RELG 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Greco-Roman Mysteries, Upanishads
Document Summary
Relg 101 - introduction to world religions: western traditions - lecture 2: mystic. Ancient india 25 centuries ago > emergence of ganges > buddhism and jainism. Indo europeans language - english, french, latin, greek. Jainism is practiced by about 2% of people in india. Ascribed to number of religious social groups and practices that are popular in the greek and roman world. We don"t quite know what is going on. Very influential on early developments of christianity. Involve the rituals that developed into baptism. Descent of a god in human form (avatar[a]) Some sort of a virgin birth associated with the birth of avatar. Buddha amitabha was never born on earth but lived on earth; he is not a god. He protects karma: behavior in accordance of the truth. When things on earth become really bad, vishnu descends to earth to save the world. Brahman - formless god in the upanishads; energy god, without features/quality.
