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A Very Brief History of Religions
Someone has written to me with an interesting question regarding Hinduism and Buddhism.
Question: For some reason I always assumed Buddism and Hinduism were closely related, they didn't have a "God" per se, just an idea of nirvana.
My answer:
Hinduism came first. Buddhism breaking away from Hinduism was like the Protestant Reformation of Martin Luther breaking away from Rome in the 16th. century.
Actually, one might say that the Vedas came first (Rig, Sam, Yajur, Artha) in the Sanskrit language. Then, somehow, a break occured and the people who were to evolve into the Zoroastrians drifted away, using many words similar to the Vedic Sanskrit terms, (e.g. Soma becomes Haoma). This break was possibly between 3,000 B.C.E. and 2,000 B.C.E. Fire was central to both the Vedic and Zoroastrian worship, but there were differences.
Buddhism split off from Hinduism circa 600 B.C.E.
Once will notice that the Vedas and Hinduism have anonymous prophets and sages and seers. In Abrahamic religions, one dominant and charismatic prophetic personality emerges. It is, I suspect, the nature of a protestant type of split for there to be some charismatic famous individual, such as a Zoroaster or a Siddharth Gautama (Buddha) or Jesus or Muhammed.
The Zoroastrians are characterized by monotheism and a strong duality between good and evil, God and satan. Hinduism is polytheistic with no strong sense of dualism/struggle between good and evil. Buddhism, in contrast to the other two, was a kind of ethical atheism, though atheism is not the proper word, for the existence of gods were not denied, but a god was seen as subject to the same woes as humanity under the same principles of karma, and worship of a god was not seen as a means to deliverance or salvation.
In a sense, from Zoroastrianism evolved the Abrahamic religions of Judiasm, Christianity and finally Islam. The Zoroastrian religion was the official religion of Persia/Babylon at the time of the Babylonian captivity of the Jewish people. The Old Testament highly praises one of the Zoroastrian kings, Darius, as "the beloved of God" because he aided the Jewish people.
Nirvana or "Nibbana" (in Pali dialect) simply means "to extinguish" like a candle.
The most powerful contrast between Christianity and Buddhism is to compare one particular statement of Buddha with one particular statement of Jesus.
Buddha said "I have discovered the architect of this house (the human body) which is a house on fire (with the suffering of desires), and now that I have discovered the architect/builder (i.e. the causes of the cycle of rebirth), this house shall be rebuilt no more (i.e. I shall escape the cycle of rebirth and suffering and enter into nirvana or extinguishment).
Jesus said "I come to give you life, and life more abundently. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so I would have told you. I go there to prepare a place for you."
So, you see, Buddha is a deconstructor and Jesus is a builder (carpenter).
One may see a curious religious tolerance in common in Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Buddhism, while the Abrahamic religions are a mirror image opposite of intolerance for other beliefs. Jewish scriptures say "The gods of the nations are demons." St. Paul speaks of false prophets, false teachers, and Lucifer as an angel of light who may assume the appearance of Christ, but a false Christ or anti-Christ. The Qu'ran says, in one of its final Surahs (The Surah of the Unbeliever or Kafir) "Say therefore unto the unbelievers, The god which you worship is not the God which we worship, and the God which we worship is not the god which you worship, so therefore unto you your god and unto us our God."
The Zoroastrian-Hindu-Buddhist religions say things like "Truth is one but called by many names." How interesting that new age attitudes came first, historically.
Bear in mind that Ba'hai arose in Iran, in an atmosphere of extreme persecution from orthodox Muslims.
The World Almanac cites a worldwide population of 6 million Ba'hai. I think I remember that they are not permitted to proselytize, but I must double check on that point.
One may compare them with the Sufi movements, especially the Mevlevi order founded by Jallaludin Rumi (again, I must double check).
Off the top of my head, as I am having coffee this morning, I can tell you from memory that the Baha Ullah, the founder, was in Iran. His title (perhaps Baab, but Im not certain) means "gate."
Now, this notion of someone being a new prophet is in direct violation of the Qu'ranic statement that Muhammad is the LAST messenger and that there shall be no other. Ba'hai was persecuted in Iran by the orthodox Muslims.
Of course, if you go to google.com, which is what I always do (or some other search engine) you will find all sorts of things about Bahá'í. I shall post what good links I find later on this morning.
Wouldn't you just know it! Nowadays, every religion has its own official website!
Main Principles:
• The oneness of mankind.
• Universal peace upheld by a world government.
• Independent investigation of truth.
• The common foundation of all religions.
• The essential harmony of science and religion.
• Equality of men and women.
• Elimination of prejudice of all kinds.
• Universal compulsory education.
• A spiritual solution to the economic problem.
• A universal auxiliary language.
I am looking at "Universal COMPULSORY education" and thinking that education is only truly successeful for an individual when they begin to embrace it as lifelong VOLUNTARY self-education. But certainly our earliest education must start out as compulsory.
We all know how modern-day students are forced to become "test smart." They must get a high score on things like S.A.T. and G.R.E. so they pay for books and classes to STUDY THE TEST QUESTIONS.
Well, the point I am about to make is that founders of religions are forced to become "test smart" as history progresses. Someone founding a religion in the 19th or 20th century, a "prophet" or "guru" let us say, already knows that they MUST address certain key issues (like the list above). Twentieth century religion founders know they must have a web site.
The Prophet Muhammed in the 7th century is an example of someone who was already becoming "test smart." The Qu'ran explicity states that Allah has CHOSEN the language of Arabic and the religion of Islam for the Arab people. Perhaps one might call this the beginning of postmodernism. Religious texts such as Genesis make no mention of some particular language or even religion. In fact, in Genesis, early on in Genesis, there is a verse which simply says "It was then that men began to call upon the name of the Lord." One must dig and conjecture and interpret the Torah to find ancient answers to modern problems. For many centuries, orthodox Jews have observed the mitzvah (commandment) of "shatness" not to mix wool and linen in the same garment. Before they will wear a new coat, they take it to a rabbi who specialized in testing for wool and linen. But the same verse in the Torah which forbids wool and linen also forbids MIXING different breeds of animals. One may see in the verse something which pertains to the new science of genetic engineering, which may be a Pandora's box from which one day shall leap some monster other than hope. And if that day ever does happen, there will be no "putting the monster back in the box." Try putting cell phones and internet and nuclear weapons "back in the box."
Ancient primordial religions evolve as an oral tradition, with anonymous authors, and a kind of Jungian mythopoiesis at work, and are redacted into some finished final form only centuries later. Less ancient religions have one personality who is not anonymous (e.g. Buddha Siddhartha Gautama), but still it is only 400 years after Gautama's death that the oral teaching is redacted into its final written form, by a council. But with the even more modern religion of Islam, Muhammad is dictating surahs which are written down on the spot (more or less).
If someone founds a new religion tomorrow, they will have a website with blogs and cams and we will be able to see videos of their prophecy and hear sound-bytes.
The world is transformed with words, one person at a time.
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