Question

. Rank the Dimensions of Religion described in section Indigenous, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, Daoism and Confucianism (1 = most important; 5 = least important). What reasons do you have to explain the order in which you ranked each? Explain your answers in full detail.

Answer 1

Ranking the dimensions of religion:

First of all you can rank religions. Because there is a concept of equalism in almost all religions.

But according to your list I will rank these dimensions as below:

1​.Sikhism:

Sikhism is a warrior's religion. There are facts in the Sikhism not mythology. If you can check Internet then pls check ''Mata Gujar Kaur." And 'Fatehgarh Sahib' History .I am telling you that all religions will be lower in front of these two incidents.

You can also check Worrior Movies Char Sahibjaade And Banfa Singh Bahadur Regarding Sikhism.

2. Hinduism:

Hinduism is the world’s oldest religion, according to many scholars, with roots and customs dating back more than 4,000 years. Today, with about 900 million followers, Hinduism is the third-largest religion behind Christianity and Islam. Roughly 95 percent of the world’s Hindus live in India. Because the religion has no specific founder, it’s difficult to trace its origins and history. Hinduism is unique in that it’s not a single religion but a compilation of many traditions and philosophies.

3.Jainism

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The name Jainism derives from the Sanskrit verb ji, “to conquer.” It refers to the ascetic battle that, it is believed, Jain renunciants (monksand nuns) must fight against the passions and bodily senses to gain enlightenment, or omniscience and purity of soul. The most illustrious of those few individuals who have achieved enlightenment are called Jina (literally, “Conqueror”), and the tradition’s monastic and lay adherents are called Jain (“Follower of the Conquerors”), or Jaina. This term came to replace a more ancient designation, Nirgrantha (“Bondless”), originally applied to renunciants only.

Jainism has been confined largely to India, although the recent migration of Indians to other, predominantly English-speaking countries has spread its practice to many Commonwealth nations and to the United States. Precise statistics are not available, but it is estimated that there are more than four million Jains, the vast majority of whom live in India.

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History

Early history (7th century BCE–c. 5th century CE)

Scholars of religion generally hold that Jainism originated in the 7th–5th century BCE in the Ganges basin of eastern India, the scene of intense religious speculation and activity at that time. Buddhism also appeared in this region, as did other belief systems that renounced the world and opposed the ritualistic Brahmanic schools whose prestigederived from their claim of purity and their ability to perform the traditional rituals and sacrifices and to interpret their meaning. These new religious perspectives promoted asceticism, the abandonment of ritual, domestic and social action, and the attainment of spiritual illumination in an attempt to win, through one’s own efforts, freedom from repeated rebirth (samsara).

Jains believe that their tradition does not have a historical founder. The first Jain figure for whom there is reasonable historical evidence is Parshvanatha (or Parshva), a renunciant teacher who may have lived in the 7th century BCE and founded a community based upon the abandonment of worldly concerns. Jain tradition regards him as the 23rd Tirthankara (literally, “Ford Maker”; i.e., one who leads the way across the stream of rebirths to salvation) of the current age (kalpa). The 24th and last Tirthankara of that age was Vardhamana, who is known by the epithet Mahavira (“Great Hero”) and is believed to have been the last teacher of “right” knowledge, faith, and practice. Although traditionally dated to 599–527 BCE, Mahavira must be regarded as a close contemporary of the Buddha(traditionally believed to have lived in 563–483 BCE but who probably flourished about a century later). The legendary accounts of Mahavira’s life preserved by the Jain scriptures provide the basis for his biography and enable some conclusions to be formulated about the nature of the early community he founded.

Mahavira, like the Buddha, was the son of a chieftain of the Kshatriya(warrior) class. At age 30 he renounced his princely status to take up the ascetic life. Although he was accompanied for a time by the eventual founder of the Ajivika sect, Goshala Maskariputra, Mahavira spent the next 121/2 years following a path of solitary and intense asceticism. He then converted 11 disciples (called ganadharas), all of whom were originally Brahmans. Two of these disciples, Indrabhuti Gautama and Sudharman, both of whom survived Mahavira, are regarded as the founders of the historical Jain monastic community, and a third, Jambu, is believed to be the last person of the current age to gain enlightenment. Mahavira is believed to have died at Pavapuri, near modern Patna.

The community appears to have grown quickly. According to Jain tradition, it numbered 14,000 monks and 36,000 nuns at the time of Mahavira’s death. From the beginning the community was subject to schisms over technicalities of doctrine; however, these were easily resolved. The only schism to have a lasting effect concerned a dispute over proper monastic practice, with the Shvetambara(“White-Robed”) sect arguing that monks and nuns should wear white robes and the Digambara (“Sky-Clad”; i.e., naked) sect claiming that a true monk (but not a nun) should be naked. This controversy gave rise to a further dispute as to whether or not a soul can attain liberation (moksha) from a female body (a possibility the Digambaras deny).

This sectarian division, still existent today, probably took time to assume formal shape. Its exact origins remain unclear, in part because the stories describing the origins of the schism were designed to justify each sect’s authority and denigrate the other. These accounts were written centuries after the fact and are valueless as genuine historical testimony. The consolidation of the Shvetambara-Digambara division was probably the result of a series of councils held to codify and preserve the Jain scriptures, which had existed as oral tradition long after Mahavira’s death. Of the councils recorded in Jain history, the last one, held at Valabhi in Saurashtra (in modern Gujarat) in either 453 or 456 CE, without Digambara participation, codified the Shvetambara canon that is still in use. The Digambara monastic community denounced the codification, and the schism between the two communitiesbecame irrevocable.

During this period, Jainism spread westward to Ujjain, where it apparently enjoyed royal patronage. Later, in the 1st century BCE, according to tradition, a monk named Kalakacharya apparently overthrew King Gardabhilla of Ujjain and orchestrated his replacement with the Shahi kings (who were probably of Scythian or Persian origin). During the reign of the Gupta dynasty (320–c. 600 CE), a time of Hindu self-assertion, the bulk of the Jain community migrated to central and western India, becoming stronger there than it had been in its original home in the Ganges basin.

4 Daoism:

Although some Taoist texts have been translated into European or English languages, most notably the Tao Te Ching and I Ching, there are many issues with those translations. Few of the translators knew the original language well enough to understand the context behind the words they were translating or, worse, were not personally knowledgeable about the subjects they were translating. Using a dictionary of grammar and vocabulary to translate anything always carries with it the possibility of lacking context. Without context, meaning is easily lost or distorted.

Nevertheless, anyone translating old texts or offering an analysis can write a book—even if they don’t completely understand what they are writing about. When this occurred, more problems were caused downstream by other writers, who also didn’t know the original language, and based their well-written (and possibly influential) works either partially or fully on the inaccurate context provided by the previous misleading translations. In this way, confusion and distortion continued to be passed downstream.

To add to the confusion, some translators, who were familiar with Hinduism or Buddhism (at least in literary form), were unfamiliar with Taoist philosophy and therefore presented Taoist ideas in a muddled, imprecise way. Without realizing it, they substituted and interlaced Buddhist and Hindu perspectives when describing Taoism. This occurred because those translators could not see the Taoist works separately from the powerful imprint of their previous backgrounds in these other spiritual traditions.

Other translators, because they misunderstood the intent and relevance behind the words of Taoist sacred texts, simply created eloquent prose that rolled off the tongue easily but distorted the intent behind them. If they had any experiential knowledge of the practices themselves, it was minimal at best. This is akin to having heard of Jesus, but not having the faintest clue about how to pray or viewing Jesus primarily just as another variation of the Hindu god Krishna.

The renowned Scottish Victorian scholar, James Legge, was the first professor of Chinese at Oxford University (1876–1897). In association with Max Müller, he prepared the monumental and academic Sacred Books of the East series, published in 50 volumes between 1879 and 1891. Legge was a Scottish Congregationalist representative of the London Missionary Society in Malacca and Hong Kong (1840–1873). It would be questionable to consider him to be an insider of Eastern much less Taoist spiritual traditions. He most likely looked at the tradition through the lens of his Christian faith.

In the 1960s, during the explosion of Western interest in Eastern religions, came popular interest in the I Ching. The fundamental translation used was that of Richard Wilhelm, which in part gained acceptance because of his association with Carl Jung. Jung was a close protégé of psychologist Sigmund Freud, known for his work with psychological archetypes. Freud strongly influenced the transpersonal psychology movement.

The Wilhelm translation was written in the early 20th century with the help of Taoist priests at Beijing’s White Cloud Temple (Bai Yun Guan). This is the most important Taoist temple in North China. I spent a fair amount of time practicing sitting meditation there during the 1980s. In my discussions with priests, Wilhelm was well-remembered. They said that Wilhelm tried his best, but had insufficient background to completely understand the text from the Taoist perspective.

Thomas Cleary is the noted University of California (Berkeley) translator of the Taoist I Ching and many other Taoist texts. His books are well-written. However, to the best of my knowledge, he was not a practicing Taoist but rather a Buddhist, which in my opinion is reflected in his translations.

5 . Confucianism:Confucianism, the way of life propagated by Confucius in the 6th–5th century BCE and followed by the Chinese people for more than two millennia. Although transformed over time, it is still the substance of learning, the source of values, and the social code of the Chinese. Its influence has also extended to other countries, particularly Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

The story of Confucianism does not begin with Confucius. Nor was Confucius the founder of Confucianism in the sense that the Buddha was the founder of Buddhism and Jesus Christ the founder of Christianity. Rather, Confucius considered himself a transmitter who consciously tried to reanimate the old in order to attain the new. He proposed revitalizing the meaning of the past by advocating a ritualized life. Confucius’s love of antiquity was motivated by his strong desire to understand why certain life forms and institutions, such as reverence for ancestors, human-centred religious practices, and mourning ceremonies, had survived for centuries. His journey into the past was a search for roots, which he perceived as grounded in humanity’s deepest needs for belonging and communicating. He had faith in the cumulative power of culture. The fact that traditional ways had lost vitality did not, for him, diminish their potential for regeneration in the future. In fact, Confucius’s sense of history was so strong that he saw himself as a conservationist responsible for the continuity of the cultural values and the social norms that had worked so well for the idealized civilization of the Western Zhou dynasty..

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