Miss Buddha

by Ulf Wolf

  Renewal Observances

  Most religions provide their followers with continual spiritual renewal by setting aside special times for them to recollect and demonstrate what they hold sacred. These occasions may take place annually, monthly, weekly, daily, or even hourly.

  Muslims, for example, are expected to pause for prayer at five different times every day, and during the holy month of Ramadan—which honors the month when the Qur’an was first revealed—they are expected to observe a fast every day from sunrise to sunset.

  For Jews, the High Holy Days—a ten-day period in autumn celebrating the new year and concluding with the holiest day of the year, Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)—is a major time of spiritual renewal, as is Passover in the spring. Jews dedicate the seventh day, or Sabbath—which falls on the modern Saturday—to recalling the divine basis of life.

  Christians follow a similar seven-day cycle but give special prestige to Sunday, honoring the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which, according to the Christian scriptures, occurred on the first day of the week.

  Every religion, large or small, stipulates regular festivals and observances to celebrate and display fundamental commitments to their beliefs. These events are intended to intensify and renew the spiritual memory of its followers.

  Sacred Space

  Not only do religions establish sacred times that define the calendar and the spiritual year, they also establish special places that localize the sacred in the midst of ordinary space.

  At times these sacred places are ones of natural beauty or of imposing power, such as mountains, caves, or rivers. They may also be sites that commemorate great religious events of the past—for example, the birthplace of the Hindu god Krishna; the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment; or the spot where Muhammad is believed to have journeyed to heaven.

  At other times they are places where miraculous spiritual appearances are believed to have occurred, as in the case of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes, France.

  And they may be (and usually are) shrines and temples built to house the gods or their representative symbols, such as the Parthenon in Greece, which was dedicated to Athena, patron goddess of Athens.

  The use of space can reveal a great deal about a religious worldview. Some structures, such as Pueblo kivas, are built into the ground, thus acknowledging the earth as the place from which human beings emerged and as the source of sustenance for the Pueblo’s agricultural society. Others, such as the European gothic cathedrals, through their delicate architecture and skyward reach, suggest the transcendence of the divine realm.

  Others still, like the Shinto shrines in Japan, express reverence for nature in the harmonious way they blend with the natural environment.

  Then we have the modern marvel of the so-called mega-churches of North America that have taken the form of corporate office complexes geared for efficiency of organized service.

  Interaction with Spiritual Beings

  Most religions provide their followers with prescribed ways of interacting with spiritual beings, a communication that is often at the center of religious practice.

  Perhaps the most widely practiced forms of such interaction are the petitionary prayer, offerings and sacrifices, purification and penance, and general worship.

  These interactions are sometimes prescribed as regular events; at other times they are performed in times of special need, such as illness, drought, infertility, or war—times when human beings find themselves especially dependent on or subject to the forces of a universe that are beyond their control.

  There are other forms of communication and connection as well, such as the Christian Eucharist, or meditation on the presence of a supreme being.

  The gods, in turn—if they are listening—are believed to make their will, power, or presence known to humans in a variety of ways, including prophecy, states of trance, dreams and visions, divination, healings, special signs and miracles, intuition, mystical experiences, and embodiment in the lives of special individuals.

  Rituals and Symbols

  Ritual is a specialized form of spiritual communication and usually involves performance of symbolic bodily actions, displayed in a tangible, visible way. They are supposed to endow the practitioner with the power to focus experience and so intensify the sense of the sacred.

  A ritual can be as simple as bowing one’s head before a meal, chanting a certain phrase, or removing footwear.

  On the other hand, they can involve intricate ceremonies performed by teams of priests and lasting several days.

  Rituals are supposed to reveal the sacred through specific, symbolic actions and objects, including processions, special clothing, special sounds—for example chanting—or silences, masks, symbolic objects, and special foods. Some religions use rituals to great effect, while others assign them a lesser role.

  Original Buddhism (Theravada) considers the adherence and attachment to rites and rituals a spiritual hindrance.

  Priests

  Where ritual is central to a religion, you usually also find an established and powerful priesthood. This is certainly the case in the Catholic and Orthodox forms of Christianity as well as in Hinduism and Shinto.

  Jews and Muslims, however, and many Protestant churches do not have a priesthood as such because they emphasize a direct faith and consideration of scripture.

  Holiness, Inward Transformation, and Salvation

  Most major religions provide clear (or not so clear) paths meant to deliver individuals from the bondage of sin, immorality, ignorance, and other types of impurity or disharmony and lead them toward a state of purity of soul, spiritual knowledge, wisdom, godliness, enlightenment, or even eternal life.

  Virtually all religions hold that human beings have an inner and higher nature that lives in tension with a lower, baser counterpart. The paths offered are meant to free the former from the clutter and clutches of the latter.

  Some religions emphasize the separation of the spiritual part of the self from worldly attachments, while others emphasize living harmoniously in relation to nature, self, and divinity.

  One discerns two corresponding religious ideals from the different ways in which religions consider salvation: on the one hand, the saved or truly religious person may be one who has achieved liberation from the material world and has reached a heavenly state of afterlife (such as heaven—once dead) or, on the other hand, a supreme state of consciousness (such as Nirvana—even while alive).

  It is worthy of note that many religious virtues—such as love, self-control, compassion, nonviolence, and wisdom—appear in more than one religion, while differences in belief systems give varying significance to these virtues.

  All historic religions address the need for individual holiness in some form or other and often point to saints, mystics, or spiritual exemplars who fully embody the ideals of their traditions.

  Religion in the Modern World

  Our modern (Western) times have posed, and continue to pose, acute challenges to traditional religions. As early as the 1960s, membership in mainstream Christian denominations began their decline, and candidates for the priesthood began falling.

  For the majority of modern people, religion no longer holds relevance, especially in view of the many alternative ways to find meaning these days: cultural pursuits, ethical ideals, ecological causes, and alternative lifestyles.

  These challenges to religion are partly as a result of the rising prestige of Science, which describes a universe without reference to deities, or souls, a place of no spiritual meaning. And as Science more and more dons the role of modern religion, the Science convert no longer looks to the traditional for solace or meaning.

  Not that he or she is necessarily happier as a result, rather the opposite.

  Another factor in today’s religious decline is that critical studies of biblical history have demonstrated that the Bible is not (as so long thought) unique among ancient religious and historical documents. For example, the bib
lical stories of the Garden of Eden and the Deluge (universal flood) are common to other ancient Middle Eastern religions as well.

  Other factors that have contributed to a decline in religious participation in the modern world include the portrait of religion variously as a pre-scientific form of superstitious thinking, as a source of political control and divisiveness (i.e., Marx), as a confirmation of established patriarchal values (as in feminism), or as an emotional crutch (the radio talk shows).

  On the other hand, in many instances, religion has been able to adapt to modernity by accommodating the diversity of contemporary culture. Many religious traditions have not only broadened the concept of God to allow for the coexistence of various faiths, but have also acknowledged gender equality by ordaining women, and have adopted outward characteristics of modern culture in general.

  Many religious groups have also taken advantage of electronic media and networking, and several such groups have developed religious functions for the Internet, including electronic prayer groups.

  Modern marketing techniques have also been employed to increase membership—treating religion like any other business (the true Western religion these days).

  Many churches also incorporate the latest kinds of support groups, counseling techniques, and popular music—i.e., in an effort to become “hip” and so become acceptable to the youth of various cultures.

  Modern Evangelism

  Evangelicalism in its various forms, including fundamentalism, offers a different response to modernity.

  Conservative movements, which have appeared internationally in every major religious tradition, have of late gained strength by openly protesting what they see as the conspicuous absence of moral values in secular society.

  In times of anxiety and uncertainty (such as ours), such movements hold up literal scripture as a source of doctrinal certainty and of moral absolutes. Against the rising secularism of our day, these evangelical movements have managed to create their own alternative conservative-literal cultures and have, in fact, acquired considerable political influence.

  Challenges and Opportunities

  For all its challenges to traditional religious identity, modernity has at the same time created new spiritual opportunities.

  Literally thousands of new religious movements emerged around the world in the 20th century and continue to proliferate; each such movement offering alternative forms of community to people otherwise no longer affiliated with traditional religion while also disenchanted with modern values.

  Collectively, these new religions offer a large number of options, addressing virtually every conceivable type of spiritual need. In a sense, our times have created needs and problems for which new movements hold themselves as solutions.

  Some offer ethnic revitalization; others, techniques of meditation and self-improvement; and still others, the power of alternative or spiritual forms of healing.

  Interestingly, Buddhist- and Hindu-derived movements also continue to garner considerable followings among Westerners searching for truths beyond the Judeo-Christian tradition.

  The World’s Religions

  It would be an impossible task to list and accurately survey every religion on Earth, there simply are too many. Here, however, I will give a brief rundown of what is normally considered the five major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

  :: Judaism ::

  Judaism, the religious culture of the Jews, is one of the oldest continuing religious traditions in the world.

  It is interesting to note that the terms Judaism and religion do not exist in pre-modern Hebrew. Instead, the Jews spoke of Torah, God’s revealed instruction to Israel, which mandated both a worldview and a way of life—Halakhah.

  Halakhah derives from the Hebrew word “to go” and has come to mean the “way” or “path.” It encompasses not only Jewish law, but also its customs, and practice.

  Pre-modern Judaism, in all its historical forms, was thus an integrated cultural system encompassing both individual and communal existence. It was (and for the traditional Jew, remains) a system of sanctification in which all is to be subsumed under God’s rule, that is, under his divinely revealed models of cosmic order and lawfulness.

  Judaism originated in the land of Israel. Subsequently, at one time or another, Jewish communities have existed in almost all parts of the world, a result of both voluntary migrations of Jews and forced exile or expulsions.

  According to the American Jewish Yearbook, the current world-wide Jewish population is estimated at 13.2 million, of whom 5.7 million lived in the United States, 4.8 million in Israel, 530,000 in France, and 438,000 in the former Soviet Union. These are the four largest centers of Jewish settlement.

  Other significant Jewish communities are found in Canada (360,000), Great Britain (276,000), Argentina (200,000), and South Africa (80,000).

  Basic Doctrines and Sources

  Monotheism

  While Judaism, with its long, rich and complex tradition, was never monolithic its various historical forms have nonetheless shared certain characteristic features.

  The most essential of these is a radical monotheism, that is, the belief that a single, transcendent God created the universe and continues providentially to govern it. Underpinning this monotheism is the teleological conviction that the world is both intelligible and filled with purpose because God, a single divine intelligence, stands behind it.

  Therefore, nothing that humanity experiences is capricious; everything ultimately has meaning.

  From ancient through to the present, various forms of Judaism have acknowledged the existence and role of other heavenly beings, such as angels, and have warned against various forces of a demonic nature. But since these beings have always been regarded as the creations of the one and all-knowing, well-meaning God, and all subordinate to His will, they are ultimately irrelevant to the primary mission of the Jewish people, which is to acknowledge the unity of God and to serve God in the world.

  Revelation

  To the traditional Jew, the mind of God is manifest in both the natural order, through creation, and in the social-historical order, through revelation.

  The same God who created the world revealed himself to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai.

  That revelation is the Torah, God’s will for humankind expressed in commandments that individuals are to heed in their interaction with one another and with God. By living in accordance with God’s laws and submitting to His divine will—and only thereby—humanity can become a harmonious part of the cosmos.

  It is primarily as a people fused in obedience to God’s Torah that the Jews view their role among the rest of the human community. By testifying to the unity of God and to the divine will as revealed in the Torah, they seek to awaken all humanity to the one unique God of all creation.

  The Covenant

  The third major concept in Judaism is that of the covenant, which is viewed as the contractual agreement between God and the Jewish people.

  According to Jewish tradition, the God of all creation entered into a special relationship with the Jewish people at Sinai: If they would acknowledge God as their sole ultimate king and legislator, agreeing to obey his laws, God, in turn, and on his part, would acknowledge Israel as his particular people and be especially mindful of them.

  Both Biblical authors and later Jewish tradition interprets this contract in a universal and historical context: Only after successive failures to establish a covenant with all of rebellious humanity did God finally turn to a specific segment of it: Israel. This land, He decided, was to be a “kingdom of priests,” and the ideal social order it will establish in accordance with the divine laws is to be a model for the rest of the human race. Israel thus stands between God and humanity, representing each to the other—not unlike Jesus Christ, when you think about it.

  The idea of this contract with God greatly colors the way in which both nature and history have been viewed by the Jews. An
d this view is that Israel’s well-being, as a people and as a country, in essence depends on their obedience to God’s commandments: All natural and historical events that befall Israel are interpreted as emanating from God and as influenced by Israel’s religious behavior.

  In other words, a direct causal connection is thus made between human (Jewish) behavior and human (Jewish) destiny. This view does intensify the problem of theodicy in Judaism, because the historical experience of both Jewish individuals and the Jewish people as a whole has frequently been one of persecution and suffering.

  Much Jewish religious thought, from the biblical Book of Job onward, has concerned itself with the problem of affirming justice and meaning and with staying the course even in the face of apparent injustice.

  Over time, this problem has been mitigated by the reasoned belief that virtue and obedience ultimately would be rewarded and sin ultimately punished by divine judgment after death, thereby redressing inequities in this world. Thus, the indignities of foreign domination and forced exile from the land of Israel suffered by the Jewish people would also be redressed at the end of time—when God would send his Messiah (Mashiah, the anointed one), a scion of the royal house of David, to redeem the Jews and restore them to sovereignty in their land.

  The resulting strand of Jewish thought, Messianism, has since its origin been a significant one, and yearning for the Messiah’s coming has always been particularly intense in periods of calamity.

  Ultimately, a correlation was made between the messianic idea and the concept of Torah: The individual Jew, so was the conclusion drawn, through proper study and observance of God’s commandments, could in fact hasten the Messiah’s arrival. Thus, each individual’s action would assume cosmic importance.