Summary Of ' World Religions ' By Bobbi Dykema

First, this book will guide me to embrace the world as it is. It is written in English, so it may not be same as written by the each religion leaders. Although this book travels freely from Eastern to Western and forth and back to reflect various perspectives, it will help me to see different aspects of the world through others' eyes. Having this kind of view will expand my mind to new things and deepen the understanding the matters.

Masuzawa analyzes the different characteristics of a religion that have influenced its placement in the national or universal religion categories. In order to be identified as a world religion, criteria such as “the naming of an extraordinary yet historically genuine person as the founder and initiator or the tradition (Masuzawa, 132)” had to be met. This criterion fits all of the religions that achieved the status of a world religion by the twentieth century other than Hinduism and Shinto (Masuzawa, 133). Another principle was the “recognition of certain texts that could be claimed to hold a

In the Hindu culture there is a variety of gods and ways of life, differing greatly from the Western monotheistic thought. Instead of just one god for all, there is a god for whomever this particular god appeals. However, the Hindu way of life is set inside a parameter of steps that eventually lead to a state liberation from Samsara, the cycle of life within karma. These steps relate to the age of the person and duties prescribed. These life station are Kama, Artha, Dharma and Moksha. Kama is the pursuit of pleasure, Artha is the pursuit of worldly success, Dharma is to seek righteousness and perform sacred duty and Moksha liberation from Samsara and the cycle of life. In each of these the ideas there is a “do what you want till your desire

Thousands of years ago, Indian citizens were so religious. They worshipped and prayed to different gods on a daily basis. They believed that the ultimate goal of a person’s existence is to attain freedom from the repetitive cycle of births and deaths. Also, they thought that withdrawal from the society and abandonment of responsibilities were never needed to establish a relationship with the divine beings.

The Hindus call their supreme reality “Brahman,” a God of infinite being, infinite awareness, and infinite bliss. “Utter reality, utter consciousness, and utterly beyond all possibility of frustration is the basic Hindu view of God” (Smith 1991). Hinduism sees their God as an archetype of supremacy with the noblest crown, a parent, loving, merciful, almighty, eternal salvation, and an understanding companion. There is also a distinction between personal (ramanuja) and transpersonal (shankara) notions of God in Hinduism; “God so conceived is called Saguna Brahman, or God-with-attributes or God-without-attributes, Nirguna Brahman” (Smith, 1991). Also, it is important to realize that God’s relation in Hinduism varies on symbolism and what is embraced: the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer who resolves all finite forms of life. They view the world as “God-dependent.” A personalist in Hinduism “will see little religious availability in the idea od a God who is so far removed from our predicaments as to be unaware of our very existence” (Smith, 1991). Were as a transpersonalist sees God serving as a master in their life to guide them through their struggles and becomes possessed by this

According to Wilkins and Sanford (2009), there are many different elements of a New Age worldview, and a few of these elements are; New

Before I read Stephen Prothero’s God Is Not One, I did not know much about Hinduism. For me, Hinduism conjured the images of bright colors, richly adorned statues, and jovial worship and dance. When we visited the Ganesh Temple in Flushing, that is exactly what I saw. Yet, now I know the reason for all these things. Although Hinduism is a largely varying tradition, it is namely about love and celebration. Given the evidence from Prothero’s book and my observations at the Ganesh Temple, Hinduism is a tradition that aims to gives purpose to human’s wandering souls through devote worship to deities and rituals.

Hinduism is a religion that follows concepts of the Upanishads, which includes the Brahman, Atman, Maya, Karma, Samsara, and Moksha. The concepts provide guidance throughout life and are key to a final death. The Brahman is something one believes in and is experience in the world that surround him. The Atman is who we are the identity of our soul, an understanding we are not just a body we are more. “The term Brahman refers to the experience of the sacred within nature and the external universe, while Atman refers to the experience of the sacred within oneself” (Molloy, 2013, p. 83). Along with understanding the spiritual aspect of nature and one’s soul is understanding how this effects every living thing. The Maya which can be referred to as magic or illusion is an important factor in life and death. “Hinduism, form

In the lives of individuals ordinary they are satisfying their customs and conventions. The act of Hinduism is a religion which favored a number of these ceremonies into observances and consecrated occasions in their day by day life. A devotee who takes after the Hinduism religion must study the conviction framework, the ceremonies and convention, and their social practices in which they consider holy to them, keeping in mind the end goal to comprehend this practice. Keeping in mind the end goal to comprehend, the first step would be to know their convictions. Hindu supporters have numerous Gods in the religion of Hinduism, they trust that stand out of there Gods is the genuine god. Hindus has a faith in karma, that it is one of the laws of the world, they feel that in the event that you do great things, then great things will happen to you and in the event that you do things that are pessimistic, then adverse things will happen to that individual. They likewise trust that a dairy animals is holy, in light of the fact that it speaks to life they could call their own and different

New age spiritualism is circulating amongst many individuals today. These individuals have found their being in the new age movement. This way of thinking contains fallibilities and must be dissected and understood in order to knock it down fully and coherently. In this paper I will be explaining and assessing this new age way of thinking itself and through the worldview questions before proving its fallibility.

Zimmerman, Denise and Gleason, Katherine, A. Wicca and Witchcraft. Third Edition, (New York: Penguin Group, 2006) Accessed on 12/7/2012 from

There are five basic Hindu beliefs that are a part of Hinduism. The first Hindu belief is Brahman, Brahman is the supreme god and everything is a part of Brahman. The second Hindu belief is Multiple gods, Multiple gods is when Hindus worship many gods, and that each god controls an aspect of the universe. The third Hindu belief is Dharma, Dharma performs one’s duties and lives in an honorable way. The fourth Hindu belief is Karma, Karma is made up of all the good and evil a person has done in their past lives. Finally, the last Hindu belief is Samsara, Samsara continues the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. These basic Hindu beliefs are all a part of Hinduism, and each have a special meaning.

Hinduism is an Indian phenomena, it is difficult to define, and difficult for the outsiders to understand some of the unusual religious, philosophical and cultural beliefs. It is according to Huston Smith, the…” least dogmatic and most diverse of all religions…” because of the belief that there is a ‘flowing though’ cycle where in samsara ones is born, lives, suffers, dies and is re-born over and over until the ‘moksha’ occurs. This spiritual liberation is achieved by yoking oneself to God then one may reach Atman: the real self that is separate from the physical body. It is unchanging, eternal and a sign of the soul and spread throughout all the parts of and in the earth. This is the God that cannot be understood or always known yet Hindus are encouraged to relate to the God they know best.

Hinduism is an extremely old and methodical religion. The Hindu religion has been changed and contorted many times over its existence. Hinduism teaches about discovering one's true self, or Atman. Hinduism does not give specific directions, but gives guidelines that help an individual become enlightened. To be successful in achieving Atman it is not required to do any amazing physical feat, or to demonstrate untethered deviotion, but rather to look inward and be spiritually fulfilled. As it is shown in Easwaran's “A Dialogue with Death” as well as “Katha Upanishad” we can see that to attain true self one must look in ward to themselves.

A great portion of Hinduism revolves around the honoring of gods and goddesses. These gods and goddesses are sacred and vital for Hindu worship, and consequentially, idols are made in their image out of love, reverence, and respect. As in many religious cultures, they hold great importance. However, in Hinduism, there is a great spectrum of idol value to each individual person, which will soon answer the question of “Don’t Hindus worship idols?” The answer is complicated and simple - all Hindus worship gods and goddesses, but only some believe they fully take the form of an idol. There are at least five different levels of idol importance, and the degree ranges from utmost significance to extreme irrelevance. These different levels have been observed over many years and are not strict levels of hierarchy that a Hindu must fall into; they are merely observations of how Hindus view the idols created in the god or goddesses’ image.