“Windows To Spirituality”
Christianity’s Religious Text Christianity‘s Religious Text combines the Jewish Old Testament with the New Testament to form the Christian Bible, which followers refer to as the Holy Scriptures. There are many noncanonical texts in the Christian religion as well. Some Christian denominations have additional or alternate holy scriptures, with authoritativeness...
The Enlightenment For Every Dimension “The Enlightenment For Every Dimension” is a comprehensive study of the enlightenment from a Christian point of view. The Truths of Love Nothing in the world you have ever done or can ever do, is more important than reading and understanding these writings of Truth....
Spirituality Spirituality may refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality, an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being, or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including yoga, fasting, meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop an individual’s inner life; spiritual...
Spirituality, How Do You Measure It? This article covers the answer to the questions: “Spirituality, How Do You Measure It?” Spirituality means something different to everyone. For some, it’s about participating in organized religion: going to a church, synagogue, mosque, and so on. For others, spirituality is a non-religious experience that varies...
Spiritual Music This article covers spiritual music. Spirituals (or Negro spirituals) are generally Christian songs that were created by African Americans. Spirituals were originally an oral tradition that imparted Christian values while also describing the hardships of slavery. Although spirituals were originally unaccompanied monophonic (unison) songs, they are best known today in...
Religious Music Religious music (also sacred music) is music performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. Ritual music is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. The religious music that is commonly considered Western had its beginnings in the Middle East and the Mediterranean, as did Western...
What Is Poetry? Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning. Poetry has a very long history, dating back to prehistorical times with the creation of...
Ziyarat In Islam, ziyara(h) (زيارة, ziyārah, “visit”) or ziyarat (زیارت, ziyārat, “pilgrimage”) is a form of pilgrimage to sites associated with Muhammad, his family members and descendants (including the Shī‘ī Imāms), his companions and other venerated figures in Islam such as the prophets, Sufi auliya, and Islamic scholars. Sites of pilgrimage...
What Is Sufism? Sufism, mystical Islamic belief and practice in which Muslims seek to find the truth of divine love and knowledge through direct personal experience of God. It consists of a variety of mystical paths that are designed to ascertain the nature of humanity and of God and to...
Spiritual Enlightenment In the western world the concept of spiritual enlightenment has become synonymous with self-realization and the true self and false self, being regarded as a substantial essence being covered over by social conditioning. Enlightenment is the “full comprehension of a situation”. The term is commonly used to denote the Age...
Meditation This article covers the answer to the question: “What is meditation?” Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm...
Types Of Karma In Jainism According to Jain karma theory, there are eight main types of karma (Prikriti) which are categorized into the ‘harming’ and the ‘non-harming’; each divided into four types. The harming karmas (ghātiyā karmas) directly affect the soul powers by impeding its perception, knowledge and energy, and also brings about delusion....
What Is Shastra? Shastra (शास्त्र) is a Sanskrit word that means “precept, rules, manual, compendium, book or treatise” in a general sense. The word is generally used as a suffix in the Indian literature context, for technical or specialized knowledge in a defined area of practice. Shastra has a similar meaning to English -logy, e.g. ecology, psychology,...
Indian Epic Poetry Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called Kavya (or Kāvya; काव्य, kāvyá). The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, which were originally composed in Sanskrit and later translated into many other Indian languages, and The Five Great Epics of Tamil Literature and Sangam literature are...
What Is Self-reflection? Human self-reflection is the capacity of humans to exercise introspection and the willingness to learn more about their fundamental nature, purpose and essence. The earliest historical records demonstrate the great interest which humanity has had in itself. Human self-reflection is related to the philosophy of consciousness, the topic of awareness, consciousness in general and the philosophy of mind. History...
Extraterrestrial Hypothesis The extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH) proposes that some unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are best explained as being physical spacecraft occupied by extraterrestrial life or non-human aliens, or non occupied alien probes from other planets visiting Earth. Etymology Origins of the term extraterrestrial hypothesis are unknown, but use in printed material on UFOs seems to date to at least the latter half of...
Irreligion Irreligion (adjective form: non-religious or irreligious) is the absence, indifference, rejection of, or hostility towards religion. Irreligion may include some forms of theism, depending on the religious context it is defined against; for example, in 18th-century Europe, the epitome of irreligion was deism, while in contemporary East Asia the shared term meaning “irreligion” or “no religion” (無宗教, Chinese pron. wú...
Religious Ecstasy Religious ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. Although the experience is usually brief in time, there are records of such experiences lasting several days or even more,...
What Is Biblical Inspiration? Biblical inspiration is the doctrine in Christian theology that “the human authors and editors of canonical scripture were led or influenced by the Deity with the result that their writings many be designated in some sense the word of God” (B.M. Metzger & M.D. Coogan, “The Oxford...
Grace Before and After Meals A grace is a short prayer or thankful phrase said before or after eating. The term most commonly refers to Christian traditions. Some traditions hold that grace and thanksgiving imparts a blessing which sanctifies the meal. In English, reciting such a prayer is sometimes referred...
