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Religious Traditions
Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam
Hinduism
Life Governing Value (Pivotal value)
To eliminate bad karma in order to find release from repeated rebirths.
Founder
No specific founders, the Aryans, a loose-knit network of tribes, 4500 b.c.e.
Transcendent
Trinity: Brahma (Creator)
Vishnu (Preserver)
Shiva (Destroyer/Renewer)
Buddhism
Live Governing Value
To alleviate suffering by learning to direct selfish desires (tanha) until they are ultimately extinguished.
Then one can be free from mental, emotional or physical desires and released simply "to be."
Founder
Siddhartha Gautama, 563-480 b.c.e.
Buddhism (cont’d)
Transcendent
State of being called Nirvana, Enlightenment [Theravada Buddhism]
Buddha, a savior, who shares with others his divine grace or compassion.
[Mahayana Buddhism]
Taoism (pronounced Dowism)
Life Governing Value
Harmony, unity and balance in all things
One flows with the life present in all things.
Founder
Lao-Tzu (first half of 6th century b.c.e.) and his disciple, Chuang-Tzu (4th century b.c.e.)
Lao-Tzu became convinced of the futility of a life of ambition, striving, and conformity to artificial social conventions.
Taoism (cont’d)
Transcendent
The Tao
The flow of change
An Overall Governing Presence
Discovered or uncovered in all of life
In "popular" religion
Ancestral and other spirits
Confucianism
Life Governing Value
To live in harmony with the heavenly and earthly realms.
Founder
Confucius (born about 551 b.c.e.), and later interpreter, Mencius (4th century b.c.e.)
Transcendent
Heaven
Harmony with Heaven meant conformity to the eternal moral code.
Harmony with Earth meant a ruler modeling the eternal moral code and followers imitating the model.
Judaism
Life Governing Value
To live faithfully to the covenant initiated by the one God as the chosen people—chosen for responsible relationship.
Founder
Abraham (about 1750 b.c.e) and later Moses (about 1250 b.c.e.)
Transcendent
Yahweh, their God, as intimately related to the world and involved in its activities, guiding all of life.
Other: Angels, lying spirits
Christianity
Life Governing Value
Becoming reconciled to God through faith in his son, Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ
Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself
Founder
Jesus, son of Mary, by the Holy Spirit
Christianity (cont’d)
Transcendent
Trinity: Father (Origin); Son (God manifest in Jesus as Redeemer); Holy Spirit (God present in all of history
Other: Angels, Demons, Devil
Islam
Life Governing Value
Submission to God (Allah)
Founder
Muhammad, born 570 c.e.
Transcendent
Allah, One god
Other: Angels, demons, devil
In addition to this discussion, certain writings of the different traditions were read:
Words of Wisdom from the Traditions
Hinduism
The poem of the Universal Form
Bhagavad Gita
Buddhism
The Dhamapada
The path of dharma—of truth, of righteousness, of the central law that all of life is one.
Taoism
Tao Te Ching
Chapter 1
Confucianism
Sayings of Confucius
The Commonwealth State
Judaism
A Psalm of David
Psalm 139—The Inescapable God
Christianity
Sayings of Jesus
The woman with the alabaster jar
Book of Luke, chapter 7, verses 36-50
Islam
Allah’s Revelation to Muhammad
Surah XLVII, revealed at Al-Madinah (a chapter in the Qur’an (Koran)
"Quietness", A Poem of Rumi, a Sufi (Muslim mystic)