The Renouncer Tradition
Before I begin to explain what exactly the renouncer tradition is, I think that it is important to give a brief outline of the religious history pre-dating this tradition, and also to acknowledge the social life at the time and its mentality.
By the time that the renouncer tradition was beginning to establish some recognition, sixth century B.C.E, a group of texts called the Veda had been in existence and had been enjoying their religious influence upon the Indian culture for about a thousand years. It is presumed that a group of people called the Aryas had boasted a great influence in certain parts of India, and it is from their ideology that the Vedic tradition arose. This ideology, for the most part, was developed by a hereditary group within this Aryan society known as brahmanas, and their literature was the Veda.
At the forefront of the Veda’s ideology, was ritual sacrifice. They saw it as a creation of inherently magic powers, a sort of mimetic magic, i.e by performing certain sacrifices one would create an effect in reality - a sort of voodoo practice. They believed that this ritual ‘keyed’ them into life, and therefore great emphasis was placed on maintaining these ritual sacrifices so as to maintain order.
“… to know sacrifice is to know and control the world.” - Flood - Introduction to Hinduism.
The central rite of the religion was when the priest/brahmin, sang the praises to a particular devas/god, from sacred sacrificial verses known as mantras, and offered him sacrifices by placing it in the sacrificial fire. This rendition of these mantras, was also seen as manipulating a sacred power known as Brahman, so this act of ritual sacrifice can be seen as almo...
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...ved - but this self was annihilated at death. They also denied rebirth, karma and niyatti. They believed that action was a spontaneous action, and that spiritual progression was impossible.
The skeptics believed that all knowledge was impossible. They avoided any commitment to any point of view.
As one can see, although there was a strong movement of renunciation, there was many different ideas and practices among them. This was an exciting time for religious expansion, for a thousand years the people of India had been following the traditions of the Veda. Here was something new, times were changing and religion was looking to follow.
“Bent on renunciation, these virtuous men who are detached from reiterated existence wander forth for the well-being of the world, fulfilling all their perfections.”- ln. 258 - Distant Epoch - Story of Gotama Buddha.
At the root of these interesting rituals, were the beliefs that the gods needed to be nourished by human beings. This was accomplished through human blood. They did this through a practice called bloodletting. Bloodletting is intentionally harming and drawing blood from the body. Those who were higher in status within the Aztec religion were expected to give the most blood during these Aztec rituals.
Blood sacrifice was regarded as one of the highest offerings because of its direct link to life itself. Life is the most precious gift given to us, so the Andean cultures must have believed that in the process in “giving” it back, they would be blessed by the gods they worshipped. All of the cultures showed some form of anthropomorphic being in their textiles and ceramics, meaning they believed in a higher power. And in appeasing this higher power they could live comfortably.
They provided this ritual for the son god. The most gruesome ritual was, when four priests would take the offering and hold both ankles, and all angles. While they held the person another priest would slice into the mans torso, break apart his ribs, and hold his still beating up like a trophy for all the crowd to see it. It was a way to show the god they were loyal. They then took both hands, and feet from the cold dead body, and sent it down the steps for the community to consume. During that part of the practice the remaining parts were throw into a vat of slit tongue snakes to feast on. On an average 50 thousand main arteries (hearts) were given to the sun god. The priests also purchased babies for the same ritual.
...under the Gupta Empire. In the 16th century in Bengal, a sect of erotic mysticism was founded. This celebrated the union of Krishna and Radha in a Tantric theology heavily influenced by Tantric Buddhism.
Sacrifice within the social context can be transgressed into two aspects, one relating to the offender, and the other being the offended one, God. “If individuals entered a state incongruent with good relations with God, they had to undergo rites to restore them to a normative status” (Davies, 1985;155). Thus the sacrifice encompassed this social dimension. The part played by God in the social ...
There is much to be said of the Hindu insights on death, and only a fraction of it fit into the four pages you will find at the center of this issue. We intend to do more in the future and welcome readers' contributions. Our objective is to share the message of the awakened ones who conquered death and knew the body's dissolution as freedom from bondage, as liberation into the Light, as a flowing of the finite into the Infinite. They asked us to think fearlessly about death, to fathom its meaning. They urged us in exiting life to let go of the ego and be the immortal Self which time and again shrugs off the shackles of sorrow.
“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.” Gautama Buddha, a figure responsible for the founding of the Buddhist culture, urges that those who experienced a fulfilling life will succeed. However, in this generation, social norms placed on citizens prevent this state of spiritual acceptance. For instance, humans have this certain mindset to crave perfection, knowledge, and power; and, as a result, these needs hinder any attempt to succeed. In other words, humans have the condition to continuously strive for success through the means of power and control. Contrarily, this excessive need to succeed, consequently, segways to conflicts; and, as a result, the solution
meaningless rites and rituals - which also included sacrifices - from the minds of many people.
Firstly anthropologists studied here have given us the over arching structural importance of religious ritual to social power in unity and cohesion of ideas provided by such rituals. TO do this though they had to examine the actual rituals in society and the purpose they also serve within the temporal space they occupy.
In the selection, The Ramayana, it is a sacrifice in the ultimate sense. A woman, Kaikeyi, is forced to choose between the man that she married and rules and empire with and they one of the sons they produced. To save her son, she must make the sacrifice of her husband to save the life of their son. This was taken directly from Hinduism and this story is still told to children who practice Hinduism. With the lessons taught individually from each of these stories, children and adults will be able to learn lessons for years to come, as long as these stories are told to the upcoming generation of children.
"The development of perfection: the interiorization of Buddhist ritual in the eighth and ninth centuries. " Journal of Indian Philosophy, 32, no. 1 F 2004: 1-30. Farrington, Roger. The. " Personal identity and Buddhist philosophy: empty persons.
Upon reading about the historical and religious background of Ancient India, one can clearly assume that the country was strongly influenced by three main religious teachings: Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. These three sects in religious thinking have many similarities as all recognize the life-cycle and the need of liberation, they worship one central deity that used to be a human who gained enlightenment and they all recognize the existence of the eternal soul and after-death re-incarnation. However, they also share a lot of differences that mark the underlying principles of practicing them. I will identify the scope of differences and similarities in these ancient religions in an attempt to understand why each attracted followers, why each was shaped a certain way and how they preserved the interest of followers on into the modern times as well.
The teachings on ethical issues from a religious perspective vary greatly in their approach for each faith tradition. The nature of the teachings on ethical issues within the Buddhist faith enables them to be open to discussion and interpretation. In this essay, I will discuss what the teachings that govern the Buddhist position on abortion are, what the Buddhist teachings on when human life begins are, what the prescriptions and prohibitions in relation to abortion in Buddhism are and how these compare and contrast to the position within denominations in the Christian tradition and finally, what is the relevance of this topic to the Religious Education senior cycle syllabus.
Hinduism has been a religion for a long time, the Buddha was a Hindu before seeing how terrible the world was, he then found the religion Buddhism. Since the creator of Buddhism was Hinduism as a child, it is only expected for the two religions to be similar. While the two religions are similar they are also quite different as seen by their creation stories. The creation stories are these religions way of explaining how the world started. With most religions the creation story gives the most basic beliefs of the religion as this is where their religion supposedly starts its life. The two stories this paper focuses on is no different, and since they technically have the same origin, it can be obvious as to how they would be similar. However, in the case of the idea of social order and moral decline, they can be different too.
Fort, Andrew O, and Patricia Y Mumme. Living Liberation in Hindu Thought. Albany, NY: State Univerasity of New York Press, 1996.