Body & Mind Training Center

Thank you dear Jamshid for making us think! I wish to add:

The history of Judaism is traditionally start with the deportation in Babilonia in 587 a.C. that puts an end to kingdom of Judah,which was formed after Solomon's death, when Kingdom of Judah and Israele became two autonomous kingdoms.

After exile Judaism was divided in different religious currents, such as Baptists, Samaritans,Zealots, Pharisees, Essenes, Christianity was also considered part of Hebraism after the second destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 70 by Titus Flavius ​​Vespasian (the future emperor Titus). After 70 the only currents that resisted was that one of Pharisees,that remained faithful to Tradition.During the diaspora, from Pharisaism develop the various rabbinical schools.

Due to persecutions, from Torah was codified the Mishnah (which means teaching to be repeated), a compendium of the written Torah until that moment passed orally and intended to be memorized).Over the years the text of the Mishnah became too thin to be currently used as a guide and then proceeded to the redaction of the Talmud in its two forms, Bavli, Babylonian and the Jerusalem Yerushalmi.

In Judaism the main sacred text is Tanach, which corresponds to the Old Testament of the Christians, the first part of the Tanach is the Torah (called Pentateuch by Christians), which in Hebrew means "teaching", "law", and contains, according to tradition, the instructions given by God to the people of Israel at Mount Sinai forty-nine days after the exodus from Egypt.

The monotheistic faith is centered on the assertion that offers itself in Exodus 3:14: I am the Essence of Being I am He who I will be. If we stick to the letter of the biblical text, this statement (in Hebrew Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh) is in fact untranslatable, because you should have a tense able to make, at the same time, the present, the past and the future. According to the Jewish faith, God is the one who, while not changing its essence, follows the Jewish people in all its historical vicissitudes. In this sense, God is linked with him in the past, present and future.

Source: web

Hinduism is the world's oldest extant religion, with a billion followers, which makes it the world's third largest religion. Hinduism is a conglomeration of religious, philosophical, and cultural ideas and practices that originated in India, characterized by the belief in reincarnation, one absolute being of multiple manifestations, the law of cause and effect, following the path of righteousness, and the desire for liberation from the cycle of births and deaths.

Hinduism is a polytheistic religion among which is Brahma, Visnu and Shiva.
Sacred texts, Veda, are worshipped by a tradition that require to preserve the textual integrity, but at the same time they have been supplanted by another collection of old books, called Smrti.
This religion is more than 4000 years old and comes from the personal search of lots of masters and wise men.

The core of the teaching can be seen as an elementary code of conduct, to which has to be added also the love for all the creatures and generosity and indifference toward appearence.

Shiva is known as the prince of Yogin and lord of the animals, matrika (mothers) and sakti (woman, wife) includes all the goddesses related to the vegetation.

Life on earth of mankind can be synthesized with 3 words: samsare, Kama, Karma.

Kama means desire, a love not yet owned. Desire makes human perform certain actions, and a man is the result of what he does.
Karma follows Kama, and rapresent the action, and this can be good or evil. The misure of the good or evil action has as consequence to be part of a higher or lower caste or as a result the reincarnation in a lower or higher caste.
Only the wise man get free from reincarnation and come back to the Absolute.
Samsare is a kinf of visosity that bond the human spirit to maya, to what is apparence as emanation of Brahman. Maya is world of illusion, and men get free only by the moment that cut the wires that bind to maya.

How to reach the salvation: with the good act, with the knowledge of the source of Hindu philosophy,with total dedication to God or bhakti. Each one of this way correspond to each one of the 3 caste: the way of the study to the Brahmins, the way of the works to the ksatriya.The vaisya is the casta that is responsable of agriculture, herding and trade.

Indian Sprituality :

While Native American spirituality is not easily defined, it has several defining characteristics:

a) Recognition of the interconnectedness of all Creation, and the responsibility of human beings to use their intelligence in protecting that inter- connectedness. That applies particularly to the lifegiving elements: water, air and soil.
b) A belief that all life is equal, and that the presence of the life spark implies a degree of spirituality whether in humans, animals or plants. In their view the species of animals and birds, as well as forests and other plant life, have as much "right" to existence as human beings, and should not be damaged or destroyed. That does not mean that they cannot be used but that use has limitations.

c) Their primary concern is with the long-term welfare of life rather than with short-term expediency or comfort. They consider all issues and actions in relationship to their long-term effect on all life, not just human life.

d) Their spirituality is undergirded by thankfulness to the Creator. Prayer, ceremonies, meditation and fasting are an important part of their lives. But they ask for nothing. They give thanks: for all forms of life and for all the elements that make life possible, and they are concerned with the continuation of that life and the ingredients upon which it depends.

Peyote Religion

The Peyote religion worship is practiced by adherents to native American Church. Religion peyotista was born in the State of Oklahoma, and is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans. The Peyote religion includes the use of entheogenic, peyote, a cactus devoid of thorns with hallucinogenic effects.

Peyote was used in the territory of present-day Mexico during pre-Columbian civilizations to communicate with the supernatural and also as a medicine. In the mid-19th century, the use of peyote spread in the area of the Great Plains of the United States, especially through the Apache people. Although the data are uncertain, the Peyote religion is practiced in more than 50 native American tribes and probably has between 100,000 and 300,000 adherents.

The peyote ritual usually starts at 20 hours on Saturday, and continue throughout the night. The ritual includes prayer, ingestion of peyote, peyote songs, water rituals, and contemplation; ends Sunday morning with breakfast. It is believed that the peyote ritual to allow communion with the gods and the ancestors and give strength, guidance and healing. Healing can be psychic or physical, or both.

Church members believe that ingesting peyote and community meetings will help participants to achieve a proper relationship with themselves and with God. This leads to the ability to live a good life day-to-day. Church members have a very strong community awareness. A good life is considered to be one that is kind and responsible, and that, in particular, embodies love. Many native Americans have joined the Church and entrusted to it when their lives have been destroyed by the abuse of drugs or alcohol or family problems.

It also has many similarities with the values of some forms of Buddhism, such as Zen. The famous scholar Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's Zen Buddhist wrote that aspects of life are: a life of humility, a life, a life, a life of prayer and gratitude, and a life of meditation. All this is very close to what the native American Church considers to be a fair life.

We are talking about religions in the world and in history, so I thought to try to creat a "map", or brainstorming about it.

The term "religion" is doubtful, but it comes from latin "religio".
There are 2 possible etymologies:
-Religio: as relationship between men and gods through the worship (religare, bind, fasten, tie)
-Religio: careful observation of these practices.

There are many existing way to classify.
-Pagan and Christian. In roman religion the term used to indicate the attitude of the pious roman in his duty in performing basic act of worship.
Christian religion get the term both in positve and in negative meaning applying it to other religions.

-Ethnic religions or Based religions, the first has not a historic founder (ancient Greece, Rome, India, Celtic paganism, Slavic, Mongolian,Japanese, Chinese and primitive religions)
Based religions have a founder. Jesus in Christianity, Muhammad in Islam, Zoroaster in Zoroastrianism, Buddha in Buddhism.
-There are religions with ethnic refenence that in the same time has a founder. Lao tze in Taosim, Orpheus in Orphism. These are called "Mixed religions"

-Universals religions:they spread beyond their boundaries and claim to address to all menkind.
-National religions: limited to its territory.

-Pagan or Revealed. This theological assumption considers the mosaic-abramico superior to others, and is not very apreciated in scientific environments.

There are 4 geographic areas:

1-The religions of the "Near East" of Semitic origin (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), defined "religions of the Word" as focusing on divine revelation transmitted to humans by writing,they have prophetic character and are foculsed in ethical content;
2-religions of Indian origin (Hinduism and Buddhism), a strong mystical tendency through meditation, body dimension reaches the same importance as the spiritual dimension
3-religions of traditional Sino-Japanese (Confucianism, Taoism,Shintoism), characterized by search for wisdom and the ideal of cosmic harmony;
4-the ancestral religions of Africa and Oceania (animism, tribalism, ancestor worship, magic), focusing on a sacred vision, cyclic, ahistorical of space-time and its higher energies.