the Ark of the Covenant. The Israelites engaged in fertility rites regularly. They also assimilated other practices, including burning incense to Baal, Asherah and other goddesses, as well as worshiping the sun, the moon, and stars as gods, who formed a part of the divine assembly.

As the Jerusalem temple became the center of worship and national cultic life, two types of rituals developed: several kinds of prayer services and blessings and sacrifices, which became central. For instance, burnt offerings, in which animals were slaughtered, their blood sprinkled on the altar, and then totally burned, were offered either as communal praise to God or as atonement for an individual's offenses. Guilt offering consisted of a ram offered for serious offenses, such as injustice or fraud.

Corresponding to a transformation in Israel's belief in God, the prophets called for a religion based on justice, righteousness, goodness, compassion, and knowledge of God rather than on sacrifices, external rites, and rituals. As discussed before, Amos put justice on an equal footing with sacrifice. Hosea rejected sacrificial religion in favor of an inner religion of loving fidelity and knowledge of God. As God said through him, "I desire love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts" (6:6). Expanding on this inner revolution, Second Isaiah proclaimed,

Is not this what I require of you as a fast:

to loose the fetters of injustice,

to untie the knots of the yoke, to snap every yoke

and set free those who have been crushed?

Is not sharing your food with the hungry,

taking the homeless poor into your house,

clothing the naked when you meet them

and never evading a duty to your kinsfolk?

Then shall your light break forth like the dawn

and you will grow healthy like a wound newly healed;

your own righteousness shall be your vanguard

and the glory of the Lord your rearguard. (58:6–9)

The Sabbath Service: Today the Sabbath service stands at the center of Jewish life. As the supreme symbol of Israel's covenant with God, it commemorates God's rest after creation and rejoices with him in creation. Consisting of a day of total rest from work, observed more strictly by Orthodox Jews, it is a day devoted entirely to worship, prayer, study, and family celebration. In comparison to daily affairs, dominated by secular concerns, Sabbath is a kind of timelessness in which the sacred past and the anticipated redemption infuse and transform the present.

The Orthodox make preparations for the Sabbath by cleaning the house, preparing meals, and abstaining from every activity not associated with it. The Sabbath begins with sunset on Friday, when the mother of the house lights two candles and says the Sabbath Prayer, a blessing that begins, "Blessed are You, Adonai (Lord)," thus welcoming the Sabbath as a bride. Two other important items for this ritual at home are two loaves of special braided halah bread and kosher wine. In the evening the Sabbath meal is celebrated. During the meal, the adult male recites the blessing over the wine and the Kiddush, or special Sabbath Prayer, praising God for his greatness. The domestic Sabbath celebration continues on Saturday with three meals. At day's end, Havdalah, a brief ceremony with wine, candles, and spices, takes place. To prolong the Sabbath, a fourth meal may be added. The communal Sabbath celebration occurs on Friday evening and on Saturday at synagogues and temples, ending the cycle of rituals with sundown on Saturday.

Worship Service at the Synagogue: With the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70 CE, the sacrificial cult came to an end and synagogue worship, which began to develop during the exile, came to the forefront. In time, the worship service developed various components. First is recitation of the Shema, the fundamental Jewish profession of faith, which begins, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone" (Deut. 6:4). This recitation became obligatory at nightfall and before dawn. Men had to recite it by strapping to their biceps and forehead leather amulets (phylakteries) containing two paragraphs of the Shema and a text of the Exodus. The recitation was preceded and followed by blessing God for his acts of creation and redemption.

The standing prayers offered in the early morning and late afternoon on Saturday consist of a series of blessings, petitions, and praises of God. The opening series of blessings praises God for his loyalty to Israel's ancestors, his creative and redemptive power, and his absolute holiness. These are followed by petitions for personal and communal well-being and health and forgiveness of sins. The cycle reaches a climax with prayers for communal redemption from exile.

The standing prayers are followed by a public recitation of scriptural passages from the Torah and the Prophets. Torah scrolls, hand-lettered in Hebrew, are kept in a curtained Ark on the wall facing Jerusalem. After a scroll is carefully removed from the Ark, it is unrolled on a table in the center of the synagogue for reading aloud. The readings are preceded and concluded by praising God for bestowing the Torah on Israel. The rituals end with invocation of descent of God's blessings on the people, thanksgiving, and petition for peace. There is a great deal of variation among different Jewish congregations to this basic ritual framework.

Rites of Passage

Similar to belief systems, worship rituals and festivals, Judaism adopted the rites of passage from neighboring peoples. Endowing them with new meaning, they transformed the rituals so as to transform Jewish life.

Birth: Circumcision: Practiced widely by other Middle Eastern peoples, Judaism made circumcision its sign of belonging to the Jewish people. It welcomes the male infant into the Jewish community by initiating him into the covenant God made with Abraham. The ritual takes place on the eighth day after birth, performed in the parental home by a trained specialist. The rite involves surgical removal of the foreskin, accompanied by prayers and followed by blessing of wine and prayers for the welfare of the child and his family. The child is then given a little wine and formally named. Except for any genital incision, in Reform Judaism the ceremony for girls is similar to that for boys. These blessings are concluded with thanksgiving and petition for peace.

The rite of redemption of the firstborn takes place on the thirty-first day after the birth of the first male child. The story of killing of Egyptian firstborn in the book of Exodus is the etiology for this practice. It was believed that the firstborn belongs to God and his life needs to be bought back. The rite involves the baby's father handing over five silver coins (the price of redemption) to the rabbi, who passes them over the child and recites the priestly blessing. Reform Judaism has eliminated this ritual.

Bar/Bat Mitsvah: When a boy turns thirteen, bar mitsvah is performed, marking his transition to young adulthood and making him a Son of the Commandments, responsible for observing them. The ritual involves the boy's formal participation in the worship service, his reading from the Torah, and sometimes giving a sermon. Since World War II, Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist branches have developed a similar ritual for girls called bat mitsvah—Daughter of the Commandments.

Marriage: In Judaism, marriage is a contractual relationship, which can be dissolved through divorce. In the past, marriage took place in three stages: engagement, a formal commitment to marry; betrothal, a year before marriage; and the marriage ceremony itself. Today, engagement is largely a social affair. And betrothal and marriage (where distinguished at all) have become a single ceremony, involving various blessings, the groom giving the bride the wedding ring (Reform Jews both exchange rings), the reading of the marriage contract, and the recitation of seven wedding blessings over a second cup of wine. The ceremony ends with the rabbi's sermon and breaking of a glass. The Talmudic explanation for breaking the glass is to restrain the joy of the occasion and observe proper decorum. Another explanation: a reminder of the destruction of the temple and that joy in this world is impermanent. Today it signifies conclusion of the ceremony followed by applause and songs of joy.

Death: In general, mourning for the dead has three distinct phases. First, after death, the body is washed by the Jewish burial society and then dressed in plain linen shrouds (Reform Judaism omits the washing and uses regular suits), placed in a plain wooden casket, and then buried. Except for Reform Judaism, embalming and cremation are not allowed. The funeral ritual is held at a special funeral chapel, graveside, or synagogue. Burial takes place as soon as possible. The second phase, called shiva, begins immediately after the burial, when mourners return home and light the memorial candle (symbolizing the soul), which is kept burning for the entire seven-day period. During these seven days, the family members are forbidden to engage in pleasurable activities, business, social life, or sexual intercourse. It is also the time when people gather for morning and evening services. The third period lasts from the seventh to the thirtieth day, when social activities are avoided. If the deceased is a parent, this observance is extended over a year.

Seasons and Festivals

Jewish festivals are "holy days"—days made holy by being lifted up from the ordinary context and given a sacred significance through their connection with God's saving action in history. The festivals are divided into major and minor ones, depending on whether they are found in the Torah or are post-biblical. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Sukkoth, and Shavuot are major, while Hanukkah and Purim are minor.

The Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah): It marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year. Coming in early autumn, it commemorates creation of the world and symbolizes death or end of the past year and renewal or beginning of a new year pregnant with new possibilities. It emphasizes God's forgiveness of the sins and transgression of the past year and a renewal and restoration in the coming year.

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur): It is held nine days after Rosh Hashanah. It is the most solemn of Jewish festivals, in which the people confess their sins to God and ask for forgiveness. In the past, the high priest entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple and did formal penance for the people's sins and asked God's forgiveness. He then laid the sins on a scapegoat, which was driven out into the desert to die, taking away the people's sins. At present, on this day, Jews observe complete fast, attend synagogue/temple services, confess their sins, and do penance for them.

The Festival of Booths (Sukkoth): It begins five days after Yom Kippur and lasts for eight days. It combines fall harvesting of fruit, olives, wine, and grain, as well as the planting of seeds for the coming year. It commemorates Israel's forty years of wandering in the wilderness under Moses when they lived in booths and tents.

Passover (Pesach): It is based on a conflation of two agricultural festivals. The first is the spring ritual of sheepherders who propitiated the gods by sacrificing newborn lambs to assure the survival and abundance of the flock. The smearing of the blood was aimed at driving away evil spirits from visiting the flock with disease or plague when it was moved from well-watered winter pastures to the arid summer ones. The second is a rite of farmers who threw out the old leaven and grains to celebrate the new spring crops, assuring prosperity and good luck. As a spring festival, it symbolizes a new beginning, an awakening, and a deliverance of nature from the bondage of winter. The Israelites connected these pre-existing feasts with the events of the exodus and gave them a new and deeper meaning: the smearing of the blood and the divine avenger passing over Israelite houses was an act of deliverance that saved the Israelites and enabled them to cross the Sea of Reeds, which symbolized their passing from slavery to freedom. Thus for the Israelites, the Passover became a festival of freedom, deliverance and salvation.

The Festival of Weeks (Shavuot, Pentecost): Originally it was an early wheat harvest festival that occurred fifty days after Passover. Shavuot commemorates the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and emphasizes re-consecration of the people to its teachings and to the covenant.

The Festival of Lights (Hanukkah): This eight-day festival recalls the victory of Judas Maccabeus over the Hellenizing reform and persecution by the Greek ruler Antiochus IV and the rededication of the temple. At the rededication, only a small amount of oil was found, enough to last one day, but it is said to have lasted eight days. Hence the eight-day festival, during which, on each consecutive day, one branch of the Menorah is lighted. It is a season of joy, games, special foods, and gift giving.

The Festival of Lots (Purim): It commemorates the deliverance of the Israelites by Esther, the Jewish Queen of Xerxes, the Persian King. His Prime Minister, Haman, had plotted to kill the Jews on a day to be determined by lots. When Esther found out about it, she revealed the plot to Xerxes. Instead of the Jews, it was Haman who was put to death on that day, turning it into a joyous festival.

Ethics and the Good Life

Judaism has always sought fulfillment of life on this earth, centered on the concepts of land, people, and living by the Torah. Initially Judaism had no concept of afterlife. After death, a person was believed to lie in a shadowy state in the grave. Contact with Zoroastrianism during the exile led some Jews to accept the views of afterlife, the resurrection of the body, judgment, heaven, and hell. However, most did not, and do not at present.

This emphasis on life on this earth prompts Judaism to focus on ethics and the Law, making it essentially a religion of laws or practical guides to life. For Judaism, the faithful observance of the Torah or Law makes life holy. This has led Judaism to develop a highly intricate legal code governing every aspect of life.

In general there are two types of laws in the Hebrew Bible: (i) absolute or apodictic laws, which apply universally to all members of the community without consideration of time, place, or circumstances, and (ii) conditional or case laws, which are applicable to specific situations. While the Ten Commandments are apodictic, the majority of other laws are conditional.

The Ten Commandments: The Ten Commandments are part of a vast body of laws that express the terms of God's covenant with Israel. To keep the covenant faith, inherit God's blessing, and experience fulfillment, the Israelites must observe these laws. Of the 613 laws, the Ten Commandments are the most famous. They embrace the two poles of religion: a vertical relationship with God and a horizontal relationship with fellow humans. Neither is dispensable. Without having a harmonious relationship with fellow humans, a harmonious relationship with God is not possible. We must love our fellow humans if we truly desire to love God.

With their vertical focus, the first four commandments address the two primary components that establish divine-human relationship: believing in God and worshiping him alone. The other six Commandments are ethical precepts guiding people's conduct to fellow humans. The Ten Commandments set down in the book of Exodus are as follows:

• I am the Lord your God; you shall have no other gods before me.

• You shall not make for yourself any graven images.

• You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God.

• Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy.

• Honor your father and your mother.

• You shall not kill.

• You shall not commit adultery.

• You shall not steal.

• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

• You shall not covet your neighbor's house, neighbor's wife, male or female slave, ox, donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor (Exodus 20:2–17).

Honoring our parents and helping them in their need, especially in old age, is singularly important. And the prohibition of murder, adultery, stealing, bearing false witness, and wanting and taking others' possessions are essential to making society viable. The negative formulation of the laws sets up boundaries for being upright members of the covenant community and remaining in right relationship with God. At the same time, they imply that within their parameters people can creatively respond to fellow humans in establishing harmonious and fulfilling relationships. They are therefore concrete manifestations of God's justice and hesed, loving fidelity to his people.

Other Laws: Other laws are collections of mostly conditional or case laws from various periods of Israelite history. They cover nearly every aspect of life significant to the Israelites. One example is the kosher food laws: Israelites may eat any animal that has hoofs, is cloven-footed, and chews the cud, but they are not to eat any animal that only chews the cud or only has hoofs, such as the camel. Another is pollution associated with childbirth, similar to other tribal traditions: when a woman gives birth to a boy, she remains unclean for seven days. After the boy's circumcision on the eighth day, the mother remains unclean for an additional thirty-three days. However, if she gives birth to a girl, she remains unclean for fourteen days (same as the period of menstrual uncleanness), after which she spends sixty-six days before becoming purified of her blood (Lev. 11:1–4; 12:1–5).

For criminal offenses, the general rule is the so-called Law of Talion: "Wherever hurt is done, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, bruise for bruise, wound for wound" (Ex. 21:23–25). To modern sensibility, this rule may seem severe if applied literally. In fact, the Law of Talion was meant to let the victim establish monetary compensation for the loss of an eye, limb, and so on. Widespread in the ancient Near East, this law was set down in one of the oldest law codes—the Law Code of Hammurabi, king of Mesopotamia (c. 1728 BCE). It is also found much later in the Qur'an.

Ethics of the Prophets: The Prophets also profoundly transformed Jewish ethics by connecting it to the essence of religion. They emphasized social justice and compassion as cornerstones of their ethics. As discussed before, they condemned various forms of oppression and injustice. They assailed greed, lust, and other social ills. And they urged the Israelites to care for all in need, fight for justice, do good and avoid evil, and follow the path of righteousness. Thus, keenly aware of oppression and injustice, Isaiah proclaimed God's message to his people as the heart of religion: "Maintain justice, and do what is right... and refrain from doing any evil" (56:1–2). And Micah summed up his vision of what the covenant required of the Israelites—"to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God" (6:8). Some rabbis have seen this statement as a one-line summary of the entire Torah.

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

Among the various groups and types of religious leadership and organization that developed in ancient Israel, the priests engaged in religious matters and sages offered practical advice. The most prominent among various groups were Sadducees, Pharisees, Essenes, and Zealots.

After briefly discussing these groups, we will examine major medieval developments in Judaism: Jewish philosophy, sparked by Arabic translation of Greek philosophical and scientific writings; Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, prompted by the desire for a personal experience of God; and the early modern movement of Hasidism that arose following the demise of Shabbatai Tsevi's Messianism.

Priests were derived from the tribe of Levi. Their duties included keeping sanctuaries, leading worship and sacrifice, delivering sacred oracles, casting lots to determine God's will, and teaching moral precepts.

While Sages existed at least from the period of the monarchy, they came to the foreground after prophecy ceased in Israel. They gave practical advice about daily life and discussed theoretical issues that impinged on all aspects of life. They were the sources of the Wisdom Books, such as Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth, and Song of Songs.

Several leadership groups date their origin from the period of the Maccabees. One was the Pharisees, called separatists because they insisted on ritual purity and separated themselves from the people whom they regarded impure because they did not faithfully observe ritual purity. However, they were liberal in matters of the Law, both oral and written. They founded Rabbinic Schools and developed the Talmud. Leading exponents of the Torah, they believed that it contained knowledge for every occasion and that Israel's fate depended on its faithful observance. They were more contemporary in outlook than the Sadducees and accepted new ideas, including belief in angels, demons, general resurrection, and reward and punishment in the Messianic Age.

The Sadducees were the conservative group that rejected the oral law and accepted only the Torah. They also rejected belief in angels, demons, and the resurrection and believed that divine punishment was confined to this life. They were the wealthy minority, mostly upper class or aristocrats who controlled the temple priesthood and the Sanhedrin, the seventy-member court having jurisdiction on all religious matters.

A third group, the Essenes, sought even greater purity by withdrawing from the "sinful" world and living a monastic life. One of their main centers was the Qumran Community at the north end of the Dead Sea, where they studied scripture, practiced ritual purity and baptism, and believed in the dawning of the Messianic Age. Their founder was called the "Teacher of Righteousness." They were followers of "the way" and called themselves "sons of light." During the Jewish War in 68 CE, which was chronicled by Josephus (c. 37–100 CE), the Jewish historian who became a Roman general, the Romans destroyed their monastery. The manuscripts they had hidden in jars, called the Dead Sea Scrolls, were discovered in 1947. These scrolls have shed a great deal of light on their mode of life and activities of that period.

Recently, two scholars have suggested that the scrolls point to a suffering messiah before Jesus. While one of them, Michael Wise, believes that this Jesus-like messiah died in 72 BCE, the other, Israel Knohl, holds that this messiah believed himself to be divine. He was killed by the Romans during the social unrest following the death of King Herod in 4 BCE. More recently, interpreting illegible words of a recently-discovered ancient stone tablet, Knohl asserted that in the tablet the angel Gabriel addresses the messiah and says, "In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you." In his view, the text is speaking of a Jewish messiah before Jesus, who would be resurrected in three days. He says that this was the conscious view of Jesus. And, he believes, it gives a different understanding of the Last Supper, namely, that the shedding of the blood was not for the sins of the people but to bring redemption to Israel (New York Times, 8 July 2008).

A more overtly political group, the Zealots, consisted of revolutionaries dedicated to overthrowing Roman rule and establishing an independent Jewish state. Their subversive activities caused the Romans to destroy Jerusalem and the temple in 70 CE and led to the destruction in 73 of the Masada, which was a fortified fortress above the Dead Sea. The Zealots held out for over two years, but as the Romans finally took the fortress, the inhabitants allegedly committed mass suicide.

Medieval Movements

Rabbinic Judaism: It developed in the Middle Ages from Palestinian and Babylonian Talmuds and their expansion and reinterpretation from the sixth to the end of the tenth century. Another group, the Karaites, strongly opposed Rabbinic Judaism, rejected Talmudic authority, maintained that the Torah alone held supreme authority in Jewish life, and that individual interpretation of the Torah was sufficient as guide for living.

Jewish Philosophy: Jewish life and culture flourished under Islamic rule in Spain. As Islamic cultures developed, propelled by the newly translated Greek philosophical and scientific works and the worldview they entailed, these new modes of inquiry sparked a paradigm shift. Recognition of reason and science as modes of knowing independent of revelation raised such fundamental questions as whether truth is to be found only in revelation, determined solely by reason, or both, as well as the nature of their relationship. For Judaism, answers to these questions varied depending on whether reason or revelation was seen as the higher source of knowledge or whether they were independent but complementary. Many philosophers responded to the challenge, such as Saadia ben Joseph and Judah Halevi. We will briefly view here the answers articulated by Moses Maimonedes.

The foremost Jewish philosopher in the Middle Ages was Moses ben Maimon, or Maimonedes (1135–1204). Born in Cordoba, his family fled to Cairo to escape persecution by the Almohads, a Muslim fundamentalist group who had gained control of Spain. As the court physician of Salah al-Din (Saladin), he prospered in Egypt, where he wrote his major works.

In his commentary on the Mishna, Maimonedes sought to define Judaism in practical and rational terms. He formulated a rational, coherent Jewish creed in thirteen principles. These principles are as follows:

• God alone is the creator and ruler of all things.

• God is one.

• God is without any body or any form.

• God is eternal.

• People should pray to God alone.

• Words of the prophets are true.

• Moses is the chief of the prophets.

• The Torah given to Moses has been passed down without alteration.

• This Law will never be changed and no other will be given.

• God knows all human thoughts and deeds.

• God rewards the obedient and punishes transgressors.

• The Messiah will come.

• There will be the resurrection of the dead (Robinson 416–417).

Maimonedes' second work was a redaction of the Torah and the Talmud. In his third work, The Guide for the Perplexed, Maimonedes proceeded to reconcile reason and revelation, or Aristotelian philosophy and scripture. He held that revelation cannot be contrary to reason; they both lead to truth. However, reason cannot replace but can illuminate the understanding of revelation.

The Sefirotic Tree

Kabbalah: The Path of Self-Transformation: The desire for personal experience of God led to the development of Jewish mysticism, known as "Kabbalah" ("received tradition"). It refers to a secret interpretation Kabbalists gave to the Torah and the tradition of methods that enabled them to arrive at an intimate, personal experience of God. Such an experience requires going beyond the ordinary state of consciousness. Kabbalah is the path of self-transformation necessary for self-transcendence leading to union with God.

Some writers trace the origin of Kabbalah to "Creation Mysticism" and "Chariot or Throne Mysticism," inspired by Ezekiel's vision, elements of which go back to the century prior to the rise of Christianity. However, the origin of the Kabbalah under discussion here can be traced to twelfth century southern France. In Spain it found fertile soil for growth and flowering. It is here that one of the most important Kabbalists, Abraham Abulafia (1240–c. 1292) flourished. Moses de Leon wrote the most influential Kabbalist text, The Zohar (The Book of Splendor c. 1275). Another important stream was Safed Kabbalah in Palestine, developed by the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492.

Like other mystical paths, in its teaching on God, the Kabbalah makes a crucial distinction between the essence of God, which is unmanifest, and the God who manifests himself in revelation and creation. The unmanifest essence of God is called Ein Sof. Beyond both the impersonal "it" and Yahweh the personal God, Ein Sof is the infinite Godhead. Formless and beyond any limitation, the Godhead cannot be known or conceptualized by the finite mind. According to the Zohar, like Nirguna Brahman, Ein Sof is without or beyond any qualities, which means there is nothing in It distinct from the infinite essence. It is undifferentiated and indescribable. Nothing exists outside of It, nothing apart from It, nothing is other than It (Matt 24–30). When this Infinite Ultimate manifests Itself with qualities, It becomes a personal God, Yahweh, like Saguna Brahman.

Kabbalists hold that manifestation of Ein Sof takes place in ten stages, called dimensions of emanation, connecting the known world with the unknown divine essence in an ascending order of proximity. These dimensions, called sefirot, are the ways in which the formless Godhead manifests Itself or is present in all forms and dimensions of creation. The sefirot is not separate from the world but constitutes dimensions of reality within all things. Proceeding in pairs of opposites below the primal emanation of kether, or crown, and combining and interacting, the sefirot produces all dimensions of created spiritual and material worlds.

These dimensions of radiance are present within each person as a divine spark at the deepest level of our being. Beyond mind and soul, they exist at the level of the spirit. The sefirot represents states of consciousness and acts as a path of ascent to the Godhead. The journey begins at the level of the "I." By knowing the deepest dimensions of ourselves, we can become aware of the spark and can then rise to the higher dimensions.

The ethical and other precepts of the Torah, Sabbath rest, festivals, and the rites of passage spell out the requirements for connecting with Yahweh. The Kabbalah considers keeping the Torah, observing rituals, and living a moral life as necessary preconditions for the path. They are, however, insufficient for a direct experience of Ein Sof. We must go beyond the ordinary mind and experience self-transformation if we want to experience the Godhead.

The specifically Kabbalistic stage begins with ethical and devotional practices to arouse a highly motivated state. Body-mind training to purify the mind and emotions involves such practices as self-observation, developing positive traits (e.g., trust, humility, acceptance, and purity), and eliminating negative traits (e.g., anger, fear, and greed).

Next, students are introduced to various concentrative meditation practices and mantra repetition. Visualization exercises form the mainstay of the path. These include visualizing the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, visualizing divine names, especially YHWH, and visualizing the sefirot. Projecting it on their bodies, students aim to experience the sefirotic energies coursing through their bodies and rising to the kether at the crown of the head. Other contemplative practices are also assigned.

For many, the goal of such practices is to transcend the ego and arrive at union with God. Some Kabbalists seek permanent union. Others, however, clearly recognize identity with the Godhead as the final goal of the path. In such an experience, the student's individuality is not destroyed but affirmed and sustained like an island floating in the limitless ocean of infinity. When the student permanently cleaves to God, he becomes a devekut—a transformed, universal self. For some mystics, this cleaving entails becoming one substance with the Godhead (Idel 28–50).

During the Middle Ages and beyond, Kabbalah flourished in Spain, France, Italy, Egypt, Palestine, and elsewhere. Today, Kabbalah is becoming popular among some mainstream Jewish congregations, who are adding meditation before or after the Sabbath service. Many Jews are turning to it in seminars and meditation centers in California, New York, and elsewhere in the United States. Many others who had turned to Eastern mysticism are now discovering it. Even some Hollywood stars practice it. It is satisfying the spiritual needs of many young people yearning for personal spiritual experience of the Divine.

Hasidism: Although it has ancient and medieval roots, the form of Hasidism under consideration here arose in the eighteenth century in Eastern Europe. It was precipitated by the Shabbatean crisis following the proclamation of Shabbatai Tsevi as the Messiah. When in 1666 the Turkish Sultan imprisoned Tsevi on charges of political agitation and gave him a choice between conversion to Islam and execution, Tsevi denied that he was a messiah or had any connection with the movement and converted to Islam. Hasidism represented one response to the ensuing religious crisis.

The founder of Hasidism is Israel ben Eliezer (1700–1760), commonly known as Ba'al Shem Tov ("Master of the Good Name"). In addition to observing the Torah and the Talmud, he accepted the Kabbalistic teaching of devekut, which means cleaving to God, the transcendence of the self, and union with God. He taught that union with God can be attained through sincere involvement of the heart in ecstatic worship expressing intense love of God, wisdom, and joy through music and dance. For him, the Law became an expression of the fervent love of God. True worship consists, he held, in feeling God in everything. Communion with God can be attained not only in prayer but also in finding God's presence in the ordinary activities of life.

The most distinctive Hasidic teaching, which is said to be messianism in a new guise, is that of the Righteous Man (Zaddik). In every generation there are Righteous Men who act as intermediaries between the faithful and God. The Zaddik lifts the followers' prayers to God, brings their sins to the divine presence, and receives forgiveness for them. Sins appear in the form of evil thoughts, which are transformed into good thoughts. In addition to spiritual redemption, the Zaddik also provides the community's earthly needs in the form of healing, giving assurance of future children, and livelihood. Today, Hasidism has become ultra-orthodox, whose members believe that observance of even the minutest details of the halakhic laws is essential.

Modern Judaism

In response to the paradigm shift ushered by the Enlightenment with its underlying premise that only science and reason can establish what is true and real, Judaism developed various movements. Those who accepted the premise of science and reason tried to fit religion into the framework of the modern world and developed Reform Judaism. The Orthodox took the opposite approach. According to it, religion dictates what is valuable in the modern world. Conservative Judaism and Reconstructionism tried to carve out the middle ground. Zionism mixed politics with religion in a way that helped to give birth to the modern state of Israel. After presenting these movements, this chapter will end with a discussion of the status of women in Judaism.

Reform Judaism: Although the spirit of reform existed in Judaism all along, its modern form was a response to the Enlightenment. One of the early pioneers of reform was Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), who sought to reconcile traditional Judaism and the modern world. Although Mendelssohn remained orthodox, Abraham Geiger (1810–1874) and others caught his spirit of rapprochement with the modern world and became the founders of Reform Judaism. Their developmental view of religion was epitomized by Geiger when he said, "Judaism is a constantly evolving organism" (quoted by Neusner 1:116). For the reformers, culture dictated the shape of religion. The modern age called for discarding those beliefs and practices that were incompatible with the modern worldview. To reconcile religion with science and reason, they believed that only what belonged to the essence of Judaism and was of universal value should be retained. Therefore, they elevated reason over divine authority, scientific and critical study of the Bible over literal interpretation, individual autonomy over rabbinic authority, universal spiritual significance over particularistic practices.

Accordingly, the reformers rejected the belief that the Torah and the Talmud were literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai. They argued that revelation is progressive, not static. They accepted the modern critical approach, which holds that the Bible represents human agency through which revelation was communicated rather than being literally the word of God. There was no need to strictly follow Mosaic and Talmudic laws and dietary (kosher) laws. The essence of Judaism is the rational-ethical system contained in the Ten Commandments and the prophetic message of social justice. Messianism is not a call for national restoration; rather, it signifies the mission of the chosen people as the instrument for disseminating the knowledge of God and Isaiah's vision of world peace.

In the spirit of reform, many changes were made in the worship service. Places of worship came to be called temples. Worship service was simplified and modernized, and many prayers were conducted in the vernacular. The Sabbath service was condensed and the laws concerning Sabbath observances were discarded. Family prayers became the norm, and the separation of men and women at worship service was regarded as outmoded. Organ music, outlawed by the halakhah, and cantors were introduced to enhance the Sabbath experience. References to the coming of the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead on the last day, reestablishment of Jewish nationality, and temple sacrifice were initially dropped from worship services and rituals.

More recently, Reform Judaism has implemented steps to retrieve many particularist practices and commitment to Jewish traditions. It issued a new prayer book that introduced an increased use of Hebrew and removed gender-biased language from worship service, reinstated references to Zion, included prayers for Israeli Independence Day, and offered ten alternative Sabbath services (Freud-Kandel 81–86).

Orthodox Judaism: Orthodox Judaism in its modern form began in the nineteenth century with Mosheh Sofer (1762–1839) in Hungary and Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888) in Germany in response to secular interpretations of Judaism. The movement spread to other European countries. However, most Orthodox Jews today live in Israel and the United States. Of the fifteen percent religiously observant Jews in Israel, Orthodox Jews are predominant. There is, however, a variety of Orthodoxy in Israel, such as the ultra-Orthodox, who refuse to associate with the state of Israel, and the moderate Agudah Orthodox, who live apart from the rest of Israelite society. Religious Zionists, who are Orthodox and who constitute about 10 percent of the population, are the most influential in religious and political matters. Because they embrace the Jewish people, traditions, and the land of Israel as objects of ultimate value, they symbolize contemporary Israel.

Orthodoxy believes that the Torah was revealed by God to Moses and that the halakhic laws codified in the Talmud are derived from revelation. They believe that religious developments and revelation were completed and finalized in the Torah and the halakhah, which Jews are obliged to follow. They insist on faithfully following the Sabbath, the festivals, and the dietary laws. They firmly hold that the Law as interpreted by rabbis contains everything for living meaningfully in this world. Orthodoxy fought Reform for discarding what it regards as essential. As modern Orthodoxy holds that religion should determine what is valuable in the modern world, it has sought to incorporate the values of modernity on the foundation of Orthodoxy.

However, believing that everything in Jewish traditions is essential to the faith, Ultra-Orthodox Jews are committed to strict observance of all legal matters (halakhah). They dissociate from the state of Israel either because they believe that there can be a Jewish State only with the advent of the Messianic Era or because they have reservation about Zionism due to the secular nature of its ideology and leadership. They refuse any change and want nothing to do with any aspect of the modern secular world. They shun the mass media, live in distinct neighborhoods, maintain their separate religious, educational, and welfare institutions, and wear the distinctive dress prescribed by the book of Leviticus.

Orthodox Jews insist on conducting all services and prayers in Hebrew and do not allow organ music. Men and women are separated in worship services, which take place in a synagogue. Only men are allowed to be rabbis. Sabbath services and observances are strict and literal. No cooking or even switching on lights on the Sabbath is allowed. They believe in future coming of the Messiah and the resurrection day.

Conservative Judaism: Conservative Judaism developed in reaction to the perceived excesses of Reform Judaism. It started in 1845, when Zachariah Frankel (1801–1875) withdrew from the Reform Rabbinical Conference at Frankfurt, which decided to make Hebrew optional for worship services. Thereafter the conservative movement grew in both Europe and America.

As a centrist movement that embraces both traditionalists and liberals, Conservatives embrace a diversity of beliefs and practices. The traditionalists emphasize the literal aspects of Sinai Covenant and the obligation to observe the classic formulation of the Torah and the Talmud. However, the liberals see revelation as an evolutionary process continually requiring adjustments and innovations. On the whole, Conservatives espouse slow change and staying within the Torah and the Talmud as much as possible. Conservatives have modified ritual life and restored many rituals and prayers. They emphasize the centrality of religion, tradition, history, and continuity of Jewish life. They have embraced Zionism and Jewish nationhood.

Reconstructionist Judaism: Following a different path, Mordecai Kaplan initiated Reconstructionism as a movement that views Judaism as an ever-evolving product of history in quest for meaning and purpose or salvation. So Reconstructionism sees religion as organically imbedded in the cultural enterprise promoting justice, peace, freedom, and human fulfillment in this world. To this end, Kaplan conceived God as the totality of the natural process making human fulfillment possible. So he rejected divine revelation and considered the Bible to be the product of the Jewish people. And he rejected the ideas of the chosen people and personal messiah. Emphasizing the centrality of Jewish peoplehood and cultural identity, Reconstructionists seek to rethink and reconstruct Jewish traditions, rituals, laws, values, customs, and ideals by integrating them with the values of modern society, science, and technology to provide a sense and purpose to Jewish life in the modern world. In organization they are democratic, egalitarian, and deeply committed to gender equality. Kaplan was the first to initiate bat mitzvah for girls. Currently they have introduced more spiritual, neo-Hasidic aspects into the movement, such traditional practices as dietary laws, the use of Hebrew in worship service, and the wearing of yarmulkes.

Zionism: The word "Zion" is a biblical term for the mount on which Jerusalem was built. Zionism is the Jewish longing to end the exile of the Diaspora and return to the homeland. Jews have suffered throughout their existence. We have already witnessed their suffering in the ancient world. As they were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, and later in Christian Europe, they were subjected to anti-Semitism, sporadic persecution, and expulsion. Those who were not expelled from Italy, Austria, and Germany were forced to live in segregated quarters called ghettos and wear a "Jew badge," or colored patch of cloth, in public.

In almost every European country where Jews had migrated, they were regularly persecuted. Thousands were massacred during the First Crusade. Persecution was followed by expulsion from Germany, England, France, Portugal, and elsewhere. In Spain, persecution of the Jews followed the expulsion of the Moors. At that time, many Jews were forcibly converted to Christianity, but they continued to secretly practice their Jewish faith. To root out these converts, derisively called "maranos" (pigs), in 1478 the Spanish Inquisition was launched with the appointment of Tomas de Torquemada as the first inquisitor general (c. 1420–1498) by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. In 1492, all unconverted Jews were expelled from Spain.

Instead of bringing freedom and equality, the Enlightenment brought only persecution and rejection as Jews attempted to face the modern world on its own terms. This was epitomized by the Dreyfus scandal in France (1894), in which Captain Alfred Dreyfus was falsely and unjustly prosecuted of treason and then condemned to solitary confinement in French Guiana but later reinstated. In Eastern Europe, Jews were subjected to repeated attacks or pogroms. Such experiences led the Austrian journalist Theodore Herzl (1860–1904) to conclude that Jews could never be free of persecution and atrocities without a homeland of their own. Jews began to migrate to Palestine from Eastern Europe after the pogroms of 1903 and of 1905–1906.

The most devastating of all persecutions was the Nazi Holocaust. At first, the Nazis put pressure on Jews to emigrate. Next they proceeded to persecute them. After Adolf Hitler took over control of a large swath of Europe, he devised plans to exterminate all European Jews, which he called the Final Solution to the "Jewish problem." To carry out this unspeakable horror, concentration camps were set up in Poland, Austria, Germany, and elsewhere. At these camps, able-bodied persons were worked and starved to death. The rest began to be shot to death, but later, as their numbers increased, they were gassed and incinerated. Thus, six million Jews were systematically exterminated by the end of World War II, taking the lives of about one third of the Jewish population in the entire world.

The final drive for a Jewish homeland came with the Nazi Holocaust. In 1948, the United Nations voted to create the State of Israel. The utopian dream had at last become a reality. But this was no return to paradise. The serpent this time was the displacement of Palestinians, who fled to the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. From this experience arose Palestinian militant groups vowing to destroy Israel and reclaim their homeland, sowing the seeds of subsequent conflict.

The present Arab-Israeli conflict over a homeland for the Palestinians stems from that time and the 1967 war in which Israel captured Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. Sinai was returned to Egypt. Under a peace accord, limited self-government was granted to the Palestinians in Hebron and the Gaza Strip. Negotiations for a permanent settlement have repeatedly failed. With the cycle of Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket attacks on Israel, now exacerbated by Hamas, considered by many to be a terrorist group, which assumed power in the Gaza Strip, as well as Israeli counterstrikes, peace remains an elusive dream.

Women in Judaism

The view of women in the Hebrew Bible is shaped by the survival drive of a people intermittently threatened with extinction, persecution, or loss of identity. The idea of a chosen people became the central guiding principle counteracting that threat. This idea also lies behind the dual principles of God's covenant with Abraham, including the promise of land, descendants, and blessing; and the covenant with the Israelites under Moses. This survival drive prompted the divine injunction to "increase and multiply," an emphasis on procreation, family life, and motherhood, and a strong effort to control women's sexuality. The domestic sphere and motherhood became Israelite women's concern. But within this framework, women may have played an active leadership role in ancient Israel.

As noted before, the first creation story in Genesis implies that as created by God in his image, and so in their very nature, women and men are fully equal. Both symbolize God. The second story implies that subordination of women to men came about in the context of patriarchal society and family life. In the ancient world, men were in charge. Women were subordinated to male authority, rendered powerless, and marginalized. The etiological interest in the second story reflects this condition as a disorder brought about by the fall from the ideal state intended by God. Alternatively, the subordination of women may have followed the transition from a hunter-gatherer society (the first story), in which men and women were relatively equal, to the domestication of plants, and the rise of agriculture, civilization, and the patriarchal society (the second story). Thus, the two creation stories distinguish between the ideal and the actual.

Patriarchy controlled the religious sphere, beginning with the very image of God. In the Hebrew Bible, God is overwhelmingly portrayed as a male, as are the messiah, the religious leadership, and the priesthood. However, along with the dominant male characteristics, the Hebrew Bible, especially under prophetic inspiration, invested God with various female characteristics and imagery, such as tenderness, care, and compassion. In the Bible, the highest female association with God is Wisdom. Portrayed as a female companion, Wisdom is God's first creation and the principle through which he created and ordered all things.

The book of Proverbs etches a portrait of the ideal woman. She is, of course, a wife and mother. Her abilities engender her husband's trust. Her domain is the domestic sphere, but she is not confined to it. She rises early, works hard with wool and flax, weaves linen, and sells it. She has business dealings with various merchants. She is proficient in buying land and cultivating. She is capable, dignified, powerful, and successful in business. And she supervises the domestic sphere. She is generous and compassionate toward the poor and needy. She is wise and admired by her husband and others (31:10–31).

In ancient Israel women were not allowed to serve as priests. But we have numerous examples of women as charismatic leaders, judges, prophets, and power brokers in the political arena, such as Deborah, Bathsheba, Esther, Ruth, and Judith. Women also performed as musicians at temple rituals, sang victory songs, and served as professional mourners.

During subsequent periods the Sadducees and the Essenes excluded women from membership, but the Pharisees did not. Some women gained sufficient prominence in the latter group that their commentaries on the Mishnah and the Talmud were incorporated into the canonical texts. There is even a book that argues that the author of the oldest strand in the Bible—the J source—was a woman. Women organized their own monastic order in Egypt, and some were active in the revolutionary Zealot movement. After the Romans destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, religious services were relegated to the synagogue and the domestic sphere. The synagogue became a male-dominated institution. Only men could be rabbis, lead prayers, make up a quorum of ten for communal prayers (a minyan), and read from the Torah in public.

The view of women became more negative in the biblical apocrypha (the books not accepted by the Hebrew canon as scripture) and in the Talmud. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) considers women as men's downfall (9:1–9), and the Pharisees of that period considered women as inferior to men, as dangerous temptresses and schemers.

Fear of women is evident not only in the story of the fall, for which Eve is blamed, but also in the portrayal of women as temptresses. Women were believed to lead men to corruption and idolatry, as were David, Solomon, and Ahab. The Mishnah considers men normal and women abnormal. Women have no merit except helping their husbands to study the Torah and sending their sons to learn it. The Talmud explicitly prohibits women from reading the Bible in the synagogue: "A woman should not read from the Torah because of the honor of the congregation" (quoted by Heschel 528). This injunction reinforces the exclusion of women from the rabbinate and other leadership positions for public ritual functions. At first, women were allowed to attend synagogue services, especially on the Sabbath and Holy Days. Gradually, their presence was limited to the domestic celebrations, such as ritual meals on the Sabbath. Excluded from presiding over prayer service, women could only recite prayers beginning and ending the Sabbath. There is no evidence that women were separated from men in synagogue services in ancient times. In the domestic sphere, women were active in charitable works. In the Middle Ages, Jewish women functioned as midwives and healers for both Jews and Christians.

In biblical times, women's sexuality was closely guarded. Women were men's property, as is clear from the last of the Ten Commandments, which lists women among men's possessions. At marriage, which took place shortly after puberty, the girl passed from the control of her father to that of her husband. A man made a woman his wife by paying the bride price to her father. Virginity was a requirement, because Jews believed in lineage through the mother. A woman could be stoned to death if the husband could prove that she was not a virgin when they were married. However, if he falsely accused her, he was only fined. Polygyny was abolished after the tenth century, and bride price by the end of the Talmudic period. Today no discrimination is made between bride and groom, and many women actively participate in the wedding ceremony.

It should be noted, however, that women's rights in traditional Judaism were greater than they were in western civilization until a century ago. Unlike women in western countries, Jewish women had the right to buy, sell, and own property and make their own contracts.

Women had the right to be consulted about their marriage. In marriage, the husband is believed to sanctify the wife. However, their status was equal and complementary. Men and women complete each other. An unmarried man is not considered a man, and without a husband a woman is thought to be a shapeless lump. Both husband and wife had the right to satisfy each other sexually. A man does not have the right to beat or mistreat his wife, a right that was not recognized by law in many western countries until a few hundred years ago. Women were deemed valuable for the children they can produce. That is why a barren wife or a childless widow was treated as nonperson—left unfulfilled and unloved. Although sexuality and love were viewed positively, the main emphasis was on procreation. Most important was having male children, since it was through them that the man's family name and line would be passed on.

The Hebrew Bible allowed a man to divorce his wife by giving her a bill of divorce, but a woman could neither initiate nor resist divorce. Women had no recourse except in cases of denial of support. Men, however, could extort money from their wives for agreeing to grant divorce, or even marry another without granting the first one a divorce. Only in the twentieth century have changes been made in the divorce laws.

In the modern period, things began to change, especially in Reform Judaism. The 1846 Breslau conference called for equality of women in religion. Today women and men are not separated during synagogue services in Reform, Conservative, or Reconstructionist Judaism. The latter was a pioneer in granting women equality in the spheres of Jewish law and ritual observances. In Orthodoxy, women are still separated from men in the synagogue by a partition. They are barred from the rabbinate and discriminated against in legal matters. However, this is beginning to change. Some Orthodox women have formed prayer groups, and some synagogues now allow women to become assistant rabbis or "congregational interns," who can teach, preach, and counsel the faithful (Heschel 528).

Liberation of women in the non-Orthodox branches occurred slowly. In the 1960s, the movement toward granting women equality began, resulting in Reform Judaism ordaining the first woman rabbi in 1972. Reconstructionists followed that lead a year later. It was not until 1983 that Conservative Judaism ordained the first woman rabbi. In civil society, especially in the United States, Jewish women have been in the vanguard of the Women's Liberation Movement. Ever since Betty Friedan wrote The Feminine Mystique, Jewish women have been leading the charge in the struggle for women's equality in all spheres of life.

Judaism Today

In the aftermath of the Holocaust and fifty years after the birth of Israel, despite wars, sustained terrorists' attacks, and prolonged conflict with the Palestinians, Judaism shows a great deal of diversity and vitality. Within these mileposts, some observers think that four themes will continue to resonate in the twenty-first century: (i) fragility of Jewish life; (ii) remembrance of the dreadful ravages of time; (iii) encounter with God in worship and discourse; and (iv) enduring trust in God (Neusner 306).

As one of the forces that has shaped western civilization, the influence of Judaism seems secure, and Jewish contributions to contemporary culture far outweigh their numbers. Yet with a decline of the Jewish population, some have expressed an ongoing concern that "the Jews are dying out and with them Judaism in all its systems" (Rawidowicz 308). Although the number of Jews who enter interfaith marriages is not greater than that of any other group, there is still the concern that the children will be lost to the faith. On the other hand, there has been a recent trend of a return of the children of interfaith marriages to the faith of their grandparents.

It has been pointed out that Jewish engagement in the secular culture has led many to abandon their faith and practice, so that many Jews have only ethnic identity. Even in Israel, only 15 percent are strictly observant, and about 30 percent do not observe Jewish laws at all (Fisher 52).

More recently, within Judaism itself various tensions have emerged. They are especially taut in Israel between the ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews. Many Israelites identify this "rift over religion" as the biggest problem. One of the issues that divides the groups is keeping of the Sabbath. Ultra-Orthodox Jews want strict observance by all Jews, but the secularists want to travel, shop, and do other things. Another is women's dress. The ultra-Orthodox want women to dress "modestly" (i.e., not show arms and legs), while the secularists refuse to abide by their restrictions. The latter also resent the exemption of yeshiva (religious academy) students from serving in the military, working, and living on welfare. The opposition to or dissociation of radical ultra-Orthodox groups from Zionism and the state of Israel, and yet their acceptance of public assistance is another source of friction. While a number of activists on both sides are working toward finding common grounds among the ultra-Orthodox and secularists, others see their segregation as the solution. Another fissure is the ultra-Orthodox attitude toward relations with the Palestinians, especially in regard to the return of the occupied territories and creation of a Palestinian state. Their opposition militates against peace negotiations.

A tense situation that most recently boiled to a near crisis, but was temporarily averted, stems from the Orthodox rabbinate's control of religious life, particularly their control of conversion and the exclusion of non-Orthodox Jews from religious councils. A recent bill was aimed at making conversion easier for Jews who migrated to Israel from the former Soviet Union by granting conversion powers to local rabbis across the country. However, following objections from the ultra-Orthodox, conversion was placed in the hands of the chief rabbinate and declared Orthodox Jewish law to be the basis for conversion. Because only one third of those who migrate from the former Soviet Union have Jewish mothers, through whom Jewish identity is believed to be transmitted, the Orthodox do not consider them to be Jews. They also face obstacles in marrying and in burying their dead. In addition, some Orthodox rabbis consider Reform and Conservative Jews as "apostates" and "infidels." Such a stance strikes at the Jewish identity of the vast majority of American Jews and make their more lenient conversion processes invalid. They are now searching for a compromise. Most observers see a looming confrontation over this issue of Jewish identity that could explode into a global crisis. But others see the controversy positively as having brought awareness to many Israeli Jews of the nature of Reform and Conservative Judaism.

In spite such conflicts and controversies, the vitality of Judaism is on the rise. A growing spiritual awakening is evident among Jews today. Reform Judaism has restored many Jewish practices and rituals and has reclaimed Jewish identity along more traditional lines. Jewish contributions to the feminist movement have brought women's perspectives on morality, spirituality, environmental issues, and feminine aspects of God to the world stage. The popularity of the study and practice of Kabbalah and Jewish meditation by Hollywood celebrities has drawn many young people to it, opening a dimension of Judaism that was formerly the exclusive domain of only the initiates who dedicated their entire lives to it. It is hoped that this renewal will continue in the future.

Jesus Giving the Keys to St. Peter, by Jean-Auguste-Dominic-Ingres

Chapter 12: Christianity

Timeline

c. 7 BCE–30 CE | Life of Jesus

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c. 10–65 CE | Life of Paul

306–337 | Constantine becomes Emperor of the Roman Empire

313 | Constantine's Edict of Toleration

325 | Council of Nicaea

354–430 | Augustine of Hippo

451 | Council of Chalcedon

529 | Benedict's monastery, part of the Monastic Movement

732 | Charles Martel stops Moorish advance to France

800 | Charlemagne crowned Holy Roman Emperor

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Division of Christendom into Rome (Western Church) and Constantinople (Eastern Church)

1095–1300 | The Crusades

1182–1226 | Life of Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscans

1225–1274 | Thomas Aquinas and Medieval theological synthesis

1453 | Fall of Constantinople to Turkish forces

1483–1546 | Martin Luther, beginning of the Protestant Reformation

1534 | Henry VIII becomes head of the Anglican Church

1509–1564 | John Calvin, Calvinism and other Denominations

1515–1572 | John Knox, founder of Presbyterianism in Scotland

1545–1563 | The Council of Trent: Roman Catholic Reformation

1570–1612 | John Smyth, founder of the Baptist Denomination

1624–1691 | George Fox, founder of Quakers

1703–1791 | John Wesley, founder of Methodism

1720–1780 | The Enlightenment in Europe

1859 | Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species

1948 | Formation of the World Council of Churches

1962–1965 | The Second Vatican Council: Modernization of Catholicism

1988 | Reopening of churches in the USSR

2005 | Death of John Paul II and accession of Benedict XVI

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"Love prompted me to come," says Beatrice to Dante in the Inferno of The Divine Comedy, as he finds himself lost in the dark forest of this world and sees no way out, with the exits being guarded by a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. In The Gospel According to John (hereafter JN), it is said that love made God to send his Son (i.e., Jesus) to save the world. So Christians came to interpret Jesus's life and mission in Beatrice's words, "Love made him to come!" To enter into this world of Christianity, we need to begin with Jesus of Nazareth. His given name was Yeshua. In Greek it was translated as "Iesous," which was rendered "Jesus" in English. The word "Christ" comes from the Greek "Christos," a translation of the Hebrew word "messiah," which means "anointed." Like the title Buddha was given to Siddhartha Gautama, Christ is not a proper name but a title given to Jesus by his disciples.

Who was this Jesus? How did he live and die? What was the heart of his message? How did Christianity begin? How did it evolve into what it is today? This chapter will explore these and other related questions.

To understand Jesus's life and message, we need to recall the political and religious conditions of Jesus's world. While Herod Antipas was the king in Galilee under Roman auspices, Judea and the adjacent territories were under direct Roman rule. Thus even the limited autonomy the Jews enjoyed in Galilee disappeared from Judea.

In the last chapter, we already encountered the major religious groups in Jesus's time—the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Zealots. Despite the relative peace and prosperity of the period, and the fact that the Roman rule was more benign than that of the Greeks, a feeling of desperation over the lack of freedom prompted the militant Zealots to guerilla warfare. Many Jews continued to harbor the messianic expectation that, in faithfulness to his covenant with David, God would send a righteous Davidic King who would drive out the Romans and establish an independent Jewish state. Others placed their hope in the mysterious figure of the suffering servant of Second Isaiah, whose innocence, suffering, and death would redeem and heal the people and restore their right relationship with God.

Those who held the apocalyptic expectation believed that evil and corruption were so pervasive and the prospect for Jewish independence was so dim that a divinely appointed figure would destroy the wicked, break Satan's power, and end the world. This would be followed by the general resurrection and judgment, the inauguration of the messianic age, and the final kingdom of God. The Essenes believed that the cosmic conflict between the children of light and the children of darkness would soon reach a climax. Then God would bring the present age to a close and inaugurate his reign through their Teacher of Righteousness, or a Jesus-like messiah before Jesus. Such beliefs created an air of expectancy that Israel would be purified and that God would vindicate and uplift his people.

The Life of Jesus

Into such a world Jesus was born. The exact date of his birth is not known. The current dating cannot be correct, because it would have Jesus born after King Herod's death in 4 BCE. However, The Gospel According to Matthew (hereafter MT) says that upon receiving news of Jesus's birth, Herod ordered the massacre of all boys "two years of age and younger" (2:16). This would place Jesus's birth between 6 and 4 BCE.

We cannot, however, accept Matthew's account literally, as it conflicts with the stories of Jesus's infancy in The Gospel According to Luke (hereafter LK). MT's and LK's interests were not factual but theological. Pitching his Gospel to a Jewish Christian audience, Matthew presents Jesus as the fulfillment of God's plan of salvation promised to Israel. So, paralleling the story of Moses, he casts Herod in the role of a pharaoh, ordering the slaughter of boys, just as the pharaoh had done in the case of Moses. He has Jesus and his family flee to Egypt, as did Joseph and the patriarchs, in order to present their return as a new exodus and Jesus as the new Israel. The virgin birth fulfills Isaiah's messianic prophecy and the belief that Jesus is Emmanuel, God's special presence among humans.

Thus the stories of Jesus's birth and infancy are mythological in form. They contain little factual information about Jesus's birth and early life. Jesus was probably born about 7–4 BCE, probably in Nazareth, to Mary and Joseph. Little else is known about Jesus's life until he began his public ministry with his baptism by John the Baptist in the Jordan River.

The Public Ministry of Jesus: If the infancy narratives are not historical, what about the rest of the gospels? Are they factual or fictional? On this question of the historical Jesus, there are, generally, three approaches. One is the view of a group of scholars known as the "Jesus Seminar." As one of their leading exponents, John Dominic Crossan, puts it, the Gospels are pure fabrications. The second, opposite view of many Christians is that the Gospels are literally true. In the middle, a vast majority of scholars acknowledge the existence of conflicting stories and the consequent impossibility of everything in the Gospels being literally true. Most admit that the Gospels are theologically interpreted accounts formed in three stages: (a) the actual Jesus; (b) Jesus of the early community, which preserved and molded the memory of Jesus's life, teachings, and activities in the light of their faith; and (c) Jesus of the Gospel writers, called "Evangelists" (derived from the Greek word "euangelion," meaning "gospel"). Their points of view reflect the situation of the Church at that time, their own theological agenda, and the needs of the audience. The historical Jesus is a modern reconstruction.

However, it is not possible to reconstruct the actual Jesus with certainty, because we cannot always go behind the gospels and isolate the actual Jesus from the Christ of faith. The sources on which the gospels are based were initially disconnected small units containing individual stories and teachings which the Evangelists had to stich together using such stock transitional phrases as "one day as he stood by Lake Gennesaret," "he was once in a certain town," and so on. As John Meier explains, "The exact length of the intervening time and the exact order of the events of the public ministry cannot be known. Without a sense of 'before and after,' any biography in the modern sense—and indeed any sketch of the psychological or religious development of Jesus—is impossible" (I: 42).

All four gospels begin Jesus's public ministry with his baptism by John the Baptist. John had appeared on the banks of the Jordan River, baptizing people with an urgent message of repentance because God's kingdom was imminent. Something momentous must have happened on the occasion of Jesus's baptism. Although details vary, the gospels state that as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven saying, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased" (The Gospel According to Mark, hereafter MK, 1:9–11). This description suggests both a prophetic call and a messianic mission of Jesus. The "heavens opening" signifies a reopening of prophecy. The identification of Jesus as the "beloved Son" reflects Psalms 2:7, which pertains to the anointing and enthronement of the Davidic King that made him the Messiah. Thus the baptism is seen as the anointing of Jesus as the promised Messiah, confirmed by the heavenly voice.

Jesus began his public ministry in his home district of Galilee. He started attracting others to his message and eventually chose an inner circle of twelve, who came to be called apostles, to carry on his mission. He went about preaching in the synagogue at Capernaum and elsewhere. People were astounded at his teaching, which derived from his own authority, and not from rabbinic sources.

Signs of the Kingdom: Miracle Stories: After reporting Jesus's teaching and people's reactions, MK proceeds to string together a host of miracle stories, interspersed with teachings. Did they really happen? What do they mean?

In modern times, a miracle is defined as something that happens beyond the laws of nature. However, in the biblical period, a miracle was an extraordinary event believed to occur through divine intervention. In this light, the Evangelists present several types of miracles: healing, exorcism, the feeding of thousands with a few loaves and fish, changing water into wine, walking on water, and raising the dead. Many miracles have symbolic meaning. For the gospels they are signs of the in-break of the Kingdom—signs of God's saving presence and power acting through Jesus, destroying the power of evil, symbolized by Satan. Miracles also fulfill Isaiah's prophecies of the dawn of the new messianic age, signs of which are the presence of the Spirit.

The Kingdom became the focal point of Jesus's teaching. It required an inner revolution and purity of mind and heart rather than ritual purity. So Jesus dispensed with the Pharisees' concern for ritual purity with such aphorisms as "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person but what comes out of it." He gave a radical new interpretation of the Torah and acted as though he was above it. When the Pharisees confronted him about his disciples violating the Sabbath by picking grains for food, he dismissed them with a terse remark: "The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath" (MK 2:23–28). Such brusque dismissals aroused the Pharisees' wrath.

Such actions and claims stemmed from the consciousness of Jesus's unique relationship with God, which, he believed, was the source of his mission, his teaching authority, and his actions. This consciousness of God's presence and power in his life convinced Jesus that what he was doing was what God was doing in the world. It led him to oppose the Torah and the Temple, to heal on the Sabbath, and to forgive sins, which, in Judaism, was the prerogative of God alone.

Moreover, he broke down social barriers, accepted people as they were, and associated with everyone equally without any distinction—especially those who were labeled as sinners, made powerless and ostracized by society. Jesus excoriated the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, presuming that they were better than others for observing ritual purity. As the number of his disciples grew, so did the opposition of Jewish authorities. By the time Jesus went to Jerusalem for the last time to celebrate the Passover, things were heading toward a showdown.

Why Did Jesus Die? In the spring of 30 or 33 CE, Jesus went with his disciples from Galilee to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the last time. Why did the Jewish authorities condemn Jesus and why did the Roman curator, Pontius Pilate, sentence him to be crucified? Did Jesus believe that he had to die?

As modern scholars have noted, only the Jewish authorities and Pilate, and not the entire Jewish population, were involved in the decision on Jesus's death. However, the Gospels try to exonerate the brutal Pilate or mitigate his responsibility for Jesus's death and pin it on the Jewish authorities and the crowd. Religious and political reasons lay behind the decision that Jesus must die.

The Jewish authorities decided that some of Jesus's teachings and acts constituted a claim to the status that belonged to God alone. These include his claims that he had the power and authority to forgive sins, to inaugurate the kingdom of God, and to dispense with Sabbath laws, and his prophesying against the Temple. The Jewish leaders concluded that Jesus was a false prophet speaking and acting in opposition to the Torah and the Temple.

Additional factors were Jesus's driving out the moneychangers and animal vendors from the Temple courtyard and his prediction that the Temple would be destroyed (which provided the livelihood of 20 percent of Jerusalem's population). The accumulated weight of these issues led the authorities to conclude that Jesus was predicting the end of their mode of worship and the religion it represented. They perceived Jesus as undermining their sacred teachings and religion, and for this he had to die.

Above all, the authorities were most wary of Jesus's symbolic entry into Jerusalem. They feared that if a religious disturbance broke out, the Romans would intervene, putting the Temple and the nation in jeopardy. For Pilate, it was possible that a city crammed with pilgrims proclaiming Jesus to be the Messiah might start a political uprising to throw off Roman occupation. So he decided to crucify Jesus as a warning to the crowd against any political turmoil. His inscription on the cross—Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews—reflects the political reason for the crucifixion.

Lastly, from the New Testament accounts, it can be concluded that, for Jesus, his death was bound up with his identity, his relationship with God, and his message and mission. This is reflected in his words over the bread and wine at the Last Supper, which Jesus had with the Twelve Apostles. While we cannot be sure of the Last Supper and the exact words Jesus used, two independent accounts, one of which was written by Paul in the mid-fifties, agree on the words connecting the bread with his body and the wine with his blood: "This [bread] is my body" and "This [cup of wine] is my blood [of the covenant]." Thus, for Jesus the Last Supper was a reenactment of the Passover and the sacrifice by which Moses established the covenant relationship between God and Israel. He linked that past to the present—his approaching death as the new covenant, restoring the right relationship with God—and to the future kingdom. He therefore saw his death as the saving event and the decisive action of God inaugurating his kingdom on earth.

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus: The Synoptic Gospels (as MK, MT, and LK are called, since they can be placed side by side and viewed together) state that Jesus, weakened by scourging, died on the cross at about 3:00 p.m. on a Friday, which Christians came to call "Good Friday." In one of the sayings attributed to Jesus, before his death, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (MK 15:34). This is actually the first line of Psalm 22, which ends with an expression of the psalmist's confidence that God would vindicate him. Another saying attributed to him was "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (LK 23:34). Jesus's body was taken down and buried before sundown to avoid violating the Sabbath. It was probably put in a common, unmarked grave. It is possible that Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, got permission from Pilate to bury the body in his own adjacent tomb. The Romans had no set policy of dealing with the corpse. The remains of Jehochanan ben Hagalgol, dating from the first century CE, attests to the fact that in some cases people were first crucified and then buried. This lends probability to the gospels' accounts.

Jesus's death appeared to dash all the hopes harbored by his disciples, many of whom, disheartened and terrified that the same fate might befall them, hid from public view. But what happened next, according to the gospels, changed everything. However, the New Testament (hereafter NT) gives conflicting accounts. In his original ending, MK reports that the women, who had gone early Sunday morning to anoint the body of Jesus, found the tomb empty. A young man in a white robe in the tomb told them that he had risen and instructed them to tell the disciples to go to Galilee where they would see him (16:1–8). MT adds that Jesus appeared to the women and later to the disciples gathered in Galilee (28:1–20). LK describes both the empty tomb and resurrection appearances. John (hereafter JN) speaks of Jesus first appearing to Mary Magdalene, then to the other disciples, and finally to Thomas, who had doubted the resurrection (20:1–25). Paul speaks only of resurrection appearances to Peter, to the Twelve Apostles, to a larger number of apostles, to five hundred others, and lastly to himself (1 Cor. 15:3–8). Such divergent accounts have generated wide-ranging explanations. One is that the stories of empty tomb and resurrection appearances are NT inventions. Another holds that the claims of seeing the risen Jesus represent conversion visions or mass hallucinations. Third, that the stories represent not so much what happened to Jesus after his death as that the disciples continued to believe in him in spite of his death. Fourth, that the resurrection was not a physical rising but a spiritual transformation. Finally, that the resurrection was both a spiritual and a physical occurrence.

Belief in the Sacred

God in the New Testament: The Father: The Hebrew Bible speaks of God revealing himself through creation and his saving actions on behalf of Israel. In the New Testament, God reveals his inner life through his saving action in Jesus. While Judaism established the oneness of God, the NT reveals the nature of that oneness as dynamic unity of relationships. The terms that express this unity of relationship are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The New Testament confirms the Hebrew Bible's view of God as a person, who creates and sustains all things. Nothing lies outside his knowledge and care. But while the dominant image of God in the Hebrew Bible is King, in the New Testament it is the Father. This image is at the core of Jesus's teaching. As Roger Haight explains, "It would be hard to imagine that the experience of God as Father was not very close to defining Jesus's own conception of God" (114). "Father" is the name Jesus most often used to refer to God, and he taught his disciples to address God as Father, especially in prayer. It is the name he used to ask God to forgive those who crucified him. In JN, it is one of the last words he uttered before he died on the cross: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

Today the fatherhood of God has become freighted with ideology. Feminists see it as an instrument of patriarchy, associated with power, domination, and oppression. Since God's fatherhood has been used to unjustly oppress individuals and groups, it is deemed unsuitable as a metaphor for God. However, Jesus's use of the name seems to have originated from his experience of unfathomable trust, closeness, and intimacy with God. And he urged his disciples to come to the same experience: "Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (MT 5:48). The qualities of the Father most evident in the gospels are compassion, forgiveness, and saving activity. As in Hosea, God is ever faithful, while humans turn away. But God goes out of his way looking for sinners, which is a theme of many of Jesus's parables or teaching stories.

The parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates the nature of God. In the parable we encounter two sons. The younger one takes his inheritance and squanders it on a life of dissipation and is reduced to tending swine and eating their food. Realizing that his father's servants are far better off than he is, he decides to return to his father, confess his mistake, and ask for forgiveness. When his father sees him from afar, filled with compassion, he runs to him and embraces him, takes him back, and gives a great party to celebrate his return. However, hearing the sounds of festivity, the older brother becomes indignant, for the father had never given him a party. The father assures him that everything he has is his, but they must celebrate because his brother has returned to life again (LK 15:11–32).

The quintessence of JN's understanding of God is expressed in his First Letter, when he says, "God is love" (4:9). For John, love is not an attribute of God but rather God's very nature, which is beyond judging, rewarding, or punishing. The God Jesus speaks of in JN judges no one. God has given all judgment to the Son. But the Son comes into the world not to condemn but to save it: "God did not send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (3:16–17). There is, however, judgment. It is humans who judge themselves when they fail to respond to God, to Jesus and to fellow humans—by judging others, and by the way they live. For John, this judgment takes place here and now. A person passes from death to eternal life at the very moment of decision.

Although the Father loves all equally and unconditionally, he has a special concern for the poor, the homeless, the powerless, the oppressed. While God's being and his love are boundless and undifferentiating, in regard to the poor and the oppressed, this love is like the love of a parent who has a special care for a child with greater need. In this respect, he is the God of justice—condemning injustice, promoting justice, and social change. This is what the Synoptic Gospels meant by God judging and condemning. Jesus sets the Father's kingdom as judgment against injustices of this word and urges humanity to do justice, promote equality, and return to the Father's love. Thus, Roger Haight explains, "the God of Jesus is a God of justice and of judgment upon injustice because God is love" (117). For the New Testament, the ultimate dimension of the Father's love is his saving activity through the Son (JN 3:16).

Jesus in the New Testament: In the Synoptic Gospels as a whole, Jesus does not give an unequivocal answer to the question of his identity. When hauled in chains before the Sanhedrin, Caiaphas solemnly asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" Even the affirmative answer to that question in MK, where Jesus replies, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God and coming with the clouds of heaven" (14:62) seems an evasion. For this statement shifts the focus from Messiah to Son of Man, which is an apocalyptic title. Although others use the title of Messiah to address him, it does not appear that Jesus ever used it to refer to himself.

As we saw in the previous chapter, the concepts of messiah and salvation initially had political and nationalistic connotations. In the post-exilic period, the figure of the Messiah was endowed with superhuman qualities. But both messiah and salvation were politically based. Divinity was not part of the equation.

What is the meaning of the title Son of Man, which Jesus used to obliquely refer to himself? Scholarly interpretations range from its referring to someone who has an earthly, prophetic mission akin to Jeremiah and Ezekiel to death and resurrection, to the apocalyptic sense as the exalted Son of Man coming at the end of time to judge the world and establish the New Order.

In most Synoptic texts, the title Son of God carries a messianic sense. However, a parallel is implied between God and Jesus in MT's portrayal of Peter's confession. When Jesus asked his disciples at Caesarea Philippi, "Who do you say that I am?" Simon said in reply, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God" (16:16). Then Jesus changed Simon's name to Peter and promised to build his Church on that rock. Just as God promised David that his dynasty would last forever, so Jesus promises Peter that he is the foundation on which he will build the Church that will endure forever. And just as God changed Abram's name to Abraham, so Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter. A similar divine parallel is the closing of MT, where Jesus says, "Be assured, I will be with you always, till the end of time" (28:20). Just as Yahweh was especially present in the temple, so the Church is the temple in which the resurrected Jesus will forever dwell.

Apart from such controversial texts, nowhere in the Synoptic Gospels does Jesus hint of his identity. The focus of his preaching was not himself—the Proclaimer—but the proclaimed, the kingdom of God. So the clue to Jesus's consciousness of his identity is the sense of his unique relationship with God, the source of his authority, the certitude with which he acted. He saw an indissoluble link between his action and God's, his will and God's, his life and God's, especially in the passages where he speaks of his coming and its purpose. So, avoiding political connotations of the title of "messiah," he expressed his unique relationship with God through his teachings, actions, and attitude. That is what dismayed his contemporaries.

In JN, however, Jesus's divinity is in the forefront of his consciousness. In the prologue to his Gospel, John states that the divine Word (Logos) became incarnate as Jesus: "The Word became flesh; he came to dwell among us" (1:14). Some interpreters see a parallel in JN's use of the Greek term "Logos" with its use in Greek philosophy, where it has a variety of meanings, including a divine reality mediating between God and the world. It is also considered similar to Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible and to the Jewish Philosopher Philo's (c. 20 BCE–40 CE) view that the Logos first existed from eternity as God's thought and later became God's instrument in creating the world. For JN, the Logos is eternal and divine but distinct from God the Father. The alternative term JN uses to express the same idea of incarnation is "the only begotten Son," whom the Father sends to the world. This revelation of Jesus's divinity is punctuated throughout JN. Addressing the Father, for instance, Jesus prays for the same glory that he had with him before creation. And pushed by his opponents to declare who he was, Jesus is said to reply, "Before Abraham was I am" (8:58). This "I am" refers to the revelation of Yahweh in Exodus and Second Isaiah's proclamation of the one God using the same "I am" formula. And one of the main themes throughout the Gospel of John is that Jesus is the Self-revelation of the Father.

St. Paul's view of Jesus hinges on his claim to have experienced the risen Jesus. In The Letter to the Romans, Paul declares that the resurrection is Jesus's enthronement as the Davidic Messiah. He says that Jesus was "established as Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through resurrection" (1:4). However, in The Letter to the Philippians, Paul quotes an early Christian hymn that seems to imply more than messianic exaltation, when he says, "Who, subsisting in the form of God, did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself" (2:6–7). The phrase "form of God" has been variously interpreted, ranging from image or likeness of God to full divinity, which the Son empties by becoming human.

The Letter to the Colossians says, Jesus is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (1:15–16), which clearly refers to Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible. But more seems implied when the Letter goes on to say, in Jesus "the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in a bodily form" (2:9–10). Because Jesus is the full manifestation of divinity in human form, he is said to be the center and the connecting link between God and all things.

The Holy Spirit: There are two main conceptions of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. One is that the Holy Spirit is the dynamic, transforming, sanctifying power of God. The Spirit is God's presence in the world creatively renewing all things, bringing freshness and joy. The NT opens with the Spirit's relationship to Jesus. He was conceived by the Spirit. The Spirit descended like a dove and alighted on him following his baptism by John. And the Spirit led him to the desert to be tempted by the Devil. At Pentecost the Spirit appears in the forms of a mighty wind and tongues of fire to give birth to the Christian Church, signifying new creation, as it did at the beginning of creation in Genesis. The Spirit is associated with baptism, in which one is "born of water and the Spirit." Thus the Spirit is the source of spiritual life in the believer.

JN is clearest in expressing the second meaning of the Holy Spirit as a personal divine being, distinct from the Father and the Son. Like Jesus, the Spirit is called "another Advocate" and "the Spirit of truth" (14:16). The Spirit "comes from the Father," and Jesus is said to send the Spirit from the Father (15:26–27). We may interpret these statements to mean that if the relationship of Jesus to the world is one of salvation, that of the Holy Spirit as the Advocate is one of teaching, recalling, testifying, and guiding believers in their return journey to God. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are not separate entities but forms of God's being-in-relation-to-the-world.

The Teachings of Jesus

A full-scale study of Jesus's teachings is not possible here. Instead, after explaining the central concept of the kingdom of God, we will concentrate on Jesus's most memorable teachings as contained in the Sermon on the Mount and in one of his many parables.

The Kingdom of God: Initially, like John the Baptist, Jesus began by preaching, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is upon you" (MT 4:17). What is the meaning of this expression? According to Meier, for Jesus the kingdom meant "the definitive coming of God in the near future to bring the present state of things to an end and to establish his full and unimpeded rule over the world in general and Israel in particular" (II, 349). The kingdom begins in the present in Jesus's preaching, especially in his death and resurrection. It will be fully realized in the future, when God's definitive presence in time brings an end to the present order and establishes the new order in which humanity will be guided by the love of God and of neighbor. To be a part of it, humans have to "repent," a term that implies a change of mind and heart, turning one's life around, thus bringing about an inner revolution.

In the Synoptic Gospels, the kingdom of God is the focal point of Jesus's teachings. The parables explain its nature. The teachings delineate a path following which humans can become a part of it. The miracles are signs of the kingdom. Through Jesus's activities and ultimately his death and resurrection, the kingdom finally breaks into time and becomes a catalyst for transformation and the ultimate source of meaning.

Ethics of the Kingdom: The Sermon on the Mount: Comparisons and contrasts frame the Sermon. Moses went up to Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God. But Jesus goes up on a mount to give the new law, suggesting his divine authority to give the new law, fulfilling the old law and God's promises to Israel.

The Sermon opens with the Beatitudes, the qualities that make a person blessed and a part of the kingdom and inheritor of the promised blessings. Against the values by which people ordinarily live, Jesus posts the values of the kingdom: voluntary poverty, gentleness, compassion, purity of heart, peacemaking, and commitment to justice and eradication of evil.

Jesus tells his disciples that to attain blessedness they must uproot anger from their minds, pluck out greed and craving from their hearts ("pluck out your eye"), and stop grabbing more than what they need ("cut off your hand"). Instead of the Law of Talion, he teaches his followers to turn the other cheek: "You have learned that they were told, 'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.' But what I tell you is this: If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn and offer him your left" (5:38–39). It is by doing the very opposite of what our conditioning and habits dictate—namely, anger, fear, hatred, violence, greed, craving, depression, and the rest—that we can break free of them.

A way to transform consciousness is to love our enemies: "You have learned that they were told, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors; only so can you be children of your heavenly Father.... There must be no limit to your goodness, as your heavenly Father's goodness knows no bounds" (5:43–48). Loving our enemies, that is, loving everyone unconditionally, enables us to break free of limitations that conditioning puts on our natural qualities, such as love, generosity, trust, caring, and compassion. To love unconditionally is to love as God loves, and so to be as God is.

Jesus taught his disciples to banish anxiety by centering their minds on the present ("Do not worry about your life," or "about tomorrow") and by making the kingdom of God the center of their lives: "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (6:25–33). Competing goals ("two masters") divide the mind and the heart, resulting in conflicts and unhappiness. But when the ultimate goal becomes the living center, things that disturb the mind drop away. Life becomes whole, and its meaning and direction become clear.

Another essential teaching is developing a nonjudging mind. Jesus says, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get" (7:1–5). A nonjudging mind is a free mind. When we eliminate judgments, we are able to see not through our mental models of people and events, but as they truly are, and respond accordingly.

The Golden Rule summarizes Jesus's ethical teachings: "Do to others as you would have them do to you" (7:12). Jesus says that this is the essence of "the law and the prophets." The standard for treating others must be nothing less than how oneself would want to be treated by others. We have encountered this teaching in other religions, including Judaism.

Stories of the Kingdom: The Parables: Another characteristic way Jesus taught was through parables. A parable is a short story depicting an incident from everyday life, setting up a comparison that explains some aspect of the kingdom. Parables enable the listeners to recognize their own life situation and make life-changing decisions. They cover a great many topics, but all are connected with the kingdom: God, the Son's role, the kingdom's nature, and the behavior for membership. In the Parable of the Good Samaritan (LK 19:29–37), Jesus answers the question, "Who is my neighbor?" A man going from Jerusalem to Jericho was mugged on the road and left for dead. A priest came along, then a rabbi. Both avoided the injured man. But when a Samaritan came by, he was moved with compassion, got off his animal, gave him first aid, put him on the animal, and took him to an inn and cared for him. He paid the innkeeper for the man's care and told him that if the cost exceeded what he had paid, he would pay the rest on the way back. Jesus then asked the legal scholar, "Who was the neighbor?" The scholar replied, "The Samaritan." Jesus told him, "Go and do the same." When compassion for all without discrimination reigns in our mind and heart, no room is left to treat anyone as an enemy.

Pentecost: Beginning of the Kingdom on Earth

Dejected by the ignominious death of their Master and afraid that the same fate might befall them, after Jesus's death his disciples hid themselves from public view, living in close company. The resurrection had transformed their despair into hope and restored their faith in Jesus. Still, they were not clear what their mission was. All their doubt and hesitation were swept away on the Jewish festival of Shavuot, Pentecost. As in the creation story in Genesis, a mighty wind is said to have swept over them and the Spirit descended on them like tongues of fire. Filled with the Holy Spirit, they began speaking in different languages and all who had gathered from various regions understood them in their own languages. Seizing the initiative, Peter preached the first sermon, linking their present experience with the death and resurrection of Jesus as the saving event that inaugurated the kingdom and the messianic age. Reportedly, three thousand accepted this first gospel and were baptized. Christians believe that this event is the beginning of the Christian community, called "the Church."

Jesus had no intention of founding a new religion. He aimed at fulfilling God's promises to Israel: bringing salvation and ushering the dawn of the messianic age. His followers understood themselves to be faithful Jews. They gathered to hear the apostles, pray daily, celebrate the "breaking of bread" (i.e., the Lord's Supper), and share goods with the less fortunate. However, this idealistic portrait soon clashed against hard realities within and outside the community.

Tensions soon arose between Hebrew-speaking and Greek-speaking Jewish Christians concerning authority and worship. The most important issue was whether non-Jewish or Gentile converts must be circumcised and observe Jewish laws—essentially becoming Jews first—in order to become Christians. Paul was adamantly opposed to such a move. Although they agreed with Paul on circumcision, Peter and James held out on kosher food and other laws. In the end, Paul's views prevailed. It was resolved that the right relationship with God is founded on faith in Jesus as the Messiah, not by observance of the Law. The Gentile Christians need not be circumcised or observe the Torah, but they were to avoid offending Jewish Christians.

One external crisis was persecution. Although at first the Sanhedrin persecuted the apostles, eventually they were tolerated. Persecution broke out over a man named Stephen, presumably because he spoke against the Temple. Stoned to death for blasphemy, Stephen became the first martyr, which means someone who chooses to suffer or die bearing witness to their faith.

Formation of the New Testament

As noted before, the New Testament grew out of the teaching and preaching of the apostles and the early Christian community's memory of Jesus's life and teachings. Initially various types of units were formed. The largest unit and the first to be formed were the Passion Narratives: stories about the Last Supper, arrest, trial, crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. One of the larger collections of teachings, called Q (from the German word quelle, meaning "source"), consisted of Jesus's teachings that included the Sermon on the Mount and the parables. In composing their own gospels, MT and LK used them as sources to dovetail into the narrative framework of MK. MT and LK also had other materials independent of each other, such as stories of Jesus's birth.

These materials were strung together and further interpreted by the four evangelists, creating the new literary form known as the gospel, or the "good news of salvation." The English rendering of the Greek word euangelion, "gospel" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "god-spell," meaning a story from or about a god. Thus a gospel is a proclamation of the good news of what Christians believe to be God's final plan of salvation made manifest in Jesus.

Scholars generally agree that Mark wrote the first gospel (68–70 CE). At the outset Mark announces the purpose of his Gospel: to present Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God. The confession by Peter that Jesus is the Messiah comes halfway through the Gospel. The second half of the Gospel comes to a climax with the second confession, made by the Roman centurion when he says, "Truly this man was the Son of God" (15:39). As the word "messiah" had no meaning for Gentiles, scholars think that Mark rendered it as "Son of God," which they would have understood as someone having special divine powers without literally being God.

Addressing an audience of Jewish and Gentile Christians, Matthew (85–90) presents Jesus as the fulfillment of God's promise of salvation to Israel. Matthew quotes many passages from the Hebrew Bible to show that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Torah. He presents Jesus as the "New Moses," who delivers the Sermon on the Mount, and as the "New Israel," who overcomes the temptations in the desert. The Gospel ends as it began, with the "Emmanuel prophecy" of Isaiah, which announced that Jesus is Emmanuel—God's special presence among humans. So Jesus assures his disciples, "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (28:20).

In his two-volume works, LK and The Acts (85–95), the Gentile author portrays Jesus as the universal savior and the fulfillment of human aspirations. The Gospel concentrates on how this fulfillment was brought about by Jesus in Jerusalem. LK's themes include the universal scope of salvation, justice for the poor and the oppressed, compassion for the outcast and the marginalized in society, the special role of women, the dominant role of the Holy Spirit, and joy of those who receive the gospel.

The Acts of the Apostles begins in Jerusalem with Jesus, before ascending to heaven, instructing his disciples to carry his message to Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Empowered by the Spirit at Pentecost, the disciples boldly proclaim the gospel despite conflict with Jewish authorities. The climax is the martyrdom of Stephen and the introduction of Saul. After his conversion, Saul (now called Paul) becomes the dominant personality carrying the gospel to the Gentile world. The rest of the Acts records Paul's missionary journeys and ends in Rome, in the belief that the Church planted there would spread to the rest of the world.

Written around 90–100 CE, JN represents an independent tradition about Jesus, perhaps initiated by John or the "Beloved Disciple," who might have started a community or school where the Gospel was written. The dominant themes of JN are the revelation of Jesus's identity, his relationship to God the Father, his descent into the world, his saving activity, and his return to the Father. This story of salvation is presented as a three-fold journey.

• The first phase opens with the revelation that the Word, eternally existing with the Father descending to the world in the form of Jesus (1:1–18).

• The second phase focuses on the saving activity of the Son presented in two parts. In the book of Signs (1:19–12:50) in seven episodes (reflecting the seven-day creation in Genesis), JN progressively unveils Jesus's identity through miracles acting as signs and discourses that explain what the signs reveal.

• The third phase, described as the book of Glory (13–20), explains how Jesus directly manifests his glory or divinity, beginning with his passion, death, and resurrection and culminating with his ascension to heaven or return to the Father.

The Epistles or Letters of the New Testament

The New Testament is made up of twenty-seven writings, beginning with the four gospels and ending with the book of Revelation. In between are the Epistles or Letters. Although many of them are attributed to St. Paul, only seven are thought to have been written by him: 1 Thessalonians (c. 51 CE), the earliest of Paul's letters and the earliest of NT writings; Galatians (55 CE); 1–2 Corinthians (53–56 CE); Philippians (52–54 CE); Philemon (52–54 CE); and Romans (55–58 CE).

Three letters attributed to Paul were actually written by his associates: 2 Thessalonians, Colossians (62–70 CE), and Ephesians (c. 80–100 CE). A third group of Letters is called Pastoral Epistles because they are addressed to pastors—Titus and 1–2 Timothy. The three Epistles attributed to John (100–110) were written by someone other than the writer of JN after the Johannine community split up into two factions. Several Epistles were written to Christians in general, rather than to specific churches or individuals: James, 1–2 Peter, and Jude. Hebrews (90–95) is a discourse about the superiority of God's revelation through Jesus, who offered the perfect sacrifice, reconciling God and humanity once and for all. Finally, the book of Revelation (90–100) is an apocalypse, that is, revelation of something that was hidden. Some of its contents is derived from Zoroastrianism, Daniel, and other Old Testament sources. Using visions and symbolic language, it exhorts Christians to remain faithful during persecution (Emperor Domitian's). It will soon end. Satan's forces will be defeated. He will be shut up in a pit for a thousand years (millennium), during which Jesus and the martyrs will reign. Then Satan will be released, only to be finally defeated and thrown into hell, followed by the resurrection of the dead, the last judgment, and a new heaven and a new earth.

Paul: His Life and Teachings

Born in Tarsus, in about 5–10 CE, Saul had both Greek and Jewish education. As a young man, Saul went to Jerusalem to study the law after Jesus was crucified. He was trained as a Pharisee at the Rabbinic School of Gamaliel and gained enough prominence to supervise Stephen's stoning and to haul in Christians from Damascus to stand trial in Jerusalem.

There are conflicting accounts of Saul's conversion experience. According to LK's first version in the Acts (9:1–9; 22), Saul was on his way to Damascus to round up Christians, when "suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' He asked, 'Who are you, sir?' The reply came, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting'" (Acts 9:1–6). Luke's description of Saul being struck blind by the light is more like divine punishment than revelatory experience. Paul, however, insists that he had seen the risen Jesus, who revealed the gospel to him and commissioned him to preach it to the Gentiles (Gal. 1:12–16), which made him an apostle. Subsequently, he embarked on preaching the gospel in the cities of Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Spain, and finally Rome. Reportedly he was beheaded by order of Emperor Nero, who launched the first persecution against Christianity.

Paul wrote his Letters to answer questions or resolve problems that arose in churches he had founded or visited. As such, they dealt with local problems. However, Paul also took up broader issues that illuminate particular matters. As a result, we can discern certain patterns and themes in his teachings. A brief look at Paul's essential teaching on salvation makes this clear.

The Human Condition: Paul speaks of the human condition ("sin") entering the world through Adam. It pervades the whole human race, as each person reenacts Adam's experience in his childhood. This happens with the process of conditioning in childhood and the emergence of self-consciousness, which causes a split between the "lower nature," or the conditioned state, and "the Spirit," or the higher nature. This is the fallen condition, which cuts everyone off from the divine life. Thus shutting out the divine from the conscious sphere of life, humans come to fashion their lives and world by the dictates of conditioning and the desires of the ego.

The ensuing crossfire of lower and higher desires sets up self-defeating cycles of reactions that make humans do, like addicts, even when they want the opposite, the very things that reinforce and maintain the fallen condition. The resulting contradictions make humans feel powerless. Hating what we do because we do not do what the Spirit desires, we come to hate our situation and what got us trapped in this predicament, which paralyzes our will and prevents us from freeing ourselves.

For Paul, the Torah is part of the human condition. It tells people what is wrong but is incapable of liberating them from the fallen condition. In Judaism, the Law sanctifies life, but for Paul the paradox holds: nothing in the conditioned state can save humans from the conditioned state. Salvation must come from beyond. Only God can save us.

The Death and Resurrection of Jesus: For Paul, the pathway beyond the human condition is the death and resurrection of Jesus. In the resurrection, the divine nature so completely penetrated and assumed Jesus's humanity that it passed from the human to the divine realm, thereby unconditionally reconnecting the entire human nature to divinity itself. This reconnection is salvation. So Paul says, no salvation without the resurrection, and no Christianity. For him, without the resurrection there is no passage from the conditioned to the unconditioned, from the human to the divine, and no realization of the divine life.

Faith and Baptism: While human nature has been radically saved, each person must experience it for herself. This is justification, or healing the split through restoration of the right relationship with God. This happens through faith. Hence Paul teaches, "A man is justified by faith quite apart from success in keeping the law" (Rom. 3:28). In faith and baptism, the believer, united with Jesus, undergoes, symbolically and spiritually, the death of "the lower nature," or ego-bound existence, and rises with Jesus to the new, resurrected life. Paul says, "By baptism we were buried with him, and lay dead, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead in the splendor of the Father, so also we might set our feet upon the new path of life" (Rom. 6:4). In the ritual of baptism, as practiced in early Christianity, submerging of the candidate into the water symbolized the ego dying and being buried with Jesus. As the candidate arose from the water, she was clothed in a white garment. This symbolized rising as the "new creation"—one who is saved and reconnected with God.

Ethics: Faith is only a stepping into the stream and baptism endows the Christian with the power of the new being. It commits the Christian to walking on the path. At this stage she is like a newborn infant. In order to grow to the fullness of life, the Christian must experience a transformation of the total being. Without undergoing self-transformation, people tend to fall back to the habit patterns of the old self. As Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz was told to follow the yellow brick road, the believer has to walk on the resurrection road until she is transformed into the new being. So Paul admonishes, "Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed" (Rom. 12:2). This total transformation is the ultimate goal of Christian life. Of his own experience, Paul says, "My former self has passed away. I live now not as I but Christ living in me" (Gal. 2:20).

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

Like other religions, Christianity takes a twofold approach to this transformation as pathways to reconnection with the divine. Worship rituals, sacraments or rites of passage, and festivals constitute the mediums through which Christians aim at reconnecting with the divine. Monasticism and mysticism aimed at self-transformation leading to union with God. Let us now turn to a discussion of the first approach. The second approach—monasticism and mysticism—will be taken up in the historical context of their origin and development.

The Development of Rituals: Worship

As The Acts tells us, the disciples faithfully practiced Jewish rituals. After attending the Sabbath service, they gathered in their homes to celebrate the Lord's Supper, sharing bread together as a community. Following a formal break with Judaism subsequent to the Rabbinic Council of Yavneh (Jamnia) in 90 CE, the communal worship service was transferred to Sunday, commemorating the day of the resurrection and replacing Roman worship of the sun on Sunday. The form of the Sunday communal worship was adapted from Jewish Sabbath service, which included praise, prayer, scripture readings, and the final blessing. To this basic framework Christians added the liturgy of the Eucharist, or the Lord's Supper, in the context of the agape meal, or "love-feast."

As Christianity splintered into three major branches—Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant (discussed below)—the immense variation in worship services they developed can be divided into three major categories: formal, informal, and those in between. Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Anglican/Episcopalian Churches have formal liturgy with prescribed rituals. The second type includes Baptists, Quakers, Evangelical, and Pentecostal Churches. Among the third are Methodists, Presbyterians, and Reformed Churches, which have communal worship.

Rites of Passage

Christian rites of passage are called sacraments—symbolic rituals, believed to have been instituted by Jesus, through which God confers saving grace on participants. Grace is God's life flowing through the believer. Sacraments are rites of passage held in various stages of life for experiencing God's special presence, empowering participants, fostering personal spiritual growth, and building up the Christian community.

Not all Christians who believe in sacraments agree on their number or meaning. The only two sacraments mentioned in the gospels are baptism and the Eucharist. Roman Catholic and Eastern Churches accept seven sacraments. Anglicans/Episcopalians and Lutherans have retained most of the rituals but accept only baptism and the Eucharist as sacraments. Other churches avoid such language and rituals, but all practice baptism.

Baptism: Initially, the complete baptismal rite included not only immersion of the candidate but also "laying on of hands" and invoking the Holy Spirit. Early Christian communities practiced only adult baptism. Concern for the state of unbaptized infants led to the practice of infant baptism in the third century.

Confirmation: Confirmation evolved as a separate sacrament with the introduction of infant baptism. The imposition of hands and anointing by the bishop, later separated from baptism, became the sacrament of confirmation. It is now comparable to puberty rites of other religions.

Marriage: For centuries, marriage was a purely civil and family affair. Church involvement began with a clerical blessing of the newly married couple. By the twelfth century, marriage came to be generally accepted as a sacrament. Luther, Calvin, and other Reformers rejected this view. However, the Catholic and the Eastern Churches accept marriage as a sacrament.

The Eucharist: The Eucharist is a reenactment of the Lord's Supper. It is the main worship ritual for many churches. They have developed an immense variety of rituals for it.

Penance: In the West, Penance (or Reconciliation) evolved as private penance and confession of sins with Irish monks in the ninth century.

Priesthood: The sacrament of priesthood empowers the candidate to serve as the official minister for the community. Ordination did not become a requirement until the Council of Chalcedon (451 CE). Celibacy was not required for ordination until the fifth century.

Anointing of the Sick: A continuation of the healing ministry of Jesus, the anointing of the sick is carried out with oil, praying over the sick for healing, and forgiveness of sins. It became accepted as a sacrament in the twelfth century.

Death: All Christian churches have burial rites or cremation. Most believe in the resurrection of the body, final judgment, heaven, and hell. There is wide divergence among Christians on what they mean.

Festivals

How many Jewish holy days the disciples celebrated is not known. Easter replaced the Jewish feast of Passover, as did the Pentecost. Jewish Christians probably observed other Jewish festivals. As Christianity spread into the Gentile world, particularly after the Apostolic Convention of 49 CE, Gentile Christians were not required to practice them. After the Council of Yavneh, Jewish Christians also ceased to practice them, replaced by new festivals of their own. The Sunday worship service and the annual cycle of festivals have come to be called the "Liturgical Cycle."

A period of preparation was deemed necessary for celebrating the great holy days. Four weeks of fasting and prayer before Christmas is called Advent, which also marks the beginning of the Liturgical Calendar.

Christmas, the commemoration of Jesus's birth, is of course the most joyous of all Christian holy days. Celebrated from the fourth century at the end of December, it was in the sixth century that December 25 was set as Christmas Day for the Western Church. The epiphany, or manifestation of Jesus to the world, is celebrated on January 6 in the West. The Eastern Churches celebrate it on January 7 as their Christmas.

Easter commemorates Jesus's resurrection. Initially, Easter was preceded by a fast for two or three days for those who were already Christians, and forty days for those who were preparing to be baptized, called "catechumen." Later, the forty-day observance before Easter, called Lent, was extended to all Christians, in commemoration of Jesus's forty-day fast in the desert. For Western Christianity, Easter was fixed on the Sunday following the Jewish Passover. Eastern Churches follow a different calendar.

Ascension, Jesus's return to the Father, comes forty days after Easter. Derived from the Jewish Shavuot, Pentecost is celebrated fifty days after Easter. Pentecost commemorates the sending of the Holy Spirit and the birthday of the Christian Church. Other feasts were added covering the entire liturgical cycle throughout the year, commemorating not only significant events of Jesus's life but also the anniversary of various saints.

Ethics and the Good Life

Ethics, St. Paul reminded Christians, is an essential component of Christian life. As Jesus taught, it was not just invoking him as Lord but doing the will of the Father that would give one access to the kingdom. The Last Judgment in MT does not even mention faith or worship, emphasizing only compassionate, loving service to others—feeding the poor and hungry, caring for the sick and homeless, working for justice and peace in the world (MT 25:34–46; 5:3–11)—as necessary for salvation. For this reason, Paul insisted that the way a believer becomes a "new being" is by experiencing self-transformation through self-giving love. Summing up the matter, he said that what matters most is "faith active in love." Similarly, following the prophetic tradition going back to Amos, The Letter of James asserted that "faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead" (2:17). Compassionate service to others is indeed the heart of Christian ethics. Love—of God and of neighbor—is both the motive and measure of Christian ethics, not fear of punishment or reward for being good. As Paul said, "If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand my body over to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing" (1 Cor. 13:3). In Christian ethics, then, the love of neighbor is to be motivated by the love of God.

How is a Christian to determine unconditional love in a given situation? For guidance Christians turn to the Bible, which provides a twofold foundation. While Christianity stopped practicing other biblical laws, it fully accepted the Ten Commandments as the foundation of its own ethics. The Ten Commandments stake out negative parameters. For example, "Thou shalt not kill" is usually interpreted as prohibiting murder. But is preemptive war, abortion, cloning, or embryonic stem cell research murder? The commandment does not say.

However, the commandments underwent a radical interpretation in the hands of Jesus. According to JN, he issued a new commandment: "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you" (15:12). This command is not limited only to Christians. Jesus universalized the great biblical commandment of love to include everyone. The Sermon on the Mount, as we have seen, etched out a path of self-transformation and perfection that requires the believer to love everyone unconditionally and to uproot negative conditioning, such as anger, lust, greed, and the rest.

As in the case of other religions, these initial teachings were not comprehensive. As new situations arose, Christians looked to principles beyond the scriptures. Following the Sermon on the Mount, early Christians were pacifists, refusing military service. When the empire became Christian, maintaining justice and order in society became their responsibility. St. Augustine developed the concept of "just war." Yet, with the advent of total war, many Christians find the idea of "just war" untenable and nuclear war immoral. In general, where scripture is silent on ethical issues, such as physician-assisted suicide, abortion, genetic engineering, cloning, and stem cell research, the Roman Catholic Church has resorted to the concept of natural law. Others have accepted proportionalism: an action is morally justified if the good outcome would outweigh the bad. Some Protestant ethicists have adopted situation ethics—ethical justification of an action depends on the given situation—as the general moral norm. Many Christians simply follow what is accepted in their society, such as individual rights, personal choice, or autonomy as a moral absolute, collapsing ethics into politics or sociology.

As Christianity split up into three major branches and Protestantism into many more, the idea of common Christian ethics acceptable to all Christians became untenable. Even within a single Church—such as the Catholic Church, where the central authority attempts to exercise a degree of control not found in other Churches—many voices differ from official positions. The main line of demarcation is between traditionalists and progressives. Among Protestant denominations, fundamentalists, most Evangelicals, Pentecostals, and what is called "the moral majority" espouse conservative views close to the official Catholic position. And Catholic progressives hold ethical views similar to some mainline liberal Protestant denominations. Presently, responding to cultural changes, scientific and medical advances, and the needs of the times, Christian ethics exhibit a great deal of diversity, dynamism, and creativity.

Community, Institution, Organization, Action

Initial Leadership in the Church

Jesus chose Twelve Apostles, who became the initial leaders, preaching the gospel or "good news" of salvation, healing the sick, and establishing churches. In the early communities, many Christians were inspired to serve the needs of others. In his letters, Paul mentions apostles, prophets, teachers, healers, miracle-workers, those who had the gift of tongues, deacons or helpers, and administrators exercising leadership in their communities.

In time, two types of communities developed: One type, including the churches that were founded or inspired by Paul, was charismatic or Spirit filled, spontaneous, nonhierarchical, and relatively unstructured. The other was the institutional model, reflected in the Pastoral Epistles (1–2 Timothy and Titus). The offices of overseers or bishops (episkopos), local officials, called presbyters (presbyteros, meaning "elders"), and deacons (diakonos), emerged out of the initial leadership of the apostles and their personal delegates who oversaw the churches. At first the duties of bishops were not sharply separated from those of presbyters. As the communities grew larger, a hierarchical system emerged. Bishops inherited the roles of the apostles and prophets, becoming overseers of larger communities with an urban center. Local communities came to be headed by presbyters, from which the word "priest" is derived. They were commissioned to teach, guide and care for their local communities and individuals, and preside at worship and other rituals. Deacons and deaconesses assisted at the Eucharist and handled service and community outreach.

As the Church spread, one bishop came to exercise jurisdiction over a whole region—the style that exists today. In most cases, the bishop also ordained priests and other bishops, carried on communication with other bishops and churches, and met with them in councils.

After Christianity became the established religion of the Roman Empire, five centers of leadership and authority emerged: Rome, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The bishops of these centers, called Patriarchs, exercised authority over bishops and localities under their jurisdictions. Following the NT practice, when a crisis arose affecting the entire church or a large portion of it, the bishops gathered, and, as a body, settled the matter and established policies for the entire Church.

From the time of Constantine the Empire had two centers, Rome in the West and Constantinople in the East. With the decline and breakup of the Empire, bishops of these centers emerged as leaders of the Church. Friction grew between these two centers, fueled by a struggle for power, eventually leading to a permanent split between the East and the West.

In this development, the bishop of Rome played a crucial role. Peter's leadership had been clearly recognized in the early Church. According to MT (16:17–19), Jesus conferred on him authority over the entire Church. But did Jesus give Peter certain preeminence over the others, or did he give Peter absolute authority, enabling him to unilaterally set policies binding on all? And did he intend Peter's successors to enjoy the same authority?

The consensus among most NT scholars today is that Jesus conferred on Peter a primacy of leadership over other apostles but no exclusive or absolute authority. The rock on which the Church was founded was Peter's faith, not his person. The promise of Jesus's presence was meant for the entire Church. Peter was a symbolic unifying factor.

However, many issues contributed to the emergence of the papacy and its claim to supreme authority in the Church. Besides the biblical ones already discussed, political, cultural, and religious factors contributed to the centralization of power in Rome. After the capital was shifted to Constantinople, the power of Rome began to wane, finally crumbling under barbarian invasions. As the power of popes as unifiers and defenders of the empire grew, they began to act like emperors. First Pope Damasus (366–384) claimed primacy over the entire Church. Then Pope Siricius (384–399) claimed the right to make decisions affecting the entire Church. Finally, Leo I (440–461) maintained that as successors of Peter on whom Jesus built his Church, popes had full power over the entire Church as ruler, teacher, and judge. The Eastern Church, which regarded the pope as first among equals, vigorously opposed this view. The monarchical structure of the Western Church, and centralization of authority and control in the hands of the pope, on the one hand, and the collegial structure and regional autonomy of the Eastern Churches, on the other, led to an East-West polarization ready to split at the seams.

Development of Doctrine: The Early Period

This section will be devoted to a discussion of the development of Christianity from the apostolic period to the Middle Ages. In this crucial, formative period, biblical teachings were recast into the western mold. This has been described as a paradigm shift—a global change of outlook in ways of thinking and viewing the world. Those who contributed to the initial phase of this shift have been called apologists, or defenders of the faith. The ones who completed and systematized it are known as the Fathers of the Church, its two wings being the eastern or Greek Fathers and the western or Latin Fathers.

Paul paved the way for Greeks and Romans to embrace the new religion, establishing Christian communities wherever he went. Others founded communities in Antioch (where the community came to be called "Christian" for the first time), Ephesus, Alexandria, and Rome. Communities were also founded in parts of Egypt, Ethiopia, Arabia, and modern Iraq.

The growing number of Christians posed major problems to the unity of the Empire, Roman religion, and civilization. The storm gathered around the Christians' refusal to worship Roman gods, participate in the state cults of Rome and Emperor, serve in the army, or fully participate in Roman life. Their secret gatherings for worship fueled rumors of cannibalism and sexual orgies.

In such a predicament, persecution was bound to break out. It began with Nero in 64 CE who blamed Christians for setting Rome afire. Peter was crucified upside down and Paul was beheaded. Other persecutions were initiated by Domitian (81–96), Trajan, Hadrian, and Diocletian (284–305). Although their numbers were small, these martyrs, tossed to the lions or crucified, brought Christianity respect and recognition.

Christian membership swelled as the message of love, salvation, freedom from slavery, and social equality was welcomed by the lower classes. In 312, Constantine, one of Diocletian's generals, triumphed over his rival Maxentius and became the Emperor in the West, while Licinius became coemperor in the East. The following year Constantine proclaimed the Edict of Toleration at Milan, granting freedom of conscience to all religions (reportedly Constantine himself become a Christian on his deathbed). In 324 Constantine defeated Licinius and became the sole Emperor. To maintain greater control over the empire, he founded a new capital and named it after himself, Constantinople, on the site of the city of Byzantium at the entrance to the Black Sea, strategically commanding trade routes east and west. So now Christianity had two centers.

After Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity (in 380) the official religion of the Empire, it spread rapidly into the Greco-Roman world, shifting membership from a Jewish to a Gentile majority. The ensuing paradigm shift from the biblical worldview to the Greek worldview presented an enormous problem of finding suitable Greek terminology for translating and interpreting concrete, pastoral terminology of the Bible to abstract, philosophical ones. Ideas foreign to the Bible and Jewish thought had to be used. Misunderstanding and controversies were bound to occur.

Gnosticism: Derived from the Greek word "gnosis," meaning "knowledge," Gnosticism was a syncretistic religion, the elements of which were culled from Zoroastrianism, Greek philosophy, and the fringes of Judaism. This multiheaded hydra had a common core, which consisted of a dualistic world of light and darkness—the divine spiritual world of light and the dark material world. At the apex of the world of light is the incomprehensible and unknowable God. Below him is the creator, whom some Gnostics identified with the God of the Bible. The world of darkness, consisting of the material world, including the human body, is evil. At birth the human soul, a divine spark, falls into this material world and becomes trapped, making humans ignorant, forgetful, and prone to commit evil. The soul must be reawakened to its divine nature, origin, and destiny and freed of this material prison so that it can return to its heavenly abode of light. This reawakening occurs through secret knowledge, imparted by a divine redeemer coming down to earth to free the divine spark.

Gnosticism was perceived as the greatest danger to the faith. It included belief in two Gods, wherein the Old Testament God was inferior and malign; the reduction of Jesus to a mythical figure; and the belief that the redemption was a symbolic cosmic event, to be attained through secret knowledge, which dispensed with faith. If this material world and the body were evil and sinful, Jesus would have to be included, while incarnation, Jesus's divinity, and salvation through Jesus's death and resurrection would have no place.

To respond to the challenge of Gnosticism, Christian leaders first settled on the Canon of the New Testament. Gnostic scriptures, such as The Gospel of Thomas and The Gospel of Mary, were excluded. Bishops then proceeded to articulate the faith against heretical or unorthodox doctrines.

Many defenders arose to formulate Christian doctrines against Gnosticism and other movements, labeled heresies. But the ambiguous Greek terms they used, especially ousia, which could mean nature or substance, to speak of the one God, and hypostasis, which could mean nature or individual person, to explain how there can be three Persons in one God, led to a crisis of orthodoxy that set Constantine's empire reeling.

The Council of Nicaea (325): Arius, an Egyptian priest, caused an uproar when he began to teach that the Word or the Son did not exist from all eternity. He was created by the Father out of nothing, and so is subordinate to the Father. He cannot be divine by nature or equal to the Father, who alone is the true God.

Alexander, the Patriarch of Alexandria, and Athanasius, his assistant, opposed Arius. Athanasius believed that salvation hinges on the divinity of the Son and his unity with the Father. For only God can save. Unless Jesus was fully divine, he could not save anyone.

To settle this controversy, Constantine summoned the bishops of the Empire to a Council at Nicaea in 325 CE. This was the first ecumenical or general council. The creed the bishops formulated as the official teaching of the Church was that the Son is begotten, not created by the Father. He exists from all eternity and has the same nature or substance (homoousios) as the Father. He is truly God and equal to the Father. Adopted under pressure from Constantine, this creed was at first bitterly opposed by many. It was Athanasius's steadfast defense against all opposition that led to its subsequent general but not universal acceptance.

The Council of Chalcedon (451): While the Council of Nicaea settled the question of Jesus's divinity, there remained the question of how divinity and humanity are united in Jesus. Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, held that in Jesus there were two natures and two persons: one human, the other divine. Only the human nature/person was born. Jesus was only a man. The divine nature/person dwelt in him as in a temple. The two were united in a unity of wills. However, refusing to make a distinction between "nature" (physis) and person (hypostasis), Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria held that Jesus has one nature/person in which divinity and humanity were inextricably mixed. This "one-nature" view is now labeled Miaphysitism. At the Council of Chalcedon the official position adopted was that Jesus has two natures—human and divine. Remaining fully as they are, without confusion or separation, the two natures are united in one divine Person—in the Person of the Son. While the West readily accepted it, in the East, Miaphysitism and Nestorianism refused to accept it, causing a split in the Eastern Church.

There remained now the enormous problem of reconciling the Trinity—three persons in one God. The Eastern and Western churches took opposite approaches to resolving the problem. The Cappadocians provided the first definitive explanation of the Trinity for the Eastern Church, while Augustine did the same for the Western Church.

The Trinity: The Cappadocian Solution

The three Church Fathers who gave the first definitive formulation of Trinitarian theology in the East hailed from Cappadocia (now in Turkey)—Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory Nazianzus. They taught that the divine nature or the Godhead is unknowable by the human mind. Our concepts do not reveal what God is but rather how God is as revealed to us in creation and in the Bible. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are names of relations or characteristics the Godhead assumes in Self-revelation to humans. These distinctions exist, not in the infinite Godhead or the Divine Nature, but in the relation or identifying characteristics of each individual in the Godhead. Thus the term "unbegotten" is applied, not to the divine nature, but to the Father, expressing the idea that he is not from another. And Father connotes being in relation to the Son, who is begotten from the Father. The Godhead is Father in relation to the Son and the Holy Spirit, Son in relation to the Father and the Holy Spirit, and Holy Spirit in relation to the Father and the Son.

Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354–430)

The first truly comprehensive formulation of Christian theology in the West was given by Augustine. No area of theology escaped his influence. Augustine was born in present-day Algeria to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Monica. In early life, Augustine was a free but restless spirit. At seventeen, he began living with a girl with whom he had a son.

At age twenty-nine Augustine went to Milan to teach rhetoric. There he met St. Ambrose, the Archbishop. Against the guilt of his uncontrollable sexual drive, Augustine experienced a veritable spiritual crisis prompted by his mother's incessant pleading that he become a Christian, the influence of Greek philosophy, and the ethical demands of Ambrose's preaching. The catalyst for the breakthrough came in the form of a child's voice chanting in the garden "tolle lege"—"take it and read." He picked up the Bible and read Paul's Letter to the Romans: "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires" (13:13–14). This was the moment of conversion. At the Easter Vigil of 387 Ambrose baptized Augustine, along with his son. He returned to Africa, intending to become a Christian philosopher. But events conspired that led to his ordination to the priesthood, to the founding of a monastery, to becoming the Bishop of Hippo, and finally plunging into theological controversies.

Manichaeism had upheld the Gnostic dualism of spirit and matter, and a good and an evil god. The soul becomes subject to evil through intercourse. Freedom from evil is possible only through severe asceticism and self-denial. On the other hand, the British lay monk Pelagius and his followers denied original sin. They believed that humans can attain salvation by their own effort and use of free will. Situating himself between these two poles, against Manichaeism Augustine affirmed the absolute unity and goodness of God and the goodness of creation. Against Pelagianism, he held that, while Adam's fall seriously damaged human nature, it did not destroy it. It needed to be restored by divine grace, given to humans through Jesus. Although humans still have free will, they cannot save themselves by their own power and so need Jesus's saving power. Since God gives this grace freely without anything on our part, God predestines us to heaven; those who are not predestined will go to hell. Although God determines everything, yet the human will is free.

Agreeing with the Cappadocians' concept of relation, on the Trinity Augustine held that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not designations of divine nature, which is infinite and beyond distinctions or attributes, but personal relationships in God. As God, they have the same nature and therefore are equal and identical: one God. Yet as "person" is an absolute term, each divine person is fully God and fully infinite.

Augustine offered two analogies derived from the idea that since the human soul is created in the image of the Trinity, by understanding the image, we can understand something of the original. The interior image is that of the mind itself (Father), its self-knowledge, when it is equal to its being, which is at once its offspring and self-derived 'word' (Son), and its self-love, when it is equal to its knowledge and to its being (Holy Spirit). Second, the Father is like memory from which the Son proceeds as understanding follows memory. And the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, as will follows understanding. They are not separate substances, but one, infinite Godhead in which the three Persons are fully equal and eternally in process.

Augustine came to the idea of human life as a journey to God. The soul loves God and longs to return to its Source. By journeying within and discovering its true nature in its ultimate depth, the soul can, in contemplation, experience the Trinity, its procession within itself, and be united with God. Thus linking salvation with mystical union with the Trinity, Augustine became the father of Western Christian mysticism.

As Augustine lay dying, the barbarians were laying siege to his city of Hippo. It was part of the larger movement of barbarian invasions that finally toppled the Roman Empire in 476 CE, signaling the beginning of the Middle Ages.

The Rise of Monasticism

The desire to escape persecution, the burden of taxation, and the uncertainties and perplexities of civilized life and to follow a life of simplicity served some of the initial incentives for the germination of the movement. This prompted the rise of ascetic groups among Christian circles in cities and villages. They devoted themselves to a life of celibacy, simplicity, prayer, and works of compassion. Monasticism evolved out of this movement when men and women began to withdraw first to the solitude of Syria and then to the Egyptian desert and dedicate their lives to personal communion with God through fasting, celibacy, poverty, prayer, and contemplation.

The initial phase consisted of hermits, who lived by themselves in caves and among rocks. As more hermits entered the desert, they began to form loose associations around leading figures, such as Antony (c. 250–356) and Pachomius (290–346). They gathered in communities for prayer and worship but otherwise lived their separate lives. In the fourth century, Pachomius began monasticism in the West by building a monastery for men and writing the first monastic rule or code to govern his community. His sister Mary did the same for women.

Others soon followed both in the Eastern and the Western Church. Basil (330–379), Bishop of Caesarea, wrote a rule for the Eastern Church. In the West, Augustine and Benedict of Nursia (480–550) wrote rules for the monasteries they founded. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, wrote one for women's communities. In these monasteries, asceticism was aimed at mental and emotional purification, and prayer and contemplation were intended to achieve self-transformation and union with God. The seeds of monasticism flowered into Christian mysticism in the Middle Ages.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

Christianity in the Middle Ages

The first major development in Christianity in the Middle Ages was the permanent break between the Eastern and the Western Church. The former went on to form three branches with their distinctive beliefs, rituals, and religious life. The latter saw a growth of papal power and the ensuing conflict with the secular powers because of papal claim of authority over both religious and secular spheres of life. The second most important issue was the rebirth of learning that led to Scholasticism, which was spurred on by the rise of universities and the growth of secular learning. As it had happened with Judaism and Islam, the availability of Greek philosophical and scientific works—thanks to their translation from Greek first into Arabic and then into Latin—caused a paradigm shift that hinged on the issue of the relationship between faith and reason. This development was aided by the founding of new religious orders—the Dominicans and the Franciscans—that took on the challenge of reconciling faith and reason, as well as the hordes of concomitant philosophical and theological issues. A high point of this development was the theological synthesis of Thomas Aquinas. A third was the Crusades. And a fourth, not the least to be considered below, was a blossoming of mysticism.

The Division of Christendom

Moving the capital from Rome to Constantinople weakened the western wing of the Empire and made Rome prey to barbarian invasions. The imprisonment of popes by strong Eastern emperors, who made them accept imperial dictates, caused the first rupture between the Western and the Eastern Church. The differences of language brought misunderstanding. Differences of theological outlook and the structure of the Church created the deepest fissures. And cultural differences contributed to progressive alienation as the two cultures began to take different directions.

Theologically the West emphasized human sinfulness and Jesus's death as an atonement and redemption from sin. Meanwhile, the East focused on restoration of God's image, and the transformation and divinization of humanity through Jesus's death and resurrection. A major source of East-West conflict was the "filioque" clause. The West held that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son (i.e., filioque), which was first formulated by Augustine. This clause was inserted in the Nicene Creed by Charlemagne and eventually accepted by Rome in the eleventh century under pressure from Emperor Henry II. The East believed that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son. The East considered the Western view heretical. But to the West, the Eastern view appeared to subordinate the Son to the Father. Other theological, ritual, and devotional differences amounted to different modes of religious life.

The other decisive factor was the difference of understanding of church structure and authority. The East held the Church to be collegial with the supreme authority vested in the whole Church gathered in ecumenical councils. The West viewed the Church as monarchical, with the pope having undisputed authority over the whole Church, even over ecumenical councils. Subsequently the pope and the patriarch proceeded to depose each other. The final break came in 1054. Cardinal Humbert was sent by Pope Leo IX to negotiate with Patriarch Cerularius on the use of Eucharistic bread (the West had come to use unleavened bread, which the East regarded as a break from early custom). But instead of negotiating, he placed the pope's excommunication on the altar while the patriarch was leading the worship service and walked out (MacCulloch 374).

The first of the four Crusades (1096–1099) was launched to recapture Palestine from Muslims and help the Byzantine Empire against the Turks. However, the last Crusade turned on the Byzantine Empire itself. If the first ruined relations between Christians and Muslims and Jews, the last finalized the break between the East and the West, as the crusaders sacked and pillaged Constantinople in 1204. The emperor and the patriarch were banished and in their place puppet Latin emperor and patriarch were installed. The Greek clergy was forced to take an oath of obedience to Rome. Pointing out the consequence of this humiliation, Kallistos Ware observes, "The sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 is something the Greek Christendom has never forgotten or forgiven" (146). Still, there were attempts at reunion at the councils of Lyons and Florence, but they only exacerbated the break. Any hope of reunion vanished when the Turks besieged Constantinople and no help came from the pope in spite of appeals from the patriarch. Constantinople fell in 1453, was renamed Istanbul, and was made the capital of the Turkish Empire.

The Eastern Church

After Rome and Constantinople split in 1054, the Greek-speaking Eastern Church came to be called the Eastern Orthodox Church ("orthodox" means "right belief"). At present the Eastern Church has three main branches: the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Syriac or Nestorian and Miaphysite Churches in the East, and the Uniate Churches. The Eastern Orthodox Church is an affiliation of fifteen churches, which include prominent patriarchates of Istanbul, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, and others in Eastern Europe. They are united in faith, forms of worship, sacraments, and other rituals, but they exercise independent jurisdiction.

For the Orthodox Church, scripture and tradition make up one source of revelation. It tends to interpret the Bible literally. On God, Jesus, and salvation, it accepts the teachings discussed thus far but rejects filioque and maintains its own distinctive theological approaches and emphases.

The Orthodox Church believes in seven sacraments. Infant baptism is by immersion. Baptism, confirmation, and communion are given together. At the Eucharist, both bread and wine are administered together in a spoon. Confession is voluntary. Priests are allowed to marry, but they must do so before the deaconate. Women are not allowed to be priests.

In the collegial structure of the Orthodox Church, there is no single supreme head like the pope. Each patriarch is independent, although primacy of honor is given to the patriarch of Istanbul. Because they believe that the total Church is united in a bond of love, intercessory prayers are said to work in both ways—for the dead as well as the living. Chief among the saints is Mary, the mother of Jesus. The veneration of icons—stylized paintings of the Trinity, Jesus, Mary, and the saints—is a distinctive feature of Orthodox churches. Icons are believed to represent a continuation of divine love manifested in physical form in Jesus.

The Syriac churches consist of two main subgroups. The Nestorians, stemming from Nestorius, are located mainly in Iraq, Iran, India, and the United States. The other group, the Miaphysites, are to be found in Syria, Lebanon, India, Egypt (the Coptic Church), and Armenia. The Uniate or Eastern Catholic Churches accept the authority of the pope, but differ in their rituals and distinctive practices, such as allowing priests to marry. They include the Rutherians of Ukraine and Byelorussia, the Malabar Church of India, the Melchites, and the Maronites.

Charlemagne and Growth of Medieval Papacy

Pope Leo III crowned the French King Charlemagne as the Holy Roman Emperor with the iron crown of Lombardy on Christmas Day in 800 CE for destroying Lombard power. It constituted a culmination of the favor his father, Pippin, showed by defeating the Lombards and donating some of the land—the Papal states of central Italy—to Pope Stephen. This step had fateful consequences. One was that, by the eleventh century, popes began to claim authority in both religious and secular spheres, making the emperors and kings subject to papal authority. Thus, Pope Gregory VII began to claim that being divinely appointed the pope is not subject to any human authority. He has absolute authority over both religious and secular powers. It was he, not emperors or kings, who could appoint bishops. He would excommunicate secular rulers if they did not abide by his decree. A similar situation developed under Pope Innocent III, who proceeded to make and unmake emperors and kings. As a result, Church and state were at times locked in a mutual struggle for dominance, with popes interfering in secular affairs and emperors and kings meddling in religious matters.

Rebirth of Learning: Scholasticism

Charlemagne's educational, ritual, religious, and cultural reforms, as well as subsequent monastic reforms, began to have widespread effect. Monasteries and cathedral schools began to pay a greater heed to secular texts available in Latin. Such interests inspired many teachers to write books of their own, which became the basis of intense interest and debate. Students from various localities began to flock to famous teachers, learning the logic of the faith and discussing questions raised by the new mode of dialectical inquiry. This trend led to the founding of universities, first at Bologna, organized by students, then at Salerno, Paris, Oxford, Cambridge, Cologne, and other locations. Thus Scholasticism was born. In essence it was a method of acquiring knowledge through the discussion of a thesis, denial, counter-thesis, and a final resolution (MacCulloch 399).

First Augustine and later Anselm of Canterbury (1033–1109) had paved the way for Scholasticism with the definition of theology as "faith seeking understanding" (fides quraens intellectum). However, the full flowering of Scholasticism came with the rediscovery of Greek philosophical and scientific works, translated into Latin from the Arabic with commentaries by Muslim philosophers. This occasioned a paradigm shift. The burning issue of the day was how to reconcile reason and revelation. Islamic and Jewish philosophers and theologians had already faced the issue and formulated their answers. It was now Christians' turn to do the same. The rise of new religious orders helped resolve the issue.

The Rise of Religious Orders

Two religious orders, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, injected a fresh new life into medieval religion. Devoted to teaching and preaching, these Orders combined the contemplative life of monks and active life of parish priests. Dominic Guzman (1170–1221) founded the Order of Preachers by adapting the Rule of Augustine to this new context, dedicated to contemplation, study, teaching, preaching, and the missions. An Order of Nuns was soon added. The Dominicans were sent to various parts of Europe, especially to university towns to preach and teach. Initially they went begging for their sustenance and took the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Among the most famous Dominican luminaries were Albertus Magnus, his student Thomas Aquinas, and the mystic Meister Eckhart.

Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) was the founder of the Franciscan Order. A carefree youth uninterested in wealth or business, Francis had a conversion experience following an illness. Upon realizing that the relationship between material prosperity and spirituality is nil, he espoused poverty, wore gray clothes, and worked or begged to satisfy his barest needs. He preached and ministered to the poor, the outcast, and the lepers. Francis had his order approved by Pope Innocent III. Ever a Spirit-filled being, Francis had little interest in organization; others organized his order along the line of the Dominicans. An Order of Nuns was founded by Clara, his great friend.

Like the Dominicans, the Franciscans gained great prominence in the field of teaching. John Duns Scotus was the most outstanding Franciscan teacher, and Bonaventure a great mystic. The two orders helped shape the theological synthesis and worldview of the Middle Ages.

Thomas Aquinas: The Medieval Synthesis

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) proceeded to reconcile reason and revelation by maintaining that since all truths come from God, reason cannot be contrary to revelation, and vice versa. They are two different ways of knowing aimed at attaining two different kinds of truth: natural and supernatural. Reason provides knowledge of the natural order, revelation knowledge of the supernatural or spiritual realm. After revelation is accepted through faith, reason can help believers understand the faith. It cannot supplant revelation or provide knowledge of the inner life of God.

Aquinas acknowledged that the existence of God is not self-evident to reason but requires proof. Relying on Aristotle's basic idea that regress to infinity is impossible in causal relations or series and following the Muslim philosopher Ibn Sina and the Jewish philosopher Maimonedes, Aquinas set out to show in five ways that there must be an Unmoved Mover, Uncaused Cause, Necessary Being who cannot not-exist, ultimate perfection, and final goal of all things.

Agreeing with Augustine, Aquinas believed the divine nature to be infinite, indivisible, and wholly present everywhere in the totality of Its being. This infinite essence exists individuated as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Modifying Augustine's analogy by using a medieval view of how we come to know and love, Aquinas taught that the Father is like understanding, the Son is like the image or concept (word) the mind forms when it understands something, and the Holy Spirit is like the love that follows understanding and its conceptual formulation. In eternally being and understanding, God the Father is eternally expressing his Self-understanding as the Son (Logos—Word); and the Father and the Son are eternally in the process of loving each other, which is the procession of the Holy Spirit. Thus Aquinas explained filioque—that is, the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, which was first formulated by Augustine.

Accepting Peter Lombard's list of seven sacraments, Aquinas explained them by using Aristotle's distinction between substance (unchanging nature) and accident (changeable quality and quantity). Thus, he explained the Eucharist in terms of transubstantiation: by Jesus's divine power the substance of bread and wine, not their accidents—form, taste, and so on—is transformed into the substance of his body and blood.

In ethics, Aquinas departed from Augustine's view, which is the official Catholic position, that the human soul is present from the moment of conception. Following Aristotle's distinction of matter and form that make up a person, Aquinas held that the rational soul (form) is present when the fetus (matter) takes human shape to receive it, presumably with the development of the brain and the central nervous system, giving rise to consciousness. Such a position would have wide ramifications in current debates on abortion, stem cell research, and other bioethical issues.

Christian Mysticism: The Path of Self-Transformation

Sprouting in the patristic period and coming to full bloom in the Middle Ages, Christian mysticism developed two principal approaches to experiencing God: the Affirmative Way and the Negative Way.

The Negative (Apophatic) Way: An early exponent of the negative way, Pseudo-Dionysius (a sixth century Syrian monk) made a distinction between God and the Godhead. While God is a personal Being, the Godhead is beyond God, beyond the Trinity, beyond every name, form, category, or limitation, and hence infinite, unknowable, and inexpressible. The only way in which the Godhead can be experienced is by going beyond the ordinary mind by emptying all its contents, which he called "unknowing," and by "turn[ing] away from all things, even from itself," that is, transcending itself. Thus "wrapped entirely in the intangible and the invisible" (Mystical Theology 137), the mystic experiences unity when the mind is made one with divine radiance.

A movement of women mystics, called the Beguines, arose in Europe in the thirteenth century. These laywomen developed a view of mystical union that came under the suspicion of the Inquisitors, who persecuted them. One of the most prominent Beguines was Marguerite of Porete. She articulated a view of unity in which the mystic goes beyond the distinction between self and God. Through the sevenfold stage of "death" or self-transcendence, at the final stage, the mystic attains "glorification" or a state of realization in which only God remains as that which is. In 1310 Marguerite was tried, condemned, and burned at the stake.

Like Pseudo-Dionysius, Meister Eckhart (1260–1327) made a distinction between the personal God and the Godhead, or "the divine Ground," which he believed to be identical with each thing so that God and the individual have "the same essence and the same substance and nature" (Breakthrough 327). This identity can only be experienced "without image, without mediation, and without likeness," by emptying the mind of every content, conditioning, and form. He says, "Only when all that is formed is cast off," that is, transcended, the mystic comes to see that God and the individual share the same essence or "isness" (Breakthrough 179–180).

The Affirmative (Kataphatic) Way: It conceives God to be a personal Being, union with God the goal of the mystical journey, and love as the primary basis for union. In this quest, the followers of the affirmative way, and Christian mystics in general, have divided the path into three broad stages: purification, illumination, and union. Purification involves various ascetic practices: repentance and fasting, silence and solitude, mastering emotions and desires, purging oneself of selfishness, and surrendering the will to God. The student is urged to develop the virtues and practice nonattachment, for "in order to pass from the all to the All, you have to deny yourself in all" (John of the Cross. Peers 81).

Illumination begins with letting go of attachment to sensory objects and mental contents. This is the stage of contemplation—first active, then passive—in which, in the words of John of the Cross, the student proceeds to divest herself of "creature-love" and puts on "God-love." Union is progressive, ranging from simple to full union, which takes place when the experience of God's presence becomes permanent. This occurs when the self and God become inseparable. Teresa of Avila calls this state "mystical marriage" and compares it with a little stream entering "the sea, there is no means of separating the two" (The Interior Castle 179).

It should be mentioned that the Eastern Church also developed mysticism and produced great mystics, such as John Climacus, Maximus the Confesssor, and Gregory Palamas. It produced a method of contemplation called Hesychasm, centered on cultivating stillness. In the form of what is called the "Jesus Prayer," the practice consisted of visualizing Jesus in the heart and repeating the phrase "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me." This could lead to a union that transcends reason.

In the face of rationalism and intellectualism dominating European thinking, mysticism failed to make a greater impact on religion or life. After the thirteenth century apogee, the medieval worldview went into decline. The Church became more worldly and devotional life turned formal and external. Religion needed an injection of new life. At first reform started slowly with individuals and then it began to gather momentum until it became a mighty tide that swept over the whole of Europe and split Western Christianity into Catholicism and Protestantism.

Martin Luther, by Lucas Kranach the Elder

The Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was part of a paradigm shift from the medieval to the modern world. It started with the Renaissance humanist outlook and preoccupation with earthly matters, which did much to free the inquiry into the natural order from metaphysical and theological moorings and set it adrift on its own. Further autonomy of nature emerged with the "Copernican Revolution" in science. In this worldview, humans assumed the center stage and God began to be pushed to its periphery. The person came to be seen as the highest value, and individuality and self-determination as the fundamental rights of the individual. This development was spurred on by an increase in wealth and commerce triggered by the "Age of Exploration," led by Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus, and by an emerging middle class with its sense of self-importance.

Furthermore, there was a rising tide of nationalism and independence from papal authority, which was greatly aided by a decline of the papacy, when French popes lived at Avignon. As the newly elected Pope Urban VI proved incompetent and unstable, Clement VII was elected Pope to replace him. But Urban VI refused to quit, and the two popes proceeded to excommunicate each other, precipitating the "Great Schism." To make matters worse, the cardinals of both sides met at Pisa in 1409, deposed both popes, and elected a new one—Alexander V. There were now three popes, each vying for legitimacy. This led to the Council of Constance (1414–1418). Decreeing that the Council was above the pope, it elected a new pope, Martin V. However, within a short time, papal absolutism was restored, and a reform of the Church constitution thwarted. The cry for reform became ever more compelling.

That was the last call for restructuring the Church. When internal pressure becomes too great, a massive volcanic eruption is the way nature releases tension and finds a new equilibrium. The Protestant Reformation was the volcanic eruption in Western Christianity. The agent who ignited it was himself an explosive and prophetic personality.

Martin Luther (1483–1546)

Martin Luther was a complex and driven man dominated by fear: fear of God's anger and fear of hell. Experiences in his life brought in focus his central quest—to find a gracious God—the resolution of which became the guiding principle of the Reformation. Luther was driven by the need to know how the sinner could be justified and assured of salvation.

Luther studied law to please his father. But caught in a thunderstorm in 1505, Luther was so terrified that he vowed to become a monk if his life were spared. So, in the face of his father's opposition, Luther entered the Augustinian monastery. Though he followed the monastic life with intense effort, it did not bring him the experience of a gracious God or assurance of salvation.

In pursuit of an answer, Luther went to Rome, only to be appalled when he found the pope and the Curia preoccupied with centralizing power and control rather than with religious concerns. In Germany and elsewhere, he was scandalized by an uneducated lower clergy, wanton disregard of celibacy among higher clergy, cult of relics, and legalistic rituals.

What finally triggered Luther's revolt was the selling of indulgences (release from time in purgatory—a place of purification after death before going to heaven) by John Tetzel, a Dominican Friar, to raise money for building St. Peter's Basilica. Tetzel's preaching sounded as though all one needed to do was to give money for St. Peter's for eliminating one's stay in purgatory (whereas Catholic belief required prior repentance and forgiveness through the sacrament of penance). Luther was outraged.

The Ninety-Five Theses Luther posted for debate on the door of Wittenberg church in 1517 clearly demanded reform of the entire Church. A later formulation of its essential tenets was the following:

• A person is justified by faith alone, and not by works. Luther's sudden illumination came from reading a line of Paul's Letter to the Romans: "The just shall live by faith" (1:17). Behind the crucial addition of "alone" is Luther's belief that original sin so totally corrupted human nature that it rendered humans powerless to do anything to be saved. One is justified by faith alone through God's free gift of grace, in which God imputes the merits of the crucified and risen Jesus to the sinner. At last, Luther had found his gracious God!

• Even though we are justified, we remain sinners. As God's imputation means declaring someone to be righteous, it remains external to fallen humanity and does not bring about an inner transformation. Thus justification does not remove the basic tendencies of the fallen nature, such as selfishness, greed, pride, and the rest, from which sin or evil deeds spring. Luther's solution was to throw oneself completely upon God's mercy and graciousness. With trust in God, he declared, "Sin bravely so that you may be forgiven more."

• In contrast to the view that faith is an assent of the mind to God, Luther taught that faith is an assent of the whole person in which one wholly surrenders oneself to God. Luther defined faith as a personal act of unconditional trust and commitment.

• Each person has a direct access to God. This eliminated the need of sacramental confession, as well as devotion to Mary, the saints, or any other mediators. Forgiveness of sins comes from God through direct personal relationship with Jesus—the sole mediator. This direct access led Luther to proclaim universal priesthood of all believers.

• The Bible is the sole basis of authority in the Church. This struck down the hierarchical structure of the Church and eliminated tradition as the basis of authority equal to the Bible.

• There are only two sacraments: baptism and the Lord's Supper.

• Luther insisted on vernacular in the liturgy and the Bible. The vernacular reconnected ritual and worship service with the lives of the people. Luther was the first to translate the Bible into German.

Luther wanted only to reform the Church, not to divide it. But his conviction of the truth of his position, the Catholic Church's refusal to change, and the support of the German nobility made the split inevitable.

Luther was first summoned to Augsburg to appear before the papal representative, who ordered him to recant. He refused. In 1521 Emperor Charles V ordered Luther to appear before the Diet of Worms, where he refused to retract anything unless he was convinced by the Bible or by clear reason. Although he left the meeting unharmed because he was promised safe conduct, the diet put him under the ban, ordered him to surrender, and forbade anyone to shelter him or read his books. However, his patron, Frederick, the elector of Saxony, gave him safe haven in his castle. The Edict of Worms was never enforced. By the time he died in 1546, much of northern Europe—Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Baltic States—had come under the sway of Lutheranism.

Some found Luther inconsistent on points of doctrine. Others were dismayed by his deterministic view of predestination. Still others found him too conservative in matters of worship. He rejected the view of the Swiss reformer Hulderych Zwingli (1484–1531) that the Eucharist is only a memorial of the Lord's Supper and that Jesus was not really present in the Eucharist. Instead, Luther believed in consubstantiation: the substance of Jesus was present in the substance of bread and wine.

After the Body (i.e., the Church) was split asunder, it would continue to be dismembered until there was a multitude of Protestant denominations.

John Calvin (1509–1564)

One of the progenitors of several new Protestant denominations was John Calvin. Born in Noyon in Picardy, France, Calvin was trained in law before joining the Protestant camp after studying Luther's writings and the Bible. Following the publication of his immensely influential the Institution of the Christian Religion, as he was passing through Geneva, another reformer, William Farel, prevailed upon him to help reform the Church there. But the struggle over the independence of the church from the state resulted in both of them being banished in 1538. Returning in 1541, he struggled until 1555, when he succeeded in establishing a theocracy in Geneva. The main points of his teachings are as follows:

• God's power and sovereignty are absolute. God wills and determines everything that happens in the natural world and in human history. God governs with a will that is just but unfathomable.

• Agreeing with Luther, Calvin held that original sin totally corrupted and made human nature sinful. Fallen humanity is condemned and subject to God's wrath and punishment.

• Through Jesus's saving action, God justifies some and condemns others. Thus there is a double predestination: from eternity, God has predestined some humans to eternal life and others to eternal damnation.

• A sign of whether one is saved is a virtuous life. Good works are not the basis of salvation; they are the fruits of faith and the external signs of election. This belief led to an emphasis on personal calling and profession as a vocation, dedication to hard work, frugality, and avoidance of luxury and laziness so as not to fall into sin. As we live always under the watchful eye of God, we must keep duty and discipline in the forefront of our thought and way of life lest we be tempted to sin. Living under such a regimen, we would accumulate a great deal of wealth, as the Puritans did. It led to their belief that those who are successful, prosperous, and wealthy are among the blessed and elect. Those who are poor, sick, and suffering are among the dammed. Everything is divinely preordained.

• Agreeing with Luther, Calvin taught that the Bible alone is the sole basis of authority and the normative guide for Christians.

However, Calvin disagreed with Luther on some key issues. Thus, contrary to Luther's belief in Jesus's substantial presence in the consecrated bread and wine, Calvin believed that the Eucharist was a sign of Jesus's spiritual presence. In contrast to Luther's insistence on the necessity of baptism for salvation, Calvin held that faith alone was necessary. However, both recommended infant baptism as a sign and seal of the covenant of grace.

Calvin also established a new church order by decreeing that every local congregation was autonomous, having responsibility for selecting its ministers and running its affairs without outside controls.

Several major denominations trace their origin to the teachings of Calvin. One was Presbyterianism, which became the state religion of Scotland through the efforts of John Knox (1515–1572). Presbyterianism vested its authority in a presbytery, which consisted of a governing body made up of representative ministers and lay elders. In addition, synods were established to supervise the presbyteries. The general assembly, which is the highest legislative and judicial body, composed of clerical and lay delegates set policies affecting the entire Church. Subsequently, Congregational and Reformed Churches first in Europe, then in America, adopted the democratic, congregational model of autonomy of local churches.

The Reformation in England

Meanwhile a different wind was blowing over England. It came in the form of King Henry VIII. When Pope Leo X refused to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and allow him to marry Anne Boleyn, Henry broke ranks with Rome and became the head of the Church of England, the Anglican Church. But it did not become the established faith of England without some struggle and temporary setback. As Henry was theologically conservative, his break with Rome did not bring any change in doctrine, worship, or church order. Radical reformers, such as the Puritans—Calvinists who wanted to completely purify the Anglican Church of residual Catholic practices—were persecuted. Many were put to death. Others fled to Europe. A period of volatility followed under the brief reign of Henry's son Edward VI, and his sister Mary, who tried to return England to the Catholic fold. Only under the reign of Elizabeth I, daughter of Anne Boleyn, did England become permanently Protestant.

Subsequently, two other Protestant Churches originated in England. George Fox (1624–1691) founded the Society of Friends, or Quakers (the word "Quaker" is a nickname given to Fox by a judge whom he told to tremble at the word of God). Jettisoning most mainline Christian beliefs, practices, and structures, Quakers believe that there is an inner light of God present in every person. In their worship they attempt to connect with it. Consistent with this teaching, Quakers believe baptism to be spiritual cleansing and the Lord's Supper symbolic of spiritual nourishment. Quakers emphasize religious liberty, separation of church and state, the equality of men and women, and pacifism. They opposed slavery and actively engaged in charitable and humanitarian programs.

Founded by John Smyth (1570–1612), the Baptists are doctrinally more conservative. They endorse mainline Protestant beliefs in the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, original sin, and justification by the grace of God, manifest through faith. But they are divided on the Virgin Birth and atonement. In organization, they maintain the independence of each congregation, practice adult baptism, and believe the Lord's Supper to be symbolic of the Last Supper. They espouse religious liberty, separation of church and state, freedom of conscience, and respect the rights of others.

In addition to these major denominations, there were other, less prominent ones. Anabaptists practiced adult baptism, adopted pacifism, withdrew from established churches and society, and adopted a biblical mode of life. Under the leadership of Menno Simons they came to be called Mennonites. Unitarianism rejected the doctrine of the Trinity, the fall and redemption, and adopted humanism, peace, and social progress.

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome

The Catholic Response: The Council of Trent (1545–1563)

The Protestant Reformation increased internal pressure within the Catholic Church to reform itself. Calls for reform gathered momentum with the election of Clement VII and Paul III. Emperor Charles V also sought reform in order to reduce disorder and division in his empire. Finally, Pope Paul III convened a council at Trent, Italy, in 1545. The council provided a unique opportunity to reform the entire Church and find common ground and perhaps reunite with Protestants. Under the leadership of the "reform party," the council wanted a genuine reform of the Church. However, with the death of reform-minded Erasmus and Cardinal Contarini, and sidelining of Cardinal Reginald Pole, who was accused of heresy by Cardinal Carafa just when it looked like Pole might be elected pope upon Paul III's death in 1549, the conservatives, led by Carafa, won out in the end. By the third session, the Council steadfastly set its face against any of the changes advocated by Protestant churches. It upheld belief in scripture and tradition as the source of revealed truth and authority, and justification by faith in God's free gift of grace with which humans freely cooperate. The canon of the Bible was fixed and the Latin Bible (Vulgate) was adopted as the official text. It reinforced nearly absolute papal authority, the Latin mass, the doctrine of transubstantiation, seven sacraments, priestly celibacy, veneration of saints, belief in the existence of purgatory, and indulgences, but it eliminated abuses. The result of Trent's counterreformation stance was a permanent division between Catholicism and Protestantism and mutual distrust that persisted until late in the twentieth century. The opportunity for uniting the western Church evaporated as the Catholic Church turned away from fundamental reform and set its face against the modern world.

One of the significant bulwarks in the defense of Catholic orthodoxy came from Ignatius of Loyola (1491–1556), who founded the Society of Jesus. In Europe, the Jesuits entered the field of education and worked to stem the tide of Protestantism. Many Jesuits turned their zeal to missionary work. Francis Xavier gained renown in Japan and India. Matteo Ricci adapted the gospel to Chinese life and thought. And Robert de Nobili applied his technique in India. Isaac Jogues, Jacques Marquette, and other French Jesuits labored among the Native Americans in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. Others ministered in South America.

Divided among Catholic and Protestant Churches, Western Europe plunged into religious wars. In Catholic countries, the Inquisition led to the execution of thousands of Jews and Muslims. The devastation from such atrocities ended only with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Accord was reached on the principle that government determines the religion of a country: if the king was Protestant, the country became Protestant; if the king was Catholic, the country became Catholic. This partial solution did not end religious discord and hatred, as the majority continued to persecute the minority.

Christianity in the Modern World

The Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

The modern world was a child of the scientific, social, and cultural revolutions. In this worldview, science and reason claimed to determine what is real and what we can know. Separation of church and state secularized society. With nature and society gaining independence from religious authority, society and culture now came to be seen as the source of value and morality. This autonomy became the basis for humans claiming the right of self-determination and control. Life had no meaning, purpose, or goal other than those that humans could create for themselves. Every department of thought became free of religious presuppositions. Removed to the margins of life and thought, religion became subjective, private, and had to compete with the secular world to gain people's attention and allegiance. This worldview would not be complete until the end of the nineteenth century, when, seeing the irrelevance of religion and the eclipse of God at the heart of this new order, Friedrich Nietzsche prophetically proclaimed the death of God. This modern worldview has now become such a fact of life that some observers think that contemporary Europe is the closest thing to a godless civilization.

The Protestant Response

If science and reason determine truth and reality; culture and society are the sources of value and morality; and people strive to create meaning in their lives by their own efforts, rather than God or nature bestowing it, what is left for religion to claim? Emotion! And that, precisely, was what the founder of Methodism, John Wesley (1703–1791) embraced. Wesley and his group gained the epithet "methodism" for their methodical study of scripture, ascetic practices, and frequent communion. After his own conversion experience in 1738, while he was listening to a reading of Luther's preface to Paul's Letter to the Romans at an Anglican Society meeting, Wesley emphasized an emotional conversion experience. Called being "born again," it is an experience in which a person accepts Jesus as his personal savior. Rejecting Luther's and Calvin's view that original sin totally corrupted human nature, Wesley taught that every believer needs to pursue a life of perfection in the life of faith.

In the face of new scientific discoveries and theories that appeared to conflict with the Bible, the need for a critical study of the Bible became imperative. It became apparent that the Bible could no longer be taken as literally true without self-contradiction. The method for critical study of the Bible came to be called form criticism—the study of the literary forms of the Bible. This approach turned up many inconsistencies in the Bible, which led scholars to the realization that the biblical authors used multiple, sometimes inconsistent, sources in compiling their texts. Source criticism arose to track down the sources behind the biblical texts, and redaction criticism was employed to determine how biblical writers composed their texts using the inherited material.

As a result, many came to realize that none of the books of the Old and the New Testaments is historical in the modern sense. This conclusion led many scholars to reject the literal interpretation of the Bible, which proved tremendously liberating for many Christians. Biblical criticism became an enormously helpful tool in facing the challenge of the modern world and the growing body of incontrovertible scientific data that contradicted the Bible. It enabled many Christians to embrace the modern world without having to abandon their religion or faith in the Bible as God's self-revelation. Not unexpectedly, there ensued wide-ranging reactions to biblical criticism.

The conservative Protestant response was to reject both the modern worldview, based on science and reason, and biblical criticism. Their position came to be called Fundamentalism, which rejects evolution and other scientific views that appear incompatible with the Bible. Fundamentalists hold that every word of the Bible is literally the word of God and therefore free from error. They also believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, substitutory atonement (Jesus died as a substitute for humans to atone for their sins), the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and his second coming.

Other Protestant churches also reject biblical criticism and embrace strict or modified interpretation of the Bible. The Evangelicals, at least the traditionalist majority among them though not necessarily the modernist minority, place their main emphasis on the Bible and believe it to be divinely inspired, free from error, and the authoritative source of knowledge of God and the world. These "born again" Christians strongly emphasize Bible reading and prayer, oppose evolution, prohibit abortion except to save the mother's life, support traditional marriage, believe in the second coming of Jesus, and dedicate themselves to evangelizing or spreading the Gospel through missionary work. They have made successful missionary inroads into Africa, India, China, various parts of Europe, and even into Muslim Iraq. They have made very significant gains among Hispanics, both in the United States and in Latin America.

Another related group is the Pentecostals. They are Evangelicals whose faith centers on "baptism in the Holy Spirit," which is manifested in crying, fainting, and speaking in tongues (spontaneous speech whose meaning is unknown to the speaker or the community) during their emotional, ecstatic worship. This is the fastest growing Christian denomination today.

Liberal theology was spearheaded by the mainline churches—Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Northern Baptists, Reformed churches, Unitarians, and Quakers. It attempted to reconcile the modern worldview with Christian faith. Accepting science and reason as the criteria for determining what is real in the natural realm, the liberals plunged into biblical criticism, aiming to remove from the Bible anything that appeared incompatible with science. They interpreted religion from a social and secular viewpoint, as exemplified by Walter Rauschenbusch's agenda of the "Social Gospel" and Harvey Cox's "secular meaning of the gospel." Dietrich Bonhoeffer advocated the view of Jesus as the ideal human being, a "man for others," and called on Christians to live "as if God is not a given." Rudolf Bultmann demythologized the Bible, especially the Gospels, rejecting miracle stories because "modern man cannot believe in such things." In the 1960s, "Death of God" theology emerged as a consequence of secularization of religion.

Jolted into existence by two world wars, Neo-Orthodoxy arose in reaction to liberal theology. Its leading proponent was the Swiss theologian Karl Barth. Attacking the liberals' optimistic view of humankind and the belief in historical progress, Neo-Orthodoxy emphasized the lack of direction and purpose in human history, absence of a trajectory of ethical progress, human sinfulness, and the need for salvation through Jesus. God is not to be found in history. Rather, God is wholly other and must break through concealments of history and reveal his face, which he has done in Jesus.

Another approach was Existential Theology. Its greatest practitioner, Paul Tillich, held that religion should be a response to questions posed by the world. It must show humans how to confront finitude and existential anxiety in the face of death and contradictions of the human condition. When humans take a courageous stand, God sustains them. For Tillich, the personal God is tyrannical. Beyond the personal God is a God whom he called, following Eckhart, "the Ground of Being." Instead of alienating us from the world, this God immerses us into it and in so doing returns us to ourselves.

The Catholic Response: The Second Vatican Council

After the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church was everywhere in retreat. By the middle of the nineteenth century, with the accelerating development in science, secularization and democratization of society, and assertion of individual rights, Pope Pius IX felt so insecure that he issued a condemnation of everything modern. To shore up his power, in 1870, Pius convened a council at the Vatican, later called Vatican Council I, which declared the doctrine of Papal Infallibility: when the pope, as the head of the Church, issues a doctrine in matters of faith and morals, explicitly stating it to be definitive, it is free from error. In spite of papal moral absolutism, a Catholic modernism initiated by both clergy and laity sought to reconcile Catholicism with science and biblical criticism. But Pope Pius X condemned modernism in 1907. In social teachings, however, beginning with Pope Leo XIII's historic encyclical Rerum Novarum, the Church made positive strides in promoting social justice, workers' rights, and economic justice for all. Pope Pius XII allowed Catholic scholars to study the Bible using modern critical methods and gave impetus to the Liturgical Movement, which renewed worship.

It was, however, his successor, Pope John XXIII, who issued a revolutionary call to modernize the Church, convening the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965). This council initiated many long-overdue and fundamental changes in understanding the nature of the Church as the People of God. This has wider ramifications. While the ordained priesthood retained the position of authority, the priesthood of the people allowed active participation of laypeople in a whole variety of aspects of the Church's life. And although papal primacy was not questioned, the Council affirmed the collegiality of bishops alongside the pope. In worship, the altar was turned around to face the people. Vernacular was introduced in the liturgy and along with it the use of music and native musical instruments. Active participation of laypeople in worship services was initiated. Among reforms in sacramental ritual, the Council added face to face confession. In the sacrament of healing the sick, the term "extreme unction" was dropped in favor of "anointing the sick." A papal commission had recommended the use of artificial contraceptive devices for regulating births, but in 1968 Pope Paul VI outlawed it in his encyclical letter Humanae Vitae. However, the Coucil approved freedom of conscience and separation of church and state. It adopted the inclusivist approach to truth in other religions, advocated by Paul Tillich in Protestantism and Karl Rahner among Catholics, namely that while truth is to be found in other religions, the fullness of truth subsists in the Church. It initiated dialogue with other Christian churches and non-Christian religions, particularly Judaism. However, Pope John died before the Council ended.

To many, Vatican II was, to use Diarmaid MacCulloch's apt phrase, "half a revolution" (967). It did not attempt urgently needed deeper reforms, such as papal infallibility, a real collegiality of bishops that would hark back to the ancient times, priestly celibacy, ordination of women, use of contraceptives and other fundamental changes in ethics, new theological movements, such as liberation theology to address poverty, oppression, discrimination and other issues, and facing secularization and other aspects of modern life. Moreover, the successors of John XXIII, especially Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, pulled back many of the reforms initiated by Vatican II. Benedict XVI picked up his conservative mantle.

Women in Christianity

Jesus left no teaching on women's status in the community of his followers. In his behavior toward women we see no trace of discrimination or subordination. In fact, besides the Twelve Apostles, women were some of his closest friends. His association with Martha and Mary served as a model of the house churches founded by many prominent women during the apostolic times. Women were a major part of Jesus's itinerant preaching ministry, accompanying him on his road to Golgotha, and witnessing his death and resurrection. For being the first witness to the resurrection and being commissioned by Jesus to give the good news to the apostles, Mary Magdalene may be rightly regarded as the first among the apostles. Jesus's proclamation of the "good news to the poor," the powerless, and the marginalized and his breaking down of social barriers exhibit an egalitarian attitude marked by absence of discrimination toward women.

It has been argued that in choosing twelve men as apostles, Jesus implied that women were unsuitable to become apostles and represent him at the altar. Such an argument absolutizes a temporal and historical condition when women were subordinated to men in society and women's witness was not accepted in public. We should not forget the symbolism in Jesus's choice of twelve men. In the New Israel, they were to represent the twelve biblical patriarchs, who were men.

There seem to be both doctrinal and practical bases for the equality of men and women in the earliest Christian community. Thus, in The Letter to the Galatians, Paul says, "As many of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (3:27–28). This passage complements the story of creation in Genesis. Just as in being created in the divine image, in their nature women and men are equal, so in the order of redemption, which is a restoration of the order of creation, all are equal.

Paul attests to the leadership roles of women in the early Church. He calls Junia "prominent among the apostles" (Rom. 16:7). Prisca and Aquila were coworkers who risked their necks to save his life (Rom. 16:3). Phoebe is a deacon (Rom. 16:1), and others are named prophets (1 Cor. 11:4–5). Thus, women were among the larger group of apostles who witnessed the resurrection and were involved in the missionary activities of the early Church. In so doing, the early Church, one might assume, was faithfully carrying out Jesus's teachings. If exclusion of women from ministry were Jesus's intent, would not male apostles have prevented women from exercising apostleship?

Moreover, women led house churches. It seems that women not only made their houses available as churches but also presided at the Eucharist, thus acting as priests. Women served in some of the highest positions in the early Church as prophets and teachers, deaconesses, and prominent patrons and leaders in local communities as did their male counterparts.

On the intimate relationship between husband and wife, Paul proclaims equality when he says, "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; likewise, the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does" (1 Cor. 7:3–4). Yet Paul seems to argue for the subordination of women in the Church when he goes on to say, "Women should be silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as the law also says. If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church" (1 Cor. 14:34–36). This direct contradiction of Paul's teaching on equality not only makes the passage suspect, but the appeal to the law is so contrary to Paul's teachings that many interpreters consider this passage an interpolation, probably by the author of 1 Timothy, who edited Paul's Letter and wanted his authority to affirm subordination of women (Murphy-O'Connor 49:63–64).

However, in other authentically Pauline passages, Paul says that the husband is "the head of the wife," just as Jesus is the head of the Church; and that it is disgraceful for a woman not to wear a veil when she prays and prophesies (1 Cor. 11:3–9). In this text, Paul seems to have been mainly concerned with differentiation of the sexes in order to exclude homosexual advertising in the Church. So he tells men not to wear headgear or long hair, but he advises women to wear the veil. However, to underscore his main teaching on equality, Paul goes on to add, "Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man or man independent of woman" (1 Cor. 11:11). Thus, in what is fundamental, Paul taught that equality should prevail, but in what is socially conditioned, he bowed to the current societal practice of subordination. In insisting on the first but allowing the second, Paul was inconsistent and contradictory.

The pseudo-Pauline and Pastoral Letters, which subscribe to the institutionalized church order, impose subordination of women and their exclusion from public ministry, save the office of the deacon. Thus, The Letter to the Colossians admonishes, "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord" (3:18). And The Letter to the Ephesians repeats, "Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church... Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands" (5:22–24). Subjugation of women to men is now made mandatory and is divinely ordained. The letters also reveal a hierarchical church order and family structure based on which 1 Timothy reinforces women's subjugation and strips them of any authority or teaching position in the Church. The author says, "I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent" (2:12). Thus, initially, two types of church orders developed. One, inspired by Paul, was charismatic, that is, guided or inspired by the Holy Spirit. It was communitarian and loose in structure. The other became increasingly institutional and hierarchical. In the post-apostolic period, as Pauline Spirit-filled church order receded and the hierarchical structure came to prevail, women's subordination and exclusion from Church ministry became the norm.

However, women were not altogether shunted out of positions of power, authority, or leadership in the patristic and medieval Church. Situated in the periphery, they gained prominence in heretical or sectarian forms of Christianity. In Montanism, which believed in a Spirit-guided church, women held prophetic, ministerial, and sometimes priestly roles. And Gnosticism speaks of the divine as female, androgynous beings of light and female saviors. In The Gospel of Mary, Mary Magdalene not only receives exclusive revelation, which she communicates to other apostles, but she is also set above Peter because of it. Many Gnostic leaders attracted female followers, perhaps because they were given prominent positions in their communities (Wood 160).

In the Middle Ages, in both church and society, subordination of women became the norm. Theologians justified the status quo. Under the aegis of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas could seriously state that women are defective, misbegotten males. The only hope of equality for women was in heaven. On earth, the monastic movement, and later the new religious orders and mysticism, provided women avenues of equality. Suppressing their sexuality, women heads of monasteries, called abbesses, exercised a great deal of prestige, power, and prominence, attaining some of the rights and privileges reserved for nobles and bishops. In the new religious orders women were freer but often were under suspicion when they began to teach new doctrines, as did the Beguines, mentioned above. In the mainstream of mysticism women attained great prominence, perhaps because mysticism depends not on Church authority but on the Holy Spirit. In the sectarian movements of the later Middle Ages, women gained a measure of equality, though at the price of being part of the heretical fringe.

Women of the Reformation lost some of their rights and privileges. While it abolished monasticism and celibacy, the Reformation did not allow women to become ministers. In fact, Martin Luther argued for the subordination of women, relegating them to the domestic sphere while men tended to the public life. John Calvin enjoined women to be under the control of men except in the spiritual realm. However, the more radical fringes of the Reformation championed women's equality in religious life, ministry, and governance. The Baptists and the Quakers advocated equality of women in teaching, preaching, and administration. The Puritans fought against this tendency and sometimes persecuted women leaders as witches. The witchcraft hysteria in Europe and New England aimed to keep women under the thumb of men in the Church, the state, and the family.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, women were responsible for such movements as Shakerism and Christian Science, initiated by Mother Ann Lee and Mary Baker Eddy, respectively. The Shakers advocated a radical equality among men and women and believed in a female Christ, identified with Ann Lee. They also had an equal number of women and men in their highest governing body. Christian Science was centered on the practice of healing. Both saw ultimate equality of men and women by conceiving God with male and female characteristics—a Father-Mother God.

Enlightenment emphasis on the inalienable rights, justice, and equality inspired feminists to advocate justice and equality for all men and women. In the post-Enlightenment period, the equality of men and women came to be seen in human nature itself and not merely in the order of redemption, the religious sphere, and life after death. This happened with the rise of the feminist movement, which sought to reform society according to what it believed to be the pattern of nature the Creator intended. Emphasizing justice and equality, this movement worked to reform society according to the will of the Creator. Equality was God's original plan, it was argued, but it became distorted through the story of Adam and Eve and by the subordination of women in the march of civilization. Redemption was now seen as a restoration of the image of God and establishing equality of women in every sphere of life.

Change came with the ordination of women by the Congregational, Unitarian, and Universalist Churches. In 1956, the Methodists ordained women. Other mainstream Protestant churches—Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Episcopalians—joined the ranks. Finally, in the 1990s, the Anglicans ordained women bishops. In 2000, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church ordained the first woman bishop. Recently, Katherine Jeffers Schori became the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church of the United States. While some prominent mainline Protestant churches are now choosing women pastors, in a backlash movement, the Southern Baptist Convention admonished women to be subordinate to their husbands.

The Fundamentalist Protestant denominations, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Roman Catholicism have steadfastly refused to ordain women. Although Pope Paul VI encouraged women's active participation in the Church, he opposed their ordination. In an encyclical (a papal document containing official teaching) in 1994, Pope John Paul II forbade all discussion of the subject. Nonetheless, the issues of the ordination of women and their quest for equality still continue at the grassroots and theological levels. In spite of the Vatican ban, some Catholic women have been ordained priests. Recently, a group of priests signed a letter in support of a priest who was advocating women's ordination in defiance of the Vatican ban. Women do have active roles as pastoral associates, hospital chaplains, Eucharistic ministers, and religious teachers. In the academic field, women have emerged as prominent ethicists, theologians, and scripture scholars (Reuther 207–233).

Recent Developments

Christianity has continued to evolve in response to changes in the world. The following are some of the directions it has recently taken.

Initiated by the Protestant Churches, now spearheaded by the World Council of Churches, the Ecumenical Movement has continued dialogue among various Protestant Churches on sharing ministries, missions, and possible mergers, such as the most recent one between Episcopalians and Lutherans. Among Catholics, ecumenism was especially strong following Vatican II. The movement continues but at a less fervent pace among Christians and non-Christian religions.

In the United States, with the rise of civil rights and Black Power movements and black studies on many campuses, the movement of Black Theology received its impetus in the 1960s. One of its main focuses was to counter the effects of slavery by identifying with the suffering Jesus and working toward the liberation of African Americans from poverty, powerlessness, racism, oppression, inequality, and injustice. It also advocated justice and equality in all spheres of life. It faltered in the eighties but has now regained momentum.

The germ of Liberation Theology sprouted in Brazil among small groups gathered in individual homes to read the Bible, pray, and apply its lessons to combat poverty, oppression, exploitation, and injustice. Soon they dotted the landscapes of Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and other Latin American countries. Their struggle was given an official endorsement by a conference of Catholic bishops at Medellin, Colombia, in 1968. By marrying the Marxist analysis of oppression—of poor nations by rich nations, international colonialism, and internal colonialism of the rich—and the biblical message of liberation, they drew up a powerful program of restructuring society for peace and justice. In his classic formulation of liberation theology in A Theology of Liberation, Gustavo Gutierrez argued that "liberation expresses the aspirations of oppressed peoples and social classes, emphasizing the conflictual aspects of the economic, social, and political process which puts them at odds with wealthy nations and oppressive classes" (15). Beyond development, a total liberation on economic, social, political, cultural, and spiritual fronts is needed. To achieve that goal, it advocated a conversion of both the oppressor and oppressed to one's neighbors and through them to God. At the Puebla Conference in Mexico (1979), Latin American Bishops put this agenda at the center of debate. However, Pope John Paul II, following his predecessor Paul VI, along with the conservative forces in the Church blocked the implementation of the agenda. Subsequently, many leading voices were silenced and the movement receded into the background.

A product of the Feminist Movement of the 1960s, Christian Feminism has challenged patriarchal religion and theology. It aims to purge the Church of male domination and gain equality for women on every level. Analyzing the fundamental concepts of Christian theology, Christian Feminism has shown how the male images of God, Trinity, and Jesus have marginalized women, rendered them powerless, and oppressed them by justifying male power structure and authority in the Church. This movement has gone on to attempt to restructure theology, worship, the sacraments, priesthood, and the Church so that Christianity truly bears a message of liberation and salvation for all—both men and women.

Ecological Theology sprang up from the growing ecological crisis. In his new Catechism, Pope John Paul II listed a new category of sin: the pollution and destruction of the environment. Two recent works—Thomas Berry's Dream of the Earth and Matthew Fox's The Coming of the Cosmic Christ—envision the earth as a living organism whose destruction would spell the end of the human species. The salvation of humanity requires saving the earth for the coming of the cosmic Christ. Others speak of "deep ecology" based on the conviction that our environment is essential to our knowing and being who we are. The meaning of our lives, the renewal of our spirit, and a sense of place, healing, and wholeness are dependent on the planetary environment. And it admonishes everyone to seek unity of being by communing with nature.

Mission to the World: From the very beginning, Christianity has been a missionary religion. Jesus himself sent his disciples to preach the good news, heal the sick, and baptize those who accepted the message. From the time of the Pentecost, missionary activity has been essential to Christianity, prompted by the New Testament belief that there is no other name whereby anyone can be saved. This has been the driving force behind the conversion of Europe, the founding of Christian civilization, and the spread of Christianity to other continents. In the nineteenth century, Christianity became the vanguard, sometimes preceding and at other times accompanying western colonialism and the subjugation of third world countries. In the past century, mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic Churches not only brought its message of salvation but also founded schools and colleges, orphanages and hospitals, and numerous other charitable organizations.

Today, the situation has changed. Although some missionaries—such as members of the International Bible Society and Discipling a Whole Nation—are driven solely to proselytize, for other Evangelicals conversion, or "saving souls," is no longer the only concern. They have developed a broad range of attitudes and approaches. Many have adopted the mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic approach of helping the needy, feeding the hungry, alleviating poverty and disease, combating illiteracy, and developing people's lives. Many have adopted novel approaches to conversion, such as offering correspondence courses, taking secular jobs and approaching coworkers with their message, and spreading the word through practice and example. For most, missionary activity involves both spiritual and material aid to the people. Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose-Driven Life, has taken on Rwanda and declared it to be the "first purpose-driven nation." He has incorporated into his global plan of evangelization such goals as the eradication of poverty, disease, and illiteracy. Ultimately, they all aim at Jesus's second coming, the establishment of the kingdom, and a "new heaven and a new earth."

The Taj Mahal, Agra, India

Chapter 13: Islam

Timeline

570–632 CE | Life of Muhammad

---|---

610 | First Experience of Revelation, Call to be a Prophet

622 | The Hijrah, Migration from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed Medina, Beginning of the Muslim Calendar

630 | Peaceful surrender of Mecca to the Prophet

632 | Death of Muhammad, election of Abu Bakr as the First Caliph

661–750 | Umayyad Caliphate ruling from Damascus

680 | Husayn, the Prophet's grandson, and his party slain at Karbala

732 | The Battle of Tours, halt of Islamic thrust into France

750–1258 | Abbasid Caliphate ruling from Baghdad, golden age of Islamic Civilization

922 | Execution of al Hallaj, the Sufi mystic

1058–1111 | Life of al-Ghazali, reconciler of Sufism and traditional Islam

1099 | Capture of Jerusalem by Crusaders in the First Crusade

1187 | Saladin recaptures Jerusalem from Crusaders

1291 | Expulsion of Crusaders from Palestine

1453 | Turks conquer Constantinople, renaming it Istanbul

1492 | Expulsion of Moors from Spain

1517–1924 | Ottoman Caliphate

1529, 1683 | Ottoman Turks twice besiege Vienna but are repelled

1556 | Akbar becomes the Mughal Emperor of India

1703–1792 | Life of Abd al-Wahhab, revivalist of traditionalist Islam in Arabia

1924 | Ataturk makes Turkey a secular state, abolishing the caliphate

1947 | Partition of India, creating Pakistan as a Muslim nation

1979 | Ayatollah Khomeini ushers in the Islamic Revolution in Iran

2001 | Osama bin Ladin launches al-Qaeda; terrorist attacks on the United States

|

Remembrance of God! How many of us think of God as we rush heedlessly, preoccupied with our daily affairs, driven by need or greed? Against human forgetfulness of God, Islam stands as a beacon of light. With its minarets pointing straight to the sky as a constant reminder of divine transcendence, Islam calls the faithful to prayer five times a day, illuminating the darkness, dispelling the burdens and preoccupations that dominate our minds and hearts with the light of the ultimate goal of life.

When did this religion begin? Who was the bright beacon in human history with whom it began? His name was Muhammad ibn Abdallah. How his experience of revelation launched Islam and how it spread to nearly every corner of the globe is our journey of discovery in this chapter.

With 1.2 billion faithful, Islam is the second most numerous and the fastest growing religion in the world. It traces its beginning to Abraham (Ibrahim in Arabic), through Ishmael (Ismail in Arabic), who was Abraham's first born, through Hagar, who was the maidservant of Abraham's wife, Sarah. According to the Muslim tradition, after Sarah forced Abraham's hand to send them away, Hagar and Ishmael were brought to Mecca. Later Abraham visited Hagar and Ishmael. Thus Abraham and Ishmael came to be the ancestors of the Muslims, as Abraham and Isaac became the ancestors of the Jews. As Palestine and Jerusalem became the center of Judaism, so Arabia and Mecca became the focal point of Islam, which is also the starting point of our journey of understanding Islam.

Arabian Religion before Islam

The early inhabitants of Arabia lived in a tribal society where people were bound together in solidarity and mutual defense. Competition for the necessities of life, wealth, power, and control pitted the tribes against one another. Solidarity based on tribal connection dictated subordination of the individual to tribal authority and customs. The law of talion—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—forged the rhythm of tribal life. Manliness (muruwah), which connoted, among other things, bravery, loyalty, and duty to avenge wrongs committed against one's tribe, was the dominant virtue governing male behavior. Manliness contributed to burying unwanted infant daughters. In the absence of adults to defend them, the property of orphans could be confiscated. However, Leila Ahmed states that women enjoyed greater independence and autonomy than what came to prevail under Islam. Women were active participants and leaders in a wide range of community activities, including warfare and religion. Women also had opportunities in business and other enterprises. Their greater sexual autonomy allowed them to initiate marriage and divorce (177–198).

Pre-Islamic Arabian religion was polytheistic, with 360 gods and goddesses worshipped in Mecca. Housed in the Ka'ba, the ancient cube-shaped building that has been rebuilt several times, these tribal deities were protectors of the tribes. Above them stood the Supreme Deity, called Allah, a term that literally means "the God," the creator and sustainer of all things. Allah had three daughters, called al-Lat (the moon), Manat (the goddess of fate), and al-Uzza (the morning star). Pre-Islamic Arabia also believed in angels, who were good spirits, and in jinns, who were created from fire two thousand years before humans. The jinns were powerful beings, who could be good or bad.

The Sacred was believed to manifest itself through natural objects, such as stones, caves, springs, wells (Zamzam being the most prominent), palm trees, and so on. Various tribes would go on an annual pilgrimage (hajj) to see a meteorite called the Black Stone. Believing it had come down from heaven and was therefore sacred, they would circle it seven times and kiss it to garner heavenly blessings. Traditionally, it was believed that Adam was the first to build the Ka'ba from a celestial original and that Abraham and his son Ishmael rebuilt it and placed the Black Stone in it.

The interweaving of biblical and Arabian stories in the Qur'an, the revealed scripture of Islam, attests to the existence of Jewish settlements in various towns of Arabia. By Muhammad's time, several of the desert tribes were Jewish. There may have been a substantial number of Jews and Christians in Mecca, but most Arabic Christians lived in Yemen, in eastern Arabia. Miaphysite and Nestorian Christians, on the other hand, lived in Syria and modern Iraq. Trade with Byzantium and Persia brought Mecca and other parts of Arabia in contact with such Christian groups as the Docetists, whose contribution is reflected in the idea found in the Qur'an that Jesus's crucifixion and death were only apparent, not real (Qur'an 4:155).

The influence of Rabbinic Judaism and Zoroastrianism is reflected in the practice of prayer five times a day. Zoroastrianism also greatly influenced Islamic eschatology—belief in the resurrection of the dead, last judgment, heaven, and hell.

Beginning in the fourth or fifth century, South Arabian inscriptions speak of a monotheistic cult of "Rahmanan, the Merciful." Some scholars attempt to connect this development with the group of Arabs called hanif, who reportedly centered their belief on Allah. But there is no independent confirmation of this view (Rippin 14). However, the presence of Jews and Christians may have created a longing among some Arabs for a divine agent who would remedy the situation. That divine agent was Muhammad.

The Life of Muhammad (c. 570–632 CE)

Our quest for understanding Islam begins with the traditional biography of the prophet Muhammad. After taking a brief look at his early life, we will explore his experience of revelation, the Meccans' reaction to his message, the migration of Muhammad and early believers to Medina, where continued revelation gave shape to Islam and the early Islamic community, the subsequent submission and conversion of Mecca to Islam, and Muhammad's death. This will be followed by a discussion of the expansion of Islam under the leadership of the first four caliphs, Muhammad's successors, and the establishment of Umayyad Caliphate.

The exact date of Muhammad's birth is not known. According to some reports, he was born around 570 CE in Mecca to an impoverished family of the Banu Hashim clan, Quraysh tribe. His father, Abdallah, died before Muhammad was born, and his mother, Amina, died when he was six years old. Following tribal custom, he became a ward first of his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, and after his death of his uncle Abu Talib.

Little is known about Muhammad's early life. In his youth, Muhammad entered the caravan trade and came to be employed by a widow named Khadijah, who later married him. Her wealth gave him freedom to pursue answers to questions stirring his mind. Contact with Jews and Christians, whose views he learned from caravan traders and at the commercial fairs, as well as dissatisfaction with the polytheism and commercialism of Meccan religion, must have awakened in him the desire to find out the truth about God. The Meccan scene of drinking and gambling and the specter of tribal warfare, infanticide, and confiscation of orphans' properties must have disturbed him. The topics of human destiny, the last judgment, and the punishment of unbelievers and evil-doers must also have occupied his mind, as these recur in Muhammad's early preaching in Mecca.

Given such a state of mind, each year during the month of Ramadan, Muhammad withdrew to a cave in Mount Hira near Mecca to make a retreat involving prayer, fasting, and spiritual exercises that may have induced trance. In this altered state of consciousness, one night Muhammad felt himself seized by an overwhelming presence. Choking him three times to the point of rendering him nearly unconscious and then releasing him, the presence commanded, "Recite!" Frightened, confused, and not knowing what to do, Muhammad finally asked, "What shall I recite?" He received the command: "Recite in the name of your Lord who created, created human beings from clots of blood! Recite! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One who by the pen taught humans what they did not know" (Qur'an 96:1–4). Thus began a new revelation. The year was 610. Muhammad was then forty years old.

According to one tradition, Muhammad was not at first sure of what he had experienced. Greatly agitated, he rushed out of the cave, intent on throwing himself from a precipice. But another vision, which was identified as the angel Gabriel, assured Muhammad that he was the messenger of Allah. Islamic traditions give different accounts of Muhammad's original experience. According to one, he had only the vision in the cave, later identified as Gabriel. Another holds that he had only the vision outside the cave. In either case, it was through the assurance and support of his wife Khadijah and her relative Waraqa (who was a Christian), who interpreted his experience as a new revelation from God, that Muhammad was finally convinced of the authenticity of the revelation he was granted. Still, he had to wrestle with doubt and despair for two years and receive a final assurance of his divine mission before he was ready to proclaim it to the world.

Muhammad continued to receive revelation for the next twenty-two years, until his death. Revelation came to him as intense sounds and visions that would so overcome him that he would shake and sweat profusely even on a cold day. Bowing his head between his knees and groaning—a shamanic posture for descent into the unconscious, adopted by some Jewish mystics in his time—he would enter into a trance and sometimes lose consciousness. Muhammad said that at times revelation came like a bell ringing in his ears. At other times, the angel appeared and talked to him. He would listen attentively and afterward recite to his followers what he had heard. Most revelations that came to him in jumbles of incoherent images had to be organized and interpreted, like experiences of ecstatic shamans. Only later would the meaning of the experience become clear to him. These words were eventually written down by his followers and edited together to form the Qur'an.

The Meccan Ministry and Reaction

Those who initially accepted this new revelation were the prophet's family and close friends. They were his wife Khadijah; his closest friend Abu Bakr, whose daughter he later married; his cousin Ali, son of his uncle and protector until his death, who married his daughter, Fatima; and a slave, Zayd, whom he later freed and adopted as his son.

As the prophet took his message outside his immediate circle, its apocalyptic emphasis on the day of doom and imminent judgment sounded strange to a people familiar with the different cadences of a nature religion (22:25–28). At first the Meccans began to mock him, but as the prophet remained undaunted and began to gain converts, their indifference turned to hostility as they began to gauge the prospect of his gaining leadership and taking control of the city. The social change his message called for posed a threat to their way of life. Abolition of polytheism would mean a loss of income Meccans derived from the thriving cults and pilgrimage, and the possible loss of Mecca's preeminence as the commercial and religious center of Arabia.

Opposition became intense after his uncle and protector, Abu Talib died. Before him, Khadijah had died. In fear of his life, Muhammad began to look around for a secure base elsewhere.

Immigration and Sojourn in Medina

While a number of his followers had taken refuge in Ethiopia, the real turning point came when a delegation from the city of Yathrib invited him to come and unify the fractious tribes and heal their town. After a deal was worked out, to avoid suspicion, Muhammad began to send his followers ahead. When the Meccans got wind of it, they resolved to kill him. To avoid capture, the last of his party, consisting of Muhammad and Abu Bakr, made a hasty departure to Yathrib, which was renamed Medina, the City of the Prophet, in his honor. This Migration to Medina in 622 CE, called Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic Calendar.

At Medina, Muhammad was able to stop the hostility among rival tribes in a short time and unite them and his followers. Continued revelation and the sincerity of his followers led to Muhammad becoming the unquestioned ruler of Medina. Proceeding to establish the Muslim community (umma) he erected the first mosque, with a qibla (or niche), marking the direction of prayer, facing Jerusalem. He instituted ritual prayer twice a day, morning and evening, adding a third period at midday in conformity with Jewish practice; and a day of community prayer on Friday. After the Jews refused to accept his message and instead ridiculed it and rejected him, Muhammad changed the direction of the qibla from Jerusalem to Mecca.

Submission of Mecca

Conflict with Mecca began when Muhammad and his followers, on the verge of destitution, launched the first raid on a Meccan caravan. They made other, larger assaults on Meccan caravans. They also attacked Jewish settlements. After the Meccans launched their own counterattack three times but failed to take Medina, Muhammad organized a large armed force and marched on Mecca in 630. The Quraysh capitulated without a fight and agreed to embrace his message. One of Muhammad's first moves was to enter the Ka'ba, pay his respects to the Black Stone by circling it, destroy all the idols, dedicate the Ka'ba to Allah alone, and forbid anyone but Muslims to visit. Muhammad then marched against other tribes and subdued them. His growing political and military strength thus secured, Muhammad changed his prior policy of cooperation with polytheists and announced that henceforth they were to be attacked and forced to recognize God's oneness or to fight (Donner 50). Then, intending to subdue nomadic tribes, he sent a major military expedition to the north. However, he had been experiencing debilitating headaches and fainting spells for some time, and so, before all of Arabia could be subdued, Muhammad died in 632. He died peacefully, with his head resting on Aisha's lap.

The Expansion of the Islamic Community

Muhammad died apparently without appointing a successor. After his death there was considerable uncertainty about who would lead the community, threatened with disunity and division. There was also uncertainty about the method of succession: should the successor be the prophet's descendants or should the position be elective? Who should elect and from which group: all Muslims or only the prophet's associates?

To forestall any debacle, his closest associates, called the Companions, moved to designate Abu Bakr (632–634), whom Muhammad occasionally appointed imam, or leader of community prayer. He was the first to bear the title "Commander of the Believers." The word caliph, which means "deputy" or "representative," was not applied to Abu Bakr and his successors before the end of the seventh century CE. The office combined the functions of chief executive, commander-in-chief, chief justice, and imam. It had no prophetic function, since Muhammad was the last prophet. A deeply religious man, Abu Bakr consolidated the Arab tribes into one community by crushing tribal revolts and extending Muslim rule over all of Arabia. Everyone under this regime had to become a monotheist by openly declaring God's oneness and had to live by Qur'anic laws.

This expansion had a strong ideological component. As Fred Donner points out, the Muslims participating in them were engaging in jihad in the cause of God. This fundamentally militant vision goes back to the prophet himself and is a characteristic of the early movement enshrined in the Qur'an (103).

Literally meaning "effort" or "struggle," jihad is understood in two senses. First, in the early chapters of the Qur'an, jihad means a personal moral struggle of self-discipline and purification to realize righteousness in one's life. Many Muslims understand jihad only in this sense.

The second sense is struggle against unbelief in the outward realm—against others' unbelief. For the majority of early authorities and Muslims throughout history, jihad in this second sense meant war against unbelief in the world outside in two ways:

1. Jihad is a moral duty for every Muslim, who must actively struggle to eliminate unbelief from the face of the earth by spreading the knowledge of God's revelation to Muhammad (3:187). This means peaceful propagation and nonmilitant defense of the faith. This is the basis for missionary effort in Islam, similar to Christianity.

2. Jihad is an armed conflict against unbelief, against infidels. This sense is represented by later chapters of the Qur'an originating from revelation granted in the Medina period. We discern a three-stage evolution of this meaning:

• At first, jihad came to mean armed struggle in the sense of defensive war. The Qur'an says, "Fight for the sake of Allah those who fight against you, but do not attack them first. Allah does not love the aggressors" (2:190).

• Second, the Qur'an turns progressively more aggressive as Muhammad is instructed to incite the faithful to fight against unbelief (8:65). Except for the four sacred months, the faithful are obligated to wage war against unbelievers: "When the sacred months are over slay the idolaters wherever you find them. Arrest them, besiege them, and lie in ambush everywhere for them" (9:5). For "the unbelievers are your sworn enemies," whom you are to "seek out relentlessly" (4:104), and "to make great slaughter in the earth" in the struggle against unbelievers (8:67).

• Finally, there is an unconditional divine command to wage war against all unbelievers wherever they exist: "Fight against them until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme" (9:5). While the Faithful are instructed to capture or kill unbelievers by every possible means, this command is qualified by allowing the unbelievers to go unharmed if they repent or seek protection. Some interpreters take this text to mean defensive war, but others see it as a general obligation to actively engage in holy war against nonbelievers in order to propagate Islam. "Thus the Muslim world is at all times in a position of 'potential hostility' toward the non-Muslim world" (Faruq Sherif. Quoted by Bonney 31). The aim is to wipe out idolatry or unbelief in others, to spread the Islamic faith, or at least to ensure that non-Muslims do not subjugate Muslims.

While this obligation to fight was extended to Christians and Jews, generally they were treated as protected minority (dhimmis) if they submitted to Islamic rule and paid the tribute or poll tax: "Fight against such of those to whom the Scriptures were given as believe neither in Allah nor the Last Day, who do not forbid what Allah and His apostle have forbidden, and do not embrace the true faith, until they pay tribute out of hand and are utterly subdued" (9:29).

Thus we see that there is a progression in the second meaning of jihad from speaking in self-defense to fighting in self-defense to fully engaging in warfare in which unbelievers are not only to be resisted but actually sought out and forced to profess monotheism and submit to Qur'anic law. As Fred Donner concludes, by the end of Muhammad's life, the dominant attitude of the community had become the legitimization of, and exhortation to pursue, ideological war, "aggressively searching out and destroying what they considered practices odious to God (especially polytheism) and intent on spreading rigorous observance of God's injunctions" (85).

After Muhammad's death, and following his lead, the expansion was undertaken primarily as jihad. As the expansion became secure under the first four caliphs, the second period of expansion was equally if not primarily dominated by the drive for economic gain and political power and control in the manner of the Byzantine Empire.

With Abu Bakr's successor, Umar (634–644), the expansion went into a high gear. Having a great general to lead his army, Umar extended the rule of Islam to Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Armenia, Persia, Egypt, and across North Africa. Although this expansion was considered a holy war (jihad), many of these peoples willingly accepted Islam as liberation from oppressive rulers. With Christians and Jews, Umar implemented the policy of dhimmis (protected peoples) so long as they paid the head tax and accepted Islamic rule. Many Christians, who had hitherto worked for the Byzantine Empire, were employed as bureaucrats because of their organizational experience, which the Arabs initially lacked. Umar also began to implement Qur'anic laws as the law of the Muslim world.

The next caliph, Uthman (644–656) further extended Muslim rule to Iran, North Africa and other parts of the Byzantine Empire. Uthman turned out to be less adroit and lacked decisiveness to deal effectively with the issues that began to surface at this time. Among them were distribution of lands and stipends, inequities, tribal factionalism, resentment, family favoritism, and lack of piety. The rising tide of criticism broke out into civil war. In 656, he was besieged in his own house, attacked, and killed.

Ali (656–661) was then chosen to succeed Uthman, but without unanimous support. Consequently, the Muslim community under Ali became engulfed in civil war on two fronts: one was Aisha's faction, made up of various disgruntled members of the Quraysh tribe; the other was Muawiya of the Umayyad family, the governor of Syria. After Ali crushed Aisha's followers, Muawiya, facing certain defeat, called for arbitration to determine the legitimate successor. As arbitration proved inconclusive, a radical splinter group, the Kharijites, dissatisfied with both sides, assassinated Ali in 661. Muawiya then laid claim to the caliphate and was accepted as the caliph by the Muslim community. Thus the rule of the Rightly Guided Caliphs came to an end and thereafter the character of the caliphate itself changed.

The Umayyad Caliphate

After becoming caliph, Muawiya transferred the capital from Medina to Damascus. His dynasty ruled the Islamic Empire far into the next century. Under the Umayyad leadership, Muslims completed the conquest of North Africa, took Spain, and pushed into France, but they were repulsed by Charles Martel at Poitiers in 732. In the East, they extended Islamic rule into central Asia and Afghanistan. To rule this vast empire, the Umayyads developed a strong, dynastic rule, adopted and adapted the Byzantine type of government and bureaucracy, and employed Byzantine civil servants to train the Arabs. Gradually, through conversion and assimilation, the conquered territory became largely Islamic.

At first the community of believers was inclusive and ecumenical in nature, centered on belief in one God that included Jews and Christians. In the Qur'an the term "muslim" basically means "monotheist." But beginning around the time of Abd al-Malik, it came to be applied to only those monotheists who follow the Qur'anic law and profess Muhammad as God's messenger. From the time of Abd al-Malik onward (696–697), the "double shahada"—there is no god but the God and Muhammad is the messenger of God—began to appear on coins. Thus, as Fred Donner concludes, during the Umayyad rule Islam self-consciously became an exclusive monotheistic religion separate from Judaism and Christianity (203–211).

Belief in the Sacred

Two main concerns of this section are the nature of the Qur'an and the nature of the Sacred. Our discussion of the Qur'an will be limited to its nature, sources, and composition. Next, we will focus on the nature of God as revealed in the Qur'an and as reflected in various divine attributes. Included also will be a discussion of God's relation to creation, especially to humans; stories of Adam and Eve, their transgression, and divine forgiveness; and the teaching on the judgment day, including the condition of Paradise.

The Nature of the Qur'an

The book that is a collection of the revelation granted to Muhammad is called the Qur'an, meaning "recitation." Muhammad orally transmitted the revelation to his followers. The writing was left to others. Muslims believe the Qur'an to be God's complete and final revelation, superseding all others. Islam recognizes prior revelation contained in the Bible. However, in most cases, the Qur'anic version differs from the biblical version of the same story. Thus the stories of Noah and Abraham are different in the Qur'an from the biblical narratives. The Qur'an accepts the story of the virgin birth, but its account of the story is different from that of the New Testament. And it seems to think that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was the same as Moses's sister Miriam.

On the question of how it came to be composed, Muslim tradition holds that, according to the Qur'an's statement, "This Qur'an could not have been composed by any but Allah" (10:37), God is the sole author of the Qur'an. It is literally the word of God, in that each word was dictated by the angelic messenger to Muhammad. His followers memorized the various revelations as he narrated them. Some passages were written out by the early community.

When was the Qur'an composed? Fred Donner says that about twenty years after Muhammad's death, the scattered written and unwritten parts were collected by an editorial committee and compiled into the text (54). Some modern scholars, however, point out that there is no evidence that the Qur'an existed before 691. Prior to that, much of the materials existed in oral traditions in different versions and circulated among various communities. This material crystallized slowly over a period of two hundred years or more, mostly outside Arabia, perhaps mainly in Iraq. However, Donner points out that the absence of anachronistic references to events in later community suggests that the Qur'an coalesced very early in the Muslim community and that the vocabulary suggests that the text, or significant parts of it, came from western Arabia (54–56). Another possibility is that the Qur'an, as we have it today, contains passages of older texts that have been revised and reused. The markedly different style and content of different parts of the Qur'an may be evidence that the current text is a composite of originally separate texts or oral material gathered from different Muslim communities in Arabia.

It seems that, like the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, initially multiple versions of parts of the Qur'an existed in oral form among different Muslim communities. At first only fragments were written on palm leaves, animal parchments, and bones, which were collected by various individuals. This may explain why the Qur'an contains multiple versions of the same story, such as the story of Adam and Eve. The redactor included different versions of the oral and written material in composing the written text.

Because of inconsistencies among multiple versions of the same story, some scholars believe that the discrepancies are due to the oral sources. One set of sources, they think, was the caravans, trading posts, and commercial fairs frequented by Christians and Jews. Some maintain that parts of the Qur'an were derived from pre-existing Christian Aramaic texts. Other sources were Miaphysite, Nestorian, and Docetist Christians, as well as Zoroastrians. Additional ones include apocryphal literature and popular and oral traditions disseminated throughout the region, especially those about Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and other biblical figures. Muslims resolve the discrepancy between biblical and Qur'anic versions of the same story by maintaining that, as God's final revelation, the Qur'an supersedes and corrects all previous revelation. Anything in the Bible that conflicts with the Qur'an is due to corruption of the original message granted to Moses and Jesus.

The Nature of God

The first and most fundamental article of Islamic faith is the unity of God, which the Qur'an voices in words similar to Second Isaiah's "Your God is One God. There is no god but He" (2:163). It forms the first part of the Islamic creedal formula: "There is no god but the God" (La ilaha illa Allah). The one true God is Allah, who revealed himself to Muhammad through the angelic messenger. Any other idea of God is false. This God is absolute and completely transcendent to the created order, so that nothing can be associated with God, nothing can substitute God, and nothing can represent God. God is inexpressible and incomprehensible (6:103).

To associate anyone or anything with God is shirk, which is the sin of idolatry. Such a stance led to an absolute prohibition of any image or representation of God. It is also the reason why Islam rejects the Christian belief in the Trinity and Jesus's divine sonship. As the Qur'an categorically asserts, "People of the Book... The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary was no more than Allah's Apostle... So believe in Allah and His Apostles and do not say: 'Three'... Allah is but one God. Allah forbid that He should have a son!" (4:171–172). Such a belief is "a monstrous falsehood" (19:88).

Along with transcendent unity, Islam emphasizes God's sovereignty, which means God is Self-subsistent, existing by himself without having to be dependent on anyone or anything. This is encapsulated in the exclamation, "God is Greater!" (Allahu Akbar). Throughout Islamic history it has served as a call to ritual prayers as well as a battle cry for fighters in God's cause. It declares their engagement to be jihad (holy war) against polytheism, unbelief, and the forces of a godless, secular world.

In relation to creation, sovereignty means God's power and rule is absolute. It is by his irresistible will that God rules all creation. In nature, God governs through natural laws, such as gravitation, heredity, and the rest. In relation to humans, God has revealed his will throughout history to his messengers, culminating with Muhammad.

The fundamental human response to this revelation of God's will is submission, or surrender. So central is this notion that the religion itself is called "Islam," which means (besides peace) submission to God's will. Islam teaches that everyone who submits to God's will is naturally a Muslim, beginning with Adam and continuing through Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. The deepest meaning of this surrender is expressed by Islamic mystics, or Sufis, for whom complete surrender is fana—a state in which the self disappears—only God remains in the mystic's consciousness. On the everyday level, Muslims most frequently acknowledge God's sovereignty and express the submission of their wills and unconditional faith and trust in God by saying, with respect to any human proposal, "If God wills."

In addition to being transcendent, God is also "al-Batin, the Inner, who is immanent within all things" (Smart and Hecht 142) and close to all creation— "closer to you than your jugular vein" (50:16). This nearness is revealed as God's mercy, graciousness, and compassion in creating and sustaining all things. In human history, God communicates his will through prophets and messengers. All revelation, especially the Qur'an, and the entire body of Islamic laws (Sharia) are expressions of God's care and graciousness. It is by following them that the faithful can make their lives holy and gain everlasting life in Paradise.

The one and incomprehensible God revealed himself through various names or attributes, which are the ways God communicates with creation and humans. Drawn from the Qur'an, Muhammad al-Madani compiled what are called "the ninety-nine beautiful names of God." Two of these names most often repeated in the Qur'an are "the compassionate" and "the merciful." Every chapter of the Qur'an save one opens with the invocation, "In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful."

Among other prominent names are Lord of creation, eternal, self-subsistent, wise, just, mighty, judging, wrathful, capable of vengeance, and Lord of the Judgment Day. These attributes reveal God's dual character—compassion, mercy, gentleness, and love, on one side; severity, anger, judgment, vengeance and punishment, on the other. They express the nature of a rewarding and punishing God who shows mercy and compassion only toward those who believe in him: "The only true faith in Allah's sight is Islam... He is merciful to true believers" (47:4). But those who do not believe in Qur'anic revelation are subject to his wrath and punishment: "Those who deny Allah's revelations shall be sternly punished; Allah is mighty and capable of revenge" (3:3).

Like the biblical God, the God of the Qur'an is a personal, male deity. But he is less anthropomorphic, more abstract and remote, less intimate, and less involved in human affairs than the biblical God. This may be due to the Qur'an's emphasis on divine transcendence and judgment.

Another title repeatedly emphasized in the Qur'an is the "Lord of the Judgment Day." To lift people out of their ignorance and apathy and to underscore everyone's ultimate moral responsibility and accountability for every deed, the Qur'an repeatedly announces the Day of Reckoning with great urgency, especially in early revelation stemming from Mecca. Like the New Testament, it proclaims that natural cataclysms—eclipses, falling stars, earthquakes, and conflagrations enveloping the earth—will announce the Day of Judgment. The archangel Israfil will blow his trumpet, and all the dead will rise. Each person will be judged according to the record of their actions found in the Book of Deeds (45:29–30). The judgment itself is reminiscent of Matthew's Gospel: those who believe and do good works will stand on the right and unbelievers and evil-doers on the left. Allah will cast the latter into hellfire, which is accompanied by scorching winds and pitch black smoke. And seething water will be showered on the damned like molten copper. He will reward the faithful "with the Garden of Eden" (90:20; 98:8; 56:50–55). Such descriptions remind one of Zoroastrian portraits of heaven and hell.

Paradise is described as consisting of four gardens, with shady trees bearing every kind of fruit and running spring water. Some of the elect will recline on couches with thick brocade, others on green cushions placed on rich carpets. Branches laden with fruit will be within easy reach. Those on the right hand will have bashful and dark-eyed virgins "as fair as corals and rubies...whom neither man nor jinnee will have touched before" as "loving companions" (55–56). While in Zoroastrian eschatology the beautiful virgins who escort the virtuous to heaven symbolize their virtues, in the Qur'an they turn into beautiful, bashful, doe-eyed virgins and objects of men's sexual pleasure. However, an Iraqi scholar resident in Germany contends that in the eighth to ninth centuries, Muslim commentators misinterpreted earlier Arabic texts by adding vowels or diacritical marks to clear up ambiguities. In ancient Aramaic and early Arabic, the word "hur" actually meant "white raisins," rather than "virgins." This means that the Qur'an envisions "a garden of flowing waters, abundant fruits and white raisins, a prized delicacy in the ancient Near East" (New York Times 2 March 2002). Such an interpretation would render sexual imagery a metaphor for blissful existence.

While God is one and nothing can be associated with him, in the created realms, Islam retained pre-Islamic belief in the existence of angels, jinns, and the unseen, but it contextualized them. As messengers, the angels serve various functions; for instance, as we have seen, Gabriel was the bearer of revelation to Muhammad, while Israfil will blast everything to smithereens, bringing the world to an end and raising the dead.

Human beings are believed to be superior to all other creatures, including angels. Other creatures reflect specific divine attributes, but all divine attributes are present in humans so that they reflect God. Moreover, God created Adam from dry clay and breathed his spirit into him. Intending Adam to be his representative or caliph, God ordered all the angels to prostrate before Adam. All did so. Only Satan refused, whereupon God cursed him till the judgment day but permitted him, according to one text, to seduce all humans except the faithful (15:29–48). Another Qur'anic text extends the sphere of satanic temptation to Muslims as well (7:16).

Humans are God's special creation, endowed with freedom of choice. They are meant to be God's caliphs on earth. In placing human beings above all earthly creatures, the Qur'an is in accord with the Bible. However, the Qur'an's versions of the Adam and Eve story are different from that of the Bible, indicating different sources, written or oral, used by the redactor in composing the Qur'an. Thus, in one version, unlike the story in Genesis, only Adam is tempted—and by Satan, not by the serpent, indicating that the story was derived from a later belief in which the serpent is identified with Satan (20:116). But in another version, both Adam and Eve are tempted (7:22). And they both eat not of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, as stated in Genesis, but the fruit of the tree of immortality (20:116). In yet another version, they ate a certain grain.

After Adam and Eve disobeyed God and were sorry for their sin, according to one text, God forgave them (7:22), but according to another, God simply had mercy on Adam; "He relented toward him and rightly guided him" (20:122). As punishment, they were cast down to earth from the Garden of Eden, which is believed to be located, unlike the Genesis story, somewhere above the earth.

Because God pardoned Adam and Eve, their transgression did not devolve on their descendants. Their sin was personal. It did not corrupt the entire human nature, rendering humans incapable of doing anything to be saved, as Christians believe. On this issue Islam agrees with Pelagianism. Humans are weak, limited, ignorant, and subject to temptation; they are not sinful by nature. Because Adam and Eve were forgiven and restored to their original state, Islam sees no need of salvation or a savior. Each person can attain Paradise by surrendering to the will of God and following God's laws as revealed in the Qur'an and Islamic Law.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection: The Five Pillars of Islam

Islam has both types of practices—transforming the medium and self-transformation—for reconnecting the believer with the divine. The Five Pillars, described below, as well as other rituals, aim at transforming the medium through faith, intention, and meaning. Perhaps the word "purification" best describes what a Muslim needs to do to conform to the will of God. This purification concerns five areas of a person's life:

• Profession of faith, faith in one God, is aimed at purifying the believer's mind, heart, and will by directly submitting them to the one God.

• Prayer five times a day aims to purify the Muslim by lifting him from preoccupation with the ordinary concerns of life to communion with God.

• Almsgiving is intended to purify the Muslim of selfishness, greed, and attachment to possessions and generates compassion for the poor and needy.

• Fasting during the month of Ramadan is intended to purify the body and mind and help the Muslim in advancing spiritually through self-discipline, self-control, and devotion to God.

• Pilgrimage to Mecca contributes to the sense of unity, equality, and the Muslim brotherhood by connecting Muslims with the great events of their faith. It can be a life-transforming experience.

The second type—self-transformation—is the heart of Islamic mysticism or Sufism. The crux of self-transformation is fana, literally meaning "extinction." Psychologically and spiritually, it means transcendence of ego without which the Sufi cannot attain unity with and live in God (baqa).

We will discuss the Five Pillars of Islam and the Rites of Passage below. Sufism will be discussed in the context of major groups in Islam.

The Profession of Faith (Shahadah)

The fundamental article of the Islamic faith is stated thus: "I testify that there is no god but Allah; and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God" (ashhadu an la ilaha illa 'Llah ashhadu an Muhammadun rasul Allah). While attempts had been made in later times to draw up a more extensive creed to define the position of Islam vis-à-vis other religions, this form remains the fundamental profession of faith for all Muslims.

A Muslim is required to make this profession of faith on several occasions in life. It is whispered in the ear of the newborn and the dying person, recited in daily prayers and community prayers on Fridays, and uttered at significant events of life.

The second part of the profession of faith is that Muhammad is the messenger of God. While Judaism and Christianity also believe in one God and the prophets, it is belief in Muhammad as the bearer of final revelation which supersedes all others that differentiates Islam from other religions. Islam makes a distinction between a prophet (nabi) and a messenger or apostle (rasul). While particular messages were communicated to prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, an entire body of revelation was granted to a messenger. Prophets may modify or reform established religions, but messengers are more than mere prophets. The universal scope of their revelations leads to the establishment of new religions. In addition to Adam, Islam recognizes four messengers prior to Muhammad: Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muhammad is the last and the greatest of all the messengers—the "Seal of the Prophets."

A model of behavior for the Muslim community, in time Muhammad came to be regarded as the Perfect Man (al-insan al-kamil) and the meaning and end of creation. In so doing, Islam seems to have given Muhammad a status nearly equal to Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible and Jesus in the New Testament. Although unique in all creation, Muhammad remains a creature of flesh and blood. Nor is Islam focused on him. The foundation of the faith is surrender to God, not to Muhammad, who is the unique bearer of God's final message.

Ritual of Prayer (Salat)

Muslims are required to pray five times a day: at dawn, at noon, at mid-afternoon, after sunset, and at nightfall. As noted before, Muhammad had set obligatory prayers to three times a day, but a sunna (oral tradition of the sayings and practices of the prophet) prescribed prayer five times a day. Whence is it derived? According to a hadith (record of oral tradition), when Muhammad made his night journey to Jerusalem and ascended to the throne of God, he passed Moses and Jesus. On the way back, Moses asked him about his encounter with God. Muhammad said that he pleaded with God to have Muslims pray fifty times a day. Moses told him that the people would not accept it. So he repeated his trek to God, each time reducing the number until he arrived at five. However, the earthly source appears to be Rabbinic Judaism and Zoroastrianism.

Punctuating the day five times, prayer lets the remembrance (dhikr) of God flow over daily activities, purifying Muslims of sin and nurturing humility and self-surrender, symbolized by prostration during prayer. Muslims face Mecca when they pray. They can pray anywhere: in the office or oil fields, on the train or the plane. All they need is a clean spot, which can be assured by a small prayer rug. They can pray alone or in the company of others. However, the preferred place is the mosque, the place of congregational worship. Traditionally, the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer from the minaret or tower of the mosque. The call (adhan) consists of repeating the invocation "God is greater" (Allahu Akbar), the profession of faith, and additional phrases, inviting the faithful to come to prayer and prosperity. Prayer is preceded by ritual cleansing, symbolically purifying those parts of the body through which impurities enter: hands and arms, mouth and nostrils, and the feet up to the ankles. Where water is not available, sand or stone is used. A prayer accompanies each movement of the ablution, prescribed for minor impurities. Major pollution incurred through intercourse, menstruation, hemorrhage, childbirth, and touching a corpse requires a full bath. It is also prescribed for handling a copy of the Qur'an and before congregational prayer on Fridays.

After forming the intention to pray, the Muslim begins the first cycle of prayers standing upright and uttering the invocation, "God is greater" and the first chapter of the Qur'an. Next he bows, prostrates, sits on his heels with knees touching the ground and prostrates again. Other chapters and verses of the Qur'an are also recited during these postures. This cycle is repeated, with the number of repetitions varying for each prayer. At the end of the prayers, he makes the profession of faith while sitting and invokes blessings on the prophet and the believers.

Congregational prayer takes place at noon on Fridays. However, unlike the strict Jewish Sabbath and the more moderate Christian Sunday observances, Muslims are not required to refrain from work on Fridays. They may attend their congregational prayer at noon and both before and after carry on their regular business, although nowadays in Muslim countries Fridays are treated like Saturdays for Jews, with the workweek beginning on Sundays. Only men are required to attend the Friday congregational prayer. Women can participate either in a separate area at the back or in an adjacent room. For the congregational prayer, worshipers line up in straight rows, side by side. The prayer leader, called imam, stands in front of the congregation facing Mecca. Islam has no priesthood. Any qualified person can be an imam, but it requires training. Women are not allowed to serve as imam. This is beginning to change. There is now a woman imam in the United States who leads a mixed congregation of men and women in prayer.

Almsgiving (Zakat)

Zakat is not charity but rather an obligatory "alms tax" or "almsgiving," binding on all except the poor. Besides the purification noted above, by giving a part of one's wealth to God, the Muslim can develop generosity, care, and concern for others; foster a sense of obligation, mutual responsibility, and support for the social welfare of the community; and generate gratitude and thanksgiving to God for his blessings.

The aid is given to public educational and civic projects, the poor, the needy, orphans, converts, debtors, travelers, and those who fight to spread Islam (jihad). The amount varies but Muslims are encouraged to give 2.5 per cent of their wealth. In Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia, zakat is calculated by the government and automatically deducted each year. In other countries, zakat has become largely voluntary. In addition to zakat, Muslims are encouraged to give in charity.

Fasting (Sawm)

In addition to purification, fasting can increase awareness of the plight of the poor and hungry, decrease attachment to comforts and luxuries, and strengthen community and Islamic brotherhood.

Muslims are required to fast for the entire month of Ramadan, which is the ninth month of the Muslim calendar. It commemorates the first revelation granted to Muhammad during this month. The fasting begins at dawn of the first day of Ramadan, which begins with sighting of the new moon the previous evening. It ends on the last day of the month after the sun sets and the call to evening prayer is sounded. The lunar calendar makes the Ramadan vary year to year with respect to the solar calendar.

All healthy Muslims who have reached the age of puberty are required to fast. The sick, the elderly, pregnant women, travelers, and small children are excused. However, adults who miss the fast have to make it up on their own.

Those observing the fast are forbidden to eat, drink, smoke, have sex, or take medicine from the first light of dawn until sundown. At nightfall, the fast is broken by taking a light meal, followed by evening prayer and dinner with family and friends. Dinner is followed by cycles of prayer. There is a light meal just before dawn.

The fast may seem difficult, but to Muslims it is a joyous occasion, particularly at night, when family and friends gather to celebrate. The greatest and most joyous feast is called Id al-Fitr, which comes at the end of the month-long fast. For this celebration, Muslims lavishly decorate cities, wear new clothes, exchange and distribute gifts, and ritually slaughter cows or sheep and distribute the meat to the community for all to share in the festivity. It is like Christmas and Easter combined.

The Ka'bah, Mecca, during the Pilgrimage (Hajj). Attribution: Author Muhammad Mahdi Karim

Pilgrimage to Mecca (Hajj)

Pre-Islamic in origin, as noted before, the annual pilgrimage falls between the eighth and the thirteenth day of the last month of the Muslim calendar, Dhu'l-Hijjah (the Month of the Hajj). Nothing contributes more to a sense of unity, equality, and brotherhood in Islam than the pilgrimage to Mecca and association with Muslims from around the world.

Muslims who are physically and financially able are required to make the pilgrimage once in their lifetime. For the devout Muslim this journey to God can be life transforming. It has inspired theological and mystical works and sparked reform movements in the Islamic world.

Before entering Mecca, as a rite of purification, men shave their heads and don two white seamless sheets that cover their bodies entirely. Women put on a covering garment so as to generate a sense of unity and equality before God. Pilgrims are prohibited from wearing jewelry or perfume, having sex, or hunting so that attention is focused only on the spiritual experience.

The first main ritual of the pilgrimage consists of circling the Ka'ba seven times and touching the Black Stone. After the circumambulations, the pilgrims say a personal prayer, walk to the "Stations of Abraham" and complete two cycles of prayer, and then drink the water from the Zamzam well. Following this ritual, they run, trot, or walk seven times between two hills in memory of Hagar and Ishmael's frantic search for water.

During the next few days, the pilgrims spend a night in a tent at Mina, then proceed to the Plain of Arafat, where they stand from noon to sunset (or as long as they can) in remembrance of Muhammad, who is believed to have given his Farewell Sermon from a hill called the Mount of Mercy. It is also a reminder that the Last Judgment will take place on that mount. They spend the entire period in prayer, reflection, and standing in repentance and asking God's forgiveness for themselves and all Muslims. Returning to Mina at daybreak the next day, recalling Abraham's rejection of Satan, who had tempted him from proceeding with the sacrifice of his son Ismail, according to Muslim belief, as God had commanded him to do, the pilgrims throw seven stones or pebbles at the pillar representing Satan. Commemorating Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail, the pilgrims offer the Festival of Sacrifice by ritually slaughtering sheep, goats, cows, or camel, participating in the Great Feast, and distributing the greater portion of the meat to the poor and needy. One who completes the hajj is called a hajji. Before returning home, many of the pilgrims visit the mosque and tomb of Muhammad at Medina.

Rites of Passage

Islam has few extensive rituals besides the five pillars. The Qur'an does not prescribe any ritual for birth, but traditionally, after a child is born, the profession of faith is whispered in its right ear and the call to prayer in the left. Seven days after the birth, the infant's head may be shaved, followed by a sacrifice of sheep and a naming ritual. A celebration caps the ritual.

Although circumcision is not required by Islamic law, it may be performed on boys soon after the birth or when they are seven or older. The occasion is celebrated by sacrificing a sheep or goat and other festivities. Although there is no religious sanction for it, genital cutting is practiced by Muslims not only in African countries, such as Egypt and Somalia, but also in Asian countries, including Indonesia and India.

A contractual affair in Islam, marriage begins with the bride's acceptance of the dowry and consent to the marriage in front of two witnesses and is concluded with the couple reciting the first chapter of the Qur'an. Marriages take place in private homes or in a judge's chamber, and may be followed by a procession. At the end, there is a joyful celebration.

The rite for the final passage, death, begins with the profession of faith whispered in the ear of the dying person. Burial takes place soon after death, preferably on the same day. There is no cremation in Islam. The dead is given a bath, the orifices stuffed with cotton, and the body wrapped in a shroud. The mourners then go to the mosque, with or without the corpse, and pray for the dead. This is followed by a street procession with the casket during which the mourners chant the profession of faith. The body is laid in the grave on the right side and facing Mecca. There is a commemoration service forty days after death.

Ethics and the Good Life

The foundation of Islamic ethics is the Qur'an. As revelation continued from 610 to 632, the ethical teachings and legal injunctions developed during this revelatory period. Like Jewish ethics, which are based on written and oral laws, in Islam the Qur'an embodies the written laws, while the sunna, the oral tradition of the sayings and practices of the prophet as remembered by his closest associates, or Companions, is the basis of oral laws. It consists of rules that corroborate the Qur'an, clarify ambiguities, and qualify and specify general rulings. It also contains rules on which the Qur'an is silent. In some cases it supplants Qur'anic teaching; whereas the Qur'an enjoins prayers three times a day, the sunna sets the requirement at five. This oral tradition, set down by later authors and recognized by the Muslim community, is called hadith. It not only explains and supplements the Qur'an but also, as an independent source of law, wields authority second only to the Qur'an. Together, the Qur'an, sunna and hadith make up what is called the Sharia, the corpus of Islamic Law.

The aim of Islamic Law is to bring all aspects of life under God's will and guidance. Being God's complete design for living, the Sharia governs all aspects of a Muslim's behavior. It regulates not only religious and ethical matters but also social, political, and economic aspects of life. As the ultimate foundation of Islamic ethics and the best way to live a fulfilled and meaningful life, the Sharia answers the meta-ethical question of why one should be moral, that is, why one should obey them. As the revelation of God's will and his eternal decrees, it is the ultimate source of value, goodness, and morality. By following them a Muslim becomes holy.

The Sharia specifies the following Five Principles for determining the morality of actions:

• Obligatory: In this category fall the Five Pillars, which are therefore ethical precepts. Anyone who does not follow them acts immorally. One startling consequence of this is that to believe is moral, while not to believe is immoral. One cannot be an unbeliever and be moral. This implies that not only atheists but also all non-Muslims, who do not follow the Five Pillars, are regarded as immoral or infidels. That is why unbelief, shirk, is the greatest sin, which is unpardonable. As a result, missionary work and jihad against unbelief are moral obligations.

• Recommended: These are voluntary acts, such as extra prayers and charitable contributions, the nonperformance of which is not sinful. Various customs added after Muhammad also fall under this category.

• Permissible: These include morally neutral actions, such as eating meat or fish and eating ritually slaughtered meat (halal). Others that fall in this category are such reprehensible actions as divorce, eating pork in situations of extreme necessity (i.e., starvation), and polygyny. Islamic law allows men to have up to four wives but places no limit on the number of concubines a man can have, the basis for the harem system.

• Reprehensible: These are unwholesome actions that are tolerated, and may even be morally blameworthy, but are not punished. For instance, not performing recommended actions or performing permissible actions noted above.

• Forbidden: This category includes acts that are impure and sinful and thus prohibited by God, such as drinking alcohol, adultery, murder, premarital sex, female infanticide, confiscating orphans' properties, and conversion to another religion. On murder the Qur'an says, "You shall not kill one another" (4:30). Interfaith marriage is forbidden, unless the non-Muslim partner converts to Islam (4:145). Muslims who convert to another religion are regarded as apostates and subject to the death penalty. The punishment for stealing is cutting off of hands. The dietary prohibition is similar to Jewish kosher food laws. Muslims are forbidden to drink blood, eat pork, or eat any animal that dies naturally, is strangled, beaten or gored to death, killed by a fall, or mangled (unless it has been given a death stroke), or has been sacrificed to idols (5:3). Many Qur'anic laws resemble those of the Hebrew Bible.

A case of development of doctrine is the prohibition of alcohol and gambling. First the Qur'an issued advice, "They ask you about drinking and gambling. Say, 'There is great harm in both, although they have some benefit for men; but their harm is far greater than their benefit'" (2:219). Next, Muslims were forbidden to pray while they were drunk (4:43). Finally came a general prohibition: "Believers, wine and games of chance, idols and divining arrows [i.e., divination], are abominations devised by Satan. Avoid them so that you may prosper" (5:91).

The ultimate motive for acting morally is fear of God and punishment by hellfire, albeit a reverential fear that guards against evil and immorality. The other motive is reward. For obedience and submission—the very meaning of Islam—it holds up the reward of Paradise.

Community, Institution, Organization, and Action

Besides umma, this section will discuss major groups: the Shia, the Sunni, and Sufism, and women in Islam. The umma is the social, political, moral, and religious order of believers, which constitutes the context in which Islamic beliefs, values, and goals can be expressed and realized, making up the total way of life for Muslims. In Islam there is no separation of religion and social and political spheres of life. All aspects of life are bound together by religious laws—the Sharia.

Umma: The Community of Islam

The ideal of umma was forged in the early days of Islam, when Muhammad was called to be the social and political leader of Medina. Under this ideal, the offices of head of state, society, and religion came to be concentrated in one person. The Qur'anic revelation, and later hadith and Sharia, came to organize all aspects of life into a unified whole. This is the ideal that all Islamic societies attempt to follow. And since religion comes under the moral imperative and covers all aspects of life, it follows that Muslims have a religious obligation to bring every aspect of their society and every society under the rule of the Sharia, to Islamize the whole world. This is the basis for the expansion of Islam. Where this is not feasible on a worldwide basis, it is imperative, at least where Muslims are a majority, that the government be based on the Sharia. Because this duty is incumbent upon all Muslims, Muslim countries, especially those that are controlled by Islamic fundamentalists, tend to organize their governments according to Islamic rather than secular laws.

This ideal is also invoked by terrorist fringe groups to legitimize their dual struggle, or jihad, against the secular world and against those Muslim governments that are not based on the Sharia. States run by secular laws, such as the United States, Canada, the European countries, and elsewhere, may create dilemmas for those Muslims who may feel duty bound to live by Islamic laws governing marriage, divorce, and punishment. Canadian Muslims had proposed that Muslim marriage laws be incorporated into the Canadian legal system. It did not pass. Currently, there is a movement afoot in the United States to ban the use of Sharia laws by judges. So far, three states have enacted such a law, and more than two dozen states have considered it. But the federal government declined to adopt such measures. In some European countries that have large Muslim immigrant populations, one of the major problems is whether Muslims want to become integrated into the wider non-Muslim society and how this can be done without discarding or compromising important Islamic values and religious observances. In some countries, such as Germany and elsewhere, Muslims seem to be forming parallel societies to continue with their traditions and practices. All this raises an even broader question: how can the umma be rethought and restructured so that it can exist not only in countries with a Muslim majority but also in modern, secular, multicultural and multiethnic societies with a non-Muslim majority?

Major Groups in Islam

Following the struggle for succession, Islam came to be split up into several groups. Most groups are small in number. The largest groups are the Shia, who make up about 13 percent of the Islamic population, and the Sunni, who shore up the rest.

The Shia

As noted before, Ali, Muhammad's cousin and one of the earliest to embrace the faith, married Muhammad's (and Khadijah's) daughter, Fatima. They had two sons—Hasan and Husayn. When Muhammad died, Ali's faction felt that Ali should have been the rightful successor. These partisans of Ali, who came to be called Shia (meaning "party"), claimed that before he died, Muhammad said, "Whomsoever I am authority over, Ali is also authority over." So they believed that he had intended to designate Ali as the caliph. And they believed that the succession should remain within the prophet's family. Considering the first three as usurpers, they refused to acknowledge them as caliphs.

After Ali's assassination, Shiites in Kufa proclaimed Hasan as the successor. But when Muawiya moved against him, Hasan agreed to recognize Muawiya as the successor in return for a lifetime pension. Before his death, Muawiya tried to have his son Yazid recognized as his successor. But Ali's second son Husayn and others refused to do so and withdrew to Mecca. After Muawiya's death in 680, civil war broke out again as many Kufans wrote to Husayn to come to Kufa and make a bid to become caliph. Husayn sent his cousin Muslim to assess the situation. He was warmly received by the Kufans. When the Umayyad governor of Iraq learned of their plan, he had Muslim tracked down and executed. But before learning about Muslim's fate, Husayn had set out for Kufa with a small band of his followers. They were intercepted outside Kufa. Intimidated by the Umayyad governor, not a single Shiite Kufan came to Husayn's aid. Negotiations followed, but to no avail. Husayn refused to recognize Yazid as the caliph. Finally, on the tenth day of the month of Muharram (October 10, 680) in a battle at Karbala, Husayn and his men were cut down (save Husayn's son Zayn al-Abidin, who was ill). The women and children were taken in chains to Damascus, where Yazid treated them honorably and released them.

Consumed with shame, guilt, and regret for failing to come to Husayn's aid, the Kufan leaders desired to atone for their failure with their own deaths. But as the Qur'an forbids suicide, they instead offered themselves in expiatory deaths in the battlefield. After spending one night at Karbala, wailing and lamenting for their guilt and praying to Husayn for forgiveness, the party marched northward, where most of them were slain by Yazid's troops. This penitential self-sacrifice "expressed all the essential elements and concepts of Shiite piety" (Halm 20). The martyrdom of Husayn and his party at Karbala and the death march of the Kufan "penitents" in 684 turned the initial political power struggle into a religious movement. This public display of guilt and lamentation over their own sins is the basis for the Shiite atonement and mourning rituals, most of which are performed annually during the first day of Muharram to share in Husayn's suffering and atone for their individual sin as well as the collective, historical guilt (Halm 41). On the climactic tenth day (ashura), they reenact the martyrdom of Husayn with a procession during which men scourge themselves, stage the passion play, and observe spiritual discipline. This willing self-sacrifice has become a main tenet of Shiite Islam. It has shaped their worldview of suffering, oppression, protest against injustice, and struggle for righteousness. It gave impetus to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, led by Ayatollah Khomeini. It is one of the reasons for the ethnic conflict in Iraq, Bahrain, and elsewhere, where Sunni minority holds power and has oppressed the Shiite majority.

After Husayn, the Shiite movement split up into three groups. They are as follows:

• Zaydis, who believe that after Zayn, the fourth imam (the first three being Ali, Hasan, and Husayn), his son Zayd was the fifth imam.

• Ismailis, or "Seveners," tracing their origin through Zayn's other son, Muhammad al-Baqir (the fifth imam), believe that the seventh imam was al-Baqir's older grandson Ismail.

• Twelvers, follow the line of al-Baqir's younger grandson, Musa al-Kazim, and believe in twelve imams. They believe that the last, Muhammad al-Muntazar, did not die but went into hiding till the end of the world. Before the Day of Resurrection he will return as the Mahdi, along with Jesus, to establish universal justice and a perfect Islamic society worldwide. At present, he continues to guide his representatives, the ayatollahs, from his hiding place.

The Shiite idea of imam differs from that of the Sunnis. Whereas for the latter an imam is a scholar or prayers leader, for the former the imam is a divinely guided, ineffable leader of the community and a direct descendant of Muhammad. Together with Muhammad and his daughter Fatima, the twelve imams are believed to be infallible and sinless. All imams, even those who died natural deaths, are martyrs. Their martyrdom removed part of Shiite collective guilt, and their suffering spared humanity from God's full judgment. They also serve as mediators between God and humankind. Although not eternal, like Wisdom in the Hebrew Bible, the imams' souls preexisted creation in the form of light. Shiites believe that the existence of the imam is necessary for the existence and continuation of the cosmos, and the existence of the cosmos is proof for the existence of the hidden imam. Pilgrimage to the imams' graves is a popular religious practice.

Shiites further believe that revelation did not end with Muhammad and the Qur'an but continues through these rightly guided imams. Because of these two beliefs, the ayatollahs have a spiritual authority far greater than that of the Sunni imams and religious scholars (ulamas). That is why they have such a following in Iran and Iraq where Shiites are in the majority.

Mistrusting traditional interpretations of the Qur'an, which they believe has hidden meanings, Shiites give it allegorical interpretation to unlock their meaning. The rest of Shiite beliefs are the same as those of the Sunnis.

The Sunnis

The majority of Muslims are called Sunnis, as they give the sunna the central place of importance as guide to conduct. In addition to the Qur'an and the hadith, which contain written and oral laws respectively, Muslims turned to sunna to determine correct behavior. If that proved insufficient, they relied on the consensus of the Medina community during or shortly after the prophet. If all these sources were found inconclusive, they resorted to analogical reasoning based on any of the above sources, or the consensus of local Muslim community. The Muslims who followed such procedures came to be called Sunnis. They founded Schools of Law for systematic interpretations of the Law. The Sunnis also favored succession of the caliph by selection or election of the most qualified Muslim.

Sufism: Path of Self-Transformation

It is commonly believed that the word "sufi" is derived from the Arabic word "suf," which means "wool," referring to coarse woolen garments early Sufis wore in reaction to the prevailing luxury of courts of caliphs and to rituals and laws that seemed to multiply with the passage of time. At the same time they were prompted by the fear of hell and terrifying descriptions of the Last Judgment found in the Qur'an. Fear of God moved them to practice continual repentance, typified by Hasan al-Basri, who advised the faithful to give up the world and become ascetics, saying, "The lower (material) world is a house whose inmates labor for loss, and only abstention from it makes one happy in it" (quoted by Esposito 104). This ascetic impulse is echoed by another, anonymous statement: "Whosoever feels safe from the world is like one who holds a fistful of water and is betrayed by the spaces between the fingers" (Waines 135).

Finding the religion of ritual and legal observances too impersonal and unsatisfactory, the Sufis sought a religion based on a personal experience of God. They desired a life of purity and simplicity, which they believed existed during the life of the Prophet. Early Sufis were more ascetic than mystical. Their progression from asceticism to mysticism was similar to the development of Christian mysticism from asceticism. Like Christian ascetics, they practiced fasting and night vigils or staying up all night and praying, prompted by a desire for inner purification, which aimed at self-mastery by gaining control over the Sufi's thoughts, desires, and actions. They took the Qur'an's injunction on remembrance of and trust in God one step further, emphasizing absolute trust in God to the point of dispensing with carrying money or food while traveling and refusing medication and food not directly offered.

By the eighth century, a new stream began to flow through Sufism—an emphasis on love of God. Thus Sufism blossomed into mysticism. One of the first great practitioners of this new movement who combined asceticism with the pure love of God was Rabia of Basra (d. 801). Her view of love is enshrined in the following poem:

Two ways I love Thee: selfishly,

And next, as worthy is of Thee.

'Tis selfish love that I do naught

Save think on Thee with every thought.

'Tis purest love when Thou dost raise

The veil to my adoring gaze.

Not mine the praise in that or this:

Thine is the praise in both, I wis (quoted by Arberry 43).

From the beginning of the mystical phase, Sufism emphasized unconditional love as the path to God. Of two kinds of love, Rabia says that only selfless love removes the veil of separation and leads to union. Rabia also discarded the idea of a rewarding and punishing God, as we learn from the following anecdote: As told by Annemarrie Schimmel, "She was seen one day in the streets of Basra, carrying a bucket in one hand and a torch in the other one. Asked the meaning of her action, she replied: 'I want to pour water into Hell and set fire to Paradise so that these two veils disappear and nobody worships God out of fear of Hell or hope for Paradise, but only for the sake of His eternal beauty'" (105).

Generally speaking, Sufis believe the goal of their Path to be union with God, expressed by the Sufi Master (Sheikh) Bayazid Bistami thus:

Once He raised me up and stationed me before Him,

and said to me, "O Abu Yazid, truly My creation desires to see thee."

I said, "Adorn me in Thy Unity, and clothe me in Thy Selfhood,

and raise me up in Thy Oneness, so that when Thy creation see me

they will say, We have seen Thee: and Thou wilt be That,

and I shall not be there at all." (Quoted by Arberry 55)

In this union with God in his personal form, love unites the two, but a consciousness of separation between God and the mystic remains.

Those who came to envision Ultimate Reality to be Infinite, considered the ultimate goal to be identity beyond union, the realization of which required self-transcendence. They came to call this state fana, literally meaning extinction or death of the self. Psychologically it consists of going beyond the consciousness of oneself as a separate entity. Spiritually, fana involves several stages—from the initial stage of self-purification to the final stage, called "annihilation of annihilation," in which the Sufi so completely passes into God that everything else disappears from awareness. Only the Infinite or the Godhead remains as the only Reality, as expressed by Bistami in the above poem. With the Eye of Infinity, when one gazes within oneself, one sees the Infinite as the self; when the Eye is directed outside, one sees the Infinity of God as all that is.

This is graphically portrayed in the allegorical tale of spiritual quest, The Conference of the Birds, by Farid al-Din Attar. In the story, various birds set off in quest of their king, the Simurgh. After passing through seven valleys, representing seven states of consciousness, and progressively experiencing self-transformation, at last only thirty birds (Si-murgh) reach Simurgh's palace and finally realize in contemplation that they are the Simurgh and the Simurgh is the thirty birds. When they gaze at the Simurgh, they see that it is truly Simurgh; and when they turn their gaze on themselves they see that they themselves are the Simurgh. When they see both at once, themselves and him, they realize that they and the Simurgh are identical.

The Sufis came to realize that fana is not final. There is one more step in which the Godhead reveals itself in the individual just as It is. In this state, called baqa, "subsistence in God," al-Junayd was moved to define Sufism as dying to oneself and living in God (Arberry 58). Bayazid Bistami describes this final stage as follows:

I gazed upon [God] with the eye of truth and said to Him:

"Who is this?"

He said: "This is neither I nor other than I. There is no God but I."

Then He changed me out of my identity into His Selfhood.

Then I communed with Him with the tongue of His Face, saying:

"How fares it with me with Thee?"

He said, "I am through Thee; there is no god but Thou."

(Quoted by Armstrong 2:226)

As Bistami's experience shows, at this stage of baqa, the Infinite is the one "I" revealing and expressing itself in the consciousness of the individual. Mansur al-Hallaj came to experience this identity and expressed it as "I am He whom I love, and He whom I love is I" and "I am the Truth" (ana al-Haqq). Far from claiming to be God, in his consciousness al-Hallaj's identity as a separate self had vanished, replaced by the "I" of God, revealing "himself" in al-Hallaj as the "I," the eternal Truth. For refusing to recant, and for political reasons, al-Hallaj was scourged, mutilated, nailed to a gibbet, and then beheaded.

From experience, Sufis came to the idea of the infinite Godhead. This Ultimate Reality, which Sheikh Ibn al-Arabi called simply "Reality," and, alternately, Oneness of Being, is not identified with the personal God, Allah. This Reality is all-embracing such that It is experienced as all, and nothing to be other than It. Al-Arabi was not reducing everything to the Godhead, but he held that all differentiation takes place within the Godhead and as Its manifestations, while It remains unmanifest. As unmanifest, "He is Being Itself, the Essence of Being." In the manifest order, the Godhead "is the essential Self of all things... their inner Essence" (133–135). Manifesting Itself as the diversity, the One assumes the manifold forms of this world: "He is the observer in the observer and the observed in the observed; the Cosmos is His Form and He is the governing Spirit of the Cosmos" (135). All creation takes place within the Godhead, since nothing is outside of It: "Though You create beings without limit within Yourself, You are both the Restricted and the All-Encompassing" (102). Ibn Arabi expresses the paradoxical nature of the infinite Reality by saying, like Zhuangzi, that It is the finite in the Infinite and the Infinite in the finite, for "there is but one Essence" (150). This is ana al-Haqq—the Godhead as the ultimate truth of all things. In this Ultimate State every form, while being finite, is at the same time fully infinite. All finite things are embodiments of the Infinite, Ultimate Truth. This view is similar to Nirguna Brahman of Hinduism, Nirvana and the Buddha-nature of Buddhism, the ultimate Dao of Daoism, Ein Sof of the Kabbalah, and the Godhead of Christian mysticism.

Al-Hallaj's execution was a signal that the gap between Sufism and orthodox Islam needed to be bridged. With the spread of Sufism among the masses, the religious establishment (ulama) felt their authority questioned and religious legalism and formalism challenged. As a result, there was a growing suspicion and hostility toward Sufism. Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, who became a Sufi, undertook to reconcile the two. While he affirmed the legitimacy of the Law and the authority of the ulama and theology, he also insisted that the law and doctrine must be grounded in personal experience, devotion, and love of God.

After al-Ghazali's death, as large numbers of people joined the Sufis, the mass movement was organized into brotherhoods and orders. Beginning in the twelfth century, Sufi Orders began to spring up at various centers in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, North Africa, and elsewhere.

Sufi Practices

The foundation of the Sufi path consists of orthodox Muslim practices. Like all Muslims, the Sufis follow the Law as revealed in the Qur'an and the Sharia. As in other mystical paths, morality and asceticism form the bedrock of Sufi practices.

The journey on the Sufi path begins with the student's conversion or awakening from the slumber of ordinary life and seeing its insufficiency. Deciding to embark on the Sufi path, the student seeks out a Sufi master and a Sufi community and becomes initiated into a Sufi order. After initiation he is assigned various practices to purify his mind and heart, emotion and behavior. The centrality of this work moved Ansari to define Sufism as teaching "how to purify one's self, improve one's morals and build up one's inner and outer life in order to attain perpetual bliss. Its subject-matter is the purification of the soul and its end or aim is the attainment of eternal felicity and blessedness" (Shah 240).

Some of the initial Sufi practices assigned are fasting or abstinence in food, speech, and thought; voluntary poverty; humility and gratitude; freedom from desire; nonattachment; and silence, solitude, and withdrawal from the distractions of ordinary life. Among other practices are absolute trust in God and constant prayer; sincerity, generosity, truthfulness, contentment; and self-examination and self-knowledge (Arberry 74–79). During this period, the Sufi master will study the student's behavior and assign those among the above practices that are most conducive to the purification of his mind and heart of psychological conflicts and mental fixations.

As the Sufi passes through this stage, he experiences various states, such as fear, hope, longing, trust, love, and nearness to God. A progressive deepening of these states is a gauge of the student's progress on the path. The Sufi needs to transform fear into watchfulness and self-examination, into singleness of purpose, into longing for and constant remembrance (dhikr) of God. When understanding develops, thoughts become clear; light begins to dawn, replacing prior darkness. Remembrance of God becomes intense, and the love of God floods the heart (Arberry 56). As meditation deepens and the mind remains centered and solely focused on God, the Sufi experiences nearness to God. And momentary experiences of God's luminous presence floods the Sufi's mind and heart.

The central and distinctive meditative practice for which the Sufis are known the world over is dhikr, or remembrance of God. The aim of dhikr is union with God through keeping God in the center of attention by constantly repeating divine names and other formulas until God floods the mind and displaces all other contents. It is a remembrance borne on the wings of love, awakened through repetition. The mantra-like repetitions consist of the names of God, and the central confession of faith—La ilaha illa 'llah (There is no god but Allah).

Developed at different centers by various Sufi orders, the dhikr takes on different forms—from a simple repetition of the "ninety-nine beautiful names of God" on a chain of rosary beads to the complex forms, such as whirling or circular dance, accompanied by music, chant, concentration, repetition, and visualization. The repetition is either silent, muttered under the breath, spoken aloud, or chanted, performed either individually or in a group. Chanting and whirling is always a group practice.

Besides the dhikr, Sufis practice other forms of meditation, such as breath control and concentration on the breath, concentration on a single idea, and various types of visualization, some of which resemble Tibetan Buddhism and Kabbalah, while others resemble Hindu tantra. Sufis also practice contemplation, the deeper stages of which grow out of advanced stages of dhikr. Contemplation leads to insight into the Sufi's relationship with God and ripens into a sense of oneness, leading to ecstatic union with God. Through various stages of fana, the Sufi goes beyond any sense of differentiation and arrives at a state of consciousness in which only God remains. Still beyond is baqa—living in God.

Women in Islam

It is often stated that the Qur'an proclaims the equality of men and women. There are two types of Qur'anic texts on which this claim is based: First, in relation to creation, the Qur'an says, "Mankind, fear your Lord who created you from a single soul and from it created its mate" (4:1). Another text says, "Mankind, We have created you from a male and a female and divided you into nations and tribes" (49:13). Neither these nor any other Qur'anic texts explicitly state that men and women are equal. The claim of equality is implicit, similar to the first creation story in the book of Genesis. From the statement that both men and women were created from a single soul or a single couple, and so have the same nature, it has been deduced that as created by God, men and women are equal.

On the other hand, the Qur'an explicitly asserts men's superiority when it says, "Men have authority over women because Allah has made the one superior to the other" (4:34). This superiority could refer to creation, and thus in nature. Or it could refer to the social order, similar to the second story of creation in Genesis. Some translators add the words "in strength" after "superior" to signify that it refers to physical differences between men and women as the basis for social and gender differentiation. The commentator Razi, however, sees the text as referring to natural superiority that serves as the basis for superiority in social and religious spheres, when he says:

Man is more perfect than the woman in creation, and intelligence,

and in the religious sphere, such as the suitability to be a judge,

and a leader in worship. Also, the testimony of the man is twice

that of the woman. So that whoever is given great responsibilities

must be given correspondingly great privileges.

(Quoted by Rafiqul-Haqq and Newton 2)

The second set of Qur'anic texts pertains to obligation, judgment, reward, and punishment according to one's deeds. On this point, all texts make nearly identical assertions, the most explicit of which says, "We shall reward the steadfast according to their noblest deeds. Be they men or women, those that embrace the faith and do what is right We will surely grant a happy life" (16:98–100). From this and similar texts some have concluded that since everyone will be rewarded according to their actions, all will receive equal rewards. And, since all have equal religious and moral obligations, all men and women are equal. But the texts do not explicitly say that. On the contrary, the descriptions of Paradise contradict such conclusions. They envision a bachelor's pleasure palace, in which "bashful virgins with swelling and firm breasts and large, dark eyes will cater to men's every wish" and "satisfy their every desire, unforbidden and never-ending" (56:35). Among these unrepressed and "never-ending" desires, according to a hadith, each man will wed up to seventy-two virgins, who will return to virginity after he is finished having sex with them. No such promise is made to women.

On earth, too, inequality is evident in the social sphere. This is clear not only from the text quoted above but also from such statements as, "Men have a status above women" (2:228) because of which men have authority over women. If they disobey, men are instructed to beat them: "Good women are obedient... As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat (daraba) them" (4:34). The Arabic word "daraba" has been translated variously as beat, hit, strike, scourge, chastise, flog, make an example of, spank, pet, tap, seduce, and go away. But, as Andrew Rippin points out, "The Arabic word [i.e., daraba] is commonly used to mean 'beat,' and there is no doubt that traditional Islam has taken the word in that physical sense" (246). But it forbids unchecked violence (Wadud 76). The progression in the husband's treatment of his rebellious wife is first to admonish, then to sexually desert, and, if all else fails, to beat her.

With the establishment of Islam, the status of women improved in some areas over what existed in pre-Islamic Arabia. Thus, Islam outlawed female infanticide: "You shall not kill your children for fear of want... To kill them is a great sin" (17:31). And it provided for the support and economic independence of divorced women by allowing them to retain their dowry long before such rights were granted in the western world: "Give women their dowry as a free gift; but if they choose to make over to you a part of it, you may regard it lawfully yours" (4:4). However, in pre-Islamic Arabia, women enjoyed greater sexual autonomy, and they participated in and exercised leadership in a wide range of community activities. They were priests, soothsayers, prophets, participants in warfare, rebels and leaders of rebellion, and nurses on the battlefield. However, according to Leila Ahmed, "autonomy and monogamy were conspicuously absent in the lives of women Muhammad married after he became the established Prophet and leader of Islam, and the control of women by male guardians and the male prerogative of polygyny were to become thereafter formal features of Islamic marriage" (178–179). And women's participation and leadership roles in community affairs thereafter steadily declined.

Qur'anic legislation gives evidence of subordination and double standards. While outlawing other forms of marriage, Muhammad instituted patrilineality and polygyny, in which men controlled women's sexuality. Since a special divine dispensation allowed him to marry as many women as he wished and have slave girls as booty (33:50), Muhammad married thirteen women and took numerous slave girls as concubines, thus inaugurating the harem system. Other Muslim men can have up to four wives, but women are not allowed multiple husbands. However, the Qur'an says that a man can have more than one wife only if he can treat them all equally so as to avoid injustice (4:3). Based on the Qur'anic saying, "Try as you may, you cannot treat all your wives impartially" (4:129), some Muslims argue that the Qur'an taught the monogamous ideal.

Legal age for marriage among Muslims varies from culture to culture and age to age. Muhammad married Aisha when she was six or nine years old and he was fifty or fifty-three. Such practices are not unheard of even today. In Iran the legal age of marriage for girls is nine; fourteen for boys. In 2000, an attempt by the legislature to set the legal age for girls at fourteen was vetoed by the clerics. But in Yemen, the conservatives failed to abolish the legal minimum marriage age of fifteen for girls. Recently, Turkey set the minimum age for marriage to eighteen. Facing joblessness, many Muslims in Egypt are now delaying marriage.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, women could take the initiative in marriage, but in Islam most marriages are prearranged. However, the consent of the young woman is deemed essential. To safeguard her interests, guardians may do the negotiations, but they are not allowed to force the woman to marry someone against her choice. In marriage contracts, the woman can take the initiative, thus showing that she is entering the marriage on her own free will. This, however, is not always the case. In Yemen and elsewhere, where child marriage is still a tradition, the girl has little choice.

In marriage, the relationship of husband and wife is viewed as complementary. With the establishment of patriarchy as the norm under Islam, the roles of men and women came to be stratified. Men's domain became the public sphere, and women were consigned to family life. Women's primary roles were to be wife and mother, manage the household, raise the children, and supervise their religious and moral training. In both family matters and the social sphere, women became subordinate to men.

Divorce, too, underwent a change. In pre-Islamic Arabia, divorce and remarriage appear to have been common for both men and women, either of whom could take the initiative. But in Islam, at the onset of trouble and breakup, the law provides appointment of arbiters on both sides in the hope of reconciliation (4:35). If that fails, the man may divorce his wife by declaring twice, in front of witnesses, "I divorce you." After this initial step, women are instructed to wait for three months before making the divorce final to determine whether she is pregnant. If she is, the husband is encouraged to take her back (2:28). If this attempt also fails, then he may finalize the divorce at the end of this waiting period by pronouncing a third time "I divorce you" in front of two witnesses (65:1–2). Women can initiate divorce only through religious authorities (ulama) or the court system. But in most Islamic societies they face great difficulty in suing for divorce. Though in most countries divorced women are entitled to alimony, in Pakistan and India, it lasts only three months.

With several styles of marriage prevailing in pre-Islamic Arabia, adultery was not as strictly interpreted; nor was any stigma attached to it. But as Islam prohibited all forms of marriages save polygyny and monogamy, all extramarital relations came to be considered adultery and forbidden (17:32), and the punishment drastic. Women's punishment for adultery is death by stoning. But no such legislation is directed toward men. Recently in Nigeria, a divorced thirty-nine-year-old woman who had a child with a sixty-year-old man was sentenced to be stoned to death, even though she claimed he raped her. He faced no legal sanction. International outcry made the Nigerian Supreme Court acquit her.

On premarital sex, the Qur'an says, "If any of your women commit fornication, call in four witnesses from among yourselves against them; if they testify to their guilt confine them to their houses till death overtakes them or till Allah finds another way for them" (4:14). Thus while the Qur'an sanctions house arrest and leaves other options to God, many Muslim societies have interpreted it as justifying "honor killing"—the killing of females by their relatives for tarnishing the family honor. This is carried out in cases of rape, premarital sex, marrying and divorcing against the family's wishes, or even refusing to marry. Male relatives are under intense pressure to carry out the honor killing. When they don't, they are ostracized, other girls in the family are deemed unmarriageable, and boys are taunted and made to feel ashamed until many come to think that they have no choice but to carry it out. Usually, the killers are punished lightly, or not at all. Each year hundreds of Muslim women die in honor killings.

Although incidents of honor killing have come to light more often in Arab countries, it is not a particularly Arab phenomenon. It is also practiced in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Turkey. Most recently in Afghanistan, a romance between two teenagers of different ethnicity—between a seventeen-year-old Tajik man and a supposedly seventeen-year-old Hazara young woman—set off a riot in which a man was killed. The two are now in a juvenile prison, while a group of men are demanding that they be stoned to death or hanged. And the girl's father wants the government to kill both of them. In another case, a young couple was stoned to death after they had eloped. It is happening even among Muslim immigrants in European countries, as was the case in a family that had migrated to Italy from Pakistan. The father slit the throat of his daughter for dating an Italian and for smoking. Although such attitudes are changing among the more educated and feminist Muslims, still the conviction remains deeply entrenched in traditional societies.

Raped women are regarded as having committed adultery and are punished accordingly. The burden of proof lies with the woman, who must produce four eyewitnesses of impeccable character who must testify on four separate occasions. However, their testimony can be retracted. Recently in Pakistan, a case received international attention when on orders from a tribal council four men gang-raped a woman because her younger brother had had sex with an upper-class young woman. Such vendetta rapes continue in Pakistan with no sign of abatement, as it happened in the case of a twenty-four-year-old woman who was raped because her uncle had eloped with a woman from a higher caste. The number of women reporting rape has greatly increased.

Qur'anic laws seem to imply that a woman's worth is half that of a man's. Women are allowed to inherit only half of what men do: "A male shall inherit twice as much as a female" (4:11), while a childless widow may inherit only a quarter of her deceased husband's estate (4:12). The Qur'anic law allows two men or one man and two women as witnesses (2:283). These laws came into existence when Muhammad initiated virilocal polygyny, in which inheritance was kept within the male line and men were responsible to provide for the household. The testimony of two women was regarded as equal to that of one man, because men had more extensive knowledge and experience in legal affairs than women. However, by the tenth century, the general assessment that women are worth half as much as men and that their testimony is valid only on "female issues" became the basis for legal sanction of male superiority and female subordination and control. Women could not conduct business or make major decisions, including marriage, without the permission of a male guardian. Subservience to the husband became the norm, disobedience resulting in punishment. This also meant their segregation in public worship at the mosque, resulting in their praying mostly at home.

In spite of such attitudes and practices, within the domestic sphere women have ruled the roost. Even in the public sphere women have been active. They have been calligraphers, poets, and transmitters of hadith. In a hadith, Hagar is portrayed as a righteous woman whom God chose to play an essential role in the establishment of Islam in Arabia. Without her there would have been no Ishmael, nor would he have survived in the desert. Her desperate search for water near the Ka'ba is commemorated in the annual pilgrimage ritual. Khadijah's support was crucial to Muhammad's acceptance of the authenticity of his initial revelation. His youngest wife, Aisha, was a rallying point for a rebel group. The Qur'an accords a position of respect and praise to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It acknowledges the virginal conception and miraculous birth of Jesus. Rabia was an important early mystic. In many countries, including India, Egypt, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, women have served as rulers.

Seclusion and veiling of women curtailed their independence and active participation in community affairs. Initially, only Muhammad's wives were secluded and veiled—customs that prevailed among the elite of Arabia and neighboring cultures at that time. However, most of the Qur'anic texts that instruct women to draw their veils "close around them," "over their bosoms," and to "cover their unseen parts" are rules of modesty in dress. It is not known when the rules of segregating and hiding women from public view by a partition at home and veiling when they went out, accompanied by a male guardian, came into general use. Rules that were introduced for the protection of women were carried to extremes under prevailing cultural conditions in such countries as Iran, in Afghanistan under the Taliban rule, and in the Middle East. In most Islamic countries today, covering is an option. Many young Muslim women in western countries wear the headscarf as part of their identity, while others have questioned whether the distinctive mode of dress is necessary for Islamic identity. Many young women are now beginning to wear them as a form of liberation from unwanted gazes and hassles from men, as an assertion of power against the dictatorship of men, or as a form of protection, self-assertion, and control. Many Muslim women feel cultural and family pressure to cover themselves. Recently some fundamentalists in the Indian province of Kashmir threw acid in the faces of women who refused to comply with their demand to wear the veil. However, Bangladesh passed laws increasing punishments for crimes against women, including rape, kidnapping and acid attacks for refusing to marry.

The position of women in today's Islamic societies is changing. As these changes vary from country to country, a generalization valid for all societies is not possible. Current conditions show advances in some areas, reversals in others. In the Arab Middle East, where Muslims are the majority and the Sharia is the law of the land, such as Saudi Arabia, gender segregation and social restrictions are still in place. It is only recently that the Saudi King has allowed women to drive. But in Iran women can drive cars, buy and sell property, run businesses, vote, and hold public office.

Muslim women are making greater strides in education. With the routing of the Taliban in Afghanistan, women have been free not only to attend schools and universities but also to pursue their careers and participate in political and social organizations. In Saudi Arabia, women are forbidden to study engineering and law. Nearly 50 percent of Malaysian, 54 percent of Iranian, and 60 percent of Algerian university students are women. However, gender segregation in university classes and prohibition from associating in mixed groups unaccompanied by men prevail in most Muslim countries.

In career choices, too, women are enjoying greater opportunities. While in Saudi Arabia women are limited to teaching and providing medical care and are denied most government jobs, in Iran women make up 25 percent of the workforce and 35 percent of government positions. Thirty percent of women in Qatar now work. Women make up 70 percent of Algeria's lawyers and 60 percent of its judges—something not to be found even in most developed countries in the world. Algerian women dominate medicine. Increasingly, women contribute more to household income there than men. They seem to be taking over the machinery of state as well. For the first time, Kuwait is giving women the right to vote and stand for election to Parliament. In Malaysia, the attorney general, governor of the central bank, and trade minister are women. Women have served as prime ministers in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Where the government is secular, efforts toward elevating women's status through legislation are opposed by the forces that favor imposition of the Sharia. Associating feminism with western colonialism and thus regarding it as alien to Islam, fundamentalists and traditionalists resist change and insist that Islam guarantees women's rights and grants them full equality and independence. Claiming that Islamic values are superior to those of the decadent West and that the woman's primary role is in the family, they have evolved an Islamic brand of women's rights, defending the headscarf and other practices that non-Muslims consider tantamount to subjugation. In Jordan, the 1991 National Charter made men and women legally equal. While women have made some progress in education, as the Jordanian government relies on the support of tribal leaders, few reforms have been enacted to improve the status of women.

In Egypt, a reform movement to improve women's status began with the first women's organization, founded in 1936 by Zaynab al-Ghazali. It aimed to secure social, economic, and political rights and freedom for women in both private and public sectors. However, suspicion and hostility toward the secular West, because of its history of colonialism, perceived moral decadence, exploitation of women, materialism, as well as the claim of the moral superiority of Islam, have thwarted reform to improve the status of women. As a result, some progressive legislation has been reversed in the name of Islamic identity. In 1985, earlier legislation was repealed and polygyny and men's right to divorce reinstated. In Bangladesh, a woman physician was driven out of her country for criticizing women's oppression and advocating equality, even though the prime minister at that time was a woman. As the figures cited above indicate, a quiet revolution is underway in Algeria with women in the forefront. But some resist change, others desire to slow it down, while yet others consider it against the faith.

In western countries, Muslims face conflicting demands of Islamic identity and ethnic diversity on the one hand, and the exigencies of modern secular culture on the other. In the United States, for instance, some Muslim women, both converts and new immigrants, have adopted a more traditional role, while others have opted for full participation in both private and public life. Yet many in the latter category, even those who identify themselves as feminists, have tended to shy away from western feminists and are attempting to forge a brand of feminism compatible with their Islamic identity. Muslim women have faced problems and tensions not only in the workplace, the result of their distinctive mode of dress, but even within the Islamic community ethnic diversity has posed a barrier to Islamic unity. Some find it appropriate to seek employment outside the home, while others do not. The separation of church and state and legal restrictions have created tensions and possible conflicts for Muslims.

The victory for the reformers and moderates in the Iranian election several years ago showed a cautious trend toward modernization. Yet the most recent election, in which the clerics regained the control of parliament and a conservative became president, does not augur well for reform. The highly educated women in Iran will definitely move toward a restoration of their rights as women. The struggle to find Islamic identity and its own model of women's liberation will bring changes in countries where a reversal toward subjugation seems to have occurred.

The movement for Islamic women's rights seeks not only to achieve equality but also to strip Islamic tradition, theology, and law of patriarchal control. And it wants a greater role for women as decision makers in the family and public life. The movement toward democracy in Islamic countries will undoubtedly lead toward a greater voice for women in both private and public life, as it already has in Afghanistan and Iraq, where women have been elected members of parliament. Islam in western countries could serve as a model for reconciling Islam and the modern world. Recently in the United States, reviving Muhammad's own action, it is said, a woman has served as imam in congregational prayers for a group of men and women. Across the United States, Muslim women are spearheading a quiet tide of Islamic reform, promoting tolerance, gender equality, and the right to pray in the main hall of the mosque and hold public offices, such as leadership in mosques and sitting on governing boards. This may point the direction for the future. As Asra Q. Nomani observed, "The rest of the Muslim world is watching how reform takes hold in the American Muslim community" (Time 13 September 2004).

Youth protests turned revolutionary in ousting authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt may usher fundamental political changes if these countries follow through with their quest for implementation of democratic reform and establish liberty and equality for all. And if other authoritarian regimes in the region are likewise swept by the winds of revolution and similar political changes follow in its wake, the Middle East will indeed change forever. It will no doubt mean unprecedented opportunities for women throughout the region who have freely participated in bringing about this change. For that to happen, deep cultural changes must occur. Freedom, equal rights, respect for women, and equal opportunities for all will take prolonged and sustained efforts to bring about. These fundamental values must be constitutionally assured to women. It has been an auspicious beginning. But such fundamental changes are by no means assured. It remains to be seen if this promise in principle will be realized in fact.

Development of Islam from the Abbasid Dynasty to the Modern Period

This section will focus on the most significant developments in Islam from the Abbasid Caliphate to the modern world. The Abbasid Caliphate sparked a flowering of the Islamic civilization emanating from various centers, especially from Baghdad. However, our discussion will be confined to the development of Islamic philosophy and theology, with only a passing mention of the development of law schools. We will then briefly note further expansion of Islam in Asia, Africa, and Eastern Europe.

The Abbasid Caliphate: The Classical Period of Islam

The Umayyad rule came to an end when various disgruntled groups united under Abu Muslim in 750 overthrew the Umayyads and installed Abu al-Abbas as caliph, thereby establishing the Abbasid Dynasty. Al-Abbas moved the capital from Damascus to Baghdad, bringing about an eastward shift in the Islamic culture.

The development of the golden age of Islamic civilization was triggered by Harun al-Rashd (786–809) and his second son, al-Mamun (813–833), who founded observatories and Baghdad University. At translation centers staffed mostly by Nestorian Christians, Greek manuscripts were translated into Arabic. Others tackled Latin, Sanskrit, Persian, Syriac, Coptic, and other manuscripts gathered from various parts of the empire or cultures with which Muslims were in contact. This sparked an explosion of scientific, philosophical, literary, and artistic activities. Muslim scientists developed medicine beyond the Greeks and wrote medical textbooks. Indian numerals (called "Arabic numerals" by the West) were adopted, and analytical geometry, trigonometry, and algebra were developed. Art, calligraphy, architecture, and poetry blossomed. Schools of Islamic Law debated various interpretations of the Sharia and extended its application to new and changed contexts of life.

Philosophy and Theology

Contact with diverse cultures and Greek philosophy and science and other forms of secular knowledge ushered a paradigm shift in Islamic life and thought. Islamic philosophers were the first to face the problem of reconciling reason and revelation. Believing reason to be superior to revelation and the God of the Greek philosophers higher than the God of the Qur'an, al-Farabi (c. 870–950), of Turkish origin, who studied in Baghdad and died in Damascus, set out to translate revelation into the framework of Greek thought. He argued that God is the First Principle from whom the universe evolved eternally in ten successive emanations. On earth, evolution progressed from inanimate to animate beings, culminating in humans. By purifying themselves of earthly limitations and successively ascending to higher levels in a spiritual reversal of the evolutionary steps, humans could return to God.

Taking the opposite approach, Ibn Sina (Avicenna 980–1037), of Persian background, maintained that revelation is independent and superior to reason in arriving at a direct and intuitive knowledge of God such as Muhammad possessed. While reason cannot come to this knowledge, it can prove the existence of God. With the help of Aristotle, Ibn Sina formulated proofs that were very similar to those Thomas Aquinas was to design later. His arguments rest on an ordered universe, in which composite beings proceed from unitary Being, contingent from necessary Being, things caused from the Uncaused Cause, and motion from the Unmoved Mover.

Following the Qur'an, Ibn Sina affirmed that God is one. Because God is absolutely simple, there can be nothing in God that is not identical to his essence. So there are no attributes in God distinct from the divine essence. Therefore, we can say nothing about God that truly describes him. Only negative terms are appropriate to differentiate God from everything else. But as the source of all things, we can ascribe certain attributes to God, such as goodness, wisdom, knowledge, life, and so on.

To account for religious experience, Ibn Sina held that there are ten gradations that form the intermediate realm between God and the universe. The last one is the angelic sphere, known as Gabriel, which communicates intuitive knowledge of God, such as the prophet experienced.

Believing that revelation and reason are complementary, Ibn Rushd (Averroes 1126–1198), born in Cordoba and stationed in Seville, Spain, proceeded to forge a synthesis of the two and formulated a creed, the profession of which he believed was necessary for salvation. The main articles of this creed are as follows:

• The existence of God as creator and sustainer

• Divine unity

• Divine attributes

• Divine uniqueness and incomparability

• Creation

• Prophecy

• Divine justice

• The resurrection of the body on the Judgment Day

Ibn Rushd's student, Moses Maimonedes, likewise produced a creed by forming a synthesis between reason and revelation, as we have seen before.

Islamic Theology developed a systematic rational approach to understanding the faith not unlike what Christians were to do later. Although various theological issues were debated before, Islamic theology as a discipline emerged for the first time during the Abbasid period. The main issues with which Islamic theology was concerned included the nature of faith and its relationship to works, the nature of God and Qur'anic revelation, predestination and free will, and sin and eschatology.

Taking an uncompromising stand on the indissoluble link between faith and works, the Kharijites insisted that to be a Muslim one has to fully observe God's will as revealed in the Sharia. On the other hand, refusing to judge others, their opponents left judgment to God on the Judgment Day and held that faith, not works, determined Islamic identity and that a sinner remained a Muslim.

On predestination and free will, traditionalists held that God's foreknowledge determines human actions. So they denied human free will as that would limit God. On the other hand, equally relying on other Qur'anic texts that speak of human responsibility, their opponents held that without free will humans could not be accountable for their actions.

Influenced by Greek philosophical and scientific thought, the Mutazilis believed that reason and revelation are complementary. God is just and reasonable and humans are free and morally responsible. A God who determined all human actions, including evil and unjust actions, could not at the same time be a just judge and punish humans for their evil deeds. A just God could command only what is good and just. Humans are therefore free and responsible for their unjust and sinful actions.

On divine attributes, they held that the ninety-nine divine names, if taken literally, would contradict divine unity and one another. The one, eternal, uncreated God could not have so many attributes that are really distinct, eternal, and uncreated and still remain one. Such assertions as God speaking, seeing, and the rest are only metaphors, not literally true. Otherwise one would slide into polytheism. Applying the same logic on the nature of the Qur'an, they concluded that since only God is eternal, the Qur'an could not be eternal, uncreated, and distinct from God, or else there would be two Gods. Therefore, it must have been created in time. It cannot be God's speech or word in a literal sense. Rather, the Qur'an contains metaphorical language.

The Mutazilis' position held sway for a century before being replaced by more traditional theology. Had it prevailed, it might have provided Islam with a critical method for the study of the Qur'an comparable to biblical criticism, reconciled Qur'anic revelation with the modern scientific worldview, and accepted the secular world and its separation of religion and politics.

The Mutazilis' main opponent, himself initially a Mutazili, was Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Ashari (873–935), who attempted a synthesis between the Mutazilis and traditionalists. Al-Ashari rejected the Mutazili view of a reasonable God because, he argued, it falls into the very trap they were trying to avoid, namely, fitting God into human conception of reason and justice, thereby compromising divine transcendence. Maintaining that revelation transcends reason, he reintroduced the traditional divine names and held that they were either God's essence or his accidents (this move is fraught with difficulties, for if the names are a part of God's essence, they cannot be distinct from God, otherwise there would be more than one God; if accidents, they would be less than God, changeable, contingent, and so cannot be attributed to God). Following the traditionalists, he reaffirmed God's omnipotence, his power to intervene in creation, and his ability to order human actions and events. Yet al-Ashari maintained that humans are responsible and accountable for their actions. He made a distinction between the Qur'an in heaven, which is eternal, and the one revealed to Muhammad, which was created. Insofar as the latter agrees with the former, it has to be taken as literally true. Subsequently, al-Ashari's views became the standard for Islam.

The Development of Sharia

Like Judaism, Islam places primary emphasis on the law as the revelation of God's will and as a practical guide to life. We have already discussed the development of Islamic Law from the Qur'an, through the sunna and the hadith to the Sharia. However, with the establishment of the Umayyad dynasty and the expansion of Islam into new territories, situations arose that lacked clear guidance from the sources. The Umayyads faced such issues by appointing judges whose judgments or fatwa led to widely diverse, sometimes contradictory laws.

The consequent need for clarity, uniformity, and consistency gave rise to four Islamic Schools of Law that undertook the task of systematizing, interpreting, and applying the laws to life. Their interpretations became part of the body of the Law. But the diverse methods and sources they used for codifying laws yielded wide-ranging and divergent results rather than uniformity. It was Muhammad al-Shafii (d. 819), who hit on the method of analogical and deductive reasoning based on the sources—the Qur'an, the sunna, the hadith, and the consensus of the community—that became the standard for all schools. Such interpretations, derived from legal scholars' reasoning based on analogous cases contained in the sources, are called ijtihad. For the Sunnis, the law code was fixed and its development closed by the tenth century. The Shiites, however, regard the matter open and to be developed under the guidance of the ayatollahs.

As the power of the Abbasid dynasty declined, three events conspired to bring an end to the classical period: the Turkish takeover, the crusades, and finally the Mongol invasion. Firstly, challenges to the authority of the central government began to rise in the ninth century in Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, Syria, and even in Iraq, where local governors began to assert their independence. But it was the leader of the Seljuk Turks, Tughrul Beg, who brought an end to Abbasid power by assuming the guardianship of the caliphate in 1055. The Seljuks extended their power by defeating the Byzantine army in 1071 and opening Anatolia to Islam.

Secondly, afraid that the entire Byzantine Empire would fall in Muslim hands, Emperor Alexius I called on the pope and all Europe to launch a crusade to free Jerusalem and the vicinity from Muslim rule. In the first of the four crusades in 1099, Christians took Jerusalem and the environs, massacred some 30,000 Muslims and Jews, including women and children, turned the al-Aksa mosque into the residence of the newly installed Christian king and the Dome of the Rock into a church. In 1187, Saladin, the ruler of Egypt, recaptured Jerusalem. In stark contrast to Christian behavior, Saladin showed his justice and compassion by sparing civilians and leaving Christian churches and shrines undisturbed. Finally, as noted before, the Turks captured Constantinople (1453), renamed it Istanbul, and made it the seat of the Ottoman Caliphate.

Thirdly, in 1258, the Mongols descended from Central Asia and sacked and pillaged Baghdad, slaughtered the inhabitants, and executed the Abbasid caliph and his family. With the disappearance of the caliphate, independent kingdoms emerged throughout the Muslim world.

Further Expansion

In Egypt after two hundred years of Fatimid Shiite rule, the Sunni Kurds assumed power. The most important ruler of this dynasty was Saladin. Power passed to the Mamluk Turks when the widow of the last Kurdish ruler married the Turkish commander, who established a sultanate that ruled Egypt, Syria, and Arabia.

In Anatolia the Ottomans emerged as leaders. In 1389, after the Battle of Kosova, they captured a large part of the Balkans. In 1517, Selim the Grim conquered Egypt. Eventually the Ottomans brought Turkey, western Asia, northern Africa, and eastern Europe under their control. Under Suleyman the Magnificent (1520–1556), the Ottomans laid siege to Vienna in 1529 but were repulsed. They tried again in 1683 but were narrowly defeated by the Polish King Jan Sobiesky. The Ottoman Empire lasted until its defeat in World War I. In 1924 Mustafa Kemal overthrew the Ottoman ruler and founded modern Turkey as a secular state.

We have already discussed the spread of Islam in India. From the beginning, Iran accepted the Shiite tradition. In 1501, Shah Ismail ascended to the throne and began the Safavid dynasty. He made Shiism the official religion of Iran. The majority of Shiites in Iran are the Twelvers whose imams are called ayatollahs.

Traders brought Islam to Indonesia. While the simplicity of Islam, its lack of hierarchy, and its emphasis on equality appealed to the marketplace, the association of mystical insight and miraculous powers with the Sufis attracted the elite. Others blended Islam with indigenous myths and beliefs. The result is a unique synthesis of Islam and local traditions, especially shamanism and local, customary laws that coexist with the Sharia. By the 1500s, Islam had spread from Burma (Myanmar) to southern Philippines and to western China. In most of these countries, Islam is a minority faith. But in Indonesia, Islam became the faith of the majority, making it the most populous Islamic nation in the world.

Islam has been present in Africa from the beginning. After its spread in northern Africa by Uthman, the next phase of expansion took place through traders, Sufis, and others into Sudan and eastern, central, and western Africa. Today, Muslims constitute the majority in Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. Like other world religions, in many of these countries Islam has shown its adaptability and vitality by incorporating indigenous cultures and producing a distinctive civilization.

Islam in the Modern World

The modern, secular worldview in the West has posed far greater problems and challenges to Islam than any other paradigm shift it has hitherto faced. In this section we will explore some of the reasons for it and the diverse responses it has made. These responses have been categorized as traditionalist or conservative, revivalist or fundamentalist, modernist, and secular. In the context of our discussion of Islamic fundamentalism, we will examine the terrorist fringe. The chapter will conclude with reflections on the problems and prospects of Islam in today's world.

The modern secular world poses the most profound challenge not only to Islam, but to all religions. In the face of science and technology, at issue is the relevance of religion in today's secular world, which has come to satisfy most this-worldly needs for which humans had hitherto turned to religion. We have noted Jewish and Christian responses. They found the problem less wrenching not only because the modern paradigm emerged in the West, so that it felt like something homegrown, but also because political revolutions that led to the establishment of democracies were followed by the separation of religion and state, and the consequent secularization of society. This prevented the vast majority in the West, caught in the maelstrom, from seeing how religion had slipped away from life, as modernism came to assume that living without God is the ultimate human destiny.

One of the reasons Islam feels modernity to be problematic is that it is seen as a western invention and thus alien to Islam. Moreover, modernity catapulted Western Europe to the position of leadership in every sector of life and thought, giving rise to imperialism and colonialism to which many Muslim countries succumbed. This made modernity seem an instrument of oppression and exploitation. When Muslims recovered from the shock of western conquest and domination, their divided responses further weakened the Islamic community. Even after the ebbing of colonialism and breakup of empires, western domination has continued in every other area—in thought, science, technology, economy, and culture—generating a sense of humiliation, resentment, and anger among many Muslims.

The deepest reason Islam finds the modern world problematic is that the two are perceived as opposite and seemingly incompatible worldviews. Modernity is a comprehensive paradigm affecting all aspects of life and thought, and it is one in which religion seems to have no place. And Islam is also a comprehensive way of life in which religion is integral to politics, law, and society, embodied in the Islamic ideal of community (umma). From the beginning, this view included revelation that encompassed legislation designed to order politics and all aspects of life. It did not brook compartmentalization. So, separation of religion and state is seen as an attack on religion itself, and thus to be resisted.

In addition, nearly all Muslims believe the Qur'an to be the direct word of God, and hence literally true. As a result, Islam has not laid the theological groundwork for confronting the modern challenge by subjecting the Qur'an to a historical and literary criticism. Having committed itself to a literal interpretation of the Qur'an, Islam became socially, temporally, and culturally bound up to the period of its origin. Therefore, the crux of the problem Islam continues to face today is how to respond to the secular challenge. Like other religions, Islam has made a variety of responses in the attempt to define itself vis-à-vis the secular world. Some scholars categorize these responses as traditionalist or conservative, revivalist or fundamentalist, modernist, and secular.

The traditionalist/conservative response is represented by many of the ulama and the majority of Muslims who advocate following the past tradition enshrined in the Sharia. They see no need to reinterpret the faith, to critically examine the Qur'an or traditional Islamic laws in the light of current conditions of life. They consider innovation heresy, to be shunned as long as possible. Governments that reflect this type of thinking today include Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Some Islamic countries have tried halfway measures. Militant Islamic groups are bent on toppling such hybrid governments.

Some scholars trace the modern formulation of the revivalist response to Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792). Wanting to purify Islam from within and return it to the Qur'an and the sunna, Abd al-Wahhab set out to remove from Islam the excrescence of beliefs and practices that had cropped up over time. Opposing rational and esoteric interpretations of the Qur'an—and what seemed to him to be Sufi compromise of divine transcendence by elevating humans to a divine status, and the veneration of saints—Wahhabis destroyed tombs and shrines of Sufi saints. Revivalists launched religious education, attempted to restore Islamic morality, and made the Qur'an and the sunna guides to life. Aligning themselves with Muhammad ibn Saud, in 1806 they established the state of Saudi Arabia. They later lost control of it to the Ottomans but regained it after World War I. Their strict regime prevails in Saudi Arabia today.

Islamic Fundamentalism represents a movement of return to Islam's religious roots. By making the Sharia the basis of the state, it seeks to counter the threat secularization poses by creating the ideal Islamic community (umma) through the infusion of Islamic values, beliefs, and culture into every aspect of life. This ideal has led the fundamentalists to see the cause of the failure of Muslim societies in their departure from Islam and following a western secular path. They believe that renewal of society requires a return to Islam by abandoning western-inspired civil codes and adopting Islamic law, or Sharia.

While espousing this goal of Islamization, terrorist fringe groups go one step further and believe that the establishment of an Islamic system of government is not an alternative but a Qur'anic imperative. Those governments that do not follow the Islamic Law are illegitimate. A holy war (jihad) must be waged against such governments and against "infidels," a term applied to western colonialism, secularism, and Zionism. It must be emphasized that the radical extremists who have resorted to terrorism are a very small but visible minority of fundamentalists. They differ from the rest of fundamentalists in their method—the violent means of implementing their goals—but agree on the goal of Islamization.

As explained above, in its final phase of evolution jihad was enjoined as an unconditional divine command to wage war against all unbelievers. This led Muslims in the past regularly to refer to their opponents as "infidels" and to understand jihad as armed struggle for the defense of Muslim power and possessions whenever and wherever either is perceived to be threatened or under attack. Abdullah Azzam, a Palestinian, articulated the radicals' motto of a perpetual jihad "until all other lands which formerly were Muslim come back to us and Islam reigns within them once again" (Kepel 147). Threat is also believed to come from those Islamic states that do not base their social, political, and legal structures on theSharia. Above all, the modern secular world is perceived as an all-out danger to Islam. Thus, this threefold threat to the Islamic way of life has created the context for a perpetual jihad in defense of religion.

Accordingly, the militant Islamists' jihad rages on three fronts. The first is against Zionism, especially in the Palestinian territory and the Middle East. The second is against those Muslim countries that imitated the West, established a secular government, and separated religion and politics, as well as against those countries that accommodated the West by establishing a hybrid system. The aim is to topple such governments and establish regimes based on the Sharia and the Islamic way of life. The third is against the modern secular world, which is viewed as godless, as is its opposite, polytheism, against which the original jihad was directed. The terrorists perceive western domination of the Islamic world as colonialism by the godless, a satanic force that must be overthrown. They are inspired by the writings of Sayyid Qutb, the Egyptian thinker who was executed in 1966 for alleged complicity in the attempt to assassinate Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Qutb's accusations of the West range from imperialism and domination of the Islamic world to moral decadence, sexual promiscuity, and materialism—all of which, he believed, pose a threat to Islam. He interpreted jihad as a perpetual revolutionary struggle against the forces of unbelief, injustice, and falsehood. Any land that is not ruled by Islamic law is regarded as the house of war.

Following this interpretation, Osama bin Laden saw his declaration of war as a resumption of jihad that began in the seventh century. For him, the United States is the leader and most visible symbol of the infidel world. It is the embodiment of the house of war, or the "party of Satan" at war with the "party of God." This world of infidels is the only serious rival to the Islamic Way, preventing the divinely ordained spread and triumph of Islam (Lewis 76).

Following this line of thought, the terrorist fringe groups came to base their stand on only those Qur'anic texts on jihad that instruct all Muslims to engage in perpetual war against the forces of unbelief that have, they believe, declared war on Islam. They believe all their actions constitute jihad—a defensive war in conformity with the Qur'anic injunction. Thus they believe bombing and killing to be acts of faith—a moral duty in accordance with the will of God as revealed in the Qur'an. Their activities may seem against Qur'anic teachings, but they believe that use of violence, even suicide (which is against Islamic law), is a religious duty undertaken in defense of Islam. They see themselves acting as soldiers in the frontline of defense of the faith. In a defensive war, they argue, the killing of civilians is permissible if the action is reciprocal, there is no way to distinguish civilians from combatants, and civilians contribute to the war effort. In the light of this belief, the symbolism behind the attack of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York is understandable. In both name and architecture, they were visible minarets of the modern, secular, materialist, godless business world. Bombing them is an act of jihad, an attempt to overthrow the evil empire of Satan in the hope of establishing the ideal Islamic state, based on the Sharia.

Moreover, the terrorists perceive western secularism, particularly the American way of life, as a threat to Islam. It is believed to pose a seduction to their youth, who are ready to embrace western popular culture, pop music, movies, entertainment media, fast food, clothes, and attitudes of sexual permissiveness, and to discard the traditional Islamic values and way of life. They are afraid that once that happens, abandonment of the rest of Islam will not lag far behind. Their solution is to reject the modern secular world and return to the purity of the original umma, in which religion guided politics and the Sharia was the law of the land.

Blaming the decline of Muslim societies, their loss of power and inability to respond effectively to the West on blind and unquestioned clinging to the past, modernists advocate the need for reform based on Islamic principles. They reject Western culture, with its secularism, materialism, individualism, sexual permissiveness, breakdown of family values, and lack of respect for tradition. They wish to create an alternative modern Islamic world based on reinterpretation of Islam consistent with and supportive of the tenets of modern life. Thus, like Ibn Sina, believing that there was no contradiction between religion and science, Muhammad Abduh of Egypt (1849–1905) distinguished between fundamental truths of Islam that are valid for all time, such as revealed laws governing belief and worship, and the vast majority of regulations in the social areas, which are socially and culturally conditioned. He and others proposed discarding the latter and reconstructing Muslim societies by recovering those principles and values from the past that are applicable in the modern context (Esposito 680–690). Mehran Kamrava sees four themes central to Islamic reformism: (i) reformulating Islam as a faith and system of belief; (ii) embracing modernity on Islamic terms; (ii) aligning democratic pluralism with the Qur'an, the hadith, and the Sharia; and (iv) advocating freedom of conscience and interfaith dialogue (17–19).

However, Islamic modernism failed to gain wider acceptance and become a catalyst for reforming Islamic societies. Nor did those who tried to reform society on the western model gain acceptance by Westerners, even as they encouraged the former to adopt their ways. Some tried an uneasy mix of Islamic and Western ideas, while others tried to show that the pillars of modern Western culture—individualism, empiricism, reason, science, and mathematics—had their origin in Islam. They hoped that such approaches would make them independent and meet the West on an equal footing. Instead, the West occupied their lands and looked down upon the prophet, his religion, and the entire "inferior oriental world."

The secularists advocate a separation of religion and politics and believe that religion should be relegated to the mosque and that the mosque should be solely a place of prayer, not of political activism. They hold that Islam should concentrate on personal life and that public life should be shaped by modern western ideas of government, law, education, and technology. Their critics, however, reject them as nonbelievers or westernized elitists who have lost touch with Islam, its values, beliefs, and heritage. Even in secular Turkey, there is a growing movement of Islamists who want to turn away from the West and return to Islamic roots.

Islam Today

What options are available for Muslims to face the challenge of the modern world today? What is the future potential of the traditionalist/conservative, fundamentalist/revivalist, modernist, and secularist models to reshape Islam?

The secularist view, embraced by a minority of the elite, appears as the least viable option to most Muslims. Some radicals among them see the incompatibility of the modern, secular world and Islam. Others, however, not only see re-visioning of the faith possible but advocate reformulating Islamic doctrines using modern thought.

While a number of Muslim intellectuals have called for a reformation of Islam similar to what occurred in Christianity, four obstacles seem to stand in their way: lack of institutions to carry their message to intended audiences; an international environment that undermines their message; opposition from traditional, orthodox religious establishments; and governmental opposition. Since neither religion nor modernity can be ignored or eradicated, Kamrava sees their synthesis as inevitable (22–25). However, facing unemployment, hopelessness, despair, and the inability of traditional Islamic countries to solve their problems, many young people, propelling the Islamic revival, see religious conservatism as the solution.

For all other groups, return to Islam and restoration of the Sharia have become the common agenda for countering the dangers of secularization. Conservatives or traditionalists accept the principle of reform, but for them it means application of traditional norms to current conditions. While wanting to return to fundamental sources of Islam, neofundamentalists seek to reinterpret and reapply traditional norms to contemporary needs and conditions. The moderate majority aims for gradual reform, while the radical minority advocates violent revolution. Unlike earlier leaders, current reformers do not wish to westernize Islam but to Islamize western institutions by assimilating them in the light of Islamic principles and values. Reform could become the basis for rethinking of Islam by Muslims in western countries and thus emerge as a catalyst for reform elsewhere in Islam. The conservative and fundamentalist approaches will continue to be the choice for the majority. And, given the current political climate, the terrorist fringe will continue to gain recruits from the disenchanted young.

A different Islamic response to the West has been through migration. In spite of lingering distrust of the West in Muslim minds from the experience of the crusades and the colonial oppression, and apprehensive of what lies ahead, many Muslims from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe have migrated to the West in search of work and a better life. Add to this mix an increased conversion of African Americans to mainstream Islam. If Islam emerges as the second most populous religion in the United States by, say, 2040, and as a distinctive Islamic culture emerges through adaptation and Islam becomes a part of the mainstream, it will make a significant impact on American culture.

Among European countries, England and France have been magnets of migration because of their colonial past. In Germany, because of the need of workers for reconstruction in the post–World War II period, at least two million Turks migrated in search of work and a better life. About 27 percent of the Austrian population is Muslim today. Into Italy many Muslims have fled from the ethnic conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina, while ethnic Muslim Albanians have sought the Italian shores in search of work. More are pouring in from Tunisia, Lybia, and other northern African countries following the overthrow of authoritarian regimes in those countries and the ensuing chaos, conflict, and uncertainty. In postwar Europe, as migrant workers settled in their host countries and their families joined them, in time new ethnic communities sprang up, so that at present nearly all European countries have become multiethnic and multicultural. However, the emergence of parallel societies, coupled with high unemployment, poverty, lack of opportunity, discriminatory policies, and failure to integrate the immigrants into the mainstream have led the alienated young among Muslim communities to hate the countries of their birth, to embrace their Islamic heritage and way of life, and to join radical Muslim organizations that are growing increasingly assertive and militant. Some are not averse to using violence to stifle criticism and have their demands met. They assassinated the journalist Theo van Gogh and issued death threats to Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born former member of the Dutch Parliament for criticizing Muhammad, asserting women's rights, and abandoning her Islamic faith. In France, rioters set fires in suburbs of major cities to vent their anger, frustration, discrimination, and neglect. The added perception, fed by wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, that the West is waging war on Islam has led some among the alienated young to embrace terrorism, while moderates see Islamic nationalism or political Islam as the solution.

Thus contemporary Muslim societies reflect both old and new realities. This is a time for the resurgence of Islam. In Western countries, where Muslims have become a significant minority and parallel societies have been established, there will be greater pressures for change on both sides. The mainstream societies will have to initiate significant changes to integrate the minority. But some writers argue that Islam cannot or will not be integrated. They envision profound changes in those western countries, especially in Europe, where Islam might one day emerge as the faith of the majority. If that happens, its ripple effect throughout the globe could usher in a new epoch.

At present, Islam is at important crossroads. How will Islamic identity be defined in the face of challenges from secularism and materialism on the one hand, and mainline Islam which rejects secularism and insists on the integration of religion and politics on the other? Will societies have to be based on a theocentric worldview and grounded on Sharia? Or will they have to be discarded, modified, or reinterpreted in the light of separation of religion and politics, and modern issues of justice and human rights based on democratic principles? Will a middle-class commercial revolution, spearheaded by business and free-market capitalism, liberalize and transform the Muslim world? Or will the revolution in the Arab world started by youth protests in Tunisia and Egypt become the anvil to forge a new Muslim identity based on liberal democracy that will become the model for the rest of the Muslim world? And what kind of identity will Muslims have to form in western societies dominated by democratic principles and the separation of religion and politics? Will there be one or many Islamic identities? Who should define and interpret Islam, and what will be the relevant forms and changes that will be acceptable in the diverse societies in which Islam exists today? It will be instructive to see in which direction Islam heads as it takes the measure of the twenty-first century.

The Golden Temple, Amritsar, India

Chapter 14: Sikhism

Timeline

1469–1539 | Life of Guru Nanak, founder of Sikhism

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1499 | Revelatory Experience, Commissioning by God

1539 | Nanak is succeeded by Angad

1603–1606 | Fifth Guru Arjan Dev, tortured to death

1675 | Ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur beheaded

1699 | Tenth Guru, Govind Singh, organizes Khalsa

1708 | Death of Govind Singh, the last guru

1919 | British massacre of 378 Sikhs at Jallianwallah Bagh

1947 | Independence, Partition of Punjab into India and Pakistan

1984 | Storming of the Golden Temple, leading to assassination of Indira Ghandi

|

Sprouting in south India, the devotional (bhakti) movement had, by the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, spread to various parts of the north. There it turned in a different direction. While the south focused on one of the incarnations of Vishnu, the northern bhakti concentrated directly on God, and not on any form of God. This allowed it to shed the rituals of Hinduism and Islam and to concentrate on love as the basis for union with God and yoga as the path to union. Spearheaded by poet-singers, this became known as the Sant (holy person) tradition. Among its most prominent practitioners was an illiterate weaver named Kabir (1440–1518). Rejecting the rituals and scriptural authority of both Hinduism and Islam, Kabir taught, through his devotional poems and exemplary life, that the love of God is sufficient for union, which he experienced "between the poles of the conscious and the unconscious" where "the mind made a swing." He also taught that God's beauty is to be found in every form and that the guru is sufficient as a guide on the path of love and devotion to God. Many Hindus and Muslims were inspired to follow Kabir's inclusive, all-embracing path of love of God.

The Founding of Sikhism: Guru Nanak (1469–1538)

Following Kabir's lead, the most significant among those who broke through the barriers of Hinduism and Islam, and who became the founder of a new religion, was Nanak (1469–1539). Factual information about his life is scant. According to tradition, Nanak was born in 1469 near Lahore, Punjab (now in Pakistan). A dreamer by nature, Nanak showed little interest in formal education, domestic life (he was married at thirteen and had two sons), or a career, preferring, instead, the company of wandering holy men and the singing of religious hymns. In this venture he was helped by a Muslim minstrel named Mardana. They began to organize communal singing at which Mardana would sing hymns composed by Nanak.

The decisive event occurred when Nanak was twenty-nine years old. According to one account, one morning, Nanak went for his ritual bath in the nearby stream, but he failed to return home. Some people thought he had drowned. He resurfaced three days later and began to teach. Another account states that during the period of disappearance, God called him to his heavenly court, gave him a cup of nectar of his True Name, and commissioned him to preach the holy Name. According to modern Sikh scholars, this story represents Nanak's actual experience of divine revelation and his prophetic call to proclaim it. Upon his return, Nanak began to teach: "There is no Hindu; there is no Muslim." This statement set the tone of his teachings that sought to steer a middle course between Hinduism and Islam by embracing what he regarded as true in each religion. His followers were called sikh, which means disciple. And the religion he founded came to be known as Sikhism.

After leaving their hometown, Nanak and Mardana spent the next twelve years wandering. Again the life stories do not agree on what they actually did. They are said to have taken four long journeys in four directions, which hint at borrowing from both Hindu and Muslim sources. First they journeyed east, along the way visiting Hindu holy places and meeting and discussing spiritual doctrines with Hindu holy men. Next they went south, the source of the devotional movement. The third excursion took them to the Himalayas, famed for the abode of yogis and meditation masters, thus indicating the source of meditation in his teaching. The final journey was to the sources of Islam and Islamic civilization—Mecca, Medina, Basra, and Baghdad—suggesting the basis of Islamic and Sufi elements in his teaching. After his final return to Punjab, Nanak settled in a village near Lahore. He died there in 1539.

Belief in the Sacred

In this section, we will explore the main Sikh beliefs, beginning with the concept of God, both as infinite and as personal, the concept of God as Guru in relation to the world and the human guru as the God-realized person, and sabad or word pertaining to how God communicates. The next important belief has to do with the human condition, how humans become entrapped in this world and suffer the consequences, and finally the need for liberation.

Nanak's main teaching on God is that there is only one God, who is simply called "the Name" and sometimes "the Name of God" (Hari-Nam or Ram-Nam). Explaining the meaning of this term, W. H. McLeod says:

The word "nam" is a summary expression for the whole nature of God. Anything which may be affirmed concerning God is an aspect of the nam. Because he is all-powerful it follows that omnipotence is a part of the nam. Because he knows all things, omniscience is similarly a feature of the nam. The many and varied qualities which may be attached to God are all thereby to be regarded as aspects of the nam, the divine Name. And because God himself is infinite so too is the Name. (1:39)

In fact, Nam is a substitute for Brahman both as infinite Godhead and as personal God. Like the Upanishads, Nanak calls God both "formless," "without qualities" or Nirguna Brahman; and "having a form endowed with all qualities," or Saguna Brahman (Majh. Mah.21.1–3). As Nirguna Brahman, God is said to be incomprehensible, inaccessible, and indescribable (Rag Gauri. Mah.4.2–3). As Saguna Brahman, the primary characteristic of God is Nam, which is located, as Owen Cole and Piara Singh Sambhi explain, "between the reality of oneness and the consciousness of duality. Nam is God manifest, God active in creation: 'The self-existent God manifested himself in Nam. Second came the creation of the universe'" (90; Adi Granth 463).

Other qualities of God in his personal form as Creator are stated in the very first hymn of the Sikh scripture, Adi Granth, used in the Morning Prayer, as follows:

There is one God.

He is the supreme truth.

He, the Creator,

Is without fear and without hatred.

He, the omnipresent,

Pervades the universe.

He is not born,

Nor does he die to be born again.

By his grace shalt thou worship him.

Before time itself

There was truth.

When time began to run its course

He was the truth.

Even now, he is the truth,

And evermore shall truth prevail. (Singh 113)

Even this short hymn shows a blend of Muslim and Hindu doctrines. While the emphasis on oneness of God is derived from Islam, the terms frequently used to describe this God are from Hinduism. Besides formless Brahman, a second name of God that most frequently occurs in the Adi Granth is Hari, which means "lord." Derived from the Hindu devotional tradition, it is the name of the personal God who is the lord of creation. Moreover, God as truth or reality (sat) reflects Hinduism, but it is also one of the attributes of Allah—the Truth. The idea that in his immanence God pervades the universe is clearly from the Upanishads. And so is the assertion of the Adi Granth that God is "the essence of all things and light all-pervading," and that "God lives in all and in him all things dwell" (McLeod 42). At the same time God also transcends all and is infinite: "Dwelling within us, in all that surrounds us, God stands alone, for no other exists... He who is infinite, boundless in majesty, he is the Guru whom Nanak proclaims" (McLeod 41–42).

The second most important concept in Sikhism is Guru. While in Hinduism the word "guru" means "teacher," in Sikhism it is ultimately a name of God. God is the ultimate guru in his dynamic relationship to the world and humankind. The second meaning of guru is the voice or Word of God communicating inner understanding whereby one is saved. Since the Word was fully revealed to Nanak, by attaining complete enlightenment, he became its perfect embodiment and messenger, thereby earning the title "the true Guru." This meaning is similar to the Sufi idea of Muhammad being the Perfect Man who fully embodied the message and also the Hindu idea of avatar. The same title was inherited by his nine successors because they also were embodiments of the divine voice.

Associated with the word guru is a third important concept, sabad, or word. It has an affinity to mantra in the Hindu meditative tradition. Here it means "God the Creator is revealed through his Name, expressed as the Word and spoken inwardly by the Guru" (McLeod 41). One who hears the Word, and, following the Guru, lives a life in conformity with the nature of the Name will eventually achieve the blissful serenity of divine union.

Among other attributes of God one is, following Islam, "the Sustainer" of creation. The Adi Granth also emphasizes God's infinite greatness, absolute power and unobstructed will that determine all things.

Like Islam, Nanak taught that humans are God's primary creation. According to Guru Arjan (the fifth Guru), except for God's grace, humans are powerless and dependent on God's absolute will. By nature, humans are creatures of vicious desires and inwardly harbor falsehood, lust, greed, deceit, and other evil tendencies that cause them to suffer (McLeod 2:127). How do humans get into this fix?

Here Hindu doctrines of ignorance, maya or misperception of reality, karma, and rebirth or reincarnation supply the answer. Like the Hindu philosopher Shankara, Nanak taught that God created illusion as he set the world in motion, thereby becoming, with a Zoroastrian twist, the source of good and evil. Humans are meant to choose the good and avoid evil. But being steeped in ignorance and deluded by desire, they choose evil and reap the consequences of their actions according to the law of karma, which is expressed in the language of the New Testament: "One receives according to what one does. As one sows so one eats" (quoted by Cole and Sambhi 76). Through ignorance of their true nature and destiny, and following the dictates of their conditioning, humans get caught in the wheel of birth, death, and rebirth (samsara). As in Hinduism, rebirth is determined according to one's karma: "Man's life proceeds as his accumulated actions determine. He receives joy or sorrow in accordance with what his past deeds have earned" (Cole and Sambhi 77). The human condition is a result of illusion and egoism, which drives us to create a life of meaning and happiness on the material plane, independent of God. But because this does not bring the desired satisfaction or fulfillment, humans keep repeatedly doing the same things, thereby getting caught in the wheel of karma and rebirth. Like Hinduism and Buddhism, Sikhism says that liberation is possible.

Paths of Transformation and Reconnection

The Sikh goal of liberation, consisting in union with God, requires self-transformation, for which Sikhs practice repetition of the divine Name, prayer and praise to purify the mind, and meditation to experience union with God. Various rituals, however, pertain to transforming the medium.

In embracing liberation as the goal of life and believing it to consist in freedom from the wheel of rebirth through union with God, Nanak was following Hinduism. In conformity with the Sant tradition, he held that liberation cannot to be found in conventional religious practices. So, like Kabir, he rejected Hindu and Muslim worship rituals, alms and oblations, sacrifice and renunciation. Worship of various deities was also rejected, as were fasting, penance, asceticism, and self-effort.

He taught that liberation can be attained by remembering and repeating the Name, which is called Nam Japan. As Guru Arjan states, "Through remembrance of the Lord one is freed from rebirth" (McLeod 2:129). To emphasize the centrality of this practice, the Sikh Mission Publication observes, "Realization of Nam is the essential condition for a true and fruitful life" (266). This remembrance is similar to mantra repetition in Hindu Bhakti yoga and mantra yoga, and Sufi dhikr.

Another practice is praying and singing hymns of praise (kirtan), which are contained in the Adi Granth. Prayer and praise are said to remove the impurities of the mind, such as lust, anger, greed, attachment, and egoism, and to enable the mind to be focused on the Name or allow the Name "to rise inside." The method works through the vibratory energy awakened by the sound (sabad) of the words spoken or sung. For this practice (satsang), a community is deemed essential.

A third practice is meditation, or deep contemplation of the mystery of the Name. With the mind purified and inwardly focused by prayer and praise, endless repetition of the Name displaces mental contents, allowing it to sink to the unconscious and then arise to the conscious level. Eventually, this practice enables the consciousness to merge with the Name and thereby the Sikh attains a state of divine bliss. Contemplation opens the "tenth gate" and the Sikh attains union with God.

Another necessary component of Sikhism is guruship. As the God-realized person, who becomes the voice of God, the Guru confers the right initiation and communicates the divine Name and the knowledge of God, guides Sikhs on the true path, and carries them beyond the human condition (samsara). Without the Guru's guidance, no one can attain liberation (Singh 317). It is through the Guru that God channels grace to humankind. As the Adi Granth says, "Without the true Guru faith does not come, love of the Name does not arrive" (Siri Rag. Mah.3.19.2). "After the true Guru is found, no wandering [i.e., reincarnation] takes place, the pain of birth and death ceases" (S. R. Mah.3.23.1; 24.1). This emphasis on the guru is similar to Tibetan Buddhism.

Although Sikhs rejected rituals and observances of Hinduism and Islam, they did develop rituals of their own. They observe daily rituals at home. The morning ritual consists of rising early before sunrise and taking a bath, like the Hindus, followed by prayers, reading, repetition of the Name, and meditation on the Adi Granth, which is kept in a special room.

Sikhs are encouraged to visit and worship in the temple, called gurdwara. Sikhism has no priesthood. Each Sikh can perform the rituals and read from the scripture. Worship in the temple consists of reading and explanation of the Adi Granth, which is centrally located in the temple, and the singing of hymns, sometimes accompanied by music. Afterward worshipers receive sweets called karah parshad. If possible, Sikhs are encouraged to visit their holiest shrine, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India. This pilgrimage is similar to the Muslim hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, as well as to Hindu pilgrimages.

Rites of Passage

After the birth of an infant, the naming ceremony is held when the mother is well enough to visit the temple to give thanks, make offerings, read thanksgiving hymns, and read from the Adi Granth. The leader then recites the first five verses of the Japji, stirs the sugared water (amrit or nectar of immortality) with the kirpan (or short dagger), and touches the tongue of the infant with it; the mother drinks the rest. The name is decided by opening the Adi Granth at random, taking the first letter of the first word on the left-hand page and adding "kaur" (princess) for a girl and "singh" (lion) for a boy.

Initiation into the Order of Khalsa involves a baptismal ceremony. When boys and girls come of age, they go to the temple, where five Sikhs perform the ritual before the assembled congregation. One of them explains the principles of the Sikh faith. A prayer is offered for the preparation of the sugared water and a sixth person reads a scriptural passage. Then the five prepare the water by stirring it and reciting prayers. The water is then poured into the cupped hands of the candidates, who drink it. The rest is sprinkled five times on their eyes and hair. This is followed by recitation of the Japji by the five. The senior member of the five reminds the candidates the vows they must observe and things they must abstain from—the major ones being cutting their hair, eating Muslim kosher foods, adultery, and smoking. The service ends with reading a scriptural passage at random and the sharing of sweets by the initiates. While originally only men were initiated, today women also participate.

A Sikh marriage consists of circling the Adi Granth in the temple four times, singing verses, and bowing to it after completing each round. Each verse has a special significance, and they proceed as follows:

• The first reminds the couple of the duties of the householder.

• The second urges meeting the true Guru and removing self-centeredness.

• The third admonishes detachment from the world.

• The fourth reminds them of the goal of their life's journey: divine knowledge and union with God.

At the end of the fourth round the couple is married.

Funerals usually take place on the day following death. After the deceased is bathed and dressed, the body is taken to a crematorium in a procession accompanied by singing of hymns. During cremation evening hymns are sung. After returning home from the funeral, the mourners recite parts of the Adi Granth, followed by sharing food.

Among the Hindu Festivals the Sikhs observe are Baisakhi, which is the New Year's Day and falls on April 13. Diwali (Divali), the festival of light, has the same significance in Sikhism as in Hinduism. But in Sikhism, Holi was given a new name—Hola Mohalla—and new rituals. In Hinduism, Holi has the appearance of a carnival. But Sikhism inserted military exercise into the festivity. Other festivals are dedicated to Sikh gurus (Cole and Sambhi 112–135).

Ethics and the Good Life

Love and devotion to God and the Guru form the foundation of Sikh ethics. Three principles—work, worship, and charity—are aimed at channeling this love over the Sikh's entire life, purifying and transforming it and thus making her happy and fulfilled.

Since the root human problem is believed to be selfishness, Sikhs are taught to practice humility, contentment, patience, and service to others in order to remove from their lives the toxic effects of selfishness: lust, anger, greed, materialism, and pride. Underscoring these virtues, Nanak said, "Sweetness and humility are the essence of all virtues" (quoted by Cole and Sambhi 136).

For a Sikh living in the world, one of the ways he purportedly can realize God is through charity. As Nanak stated, "The householder who gives all he can afford to charity is as pure as the water of the Ganges" (quoted by Cole and Sambhi 136). Mindful of this saying, Sikhs undertake many charitable works, which include maintaining hospitals, schools, orphanages, caring for the homeless, aiding their own communities, running community kitchens at their temples, and giving to charitable foundations.

Some writers see Sikh affirmation of equality of all humans as a consequence of the belief in God's presence in every being and every being thought to be contained in the divine light (Cole and Sambhi 137). This equality is also seen as the basis for rejecting the Hindu caste system: "Know people by the light which illumines them, and do not ask what their caste is. In the hereafter no one is distinguishable by caste" (Adi Granth. Quoted by Cole and Sambhi 137). However, while the caste system has been abolished, its effects still linger among the Sikhs, as it also does among Muslims and Christians in India.

Community, Institutions, Organizations, and Action

This section is concerned with the historical evolution of Sikhism, its system of Gurus, its transformation from a pacifist religion into a militant one, the split of Sikhism into three groups, and women in Sikhism.

Historical Development

Because of the pivotal position of the Guru, before he died Nanak himself appointed Angad (1504–1552) as his successor. Angad began to compile the Adi Granth, formalized congregational worship, and gave Sikhs a greater cohesion and distinct identity by organizing the "guru-kitchen" (langar) to feed the congregation. The next Guru, Amar Das (1479–1574), further consolidated the faith by organizing the Sikhs into twenty-two districts.

The fourth Guru, Ramdas, began constructing the artificial lake, by which he laid the foundation the city of Amritsar (meaning "the pool of immortality"). He abolished sati (immolation of widows) and allowed remarriage of widows. He also abolished the veil for women.

The fifth Guru, Arjan Dev (1563–1606), completed the artificial lake, built the city of Amritsar, and began constructing the temple, which came to be called the Golden Temple after its exterior was inlaid with copper. He also finished compiling the Adi Granth, which included the compositions by the first four gurus and his own, together with the works of Hindu and Muslim Sants, such as Kabir. Self-consciously pursuing Sikh separateness, Arjan organized the Sikhs into a political kingdom, with taxation and a revenue system, and encouraged trade. Because of his refusal to bring the Adi Granth in line with the Qur'an, his adding of the political dimension to the Sikh community, and the alleged help he provided to the Emperor Jehangir's rebellious son, Arjan was eventually tortured to death.

This was the turning point for Sikhism. Nanak had taught pacifism and instructed his followers to do the same. He never struck out against his enemies, who persecuted him, but the brutal death of Arjan led Sikhism to add a militant strain to the religion, as Arjan instructed his son and successor from his jail to arm himself and maintain an army for protection.

Aurangzeb (Jehangir's grandson) persecuted subsequent gurus. He beheaded the ninth guru, Tegh Bahadur (1621–1675) for refusing to convert to Islam. Vowing to avenge his father's murder and to ceaselessly struggle against Aurangzeb's tyranny, the tenth and last guru, Govind Rai (1666–1708), organized his followers into a militant band called Khalsa, meaning the pure ones, and prepared them for self-defense and war. He took the surname of singh, meaning lion, and called every Sikh male Singh who underwent the baptism of the sword into the Khalsa. Women came to be called kaur, meaning princess. The ritual included observing the vows of the five Ks, which are as follows:

• Uncut hair (kes)

• A comb (kangha)

• Steel bracelet (kara), the symbol of God's omnipresence

• Short trousers (kachh), the symbol of chastity

• A dagger (kirpan), the symbol of resistance.

In addition to observing the general beliefs and practices, Singhs resolved to rise before dawn, bathe in cold water, meditate and pray, refrain from stimulants, especially alcohol and tobacco, and eat only ritually slaughtered meat.

This new organization did not save Govind Singh from persecution. The forces of Aurangzeb killed his four sons, two in battle and two by execution. And he himself was assassinated in 1708, a year and a half after Auranzeb's death. Before he died, he proclaimed that there would be no more human gurus. Henceforward they were to regard the Adi Granth as their Guru. Thus the Adi Granth came to be called Guru Granth Sahib.

Today Sikhism is divided into three major groups. One is the Singhs. A second group is called the Udasis, or holy men, who observe celibacy. They are similar to other holy men in India. They shave their heads and beards and may either wear coarse yellow garments like the Buddhist monks, or go naked like Digambara Jain monks. A third group, the Sahajdharis, reject militancy, the wearing of the five Ks, and the growing of beards.

Women in Sikhism

Consistent with the devotional and mystical traditions of other religions, the Adi Granth often casts the divine-human relationship in the metaphor of a husband-wife relationship: "The devotee is like the wife enjoying wedded bliss" (AG 31). And "The Lord is my husband, I his wife" (AG 383). All human souls are thus cast as female, with the implication that both men and women are equal before God.

In creation, the equality of men and women is said to be implicit in the statement, "Women and men, all by God himself are created" (AG 304). However, equality in this text is no more than implicit, as we have seen in cases of the Bible and the Qur'an. Against the prevailing Hindu attitude, Nanak urged respect for women in these words:

It is through woman, the despised one, that we are conceived and from her that we are born. It is to woman that we get engaged and then married. She is our life-long friend and the survival of our race depends on her. On her death a man seeks another wife. Through woman we establish our social ties. Why denounce her, the one from whom even kings are born? (Adi Granth. Quoted by Cole and Sambhi 142)

This text shows Nanak's disapproval of subordination of women in Indian society of his time, which he criticized. He rejected the segregation or seclusion of women. In the Sikh community, men and women equally share in the voluntary service, the community kitchen, and ritual activities of reading the scripture and leading prayers.

In the social sphere, Guru Amar Das (1479–1574) advocated monogamy, abolished female infanticide, sati, and the wearing of the veil. In spite of these injunctions, polygamy, sati, and female infanticide remained rampant. The latter has continued among the Sikhs, as in the rest of Indian society, to this day. Though the practice is illegal, an ultrasound test is used to identify the sex of fetuses, who are regularly aborted if found to be female, causing a precipitous decline in the ratio of girls to boys.

In 1950, the Sikh Code of Conduct officially sanctioned the remarriage of widows, treating it the same as the first marriage. Child marriage and dowry systems were prohibited. Sikhism does not outlaw abortion.

A 1982–1984 survey of five hundred Sikhs from six villages found that 85.4 percent believed that all men are equal, while 74.2 percent believed that all men and women are equal (McMullen 87). Thus, a vast majority of Sikhs believes in the equality of women and men. However, this belief is qualified, especially by Sikhism's history. The Adi Granth harbors a range of views—positive, negative, and ambivalent—toward women. Consistent with the dominant Hindu cultural attitudes, the Adi Granth portrays the ideal woman as passive, obedient, self-sacrificing, and subordinated to male authority. And the ideal wife is thought to be obedient; compliant to her husband's wishes; and free of pride, lust, anger, greed, attachment, and egoism. She should be humble, she should not think for herself or develop independence, and she should not associate with strangers. She should strive to please her husband, surrendering her self, mind, and body to him. As Rajkumari Shanker states, "From her very childhood the career of a woman is oriented toward securing a spouse on whom she will depend and around whom her life will revolve" (194–195).

Behind the ideal qualities of a wife lie negative images of women. As in Hinduism, women are thought to represent attachment, material concerns, and sensuality, and hence present a barrier to men's salvation. A woman is believed to be a snare and temptation to a man. She entangles him in sensory desires (AG 336). Women embody egotism: "The egotist is like a woman" (AG 639). Women are regarded as uncontrollable as the senses: "The ten sources of senses which are to be controlled are like ten females" (AG 693). Woman is attachment personified (AG 796). As a result, Shanker points out, "Being born a woman is perceived as a catastrophe of cosmic dimension, to be fled like a plague. Their very birth as a woman is said to be the result of bad karma" (198).

Historically, many women, including the wives of gurus, have exercised strong leadership and continue to do so today. Sikh women have continued to show courage, bravery, leadership, and loyalty. This was also evident in the recent secessionist movement. Although women were used and abused by the movement, and their husbands ostracized them when they were victimized, women were nevertheless able to develop self-confidence, leadership, and positive self-image. Out of such experiences, some women will no doubt emerge as role models for future generations of Sikhs.

Sikhism Today

When India gained independence in 1947, Punjab, the homeland of the Sikhs, was split in two. The western half went to Pakistan and the eastern portion joined India. So the Sikh world became divided. Violent riots broke out between them and the Muslims, resulting in exchange of refugees between India and Pakistan, with over two million Sikhs having to uproot themselves, leave their homes, and go to India, while Muslims from East Punjab did the same and went to Pakistan. This, of course, caused great economic, social, emotional, and spiritual distress, as the Sikhs had to leave many of their holy places, including Nanak's birthplace near Lahore, and move to India.

More recently, as noted before, a secessionist movement has been afoot among the Sikhs led by radicals, who want a separate state of their own. The separatists have killed thousands of Hindus and driven thousands more out of Punjab, where they want to establish a theocratic state. Indira Gandhi's action against the terrorists—ordering the storming of the Golden Temple where they had taken refuge—led to her assassination. The terrorists continued their agitation and campaign of terrorism into the 1990s and beyond. Although Sikhs are a minority in India, their influence can be seen in the fact that the current Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, is a Sikh.

Many Sikhs have now migrated to Europe and America. In some cities of Great Britain, Canada, and the United States, large communities of Sikhs can be found. Reportedly, some 30,000 Sikhs live in one Canadian city alone. Others are scattered in US cities and towns. In some places they find themselves isolated. This makes it difficult to maintain their religious tradition. Many adult Sikhs have come to realize that while their children can chant rap songs, they cannot chant Sikh scripture. They can name the Ten Commandments but not name the ten Sikh gurus. In an effort to stave off total assimilation, and to pass on their heritage, in the West Sikhs have organized summer camps, where the day begins with morning prayers, followed by other spiritual practices and chanting, turban-tying, lessons in Sikh history, and discussion of what it means to be a Sikh. Maintaining identity in the face of assimilation is a challenge, not only for the Sikhs but also for other immigrant groups, especially if their religious and cultural heritages are different from mainstream North America.
Chapter 15: The New Horizon

This adventure into world religions began with the observation that at the threshold of the twenty-first century we are confronted with continuity and change. Culturally, the pace and extent of change has been so deep and pervasive that some think that a paradigm shift has occurred. And they have called it a "postmodern world," in which the quest for absolute truth through science, which marked the modern world, has given way to a relativistic view. Religion, too, has been relativized, losing its claim to absolute truth and validity, meta-historical narrative, and its position at the absolute center of values, norms, and beliefs. It is now confronted with pluralism and diversity.

As noted before, many factors have contributed to this change—globalization, technologies, communications media, immigration, and secularization, to name a few. And, of course, the march of secularization is increasingly sweeping over the territories once occupied by religion. Established religions have responded to this change in various ways. Some have reacted to it with violence, attempting to return to an earlier age of absolutism and stability. Others have embraced only those changes that are consistent with their core values, beliefs, and practices. Openly accepting the new worldview, others have attempted to retain those aspects of their religion that are compatible with it. But having become disillusioned and disconnected, having lost their attraction, or having had no attraction for established religions, many have turned to alternative paths that are called "new religions."

The expression new religion has been variously understood. Some scholars apply it to those religious movements that have sprung up in the modern and postmodern periods. Others consider new religions to be those that have creatively combined elements of several religions and have struck out in new directions. Some new religions are based on claims by individuals of having received new revelations or attained life-changing insights. Sometimes new interpretations of established scriptures or disagreement over doctrines and practices have led to the rise of a new branch of a religion or to an entirely new one. Most have arisen at times of social change, dislocation, crisis, or anxiety. Postmodern loss of meta-narrative and the consequent pluralism and relativism have created the context for new religions to challenge the sufficiency of the old and fill the void created by cultural and religious dislocations. Some are based on experiments with new forms of organization, offer different moral perspectives, or explore new ways of salvation. Some new movements have had secular beginnings but later adopted elements of established religions in order to be recognized as religion. Others have posed themselves as alternative paths to established religions.

Some scholars have noted several characteristics that they believe differentiate the new religions from established religions. However, some of these characteristics—syncretism, charismatic leadership, this-worldly benefits, apocalypticism, a caring community that provides a sense of belonging; strong commitment to leaders, doctrines and codes—are not uniformly shared by all new religions. While nearly all new religions may be syncretistic, some characteristics are more applicable to some movements than to others. Consequently, it is difficult to generalize. Bearing this in mind, let us now selectively examine some new religions that have more or less stemmed from established religions.

One of the new Native American religions in the United States is the Native American Church. This movement began among the Plains Native Americans of Oklahoma toward the end of the nineteenth century. The unique feature of this church is its main ritual, called the peyote cult, the aims of which are having visions and communing with the spirit world in order to attain powers of healing and spiritual knowledge; and experiencing of wholeness and unity with all things, leading to a new identity, meaning, and direction in life. The peyote cult involves ingestion of peyote, derived from a cactus (grown in southern Texas and Mexico), which contains mescaline, which induces hallucination. It can lead to profound visions and experiences of healing and wholeness. The preparatory ritual begins with a "peyote hunt" or harvesting of peyote. The participants prepare themselves with ritual confession and purification. On the location where peyote is found, members pray for rain and fertility, listen to shamanic lore, and invoke protection on themselves.

The ritual takes place in a tepee or lodge, around a crescent-shaped earthen altar and a sacred fire. Led by a peyote chief, it begins on a Saturday evening and lasts all night. The ritual involves using a gourd rattle, water, drum, drumstick, staff, eagle feather, eagle wing-bone whistle, tobacco, cedar incense, sage, and water bucket. Service includes prayer, singing, sacramental ingestion of peyote, water rites, and contemplation.

The peyote ritual became incorporated into the Native American Church with a federal charter in 1918. In 1946, the Supreme Court ruled that the use of peyote in the Native American Church was legal. However, because of subsequent court decisions, which reinstated the previous ban, the use of peyote has remained controversial not only on the state and local levels but even among the Native Americans themselves, many of whom oppose its use in religious ritual (Slotkin 96–104). Most recently, the Supreme Court has reversed its reversal. The American Indian Religious Freedom Act was designed to allow the use of peyote in religious ceremonies by Native Americans who are members of tribes.

In postcolonial Africa, thousands of new religions have sprung up—some twelve thousand according to various estimates. Those that combine elements of Christianity and African traditional religions are sometimes called African Independent Churches (AICs). Other new religions do not claim any Christian association. Thus, these religions vary so enormously that it is hard to come up with general characteristics that fit all groups. Some have emerged out of persecution and suffering. Some AICs practice baptism, often in the name of the Trinity but the ritual may include the movement's leader or founder in whose name it is performed. Some have been heavily influenced by Pentecostalism, others by the charismatic revival movement. Leadership is very important in these religions. In many cases, the leader or founder has become associated with traditional Christian beliefs in God and Jesus.

One AIC, called the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), originated in Lagos, Nigeria, in 1952. With the aspiration of going global, it has established a missionary network that stretches into more than one hundred nations. Having planted itself in the United States, it has resolved to establish parishes in every city and town from its headquarters in Greenville, Texas. Though basically Pentecostal, it has incorporated elements of African traditional religions.

Like Pentecostal churches in general, RCCG practices speaking in tongues, which consists of uttering unintelligible syllables. During the church service, members of the congregation clap, whoop, and speak in tongues. They may cry, faint and collapse to the floor, face down, and writhe in the throes of spiritual fervor. Like some Pentecostal pastors in the United States, some RCCG ministers preach the "prosperity gospel." They proclaim that God will grant the members material wealth, routinely petition God to transform them into millionaires, and encourage them to tithe. The Sunday collection is accompanied by joyous fanfare. The RCCG's worldview is similar to that of African traditional religions. The founder incorporated animist beliefs in natural and ancestral spirits with the aim of harnessing them for protection from various misfortunes. Like African healers, the pastors ask God to heal sickness, to keep the faithful from harm, and to cancel debt supernaturally. If the audience is Nigerian, the ministers tell them that salvation includes protection from curses, spells, and sorcery, similar to what we have seen in chapter 3. RCCG pastors claim to receive divine messages regularly. They are also said to prophesy and perform healing and miracles. The head of the church, Enoch Adeboye, is said to raise the dead, avoid traffic jams, foresee coup, restore hair to the balding, cure kidney disease, depression, and HIV (Andrew Rice, New York Times Magazine, 12 April, 2009).

A syncretism of African religions and Christianity has resulted in the rise of a number of new religions in the Caribbean and South American countries. Prominent among them are Santeria and Vodun, sometimes pejoratively called voodoo. Immigrants have introduced these religions to the United States.

Santeria, which means "the way of the saints," combines the Yoruba religion of the enslaved Nigerians who were brought to Cuba with Spanish Catholicism. Many of these people were forcibly converted to Roman Catholicism. To survive and maintain their identity, they superimposed their deities—the general term for which in Yoruba (see chapter 3) is orishas, or ochas in Santeria—on Catholic saints. This was facilitated by the fact that in both religions they function as intermediaries between the Supreme Deity and humans. Of the many orishas in Yoruba, Santeria in Cuba recognizes sixteen ochas. Seven of these are most popular among Santerias in the United States. Oshun, the goddess of life, love, marriage, gold and fresh water, assumes the form of Our Lady of Charity. Ogun, the patron of iron and war, takes the form of St. Peter. Sango, the goddess of storm and passions, is St. Barbara. Eshu, a trickster and messenger deity, and ruler of destiny, appears as St. Anthony. Babalu-Aye, the healer of serious illness, is associated with Lazarus. Obatala, the creator, becomes Our Lady of Mercy. Yemaya, the goddess of maternity and protector of women, is associated with Our Lady of Regla.

To contact these deities and receive favors from them, Santerias engage in such rituals as prayer, drumming, dancing, offering of food, and sacrifice of animals, such as chickens, doves, and goats. Santerias also practice rituals that induce "spirit possession," or trance, in which ochas are said to "mount" the medium, who acts as a female, regardless of the medium's sex. Both men and women can become priests, but only men are generally initiated into the high priesthood.

Vodun, which originated in Haiti, blends the religion of the Yoruba people in Benin, Dahome, and elsewhere in West Africa with French Catholicism. "Vodun," the Fon-Ewe word for "spirit," is known as Loa in Haiti. From Fon-Ewe religion, Vodun has incorporated the creator-God Nana Buluku, and his children, the dual deities Mawu (moon goddess) and Lisa (sun god). However, the main focus of Vodun are the ancestral—national, clan, and familial—spirits. Vodun has also incorporated some of the Yoruba deities and their association with Catholic saints.

The aim of worship and ritual practices is to contact spirits for healing and good health, abundant food, good luck and the warding off of bad luck, and protection from evil spirits. For the continuous protection of a deity, a devotee may enter into a marriage relationship with a Loa.

For contacting the spirit world, Vodun uses elaborately decorated altars with Catholic saints and symbolic objects related to the Loa. The floor is decorated with patterns of flour or cornmeal associated with the spirit. The contact with the spirit is made through trance. A priest or priestess, hungan and mambo respectively, enters into a trance. During the course of the ritual—involving shaking of rattles, drumming, chanting, and dancing—one of the dancers enters into a trance and falls to the ground. That dancer is then said to be "possessed" by the spirit and can bestow the favor sought. Like Santeria, Vodun followers also practice animal sacrifice.

Many of the movements springing from Hinduism that some scholars categorize as new religions, such as the Hare Krishnas and Transcendental Meditation, are not so much full-fledged religions as movements or sects within Hinduism, emphasizing some of its aspects. One such movement, the Radhasoami Tradition, advocates union with God as the goal of life. Meditation on the inner sound serves as the path. And the guru or master, by whose power the disciple is said to be liberated, is deemed central to the movement. The guru is believed to be at one with God and thus can bestow God's grace on the disciple. At initiation, the master is believed to assume the karma of the student and connects her with the divine sound that flows through all things. By repeating God's names and listening to the inner sound-current in meditation when the student experiences oneness with it, she can arrive at union with God.

Satya Sai Baba, who died on April 24, 2011, at age 84, gained a large following by his miracles, which he has been accused of faking. He has also been accused of sexually abusing boys and young men. But the basis for his renown is his teachings and charitable works of running schools, hospitals, and colleges from a trust fund estimated at $8.9 billion. His teachings are based on four principles. The first is satya—truth about the nature of reality, intended to lead the follower to selfless service (karma yoga), which aims to release him from karma, and ultimately lead to liberation. The second is dharma—duty to cultivate good deeds, wisdom, and devotion, and to maintain the equality of all humans regardless of caste (which he rejects), creed, race, or gender. The third, shanti, is peace. And the fourth is prema, divine love toward all, especially toward Sai Baba himself. These teachings may be summarized as "love all, serve all; help ever, hurt never" (Time, May 9, 2011).

The Falun Gong Sect is a syncretistic movement, combining tenets of Buddhism, Daoism, popular religion, and qigong exercises. The founder of Falung Gong, a former grain clerk named Li Hongzhi, began as a member of the chigong movement, an essentially Daoist circulation of Qi or Energy that emerged in the late 1980s with Chinese government sanction. In 1992, condemning qigong for materialism and its exclusive focus on healing and paranormal powers, and claiming to have gone beyond it, Li severed relationship with qigong and founded his movement, officially called Falun Xiulian Dafa, meaning the Law of the Wheel Breathing Exercise. Li appears to consider himself a Buddha or a god possessing miraculous powers. He claims that, having gone beyond ordinary mortals by discovering a method of transforming his body, he has arrived at a fundamental understanding of the nature of the universe and the human role in it.

Li teaches that bodily transformation can be achieved by letting go of all attachments—to meat, alcohol, medicine, possessions, relationships—and becoming free of karma. For Li, karma is a black substance in the body that can be transformed into a white substance by suffering, good works, and Falun Gong exercises. This transformation, which takes place at the molecular level, leads to better health, evolution, and paranormal powers. Moreover, as truth, benevolence, and forbearance are believed to make up the universe, by practicing them a follower can attain oneness with the universe.

The main Falun Gong practice is self-cultivation through a fixed set of five qigong breathing exercises (called Buddha Showing a Thousand Hands, Falun Standing Stance, Penetrating the Two Cosmic Extremes, Falun Heavenly Circulation, and Strengthening Divine Powers) to circulate Energy (Qi) between the yin and yang sides of the body. Similar to slow taiji movements, it can be done in a seated or standing position. The Falun itself, representing the Buddha's Dharma-wheel and Daoist yin-yang, is believed to be located in the abdominal center—the center of vital Energy. It is believed to be a spinning body of high-energy substance that constantly rotates along with the universe. Rotating in one direction, the falun is said to draw energy from the universe into the practitioner. As it turns in the opposite direction, it sends the energy out after circulating through the practitioner's body.

The aims of this circulation are also a combination of qigong and Buddhism. From qigong, Falun Gong has incorporated the aims of healing, stress reduction, improvement of health, fitness, and gaining paranormal powers. Buddhism supplies the aims of attaining higher states of consciousness, called mind-nature (xinxing), which is believed to lead to enlightenment. Other practices include truth, compassion, and tolerance in the follower's daily life. The followers seek to become better persons by giving up bad habits and attachment to anger, anxiety, jealousy, and the desire for personal gain and fame. These practices are said to change them as they let go of many desires and become peaceful and fearless.

If this is all that Falung Gong teaches, why then has the Chinese government been bent on destroying it? The answer is Falun Gong's other beliefs and Chinese history. One such belief is derived from Li Hongzhi's association with qigong, from which he got the idea of salvation through the refinement of matter until the body literally evolves into another form of matter capable of flying to paradise. To this essentially Daoist belief in ascension, Li has added the millenarian doctrine that the earth goes through periodic destruction. It has done so eighty-one times. Another upheaval is approaching, when good people will be rewarded and the bad destroyed. Li culled these ideas from popular religion, Daoism, and the Buddhist belief in Maitreya, the future Buddha whose arrival on earth will end the present age and usher in a new age of salvation for the followers. This belief was combined with the White Lotus's similar belief. During the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), the White Cloud Sect believed that the Mother Goddess sends a series of saviors to rescue the world. A new savoir was soon to appear when a great period of purifying disasters would destroy evil doers. But the faithful will live happily in a new, radically transformed, and purified world if they follow the new savior.

In the past, rebellions often began when a sect leader exhorted his followers to revolt in order to hasten the onset of destruction of the current rule and to inaugurate a purified new world. As we have seen, the Yellow Turban Rebellion ended the Han rule. The Taiping Rebellion in the nineteenth century triggered by a martial-arts cult led to a civil war that wiped out perhaps 20 million people. So when more than 10,000 Falun Gong members surrounded the Communist Party headquarters in Beijing on April 25, 1999, the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre of the pro-democracy movement, demanding the right to practice their faith, the Communist leadership saw it as a direct challenge to their authority and went into a crisis mode. In addition, the Falun Gong members forced the withdrawal of a television program critical of the sect. Other aggressive acts to "defend the Fa," or Law, as Li had exhorted his followers to do, made the Communist leaders apprehensive that they might lose control. So they felt compelled to strike. They outlawed Falung Gong and orchestrated a vast propaganda campaign against the sect; confiscated and destroyed their books, cassettes, and other instruction materials; arrested the leaders; and put a price on the head of Li Hongzhi, who had moved to the United States in 1996. The Communists' relentless methods of intimidation, threats, harassment, incarceration, torture, and indoctrination have succeeded in breaking the will of many members, leading them to quit.

Although founded in nineteenth-century Japan, Tenrikyo exhibits some of the characteristics of new religions. Its founder, Nakayama Miki (1798–1887), was a laywoman who claimed to receive revelations from God. While she was present at a healing session, God is said to have taken possession of her body and would not let go until she surrendered. God then began to communicate his message through her. Evidently, this was a case of shamanic spirit possession or trance, in which she acted as a medium. The teachings were syncretistic in nature, combining elements of shamanism, Neo-Confucianism, Shinto, Buddhism, and monotheism.

Nakayama Miki claimed that God, who pitied the human condition of sickness and suffering, revealed to her the entire truth about creation. The Tenrikyo story of creation holds that God the Parent, who revealed his true name to Miki as Tsukihi and Tenri-O-No-Mikoto, "the true and real God of this universe," summoned Izanagi and Izanami and taught them how to create humans. He also revealed the ultimate goal of creation: to save everyone so that they may have a joyous life. He disclosed his plan of salvation and the rituals that would bring healing and restore the joyous life.

Salvation is conceived in shamanistic and Buddhist fashion as healing, freedom from sickness, and suffering. Wang Yangming provides the diagnosis of the cause: the origin of suffering and illness lies in the wrong use of one's mind. Unaware of divine protection, humans mistakenly believe that they live by their own power and tend to be self-centered, and make wrong use of their mind, thereby creating "mental dust" that gradually clouds their minds and causes illness. The mental dust consists of miserliness, covetousness, hatred, selfishness, enmity, anger, greed, and arrogance. Thus suffering and illness are caused by our own mind.

Having reduced suffering to physical illness and its causes to negative conditionings, Tenrikyo holds that the cure, salvation, consists in purifying the mind by sweeping away the specks of dust and rectifying it through correct use. The process of rectification begins with faith, then continues with awareness of and reflection on the mental dust, apology for the wrong use of the mind, and commitment to use it correctly so as to overcome illness. A method of counseling assists the followers in diagnosing their mental dust and the wrong use of the mind, and teaches them how to use it correctly. When the mind is swept clean, every aspect of illness is said to disappear. Thus, the followers are restored to their natural, joyous state in which God the Parent wanted everyone to live (Reader 128–139).

Unlike Christian Science, Tenrikyo does not eschew modern medicine, which it considers a valid method of curing illness, sees no conflict between the two approaches, and recommends the use of both. Socially, Tenrikyo advocates preventive medicine, freedom for women, and the social benefits of working together. Its missionary zeal seems to reflect Christian, particularly Mormon and Nichiren, influence.

A new religion that arose in Japan from Nichiren Buddhism was Soka Gakkai or Value Creation Society. A lay offshoot of Nichiren, it was founded in 1930 by a schoolteacher and education reformer named Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, who died in jail in 1944 for criticizing Shinto. His disciple Josei Toda undertook a rapid expansion of the movement after complete religious freedom was granted in postwar Japan. One of Toda's declared goals was to merge religion and politics, thereby establishing their brand of Buddhism as the state religion. To that end, Soka Gakkai began a political party in 1964, called the New Komeito Party. Its coalition with the governing Liberal Democratic Party threatened separation of religion and state. However, in 1970 the third president Daisaku Ikeda severed the formal link with Komeito and now speaks more vaguely about achieving a victory of the people in the twenty-first century. He declares that Soka Gakkai has no ambition of becoming a state religion. Rather, it is committed to the ideal of peace.

Soka Gakkai's goal is to help its followers to transform their behavior so that they can achieve a prosperous, healthy, and happy life. Globally, it seeks to establish universal harmony and peace, which it believes can be achieved only through a conversion of the entire world to Nichiren Buddhism. By following its teaching, a person can lift herself out of poverty and attain prosperity, resolve domestic discord, solve any problem, spiritual or material, and attain a happy life. It seeks to overcome people's inner impulse toward hatred and violence by a process of dynamic self-transformation. It promotes cultural activity and exchange, universal human truths, tolerance, and understanding.

Soka Gakkai believes that since the cause of all evil and unhappiness is false belief, the method for attaining good health, success, and happiness is the gohonzon—a transcription of the mandala at the Nichiren temple near Mount Fuji, which they keep in their altars at home. Followers chant the daimoku, "Namu Myoho Renge Kyo" (Praise to the Lotus of the Good Law) before the Gohonzon and recite sections of the Lotus Sutra. In addition, Josei Toda taught belief in a life force that permeates the universe. By connecting with it, the follower can ensure health, prosperity, good relationships with others, and happiness. Toda also incorporated shamanic practices, such as faith healing.

Soka Gakkai has embraced the goals of world peace and tolerance in order to counteract past hostility toward it because of its aggressive proselytization, its intolerance of other religions, and its political ambition of uniting religion and state under its tutelage. Working with the United Nations, it now advocated the abolition of nuclear weapons, cooperation with the UN peace activities, universal disarmament, conflict resolution through negotiation, and the preservation of right to life. The followers of Soka Gakkai have raised money for Vietnamese refugees and the starving peoples of Africa and are involved in numerous other activities both at home and abroad.

Rissho Kosai-kai combines Shinto ancestor veneration and gratitude, Nichiren emphasis on recitation of the Lotus Sutra, and Hua Yen belief in the interrelationship of all things in the universe and their permeation by the life force of the Eternal Buddha. The members practice the way of the compassionate bodhisattva. And they attempt to live in harmony with all things.

To achieve the goal of revealing and developing their Buddha-nature, the faithful practice a unique form of group counseling called the "circle of compassion." Sitting in a circle, the group creates an intimate, warm atmosphere for open discussion. As a member discusses his problems and confesses mental and physical "misdeeds," others listen attentively and then compassionately respond by applying the Buddha's teachings to the problems so that the member can gain insight and find a solution, help to alleviate suffering, and attain spiritual growth.

One of the new religions that became truly threatening and turned tragic with its Tokyo subway gas attack is Aum Shinrikyo, meaning "Hail Supreme Truth." It was founded by the nearly blind Shoko Asahara. Having failed to gain entry to the University of Tokyo, Asahara turned to religion and started practicing yoga, first with Agonshu (a syncretistic new religion that combines aspects of Buddhism, popular religion, yoga, and meditation) and then on his own in order to gain spiritual power.

In 1984, Asahara established his yoga school in Tokyo and began to claim his own messianic status by asserting that Shiva appeared to him and charged him with the task of creating a perfect society. He founded Aum Shinrikyo, traveled to India, and, after practicing yoga with a master and then on his own, claimed to have attained enlightenment. Turning to Buddhism, Asahara began to consider himself a bodhisattva, intent on saving others even at the sacrifice of his own life. From Tibetan Buddhism he adopted the Yoga of Transference of Consciousness but interpreted it to mean that it allowed him to kill others to prevent them from accumulating bad karma.

Entertaining political ambition, like Soka Gakkai, Asahara founded a political party, Shinri-to ("Truth Party"), which failed to win a single seat in the Lower House. Perceiving this failure as a rejection by society, Asahara turned to Christian apocalypticism and to the predictions of Nostradamus, which became very popular in Japan through the writings of Gato Ben. Additionally, inspired by Nichiren, Asahara predicted in 1989 that there would be a major catastrophe by 1999. Emphasizing his belief in the inevitability of global destruction, he began to teach that the only hope of escaping the catastrophe lay in developing superhuman powers by practicing Aum's teachings. The sarin gas attack in Tokyo subway, in which four thousand people were injured and twelve died, may have been prompted by Shinrikyo's perception of itself as an agent of Armageddon. It can also be viewed as an extreme protest against his perception of rejection by Japanese society, its oppressiveness, and the inability of established religions to provide the disaffected young answers to what was troubling them. Disappointed by a materialistic world and unable to find spiritual fulfillment, Asahara struck out against it in an extreme form. He was apprehended and has been sentenced to death. His movement is dedicated at present to meditation for self-development and world peace.

Besides the three main branches and Reconstructionism that arose in the modern period, Judaism has given rise to few new religions. One twentieth century movement that arose in Judaism inspired by the Dead Sea Scrolls was B'nai Or (Children of Light), now called Aleph, or the Alliance for Jewish Renewal. It consists of a network of affiliated groups that sponsors the Shalom (Peace) Centers and the Jewish Renewal Life Centers. Inclusivist from the beginning, it has now become more syncretistic, absorbing and utilizing elements of Sufism, Buddhism, and Native American religions and dedicated to renewal and healing of the individual and the world. Another is Humanistic Judaism, dedicated to promoting human life and values, Jewish identity, and the survival of the Jewish people. The Havurot Movement consists of small group fellowships concerned with community, study, celebration, prayer, social action, and Jewish culture and history.

Christianity spawned many new religions in the modern and postmodern periods. One of the more prominent, founded in the nineteenth century, is the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS), or Mormonism. The Founder, Joseph Smith, received revelation early in his life. However, Smith himself put out conflicting accounts of his vision. In his 1832 handwritten version, he says that he went to the woods seeking forgiveness for having already concluded that all the churches were wrong, but a vision assured him of his salvation. But in his 1838 account, Smith says that in 1820, at the age of fourteen, confused by competing claims of different denominations during a revival, he went to the woods to ask God which church to join. In a vision, God and Jesus told him not join any of them. Historical research, however, has failed to turn up any revival in the region during the period in question, and no one heard of the story of this first vision until 1832 (Bowman Jr. 80–81).

Another controversy pertains to the revelation of the "bible" of the LDS. In 1823, while Smith was praying, the angel Moroni is said to have appeared and instructed him to go to the Hill Cumorah, where he would find Golden Plates containing the Book of Mormon. It speaks of Jesus visiting America after his resurrection and describes the history of two biblical tribes—the Jaredites and the Nephites—who migrated to America between 600 BCE and 421 CE. Discord and disobedience led to their demise. It was chronicled by a prophet named Mormon. The chronicle, the Book of Mormon, was hidden by his sole surviving son, Moroni. With the help of Oliver Cowdery and the decoders Urim and Thummim (biblical divination devices) Smith translated the tablets, which became the Mormon Bible. However, sworn affidavits by three of the main witnesses stated that a blacksmith made the tablets from copper plates, etched with nitric acid and covered with a rustic mixture to give them the appearance of antiquity. Professor Charles Anton of Columbia University, when asked to verify from a transcribed page handed to him, whether the Book of Mormon was written in "reformed" Egyptian hieroglyphics, concluded that the letters of the page were "anything else but Egyptian hieroglyphics" (Hardon 180–182). The authenticity of whether it was written in reformed hieroglyphics cannot be confirmed, as the plates are said to have been taken up to heaven after Smith finished translating them. Moreover, the contents of the book conflict with the Bible in numerous places. The most glaring is the claim that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount to the Nephites in America. However, the sermon contains criticism of the Pharisees, who originated in Palestine some four hundred years after the Nephites are said to have left Palestine (Bowman Jr. 85).

The church was formally organized as the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. New revelations were granted to LDS following each new crisis. Hostility to Mormon doctrines, particularly its practice of polygamy, occasioned a new revelation, admonishing LDS to move from upstate New York to Kirkland, Ohio, and from there to Missouri because of worthless notes issued by Smith's bank. As Missouri declared war on the Mormons, another revelation directed them to Illinois, where they founded the city of Nauvoo. Here the practice of polygamy not only caused a rift within his own ranks, but armed uprising by non-Mormons led to the death of Joseph and his brother in a gun battle while they were jailed. His successor, Brigham Young, led the largest faction of Mormons to Utah, where they founded Salt Lake City in 1847. It was here that Brigham Young organized the Mormons into a self-sustaining religious body.

The sources of Mormon teachings are the Book of Mormon and additional revelations granted to Smith that became the sacred books, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. Revelations continue to be granted to the head of the Church, called prophet, down to the present.

Based on a materialistic interpretation of the Bible, the Mormons believe that the biblical teaching of God creating humans in his image means that humans physically resemble God, who is composed of three separate and distinct persons—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They are united in purpose, not nature, as Christians believe. Father and Son have bodies of flesh and bones. They are considered spiritual because spirit, not blood, flows through their veins. But this spirit is also material, albeit of a different and finer substance. Apparently, the Holy Ghost is still waiting for materialization of his body. The Father and a heavenly Mother are the literal parents of the spirits of all humans, who were created before receiving mortal bodies. The firstborn is Jesus, who as Jehovah, before becoming human, created the world. Jesus is the only person to have a mortal mother (Mary) and an immortal father (God the Father).

Mormons believe that the divine parents wanted humans to develop godlike qualities. But they had to be tested first, have physical bodies, become sinners, die, and in the resurrection receive immortal bodies like those of the heavenly parents. Adam and Eve's transgression in the garden was necessary for the realization of God's plan: Jesus's atonement for the "original sin" will enable all humans to receive immortal bodies in the resurrection. But only those who have faith in Jesus, repent, and are baptized will return to live with the heavenly Father. Therefore, not everyone will be saved. Only those who accept the LDS Church, repent by sustaining the authority of the Church and pay tithes, follow their health rules, and participate in such rituals in Mormon temples as being sealed in eternal marriage and undergoing baptism on behalf of dead people will be saved.

After people die, they go to either paradise or spirit prison. At the last judgment, the highest place, the celestial kingdom, will be reserved for those who accepted the LDS gospel, attended meetings regularly, studied the scriptures, obeyed the LDS prophets, and were perfectly faithful. They will become gods and have spirit children (i.e., become like the Heavenly Father). Hence the dictum: What man is God was; what God is man may be. The terrestrial kingdom is for those who heard and rejected the LDS gospel but accepted it in the spirit world. And the telestial kingdom is for those who rejected the gospel in both worlds. Hell is reserved for ex-Mormons and other wicked people.

Believing that repentance must precede baptism, Mormon baptism is by immersion of adults and children eight years and older. Their Lord's Supper consists of bread and water, as Mormons forbid consumption of alcoholic beverages, drugs, tobacco, tea, and coffee. Marriage is a requirement, and it is eternal. For it is through marriage that preexistent souls are able to have bodies and realize advanced state of perfection.

The Church is organized hierarchically, with a prophet at the top who, Mormons believe, leads the Church through divine revelation, followed by twelve apostles, seventy elders, and local officers. Although they believe in the priesthood of the faithful, as LDS is a male-oriented Church, only men can become priests. Wives share in their husbands' priesthood. Since the Book of Mormon teaches that black skin is a sign of God's curse, proscriptions in the Book of Abraham and the Book of Moses consigned blacks to second-class status. Black men were excluded from the priesthood. But a new revelation in 1978 granted them equality with whites and access to the priesthood.

It is, however, their doctrine of polygamy that became problematic from the beginning (Smith had thirty wives). However, after the Supreme Court declared polygamy unconstitutional and the Congress required Mormons to give up polygamy in order for Utah to join the union, in 1890, the then Mormon prophet Wilford Woodruff forbade the practice. Some separatist groups still practice polygamy, but the Church opposes it, although it maintains that in the highest celestial tier, men and their multiple wives and families will dwell with God and as gods.

LDS Church is one of the fastest growing new religions. Two factors especially contribute to this growth. One is the requirement for all men and women to serve as missionaries for approximately two years before college or marriage. The other is the LDS Church's emphasis on strong, caring community dedicated to serve the needs and concerns of it members.

A religion that takes the concept of family values as its central tenet is the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), formerly known as the Unification Church, founded by the Reverend Sun Myong Moon, who hails from North Korea. Moon claims that on April 17, 1935 or 1936, Jesus appeared to him on Easter Sunday and commissioned him to complete the mission he had begun but was unable to complete because of his premature death. And what is that mission?

Not wanting to live in solitude and wishing to create his counterparts, the omnipotent and omniscient God created Adam and Eve to receive his absolute love and become even better and greater than God himself. He wanted humans to grow to maturity, marry, and create the True Family by producing perfect children, who would build the ideal kingdom of heaven on earth, where people would live eternally. The principle that would govern this heavenly enterprise is absolute faith, love, and obedience. Adam was supposed to become God's body and Eve not only Adam's but also God's bride. However, Satan seduced Eve sexually, prompting her to engage in illicit sex with Adam before attaining maturity. This led to the fall of humanity away from God's and into Satan's hands.

That is where humanity remained until Jesus came, invested with the same mission of marrying a perfect Eve, having perfect children, and thus creating God's kingdom of heaven on earth and fulfilling God's plan. But when Jesus was crucified before creating the True Family, God realized he needed a third Adam, a new Messiah to complete the mission.

Although nowhere stated in the Divine Principle, the FFWPU bible, the followers of Reverend Moon believe that he is the new Messiah, the Lord of the Second Coming. As the FFWPU idea of messiah is a couple, the emphasis shifted to establishing a new heavenly family tradition by creating the True Family, led by the True Parents. All FFWPU couples may now become True Parents. The process begins with the Blessing Ceremony or mass wedding, which is the central FFWPU ritual.

To shore up his credibility, Moon has incorporated into his teaching tenets of Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and especially shamanism, mediums, trance, spirit possession, and channeling, to claim ongoing revelation from the spirit world. After Moon's second son, Heung Jin, died in a car accident, he became the primary medium of ongoing revelation. In the spirit world Jin became Jesus's leader. Jin's death, billed as a sacrifice, carries greater importance than Jesus's death. Revelations from Jin declare that not only other saints but Jesus himself submitted to him. Moreover, Jesus declared Moon and his wife to be Lord of Lords and King and Queen of the entire universe. To spread the message to Africa, a black Heung Jin was found in Zimbabwe. But when the black Jin impregnated the wife of the Japanese missionary to his country, declaring himself to be the Lord of the Second Advent and Moon his precursor, the latter had to turn to Korean mediums to receive further revelations from Heung Jin. These mediums brought ancestor worship and healing into the movement.

Another deceased member, Sang Hun Lee, who joined Heung Jin in the spirit world, came forward to reveal the condition of heaven—with cars propelled by thought projection and spirit beings needing help from family members to improve—and to report on the inferior and unhappy condition of founders of other religions, including Jesus, who is lonely, is in a sort of purgatory, and will not advance to heaven until the True Parents arrive. As even Jesus's declaration was not enough of a confirmation of Moon's claim to be the Second Coming, everyone in the spirit world, from the great Christian saints to the founders of American religions to Pope John XXIII to thirty-six former US presidents, confirmed Moon to be the "Savior, Messiah, Second Coming, and True Parent of all humanity" and "the Unification Principle" to be "a message of peace for the salvation of humanity and the gospel for the Completed Testament Age" (Beverley 53). Armed with this gospel, members go out to convert others. But it seems not to be making much headway. Moon pulled up stakes from the United States, as his last discourse, published in the New York Times, 30 October 2004, indicated. He moved to Brazil, where he has faced hostility from the locals.

Moon has sought to further burnish his image through media campaigns and by attracting prominent politicians, clergy, media figures, and Hollywood stars. To gain academic credibility and legitimacy, Moon has established educational, media, political, and religious organizations; sponsored conferences on the unity of the sciences, world peace, world culture and sports festival; and the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia.

Islam, too, has inspired a few new religions. Most movements, labeled Islamic "new religions" by scholars, are actually Sufi movements, which are not new religions but mystical orders within Islam. There are, however, two movements that fall in this category: Black Muslims in the United States and the Bahai Faith.

Initiated by Wali Farrad Muhammad (W. D. Ford) in 1930, the Black Muslim movement came to its own after Elijah Muhammad (Elijah Poole) joined him and established himself in Chicago. After Fard mysteriously disappeared in 1934, Elijah Muhammad emerged as the unquestioned leader and named his organization the Nation of Islam. He envisioned it as a militant movement, parallel to the civil rights and Black Panther movements, to infuse African Americans with a sense of their self-identity, dignity, and equality with the white majority. He intended it to be a movement exclusively for blacks and preached separation from the white population. To ground these themes on religion, Elijah Muhammad claimed to be the messenger of Allah, a vague arrogation of mission that, Muslims believe, is exclusively the prophet's—one reason why mainline Islam rejected him.

One of the well-known early converts to the movement was Malcolm X. However, his experience of the hajj taught him that Islam makes no racial distinction and that people of all races belong to the Islamic community. As he proceeded to preach this new message and attempted to break away from Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X was gunned down in New York City. However, after Elijah Muhammad's death, his son, Wallace Muhammad steered the movement toward mainstream Islam by changing its name to American Muslim Mission, abandoning its exclusively black focus and his role as the messenger of Allah. However, a splinter group, headed by Louis Farakhan, continues to carry on Elijah Muhammad's agenda.

The Bahai Faith grew out of Shiite Islam's belief in the return of the last imam as the Mahdi. It also incorporated teachings from other religions. In 1844, Sayyid Ali Muhammad Shirazi, called the Bab (the gate), began to claim that he fulfilled many of the prophecies of Islam, chief among which was that a new prophet would arise, to be called Bahaullah (the Glory of God), who would lead all humankind to an era of peace.

Imprisoned in 1853 for being a disciple of the Bab, Mirza Husayn Ali is said to have had a vision which revealed to him that he was the Bahaullah foretold by the Bab. As such he is the fulfillment of all the religions of the world. He is the incarnation of the Buddha, Krishna, the expected Jewish Messiah, and Christ of the Second Coming. As the expected prophet of all religions, he was to usher the kingdom of God.

Bahaullah's teachings can be summarized under three principles: oneness of God, oneness of religion, and oneness of humanity. Although God is one, the creator and sustainer of all, the religions of the world proclaim him by many names. However, they all worship the same Presence. Existing beyond the created universe, which nevertheless reflects his glory, God manifests himself through the founders of world's religions. Bahaullah is the latest, though not the last, manifestation of God.

All religions are one, but as God has revealed himself through many founders, the revelation has been expressed in progressive stages throughout history, giving rise to various religions. The world's religions are but evolutionary stages in God's plan to educate and unite the entire planet. The spiritual truths of all religions are the same. Religions differ because of the social and moral codes required in each particular age to create solidarity for that age. They have no universal function.

Bahais do acknowledge differences in the contents of religions, but they maintain that all religions have two basic functions, where also diversity can be found: the spiritual education of individuals and the social solidarity of humanity. For spiritual education, religions have different spiritual laws, while social solidarity is aimed at through various social laws and institutions. For the Bahais, the main spiritual laws regulate daily prayer, fasting, sexual morality, abstinence from drugs and alcohol, and burial of the dead. Bahai social laws envision a global civilization that includes provisions for marriage and divorce, the establishment of a universal language and a world government, collective security and reduction of armament, the elimination of racism, sexism, and prejudice, the reduction of extreme wealth and poverty, and universal education.

The third principle—oneness of humanity—is to be implemented by viewing all humans as members of one human family. Bahais believe that this can be achieved by eliminating racism and all forms of prejudice and discrimination. This is deemed as fundamental to global unity and peace.

On the personal level, Bahais practice daily prayers, fasting, and the study of Bahai scripture; contribute to the Bahai organizations; and make pilgrimage to the Bahai World Center. Claiming that each manifestation of God brings a new calendar, Bahais have adopted new forms of worship, festivals, and celebrations.

Bahais believe in the immortality of the soul. After death, the soul goes on to develop in its new, spiritual state. While they believe in reward and punishment, they consider heaven and hell to be metaphors, signifying closeness to and distance from God. This belief is derived from Sufism.

Neopaganism represents a cluster of new religious traditions that have their roots in ancient, pre-Christian religions of Europe. At one time, of course, all polytheistic or nature-based religions were deemed pagan. However, contemporary paganism is a revival, reconstruction, or offshoot of ancient practices found mainly in Europe and the United States. In general, it refers to a broad range of religious traditions based on belief in the sacredness of nature. Some pagans may believe nature to be divine. Others believe the divine is not identical with but is inextricably tied to and manifested in nature. For some of these, divinity is single but immanent, constituting the life force of the universe. For others, divinity is dualistic, Goddess and God. Still others believe in the Great Mother Goddess alone.

Such a wide variety of beliefs is to be found in one of the best known current Neopagan movements, called Wicca. It is not clear when this movement originated. Some find its source in the writings of Gerald Gardner (1954 and 1960), a British civil servant. Others attribute it to the late 1940s founding of witchcraft in Great Britain. Whatever its point of origin, Wicca has several varieties, maintaining a diversity of beliefs and practices. Wiccans commonly believe in two complementary deities—the Goddess, often associated with Mother Earth, and her consort, the God—who together represent all aspects of the universe. The feminist Dianic Wiccans worship the Goddess alone. Others are polytheistic.

Neopaganism or Wicca must not be confused with Satanism. They do not believe in Satan. Their witchcraft is for the positive good, not to cast evil spells on others. This is clear from their general ethical maxim: If "it harms none, do as you will." This principle not only applies to humans and the animal kingdom, but also to nature, which has made Wiccans advocates for the protection of the environment. Another important belief they hold is the principle of "triple return"—whatever one does will yield a triple return to the doer. Many Wiccans aim to cultivate eight virtues: mirth, reverence, honor, humility, strength, beauty, power, and compassion.

Wiccans, however, mainly celebrate the power and the cycles of nature (bodily, lunar, and solar) and the seasons, particularly the solstices and equinoxes. Each full moon is celebrated with a ritual called Esbat, and the eight main holidays they celebrate are called Sabbats. These are:

• Samhain, or Halloween

• Yule, or winter solstice

• Imbolic, or end of winter

• Ostara, or spring equinox

• Beltane, or May Day, a fertility rite

• Litha, or summer solstice

• Lughnasad, a grain harvest festival in August

• Mabon, or autumn equinox

The rituals usually take place inside a magical circle, in which Wiccans offer prayers to the Goddess and God, and sometimes work spells to attune themselves to the spiritual energy believed to underlie the natural world.

In addition, Wiccans practice magick and healing. What is called "high magick" aims at personal transformation through contact with the divine. "Natural magick," on the other hand, aims at healing and influencing natural forces.

Other types of movements were essentially therapeutic in nature, having no overtly religious contents. Such were Arica, which offered, among other things, "three days to kensho" (enlightenment) and EST, Erhard Seminar Training. These movements, especially EST, created much stir in the '70s and '80s but have since disappeared from public view. The enlightenment EST trumpeted via an experience was that you are not your programming, and it offered participants a way to reprogram themselves so as to make life more enjoyable.

A phenomenon that started out as therapeutic in nature, took on the form of a full-fledged religion, but still basically remains a therapy, while assuming the characteristics of a cult, is the Church of Scientology. Started by L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer, Scientology (derived from the Latin word scientia, meaning "knowledge," and the Greek word logos, meaning "reason") claims to be a new science of the mind. It is based on a belief system similar to Gnostic dualism of spirit and matter, with elements borrowed from Hinduism and Buddhism. Like the traditional idea of the soul and the Hindu concept of Atman, the spirit, called "thetan," is believed to be distinct from the body and mind and the physical world. Immortal, omniscient, and capable of limitless creativity, thetans willed themselves into existence several trillion years ago. They created space and brought the universe into existence. Subsequently, they drifted through time and repeatedly reincarnated or assumed bodies. But, similar to the Gnostic idea, as the thetans began to identify with their bodies, they got trapped in the universe, lost the memory of their true nature and their creative powers. When they came to think of themselves as nothing but embodied beings, they became subject to the vicissitudes of matter, energy, space, and time, collectively known as MEST.

Hubbard tied this idea of thetan with his science fiction cosmology, according to which, seventy five million years ago, the tyrant ruler of the Galactic Confederacy, by the name of Xenu, captured billions of those who opposed him, deposited them in volcanoes on Earth, and detonated hydrogen bombs, leaving the captive thetans without their bodies. Millions of years later, when life began on Earth, the traumatized thetans latched onto others' bodies like barnacles, wanting to be released. The goal of Scientology is to restore the thetans to their natural state and their creative powers through auditing.

For Hubbard, the human mind consists of two parts: the analytical mind and the reactive mind. The analytical mind is the rational mind or ordinary consciousness that deals with daily affairs of life. But the reactive mind creates glitches, becomes entangled in MEST and absorbs pain and trauma, and stores up unpleasant memories, causing pain, irrational fears, and mental blocks. The reactive mind lies dormant until awakened by jarring, painful, traumatic events, especially the moment of birth, which are recorded in it as lasting scars. These, called engrams, are the source of human physical and psychological problems.

The engrams must be erased so that one can become free and clear of the reactive mind. This requires the candidate to undergo a process called auditing, which calls up the incidents of his life in minute details through a series of questions asked or commands given by the auditor. Auditing is really the process of confession, designed to find out the aspects of the self the candidate is hiding, the games he is playing, and the motives that drive him. The aim is to discover the candidate's traumas or vulnerabilities and, by reconditioning, to eliminate them. If the auditing is completely successful, it erases the candidate's independent thinking process and critical judgment. His former identity is replaced by Scientology, which now comes to exert total control, making autonomous thought or speech a crime (Reitman 215).

Spending hundreds of hours on one-to-one sessions, an auditor, like a therapist, systematically questions the patient, or pre-clear, who holds the electropsychometer or e-meter, a modified lie detector designed to measure changes in the electrical resistance under the surface of the skin, by passing approximately 0.5 volts through a pair of tin-plated tubes attached to the meter by wires. It registers the patient's particular engrams from unusual responses, such as excitement, stress, or physical pain, to specific questions. The patient must erase the disturbing engrams by recalling and re-experiencing unpleasant past experiences that caused them, going all the way back to the prenatal source, and see how they operate in his present process of perceiving and reacting to the world. When all engrams are erased, the patient achieves a new state of being, called clear. When that happens, he is believed to experience the world, and himself, in a radically new way, and reap a variety of physical, mental, and even superhuman benefits, ranging from optimum health and vigor to higher IQ to telepathy to seeing through walls to rearranging molecules to total control of MEST.

Becoming completely clear of engrams and achieving the state of floating requires many sessions over many years. Since toxins in the body are believed to impede the process of becoming clear, a patient must take a purification rundown course, involving physical exercise, vitamins, and frequent saunas, for as many as five hours a day, for weeks at a time, to sweat the toxins out of the body.

Beyond the state of clear, for reaching the ultimate spiritual state, salvation, or Nirvana, Hubbard added a second method, which he called Operating Thetans (OT). First, one meaning of OT is a thetan with an operating body. Second, it refers to a state of spiritual awareness in which an individual is able to control herself and her environment, or thought and MEST. Third, it is a method of achieving the highest spiritual state, a godlike state Hubbard called Cleared Theta Clear or total freedom. The path to total freedom consists of fifteen levels of OTs. Reminiscent of Zen's Ten Ox-Herding Stages, each level promises a higher stage of personal power and enlightenment, until the Scientologist achieves the highest spiritual state imaginable.

Operating Thetan Level I is the first step above clear. It puts the candidate on the tract of achieving full OT abilities. At Level II, he confronts the hidden areas of his existence. At this stage, eliminating aberrant behavior or old programming releases vast amounts of energy and native vitality, which brings resurgent self-determination.

At Level III, called the Wall of Fire, the candidate is said to confront the fourth dynamic engram that has plagued the universe for millennia. This seems to mean that she confronts the deepest levels of the unconscious, where Scientology has implanted the ideas of oneself being a thetan in countless lives, somewhat like the Buddha is said to have experienced his countless former lives prior to enlightenment. Scientology warns that this stage is dangerous as it can lead to illness, lack of sleep, or even death. That is why, prior to undergoing this procedure, a candidate is made to sign a waiver absolving Scientology of any responsibility for what might happen. According to Janet Reitman, psychotic breakdown is not uncommon as a result of undergoing this procedure. She chronicles the case of Lisa McPherson. Even after she was declared clear by the head of Scientology, David Miscavige, Lisa suffered a psychotic breakdown. She was then confined to a hotel back room, with little medical supervision, other than having an inexperienced young attendant. Eventually Lisa gave up eating, drinking, and sleeping. She started to talk gibberish incessantly. When she was first taken to a hospital, the attending physician suggested that Lisa be given psychiatric evaluation. This was never done—psychiatry being the enemy. After seventeen days of this ordeal, skeletally thin, totally dehydrated, with her pulse gone, Lisa was finally brought to a hospital a second time, where the doctor, unable to revive her, pronounced Lisa dead.

That psychotic breakdowns happen is understandable. Because the process of auditing involves identifying the candidate's core vulnerabilities and re-experiencing them, with no trained expert to help him properly process what surfaces, psychotic breakdowns can occur. Not only did Hubbard blame such breakdowns to prior psychiatric or medical failures, but the cure that he devised, called Introspection Rundown, which involves complete isolation and solitary confinement of the candidate with attendants who were forbidden to speak to him, only exacerbates the problem. As the subsequent repeated auditing that the candidate is made to undergo breaks down all independent thinking and reshapes his mind, he is rendered completely open to accepting the belief in prior lives as thetans and assuming their identities. In this state of dissociation as breakdowns occur, these thetans can emerge as multiple selves, turning him into a schizophrenic with discordant alien voices, desires, and emotions clamoring in his head all claiming to be his own selves. With no psychiatric help provided, the situation can turn disastrous, or deadly. Some have gone insane. Even some of those who are said to have reached the highest levels of OT have suffered psychotic breakdowns. Some have committed suicide, as did Greg Bashaw. After twenty years of Scientology and reaching OT Level VII, he had gone to the Clearwater, Florida, center called "Flag" where, during an auditing session, he suffered a psychotic breakdown. When he told his auditor and his case supervisor about it, they sent him home without helping him. As the psychiatric ward of his local hospital also failed to alleviate his condition, in despair, Greg Bashaw committed suicide (Reitman 246-247).

Level IV is said to rid the candidate of the hidden problems and blocks cause by drugs and other toxins. Consisting of twenty-six separate rundowns, Level V is said to remove these residual blocks on the track of total freedom. Level VI deals with complexities that could block the candidate from attaining her true powers and abilities as a thetan. Level VII is a lengthy procedure, done at home, requiring a considerable time to complete. It is the final pre-OT level. Level VIII, called "truth revealed," removes the primary cause of forgetting one's true identity and reveals the truth of one's own existence. As a result, this first causal OT level brings about a resurgence of power and native abilities of being a thetan.

Levels IX through XV are not disclosed to the uninitiated, so we do not know what they consists of. At the end of the track, the Scientologist is said to reach the state of Cleared Theta Clear. It is a godlike state in which the thetan is completely rehabilitated as a thetan and fully realizes the limitless power of being a thetan, capable of moving MEST, controlling others from a distance, or creating its own universe.

Since each of the eight grades of OTs requires additional auditing, training courses, and texts, releasing the OTs to achieve total freedom may take years and cost as much as $1 million dollars, according to some estimates.

Hubbard expanded his initial therapeutic method, expounded in his book called Dianetics, and founded a church in 1952-54 to perpetuate his ideas and corporate empire. This occurred after mental health authorities condemned Hubbard's claims as fraudulent and his techniques potentially harmful, after he lost control of Dianetics to a wealthy supporter, and after he failed to gain tax exemption for Scientology. Turning Scientology into a religion, Hubbard said, was a matter of practical business, of gaining respectability, of allowing auditors to avoid the need of certification for psychological counseling, and of tax-exemption (Reitman 43-44). And he resorted to secrecy to keep all matters under his tight control and prevent his operation from falling into the hands of the government, his enemies, or outside scrutiny. It was then cloaked in a more recognizably religious garb, veiled in Christian imagery, complete with a cross and replete with the language of Supreme Being. Becoming clear is now spoken of as salvation or personal spiritual enlightenment, and auditing and training courses are likened to attending church. Scientology has a hierarchical organization, with counselors as ministers sporting clerical collars, and with a chairman of the board as the supreme head. Scientology guarantees spiritual freedom and immortality to everyone, provided they follow Hubbard's prescription to the end. For that reason, absolute control has been imposed over the organization, which is supervised by a network of inspectors general. And Scientology maintains strict secrecy at the higher levels, internal surveillance of its own members, and aggressive prosecution of its enemies and detractors is central.

Hubbard went after everybody who dared to criticize Scientology. As he believed that such a person or organization had no rights of any kind, he harassed, tricked, sued, and lied with the intent of destroying the organization or the individual. Hubbard declared war on psychiatry for regarding Scientology as a fraud. He aimed at eradicating psychiatry and taking over the entire field of mental health.

Between late 1980s and early 1990s, Scientology sued the IRS two hundred times, while more than twenty-three hundred individual Scientologists sued the agency over its refusal to allow them to claim tax deduction for their contributions to Scientology. In addition, they recruited whistle-blowers, ran advertisements, and dug into the private lives of IRS employees, planted operatives inside the IRS to look into the vulnerabilities of IRS agents, and filed a $120 million federal lawsuit against the IRS. Finally, the IRS commissioner felt compelled to negotiate with Scientology, recognize it as a church, and grant it tax-exempt status in exchange for dropping the $120 million lawsuit. Likewise, Scientology planted operatives inside the FBI, the Justice Department, and the American Medical Association. They stole tens of thousands of documents to use for their own smear campaigns.

Journalist Paulette Cooper, who wrote a book in which she critically examined Scientology's recruitment practices, its auditing processes, and its battles against the government, was first sued for libel and subjected to eighteen other lawsuits. Then Scientology operatives tapped her phones, broke into her apartment, posted her number on bathroom walls, and handed out fliers to her neighbors, alleging that she was a prostitute. They stole her stationary and used it to send bomb threats to Scientology. In their Operation Freakout, they framed her as the perpetrator of bomb threats against two Arab consulates, against Henry Kissinger, and Gerald Ford, the president. But Cooper was eventually spared as this scheme was never fully executed. Richard Behar, who wrote the cover story for Time magazine in 1991 entitled, "Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power," was assaulted with a frightening array of legal and illegal persecution, including a swarm of lawyers and private detectives, who besieged him (Urban 256–389). Both Time and Behar were sued for libel, but Scientology lost the suit (Reitman xvii–xviii; 116–117).

Scientology's staff members have been abused and mistreated, especially if they failed to exert the maximum effort to make the maximum amount of money, made mistakes, or broke rules or the code of discipline, which is labeled as committing sin. For such failures, Scientology devised various types of punishment and humiliation. For example, someone who overslept was made to wear blue overalls with a dirty gray rag tied around his arm. Use of unsuccessful sales strategy might lead someone to earn the label "Enemy"; she would then be made to wear overalls, with a heavy chain linked around her waist. The worst offenders were staffers who misspent church funds. Their behavior was regarded as "Treason," and they were taken down to a small space at the bottom of the elevator shaft, where they were imprisoned until they had come to their senses. The offending members would be required to do a series of amends, from scrubbing floors with a toothbrush to petitioning each member of the group, individually, to be allowed to rejoin them. If someone disappointed Hubbard at sea, he would be blindfolded and thrown overboard, in worst cases with both hands and feet tied. On land the offender was made to stand against a wall while other Scientologists threw buckets of water at him (Reitman 87–88).

The members of the elite corps, known as the Sea Organization, are a low-paid workforce that is expected to run the church's operation without making any dent on its overall revenue. Those who fail to produce their quota are forced to work without sleep on little pay. The staff members work from seven thirty in the morning until midnight, seven days a week, with fifteen-minute meal breaks. Sex, even kissing, before marriage is strictly prohibited. But if they fall in love and get married, they are not allowed to have children because that would interfere with their productivity. Parents with children under the age of six are not allowed to join. Those who get pregnant are forced to have abortions (Reitman 322-324).

Hubbard is particularly fierce against defecting members. When they want to leave, they are subjected to intense pressure, made to attend hours of special auditing sessions called "confessionals," required to sign false confessions about their personal lives and pay thousands of dollars the organization claims they owe for courses and counseling. Then the organization retaliates by forcibly disconnecting them from parents, siblings, and friends who are Scientologists.

Although Scientologists claim to have millions of members in the United States and abroad, according to the American Religious Identification Survey, the number of Scientologists fell from 55,000 in 2001 to 25,000 in 2008 (New York Times, 7 March 2010). According to Janet Reitman, the worldwide membership is about a quarter of a million today (xvi-xvii).

There are, of course, hundreds of other new religions. Even a brief discussion of them is beyond the scope of this concluding chapter. Their existence shows that the established religions do not satisfy the spiritual needs of many in today's world.

Many factors—social, cultural, religious, and personal, as detailed at the beginning of this chapter—have created this situation. Having arisen in the pre-modern times and within a traditional worldview in which belief in the Sacred was central and religion an integral aspect of life, established traditional religions have not sufficiently changed to face the modern worldview and evolved or adapted their beliefs and practices to engage people in this secular age.

As we saw, the modern worldview cast God or the Sacred to the periphery. And in the postmodern, secular world, the Sacred has disappeared from public view and religion has been relegated to the private sector and made a matter of personal choice. Secularization has led many, particularly in the West, to abandon their traditional beliefs and practices. As noted above, contemporary Europe is the closest thing to a godless civilization the world has ever known. The assumption under which it operates is that living without God is the ultimate destiny of the human race. One sociologist has found that in Denmark and Sweden religion is a nonissue. People speak of benign indifference and utter obliviousness of religion and are even embarrassed to talk about religion. In France, erstwhile a Roman Catholic country, only 7 percent are practicing Catholics. On the other hand, two authors claim that there is a global revival of faith-based religion on the American megachurch model. But it is undeniable that as societies have become increasingly multicultural and multireligious, their members have gained a greater understanding of beliefs of others. Having placed these religions at one another's doorsteps, pluralism, globalization, immigration, and the technological revolution—including the rise of social media—have created unprecedented opportunities not only for learning from one another but also experimenting with other religions. Borrowing elements from diverse sources, many have created their own personal spiritual journeys. Thus religion has now become a matter of choice for most people, and not a forced or inherited identity.

Disconnected from established religions, people have ventured into the open marketplace to satisfy their spiritual hunger. As they arose in the modern and postmodern world, being small scale and more targeted, the new religions have appealed to the disaffected people in the new age. This phenomenon also poses a challenge for established religions to rise to the needs of all humans at this critical juncture in history. Meanwhile, this religious proliferation and diversity is at once a testament to human spiritual longing and the health and vigor of religions of the world, assuring continuation of the human religious adventure into the future.
Appendix

This appendix of study questions is intended to help those readers who wish to test the knowledge on each religion they have gained from reading this book.

Study Questions

Chapter 1: The Meaning and Matter of Religion

1. What is the nature of religion? Describe its main characteristics.

2. Discuss the similarities and differences among the concepts of the Sacred, God, and Ultimate Reality.

3. Explain the nature and importance of sacred texts or scriptures and myths in the context of religion.

4. What is the place and function of myth in religion? What does the term mean in religion? What are the different types of myths?

5. What is the nature and function of ritual in religion? Discuss various types of rituals.

6. What are rites of passage? Explain the main types of such rites.

7. Discuss the nature and place of ethics in religion. Why is it a necessary part of religion?

8. What are the various types of religious institutions and organizations?

9. What are the various types of action in which religions engage?

10. What are the three models for judging the truth or legitimacy of religions, and their consequence for dialogue?

Chapter 2: Native American Religions

1. How do different Native American religions account for the origin of the world and of humans?

2. Describe different types of Native American creation myths and analyze their contents.

3. Describe different concepts of the Sacred in Native American religions.

4. What is the relationship between Native Americans' view of nature and its consequences for ecology?

5. Describe the rituals of the Sacred Pipe, the Sun Dance, and the Ghost Dance.

6. Explain the ritual and significance of the Vision Quest.

7. Describe various types and methods of Native American healing rituals.

8. What are Native American beliefs and practices regarding birth and death?

9. Describe the principles and practices of Native American morality.

10. Explain shamanism.

11. What is the status of women in Native American religions?

12. Explain the significance of Native American religions for today, especially how their view of nature could help us meet the ecological crisis.

Chapter 3: African Traditional Religions

1. How do African religions account for the origin of the world and what place do the creation myths have in their lives?

2. Describe and analyze the contents of various African creation myths.

3. Explain the different levels of the Sacred in African traditional religions.

4. What are the different concepts of Ultimate Reality that can be found in African traditional religions?

5. Illustrate the three-stage evolution of the Sacred as female—supreme, equal, and subordinate—in African traditional religions.

6. What is the place and function of ancestors in African religion?

7. What kinds of rituals do African religions practice? What are their aims in contacting the Sacred?

8. Describe the methods of diagnosis and treatment of illness, and the status and functions of healers in African traditional religions.

9. Describe the rituals of initiation in African religions and societies. What problems are associated with female genital cutting?

10. What are the moral beliefs and practices of African traditional religions?

11. Describe significant religious leaders and their functions in African societies.

12. What are the roles of women in African religions and societies?

13. What are the enduring values of African traditional religions?

Chapter 4: Hinduism

1. What was religion like in the Indus Civilization period?

2. Discuss Vedic religion—its gods, scriptures, and rituals.

3. What kind of changes did the Vedic religion undergo around 1000–700 BCE? Explain the creation myth in Rig Vedic hymn X.129.

4. Explain the nature of Brahman, Atman, and Turiya (infinite consciousness) and their relationship as taught by the Upanishads.

5. Explain karma, rebirth or reincarnation, maya, samsara, and some of the main consequences of the essential teachings of the Upanishads.

6. What factors led to the rise of what is known as classical Hinduism?

7. Explain the evolution of Shiva and analyze his nature.

8. Explain the nature of Vishnu, the concept of avatar, and two of Vishnu's most important Avatars—Krishna and Rama.

9. Explain in detail the nature of the main Hindu Goddesses—Parvati Durga, Kali, and Lakshmi, and the mythologies associated with them.

10. Analyze the main teachings of the Bhagavad Gita.

11. What are the aims of Hindu philosophies? Explain the Vedanta philosophies of Shankara and Ramanuja.

12. What is meant by yoga? Explain the theory and practice of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. What is its goal?

13. Analyze the theory and practice of Tantra and Kundalini Yoga.

14. Explain the nature of Hindu ethics and the concept of Dharma.

15. Describe the four castes, the four stages, and the four goals of life.

16. Explain the place of women in Hindu society.

17. Discuss the nature and evolution of Hindu-Muslim relationship. What are the causes of the conflict between the two religions?

18. Discuss Hindu reform movements following contact with the West.

19. What is Hindu nationalism? What are its consequences?

20. What is the status of Hinduism in today's world?

Chapter 5: Jainism

1. What did you learn from the brief account of Mahavira's life?

2. What are the Jain teachings on soul (jiva) and matter (ajiva)?

3. What is the Jain teaching on karma? Is it the same as the Hindu view?

4. How does karma get attached to the soul and cause one to suffer?

5. How can one become free of suffering and attain liberation? How does the Jain idea of liberation compare with the Hindu view of liberation?

6. Discuss the five vows Jain monks and nuns have to take. Does the teaching on nonviolence have any relevance to ecological concerns?

7. Discuss the similarities and differences among the main Jain groups.

8. What is the place of women in Jainism?

Chapter 6: Buddhism

1. What insight into the nature of the spiritual quest did you gain from reading about the Buddha's life, awakening to the human condition, and search for answers?

2. What was the nature of the Buddha's enlightenment experience?

3. What is the Middle Path? How did the Buddha come to discover it? In what sense does it capture the essence of Buddhism?

4. Explain the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

5. Explain the Buddha's teaching of the three characteristics of the human condition.

6. Explain Dependent Arising of the human condition.

7. Explain Nirvana and its stages.

8. Describe concentration and insight meditation in detail and the experience of enlightenment. Why is meditation central to Buddhism?

9. What are the similarities and differences between Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism?

10. Explain the main Mahayana teachings—the Buddha-nature, Three Bodies (trikaya), Boddhisattva, Emptiness, and samsara and Nirvana.

11. What obstacles did Buddhism have to overcome before being accepted in China and Japan?

12. Discuss the main teachings, distinctive emphasis, and practices of Pure Land Buddhism in China and Japan.

13. Discuss the foundation, meditative practices, enlightenment and its stages (Ten Ox-Herding Stages), and the final goal of Chan/Zen.

14. What is a koan? How is it used in meditation? How does it function in leading the student to enlightenment?

15. Explain the distinctive teachings and practices of Nichiren Buddhism.

16. Explain the status of women in Buddhism, past and present.

17. Explain the meanings of mudra, mantra, and mandala. How are they used in Tibetan Buddhist meditation?

18. Explain the Six Tibetan Tantras and their distinctive meditative practices and goals.

19. Discuss the Six Yogas of Naropa and the doctrine of Bardo.

Chapter 7: Early Chinese Religion and Confucianism

1. What were the religious, cosmological, and social views that developed in ancient China—especially during the Shang and the Zhou periods?

2. What are the beliefs and practices of popular religion in China that persist even today?

3. Explain the essential teachings of Confucius.

4. Is there a concept of the Sacred in Confucianism? From being a minority view, how did Confucianism become transformed into a religious and cultural ethos and in time come to shape Chinese culture and character until the Communists overthrew it?

5. Compare and contrast the teachings of Mencius, Xunzi, and Mozi.

6. Explain Neo-Confucianism, Zhu Xi's synthesis, and Wang Yang-ming's philosophy.

7. What is the status of women in Confucianism?

Chapter 8: Daoism

1. Explain the various meanings of the Dao in Laozi and Zhuangzi.

2. What is the Daoist view of the human condition? What do you think of this view?

3. What do naturalism and wu wei mean for Daoism? What is their relationship?

4. What methods do the Daodejing, the Zhuangzi, and the Inward Training teach for realizing oneness with the Dao?

5. Describe the contributions of the commentaries, shamanism, and Buddhism in the formation of what is known as religious Daoism.

6. What is the position of women in Daoism?

7. Explain Daoist ethics. What is the portrait of the sage in Daoism? Explain.

8. What are the various methods used by later Daoism to gain long life and immortality?

9. Describe the various methods of meditation by which later Daoism sought long life, immortality, and oneness with the Dao.

10. Describe various Daoist sects, their teachings and practices.

11. What is the current status of religion in China today?

Chapter 9: Shinto

1. What is the nature of the Sacred, or Kami? Discuss the various categories of the Sacred in Shinto.

2. Discuss the myth of the creation of Japan and interpret its main elements and the deities involved.

3. Who is Amaterasu? How did she become the supreme deity and symbol of Japan?

4. How did the Japanese Emperors come to claim descent from Amaterasu?

5. Explain Shinto or Japanese ethics and its unique characteristics.

6. What is tsumi? What are the different sources of pollution?

7. Describe the purification rites to wash away one's transgressions and attain purity.

8. Explain the main aspects of Shinto worship, at home and at the shrine.

9. Explain the position of women in Shinto and Japan today.

Chapter 10: Zoroastrianism

1. What was the pre-Zoroastrian form of ancient Iranian religion?

2. How did Zoroaster come to his revelatory experience? What was the content of that experience?

3. Discuss the nature of the Sacred—Ahura Mazda, Angra Mainyu, Spenta Mainyu, and the rest—in Zoroastrianism.

4. Explain the Zoroastrian account of how evil originated, how it exists in the world, and what the final outcome will be.

5. Discuss Zoroastrian eschatology—teachings on death, last judgment (universal and individual), heaven, and hell. Did these teachings have any influence on other religions?

6. What is the distinctive character of Zoroastrian ethics? Describe the main ethical teachings of Zoroastrianism.

7. What is the status of women in Zoroastrianism?

Chapter 11: Judaism

1. Discuss the story of creation in Genesis and the religious issues it contains, as well as the various modern interpretations of the two stories.

2. Explain the patriarchal period and patriarchal religion in the light of modern interpretations and archeological evidence.

3. Explain the events surrounding the exodus, the passover, the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, and the role of Moses. Is there any archeological evidence to support these events?

4. Discuss the nature and significance of the covenant, its ratification by Moses, and the idea of the chosen people.

5. What is the place of law in Judaism? What are the kinds of laws found in the Bible?

6. Explain the Ten Commandments.

7. Discuss the nature and attributes of Yahweh. What ideas and images of God can be found in the books of Genesis and Exodus?

8. How did the Israelites come to settle in Canaan? Discuss the biblical account of the settlement in light of archeological evidence.

9. What does the word "prophet" mean? How did the prophetic movement originate in Israel? Does it have any similarity to shamanism?

10. Discuss the rise and fall of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.

11. Discuss the essential teachings of the Prophets, especially their contributions to the development of the concept of God.

12. What were the new institutions that arose during the Exile?

13. How did the Hebrew Bible come to be written and canonized? What are its three main divisions?

14. What is the Talmud and how was it formed? What is its importance?

15. Discuss the development of Israelite worship services.

16. Describe the main Jewish holy days or festivals.

17. Explain Jewish ethics and its significance for western civilization.

18. Describe the main groups in early Judaism.

19. Explain Jewish mysticism and its significance. What is Hasidism?

20. Discuss the main branches of Judaism in the modern world.

21. Explain the status of women in Judaism.

Chapter 12: Christianity

1. Explain the search for the historical Jesus. How does it differ from the picture of Jesus found in the Gospels?

2. Describe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in the light of modern scholarship.

3. Explain the essential teachings of Jesus, as contained especially in the Sermon on the Mount.

4. Discuss the concept of God in the New Testament.

5. What were the fundamental beliefs, forms of worship, and way of life and organization of the early Christian community?

6. Explain the life and teachings of St. Paul.

7. Discuss the structure and teachings of John.

8. Discuss the development of the doctrine of Christ as articulated by the Councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon.

9. Explain the doctrine of the Trinity as articulated by the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine, and Aquinas.

10. Discuss the life and theology of Augustine.

11. Discuss the development of monasticism in the West.

12. Discuss the theological synthesis of Thomas Aquinas.

13. What factors contributed to the split between the Eastern and the Western Church? Discuss the main features of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

14. Explain Christian mysticism.

15. Discuss the status of women in Christianity.

16. Discuss the essential teachings of Martin Luther as embodied in the seven "Protestant Principles."

17. Explain the teachings of John Calvin and their significance.

18. What are the main features of the Roman Catholic Church, especially as articulated by the Councils of Trent and Vatican I and II?

19. What were the Protestant responses to the modern world ushered in by the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment?

20. What are the recent trends and movements in Christianity?

Chapter 13: Islam

1. What were the social, political, and religious conditions in pre-Islamic Arabia?

2. Describe Muhammad's early life, experience of revelation, and subsequent events and activities of his life until his death.

3. What are the main teachings of the Qur'an and how was it composed? Compare the way Muslims view the Qur'an with the ways most Jews and Christians view the Bible.

4. Discuss the essential teachings of the Qur'an.

5. Explain the doctrine of God in Islam.

6. Discuss the Five Pillars of Islam.

7. What are the Sharia, the hadith, and the sunna? What is the nature of the Islamic Law and how does it compare with the Jewish Law?

8. What is the nature of the Islamic community? Why do Muslims seek to organize their society and government according to this ideal?

9. Describe the expansion of Islam from the death of Muhammad to the Abbasid Caliphate and the factors that led to the expansion.

10. Explain the various meanings of jihad and why the terrorists have adopted the militant version as their policy.

11. Compare the beliefs and practices of the Shiites and the Sunnis.

12. Discuss the teachings of major Muslim philosophers and theologians.

13. Explain Sufism, its teachings and practices.

14. Discuss the status of women in Islam.

15. Discuss Islamic ethics and its foundation on Islamic Law.

16. What is Islamic Fundamentalism? Explain why terrorists want to overthrow Islamic governments and wage war on the secular West.

17. Discuss the ways Islam has responded to the modern world.

Chapter 14: Sikhism

1. How did Nanak's life prepare him for the experience that launched Sikhism? What was his experience that led to Sikhism?

2. What were the religious sources of Sikhism?

3. What is the Sikh concept of God? Compare it with Hindu and Islamic concepts of God.

4. What are other essential teachings of Sikhism?

5. Discuss the events that turned this pacifist religion militant.

6. What are the similarities and differences among the three main groups of Sikhs?

7. What is the status of women in Sikhism?
Credits

The author and publishers wish to thank the following sources for images included in this book.

Chapter 2: Oglala Girl in front of a Tipi. Photography source: Library of Congress.

Chapter 3: Dogon Ceremonial Mask, Mali, West Africa. Author: Ferdinand Reus. From Creative Commons.

Chapter 4: Shiva, Lord of the Dance. Victoria and Albert Museum, Canada. Originally posted to Flickr. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Durga Mahisasuramardini, Goddess Durga slaying the Buffalo Demon Mahisa. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Goddess Kali, by Richard B. Godfrey, 1770. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Goddess Lakshmi, by Raja Ravi Varma. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Chapter 5: Mahavira. From Royal Museum of Art and History, Brussels, Belgium. Creative Commons.

Chapter 6: Kamakura Buddha, Kamakura, Japan. Author: Thymes. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Samsara. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Mandala of Vajradhatu. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Chapter 7: Yin and Yang. Author: Klem. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Confucius. By Wu Daozi (680-740), Tang dynasty. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Chapter 8: Laozi. Source: Edward T.C. Werner. Project Gutenberg Archives. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Chapter 9: Itsukushima Torii. Author: R. Dan Smith. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Meiji Shrine with Torii. Author: Shineru Umbayashi. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Chapter 10: Ahura Mazda, a Persepolis Gate Relief, Iran. Author: Shaahin. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Chapter 11: Mount Sinai with St. Catherine's Orthodox Monastery at base. From the Wikimedia Commons.

The Sefirotic Tree. From The Way of Kabbalah, by Zev ben Shimon Halevi. New York, NY. Samuel Weiser, Inc., Publisher, 1976.

Chapter 12: Jesus giving the keys to St. Peter. By Jean-Auguste-Ingres. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, France. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Martin Luther, by Lucas Kranach the Elder. From the Wikimedia Commons.

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. Photo: Wolfgang Stuck. From the Wikimedia Commons.

Chapter 13: The Taj Mahal, Agra, India. Photo: Dhirad. From the Wikimedia Commons.

The Ka'bah, Mecca, during the pilgrimage (hajj). Attribution: author, Muhammad Mahdi Karim. Licensed to Gabriel J. Gomes by the author Muhammad Mahdi Karim under the Stills License Agreement. Image from Wikipedia, under the GNU Free Documentation Lincense.

Chapter 14: The Golden Temple of Amritsar. Photo: Vinish Saini. From the Wikimedia Commons.
Selected Bibliography

Chapter 1: The Meaning and Matter of Religion

Dunne, John S. The Way of All the Earth. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1972.

Eliade, Mircea. Myth and Reality. Trans. Willard R. Trask. New York: Harper and Row, 1963.

Grimes, Ronald L., ed. Readings in Ritual Studies. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1996.

Hamer, Dean. The God Gene: How Faith Is Hardwired into Our Genes. New York: Doubleday, 2004.

Hultkrantz, Ake. Belief and Worship in Native North America. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1981.

Mann, Charles C. "Birth of Religion." National Geographic, June 2011.

Neville, Robert C., ed. Ultimate Realities. Albany: SUNY, 2001.

Roose-Evans, James. Passages of the Soul: Rediscovering the Importance of Everyday Life. Boston: Element Books, 1995.

Smith, Huston. Forgotten Truth. New York: Harper and Row, 1976.

Torrance, Robert M. The Spiritual Quest: Transcendence in Myth, Religion, and Science. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.

Van Gennep, Arnold. The Rites of Passage. Trans. Monika B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee: Chicago University Press, 1960.

Wach, Joachim. The Comparative Study of Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 1958.

Wright, Robert. The Evolution of God. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2009.

Young, Serinity, ed. Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan Reference, 1999.

Chapter 2: Native American Religions

Albanese, Catherine L. America: Religions and Religion, 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1992.

Allen, Paula G. The Sacred Hoop. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986.

Brown, Joseph E. The Sacred Pipe. Oklahoma: Oklahoma University Press, 1953.

———. The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian. New York: Crossroads, 1992.

Ferguson, Marianne. Women and Religion. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Gill, Sam D. Mother Earth. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1991.

Harner, Michael. The Way of the Shaman. New York: Bantam, 1982.

Hultkrantz, Ake. Belief and Worship in Native North America. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1981.

———. Native Religions of North America. New York: Harper and Row, 1987.

———. Shamanistic Healing and Ritual Drama. New York: Crossroad, 1992.

Kluckhohn, Clyde. "Navajo Morals." In Vergilius Ferm, ed., Encyclopedia of Morals. New York: Philosophical Library, 1965.

Mann, Barbara Alice. Iroquoian Women: The Gantowisas. New York: Peter Lang Publishers, 2000.

Rinpisky-Naxon, Michael. The Nature of Shamanism. Ithaca: SUNY, 1993.

Powers, Marla. Oglala Women: Myth, Ritual, and Reality. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

Sharma, Arvind, ed. Religion and Women. Albany: SUNY, 1994.

Sproul, Barbara C. Primal Myths: Creation Myths around the World. San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 1991.

Stone, Merlin. Ancient Mirror of Womanhood: A Treasury of Goddess and Heroine Lore from around the World. Boston: Beacon, 1979.

Walsh, Roger N. The Spirit of Shamanism. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1990.

Chapter 3: African Traditional Religions

Booth, Newell S., ed. African Religions: A Symposium. New York: NOK, 1977.

Fisher, Robert B. West African Religious Traditions. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1998.

Idowu, E. Bolaji. African Traditional Religion: A Definition. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1975.

——. Olodumare: God in Yoruba Belief. New York: Praeger, 1963.

King, Ursula. Women in the World's Religions: Past and Present. New York: Paragon House, 1987.

Lienhardt, Godfrey. Divinity and Experience: The Religion of the Dinka. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961.

Magesa, Laurenti. African Religion: The Moral Tradition of Abundant Life. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1997.

Mbiti, John S. African Religions and Philosophy. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1969.

Oduyoye, Mercy A. Daughters of Anowa: African Women and Patriarchy. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1997.

Olupona, Jacob K., ed. African Traditional Religions in Contemporary Society. New York: Paragon House, 1991.

Parrinder, Geoffrey. African Mythology. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1967.

Ray, Benjamin C. African Religions: Symbol, Ritual, and Community. Englewood-Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1976.

Sproul, Barbara, ed. Primal Myths. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

Uka, E. M., ed. Readings in African Traditional Religion. New York: Peter Land, 1991.

Young, Serinity. Encyclopedia of Women and World Religions. New York: Macmillan Reference, USA, 1999.

Zahan, Dominique. The Religion, Spirituality, and Thought of Traditional Africa. Trans. Kate Ezra and Lawrence M. Martin. Chicago: University Press, 1979.

Chapter 4: Hinduism

Al-Biruni. Alberuni's India. Trans. Edward C. Sachau. Reprint. Delhi: S. Chand, 1964.

Basham, A. L. The Origins and Development of Classical Hinduism. New York: Oxford, 1989.

Bhattacharyya, N. N. History of the Tantric Religion. 2nd rev. ed. New Delhi: Manohar, 1999.

Biardeau, Madeleine. Hinduism: The Anthropology of a Civilization. Trans. Richard Nice. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Channa, V. C. Hinduism. Delhi: National Publishing House, 1984.

Feuerstein, Georg, trans. The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1989.

Flood, Gavin. An Introduction to Hinduism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Gonda, Jan. Visnuism and Shivaism: A Comparison. London: Athlone, 1970.

Hawley, J. S., and Donna M. Wulff, eds. Devi: Goddesses of India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.

Johnson, Clive, ed. Vedanta. New York: Bantam, 1974.

Kinsley, David R. Hindu Goddesses. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Knipe, David M. Hinduism. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.

Koller, John M. and Patricia Koller. A Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy. New York: Macmillan, 1991.

Larson, Gerald J. India's Agony over Religion. Albany: SUNY, 1995.

Lipner, Julius. Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. London: Routledge, 2002.

Michaels, Axel. Hinduism: Past and Present. Trans. Barbara Harshav. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Miller, Barbara S., trans. The Bhagavad-Gita. New York: Bantam, 1986.

O'Flaherty, Wendy D. Shiva: The Erotic Ascetic. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973.

———, trans. The Rig Veda: An Anthology. New York: Penguin, 1984.

———, trans. The Laws of Manu. New York: Penguin, 1991.

Prabhavananda, Swami, and Christopher Isherwood, trans. Shankara's Crest-Jewel of Discrimination. Hollywood: Vedanta, 1978.

Prabhavananda, Swami, and Frederick Manchester, trans. The Upanishads: Breath of the Eternal. New York: Mentor, 1957.

Radhakrishnan, S., trans. The Principal Upanishads. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Raju, P. T. Sructural Depths of Indian Thought. Albany: SUNY, 1985.

Tharu, Susie, and K. Lalita, eds. Women Writing in India. India. Delhi: Oxford, 1993.

Weiss, H., et al. "The Genesis and Collapse of Third Millennium North Mesopotamian Civilization." Science 261 (August 20, 1993), pp. 995–1004.

Wolpert, Stanley. A New History of India. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982.

Zaehner, R. C. Hinduism. London: Oxford, 1992.

Chapter 5: Jainism

Cort, John E. Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Dundas, Paul. The Jains. London and New York: Routledge, 1992.

Jaini, Padmanabh S. The Jaina Path of Purification. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979.

Laidlaw, James. Riches and Renunciation: Religion, Economy, and Society among the Jains. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.

Smart, Ninian, and Richard Hecht, eds. Sacred Texts of the World: A Universal Anthology. New York: The Crossroad Publishing Company, 1982.

Stevenson, Sinclair. The Heart of Jainism. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1984.

Tobias, Michael. Life Force: The World of Jainism. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1991.

Williams, R. Jaina Yoga: A Survey of the Medieval Sravakacaras. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991.

Chapter 6: Buddhism

Bancroft, Anne. Buddhism. East Sussex, UK: Hodder Weyand, Publishers, 2001.

Buddhaghosa, B. The Path of Purification: Visuddhimagga. Trans. B. Nanamoli. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1979.

Burtt, Edwin A., ed. The Teachings of the Compassionate Buddha. New York: Mentor Publications, 1955.

Chang, Garma C. C., trans. Teachings of Tibetan Yoga. Secaucus: The Citadel Press, 1974.

Ch'en, Kenneth. Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Cleary, Thomas, trans. Entry into the Inconceivable: An Introduction to Hua-yen Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983.

Conze, Edward, et al. Buddhist Texts through the Ages. New York: Harper and Row, 1954.

De Bary, William Theodore, et al., eds. The Buddhist Tradition. New York: Vintage Books, 1972.

Goleman, Daniel. The Meditative Mind: The Varieties of Meditative Experience. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc., 1988.

Harvey, Peter. An Introduction to Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Horner, I. B. Women under Primitive Buddhism: Laywomen and Almswomen. New York: H. P. Dutton, 1930.

Kapleau, Philip. The Three Pillars of Zen. Boston: Beacon, 1972.

———. Zen: Dawn in the West. Garden City: Doubleday, 1979.

Kalupahana, David J., and Indrani. The Way of Siddhartha: A Life of the Buddha. Lanham: University Press of America, 1987.

Koller, John M., and Patricia Kohler. A Sourcebook in Asian Philosophy. New York: Macmillan, 1991.

Kornfield, Jack, and Paul Breiter, compiled and ed. A Still Forest Pool. The Insight Meditation of Achaan Chah. Wheaton: Quest, 1986.

Lopez Jr., Donald S. The Heart Sutra Explained: Indian and Tibetan Commentaries. Albany: SUNY, 1988.

Mitchell, Donald W. Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience, 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Mitchell, Robert Allen. The Buddha: His Life Retold. New York: Paragon, 1989.

Mullin, Glenn H., trans. Readings on the Six Yogas of Naropa. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1997.

Powers, John. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications, 1995.

Ray, Reginald A. Secret of the Vajra Word: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet. Boston: Shambala, 2001.

Reps, Paul, compiled. Zen Flesh, Zen Bones. Garden City: Doubleday Anchor. n.d.

Saddhatissa, Hamalawa. Buddhist Ethics. Boston: Wisdom, 1997.

Seager, Richard H. Buddhism in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000.

Suzuki, Shunryu. Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. New York: Weatherhill, 1973.

Tachibana, Shundo. Ethics of Buddhism. Totowa: Curzon, 1975.

Tharu, Susie, and K. Lalita, eds. Women Writing in India I: 600 B.C. to the Present. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Trainor, Kevin., ed. Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Thurman, Robert A. F. Inside Tibetan Buddhism: Rituals and Symbols Revealed. San Francisco: Collins, 1995.

———. Essential Tibetan Buddhism. HarperCollins, 1996.

Trungpa, Chogyam. Journey without Goal. Boulder: Prajna, 1981.

Tsong-Ka-pa. Tantra in Tibet, vol. 1–3. Trans. and ed. Jeffrey Hopkins. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1980.

———. The Yoga of Tibet. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1981.

Williams, Paul. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. London: Routledge, 1993.

Willis, Janice Dean, compiled. The Diamond Light: An Introduction to Tibetan Buddhist Meditations. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972.

Wright, Arthur F. Buddhism in Chinese History. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1976.

Yu-Kwan, N. G. T'ien-t'ai Buddhism and Early Madhyamika. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.

Chapter 7: Early Chinese Religion and Confucianism

Chan, Wing-Tsit, trans. and compiled. A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972.

———, ed. Chu Hsi and Neo-Confucianism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986.

Cheng, Chung-ying. New Dimensions of Confucian and Neo-Confucian Philosophy. Albany: SUNY, 1991.

Confucius. The Analects of Confucius. Trans. Arthur Waley. New York: Vintage, 1938.

Ferguson, Marianne. Women and Religion. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Hall, David L., and Roger T. Ames. Thinking through Confucius. Albany: SUNY, 1987.

Mencius. Mencius. Trans. D. C. Lau. New York: Penguin, 1970.

Overmyer, Daniel L. Religions of China. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1986.

Rozman, Gilbert., ed. The East Asian Region. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Taylor, Rodney L. The Religious Dimensions of Confucius. Albany: SUNY, 1990.

Van Norden, Bryan W., ed. Confucius and the Analects: New Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Wei-ming, Tu. Confucian Thought: Selfhood as Creative Transformation. Albany: SUNY, 1985.

Wolf, Margery, and Roxanne Witke. Women in Chinese Society. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975.

Yao, Xinzhong. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Chapter 8: Daoism

Allison, Robert E. Chuang-Tzu for Spiritual Transformation: An Analysis of the Inner Chapters. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.

Andersen, Poul. The Method of Holding the Three Ones. London: Curzon Press, 1980.

Blofeld, John. Taoism: The Road to Immortality. Boulder: Shambhala, 1978.

Bokenkamp, Stephen R. Early Daoist Scriptures. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Chan, Wing-tsit. A Sourcebook in Chinese Philosophy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964.

Chang, Po-Tuan. The Inner Teachings of Taoism. Trans. Thomas Cleary. Boston: Shambhala, 1986.

———. Understanding Reality: A Taoist Alchemical Classic. Trans. Thomas Cleary. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1987.

Csikszentmihalyi, Mark, and Philip J. Ivanhoe, eds. Religious and Philosophical Aspects of the Laozi. Albany: SUNY, 1999.

Despeux, Catherine, and Livia Kohn. Women in Daoism. Cambridge: Three Pines, 2003.

Eskildsen, Stephen. Asceticism in Early Taoist Religion. Albany: SUNY, 1998.

Kirkland, Russell. Taoism: The Enduring Tradition. Routledge: New York and London, 2004.

Kohn, Livia. Taoist Mystical Philosophy: The Scripture of Western Ascension. Albany: SUNY, 1991.

———. Early Chinese Mysticism: Philosophy and Soteriology in the Taoist Tradition. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

———, ed. The Taoist Experience: An Anthology. Albany: SUNY, 1993.

Kohn, Livia, and Michael Lafargue, eds. Lao-tzu and the Tao-te-ching. Albany: SUNY, 1998.

Lau, D. C., trans. Lau Tzu: Tao Te Ching. New York: Penguin Books, 1985.

Lopez, Donald S. Jr., ed. Religions of China in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Merton, Thomas. The Way of Chuang Tzu. New York: New Directions, 1965.

Michael, Thomas. The Pristine Dao: Metaphysics in Early Daoist Discourse. Albany: SUNY, 2005.

Robinet, Isabelle. Taoist Meditation: The Mao-Shan Tradition of Great Purity. Trans. J. F. Pas and N. J. Girardot. Albany: SUNY, 1993.

Roth, Harold D. Original Tao: Inward Training and the Foundations of Taoist Mysticism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.

Slingerland, Edward. Effortless Action: Wu Wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

Watson, Burton, trans. The Complete Works of Chuang-tzu. New York: Columbia University Press, 1968.

Yu, Lu K'uan, trans. Taoist Yoga: Alchemy and Immortality. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1977.

Chapter 9: Shinto

Anesaki, Masaharu. History of Japanese Religion. Rutland: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1964.

Breen, John, and Mark Teeuwen, eds. Shinto in History: Ways of the Kami. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Earhart, H. Byron. Religions of Japan. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1984.

Holtom, Daniel C. The National Faith of Japan: A Study in Modern Shinto. New York: Paragon House, 1965.

Hori, Ichiro. Japanese Religion. Trans. Yoshia Abe and David Reid. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1974.

Kitagawa, Joseph M. On Understanding Japanese Religion. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987.

Ornstein, Peggy. "Parasites in Pret-a-Porter," New York Times Magazine, July 1, 2001.

Reader, Ian. Religion in Contemporary Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.

Reader, Ian et al. Japanese Religions: Past and Present. University of Hawaii Press, 1993.

Tanabe Jr., George J., ed. Religions of Japan in Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Chapter 10: Zoroastrianism

Boyce, Mary. A History of Zoroastrianism, vol. 1–2. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1982.

Darmesteter, J., trans. The Zend Avesta, vols. 6, 31, and 33. In The Sacred Books of the East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1883.

Dawson, Miles M. The Ethical Religion of Zoroaster. New York: AMS Press, 1969.

Duchesne-Guillemin, Jacques. Religion of Ancient Iran. Bombay: K. M. Jamaspasa, 1973.

Hinnells, John R. Persian Mythology. London: Hamlyn, 1973.

Chapter 11: Judaism

Baskin, Judith., ed. Jewish Women in Historical Perspective. Detroit: Wayne State University, 1998.

Biale, David, ed. Cultures of the Jews. New York: Schocken Books, 2002.

Corrigan, John, Frederick M. Denny, Carlos Eire, and Martin S. Jaffe. Jews, Christians, Muslims: A Comparative Introduction to Monotheistic Religions. Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998.

Ferguson, Marianne. Women and Religion. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1995.

Finkelstein, I., and Neil A. Silberman. The Bible Unearthed: Archeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts. New York: The Free Press, 2001.

Halevi, Z'ev ben Shimon. The Way of Kabbalah. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1976.

Hoffman, Edward. The Way of Splendor: Jewish Mysticism and Modern Psychology. Boulder: Shambhala Publications, 1981.

Idel, Moshe. Kabbalah: New Perspectives. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

Jaffe, Martin S. Early Judaism. Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1997.

Kugel, James L. How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now. New York: Free Press, 2007.

Matt, Daniel C. The Essential Kabbalah: The Heart of Jewish Mysticism. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995.

Metzger, Bruce M., and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Books. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Miles, Jack. God: A Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.

Neusner, Jacob. Signposts on the Way of Torah. Belmont: Wadsworth, 1998.

Robinson, George. Essential Judaism: A Complete Guide to Beliefs, Customs, and Rituals. New York: Pocket Books, 2000.

Seltzer, Robert M., ed. Judaism: A People and Its History. New York: Macmillan, 1989.

Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God: Yahweh and the Other Deities in Ancient Israel. San Francisco: Harper SanFrancisco, 1990.

Chapter 12: Christianity

Brown, Raymond E. An Introduction to the New Testament. Doubleday, 1997.

Crossan, John D. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1994.

Fredriksen, Paula. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews: A Jewish Life and Emergence of Christianity. New York: Knopf-Random House, 1999.

Gutierrez, Gustavo. A Theology of Liberation. New York: Orbis Press, 1972.

Haight, Roger. Jesus: Symbol of God. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1999.

Kung, Hans. Christianity: Essence, History, and Future. New York: Continuum, 1995.

MacCullough, Diarmaid. Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. New York: Viking Publishing Company, 2009.

McManners, John, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

McGinn, Bernard. The Foundations of Mysticism. New York: Crossroad, 1991.

———. The Flowering of Mysticism. New York: Crossroad, 1998.

Meier, John P. A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus I–III. New York: Doubleday, 1991.

Meister Eckhart. Meister Eckhart. Trans. Raymond B. Blackney. New York: Harper and Row, 1941.

———. Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality in New Translation. Trans. Matthew Fox. New York: Doubleday, 1980.

Metzger, Bruce M., and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Books. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Pseudo-Dionysius. Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works. Trans. Colm Luibheid. Mahwah: Paulist, 1987.

Roberts, Bernadette. The Experience of No-Self: A Contemplative Journey. Boulder: Shambhala, 1984.

St. John of the Cross. Selected Writings. Trans. and ed. Kiernan Kavanaugh. Mahwah: Paulist, 1987.

St. Teresa of Avila. The Interior Castle. Trans. Kiernan Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez. Ramsey: Paulist, 1979.

Wright, N. T. Jesus and the Victory of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996.

———. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003.

Chapter 13: Islam

Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.

Al-Ghazali. The Faith and Practice of Al-Ghazali. Trans. W. Montgomery Watt. Chicago: Kazi, 1982.

Al-Arabi, Ibn. The Bezels of Wisdom. Trans. R. W. J. Austin. New York: Paulist, 1980.

Arberry, A. J., trans. The Koran Interpreted. New York: Macmillan, 1964.

———. Sufism. New York: Harper and Row, 1970.

Armstrong, Karen. Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992.

———. A History of God. New York: Alfred A. Knof, 1993.

Bonney, Richard. Jihad: From Kur'an to Bin Laden. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Dawood, N. J., trans. The Koran. New York: Penguin, 1974.

Denny, Frederick, M. Islam and the Muslim Community. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1987.

Donner, Fred M. Muhammad and the Believers: At the Origins of Islam. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010.

Esposito, John L. Islam: The Straight Path. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.

———, ed. The Oxford History of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Glasse, Cyril. The Concise Encyclopedia of Islam. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989.

Halm, Heinz. Shi'a Islam: From Religion to Revolution. Trans. Allison Brown. Princeton: Marcus Wiener, 1997.

Kamrava, Mehran, ed. The New Voices of Islam: Rethinking Politics and Modernity—A Reader. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.

Kepel, Gilles. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Trans. Anthony F. Roberts. Cambridge: Belknap, 2002.

Kung, Hans. Islam: Past, Present, and Future. Trans. John Bowden. Oxford: Oneworld, 2007.

Lewis, Bernard. The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror. New York: The Modern Library, 2003.

Murata, Sachiko, and William C. Chittick. The Vision of Islam. New York: Paragon, 1994.

Nasr, Seyyed Hussein. The Heart of Islam: Enduring Values for Humanity. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002.

Nurbakhsh, Javad. In the Paradise of the Sufis. New York: Khaniqahi-Nimatullahi, 1979.

Qureshi, Emran, and Michael A. Sells. The New Crusaders: Constructing the Muslim Enemy. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003.

Rahman, Fazlur. Islam. Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1968.

Rippin, Andrew. Muslims: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices, 3rd ed. London: Routledge, 2005.

Schimmel, Annemarie. Mystical Dimensions of Islam. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975.

———. Islam: An Introduction. Albany: SUNY, 1992.

Wadud, Amina. Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Waines, David. An Introduction to Islam. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Chapter 14: Sikhism

Cole, W. Owen, and Piara Singh Sambhi. The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. New Delhi: Rupa and Co., 1989.

Grewal, K. S. Understanding Sikhism. New Delhi: Inter-India, 1991.

McLeod, W. H., trans. and ed. Textual Sources for the Study of Sikhism. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.

McMullen, Clarence O. Religious Beliefs and Practices of the Sikhs in Rural Punjab. New Delhi: South Asia Publications, 1989.

Sikh Missionary Center. Sikh Religion. Detroit: Sikh Missionary Center, 1990.

Smart, Ninian, and Richard Hecht, eds. Sacred Texts of the World: A Universal Anthology. New York: Crossroad, 1982.

Trumpp, Ernest, trans. The Adi Granth, 2nd ed. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Oriental, 1970.

Chapter 15: The New Horizon

Daschke, Dereck, and W. Michael Ashcroft. New Religious Movements: A Documentary Reader. New York: New York University Press, 2005.

Enroth, Ronald, ed. A Guide to New Religious Movements in the Twenty-first Century. Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2005.

Lewis, James R., and Jesper A. Peterson, eds. Controversial New Religions. New York: Oxford, 2005.

Lucas, Philip C., and Thomas Robbins. New Religious Movements in the Twenty-first Century. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Momen, Moojan. A Short Introduction to the Bahai Faith. Oxford: Oneworld, 1997.

Partridge, Christopher, ed. New Religions: A Guide. New York: Oxford, 2004.

Reader, Ian, et al. Japanese Religions: Past and Present. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.

Reitman, Janet. Inside Scientology: The Story of America's Most Secretive Religion. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011.

Slotkin, J. S. "The Peyote Way." In Teachings from the American Earth, ed. Denis Tedlock and Barbara Tedlock. New York: Liveright, 1975.

Urban, Hugh B. "Fair Game: Secrecy, Security, and the Church of Scientology in Cold War America." In Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74 (June 2006).

Wikipedia. Scientology.

Wilson, Bryan, and Jamie Cresswell. New Religious Movements: Challenge and Response. London: Routledge, 1999.

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