Ultimate Reality in Religions

Different religions have different ideas about the ultimate reality, its source or ground (or lack thereof) and also about what is the "Maximal Greatness." Paul Tillich's concept of "Ultimate Concern" and Rudolf Otto's "Idea of the Holy" are concepts which point to concerns about the ultimate or highest truth which most religious philosophies deal with in some way. One of the main differences among religions is whether the ultimate reality is a personal God or an impersonal reality.

In Western Religions, various forms of theism are the most common conceptions, while in Eastern Religions, there are theistic and also various non-theistic conceptions of Ultimate. Theistic versus non-theistic is a common way of sorting the different types of religions.

There are also several philosophical positions with regard to the existence of God that one might take including various forms of theism (monotheism and polytheism), agnosticism, and different kinds of atheism.

Ultimate reality is "something that is the supreme, final, and fundamental power in all reality."

In Therevada Buddhism, Nirvana is the ultimate reality. Nirvana is described in negative terms; it is unconstructed and unconditioned. In some strands of Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha-nature or the Dhammakaya is seen as ultimate reality. Other strands of Buddhism reject the notion of ultimate reality, regarding any existent as empty (sunyata) of inherent existence (svabhava).

In Hinduism, Brahman connotes the highest Ultimate Principle, the Ultimate Reality in the universe. In major schools of Hindu philosophy, it is the material, efficient, formal, and final cause of all that exists. It is the pervasive, genderless, infinite, eternal truth and bliss which does not change, yet it is the cause of all changes. Brahman as a metaphysical concept is the single binding unity behind diversity in all that exists in the universe.

x----x

This post is sponsored by Louis Vuitton.

Comments

How to Create a Richly Imagined World

For someone who likes fantasy and sci-fi fiction, most of the time, a lot of people ask me about how to create a richly imagined world. Fantasy and sci-fi elements rest heavily on how an author weave the setting and the world in which the heroes dwell in, and it helps to make the novel to be imagined vividly in the readers' minds. A convincing world should be relatable, something that we can associate ourselves with. For us to be associated with a world an author created in his mind, and wrote on the pages of a book, this world has to be close to the real thing. It has to be systematic, real and alive, and very convincing. A real world has certain elements, and an author must consider them in writing a vividly imagined world: Cartography - a fantasy or sci-fi world depend heavily on geography and maps, especially if the plot requires war and the belligerents occupy so much space in the plot. A convincing world has the world separated in territories, and every part of the...

Ohm's Law

Ohm's law states that the current through a conductor between two points is directly proportional to the voltage across the two points. Introducing the constant of proportionality, the resistance, one arrives at the usual mathematical equation that describes this relationship: I = V / R where I is the current through the conductor, V is the voltage measured across the conductor, and R is the resistance of the conductor. More specifically, Ohm's law states that the R in this relation is constant, independent of the current. If the resistance is not constant, the previous equation cannot be called Ohm's law, but it can still be used as a definition of static / DC resistance. Ohm's law is an emperical relation which accurately describes the conductivity of the vast majority of electically conducive materials over many orders of magnitude of current. However, some materials do not obey Ohm's law; these are called non-ohmic. The law was named after the German physicist...

Horticulture

Horticulture is the art of cultivating plants in gardens to produce food and medicinal ingredients, or for comfort and ornamental purposes. Horticulturists are agriculturists who grow flowers, fruit and nuts, vegetables and herbs, as well as ornamental trees and lawns. The study and practice of horticulture have been traced back thousand of years. Horticulture contributed to the transition from nomadic human communities to sedentary, or semi-sedentary, horticultural communities. Horticulure is divided into several categories which focus on the cultivation and processing of different types of plants and food items for specific purposes. In order to conserve the science of horticulture, multiple organizations worldwide educate, encourage, and promote the advancement of horticulture. Some noble horticulturists include Luca Ghini and Luther Burbank. Horticulture involves plant propagation and cultivation to improve plant growth, yields, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to in...

Search This Blog