World religions midterm

Ox herding comes from

Zen, in Buddhist religion

Why are humans thought naturally negative

Humans are naturally selfish

Two primary instincts of animals are

Survival and Procreation

Who gave the this is water speech

David Foster Wallace

What does the author of that mean by learning to think

Learning how to think in different ways, leave the default setting of self centeredness

What was the author of this is water missing that we need to seek

religion

Catholic Monk who wrote Mysticism in Mans Life

Thomas Merton

How do we best describe Grace

Power of Gods help, Gods gift

Hinduism is anthropocentric at the outset. What does that mean?

Centered around people/the individual

What are the first two things we want?

Pleasure and worldly success

What path do these two things fall under?

Path of Desire

What do the third and fourth fall under

Path of renunciation

The final want (moksha) is what we really want: release from all that restricts us from infinite:

being, knowledge, and bliss

We already have what we really want. This is because of who we really are. Who are we, deep down, at the center of our being?

atman-brahman

What are the four paths

a. Jnana

b. Bhakti

c. Karma

d. Raja

Under the knowledge yoga, we might do the movie theater meditation. What is the purpose of that?

It's uncomfortable to see yourself, the Jnana is to help with self-actualization

In the book, the path about love has a picture of a woman looking at a statue. I suggested there are two ways to think about this and that if we tend to focus on only one, we ought to try out the other. What are the two ways to think about it?

Love toward God and love from God

The colloquial usage of the path about work is not what Hinduism means by it. How so?

Karma— being selfless

"The mind is like a

drunk monkey with saint vitus' dance"

Main character of Gita

Arjuna

Deity who was his lifelong friend in Gita

Krishna

Setting in Gita

Battlefield in India

Main character's predicament in Gita

He has to fight a war against his own family

Deity wanted him to do what about it? In Gita

Fulfill duty and fight. Detach from the results of his actions

The Deity stressed the need for him to do his

duty

This is somewhat shocking to a western mind, but the belief that we have lived many times before and will be reborn, known as

reincarnation

Our duty is not simply to be a nice person, but to become (blank) his too seems to shock a western mindset. We are accustomed to serving (blank) not becoming (blank)

God

In order to do this, we must detach ourselves from all promptings of the

small self.

The battlefield is a metaphor for what?

The mind

Buddha was born in what modern day country?

Nepal

Buddha is a title, his actual name was what?

Siddharta Guatama

"Buddha" as a title means the "enlightened one." Another way to put it is the

one who is awake.

In what century was he born?

6th century BCE

What was Buddha's father (title or line or work, not his proper name)?

King

Give the four passing sights:

Old man, sick man, dead man, man who renounced worldly possessions

True or False Buddha came from a Hindu culture but never saw the benefit of it and thus never tried to master any of its yogic paths.

False

True or False. Buddha was married but left his wife before they had any children.

False

Where was he when he reached enlightenment?

Under a fig tree

Who tempted him at the point of his enlightenment?

Mara

What was the first temptation?

Voluptuous women

What was the second temptation?

flaming rocks and poison arrows

How can you and I live out the moral of the second temptation?

return love for hate

The Buddha rejected much of the speculations about the universe (if the world was created or whether it is eternal, what the after-life is like, etc.) and focused on one main thing:

the problem of suffering

first noble truth

life is suffering

second noble truth

suffering is caused by selfish attachments

third noble truth

get rid of suffering by getting rid of selfish attachments

fourth noble truth

get rid of selfish attachments by following the four paths

. How many years did Buddha minister to his followers?

45 years

How many months each year did Buddha go away to retreat in mediation and solitude?

3 months

How many times did buddha go away to meditate each day?

3 times

What year did buddha die?

483 BCE