Charlie and Blue Do Some Soul Searching

Everlasting life after death.

In this world people are tested, and in the Akhirah Muslims believe they will either be rewarded or punished according to how they have lived their life.

This is the ‘real self’, the soul. For many Hindus, there is only one Atman, connecting all of existence into a single reality. Others believe that each individual has a separate Atman or soul.

Hindus generally believe that every living being has an Atman. It is this that may be reborn into another life form after the death of the body.

Buddhism is a religion (followers prefer the term “spiritual path”) of around 500 million people, who follow the teachings that began with the Buddha, a man who lived in ancient India around the 5^th Century BCE.

Buddhist texts were written in many different languages. Pali is the language of the texts of the Theravada school, whilst Sanskrit is used for general Mahayana texts. Although Japanese, Chinese and Tibetan texts are important too, we have just provided Pali words first and Sanskrit where there is an alternative.

Christianity takes its name from the title of Jesus, Christ, which means ‘Messiah’. There are around 2.2 billions Christians in the world.

There are many denominations of Christianity though Christians generally follow the teachings Jesus and Christian interpretations of the Bible.

The eternal religion; also known as Vedic Dharma because the term ‘Dharma’ comes from Hindu scriptures called the ‘Vedas’. There are over 1 billion Hindus in the world with the majority living in India and Nepal.

Hindus often prefer to use ‘Sanatan Dharma’ instead of ‘Hinduism’ to represent their religion, since it characterises their belief in the revealed and universal nature of religion.

Islam means ‘peace attained through willing obedience to Allah’s divine guidance’. A Muslim is someone who has accepted Islam by professing the Shahadah. A faithful believer is known as a Mu’min.

In the religion of Islam, a Muslim should worship only one God. Knowledge of God comes through his messengers, also known as prophets, and the holy books, especially the Qur’an.

Judaism, the religion of the Jews, traces its roots back to Abraham and its laws back to Moses. It is a worldwide religion with around 15 million followers.

The vast majority of Jews live in Israel and the United States of America. Many of the words here are Hebrew in origin, though some variations come from Jewish communities who lived throughout central and eastern Europe.

Deliberate actions that affect a person’s circumstances in this and future lives. Good actions can lead to rewards and bad actions to punishment in this life or the next.

The Buddha taught that a person’s karma depended on what they did deliberately, through their own choice.

The law of cause and effect: the idea that every action produces a reaction.

If a person does good things, it will be of benefit to the world and their own soul (good karma); bad actions will bring bad results – either in this life or in the next rebirth.

Freedom from the continuous cycle of birth, death and rebirth.

Hindus believe that we are all reborn time and time again in a repeating cycle. At the point of attaining true, deep knowledge of the way things really are, we may finally be released from the cycle and this is called moksha or ‘salvation’ Only then will our atman (soul) go to be with Brahman (the One God).

This literally means ‘rescue’. Christians believe that Jesus’ death and resurrection have rescued them from the consequences of sin, and, through forgiveness, restored the relationship with God that had been broken at the Fall.

For Christians, all human beings have a ‘sinful’ nature. Salvation means that they can be ‘rescued’ from the things that sin leads to, that is death and separation from God. Christians believe this means they can gain eternal life through God’s forgiveness of their sins.

This is about the cycle of life. Human beings are born, often get sick, grow older and eventually die. Buddhists believe that in some way we are then reborn in a different life-form, and the cycle begins again. And again. And again…

Buddhists generally believe that the way to escape samsara is to come to a deep understanding of the Buddha’s teaching and put it into practice.

Sikhism is the religion of about 27 million people worldwide. ‘Sikh’ literally means ‘learner’ or ‘disciple’. A Sikh is a person who believes in the ten Gurus and the Guru Granth Sahib; and who has no other religion.

Sikh terms are largely drawn from the Punjabi language. When the Sikh scriptures were written down, the script in which they were written was called Gurmuhki.