Dharmic Traditions

4-noble truths

Buddhist concepts to reach enlightenment

• 1st noble truth

  • If you are alive you will suffer, suffering is inevitable

• 2nd noble truth

  • Attachment to desire causes you suffering

• 3rd noble truth

  • You can get rid of your suffering if you get rid of your attachments

• 4th noble truth

  • Follow the 8-fold path

8-fold path*

be righteous

ahimsa

non-harming

Jain tradition, all the Dharmic traditions highlight it

animism

belief that things are animated by spirits (Ra, Amaterasu)

• totem - an animal that ancestors communicated with (eagle, bear, beaver; shark)

  • Fetish - Sacred item connected to a totem animal

    • Used for luck, protection. Its sacred

    • Crosses could be considered a fetish

Aryan

introduced Priestly Caste, Vedas, Sanskrit

• rituals (fire rituals), vedic chants

asceticism*

renunciation of society

teacher/disciple

Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist traditions

atman & brahman*

Atman - individual

Brahman - universal, ultimate reality

bhakti

devotion; love god, do not fear god

Buddha

term for one who reached nirvana (enlightenment)

Buddhism

founded by Siddhartha Gautama

• Jain/ascetic influences

Teaches

• dependent origination - everything is caused by something

• 3 characteristics of human existence

  • sorrow, transience, and soullessness

two divisions

• theravada, mahayana

caste system*

based on what career you were in

• changed from flexible to lineage based

Dasyu

earliest people in India, part of the Indus Valley civilization

Devi

female divinity

• Intimate relationship with mother earth and nature

dharma

righteousness/right way of living

dharmic traditions are based on this principle

Guru Granth Sahib

Sikh text, expanded from Adi Granth

Guru Nanak

Founder of Sikhism

• follower of Kabir’s teachings (hinduism)

• critical of hindu and muslim orthodoxy

Gurudwara

Sikh temples/holy sites

• places of worship

hagiography

Type of sacred story about the life of a specific person

• special conceptions, births, deaths/departures

Hanuman

incarnation of Shiva as a monkey

• bhakti, devotion

• iconography commonly seen in temples

Hindu

beliefs in samsara, brahman, and karma

caste system

Epics like the Ramayana, Mahabharata; Chants like the Vedas, Upanishads

Yoga

Indus Valley

oldest civilization in India

• well developed (water/sewage, city planning)

• merchant class

• ahimsa

• emphasis on purity

• Devi focused worship

• skill specialization (toy makers, artisans)

Jainism

based on ascetic/renunciant practices

emphasis on 

• non-injury

• non-attachment

• truth

• chastity

Kabir

Hindu poet; his teachings influenced the Sant tradition

karma

Karma is interaction between soul and non-soul, the goal of buddhism is to remove all karma

Khalsa

A military-style community of Sikhs

kesh - keep hair long

kungi - hair comb

kara - bracelet

kach - undergarments

kirpan - dagger

Krishna

avatar of vishnu

usually depicted as a young boy/man

represents love, compassion

key figure in the mahabharata

Mahatma Gandhi

political activist, advocated for Indian independence.

protested peacefully, influenced by jainism (ahimsa)

Mahbharata*

One of the Dasyus epic

Mahavira

founder of Jainism

mantra

a sound with power to affect

part of tantra

massacre of Sikhs

Genocide of Sikhs by Muslims

• tortured and killed hundreds of thousands of Sikhs

• destroyed holy places

British - Jallian Bagh massacre

• Colonel Dyer punishing disobedience to laws about gathering in groups

• thousands of Sikh prilgrims on a holy day were trapped by the British military

• thousands of deaths and injuries

Indira Ghandi - Operation Blue Star

• Attack on Golden Temple (Harmandir) Complex

• mass pilgrimage for the holiest day of the year

• thousands of Sikhs dead or “missing” 

meditation

Practice of concentration and a specific state of mind

mysticism

connection to the divine through introspection and from within

nam japa

practice of chanting god’s name

nirvana

enlightenment: freedom from all attachment

pantheism

god is everything, everywhere

polytheism

multiple gods

Puranas

Hindu texts, repository of most Hindu legends. creation stories

Ram

Avatar of vishnu

• God of righteousness

• has many avatars

• main figure in the Ramayana

Ramayana

Epic of the life of Ram

reincarnation

rebirth of the soul into another life in order to cleanse yourself of karma

renunciation

to give up certain comforts to be more free from attachment (being vegetarian)

ritual

a specific set of instructions that have an effect

• periodic ritual - holidays

• rites of passage - change in a state of being

  • representational - signifies a change (graduation)

  • presentational - is the change (getting married)

sacred

• set aside for god

samsara*

cycle of rebirth in hinduism to rid yourself of karma

Sant tradition

hinduism

influences: teachings of Kabir, Bhakti movements, sectarian upanishads, muslims

mystical approach to formless god

Ramayana

yoga, asceticism

goal - devotion/liberation

satyagraha

Ghandi’s philosophy of resistance to unjust authority

• basing actions on inner knowledge, not legality

shakti

feminine power that animates the material world

shamanism

• You go to them with a problem which they will solve through spiritual projection

Shiva

the god of destruction, transformation

• has a male and female side (parvati)

Shunyata

you are not “you”, you are defined by your relationships, actions, and the world around you

Sikhism

unity and a formless god

rejection of orthodox hinduism/jainism/caste

Soul & non-soul

soul - living things

non-soul - matter, time, space, inertia

creates karma when they interact

Tantric Tradition

hinduism and buddhism

indigenous traditions/cults

ascetic beliefs/practices

belief that humans can gain powers to alter reality

shakti as vehicle for liberation

Theraveda

buddhism that allowed women to become renunciants. much less strict than other forms of buddhism

Tulsidas

devotee of Ram, wrote Ram’s story that most people read. He elevated Hanuman’s status as well

Udasi

ascetic Sikhs, maintained the gurudwaras

Upanishads

post-vedic writings

thoughts on creation, liberation, spirituality

used in all dharmic traditions

Vedanta

philosophy of the upanishads

end of the vedas

Vedas

chants, praise and request to deities

emphasis on rituals

mantras/chants

medical practices

Vishnu*

god of preservation

yantra

a geometrical diagram used as a tool for meditation and concentration in buddhist/hindu practices

yoga

• “United”

• 8 limbed system

  • Restrictions

    • Non-violence, greed, stealing, “celibacy”

  • Observances

    • Be content, study yourself, austerity, surrender to the divine

  • Postures

  • Breath control

  • Turning within

    • Listen to whats inside

  • Concentration

  • Meditation 

    • Relaxation of the mind

  • Equanimity, oneness

    • Achieved through meditation, Surrender to the divine