Blog Post 22 - Ancient Western Religions

1. Zorastrianism began to flourish throughout Iran during the Persian Empire in the fifth and fourth centuries BC.
2. Zarathustra converted persia's king who led the dominant army.
3. An Angel Called Good Thought appeared to him and brought him, as a disembodied soul, before Ahura mazda. Zarathustra recognized Ahura Mazda as the one true God.
4. The sacred text of Zoroastrianism is the Avesta. The oldest material in this text is Gathas and was written by Zarathustra.
5. Ahura Mazda is eternal and universal goodness, controlling the cosmos and the destiny of human beings. Zarathustra celebrates Ahura Mazda's role as creator of all things through the holy spirit.
6. The belief in universal forces of good and evil.
7. The Lie is an evil cosmic force. It opposes Ahura Mazda, who is good.
8. In the Zoroastrianism cosmic scheme, humans must choose between good and evil.
9. After death individuals go to judgment by crossing a bridge of torment and pain. They walk across a bridge over an abyss and the good get into paradise while the bad fall to their death.
10. Its ethical demands include such principles as caring for livestock and fields.
11. Combine a wide variety of features from the Zoroastrian tradition. They maintain the monotheism of its founder and continue to revere the Avesta as their sacred text. They are located in India.
12 The Iliad and the Odyssey are commonly regarded as the Bibles of the ancient Greeks.
13. The gods have human attributes. No deity, not even Zeus, is all-powerful or all-knowing; rather, all the gods and goddesses have their own specific talents, functions, and limitations. Also there moral behavior is much more human-like than godlike.
14. Aeschylus’s main contribution to to the understanding of the Olympic gods was the idea of divine justice. He believed that the gods actions were in response to the humans’ actions.
15. An oracle is a sanctuary at which revelations of a god are received. The most famous oracle of ancient Greece is Delphi. It was consulted because Greeks sought the wisdom of Apollo through her.
16 Mithraism and the Cult of Isis were main rivals to Christianity in the later Roman empire.
17 The mystery religion that honored Demeter and Persephone was Eleusinian religion.
18. The god Dionysus associated with was the god of fertility. He is often depicted in Greek art by wine and grapes.
19. The goal of the ascetic practices of the Orphics is to lead a pure life.
20. Plato's theory of knowledge is that we know things in life mainly because we have experienced the same things in a previous life.
21. Platonic dualism is the truth of the world that is independent from any bodily or material ideas in reality.
22. Jesus seemed to have much in common with the ancient Asclepius because they were both revered as saviors who had a strong relationship with their followers.
23. Numina were supernatural beings that were in charge of specific functions like populating towns. The sorts of things they were thought to inhabit were streams, fields, and doorways.
24. The most powerful Roman deity was Jupiter.
25. The six planes of our solar system that are named after Roman deities are Neptune, Mercury, Jupiter, Satum, Venus, and Mars.
26. The Roman state considered it essential to maintain official worship practices so they would never anger the gods and remain at peace.
27. The mystery religions that were the main rivals of Christianity in the later Roman Empire were Mithraism and the Cult of Iris.
28. The Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris is about how a man, Osiris, was killed and hacked to pieces by his evil brother. His wife, Iris, found the pieces and mummified them, which caused him to come back to life.
29. The sort of emperor worship encouraged by Augustus was to worship the Roman state and his guardian spirit
30. Christians and Roman rulers clash over emperor worship because Romans believed the focus of worship should be the state, whereas Catholics believed that it should be God.

Judaism Questions

1) The Synagogue serves as a meeting place, a learning center, and a worship space.

2) In the Synagogue, men and women are seated in separate sections. The ark (where the Torah scrolls are kept when they are not being used) is located on the Eastern wall of the Synagogue. Torah scrolls contain all of Jewish law and tradition. The Ten Commandments are the laws that G-d gave to Moses. They are above the door in a Synagogue.

3) A rabbi is the community leader of a Jewish community who has undergone extensive study of the Torah. One becomes a rabbi through studying the Torah and passing some insanely hard exams on the Torah and Talmud, bro. Chill with that. No but really, a rabbi is different from a clergyman. He is essentially a regular Jew with the role of interpreting and explaining the Torah for his community, he doesn't have to dress or act differently. 

4) The Shabbat is a day of rest, spiritual enrichment, and holiness, occurring once a week on Sundays. 

5) The Torah primarily refers to the first five books of the Bible, but can also encompass the entire Old Testament or even the complete body of Jewish teaching and law. Talmud is the teaching not encompassed in Torah, similar to tradition in the Catholic church. 

6) Orthodox Jews believe the Torah has remained unchanged since God gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai and place those first 5 books above all else. Reform Jews promote reggie stop licking my leg moral law and monotheism due to changes in European life following the Enlightenment. Conservative Jews are the Episcopalians of Judaism, awkwardly caught between Orthodox and Reform. 'Nuff said. Theodore Herzl was this guy that created Israel, basically. Zionists are all about the creation (and conservation) of a Jewish state. It's political, dude. 

7) Hebrew is an ancient Jewish language that made one of the greatest comebacks in sports history in the 19th century and now leads the Israeli Language League in total speakers. 

8) Yiddish is a Germanic language spoken by Ashkenazic Jews. 

9) Mazal Tov - good luck, congrats

Shalom - Peace

Mitzvah - Law from God

10) Bar Mitzvah -  age of responsibility for the commandments. At this age one is responsible for adhering to Torah

Brit Milah - circumcision EWWWWW

Jewish Marriage - a big party. the jewish believe matches are made in heaven, and the actual ceremony is filled with symbolism and rite.

11) Rosh Hashanah -a solemn Jewish feast day celebrated on the first or first and second of Tishri; note for the blowing of the shofar

Yom Kippur - a solemn and major fast day on the Jewish calendar; 10th of Tishri; its observance is one of the requirements of Jewish law
Hanukkah - an eight day Jewish holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Temple of Jerusalem in 165 BC
Passover - a Jewish festival celebrating the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt

12) I knew that the Bar Mitzvah was the point at which boys and girls have to take responsibility for their own adherence to Torah

13) I had no idea Hebrew had fallen out of practice for hundreds of years.

14) Marriages in Judaism are symbolic and filled with ritual, similar to Christian weddings.

15) I do not have a specific day when I take responsibility for my religious life. 

Buddhism Questions

1. Siddhartha
2. An old man, a sick man, a corpse, and a wandering ascetic. They showed Buddha that life was suffering and prompted him to adopt asceticism to try to nullify suffering.
3. The Middle Way is sort of like the phrase 'moderation in all things'. It stresses physical and spiritual health and denies the extremes of gluttony and asceticism.
4. He was sitting under a fig tree and underwent three watches during his meditation through the night in which he was tempted by the devil but resisted and eventually reached enlightenment.
5. The Sangha is the Buddhist religious community of monks and nuns.
6. The buddha, dharma, and sangha
7. Samsara, moksha/enlightenment, karma, and the Gods.
8. The Buddha rejected Hinduism because he didn't think the sannyasin stage of life (asceticism) or any part of Hinduism could eliminate suffering, it only reduced it to the lowest level, from which it would eventually come back. He also rejected Hinduism's institutional structure.
9. Anatta, anicca, and dukkha. Anatta and anicca are similar in that they relate to the impermanence of reality and absence of essence, and they combine to support dukkha, which states that reality is suffering.
10. anatta is the antithesis of Atman and states that there is no eternal self or reality.
11. a bundle of energy. karma determines the pattern and trajectory of that energy.
12. Don't take life, do not take what is not given, do not engage in sensuous misconduct, do not use false speech, do not drink intoxicants,
Do not eat after noon, do not watch dancing or shows, do not use garlands, perfumes, or ornaments, do not use a high or soft bed, do not accept gold or silver.
13. Suffering, dislocation  discomfort, frustration. It is a reference to the problem of reality, which is the discord between the magnitude of our desires and reality's inability to satisfy them.
14. tanha is that desire which leads to dukkha
15. right views, right intentions, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation .
16. Buddhas do not need a model to provide teachings leading to their awakening.
17. An arhat is a living person who has realized the truth of the "no-self" and has perfect compassion for all living things.
18. Blowing out. It shows that nirvana is not the culmination of life and joy, but rather the cessation of suffering.
19. Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana
20. The teachings of Buddhism.
21. The greater vehicle. It means that it is the larger, more popular form of Buddhism.
22. It uses desire to eliminate itself, thus eliminating suffering.
23. The Dalai Lama is the constantly reincarnated leader of Vajrayana Buddhism. The Dalai Lama is chosen at the age of three by going through a series of tests after the last Lama dies.
24. Vajrayana is in Tibet and Mahayana and Theravada are prominent in India and China.