Dharma and Halacha
Dharma and Halacha

Author: Ithamar Theodor

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2018-08-15

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1498512801

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In recent decades there has been a rising interest among scholars of Hinduism and Judaism in engaging in the comparative studies of these ancient traditions. Academic interests have also been inspired by the rise of interreligious dialogue by the respective religious leaders. Dharma and Halacha: Comparative Studies in Hindu-Jewish Philosophy and Religion represents a significant contribution to this emerging field, offering an examination of a wide range of topics and a rich diversity of perspectives and methodologies within each tradition, and underscoring significant affinities in textual practices, ritual purity, sacrifice, ethics and theology. Dharma refers to a Hindu term indicating law, duty, religion, morality, justice and order, and the collective body of Dharma is called Dharma-shastra. Halacha is the Hebrew term designating the Jewish spiritual path, comprising the collective body of Jewish religious laws, ethics and rituals. Although there are strong parallels between Hinduism and Judaism in topics such as textual practices and mystical experience, the link between these two religious systems, i.e. Dharma and Halacha, is especially compelling and provides a framework for the comparative study of these two traditions. The book begins with an introduction to Hindu-Jewish comparative studies and recent interreligious encounters. Part I of the book titled “Ritual and Sacrifice,” encompasses the themes of sacrifice, holiness, and worship. Part II titled "Ethics," is devoted to comparing ethical systems in both traditions, highlighting the manifold ways in which the sacred is embodied in the mundane. Part III of the book titled "Theology," addresses common themes and phenomena in spiritual leadership, as well as textual metaphors for mystical and visionary experiences in Hinduism and Judaism. The epilogue offers a retrospective on Hindu-Jewish encounters, mapping historic as well as contemporary academic initiatives and collaborations.

Prescribing the Dharma
Prescribing the Dharma

Author: Ira Helderman

Publisher: UNC Press Books

Published: 2019-02-08

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 1469648539

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Interest in the psychotherapeutic capacity of Buddhist teachings and practices is widely evident in the popular imagination. News media routinely report on the neuropsychological study of Buddhist meditation and applications of mindfulness practices in settings including corporate offices, the U.S. military, and university health centers. However, as Ira Helderman shows, curious investigators have studied the psychological dimensions of Buddhist doctrine for well over a century, stretching back to William James and Carl Jung. These activities have shaped both the mental health field and Buddhist practice throughout the United States. This is the first comprehensive study of the surprisingly diverse ways that psychotherapists have related to Buddhist traditions. Through extensive fieldwork and in-depth interviews with clinicians, many of whom have been formative to the therapeutic use of Buddhist practices, Helderman gives voice to the psychotherapists themselves. He focuses on how they understand key categories such as religion and science. Some are invested in maintaining a hard border between religion and psychotherapy as a biomedical discipline. Others speak of a religious-secular binary that they mean to disrupt. Helderman finds that psychotherapists' approaches to Buddhist traditions are molded by how they define what is and is not religious, demonstrating how central these concepts are in contemporary American culture.

Dharma
Dharma

Author: Patrick Olivelle

Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass

Published: 2009-01-01

Total Pages: 501

ISBN-13: 8120833384

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This is the first scholarly book devoted to the study of the term dharma with in the broad scope of Indian cultural and religious history. Most generalizations about Indian culture and religion upon close scrutiny turn out to be inaccurate. An exception undoubtedly is the term dharma. This term and the notions underlying it clearly constitute the most central feature of Indian civilization down the centuries, irrespective of linguistic, sectarian, or regional differences. The nineteen papers included in this collection deal with many significant historical manifestations of the term dharma. These studies by some of the leading scholars in the respective fields will both present a more nuanced picture of the semantic history of dharma by putting contours onto the flat landscape we have inherited and spur further studies of this concept so central for understanding the cultural history of the Indian subcontinent.

Dharma and Development
Dharma and Development

Author: Joanna Macy

Publisher:

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 119

ISBN-13: 9780931816536

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The predecessor to Buddhism at Work, this book concretely describes how a village movement in Sri Lanka draws on indigenous cultural and religious values to redefine the nature and purpose of development. It mobilizes and encourages popular participation, and mounts distinctive organizing strategies. It illustrates the relevance of religious traditions for any alternative development efforts in the developing and industrialized worlds.

The I: Dharma versus Religion
The I: Dharma versus Religion

Author: RS

Publisher: Notion Press

Published: 2021-01-06

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1636697259

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The word Dharma, derived from the root ‘Dhr’ of the Sanskrit language, is an axis of every entity in the universe, is a resultant force of the Supreme Soul in the action performed devoid of attachment, inspires unity in diversity, and is a result of the action in the form of a reward from the Supreme Soul. The individual rises above anger, malice, self-love, physical knowledge and evil and sees life as a mirror by following Dharma. Time touches every aspect of life and forces all material objects to change. Even words and languages do not remain untouched. Dharma is narrated as religion and has become a sign of social evils, whereas religion is a penal form of the I for its physical knowledge and has characteristics of segregation. The word Dharmnirpekcha means ‘not in favor of Dharma’ and signifies being against the Creator of the universe and shows lunacy and ignorance. Just with proper address and direction, one can reach the destination. The appropriate language and adequate texts help to solve lexical misconceptions. The author redresses the simple identifications of the literal myths generated by the influence of time and many unresolved queries like ‘who am I, body or Soul’, ‘what is the form of the I’, ‘how can one control the mind’, ‘does God exist’, ‘does the Supreme Soul exist in a personal form like you for you’, ‘the difference between Dharma and religion’, ‘how the varna system changed to caste’ and much more in search of the truth of words misapprehended for centuries.

Dharma
Dharma

Author: Alf Hiltebeitel

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-07-28

Total Pages: 766

ISBN-13: 0199875243

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Between 300 BCE and 200 CE, concepts and practices of dharma attained literary prominence throughout India. Both Buddhist and Brahmanical authors sought to clarify and classify their central concerns, and dharma proved a means of thinking through and articulating those concerns. Alf Hiltebeitel shows the different ways in which dharma was interpreted during that formative period: from the grand cosmic chronometries of kalpas and yugas to narratives about divine plans, gendered nuances of genealogical time, royal biography (even autobiography, in the case of the emperor Asoka), and guidelines for daily life, including meditation. He reveals the vital role dharma has played across political, religious, legal, literary, ethical, and philosophical domains and discourses about what holds life together. Through dharma, these traditions have articulated their distinct visions of the good and well-rewarded life. This insightful study explores the diverse and changing significance of dharma in classical India in nine major dharma texts, as well some shorter ones. Dharma proves to be a term by which to make a fresh cut through these texts, and to reconsider their own chronology, their import, and their relation to each other.

Dharma
Dharma

Author: Veena R. Howard

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2017-08-14

Total Pages: 306

ISBN-13: 1786732122

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Dharma is central to all the major religious traditions which originated on the Indian subcontinent. Such is its importance that these traditions cannot adequately be understood apart from it. Often translated as "ethics," "religion," "law," or "social order," dharma possesses elements of each of these but is not confined to any single category familiar to Western thought. Neither is it the straightforward equivalent of what many in the West might usually consider to be "a philosophy". This much-needed analysis of the history and heritage of dharma shows that it is instead a multi-faceted religious force, or paradigm, that has defined and that continues to shape the different cultures and civilizations of South Asia in a whole multitude of forms, organizing many aspects of life. Experts in the fields of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist and Sikh studies here bring fresh insights to dharma in terms both of its distinctiveness and its commonality as these are expressed across, and between, the several religions of the subcontinent. Exploring ethics, practice, history and social and gender issues, the contributors engage critically with some prevalent and often problematic interpretations of dharma, and point to new ways of appreciating these traditions in a manner that is appropriate to and thoroughly consistent with their varied internal debates, practices and self-representations.

Digital Hinduism
Digital Hinduism

Author: Murali Balaji

Publisher: Lexington Books

Published: 2017-11-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 1498559182

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This edited volume seeks to build a scholarly discourse about how Hinduism is being defined, reformed, and rearticulated in the digital era and how these changes are impacting the way Hindus view their own religious identities. It seeks to interrogate how digital Hinduism has been shaped in response to the dominant framing of the religion, which has often relied on postcolonial narratives devoid of context and an overemphasis on the geopolitics of the Indian subcontinent post-partition. From this perspective, this volume challenges previous frameworks of how Hinduism has been studied, particularly in the West, where Marxist and Orientalist approaches are often ill-fitting paradigms to understanding Hinduism. This volume engages with and critiques some of these approaches while also enriching existing models of research within media studies, ethnography, cultural studies, and religion.

Sanatana Dharma
Sanatana Dharma

Author: Anonymous

Publisher: Franklin Classics

Published: 2018-10-13

Total Pages: 444

ISBN-13: 9780342858781

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