The Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya in eastern India has long been recognised as the place where the Buddha sat in meditation and attained enlightenment. The site, soon identified as the 'Diamond Throne' or vajrasana, became a destination for pilgrims and a focus of religious attention for more than two thousand years. This volume presents new research on Bodhgaya and assesses the important archaeological, artistic and literary evidence that bears witness to the Buddha's enlightenment and to the enduring significance of Bodhgaya in the history of Buddhism. The book brings together a team of international scholars to look at the history and perception of the site across the Buddhist world and its position in the networks of patronage and complex religious landscape of northern India. The volume assesses the site's decline in the thirteenth century, as well as its subsequent revival as a result of archaeological excavations in the nineteenth century. Using the British Museum's collections as a base, the authors discuss the rich material culture excavated from the site that highlights Bodhgaya's importance in the field of Buddhist studies.

Preaching has been central to Muslim communities throughout the centuries. The liturgical Friday sermon is a prime example, although other genres that are less commonly known also serve important functions. This book addresses the ways in which Muslims relate various forms of religious oratory to authoritative tradition in 21st-century Islamic practice, while striving to adapt to local contexts and the changing circumstances of politics, media and society. This is the first book of its kind to look at homiletics beyond a specific country focus. Taking into consideration the historical developments of Muslim preaching, it offers a collection of thoroughly contextualised case studies of oratory in Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, Sweden and the USA. The analyses presented here show shared emphasis on struggles for legitimacy, efforts to speak authoritatively, as well as discursive opportunities and constraints.

"The Goodly Word: Al-Kalim al-Tayyib"-written by the renowned fourteenth century jurist, Ahmad Ibn Taymiyya-is one of the most referred to works on prayer and the merits of prayer. Exclusively based on what the Prophet Muhammad himself said and did, "The Goodly Word" includes prayers for every moment of the Muslim's life. It is presented in a bi-lingual edition so that the exact prayers of the Prophet can be read in the original Arabic. "The Goodly Word" has been translated into English by the late Ezzeddin Ibrahim and Denys Johnson-Davies, two distinguished scholars who have also translated "An-Nawawi's Forty Hadith" and "Forty Hadith Qudsi", both published by the Islamic Texts Society.

Salvific space is one of the central ideas in the Hindu traditions of pilgrimage, and concerns the ability of space, especially sites associated with bodies of water such as rivers and lakes, to grant salvific rewards. Focusing on religious, historical and sociological questions about the phenomenon, this book investigates the narratives, rituals, history and structures of salvific space, and looks at how it became a central feature of Hinduism. Arguing that salvific power of place became a major dimension of Hinduism through a development in several stages, the book analyses the historical process of how salvific space and pilgrimage in the Hindu tradition developed. It discusses how the traditions of salvific space exemplify the decentred polycentrism that defines Hinduism. The book uses original data from field research, as well as drawing on main textual sources such as Mahabharata, the Puranas, the medieval digests on pilgrimage places (tirthas), and a number of Sthalapuranas and Mahatmyas praising the salvific power of the place. By looking at some of the contradictions in and challenges to the tradition of Hindu salvific space in history and in contemporary India, the book is a useful study on Hinduism and South Asian Studies.

Umar was the second of the four 'rightly guided' caliphs. At first, he railed against the new Islam religion until he read parts of the Quran. He was instantly impressed and became a believer. Umar is credited for establishing most of the major political institutions of the Muslim state and stabilising the rapidly expanding Arab empire.

Angels are a basic tenet of belief in Islam, appearing in various types and genres of text, from eschatology to law and theology to devotional material. This book presents the first comprehensive study of angels in Islam, through an analysis of a collection of traditions (hadith) compiled by the 15th century polymath Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505). With a focus on the principal angels in Islam, the author provides an analysis and critical translation of hadith included in al-Suyuti's al-Haba'ik fi akhbar al-mala'ik ('The Arrangement of the Traditions about Angels') - many of which are translated into English for the first time. The book discusses the issues that the hadith raise, exploring why angels are named in particular ways; how angels are described and portrayed in the hadith; the ways in which angels interact with humans; and the theological controversies which feature angels. From this it is possible to place al-Suyuti's collection in its religious and historical milieu, building on the study of angels in Judaism and Christianity to explore aspects of comparative religious beliefs about angels as well as relating Muslim beliefs about angels to wider debates in Islamic Studies. Broadening the study of Islamic angelology and providing a significant amount of newly translated primary source material, this book will be of great interest to scholars of Islam, divinity, and comparative religion.

In spite of Islam's long history in Europe and the growing number of Muslims resident in Europe, little research exists on Muslim pilgrimage in Europe. This collection of eleven chapters is the first systematic attempt to fill this lacuna in an emerging research field. Placing the pilgrims' practices and experiences centre stage, scholars from history, anthropology, religious studies, sociology, and art history examine historical and contemporary hajj and non-hajj pilgrimage to sites outside and within Europe. Sources include online travelogues, ethnographic data, biographic information, and material and performative culture. The interlocutors are European-born Muslims, converts to Islam, and Muslim migrants to Europe, in addition to people who identify themselves with other faiths. Most interlocutors reside in Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Norway. This book identifies four courses of developments: Muslims resident in Europe continue to travel to Mecca and Medina, and to visit shrine sites located elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa. Secondly, there is a revival of pilgrimage to old pilgrimage sites in South-eastern Europe. Thirdly, new Muslim pilgrimage sites and practices are being established in Western Europe. Fourthly, Muslims visit long-established Christian pilgrimage sites in Europe. These practices point to processes of continuity, revitalization, and innovation in the practice of Muslim pilgrimage in Europe. Linked to changing sectarian, political, and economic circumstances, pilgrimage sites are dynamic places of intra-religious as well as inter-religious conflict and collaboration, while pilgrimage experiences in multiple ways also transform the individual and affect the home-community.

This book offers a fresh perspective on religious culture in the medieval Middle East. It investigates how Muslims thought about and practised at sacred spaces and in sacred times through two detailed case studies: the shrines in honour of the head of al-Husayn (the martyred grandson of the Prophet); and the (arguably) holy month of Rajab. Author Daniella Talmon-Heller explores the diverse expressions of the veneration of the shrine and the month from the formative period of Islam until the late Mamluk period. She pays particular attention to changing political and sectarian affiliations and to the development of new genres of religious literature. And she juxtaposes the sanctification of space and time in individual and communal Sunni, Ithna'ashari and Isma'ili piety.

Phil Smith (Crabman/Mythogeography) and Tony Whitehead join forces with master photographer John Schott to lead readers on a `virtual’ journey to explore difference and change on their way to an unknown destination. “What is most real is what you have still to discover.” “Relax in your seat. Allow the train to take you along the water’s edge to the beginning point of your walking pilgrimage… When the train pulls into the platform, step off. Hidden behind the platform is a broken machine; a mechanised fortune teller – the `voice of truth’ – discarded from the nearby arcade of slot machines. Propped against the side of a building, its mouth is silent, its pronouncements have ceased; any truths you find today will be your own.” Pilgrimages – real and imagined - are always popular, sometimes compulsory. Bodh Gaya, Santiago, Mecca, Jerusalem, Puri: a few of the sites that beckon. The pilgrimage to the authentic self takes a similar path in an interior landscape. In the 15th century, Felix Fabri combined the two, using his visits to Jerusalem to write a handbook for nuns wanting to make a pilgrimage in the imagination, whilst confined to their religious houses. For Guidebook for an Armchair Pilgrimage, the authors followed Fabri’s example: first walking together over many weeks – not to reach a destination but simply to find one – then, in startling words and images, conjuring an armchair pilgrimage for the reader… along lanes and around hills, into caves and down to the coast. “We arrived again and again at what we assumed would be a final `shrine’, only to be drawn onwards and inwards towards another kind of finality… rather than reaching a destination, the pilgrimage was repeatedly reborn inside us, until its most recent rebirth in this book.” Over the course of the 19-day Armchair Pilgrimage, they invite us to experience the world around us just as they did as they walked. So, over the first three days, they suggest that we contemplate, among other things: • Our habit of generalising – acquired 40-50,000 years ago, when our `chapel’ mind of specialisms became a `cathedral’ mind • Our tendency to let one thing remind us of another thing • What it might be like to be an ocean where fish swim through us • How the world experiences us just as we experience it: `gently feel for the feelers feeling for you’ • A world where we tend to `add’ meaning and intensity • A world where we let go (without the aid of dementia) of memory, imagination, desire and wild fancy. And, as the pilgrimage concludes: “Returning is never going back to the same place.” “A brilliant idea, inviting us to `be present’ to a reality that is imagined and recorded, mediated by words and images. The feelings and emotions are no less `real’ than if we were actually standing in and experiencing that reality. I love the genius of words and images displayed here -- no less than the reality itself.” Carol Donelan, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, Carleton College, Minnesota

Die Herausforderung religionsgeschichtlicher Forschung besteht darin, die Erschliessung von Quellen in ihren Kontexten und ihre theoriegeleitete Erklarung mit einer historisch-kritischen Reflexion der Wissensproduktion selbst zu verknupfen. Die Reihe Religionsgeschichtliche Versuche und Vorarbeiten (RGVV) will dieser Komplementaritat von historischer Kontextualisierung, theoretischer Verdichtung und disziplinarer Positionierung Rechnung tragen. Studien zu kulturspezifischen Sachzusammenhangen stehen neben vergleichenden Arbeiten, in Form von Monographien oder thematisch fokussierten Sammelbanden.

Through time-tested teachings and exercises, The Meditator's Dilemma shows you how to deepen your meditation practice while cultivating ease and delight for both beginners and longtime practitioners.

When practiced regularly, meditation naturally deepens self-awareness and leads to spiritual transformation. In our hyper, instant-gratification culture, however, most people miss out on those powerful outcomes because it's hard to commit to a longterm practice. Despite the increasing popularity of mindfulness and its documented mental health benefits, the silent majority of meditators struggle to maintain a regular practice. In fact, research indicates that more than fifty percent of meditators give up on the practice. This is the elephant in the meditation room.

The Meditator's Dilemma, written by a psychologist with forty years' experience practicing and teaching meditation, confronts this problem and its causes and provides specific, accessible techniques and exercises that greatly enhance everyday meditation practice. Bill Morgan's teachings and guided meditation exercises are designed to generate the all-too-missing delight and enjoyment in meditation.

The concept of the "holding environment," central to positive outcome in psychotherapy, is the raison d'etre for these techniques. In psychotherapy, the holding environment comprises the trusting, secure, empathic milieu created by the caring therapist. An indirect benefit of these techniques is the capacity to create a nurturing safe space in any relational context: with a mentor, in a conversation with a dear friend, or in a beautiful natural setting. When we are in a holding environment, we feel alive, connected, and relaxed. The Meditator's Dilemma teaches Western meditators to cultivate an internal holding environment that results in an attitude of relaxed curiosity and exploration toward their meditation practice, leading to greater success and staying power.

This book is a microsociological study of religious practice, based on fieldwork with Conservative Jews, Bible Belt Muslims, white Baptists, black Baptists, Buddhist meditators, and Latino Catholics. In each case, the author scrutinizes how a congregation's ritual strategies help or hinder their efforts to achieve a transformative spiritual encounter, an intense feeling that becomes the basis of their most fundamental understandings of reality. The book shows how these transformative spiritual encounters routinely depend on issues that can seem rather mundane by comparison, such as where the sanctuary's entrance is located, how many misprints end up in the church bulletin, or how long the preacher continues to preach beyond lunchtime. The spirit responds to other dynamics, as well, such as how congregations collectively imagine outsiders, or how they talk about ideas like individualism and patriarchy. Building on provocative theories from sociologists such as Emile Durkheim, Erving Goffman, Randall Collins, and Anne Warfield Rawls, this book shows how "interaction ritual theory" opens compelling new pathways for sociological scholarship on religion. Micro-level specifics from fieldwork in Texas are supplemented with large-scale survey analysis of a wide array of religious organizations from across the United States.

Walking is an essentially human activity. From a basic means of transport and opportunity for leisure through to being a religious act, walking has served as a significant philosophical, literary and historical subject. Thoreau's 1851 lecture on Walking or the Romantic walks of the Wordsworths at Grasmere in the early 19th Century, for example, helped create a philosophical foundation for the importance of the act of walking as an act of engagement with nature. Similarly, and sometimes inseparable from secular appreciation, pilgrimage trails provide opportunities for finding self and others in the travails of the walk. More recently, walking has been embraced as a means of encouraging greater health and well-being, community improvement and more sustainable means of travel. Yet despite the significance of the subject of walking there is as yet no integrated treatment of the subject in the social science literature. This handbook therefore brings together a number of the main themes on the study of walking from different disciplines and literatures into a single volume that can be accessed from across the social sciences. It is divided into five main sections: culture, society and historical context; social practices, perceptions and behaviours; hiking trails and pilgrimage routes; health, well-being and psychology; and method, planning and design. Each of these highlights current approaches and major themes in research on walking in a range of different environments. This handbook carves out a unique niche in the study of walking. The international and cross-disciplinary nature of the contributions of the book are expected to be of interest to numerous academic fields in the social and health sciences, as well as to urban and regional planners and those in charge of the management of outdoor recreation and tourism globally.

The feast is a meeting place between family and friends, between humans and gods. This decadent collection of enchanting dishes is an indispensable companion to kitchen witchcraft, revealing the storied history and seductive art of magical cooking. With witch, herbalist and chef Melissa Jayne Madara as your guide, explore five facets of the occult through food: traditional recipes, the wheel of the zodiac, devotional meals to the planets, seasonal feasts to celebrate solstices and equinoxes, and practical spellwork. Recreate a pagan feast of lamb roasted with milk and honey, with cheesecake baked in fig leaves for dessert. Celebrate a Gemini birthday with herbed fondue, followed by lemongrass pavlova. Align with the poetic pleasures of Venus with edible flower dumplings, or commune with Saturn over blackberry pulled pork sandwiches. Enjoy the vibrancy of the spring equinox with herb and allium quiche with a potato crust, radish salad with cherry blossom vinaigrette and jasmine tea shortbread. Share an evening of storytelling over mugwort and catnip divination tea, or embody an otherworldly spirit with ritual bread masks. Packed with ancient knowledge, practical advice and witchcraft expertise, this book will help you develop your craft through culinary creativity. Gather, share, and rediscover the most fundamental of human rituals: the divine indulgence of the senses and the soul.

The only comprehensive, single-volume survey of magic available, this compelling book traces the history of magic, witchcraft, and superstitious practices such as popular spells or charms from antiquity to the present day. Focusing especially on Europe in the medieval and early modern eras, Michael Bailey also explores the ancient Near East, classical Greece and Rome, and the spread of magical systems_particularly modern witchcraft or Wicca_from Europe to the United States. He examines how magic and superstition have been defined in various historical eras and how these constructions have changed over time. He considers the ways in which specific categories of magic have been condemned, and how those identified as magicians or witches have been persecuted and prosecuted in various societies. Although conceptions of magic have changed over time, the author shows how magic has almost always served as a boundary marker separating socially acceptable actions from illicit ones, and more generally the known and understood from the unknown and occult.

"With beautiful images and words, The Garden of Time offers a magical path through the seasons and allows the sacred breath of life to blow through all our souls. Take a walk in the garden; be refreshed and renewed." --Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, author of "The Shema in the Mezuzah: Listening to Each Other"

In this story based on ancient Jewish legend, Adam and Eve walk through the Garden of Eden, noticing what is happening around them and deciding what holidays they will celebrate based on what they see, smell, hear, and taste. Gorgeous text and art illuminate Judaism, the calendar, and the environment for both children and adults.

Guides to the Jewish holidays and Jewish iconography are included.

'Ethics' was not developed as a separate branch of philosophy in Buddhist traditions until the modern period, though Buddhist philosophers have always been concerned with the moral significance of thoughts, emotions, intentions, actions, virtues, and precepts. Their most penetrating forms of moral reflection have been developed within disciplines of practice aimed at achieving freedom and peace. This Element first offers a brief overview of Buddhist thought and modern scholarly approaches to its diverse forms of moral reflection. It then explores two of the most prominent philosophers from the main strands of the Indian Buddhist tradition - Buddhaghosa and Santideva - in a comparative fashion.