Judaism Questions

1.     The three functions of a synagogue are a House of Assembly, a House of Study, and a House of Prayer.

2.     Synagogues either have a curtain or divider called a mehitzah or an upstairs balcony to separate the men from the women. On the eastern wall is where you will find the ark. The ark is where the Torah scrolls are stored when not in use. They are decorated in many ways and are have many different shapes and sizes. The Torah scrolls are covered by cloth mantles. They are handwritten by a trained scribe on parchment made from a kosher animal. It must be written with no mistakes, the letters must be clear and the writing should not be faded. If there is a problem with the Torah it cannot be used until a scribe corrects it. The Ten Commandments are in the Torah.

3.     A rabbi is a teacher of Judaism qualified to render decisions in Jewish law. To become a rabbi is a long process. You have to go to college, know Hebrew and spend a year in Israel, graduate and start as an intern and have a small congregation. A rabbi is a clergyman in the since that he is a religious figure in the Jewish church. Rabbis are the spiritual leaders and teachers of the Law.

4.     The Shabbat is a day of joy where the Jews can set aside weekday concerns and devote themselves to higher pursuits. It is consider a day of rest and spiritual enrichment. The Jewish Shabbat day is Saturday but it begins at sunset Friday until nightfall on Saturday.

5.     The Torah is the Old Testament in the eyes of a Christian, but the Torah could also be considered the five books of Moses. The Talmud is the Oral Torah. It is a tradition explaining what the scriptures mean and how to interpret them and apply the Laws.

6.     Orthodox: These Jews follow Jewish law exactly how it is laid down in the Torah and Talmud. They believe God gave Moses the whole Torah on Mt. Sinai and that it had not changed.                                                                                                              Reform: They believe that the Torah is valuable culturally and philosophically, but was not delivery by God all at once. Instead it was developed over centuries. They believe Judaism must continue to evolve and that each individual is free to decide what to believe. Worship services are said in contemporary languages instead of Hebrew.                                                 Conservative: This movement came from tension between the Orthodox and Reform Jews. They believe that the sacred Jewish writings did come from God, but humans also were apart of it. They also believe Jewish law must adapt and be obeyed.                                                                                                                Zionist: Are the people that are apart of the secular movement that called for Jews to resettle in their homeland, which was then called Palestine.    

7.     Hebrew is a member of the Canaanite group of Semitic languages. It was the language of the early Jews

8.     Yiddish was the primary language of Ashkenazic Jews. It is found throughout eastern and central Europe. It is one of the Germanic languages and is written in Hebrew characters.

9.     Mazal Tov- Congratulations;  Shalom- Hello, Peace, Goodbye;  Mitzvah- commandment or any good deed

10. Brit Milah: it is the ceremony of circumcision. On the eighth day of a boy’s life he is circumcised fulfilling the covenant with Abraham.                                            Bar/Bat Mitzvah: It is a coming of age ceremony when a child reaches the age of legal majority in the Jewish community. They have full responsibility for their deeds and upholding the commandments.                                                            Jewish Marriage: God pairing people. Marriage is considered natural and desirable because it provides companionship and security.

11. Rosh Hoshanah: it is known as the Jewish New Year                                                     Yom Kippur: Day of Atonement, or a day to atone for the sins of the past year       Hanukah: eighth day festival of rededication, or the festival of lights                   Passover: it represents the beginning of the harvest season in Israel and is also related to the Jews exodus from Egypt

12. The coming of age ceremony is called a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.

13. There are many different branches of Judaism.

14. I was circumcised when I was a baby.

15. Everyone can have and touch the Holy Bible. And it isn’t stored inside an ark.

Buddhism Questions

Buddhism Questions

1.     The man who later became the Buddha and founded Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama.

2.     The Four Passing Sights are a decrepit old man, a disease man, a corpse, and a religious ascetic. These sights showed the reality of suffering and impermanent nature of life’s pleasure.

3.     The Middle Way rejects a lifestyle of sensual indulgences and states that a healthy spiritual life begins with a healthy physical life. Happiness requires a happy body, spirit and mind.

4.     Gautama sat under a fig tree and was tempted by the god Mara. He had three watches. During the First Watch perceived his previous lifetimes. The Second Watch he acquired the divine eye and perceived all livings things deaths and rebirths. Finally during the Third Watch he discovered the Four Noble Truths.

5.     Sangha is the first Buddhist monastic community. It consists of men and women from all walks of life.

6.     The Three Jewels of Buddhism are The Buddha, Dharma, and The Sangha.

7.     Both religions regard time as cyclical and say the universe is eternal with periods of creation and destruction. The also believe in samsara or the wheel of rebirth and liberation from it to reach spiritual perfection.

8.     The Buddha rejected sacrificial rituals of devotion to gods. He also rejected the caste system.

9.     The Three Marks of Existence are anatta, anicca, and dukkha.  They all relate to each other because they all deal with life.

10. Anatta means no self. This means that there is no ultimate reality within you. Atman is different because it states that there is an eternal self.

11.  In Buddhism, rebirth is the transference of energy. Karma choses the state of conception due to what happened in a previous life.

12. Five Precepts: Don’t take life, don’t take what is not given, don’t engage in sensuous misconduct, don’t use false speech, and don’t drink intoxicants. Additional precepts for monks and nuns: don’t eat after noon, don’t watch dancing or shows, don’t use garland perfumes or ornaments, don’t use a high or soft bed, don’t accept gold or silver.

13. Dukkha means suffering, dislocation, or discomfort. Dukkha is the feeling of unhappiness or not satisfied.

14. Tanha is translated as desire, thirst or craving. It is because of tanha that people receive dukkha.

15. The Eight-fold path is right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right mediation.

16. There is no difference. Everyone can be a Buddha but they look to Gautama the Buddha as a guide.

17. The arhat is the worthy one. They have become awakened and received a foretaste of nirvana.

18. Nirvana means blowing out. When nirvana is reached the life energy is blown out like a candle and is liberated from samsara.

19. The three divisions of Buddhism are Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.

20. Theravada Buddhism is the way of the elders. It focuses and agrees with the earliest text and original teachings of the Buddha. It also focuses on meditation.

21. The literal meaning is the Great Vehicle and it is called this because it is the largest of the Buddhist sects.

22. Vajrayana Buddhists use the energy of desire to do good things instead of shutting it off.

23. The Dalai Lama is the leader of the hierarchy of clergy in Vajrayana. The successor is chosen through supernatural ways or noting that a child plays with things that the former Dalai Lama possessed.

24. Vajarayana Buddhists are found in Tibet. Theravada Buddhists are found in Cambodia, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. Mahayana Buddhists are found in China, Japan and Korea. 

Buddhism and Christianity Love Essay

Religions give people a view of how they are supposed to live to reach a certain end. This end can become a new beginning in many religions. While on earth one of the most powerful thing religions have is their concept of love. Love is a big part of where someone goes when they reach the end. Buddhism and Christianity both use love in their religious identity.

Buddhism and Christianity have the idea of a true unending love. This love is supposed to be unselfish. In both religion that have people who practice monastic life. In this life, though you are not sharing your life with another through marriage, you are still supposed to love others. Love is in these religions is important because their founders spoke and practice love.

In Buddhism, love is alive and ever growing. It continues to grow until everyone can feel the love that you are giving out. Love and the person that you love will always be there. Buddhists never regret the love that they are giving out and they embrace love everyday. They believe that loving one person is a great opportunity for you to love more. Because of love, sacrifices can happen and your love becomes stronger. Love is something that can nourish you and others and this nourishment of love should have no end.

In Christianity, love begins and ends with God. In the Bible, John 3:16 states that God so loved the world that he gave his son to die for us. This is the purest example of true love. Jesus’ example of death is how we should love others. Love is the desire to share in the life of Jesus. Instead of dying we care for others and follow the commandments given to us in the Bible. Through love we can be like Christ.

Love is very important to religion. It can be practices in many ways such as the monastic life and in being married. Love should never end but instead be continued and spread to everyone. Love is alive and should be felt by all people. Giving love to others should be unselfish and you should never regret loving someone. Love is powerful and unending.

Buddism

The Buddha

Siddhartha Gautana was a prince in a kingdom near the Indian-Nepalese border. He lived a privileged life but realized life included old age, sickness, and death. He then questioned the meaning of life and left his palace to seek Truth. He practiced various teachings but still had not found the answer. Instead, he look into his heart and mind for the answer and sat beneath a pipal tree until he gained Enlightenment. After 40 days, he gained this Enlightenment and became know as the Buddha (The Enlightened One).

The Three Jewels

The three jewels are the ideals at the heart of Buddhism. The Buddha is the yellow jewel. This jewel stands for Buddha himself and the spiritual journey to achieving Enlightenment. The blue jewel is Dharma. It stands for the teachings of Buddha or the truth he understood. It can also stand for the teaching that was born when the Buddha first put his realization into words. Dharma is also the corpus of scriptures which are apart of he Buddist canon and the practices outlined in them. The red jewel is Sangha. Sangha means spiritual community and the people with whom we share our spiritual lives. In a braod sense it is all the Buddhist in the world, living, dead or yet to be born.

The Threefold Way

The Threefold Way includes ethics, meditation, and wisdom. The path is progessive as ethics provides a basis for meditation, and meditation is the ground on which wisdom can develop. With ethics there is a code known as the Five Precepts. They are principles of training which are undertaken freely and put into practice with intelligence and sensitivity. Meditation is a means of transforming the mind. It includes techniques that that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emtional positivity, and a clear seeing of the true nature of things. Wisdom is the aim of all Buddhist practices. It means developing our own direct understanding of the truth.

The Four Noble Truths

These are the most basic formulation of the Buddha's teaching:
1. All existence is dukkha (suffering/ unsatisfactoriness)
2. The cause of dukkha is craving
3. The cessation of dukkha comes with the cessation of craving
4. There is a path that leads from dukkha

The Noble Eightfold Path

This is a further unpacking of the Threefold Way and is one of the most widely known of Buddha's teachings.
1. Right Understanding
2. Right Resolve
3. Right Speech
4. Right Action
5. Right Livelihood
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Meditation

Hinduism

Hinduism Chapter Review

1.Moksha is the Hindu for liberation.it also means release in Sanskrit. It is a release from the ordinary, finite, limited realm of existence into the infinite ocean of the divine.

2. Monism is the doctrine that all reality is one. An analogy for this is all the bodies of water in the world. They appear to be different but they all share the common essence, water.

3. Brahman is the essence of all things, which means the outside world. Atman is eternal self, which is within you. Since all reality is one Brahman is Atman.

4. Each deity is considered a mask for the one essence or god. They are used as accessible ways for people to interact with the divine. Each mask is for a different person so that the interaction with that god will be effective.

5. Samsara or the wheel of rebirth is about how an individual is reincarnated from one life form to another.

6. Hinduism most sacred text is the Bhagavad Gita.

7. The two principles are karma and dharma. Karma is actions or deeds. It works with samsara in picking the next life you are but in. Good actions lead you to a better life and bad actions do not. Dharma is the ethical duty based on divine order of reality. It is the complete rule of life.

8. The four caste system classes are Brahmins, which are the priest, Kshatriyas, which are the warriors and administrators, Vaishyas, which are the producers such as farmers and artisans, and finally the Shudras, who are the servant and laborers.

9. Krishna tells Arjuna to engage in war because it is his sacred duty and if he goes against it he will earn evil.

10. The first stage is right after by reaches puberty. The boy becomes a student studying the Vedas and other sacred scriptures. The next stage begins with marriage. This stage is when a household is formed and the priorities are raising a family and having a career. The third stage is the birth of the first grandchild and is called the forest dweller stage. This stage is when the man, sometimes with his wife retreats to the forest. The fourth and final stage is the sannyasin or wandering ascetic. The forest dwellers are able to go back into society but remain detached.

11. The four goals of life are Sensual Pleasure, Material Success, Harmony with Dharma and the Bliss of Moksha. Sensual Pleasure or kama is to be embraced by whoever desires it provided that it is within the limits of dharma. Material Success or artha is about social and material success. It is unfulfilling in the long run. Harmony with Dharma is highly desired, but has limited joy because of samsara. The Bliss of Moksha is reaching the infinite or the great ocean in which everything flows.

12. The first path is The Path of Works. This path is for the active and deals with doing your ethical duty and being unselfish. The next path is for the Philosophical. It is the Path of Knowledge and the shortest but steepest accent to liberation. It requires a great deal of learning and mediation.  You also have to three schools of philosophy called Vedanta, Sankhya and Yoga. The third path is The Path of Devotion. This path is for the emotional. This path directs spiritual energy outward in worship of the deity.

13.The first school is the Vedanta. This school is most faithful to the predominant monism of Hinduism. The philosopher Shankara espouses the predominant form of it. This belief is that the world and all finite beings within it are the stuff of maya or cosmic illusion. Sankhya is contrary to monism. It asserts that reality is composed of two distinct categories, matter and an infinite number of eternal selves. Yoga is a school that emphasizes physical and psychological practices. Yoga carefully acknowledges the connection between the self and the other parts of our human makeup. Yoga is used to free the eternal self from bondage by stripping away the many levels of personhood in which that self is wrapped.

14.The three main important gods are Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, and Shiva, the destroyer.

15. An avatar is an incarnation or living embodiment of a deity who is sent to earth to accomplish a divine purpose. Krishna and Rama are avatars for Vishnu.

16. The Bhagavad-Gita is similar to the bhakti marga.

17. The three aspects of Hindu devotional life are household and village rituals, holy places, and cow veneration.

18. Gandhi insights fuel Hinduism‘s tendency to accept all wisdom as lighting the way to the divine.

19. The government of India forbade discrimination against outcastes. The government is also trying to start the promotion social and economical rights.

20. Sati is the practice of burning a widow on the same funeral pyre as her husband. Sati is now forbidden but it still occurs rarely.

21. In 1947, India was partitioned. Muslims moved to Pakistan and the area that is now called Bangladesh so they could have a homeland. This became bloody as many people on both sides were killed as they moved. The tension between Pakistan and India are still around today.