RELIGST 1B06 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Epicurus, Religious Ecstasy, Dharma
4 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
All cultures that we know about seek ways of transcending death. These can be classified in various ways and they are not all religious . David chidester, patterns of transcendence: outlines four main ways human beings attempt to transcend death, these four attempts to transcend death are ways of giving death meaning: Links survivors to the past, and the past to the present. Sense that a person lives on through their offspring. Belief that the ancestral links survive the death of the individual as reflected in dreams, rituals, totems, etc. Psychological embrace of death as an ecstatic or positive experience. Sometimes as with epicurus involves acceptance of extinction of person and suffering. Sometimes, as with most shamanic traditions, involves undergoing ordeals in which the shaman is reborn with special insight into human suffering and can serve as a guide or interpreter. Collective commemoration that attempts to keep a person alive in the memory of the living.
