Download Polytheistic Religions

 One
of the oldest
religions in the
world
 Evolved from the
beliefs of the
people living in
an area called
the Indus Valley
in what is now
northwestern
India and eastern
Pakistan
 Believed
in one main
god, Brahma (or
Brahman), and many
lesser gods.

A set of sayings and
teachings called the
Vedas inspired by
Brahma

Contain hymns and
chants
The Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity (from left ), Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, c.
1880.

Vishnu with his 10
avatars
(incarnations): Fish,
Tortoise, Boar, ManLion, Dwarf, Rāma
with the Ax, King
Rāma, Krishna,
Buddha, and Kalkin.
Painting from Jaipur,
India, 19th century;
in the Victoria and
Albert Museum,
London.
 Castes
Brahmins – priests
1.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
– classes
Assisting people with worship and remembering and
passing the sacred texts
Kshatriyas – soldiers and nobles
Vishyas - farmers, merchants, and craftspeople
Shudras – servants and laborers
Untouchables – people outside the other castes
who did the dirtiest jobs
 Hindus
believe people were born into a
certain caste because of their karma from a
past life


Remained a member of that caste for life
Not allowed to associate with other castes
 Around
the 9th century BC the Brahmins
became very powerful

Another group, hermits, emerged as religious
leaders, who lived a simple life in the forest and
devoted their life to meditation

Yoga


Intended to transform consciousness to free yourself from
desire
Bhakti

Devotion and praise to deity

Cast is irrelevant
Reciting or singing name
of deity
 Caring for image
 Wearing emblems or
symbols
representing deity


Forehead markings (Tilak )
 In
the 8th century Muslims migrated to India
and after 500 years of conflict took over
India
 The British set up colonies and further
diluted the Indian culture
 Gandhi (1869-1949) – used the Hindu
principle of non-violent resistance to
eventually free India of British rule in 1947
 Gurus,
Hindu teachers
 Share a common set of beliefs




When people die they come back to earth in a
process called reincarnation
A person’s good or bad behavior, called karma,
during their lifetime influences their status in
their next life
As a reward for good behavior, they might be
born into a higher caste
As a punishment for bad behavior, the could be
reborn as an animal
 Samsara


the cycle of birth,
death and rebirth
Ends when a person
achieves moksha, the
final stage of purity
 Four

stages of life
A student, householder,
a forest hermit, and a
wandering holy man

Most spend their adult
life as a householder
 Certain
animals are
sacred
 Cow





Source of milk and cheese
Does work by pulling carts
and plows
Dung is used as fuel
Not allowed to kill a cow
And most Hindus do not eat
beef

Many do not eat meat of any
kind
 One
creator-god – Brahma
 Vishnu – the preserver

Believed to appear in ten forms, or avatars
 Shiva

– the destroyer
A god of opposites, responsible for destroying
creation, but also for re-creating it
 Special

places can be gods and goddesses
The Ganges River is worshipped as a goddess

Believe the waters will wash away their sins and cure
their illnesses
 Written
over thousands of years
 Oldest is in Sanskrit
 Vedas – written between 2000 and 400 BC
 Rig Veda

Collection of hymns about the Hindu gods and
their worship
 Upanishads
and moksha
– which talk about reincarnation
 Gods
and goddesses in pictures and statues
 Shown to have many faces and arms
 Brahma has four faces to show he rules over
the four points of the compass
 Each rides a specific animal
 The written form of the sacred sound of om
or aum is used as a symbol

Represents the first sound heard in the world and
also is found at the beginning of Hindu prayers
 Temple
or special shrine in the home
 Worship individually
 Dharma, behaving in a good or ethical way,
to be an act or worship
 At home, offer prayers daily

Offerings such as food, flowers, incense, milk,
water, or ghee (a form of butter) to a statue or
picture
 Some

temples are in caves or mountains
Dedicated to a god or goddess
 Before
a baby is born special prayers are
offered
 10 or 12th day a naming ceremony
 5 or 6 months special prayers for first solid
food
 Another special ceremony for first haircut
and ear piercing somewhere between one
and five
 Hindu
boy from one of the upper three
castes
 Age of 12
 After a series of ritual baths and prayers the
boy is given a loop of thread
 It is made up of three cords, each is made up
of three twisted strands, symbolizing the
interconnectedness of all existence.
 The boy wears the cord over his left shoulder
and under his right arm for the rest of his
life.
 Holi
– February or March
 Dussehra – September or October
 Diwala – October or November
 One
of the world’s largest religions
 Close to one billion Hindus in the world
 Founded
by Siddhartha Guatama (563-483
BC) who later became know as the Buddha
 Lived in northern India (present-day Nepal)
 Raised in luxury and his father wanted him to
become king.


A fortune teller told his father that when the boy
saw four people, a poor man, and old man, a
corpse and a beggar, he would leave his family
and not become king.
Siddhartha saw the four men and at 29 left his
family to seek out an answer as to why there was
so much suffering in the world.
 For
six years he travelled
 Meditating under and bodhi in a place called
Bodh Gaya he became aware of the answer,
which he called the Four Noble Truths and
the Eightfold Path
 He began to travel, preaching and teaching
and became known as the Buddha (The
Enlightened One)
 Buddhism spread and took on different
characteristics in different places.
 Four
1.
2.
3.
4.
Noble Truths
There is suffering in the world.
Suffering is caused by human desires or
greed.
Suffering can be stopped by stopping
human desires.
This can be done by following the Eightfold
Path.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Right understanding – understanding the
teachings of the Buddha, especially the
Four Noble Truths.
Right thoughts – thinking about the Four
Noble Truths and how to put them into
practice by being kind to others.
Right speech – speaking kindly toward and
about others.
Right action – acting in ways that are kind
and helpful.
 5.
Right livelihood – choosing a job that is not
harmful to others.
 6. Right effort – concentrating on becoming a
better person.
 7. Right mindfulness – being aware of
thoughts in order to think kindly towards
others.
 8. Right concentration – practicing
meditation, which helps to enlighten the
mind.
 Completing
the Eightfold Path is said to have
freedom from all suffering which Buddhist
call reading nirvana
 Buddhists believe that when a person dies he
or she returns to continue in another
attempt to reach nirvana
 The laws of karma, reincarnation and
dharma apply
 Buddha
is not thought of as a god, but as a
person who is enlightened
 Any person can become a buddha
 For
centuries passed down
by monks through word of
mouth
 Written down in the first
century, Pali Canon
 Dhammapada
 Buddha


Hands touching the
ground symbolizes his
enlightenment
Reclining position
shows the Buddha in a
stage near to nirvana
 The
Wheel of life, the
wheel of the law

Circular nature of life,
cycles of life and
rebirth
 Sri
Lanka, Burma and
southeastern Asia


Most traditional, individual
responsibility
Most become monks or
nuns to seek personal
enlightenment


Shave heads and wear
saffron as Buddha did, live in
simplicity and meditation
Boys as young as 4 or 5
sent to a monastery
 2nd

century BC
India, spread to Tibet, China and Japan
 Bodhisattvas,
people who are ready to reach
nirvana but chose to help others along the
path to enlightenment
Comparison of the Theravadan &
Mahayanan traditions:
Theravada Buddhism
Mahayana Buddhism
Reaching Nirvana is the ultimate goal of the Theravada
Buddhist.
Vow to be reborn in order to help all other sentient beings
reach Nirvana first.
Strives for wisdom first .
Compassion is the highest virtue.
Centers on meditation, and requires major personal
dedication such as being a monk or nun.
Encourages practice in the world and among the general
community.
Followed as a teaching or Philosophy.
Followed with reference to higher beings, more like a
religion.
Moved primarily South and West covering Indochina and
Ceylon (Sri-Lanka).
Moved Primarily North and West, covering China, Korea,
Japan, and Tibet.
Early work written in Pali (e.g. kamma, dhamma).
Early texts are in Sanskrit (e.g. karma, dharma)
Emphasizes rules and education
Emphasizes intuition and practice
Politically conservative
Politically liberal
 In
Japan- Pure Lane Buddhism
 Zen Buddhism –centers on meditation, taken
into Japan

Believe in enlightenment called satori, by physical
labor or meditation cross-legged
 Vajrayana
Buddhism or Tantric Buddhism,
Tibet – Dalai Lama, spiritual leader

When he dies his spirit enters a newborn boy who
becomes the next Dalai Lama
 Practice
in all aspects of life
 Devotion is meditation
 Temples and monasteries can be found
everywhere
 Shrines were built to house relics of Buddha
or to house his writings
 When visiting a temple





Might remove shoes
Sit before a statue of the Buddha
Recite a short verse
Leave an offering
meditate
 New
Year – New Moon of February
 Vaishakha Festival – eighth day of the second
lunar month
 Hana Matsuri – April 8
 Pirit
 Confucius
(551-479BC)
 Teacher


Social harmony
Society based on respect, li


Jen – goodness, human-heartednesss


Superior person (a father, an elder brother, a ruler)
was to be considerate of and benevolent toward those
beneath him, and the inferior person was to be
respectful and loyal.
“do not do unto others what you would not want
others to do to you”
Analects
 Don’t
have a particular concept of god
Ancient religion of India
 Believe every living being has a soul and the soul
collects atomic particles, called karma, which
cling to it and keep it from reaching perfection.




Right faith, right knowledge and right conduct


Non-violence
Do not eat meat and periods of fasting


When the body dies the soul is reborn
Jains treat their bodies harshly to burn out the bad
karma
Do not eat after dark so they will not accidently
swallow an insect
Believe any living being has the potential to
become siddha, or god, by achieving moksha
Ancient traditional religion of Japan
 Emperor Meiji made it the official religion in
1868
 Religion of nature




Supernatural spirits or gods (kami) inhabit all aspects
of nature
Can be found in oceans, mountains, animals, plants
and especially human ancestors.
The kami protect people who are placed in their care
Izanagi and his wife, Izanami, created the
earth, they stirred the water the create many
islands, the islands are Japan
 Sun goddess, Amaterasu Omikami

Practice in the Punjab region of India
 Founded in the 15th century

A religion that accepted both Hindu and Muslim faith
 Gurus leaders built temples and established cities

During the 18th and 19th centuries fought the
Muslims for control, but was taken over by the
British in 1849
 1947 – India and Pakistan became independent
and today there is still animosity between Sikhs
and Muslims but they live peacefully
 Believe in one God and that all people are equal
 Believe it is important to care for and serve
other people
