Awakening of Faith (Sraddhotpada-sastra): Mahayana Buddhist text of the 5th or 6th centuries CE by an otherwise unknown figure named Asvaghosha; the work which emphasizes ultimate reality as suchness (tathata).

 (See also: Awakening of Faith, Eastern Philosophy, Body Mind and Soul)

Ostentation has today taken precedence over observance of faith in the true spirit. Picture any festival or place of worship, and the extent of this malady at once strikes us: Blinding illumination, blaring loudspeakers and colourful pageants, all horrifyingly self-indulgent and, of course, indifferent to the essence of faith.

Ignoring the fact that it is from the seed of austerity and humility that most faiths have germinated, this idiom of ostentation still appeals to a section of our populace, who, starved of sensible pursuits, yearn to give an outlet to their energies.

(See also: Faith and Devotion, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Belief -Systems  - The belief or faith that the patient holds as his innermost cultural, spiritual, and psychological resources for healing. For modern man the healer may be a physician or priest. For American Indians and Mexicans it is the curandero or shaman. For Alaskan Eskimos it is an angakok and so forth. Each concept has its own specific practices that help the person with faith to be healed. The key to faith healing is belief. All healers must understand the patient-belief system in order to achieve success in treating most disorders.

(See also: Belief -Systems, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Definition and meaning of Belief Systems

Belief Systems

Beliefs relate to religion, customs, values, attitudes, ideals, and world views. Belief systems include the beliefs and values shared by members of a racial, ethnic, or social group as well as those held by individuals. Belief systems develop over time and reflect the ideology, religion, politics, social structure, and economic activities of a particular group. Beliefs influence all decisions including economic ones.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

Definition and meaning of Belief Systems

Belief Systems

Beliefs relate to religion, customs, values, attitudes, ideals, and world views. Belief systems include the beliefs and values shared by members of a racial, ethnic, or social group as well as those held by individuals. Belief systems develop over time and reflect the ideology, religion, politics, social structure, and economic activities of a particular group. Beliefs influence all decisions including economic ones.

(Source: The Social Studies Center at Texas University )

Also see these pages:  Social Studies, Social Studies Sitemap, History, History Sitemap

Faith is a rare gift of God granted only to humans, and it forms the basis of human relationships. We need to repose faith in our parents that they will always think of our welfare; in our children that they will not let us down; in our colleagues and friends that they will remain loyal. Similarly, for a seeker of salvation, a prime requirement is faith or shraddha in God.

Faith in people is based on our practical experience of them. We have no such experience of God. Does our faith in Him, therefore, have to be blind? As the following story illustrates, faith in God must be reasoned.

(See also: Faith, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Definition and meaning of Utmost good faith :

Contracts of insurance and reinsurance are contracts of utmost good faith. In the event that either party fails to observe utmost good faith towards the other in regard to the negotiation of cover then the other party may avoid the contract. The duty of utmost good faith requires each party to inform the other all material facts during the negotiation of the placement, renewal or alteration of cover.

 An insured has a separate duty of good faith when making a claim under an insurance policy.

(Source Lloyd's )

Also see these pages: Utmost good faith , Insurance, Insurance Sitemap, Insurance Dictionary - U

Awakening of the Faith (Treatise)

A major commentary by the Patriarch Asvaghosha (lst/2nd cent.), which presents the fundamental principles of Mahayana Buddhism. Several translations exist in English.

 (See also: Awakening of the Faith (Treatise, Buddhism, Body Mind and Soul)

Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, The

(Jpn.: Daijo-kishin-ron; Chin.: Ta-ch'eng-ch'i-hsin-lun)

Abbreviated as Awakening of Faith. A work traditionally attributed to Ashvaghosha, a Mahayana scholar who lived from the first through the second century, though opinions on this differ. There are two Chinese translations of this work, the first done in 550 by Paramartha, who had gone from India to China, and the second around 700 by Shikshananda, a monk from Khotan in Central Asia. Paramartha's version has been the more popular. Awakening of Faith sets forth the fundamental doctrines of Mahayana Buddhism and attempts to awaken people to faith in it. It specifically takes up the concept of tathata, literally thusness or suchness, meaning the true aspect of reality. It was widely studied in China and Japan, and in China several commentaries on it were written.

(See also: Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Moving out of my apartment to reach anywhere in Mumbai, I pass through slices of time. 'Yesterday' shows up, among other things, in the buffalo sheds I pass along-side my drive through the new, slick highway, which is 'today'.

'Tomorrow' is seen in the amazing imported car showrooms, right next to the buffalo sheds. Rows of shining cars that can go at dazzling speeds - for which we do not have the right roads.

(See also: Personal faith, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Faith healing (spiritual healing): 1. Any method wherein one makes an appeal to God or a spirit to participate in healing others, typically a combination of prayer, meditation, and utilization of faith in God. 2. An ill-defined group of methods that encompasses absent healing, Christian Science, the laying on of hands, mesmerism, and shamanism.

(See also: Faith healing, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

 Faith Healing  - The system or practice of treating disease by religious faith and prayer.

(See also: Faith Healing, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Word-Faith Movement

A movement based in large part on the teachings of E. W. Kenyon (1867-1948) that became a distinct movement under the teaching and leadership of Kenneth Hagin, a Pentecostal faith-healing evangelist.

Its teachings include: God himself created the world and all that he does by speaking words of faith. Man's creation in God's image means that human beings are “little gods” capable of speaking creative words of faith. The fall of Adam into sin transformed Adam (and all unredeemed people) into Satan's nature and transferred Adam's godhood or dominion on earth to Satan. Jesus became man in order to restore human beings to godhood as renewed “incarnations” of God. He did this by dying spiritually as well as physically on the cross, suffering in hell, and then while in hell becoming the first person to be “born again,” before finally being raised from the dead. Those who believe in Jesus are supposedly empowered to speak words of faith again, especially in order to obtain bodily health and financial prosperity. Most of the followers of the Word-Faith teachers are Pentecostals

(See also: Word-Faith Movement, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Justification by faith alone

Fundamental principle of the Protestant Reformation that the divine act in which God declares the sinner to be innocent of his sins. Salvation depends entirely on the grace of God rather than on human actions.

(See also: Justification by faith alone, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

faith healing

The desire and expectation of the patient are necessary factors in faith healing. This desire of the patient allows the chosen treatment to change their body chemistry so the body can heal itself. This desire is "faith" or the automatic knowing that one will be cured

(See also: Faith healing, Body Mind and Soul)

Word-Faith Movement

A movement based in large part on the teachings of E. W. Kenyon (1867-1948) that became a distinct movement under the teaching and leadership of Kenneth Hagin, a Pentecostal faith-healing evangelist.

Its teachings include: God himself created the world and all that he does by speaking words of faith. Man's creation in God's image means that human beings are Òlittle godsÓ capable of speaking creative words of faith. The fall of Adam into sin transformed Adam (and all unredeemed people) into Satan's nature and transferred Adam's godhood or dominion on earth to Satan. Jesus became man in order to restore human beings to godhood as renewed ÒincarnationsÓ of God. He did this by dying spiritually as well as physically on the cross, suffering in hell, and then while in hell becoming the first person to be Òborn again,Ó before finally being raised from the dead. Those who believe in Jesus are supposedly empowered to speak words of faith again, especially in order to obtain bodily health and financial prosperity. Most of the followers of the Word-Faith teachers are Pentecostals

(See also: Word-Faith Movement, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Faith Healing, Drugless Healing Apart from the regular medical and surgical practice, widespread forms of drugless healing are employed today. Public opinion generally is either frankly skeptical about the whole matter, or believes that such afford safe and easy means of relief and escape from suffering and disease.

As a whole, these forms of faith or magnetic healing depend on the "inborn or inherent, ability of the 'healer' or practitioner to convey healthy life-force from himself to the diseased person. This is the key to success, or the lack of success, in all cases, and in all kinds of healing of whatever so-called 'school'" (SOPh 622). If the practitioner succeeds in conveying the vitality of the pranic fluids from his own healthy body to the diseased body or organ of another person, that healthy life-force "expels" or changes the inharmonious vibrations in the afflicted part and, by restoring harmony there, brings about health. Such cures can be permanent; usually they are temporary, lasting from a few days to a few years.

All these methods were known to the ancients. Unfortunately, the Western lack of any true psychology leaves unexplained the rationale of these healing systems -- whether by hypnotism, magnetism, mesmerism, or healing by faith as practiced by the Christian Scientists and faith-healers -- and gives no hint of their end results. The potential dangers incurred, both physical and superphysical, are unsuspected. The magnetic healer's emanation of his vitality and will-force inevitably carries and implants in the person it affects something of his own quality of mind, heart, and body. The germs of any latent disease, hidden vice, or mental bias will complicate any supposed cure.

Moreover, the subtle infection on inner lines karmically links for the future both healer and patient in the outcome. Even diseased or evil-minded persons of strong will and animal vitality can displace a disease and, by driving it back onto some inner level of the sufferer's constitution, can make a seeming cure. Howsoever it is displaced out of sight, it cannot be denied out of existence, and sooner or later it will reappear in a more untimely, unnatural, and probably a more dangerous form because of its suppression at the moment of its endeavor to exhaust itself in physical expression. Physical disease, originating in wrong thought in this or a former life, becomes visible on the most material level in working its way out of the system for good. It is positively pernicious for a healer to act upon the will, conscience, or moral integrity of the sick person by hypnotizing his mind, will, and conscience into believing that sickness does not exist, or that he is a victim of fate instead of suffering from his own past actions. Any such control of another's conscious life is a form of suggestion or hypnotism, and falls under what was formerly called black magic.

On the other hand, we are morally obligated to help the sick and suffering in the right ways of treating the body, mind, and soul; right because involving the arousing of the patient's own inner powers of spiritual, moral, and intellectual resistance against the weaknesses in himself. The wrong ways consist in the overpowering -- however good the motive of the practitioner may be -- of the moral instincts, will, and conscience of the sufferer, thereby rendering him weaker than before. In genuine mesmerism the vital emanation from a pure-minded, unselfish, healthy operator arouses the inert or disordered forces of the diseased organ or body, causing them to vibrate harmoniously and naturally. Thus the sufferer makes himself whole or healthy, and has no bad reaction. The best of all drugless healing methods is where the sufferer is brought into a state of hope, self-confidence, and the higher kind of resignation bringing peace and inner quiet, all of which works in harmony with the body's natural resources of health and healing. This is the kind of faith-cure used by Jesus and others of similar spiritual and intellectual stature.

(See also: Faith Healing, Drugless Healing, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Faith healing , Prayer healing ,  :

The use of faith and spirit to cure disease.

(See also: Faith healing, Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Baha'i Faith,The, Bah‡ÔuÕll‡h

A Islamic sect, originating in Persia, which has evolved into a major independent religion with approximately five million believers worldwide. Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Bah‡ÔuÕll‡h and others are viewed as a succession of divine messengers.

A 19th century Persian teacher, the B‡b, (or ÒGateÓ) predicted Bah‡'u'll‡h's coming. Bah‡Õ’ advocates a new global order of sexual equality, a one-world economic system to eliminate poverty, and a one-world religion.

(See also: Baha'i Faith, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

The word faith has various uses; its central meaning is similar to "belief", "trust" or "confidence", but unlike these terms, "faith" tends to imply a transpersonal rather than interpersonal relationship – with God or a higher power. The object of faith can be a person (or even an inanimate object or state of affairs) or a proposition (or body of propositions, such as a religious credo). In each case, however, the faithful subject's faith is in an aspect of the object that cannot be rationally proven or objectively known. ...

Including:

• Faith - Religious Faith
• Faith - Christianity
• Faith - Islam
• Faith - Buddhism
• Faith - Rastafari
• Faith - Neurobiological findings
• Faith - Notes
• Faith - Classic reflections on the nature of faith
• Faith - The Reformation view of faith

Read more here: » Faith: Encyclopedia - Faith

Justification by faith alone

Fundamental principle of the Protestant Reformation that the divine act in which God declares the sinner to be innocent of his sins. Salvation depends entirely on the grace of God rather than on human actions.

(See also: Justification by faith alone, New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)