Asceticism

The Oxford Dictionary defines Enlightenment as, “The action or state of attaining or having attained spiritual knowledge or insight, in particular (in Buddhism) that awareness which frees a person from the cycle of rebirth,” (Oxford Dictionary). In Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha, the novel explores Siddhartha’s expedition towards enlightenment. At first, Siddhartha was a powerful Brahmin that men aspired to become and women wanted to marry. “There was pride in his mother’s breast when she saw him…

4.1 The Replacement Theory and the Anti-Semitism All of the interpreters, whom I examine in this article (with the exception of the last), regarded the first invited guests as the Jewish nation and the second invited guests as Gentiles. They all believed that the destruction of the city of the first guests represents the devastation of Jerusalem, which is God’s judgment on Jews. Chrysostom asserted that God foreknows the Jews’ refusals of Christ. He first sent his prophets and Christ to them in…

Human beings have sought answers to major existential questions since the dawning of consciousness many centuries ago. Some of the most significant of these concerns are Peter Berger’s four existential imperatives: Who am I, why am I here, how should I live, and what happens when I die? These questions are extraordinarily intricate and unfathomably complex; therefore, try as we may, human beings have yet to determine the answers to these questions and discover for certain what exactly is our…

Brahmin families in India and left their homes to find meaning and enlightenment after feeling discontent with their secular lifestyles. Gautama Siddhartha “renounced his wealth to live as an ascetic” but eventually “came to realize the errors of asceticism”, much like how Siddhartha left the Samana’s in Hesse’s novel. Furthermore, another name that can be traced back to Eastern culture is Vasudeva, the ferryman. Vasudeva is a character in Indian Poetry and the father of Krishna, a Hindu Diety.…

Vardhamana Mahavira in about 500 B.C. But Mahavira was one of twenty-four Tirthankara’s, one’s who make liberation possible (Long, 2009). Mahavira’s predecessor, Parsvanatha, was the twenty-third Tirthankara who is believed to have taught a path of asceticism and self-restraint (Long, 2009). In other words, Mahavira was just a “re-discoverer” of Jainism. Followers of Jainism, also known as “Jains” (Eliade, 1907),…

Hindu is a pagan religion espoused by the people of India and Nepal, was formed through a long march from the fifth century BC to the present. It is a religion of spiritual and moral values as well as legal and regulatory principles taken several gods, according to related works, for every area of the god, and every act or phenomenon there a God for it. There is no specific founder for Hindu religion and most of their books they don’t know who the authors, the religion as well as the books have…

order to become the perfect man and reach salvation, “Taking the lesson to heart, Anthony immediately stepped out, sold his estate, and gave away all his money except for an endowment that he set aside for his sister”(89). He continued his life of asceticism for the rest of his life and attracted disciples. This new fad of showing devotion to God by living in poverty spread to all Christians who began to give away their privileges and enter monasteries in order to show their piety in a less…

1. How did growing social and gender hierarchies and expanding networks of trade increase the complexity of human society in the Neolithic period? In the Neolithic period of human civilization, societal developments like agricultural revolution led to social ranking or "hierarchies" and patriarchal favor. The latter customs became increasingly integrated into the daily ways of men and women as plow agriculture dominated human ways of life. As This period of agricultural renaissance and trade…

metaphysics of Buddhism and Daoism, constructing Confucianism’s own metaphysics; second is taking the missionary pedigree of Buddhism and Daoism for reference, founding Confucianism preach system, which is called Confucianism orthodoxy; third is taking in asceticism of Buddhism and Daoism, putting forward the "save justice and destroy human desires" moral claim. Neo-Confucianism completed its theoretical framework and reached the summit in recognition in Southern Song. The representative, Zhu…

Introduction Who are Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield? George M. Marsden, an American author, describes Jonathan Edwards as, “extraordinary and the most acute American philosopher and the most brilliant of all American theologians.” John Charles Ryle, an Anglican bishop, describes George Whitefield as, “a humble person and after he had a calm examination, he had come to the conclusion that Whitefield was one of the most powerful and extraordinary preachers the world has ever seen.”…