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Pablo Antuna is one of the leading authors on the web in the theme of world religions. He is the creator of successful websites about the study of comparative religion. He was raised in a somewhat Catholic environment but was attracted early on to the philosophies of the East. He dedicated to the study of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and other religious traditions. He devoted all his life to the study of these as well as ... [More]

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How to Prepare Jewish Cookies
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] In baking small cakes and cookies, grease the pans. If the pans cool before you can take off the cookies, set back on stove for a few moments. The cakes will then slip off easily. Sponge, drop cakes, anise cakes, etc., are better baked on floured pans.

How to Prepare a Jewish Soup
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Soups are wholesome and palatable and should form part of the meal whenever possible. It is a good plan to have some sort of vegetable or meat stock always at hand, as this renders the making of the soup both easy and economical. With milk at hand, cream soups are easily made.

10 Ways of Making Jewish Sandwiches
[Food-and-Drink:Recipes] Here I present 10 simple sandwiches made in the Jewish way. Bread should be twenty-four hours old and cut in thin, even slices. If fancy forms are desired, shape before spreading with butter. Cream butter and spread evenly.

Women in Jewish Literature
[News-and-Society:Religion] Among the songs of the Bible there are two, belonging to the oldest monuments of poetry, which have preserved the power to inspire and elevate as when they were first uttered: the hymn of praise and thanksgiving sung by Moses and his sister Miriam, and the impassioned song of Deborah, the heroine in Israel. Miriam and Deborah are the first Israelite women whose melody thrilled and even now thrills us-Miriam, the inspired prophetess, pouring forth her people's joy and sorrow, and Deborah.

Jewish Fairy Tales
[News-and-Society:Religion] How the wise Rabbis of old took into account the necessities of the little ones, whose minds they understood so perfectly, is obvious from such legends as those dealing with boyish exploits of the great Biblical characters, Abraham, Moses, and David. There is a wealth of delightful imagination in the legends and folk-lore of the Jews of a later period which is almost entirely unknown to children. I have drawn also on these sources for some of the stories here presented. My desire is to give boys and girls something Jewish which they may be able to regard as companion delights to the treasury of general fairy-lore and childish romance.

The Branches of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] As any other religion in the world, Buddhism has different sects with different beliefs and practices. We'll start with the most popular branch of Buddhism known as Mahayana. "Mahayana" is the name given to a movement which in its various phases may be regarded as a philosophical school, a sect and a church, and though it is not always easy to define its relationship to other schools and sects it certainly became a prominent aspect of Buddhism in India about the beginning of our era besides achieving enduring triumphs in the Far East.

The Upanishads and Speculative Religion in India
[News-and-Society:Religion] The earlier philosophical speculations of the Brahmans are chiefly found in the treatises called Upanishads. The teaching contained in these works is habitually presented as something secret or esoteric and does not, like Buddhism or Jainism, profess to be a gospel for all. Also the teaching is not systematized and has never been unified by a personality like the Buddha.

The Problem With Indian Chronology
[News-and-Society:Religion] Our knowledge of early Indian religion is derived almost entirely from literature. After the rise of Buddhism this is supplemented to some extent by buildings, statues and inscriptions, but unlike Egypt and Babylonia, pre-Buddhist India has yielded no temples, images or other religious antiquities, nor is it probable that such will be discovered. Certainly the material for study is not scanty. The theological literature of India is enormous: the difficulty is to grasp it and select what is important.

Why Hinduism is Difficult to Understand For Westerners
[News-and-Society:Religion] Many forms of Hinduism teach that the soul released from the body can enjoy eternal bliss in the presence of God and even those severer philosophers who do not admit that the released soul is a personality in any human sense have no doubt of its happiness. The opposition is not so much between Indian thought and the New Testament, for both of them teach that bliss is attainable but not by satisfying desire.

Vedic Rites and Their Influence on Modern Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The external features of Vedic rites are remarkable and unlike what we know of those performed by other nations of antiquity. The sacrifice is not as a rule a gift presented to a single god to win his favour.

Vedic Deities and Their Connection With Semitic Deities
[News-and-Society:Religion] One of the most interesting and impressive of Vedic deities is VaruGa, often invoked with a more shadowy double called Mitra. No myths or exploits are related of him but he is the omnipotent and omniscient upholder of moral and physical law.

The Vedas of Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Vedic hymns were probably collected and arranged between 1000 and 500 B.C. At that period rites and ceremonies multiplied and absorbed man's mind to a degree unparalleled in the history of the world and literature occupied itself with the description or discussion of this dreary ceremonial.

Rites of Sacrifice in Hinduism and Western Religion
[News-and-Society:Religion] The rite of sacrifice, which in the simple form of an offering supposed to be agreeable to the deity is the principal ceremony in the early stages of most religions, persists in their later stages but gives rise to clouds of theory and mystical interpretations. Thus in Christianity, the Jewish sacrifices are regarded as prototypes of the death of Christ and that death itself as a sacrifice to the Almighty, an offering of himself to himself, which in some way acts as an expiation for the sins of the world. And by a further development the sacrifice of the mass, that is, the offering of portions of bread and wine which are held to be miraculously transformed into the body and blood of Christ by the manipulations of a qualified priest, is believed to repeat every day the tragedy of Calvary.

The Practical Teaching of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The teaching of the Buddha was essentially practical. This statement may seem paradoxical to the reader who has some acquaintance with the Buddhist scriptures and he will exclaim that of all religious books they are the least practical and least popular: they set up an anti-social ideal and are mainly occupied with psychological theories.

The Origin of Mahayana Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] In the three or four centuries following Ashoka a surprising change came over Indian Buddhism, but though the facts are clear it is hard to connect them with dates and persons. But the change was clearly posterior to Ashoka for though his edicts show a spirit of wide charity it is not crystallized in the form of certain doctrines which subsequently became prominent.

The Origin of Buddhism in Hindu India
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Brahmans claim to direct the religious life and thought of India and apart from Islam may be said to have achieved their ambition, though at the price of tolerating much that the majority would wish to suppress. But in earlier ages their influence was less extensive and there were other currents of religious activity, some hostile and some simply independent. The most formidable of these found expression in Jainism and Buddhism both of which arose in the sixth century B.C. This century was a time of intellectual ferment in many countries. In China it produced Lao-tzu and Confucius: in Greece, Parmenides, Empedocles, and the sophists were only a little later. In all these regions we have the same phenomenon of restless, wandering teachers, ready to give advice on politics, religion or philosophy, to any one who would hear them.

The Major Sects of Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Hinduism may be said to fall into four principal divisions which are really different religions: the Smârtas or traditionalists, the Sivaites, the Vishnuites and the Zâktas. The first, who are still numerous, represent the pre-buddhist Brahmans. They follow, so far as modern circumstances permit, the ancient ritual and are apparent polytheists while accepting pantheism as the higher truth. Vishnuites and Sivaites however are monotheists in the sense that their minor deities are not essentially different from the saints of Roman and Eastern Christianity but their monotheism has a pantheistic tinge. Neither sect denies the existence of the rival god, but each makes its own deity God, not only in the theistic but in the pantheistic sense and regards the other deity as merely an influential angel.

The Importance of Philosophy in Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Indian has two important aspects-ritual and asceticism-and there is a third, namely, knowledge or philosophy. Its importance was recognized by the severest ritualists. They admitted it as a supplement and crown to the life of ceremonial observances and in the public estimation it came to be reputed an alternative or superior road to salvation. Respect and desire for knowledge are even more intimately a part of Hindu mentality than a proclivity to asceticism or ritual. The sacrifice itself must be understood as well as offered. He who knows the meaning of this or that observance obtains his desires.

The Hindu Search After Truth
[News-and-Society:Religion] In India the religious life has always been regarded as a journey and a search after truth. Even the most orthodox and priestly programme admits this. There comes a time when observances are felt to be vain and the soul demands knowledge of the essence of things. And though later dogmatism asserts that this knowledge is given by revelation, yet a note of genuine enquiry and speculation is struck in the Vedas and is never entirely silenced throughout the long procession of Indian writers.

The Function of the Law of Karma in Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] All religious doctrines, especially theories about the soul, are matters of temperament. A race with more power of will and more delight in life might have held that the soul is the one agent that can stand firm and unshaken midst the flux of circumstance. The intelligent but passive Hindu sees clearly that whatever illusions the soul may have, it really passes on like everything else and continueth not in one stay. He is disposed to think of it not as created with the birth of the body, but as a drop drawn from some ocean to which it is destined to return.

The Different Sects of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] We have a record of Indian thought for about 3000 years. It has directly affected such distant points as Balkh, Java and Japan and it is still living and active. But life and action mean change and such wide extension in time and space implies variety. We talk of converting foreign countries but the religion which is transplanted also undergoes conversion or else it cannot enter new brains and hearts. Buddhism in Ceylon and Japan, Christianity in Scotland and Russia are not the same, although professing to reverence the same teachers. It is easy to argue the other way, but it can only be done by setting aside as non-essential differences of great practical importance.

The Basic Teaching of the Buddha
[News-and-Society:Religion] The existence of everything depends on a cause: hence if the cause of evil or suffering can be detected and removed, evil itself will be removed. That cause is lust and craving for pleasure. Hence all sacrificial and sacramental religions are irrelevant, for the cure which they propose has nothing to do with the disease. The cause of evil or suffering is removed by purifying the heart and by following the moral law which sets high value on sympathy and social duties, but an equally high value on the cultivation of individual character. But training and cultivation imply the possibility of change.

Hinduism, Karma, Fate and the Problem of Free Will
[News-and-Society:Religion] There is a question much debated in European philosophy but little argued in India, namely the freedom of the will. The active European feeling the obligation and the difficulties of morality is perplexed by the doubt whether he really has the power to act as he wishes. This problem has not much troubled the Hindus and rightly, as I think. For if the human will is not free, what does freedom mean? What example of freedom can be quoted with which to contrast the supposed non-freedom of the will? If in fact it is from the will that our notion of freedom is derived, is it not unreasonable to say that the will is not free? Absolute freedom in the sense of something regulated by no laws is unthinkable.

Hinduism, Buddhism and Popular Religion in India
[News-and-Society:Religion] In 320 A.C., a native Indian dynasty, the Guptas, came to the throne and inaugurated a revival of Hinduism. To speak of the revival of Hinduism does not mean that in the previous period it had been dead or torpid. Indeed we know that there was a Hindu reaction against the Buddhism of Asoka about 150 B.C. But, on the whole, from the time of Asoka onwards Buddhism had been the principal religion of India, and before the Gupta era there are hardly any records of donations made to Brahmans. Yet during these centuries they were not despised or oppressed. They produced much literature: their schools of philosophy and ritual did not decay and they gradually made good their claim to be the priests of India's gods, whoever those gods might be.

Hinduism - The Religion of Free Thought
[News-and-Society:Religion] Restless, subtle and argumentative as Hindu thought is, it is less prone than European theology to the vice of distorting transcendental ideas by too stringent definition. It adumbrates the indescribable by metaphors and figures. It is not afraid of inconsistencies which may illustrate different aspects of the infinite, but it rarely tries to cramp the divine within the limits of a logical phrase. Attempts to explain how the divine and human nature were combined in Christ convulsed the Byzantine Empire and have fettered succeeding generations with their stiff formulae. It would be rash to say that the ocean of Hindu theological literature contains no speculations about the incarnations of Vishnu similar to the views of the Nestorians, Monophysites and Catholics, but if such exist they have never attracted much interest or been embodied in well-known phrases.

Hinduism As the Religion of the Future
[News-and-Society:Religion] Religion is systematized religious experience and this experience depends on temperament. It is one of the Hindus' many merits that they recognize this. Some people ask of religion forgiveness for their sins, others communion with the divine: most want health and wealth, many crave for an explanation of life and death. Indian religion accommodates itself to these various needs. Nothing is more surprising than the variety of its phases except the underlying unity.

Hinduism As a Way of Life
[News-and-Society:Religion] After reviewing the characteristics of a religion it is natural to ask what is its effect on those who profess it. Buddhism, Christianity and Islam offer materials for answering such a question, since they are not racial religions. In historical times they have been accepted by peoples who did not profess them previously and we can estimate the consequences of such changes. But Hinduism has racial or geographical limits. It proselytizes, but hardly outside the Indian area: it is difficult to distinguish it from Indian custom, as the gospel is distinguished from the practice of Europe: it is superfluous to enquire what would be its effect on other countries, since it shows no desire to impose itself on them and they none to accept it.

Hinduism and the Worship of Sexual Deities
[News-and-Society:Religion] One aspect of Indian religions is so singular that it demands notice, although it is difficult to discuss. I mean the worship of the generative forces. The cult of a god, or more often of a goddess, who personifies the reproductive and also the destructive powers of nature (for it is not only in India that the two activities are seen to be akin) existed in many countries. It was prominent in Babylonia and Asia Minor, less prominent but still distinctly present in Egypt and in many cases was accompanied by hysterical and immoral rites, by mutilations of the body and offerings of blood. But in most countries such deities and rites are a matter of ancient history: they decayed as civilization grew: in China and Japan, as formerly in Greece and Rome, they are not an important constituent of religion. It is only in India and to some extent in Tibet, which has been influenced by India, that they have remained unabashed until modern times.

The Priestly Caste in Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Hinduism has striking peculiarities which distinguish it from Christianity, Islam and even from Buddhism. It recognizes no one master and all unifying principles known to other creeds seem here to be absent. Yet its unity and vitality are clear and depend chiefly on its association with the Brahmin caste. From the dawn of Sanskrit literature until now, they have claimed to be the guides of India in all matters intellectual and religious and this persistent claim, though often disputed, has had a great measure of success.

European Influence on Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The small effect of European religion on Hinduism is remarkable. Islam, though aggressively hostile, yet fused with it in some sects, for instance the Sikhs, but such fusions of Indian religion and Christianity as have been noted are microscopic curiosities. European free thought and Deism have not fared better. In social life there has been some change: caste restrictions, though not abolished, are evaded by ingenious subterfuges and there is a growing feeling against child-marriage. Yet were the laws against sati and human sacrifice repealed, there are many districts in which such practices would not be forbidden by popular sentiment.

Hindu Rituals and Worship
[News-and-Society:Religion] In no point does Hinduism differ from western religions more than in its public worship and, in spite of much that is striking and interesting, the comparison is not to the advantage of India. It is true that temple worship is not so important for the Hindus as Church services are for the Christian. They set more store on home ceremonies and on contemplation. Still the temples of India are so numerous, so conspicuous and so crowded that the religion which maintains them must to some extent be judged by them.

Foreign Influences on Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Foreign influences stimulated mythology and imagery India. In the reliefs of Ashoka's time, the image of the Buddha never appears, and, as in the earliest Christian art, the intention of the sculptors is to illustrate an edifying narrative rather than to provide an object of worship. But in the Gandharan sculptures, which are a branch of Graeco-Roman art, he is habitually represented by a figure modeled on the conventional type of Apollo. The gods of India were not derived from Greece but they were stereotyped under the influence of western art to this extent that familiarity with such figures as Apollo and Pallas encouraged the Hindus to represent their gods and heroes in human or quasi-human shapes.

Expansion of Hinduism in India
[News-and-Society:Religion] There are many cults prevalent in India, though not recognized as sects, in which the worship of some aboriginal deity is accepted in all its crudeness without much admixture of philosophy, the only change being that the deity is described as a form, incarnation or servant of some well-known god and that Brahmans are connected with this worship. This habit of absorbing aboriginal superstitions materially lowers the average level of creed and ritual. An educated Brahman would laugh at the idea that village superstitions can be taken seriously as religion but he does not condemn them and, as superstitions, he does not disbelieve in them.

Religious Persecutions in India
[News-and-Society:Religion] There are some peculiar features of Hinduism. Compared with Islam or Christianity its doctrines are extraordinarily fluid, multiform and even inconsistent: its practice, though rarely lax, is also very various in different castes and districts. The strangeness of the phenomenon is diminished if one considers that the uniformity and rigidity of western creeds are due to their political more than to their religious character. Like the wind, the spirit bloweth where it listeth: it is governed by no laws but those which its own reverence imposes: it lives in changing speculation. But in Europe it has been in double bondage to the logic of Greece and the law of Rome. India deals in images and metaphor: Greece in dialectic.

Religious Hierarchy in Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] In the Western world we are accustomed to associate the ideas of sacerdotalism, hierarchy and dogma, mainly because they are united in the greatest religious organization familiar to us, the Roman Catholic Church. But the combination is not necessary. Hinduism is intensely sacerdotal but neither hierarchical nor dogmatic, Islam is dogmatic but neither sacerdotal nor hierarchical, Buddhism is dogmatic and also somewhat hierarchical, since it has to deal with bodies of men collected in monasteries where discipline is necessary, but except in its most corrupt forms it is not sacerdotal.

King Ashoka and the Expansion of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Buddha spent his life in preaching and by his personal exertions spread his doctrines over Bihar and Oudh but for two centuries after his death we know little of the history of Buddhism. In the reign of Ashoka (273-232 B.C.) its fortunes suddenly changed, for this great Emperor whose dominions comprised nearly all India made it the state religion and also engraved on rocks and pillars a long series of edicts recording his opinions and aspirations. Buddhism is often criticized as a gloomy and unpractical creed, suited at best to stoical and scholarly recluses. But these are certainly not its characteristics when it first appears in political history, just as they are not its characteristics in Burma or Japan today.

Islam and Hinduism and Their Early Relationship in India
[News-and-Society:Religion] Islam first entered India in 712 but it was some time before it passed beyond the frontier provinces and for many centuries it was too hostile and aggressive to invite imitation, but the spectacle of a strong community pledged to the worship of a single personal God produced an effect. In the period extending from the eighth to the twelfth centuries, in which Buddhism practically disappeared and Islam came to the front as a formidable though not irresistible antagonist, the dominant form of Hinduism was that which finds expression in the older Puranas, in the temples of Orissa and Khajarao and the Kailasa at Ellora.

Indian Religion and Its Importance Today
[News-and-Society:Religion] I do not think that Christianity will ever make much progress in Asia, for what is commonly known by that name is not the teaching of Christ but a rearrangement of it made in Europe and like most European institutions practical rather than thoughtful. And as for the teaching of Christ himself, the Indian finds it excellent but not ample or satisfying. There is little in it which cannot be found in some of the many scriptures of Hinduism and it is silent on many points about which they speak, if not with convincing authority, at least with suggestive profundity.

Indian Muslims and Hindus
[News-and-Society:Religion] A comparison of Indian Muslims and Hindus suggests that the former are more warlike and robust, the latter more intellectual and ingenious. The fact that some Muslims belong to hardy tribes of invaders must be taken into account but Islam deserves the credit of having introduced a simple and fairly healthy rule of life which does not allow every caste to make its own observances into a divine law.

How to Understand Hindu Gods
[News-and-Society:Religion] One difficulty incidental to the treatment of Asiatic religions in European languages is the necessity, or at any rate the ineradicable habit, of using well-known words like God and soul as the equivalents of Asiatic terms which have not precisely the same content and which often imply a different point of view. For practical life it is wise and charitable to minimize religious differences and emphasize points of agreement. But this willingness to believe that others think as we do becomes a veritable vice if we are attempting an impartial exposition of their ideas. If the English word God means the deity of ordinary Christianity, who is much the same as Allah or Jehovah-that is to say the creator of the world and enforcer of the moral law-then it would be better never to use this word in writing of the religions of India and Eastern Asia, for the concept is almost entirely foreign to them.

How Hindus Experience God
[News-and-Society:Religion] More than other religions, Hinduism appeals to the soul's immediate knowledge and experience of God. It has sacred books innumerable but they agree in little but this, that the soul can come into contact and intimacy with its God, whatever name be given him and even if he be superpersonal. The possibility and truth of this experience is hardly questioned in India and the task of religion is to bring it about, not to promote the welfare of tribes and states but to effect the enlightenment and salvation of souls.

Christianity and Buddhism and Common Religious Values
[News-and-Society:Religion] A well known Christian missionary of Peking, China, was invited one day by a Buddhist acquaintance to attend the ceremony of initiation for a class of one hundred and eighty priests and some twenty laity who had been undergoing preparatory instruction at the stately and important Buddhist monastery. The beautiful courts of the temple were filled by a throng of invited guests and spectators, waiting to watch the impressive procession of candidates, acolytes, attendants and high officials, all in their appropriate vestments. No outsider was privileged to witness the solemn taking by each candidate for the priesthood of the vow to "keep the Ten Laws," followed by the indelible branding of his scalp, truly a "baptism of fire."

Buddhist and Christian Worship Compared
[News-and-Society:Religion] The earlier forms of Buddhist ceremonials are of the synagogue type (though in no way derived from Jewish sources) for, though there is no prayer, they consist chiefly of confession, preaching and reading the scriptures. But this puritanic severity could not be popular and the veneration of images and relics was soon added to the ritual. The former was adopted by Buddhism earlier than by the Brahmans. The latter, though a conspicuous feature of Buddhism in all lands, is almost unknown to Hinduism.

Buddhism and the Government
[News-and-Society:Religion] Here I want to talk about the relations of Church and State. These are simplest in Buddhism, which teaches that the truth is one, that all men ought to follow it and that all good kings should honor and encourage it. This is also the Christian position but Buddhism has almost always been tolerant and has hardly ever countenanced the doctrine that error should be suppressed by force. Buddhism does not claim to cover the whole field of religion as understood in Europe: if people like to propitiate spirits in the hope of obtaining wealth and crops, it permits them to do so.

Buddhism and Its Simplicity
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Buddha attacked both the ritual and the philosophy of the Brahmins. After his time the sacrificial system, though it did not die, never regained its old prestige and he profoundly affected the history of Indian metaphysics. It may be justly said that most of his philosophic as distinguished from his practical teaching was common property before his time, but he transmuted common ideas and gave them a currency and significance which they did not possess before. But he was less destructive as a religious and social reformer than many have supposed.

Did the Buddha Perform Miracles?
[News-and-Society:Religion] The later phases of Buddhism, described as Mahayana, show this feature among many others, that the supernatural and mythological side of religion becomes prominent. Gods or angels play an increasingly important part, the Buddha himself becomes a being superior to all gods, and Buddhas, gods and saints perform at every turn feats for which miracle seems too modest a name.

How Buddhists Describe the Universe
[News-and-Society:Religion] The cosmography of the Buddhists regards the universe as consisting of innumerable spheres (cakkavalas), each of which might seem to a narrower imagination a universe in itself, since it has its own earth, heavenly bodies, paradises and hells. A sphere is divided into three regions, the lowest of which is the region of desire. This consists of eleven divisions which, beginning from the lowest, are the hells, and the worlds of animals, Pretas (hungry ghosts), Asuras (Titans) and men.

The Hindu History of the World
[News-and-Society:Religion] All Indian religions have a passion for describing in bold imaginative outline the history and geography of the universe. Their ideas are juster than those of Europeans and Semites in so far as they imply a sense of the distribution of life throughout immensities of time and space. The Hindu perceived more clearly than the Jew and Greek that his own age and country were merely parts of a much longer series and of a far larger structure or growth.

The Role of Gods in Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The attitude of early Buddhism to the spirit world is a peculiar one. Their existence is assumed, but the truths of religion are not dependent on them, and attempts to use their influence by sacrifices and oracles are deprecated as vulgar practices similar to juggling. Later Buddhism became infected with mythology and the critical change occurs when deities, instead of being merely protectors of the church, take an active part in the work of salvation. When the Hindu gods developed into personalities who could appeal to religious and philosophic minds as cosmic forces, as revealers of the truth and guides to bliss, the example was too attractive to be neglected and a pantheon of Bodhisattvas arose. But it is clear that when the Buddha preached in Kosala and Magadha, the local deities had not attained any such position.

Buddhism is Not a Religion Based on Miracles
[News-and-Society:Religion] The elaboration of marvelous episodes is regarded in India as a legitimate form of literary art, no more blamable than dramatization, and in sacred writings it flourishes unchecked. In Hinduism, as in Buddhism, there is not wanting a feeling that the soul is weary of the crowd of deities who demand sacrifices and promise happiness, and on the serener heights of philosophy gods have little place. Still most forms of Hinduism cannot like Buddhism be detached from the gods, and no extravagance is too improbable to be included in the legends about them.

Buddhism and Miracles
[News-and-Society:Religion] The credibility of miracles is to my mind simply a question of evidence. Any extraordinary event, such as a person doing a thing totally foreign to his character, is improbable a priori. But the law does not allow that the best of men is incapable of committing the worst of crimes, if the evidence proves he did. Nor can the most extraordinary violation of nature's laws be pronounced impossible if supported by sufficient evidence, only the evidence must be strong in proportion to the strangeness of the circumstances. But I cannot see that the uniformity of nature is any objection to the occurrence of miracles, for as a rule a miracle is regarded not as an event without a cause, but as due to a new cause, namely the intervention of a superhuman person.

Scriptures in Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Scriptures in India are thought of as words not writings. It is the sacred sound not a sacred book which is venerated. They are learned by oral transmission and it is rare to see a book used in religious services. Diagrams accompanied by letters and a few words are credited with magical powers, but still tantric spells are things to be recited rather than written. This view of scripture makes the hearer uncritical.

The Extravagance of Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] India is the most religious country in the world. The percentage of people who literally make religion their chief business, who sacrifice to it money and life itself (for religious suicide is not extinct), is far greater than elsewhere. Matter of fact respectable people-Chinese as well as Westerners-call this attitude extravagance and it sometimes deserves the name, for since there is no one creed or criterion in India, all sorts of aboriginal or decadent superstitions command the respect due to the name of religion.

Hinduism, Buddhism, Paganism and Organized Religion in the East
[News-and-Society:Religion] China and India are pagan, a word which I deprecate if it is understood to imply inferiority but which if used in a descriptive and respectful sense is very useful. Christianity and Islam are organized religions. They say (or rather their several sects say) that they each not only possess the truth but that all other creeds and rites are wrong. But paganism is not organized: it rarely presents anything like a church united under one head: still more rarely does it condemn or interfere with other religions unless attacked first. Buddhism stands between the two classes.

Heaven and Hell in Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Buddhism tells of many hells, of which Avîci is the most terrible. They are of course all temporary and therefore purgatories rather than places of eternal punishment, and the beings who inhabit them have the power of struggling upwards and acquiring merit, but the task is difficult and one may be born repeatedly in hell. The phraseology of Buddhism calls existences in heavens and hells new births.

Hinduism, Buddhism and the Devil
[News-and-Society:Religion] No sect of Hinduism personifies the powers of evil in one figure corresponding to Satan, or the Ahriman of Persia. In proportion as a nation thinks pantheistically it is disinclined to regard the world as being mainly a contest between good and evil. Buddhism having a stronger ethical bias than Hinduism was more conscious of the existence of a Tempter, or a power that makes men sin. This power is personified, but somewhat indistinctly, as Mâra, originally and etymologically a god of death.

The Hindu Theory of the Soul
[News-and-Society:Religion] Indian ideas about the destiny of the soul are connected with equally important views about its nature. I will not presume to say what is the definition of the soul in European philosophy but in the language of popular religion it undoubtedly means that which remains when a body is arbitrarily abstracted from a human personality, without enquiring how much of that personality is thinkable without a material substratum.

The Hindu View of the Afterlife
[News-and-Society:Religion] He who understands the nature of the soul and its successive lives cannot regard any single life as of great importance in itself, though its consequences for the future may be momentous, and though he will not say that life is not worth living. Reiterated declarations that all existence is suffering do, it is true, seem to destroy all prospect of happiness and all motive for effort, but the more accurate statement is, in the words of the Buddha himself, that all clinging to physical existence involves suffering. The earliest Buddhist texts teach that when this clinging and craving cease, a feeling of freedom and happiness takes their place and later Buddhism treated itself to visions of paradise as freely as Christianity. Many forms of Hinduism teach that the soul released from the body can enjoy eternal bliss in the presence of God and even those severer philosophers who do not admit that the released soul is a personality in any human sense have no doubt of its happiness.

Introduction to the Doctrine of Reincarnation
[News-and-Society:Religion] The most characteristic doctrine of Indian religion-rarely absent in India and imported by Buddhism into all the countries which it influenced-is that called the transmigration of the soul or reincarnation. The last of these terms best expresses Indian, especially Buddhist, ideas but still the usual Sanskrit equivalent, Samsara, means migration. The body breaks up at death but something passes on and migrates to another equally transitory tenement. Neither Brahmans nor Buddhists seem to contemplate the possibility that the human soul may be a temporary manifestation of the Eternal Spirit which comes to an end at death-a leaf on a tree or a momentary ripple on the water. It is always regarded as passing through many births, a wave traversing the ocean.

The Uniqueness of Hindu Religion
[News-and-Society:Religion] As a form of life and thought Hinduism is definite and unmistakable. In whatever shape it presents itself it can be recognized at once. But it is so vast and multitudinous that only an encyclopedia could describe it and no formula can summarize it. All these views are tenable because though Hindu life may be cut up into castes and sects, Hindu creeds are not mutually exclusive and repellent. They attract and colour one another.

The Central Doctrines of Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Though Hinduism has no one creed, yet there are at least two doctrines held by nearly all who call themselves Hindus. One may be described as polytheistic pantheism. Most Hindus are apparently polytheists, that is to say they venerate the images of several deities or spirits, yet most are monotheists in the sense that they address their worship to one god. The second doctrine is commonly known as metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls or reincarnation, the last name being the most correct. In detail the doctrine assumes various forms since different views are held about the relation of soul to body.

The Central Features of Hinduism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Some writers explain Indian religion as the worship of nature spirits, others as the veneration of the dead. But it is a mistake to see in the religion of any large area only one origin or impulse. We trace three clear currents in Indian religion which have persisted until the present day. The first is ritual. Secondly all Hindus lay stress on asceticism and self-mortification.

How and What Buddhists Worship
[News-and-Society:Religion] How are you going to worship at a Buddhist Shrine? What is the meaning of the images? In what sense do these images represent the Buddha? How is the Buddha related to the image? What kind of power do these images give you?

Basic Beliefs of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Which are the Basic Beliefs of Buddhism? Buddhism is a remarkable religious tradition, not only because it is the fourth-largest religion in the world, but also because it has concepts and beliefs that make it unique and distinct from all the other religions.

The Contemplative Ideal of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] In all Buddhist lands, though good laymen are promised the blessings of religion, the monastic and contemplative life is held up as the ideal. Monks are not of this world and therefore the world hates them. If they keep to themselves, they are called lazy and useless. If they take part in secular matters, they meet with even severer criticism. However, Buddhist monks are men of higher aspirations than others: they try to make themselves supermen by cultivating not the forceful and domineering part of their nature but the gentle, charitable and intelligent part.

The Buddhist Path - What Buddhists Do
[News-and-Society:Religion] Nirvana is the goal of human life according to Buddhism. How do you achieve that? The path is often divided in three categories: moral conduct, mental concentration and wisdom. These categories give us a pretty good and concise summary of Buddhist practice. Let me summarize them and give you some sense of how they function in Buddhist experience.

Nirvana is Freedom and Detachment (Not Death)
[News-and-Society:Religion] The experience of Nirvana is not just limited to the moment of the Buddha's passing. It isn't just the moment where his personality ceases to exist. The Buddha also experienced Nirvana at the moment of his awakening, when he knew that he was no longer bound by ignorance and desire.

The Buddhist Purpose of Human Life
[News-and-Society:Religion] The goal of human life according to Buddhism is Nirvana. This word means simply to blow out, as extinguishing the flame of a candle. To flame out generally isn't a positive concept. How could it be that the goal of human life is the blowing out of life itself?

The Most Important Teaching of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] One of the most important Buddhist teachings is the concept of no-self. Buddhists insist that there is no permanent identity that endures from one moment to the next. They distill this concept into a single phrase: no-self.

Why Do We Suffer? A Buddhist Answer
[News-and-Society:Religion] Traditional Buddhist teachings are summarized in the Four Noble Truths. The second Noble Truth is the truth of the origin of suffering. Suffering come into existence by depending on a chain of causes. Ignorance is the start of the chain. The idea here is that if you have a misconception about the nature of things, out of that misconception could come some sort of desire.

The Buddha - All is Suffering
[News-and-Society:Religion] Some people say that all the teachings of the Buddha are contained in the seemingly simple claim that All is Suffering. When people come to Buddhism for the first time, this simple claim seems to be a real barrier to understanding. The most important intellectual challenge is to understand how this simple statement doesn't lead to pessimism but to a sense of liberation and peace.

Brief Introduction to Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Where do we start to study this complex tradition we call Buddhism? The most basic Buddhist expression of faith is called the triple refuge: "I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dharma (teaching), and I take refuge in the Sangha (the community of Buddhist disciples). To start to learn about Buddhism we must look at each one of these three refuges.

Why Buddhism is Unique
[News-and-Society:Religion] Some aspects of Buddhism challenge our assumptions about the nature of religion itself. I have a standard definition of religion from an old dictionary that I've used for years since I was a college student. It goes something like this: "Religion is the service and adoration of god or gods in form of worship".

Buddhism Compared to Other Religions
[News-and-Society:Religion] When you come to Buddhism you have to be prepared for some significant surprises. What are the aspects that are similar to other religions? And what is that makes it unique?

What Was the Buddha Like?
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Buddha was, and is, one of the most influential personalities in all of human history. His teachings are followed by more than 500 million people. Who was the man who set this incredible and complex religious tradition in motion? The Buddha is the very picture of calm and contemplation.

Is Buddhism a Pessimistic Way of Life?
[News-and-Society:Religion] One of the common criticisms of Buddhism is that it is a pessimistic way of life. The fundamental teaching of the Buddha says that all in life is suffering. Sounds quite pessimistic? But that is only the starting point of his teaching. From that claim, he starts to elaborate and he says he has the solution for that.

Apply Buddhist Philosophy in Your Life
[News-and-Society:Religion] Buddhism is one of the largest religions in the world, but it also could be considered a practical philosophy. You don't need to convert to a new religion or make promises of any kind, you only need to learn the core teachings of the Buddha, you will be amazed at how practical they are. The Buddha is the very picture of calm and contemplation. And is this image of a calm and contemplative human being that has drawn many people to the Buddha, for centuries in Asia, and of course, in our own environment today. Do you want peace and calmness in your life? Then read further.

7 Reasons Why You Should Learn About Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] It is unique among religions: Buddhism is the only of the world major religions that teaches something radically different. They don't teach worship of one god or many gods, they focus on problems that we have here in this world.

Why Buddhism is So Appealing
[News-and-Society:Religion] Buddhism is always talked about as unique in the religious landscape. We can't find anything like it. What makes it so unique and appealing? Why is it growing in popularity in our days? Buddhism is a very human religion (if we could call it like that). It addresses problems deeply human and common to all people. What does the Buddha teach? He teaches about suffering. Its origin and a solution for it. What could be more appealing than ending our suffering?

Do Buddhists Worship Gods?
[News-and-Society:Religion] It is often argued that Buddhism is not a religion because they don't believe in a supreme creator god. But, is it really like that? What did the Buddha say? The Buddha was a man like you and me, he didn't claim to be a god, nor he wanted to be worshiped like one. Anyway, after his death, many followers started to worship him and objects associated with him to get favor.

What is Buddhism?
[News-and-Society:Religion] What is Buddhism? Many consider Buddhism a religion, though some deny that name, because Buddhism doesn't teach worship of gods. They say that Buddhism is a philosophy or simply a way of life. This distinction between religion and philosophy is one that originated among Western commentators, as a distinction between the two isn't clear in Asia, where it originated. The truth is that it has around 500 million followers according to some sources, making it the third largest religion (if we could call it like that) in the world.

Are There Gods in Buddhism?
[News-and-Society:Religion] Do Buddhists believe in God or gods? Buddhism is always considered unique and special among religions because its practitioners don't believe in a creator god, or at least, they don't rely on him for their salvation. According to the Pali Canon, the most ancient of Buddhist scriptures, the Buddha didn't reject the existence of gods, but he considered them to be subject to change and death. He said that to invoke their aid or influence was useless.

Ten Facts About Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Buddhism gets its name from a man known by his followers as the Buddha, or the awaken one. He was born in a princely family in a region of Northern India that now lies in Southern Nepal. There are about 500 million Buddhists worldwide.

What is Mahayana Buddhism?
[News-and-Society:Religion] What are the beliefs and practices of Mahayana Buddhism? What does Mahayana mean? Where and when did it emerge? The Mahayana is a reform movement that made a radical change in the way people enacted the Buddhist ideal. It changes the style, the tone and the content of Buddhist practice in profound ways, only a few centuries after the lifetime of the Buddha.

What is Theravada Buddhism?
[News-and-Society:Religion] What does Theravada mean? What are their beliefs and practices? Where did it emerge? The word "Theravada" simply means the "Doctrine of the Elders". It is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. This tradition represents, quite deliberately, a conservative option. It maintains today many aspects of the Buddhist tradition that were practiced in India during the early centuries after the death of the Buddha.

Buddhism and Nirvana
[News-and-Society:Religion] What do we mean by Nirvana? This is a concept talked about a lot. Very often something is compared to Nirvana when it is positive and pleasurable. This is the popular idea of Nirvana. But what the Buddha really experience when he achieved this state of Nirvana? What is this that Buddhism seeks?

Buddhism and Karma
[News-and-Society:Religion] One of the basics beliefs of Buddhism is the law of Karma. The word Karma is a word that is pretty common in our world. I haven't looked it up in the dictionary recently to see whether it made its way into the discourse of the dictionary, but certainly is in the discourse of our culture. But what does it really mean for Buddhists?

Are There Buddhist Nuns?
[News-and-Society:Religion] Nuns were an important part of the early Buddhist community. The monastic practice of women continues to be significant in the Buddhist community today. We may have some problems with the story about the origin of this community of nuns because of our presuppositions, but let's look at it anyway with an open mind.

The Buddhist View of Reincarnation
[News-and-Society:Religion] The doctrine of reincarnation is an unavoidable part of Indian religious thought, it really is the starting point of any further reflection. All the goals that religions seek are related in one way or another to this doctrine.

What the Buddha Said About Personality
[News-and-Society:Religion] What makes up the human personality? What am I? To understand what the Buddha said about this, we must understand first a very important concept of Buddhist doctrine: the concept of no-self. What does this mean? It means that nothing has a permanent identity, including personalities.

What is Reincarnation and What it Really Means
[News-and-Society:Religion] Sometime during the first half of the first millennium BCE, Indian sages took the position that human beings didn't live just one life, but cycled around again and again, life after life, death after death, in a process of death and rebirth. We call it the doctrine of reincarnation. What is the real meaning of this doctrine in Buddhism and Hinduism? How does this view change the way we live?

The Indian View of the Afterlife
[News-and-Society:Religion] If we go back to look at the Vedas, the oldest surviving religious texts in India, we find that the view of the afterlife is really quite similar to the view that is found in some of the European traditions familiar to us. This view is that the people who live a virtuous life in this world go to live to the land of the ancestors when they die. This ancient view began to be replaced by another one: The Doctrine of Reincarnation.

Was Buddhism Invented by the Greeks?
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] I know this is a provocative title, but here I'm honestly presenting an idea that seems sound, at least to me, and that could have been neglected due to our presuppositions about Buddhism, and Eastern religions in general. Buddhism always has been an example of Asian thought. We always thought that it developed without any European influence. I'm crazy enough to say that it was invented by Europeans?

Do Buddhists Worship the Buddha?
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Buddha said that he came to this world to point out the way. He said not to look at the finger, but at the way. So, why all these images of the Buddha? Do Buddhists worship him? Is he a god for them? Why do they do that? What is the meaning of worship in Buddhism?

How Hinduism Influenced Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Buddha was born in a religiously rich environment: India. India is still considered today one of the most religious places in the world. We must understand that Buddhism was originally an Indian religion. The Buddha tried to solve problems that were present in Indian religious thought at the time. He wasn't isolated trying to achieve enlightenment as we might want to think. He was really influenced by his environment. To really understand the teachings of the Buddha, we must know his background, we must understand the problems he was attempting to solve.

Influential Political Leaders Throughout Buddhist History
[News-and-Society:Religion] We see the Buddha as a monk, it is hard to imagine him as a politician, but politics has been a deeply rooted theme in Buddhist life. These are figures that represent the intersection between traditional Buddhist and political values.

Mahayana Buddhism - Buddhahood For Everyone
[News-and-Society:Religion] The Mahayana, or "Great Vehicle", is a school of Buddhism that changes the style, the tone and the content of Buddhist practice in profound ways. It opens up the practice of Buddhahood to lay people as well as to monks and nuns. It also involves a far more extended vision of the cosmos than anything that came before.

Who is the Fat Laughing Buddha?
[News-and-Society:Religion] Who is that fat laughing Buddha we often see depicted sitting in a relaxed posture? Many people gets confused with this image of a fat monk, totally incongruent with the enlightened and meditative Buddha. Well, here is his story.

A Brief History of Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] Buddhism began in Northern India around the year 500 BCE. The Buddhist tradition gets its name from a man known by his followers as the Buddha. The Buddha is the very picture of calm and contemplation. And is this image of a calm and contemplative human being that has drawn many people to the Buddha. Today, Buddhism has spread through much of the rest of the world including Europe, Australia and the Americas.

Buddhist Proverbs
[News-and-Society:Religion] We find that the Buddhist tradition is expressed in very simple and memorable verses. "Not to do any evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one's mind. This is the teaching of the Buddha." This is a famous example.

Buddhist Self-Reliance and Devotion
[News-and-Society:Religion] Buddhism is known for its tradition of self-reliance, found in the early Buddhist monastic community. Relying simply on yourself in order to achieve the experience of nirvana that the Buddha himself achieved. But there is also another important aspect of the tradition that insists that is not possible and perhaps not even desirable to achieve salvation purely on your own merit, purely relying on your own power.

Suffering in Buddhism
[News-and-Society:Religion] The truth of suffering in Buddhism is expressed in the simple claim that All is Suffering. This phrase is not easy to interpret. If you know Buddhist people, if you are a Buddhist person, you know that the Buddhist tradition is not filled with sadness. It's not a depressive downbeat tradition. In many respects, it has a kind of lightness. How do you get from this claim, the claim that all is suffering, to the buoyancy and lightness of Buddhist experience?

Barrios Vs Segovia - Friends, Foes, Or Just Different?
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] There are many anecdotes relating the two masters of classical guitar Andres Segovia and Agustin Barrios Mangore. Which was really their relationship? Did they hate each other? Was Segovia jealous of Barrios skills? How many times did they encounter? Was Barrios resented because Segovia never promoted him?

Bach - Guide to the Man in the White Wig
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] Johann Sebastian Bach would never be as appealing for his adventures in life and good looks as, say, Mozart or Beethoven. His portrait as an old man with a white wig doesn't do justice to this composer capable of great emotional deepness.

Classical Guitar and Agustin Barrios Mangore, His Importance
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Music] The Paraguayan guitarist Agustin Barrios Mangore was compared by John Williams to Frederic Chopin. He said: "His music is very guitaristic, rather like Chopin is for the piano. In this way he has filled that need of every instrument to have its composer who belonged to the instrument and at the same time wrote great music". The rather poor repertoire of classical guitar was greatly enriched by this guitarist of humble origins, and also humble career.