Download 4. Classes and Castes - David Wayne Layman, Ph.D.

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1. (Q. 2) How do we organize society?
Hinduism
 Class and caste
 Karma & Moksha
 The 4 Paths of Salvation
 The 3 Debts and the 4 Stages of Life
Judaism and Islam
 Sanctification & Purity
The Five Pillars of Islam
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2. New Class System
Brahmins: priests, magicians → teachers
Kshatriyas: warriors & rulers
Vaishyas: merchants, upper-class farmers
Shudras: servants
“Out-castes” (didn’t even belong) = “Dalit”
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3. Dalit
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4. Classes and Castes
Classes are sub-divided into castes
Castes are “job sub-classifications”
Castes give “a place for everyone [male]” in a community
 A minutely defined hierarchy
5. Example of jati
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6. The Problem of the Class System
How do we tell a man that he must be what his father was?
 Karma
 “Action”
Life must be infinitely repeated
 This solution becomes a problem
7. The Problem of Karma (p. 87)
You could live a good life
 Do sacrifices, please gods
…but you had to go through cycle of life, death, rebirth
This cycle is samsara
 Good karma is still karma
 How do we avoid rebirth?
8. The Solution of moksha
“Liberation”
 …from the cycle of life, death, rebirth
Attachment to “me” and “my” actions
Liberation is non-attachment
 Asceticism (self-denial see p. 87)
 Meditation
 The true self is “the Real” (p. 85)
 “non-dualism”
9. Modern ascetic (a “yogi”)
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10. The Bhagavad Gita: Introduction
Social duties created karma
 Men wanted to get off the wheel of life
 Needed synthesis of duty and moksha
Persona: Krishna, Arjuna
 “Arjuna’s distress”
 Karma = “action”
11. Answers of the Bhagavad Gita
(“Readings,” pp. 14-15)
How can one do one’s social duties and still achieve moksha (liberation)?
Killing the body will not create karma
Act without karma
“Bhakti”
12. Ways of “Salvation”
The “3 answers” ➛ 3 Ways
Jnana yoga: mystical wisdom
 Raja Yoga: physical discipline
Karma yoga: duty
 Rituals, Caste, dharma
 Do your job without desire
Bhakti yoga: devotion, “love”
13. Karma Yoga (1)
Laws of Manu (200 BCE — 200 CE)
Three “Debts” (for “twice-born” males)—p. 110, #35-6
 Study (of Vedas)
 Sons (to sacrifice to you)
 Sacrifice (to ancestors)
14. Karma Yoga: Four Stages of Life
(pp. 110-111)
Student
Householder
 receives sacrificial fire from father at marriage
Retirement, forest-dweller
Sannyasin, ascetic
15. Judaism and Islam
Sanctification, holiness, and purity
 Animal → Human
 Fit to relate to God
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To be “set apart,” different
Ethnic → moral
Judaism: kosher, “family purity”
Islam: halal
16. Legal organization of Judaism
Halakha(h): A legal text of Judaism
Rabbis
 Students
 Teach
 Apply as judges
Torah: God’s teaching
 Given to Moses
 In two forms: written and oral
17. The “Dual Torah”: Written & Oral
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18. The Texts of Judaism
Hebrew Bible =
Tanak (T-N-K)
 Torah = teachings, law
 Nevi’im = prophets (incl. History)
 Kethuvim = writings, “miscellaneous”
19. Texts of Judaism (2)
“No transparency of meaning”
The Mishnah
 Written “edition” of the Oral Torah
 Judah the Patriarch, c. 200 CE
The Talmud
 The Mishnah + Gemara (“commentary”)
 200-500 CE
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21. The (Dual) Torah
“Independence of Halakhic Judgment” (“Readings”)
“Fencing the Torah”
 Make sure one doesn’t break
 Capture all possible problems,
 Example: “You shall not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.”
 Add to the legal traditions…
22. Sanctification
Set apart
Higher meaning, restraint and self–discipline
Holiness
 God is holy: separate from all impurity
 we (Jews) are to be holy
 “sanctification of the name”: show that God is holy
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23. Sanctification
“I give thanks before Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, that Thou has set my lot
among those who sit in the House of Study and the Synagogue, and hast not set my lot with
those who frequent the theatres and circuses; for while I labor to inherit Paradise, they labor
for the pit of destruction”
24. “Islam” = submission
Complete, absolute surrender to God
 All reality circumscribed by him
 Sufficiency within God
 To submit is to be a “Muslim”
“Success”=salvation
 Threatened by shirk (“idolatry”)
 Idol is less than ultimate
 “Come out on top” = be allied with God
25. Five Pillars of Islam (1)
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(1) Shahada(h)
“There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Prophet [Rasul]of God”
 Profession of faith
 Tawhid
 Unity= to unify under God
 Task of bringing everything under God’s authority
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26. Five Pillars of Islam (2)
(2) Salat
 Prayer (worship ) five times day
 Ritual purification (wudu)
 Prayer; prostration (as total submission=muslim to God)
(3) Zakat religious tax, give to needy
(4) Sawm: fasting; month of Ramadan (ends with Eid al Fitr)
27. Five Pillars of Islam (3)
(5) Hajj
Pilgrimage to Mecca
 Mentally, physically, and financially able
Embodies unity of Muslim community
Enact founding events of Islam
28. “Ihram”: Equality and simplicity
29. Great Mosque at Mecca
30. Great Mosque
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31. Hajj
Circumambulation of Ka’bah
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 Seven times, beginning and end
Mt. Mercy: hear Muhammad’s last sermon
Stoning “the devil,” tempting Abraham (Ishmael)
Running between the hills, Zamzam
32. Circumambulation of Kab’ah
33. “Mt. Mercy”
34. Stoning “the Devil”
35. “The Running”
36. Zamzam Water
37. Eating the Sacrifice
38. The Structure of Authority
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39. The Tradition and Sayings
Sunna (of umma): Unwritten tradition
 Collective body of wisdom and practice
 The actions of Muhammad
Hadith: Written traditions of sayings
Develop Shari’a
 consensus
 Analogy
40. Basic Questions in World Religion (Reprise)
What is the Sacred?
 What is ‘god”?
 What gives life meaning and energy?
How do we organize society?
How should we live (morality and ethics)?
What sort of rituals do we carry out?
 How do we worship god, the sacred forces in reality?
41. Q. 3: How should we live?
Hinduism: Dharma, Virtue and Ethics
Buddhism
Confucianism
Judaism
Christianity
Islam
42. Buddhism: Review
The Buddha is a dead teacher
Teaches the Four Noble Truths
 Suffering
 Desire
 Nirvana
 Eight-fold Path
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43. The Eight-Fold Path (outline)
For those willing to leave the “house-hold”
Wisdom
Ethical Conduct
Mental Discipline
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44. The Eight-Fold Path (p. 153)
Understanding (knowledge)
Thoughts (intention, the will to follow path)
Speech
Conduct
Livelihood
Effort (not-begin/end evil thoughts; begin/continue good thoughts)
Mindfulness
Meditation
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45. The Triple Gem
The Buddha: teacher of way to nirvana
Dharma: teaching
 Four Noble Truths
 Eightfold Path
 Ten Precepts
Sangha: the (monastic) community of those who follow the teaching
46. Dharma: Ten Precepts
Five Precepts for Laypeople: don’t
 destroy life
 steal
 Engage in sexual misconduct
 “unchaste life”
 monks and nuns must not engage in any sexual conduct
 Lie
 Take intoxicants
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47. Dharma: Ten Precepts (see version, pp. 132-3)
Don’t eat after midday
Don’t use ornaments
Don’t watch entertainment
Don’t use high or luxurious beds
(Monks only) Don’t use money
Monks, nuns, and novices keep first nine Precepts
48. Dharma: Wheel of Becoming
“Readings,” #2
Karma and Ignorance
The Three Poisons
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Impermanence and Anatta
(“Readings,” #5)
Dependent Origination
49. Wheel of Becoming
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50. Primary Forms of Buddhism
Theravada (called “Hinayana” by second group)
 Path (or, Way) of the Theras
 Theras are the Senior Monks
 Conservative
Mahayana
 Large Vehicle
 “Big Ferryboat”
 Not just for monastic elite
51. Theravada Buddhism
The Buddha is Tathagata (“gone”)
The Dharma
 Nirvana is end of (self-) existence
 self –power
The Sangha
 This is only achievable in a monastic existence
 Goal of arhant: perfected saint (monk)
 Lay people gain merit by assisting the Sangha
52. Mahayana Buddhism
Populist: enlightenment for the masses
Buddha becomes a divine being
 Can pray to, seek help of
 Can help to find enlightenment
Goal is bodhisattva (p. 154)
 (contrast to “arhant”)
 Step back from enlightenment
 Compassion: work for enlightenment of other sentient beings
53. Mahayana Buddhism: Nirvana
“Salvation” in Mahayana Buddhism
Nirvana not distinct from samsara
 Nirvana is here and now
 No “other place” to go
With assistance of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas
 Other-power
 offerings, rituals
54. Mahayana Buddhism: Nirvana
= Buddha nature
 Emptiness
 What things are is emptiness
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 Realize unity with all things
Transparency
 Don’t get “hung up” on things
 Accept the givenness of things
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56. Confucianism
Historical Context: “Age of a hundred philosophers”
The “Great Way”
Li
Filial piety
Shu
Jen
Chun-tzu (“noble person,” literally, “superior man”)
57. The Great Way
“the worthy and able were promoted to office”
“They did not regard as parents only their own parents, or as children only their own
children”
“Men disliked the thought that their energies were not fully used, yet they used them not for
private ends”
“people could leave their outer gates unbolted”
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58. Confucius’ character
Don’t be concerned about recognition
Constant moral striving
 Learn from from the good man, teach the evil man
Not a comfortable life
Sympathy (related to jen)
Don’t worry about the spirits
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59. Li: proper ritual
Pp. 202-203
Limits human passion (p. 191)
Recognizes order and source of life
Harmony (p. 188)
Do the ritual (“right”)
Express emotions properly and to the right degree
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60. Li as moral ritual (“Readings,” p. 16, ll. 6-10)
Li orders the government and its rituals
 Society “automatically” does the right thing (p. 191 top)
Li enables us to respond to others in the proper way, e.g.,
 Li keeps courtesy from becoming tiresome
 Li keeps caution from becoming timidity
 Li keeps daring from becoming turbulent
 Li keeps inflexibility from becoming harsh
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61. Filial Piety
Basic definition
 “filial”: belonging to a son
 Piety: respect, reverence
The hierarchy of social relations
Essential to harmony
Caring for parents: respect, attitude
62. The structure of “filial piety” (see p. 188)
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63. Shu, Jen, chün-tzu
Shu (p. 189)
Jen (pp. 189, 201)
 goodness, virtue, benevolence
 Moral goodness, not material well-being
The chün-tzu (“Readings”; textbook, p. 202)
 Moral development
 Pay attention to actions or character
 Rejection of comfort
64. Christian Ethics
“Now the works of the flesh are … sexual immorality… lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,
… outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, … murders, drunkenness, orgies,… those who
practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, and self-control.”
65. Christian Ethics (2)
What is this new power, the “Spirit”?
Being “in Christ” (p. 324 middle)
Christ is “in” the believer
Love: Agape (p. 323)