The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2704 page)

) is held and sustained in the home (where there is likely to be a small shrine devoted to a particular deity), but it readily flows out into temples and shrines, and into many practices of particular devotion. Since Hindus in general believe that
Brahman
becomes manifest in many different ways, there are many different forms of the deity. More formal communal worship may be expressed through
dance
and drama, or through the singing in groups of k
rtana and
bhajana
(
‘songs of praise’
). These are usually associated with
bhakti
, a particularly powerful tradition of devotion and praise. But for the Hindu, the human relation to the divine is possible at all times: every circumstance can be an occasion of the divine. It is this which underlies the importance in worship of
mantra
, ma
ala, and
yantra
. For the Hindu, worship is as natural as birth and death: it is the bridge which connects the one to the other.
See also
YASNA
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Wrathful deities
.

Deities who, in Buddhist
tantra
, convey the transcendence of
dosa
(hate), itself one of the three major impediments to the attainment of enlightenment. Wrath is thus the purified form of hate, turned against the self in its emotional indulgence. Wrathful deities are depicted in fierce and fearsome guises, but this is intended to represent the attitude necessary to transform hate into wrath against itself (and the other
‘poisons’
of the mind).
In W. religions, the wrath of God is the righteous anger of God against wrong-doing, which in the Bible often carries with it punishment of wrong-doers, combined (in Christianity and Islam) with the threat of eternal punishment. The wrath of God thus becomes an invitation to moral seriousness.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Wrekin Trust
.

A
New Age
movement established in Britain by Sir George Trevelyan (1906–96), who became an advocate of
‘alternative spirituality’
after hearing a lecture on Rudolph Steiner's anthroposophy in 1942. The Trust was established to encourage the exploration of the spiritual nature of humans and of their universe through residential courses, conferences at New Age centres and elsewhere, and through publications.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Writings
or Hagiographa
.

The third section of the Hebrew scriptures (see TANAKH). The Writings contain: Psalms,
Proverbs
,
Job
, the
Song of Songs
,
Ruth
,
Lamentations
,
Ecclesiastes
,
Esther
,
Daniel
,
Ezra
,
Nehemiah
, and 1 and 2
Chronicles
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

(Chin., ‘not/non-being’). Key concept in
Taoism
, denoting the absence of qualities perceivable by the senses, but not
‘non-existent’
. It is the basic characteristic of
Tao
, whose emptiness of attributes does not deprive it of character and effect. To understand the emptiness of character in the Tao which nevertheless is its truth is to be drawn into becoming an expression of the same in one's own life, through active inactivity (
wu-wei
). Thus wu may also be the word through which the state of that realization is expressed.