The Vaikhanasas are mentioned in many Vedic texts, and they maintain a close affiliation with the Taittiriya school of the Krsna Yajur Veda. Yet they are Vaisnavas, monotheistic worshipers of Visnu. Generally, Vaisnavism is held to be a post-Vedic development. Thus, the Vaikhanasas bridge two key ages in the history of South Asian religion. This text contains many quotations from ancient Vedic literature, and probably some other older original material, as well as architectural and iconographical data of the later first millennium CE. The Vaikhanasas remain relevant today. They are the chief priests (arcakas) in more than half of the Visnu temples in the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka-including the renowned Hindu pilgrimage center Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

The annual festivals that are central to the south Indian religious tradition are among the largest religious gatherings found anywhere in the world. Most are located at Hindu temples, but some are at Buddhist, Christian, or Islamic centers, and many involve people or symbols from more than one religious tradition. To an outside observer, the many activities of a festival may seem somewhat chaotic, but the participants see the activities as the ritual focus of a distinct religious experience, and frequently testify that it is in the activity of a festival that they find their most profound sense of religious meaning. In spite of their obvious importance in the lives of participants, these festivals have received scant scholarly attention. In this book, Paul Younger offers a fieldwork-based study of fourteen different religious festivals, shedding light on not only their religious, but also their social and political meanings.

While Western Jain scholarship has focused on those texts and practices favouring male participation, the Jain community itself relies heavily on lay women's participation for religious education, the performance of key rituals, and the locus of religious knowledge. In this fieldwork-based study, Whitney Kelting attempts to reconcile these women's understanding of Jainism with the religion as presented in the existing scholarship. Jain women, she shows, both attempt to accept and rewrite the idealized roles roles received from religious texts, practices, and social expectation, according to which female religiosity is a symbol of Jain perfection. Jain women's worship shows us a Jainism focused more on devotion than on philosophy.

In his probing study of the role of death rites in the making of Islamic society, Leor Halevi imaginatively plays prescriptive texts against material culture and advances new ways of interpreting highly contested sources. His original research reveals that religious scholars of the early Islamic period produced codes of funerary law not only to define the handling of a Muslim corpse but also to transform everyday urban practices. Relying on oral traditions, these scholars established new social patterns in the cities of Arabia, Mesopotamia, and the eastern Mediterranean. They distinguished Islamic rites from Christian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian rites and changed the way men and women interacted publicly and privately.

In each chapter Halevi explores a different layer of human interaction, following the movement of the corpse from the deathbed to the grave. In the process he analyzes the real and imaginary relationships between husbands and wives, prayer leaders and mourners, and even dreamers and the dead. He describes how Muslims wailed for the deceased, prepared corpses for burial, marched in funerary processions, and prayed for the dead, highlighting the specific economic and political factors involved in these rituals as well as key religious and sexual divisions.

Offering a unique perspective on the making of Islamic social and religious ideals during this early period, Halevi forges a fascinating link between the development of funerary rites and the efforts of an emerging religion to carve out its own, distinct identity. "Muhammad's Grave" is a groundbreaking history of the rise of Islam and the roots of contemporary Muslim attitudes toward the body and society.

In past centuries, human responses to death were largely shaped by religious beliefs. Ralph Houlbrooke shows how the religious upheavals of the early modern period brought dramatic changes to this response, affecting the last rites, funerals, and ways of remembering the dead. He examines the interaction between religious innovation and the continuing need for reassurance and consolation on the part of the dying and the bereaved.

Tefillin, the black boxes and leather straps, that Jewish men wear during prayer, are curiously powerful and mysterious. Within the inky black boxes lie untold secrets. In this profound, passionate and thought-provoking text, Rav DovBer Pinson explores and reveals the multi-dimensional perspectives of Tefillin. Rav Pinson magically weaves together all dimensions of Torah;, Peshat, literal observation, to Remez, the allegorical; Derush, the homiletic, to Sod, hidden Kabbalistic, into one wonderful tapestry. Pinson reaches for the underlying unity within all wellsprings of Torah and uncovers the hidden profound mystery of the Tefillin. Inspirational and instructive, Wrapped in Majesty: Tefillin, will make putting on the Tefillin more meaningful and deepen the experience.

Although most historical and contemporary religions are governed by men, there are, scattered throughout the world, a handful of well-documented religions led by women. Most of these are marginal, subordinate, or secondary religions in the societies in which they are located. The one known exception to this rule is the indigenous religion of Okinawa, where women lead the official, mainstream religion of the society. In this fieldwork-based study, Susan Sered provides the first in-depth look at this unique religious tradition, exploring the intersection between religion and gender. In addition to providing important information on this remarkable and little-studied group, this book helps to overturn our mostly unexamined assumptions that male dominance of the religious sphere is universal, axiomatic, and necessary.

Loving Stones is a study of devotees' conceptions of and worshipful interactions with Mount Govardhan, a sacred mountain located in the Braj region of north-central India that has for centuries been considered an embodied form of Krishna. It is often said that worship of Mount Govardhan "makes the impossible possible." In this book, David L. Haberman examines the perplexing paradox of an infinite god embodied in finite form, wherein each particular form is non-different from the unlimited. He takes on the task of interpreting the worship of a mountain and its stones for a culture in which this practice is quite alien. This challenge involves exploring the interpretive strategies that may explain what seems un-understandable, and calls for theoretical considerations of incongruity, inconceivability, and other realms of the impossible. This aspect of the book includes critical consideration of the place and history of the pejorative concept of idolatry (and its twin, anthropomorphism) in the comparative study of religions. Loving Stones uses the worship of Mount Govardhan as a site to explore ways in which scholars engaged in the difficult work of representing other cultures struggle to make "the impossible possible."

THIS 20 PAGE ARTICLE WAS EXTRACTED FROM THE BOOK: Paradoxes of the Highest Science, by Eliphas Levi. To purchase the entire book, please order ISBN 1564590208.

'This transformational book will help you calm your mind, remove negativity and find inner peace.' Jay Shetty, author of Think Like a Monk 'The perfect manual for the mind, bringing deep insight to today's world and offering practical tools for transformation' Gelong Thubten, author of A Monk's Guide to Happiness _______________________________________________________________________________ In this hectic, modern world, the practice of meditation is the greatest way to calm your mind and find peace. A collection of teachings from one of the world's wisest minds, the lessons in this book have transformed the lives of people across the world and have never been more pertinent. In this book world-renowned meditation master, Lama Yeshe,shares how meditation enabled him to overcome the strains and pressures of modern life and find peace - and reveals how we can all do the same. He teaches us that our minds are infinite like the sky, which can easily become clouded with stress and emotions, but with meditation we are able to see beyond the clouds and free our minds of obstacles. With practical steps on breathing, posture, forgiveness, relationships and establishing a meditation routine, this is the definitive guide for beginners and experienced meditators alike to learn from the wisdom of a globally revered meditation master.

Slogans such as "Let's put Christ back into Christmas" or "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" hold an appeal to Christians who oppose the commercializing of events they hold sacred. However, through a close look at the rise of holidays in the United States, Leigh Schmidt show us that commercial appropriations of these occasions were as religious in form as they were secular. The rituals of America's holiday bazaar that emerged in the nineteenth century offered a luxuriant merger of the holy and the profane--a heady blend of fashion and faith, merchandising and gift-giving, profits and sentiments, all celebrations of a devout consumption. In this richly illustrated book, which captures both the blessings and ballyhoo of American holiday observances for the mid-eighteenth century through the twentieth, the author offers a reassessment of the "consumer rites" that various social critics have long decried for their spiritual emptiness and banal sentimentality.

Schmidt tells the story of how holiday celebrations were almost banished by Puritans and other religious reformers in the colonies but went on to be romanticized and reinvented in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Merchants and advertisers were crucial for the reimagining of the holidays, promoting them in a grand, carnivalesque manner, which could include gargantuan fruit cakes, masked Santa Clauses, and exploding valentines.

Along the way Schmidt uses everything from diaries to manuals on church decoration and window display to show in bright detail the ways in which people have prepared for and celebrated specific holidays--such as going Christmas shopping, making love tokens, choosing Easter bonnets, sending flowers to Mom, buying ties for Dad. He demonstrates in particular how women took the lead as holiday consumers, shaping warm-hearted celebrations of home and family through their intricate engagement with the marketplace. Bringing together the history of business, religion, and gender, this book offers a fascinating cultural history of an endlessly debated marvel--the commercialization of the American holidays.

Here are the famous sutras, or sermons, of the Buddha; the gathas, or hymns; the intriguing philosophical puzzles known as koan; and the dharanis, or invocations to expel evil spirits. Included also are the recorded conversations of the great Buddhist monks - intimate dialogues on subjects of momentous importance. In addition to the written selections, all of them translated by Dr. Suzuki, there are reproductions of many Buddhist drawings and paintings, including religious statues found in Zen temples, each with an explanation of its significance, and the great series of allegorical paintings The Ten Ox Herding Pictures. (Text refers to a previous publication.)

Original Arabic, transliteration and translation. It is said that the author of Dala'il ul-Khayrat, Imam Muhammad al-Jazuli, went on a journey. He found himself in great need of water for making ablutions required before prayers. He came upon a well but could not reach the water far below, as there was no bucket and rope. He became very worried . A young girl saw this and came to his assistance. She spat into the well whereupon the water rose to the top of its own accord. Seeing this miracle, he asked the girl, "And how is that possible?" She replied "I was able to do this due to my invoking excessive blessings upon Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be Allah's blessings and peace." Having thus seen the benefit of invoking blessings upon the Prophet, Imam Jazuli decided to write Dala'il ul-Khayrat. In it, he compiled litanies invoking peace and blessings upon the Prophet. It is by far the most popular and universally-acclaimed collection of prayers upon the Prophet, used throughout the Muslim world and recited individually and in groups, in homes and in mosques, silently and aloud.

There is great contemporary interest in the mystery centres of antiquity, such as prehistoric caves, the pyramids of Egypt, Newgrange in Ireland, and the Externsteine in Germany. The trials and rites that took place there were for the chosen few, and are vividly described in this book -- from the trials of fire and water to the three-day near-death sleep. The author goes on to argue that modern-day initiation, however, has a substantially different character. Whereas a 'hierophant' -- a guide -- was previously needed to navigate a trial, these days it is life itself which brings us trials, which can sometimes lead to deeper experiences of the spiritual.

The Outsider's Guide to Orthodox Judaism is a handbook that explains the basic beliefs and practices of Orthodox Judaism in a clear and concise way. It is geared to anyone who is not Orthodox (or non Jewish) interested in learning more about their Orthodox coworkers, friends, and neighbors. Easy to read, and right to the point. Read the Jewish Press review at http: //www.jewishpress.com/content.cfm?contentid=3398

As Revised And Proposed To The Use Of The Protestant Episcopal Church At The Convention Of Said Church In The States Of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia And South Carolina, Held In Philadelphia From September 27 To October 7th, 1785.

A collection of prayers to propitiate the lord Buddha. The various prayers have been presented in English, Chinese and Hindi to make these prayers available to the vast majority of humankind.