Ashleigh Kennedy--Outside reading #2

Paths of Faith- John Hutchison and World Faiths- S.A. Nigosian

Many types of religions across the world focus on nature in their religious experiences. These types of religions have often been accurately characterized as nature-culture religion. It has also been termed cosmic religion (Hutchison, 14). With these religions, the meaning of human life is sought and found in nature and the world. Chinese religion has changed throughout the years, yet it still presents a strong indigenous tradition of naturalism. One particular example of a Chinese religion is Chinese Buddhism. It is one of the major schools of thought along with Taoism and Confucianism. One feature of Chinese Buddhism is its fragmentation into sects. Each group centers in a particular Indian text which it held and taught an essential truth. Three main sects include T’ien t’ai (Heavenly Terrace), Ching-tu (Pure Land) and Ch’an (Meditation). A few of Buddha’s teachings include The Four Noble Truths and Nirvana. The Noble Eightfold Path consists of right knowledge, right intention, right speech, right conduct, right means of livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration (Nigosian, 300). Those who follow the Noble Eightfold Path ultimately break the bonds that tie them to life and to their craving for existence and release from the cycle of rebirth. Only the extinction of tanha can free a person from the cycle of rebirth and from dukkha, or misery. It is the extinction, or “going out,” that is the state of nirvana (Nigosian, 300-301).