Religion Final

• Four Noble Truths


  • Suffering - unavoidable, not constant
  • Origination - craving, aversion, delusion (3 poisons)
  • Cessation - see things as they are, cease to crave
  • Path - 8 fold, 3 fold training, moral discipline, concentration, insight, deprive/flip pain
• Three Jewels


  • Buddha - awoken one
  • Dharma - truth to which he was awoken, teaches followers
  • Sangha - monastic community; become sons of Buddha
• Take refuge in the Three Jewels


  Initial act, marked as ritually committed to Buddhist path. Commitment/reorientation towards 3 jewels
• The next Buddha is supposed to be Maitreya, the fat and happy man
• The Buddha had 32 special marks and was born as the next Buddha. He did not figure stuff out, it was a direct apprehension (3 watches of the night) towards samsara, using the 4 noble truths.
• Buddhist monastic


  • Monk/nun; community who have left home, given up jobs, sex, family to devote themselves to practice and preservation of the dharma
  • Oral texts are needed for communal representation to pass down for succeeding generations
  • They are teachers for lay people and recipients for offerings for good karma
  • There are many rules, 250 for monks and more for nuns
• Mahayana Buddhism


  • Holds back from lesser awakening (being just an arhat)
  • The goal is Buddhahood, longer path and not as quick, takes 3 forevers
  • Adds infinite world systems and a lot of canon text
• Bodhisattva


  Someone on the path to becoming a Buddha, in the process of awakening themselves and others
• Bodhisattva path


  Takes 3 forevers to cultivate perfection, generosity, energy, and meditation. Insight into emptiness
• Emptiness


  Everything exists contextually, only dependent on other things. Constantly changing, contingent. No thing exists because nothing exists independently. Names are only for convenience and language = useful fiction. Suchness, everything just how it exists.
• Emptiness


  • The only thing that makes sunglasses are the people who use them/put them into use. Depends on the person who made them and the person who owns them that they act as sunglasses.
• Ajahn Chah's meditation


  • Stop and see. Cease to crave, need a concentrated mind, laser pointed at one thing, regard as empty/not self. Not permanence/suffering
• Ajahn Chah's meditation


  Compared to Yoga Sutra: Stop identifying with prakaiti; you are not yourself, thoughts, etc. Order parusha and prakrati then disidentify. Stop turnings on wheel of thought
• Vipassana (Ajahn Chah)


  Compared to huatou practice (Sheng Yen): Huatou is a question given by a master in order to study to achieve doubt in order to reach great enlightenment. = essential part of gong'an. Generate doubt. Chah - observing senses Yen - generating doubt
• Sudden enlightenment in Chan/Zen


  Is like non-dualism. Dualism is delusion because everything is empty. Sudden enlightenment you as you are is stuff of Buddhas. Any attempt to become buddha is delusion. Methods of no method, just sit with awareness. Cannot be awoken by steps. Relates to huatou practice because enlightenment comes from one pointed mind which is why huatous are given by masters, to create one pointed mind and obtain great doubt to reach enlightenment.
• Sheng Yen's description of gong'an and huatou practice shows that "Zen is all about being chill" is a partial understanding
• Darshan


  The act of seeing and being seen by the deity; a two-way gaze
• Cultivating oneself according to the Yoga Sutra


  1. Practice of detachment of desire and external thought

  2. Action towards hyperconsciousness to eliminate through and left with only subliminal impressions

  3. Use the limbs of yoga (concentration, meditation, pure contemplation) for meditation
• Purpose of cultivating oneself in the Yoga Sutra


  To solve the problem of human existence: the dependence on external factors
• Yoga Sutra's metaphysics


  Dualistic, distinguishing between Purusha (spirit) and Prakriti (matter)
• Upanishads' metaphysics


  Non-dualistic, emphasizing the concept of Brahman and the ultimate, infinite reality
• Supernaturalism


  The existence of gods within a religion
• Nadeau's definition of religion


  Humans seek patterns of meaning and action that are transformative; religion is a model of and for reality, experienced in a social, natural, and cosmic context
• Language is important to the study of Asian religions because it is a big essence of what the religion stands for, and some language is speech centric whereas some is writing centric
• Experience-near concepts


  Common concepts that are easy for the general public to understand
• Experience-distant concepts


  Abstract explanations understood by specialists
• Experience-near and experience-distant concepts work together to create meaning for culture
• Reason why some consider Confucianism not a "religion"


  No belief in [a] god(s) and no specific founder or date founded
• Confucianism should be seen as a religion according to Nadeau's definition because there are traditions and social patterns to follow that create a moral transformation
• The term "Confucianism" is problematic because Confucius is not the founder or a deity that is worshipped
• Confucian view of the self


  A social dance routine to create harmony and become a gentleman through the act of social rituals
• Li


  Patterned social interactions characterized as rituals
• Ren


  The goal of cohumanity and benevolence
• Relationship between Li and Ren


  Work on Li can lead to Ren if nurtured
• Filial piety


  Love and respect for parents and gratitude
• Filial piety is one of the highest virtues from a Confucian point of view because the parent-child relationship is the most crucial to maintain social harmony and balance
• The Way for Confucianism


  The pattern of social circulation led by the act of li and the ones with ren; the goal of moral perfection
• Xunzi's view of self-cultivation


  Self-cultivation happens through external factors such as education and rituals; you have to regulate your movements and nurture yourself
• Xunzi's view of ritual


  Regulation of behavior by having emotional restraint and maintaining proper conduct in social situations
• Daoist view of the Way

  The natural order of the universe that our mind and body needs to be in line with