The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2748 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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Yüan-shih t’ien-tsun
(Taoist deity):
Yüan-wu K’o-ch’in
(Jap., Engo Kokugon;
1063–1135)
. Master of the
Y
gi
lineage of
Rinzai
, dharma-successor of Wu-tsu Fa-yen, and major figure in the development of
k
an
based Zen. He was head of different monasteries, and was favoured by the northern emperor, Hui-tsung, who called him Fo-kuo Ch’an-shih, ‘Zen master of the buddha fruit’. His major work was the joint-compilation of
Hekiganroku
, the
Blue Cliff Record
—see
K
AN
.
Yü Chi
or Kan Chi
(d. 197 CE)
.
Taoist
scholar and practitioner of the skills of religious Taoism in effecting cures, etc. He wrote
T’ai-p’ing ching-ling shu
(The Book of Supreme Peace and Purity), which became foundational for
T’ai-p’ing Tao
—though according to tradition, he received the book miraculously, rather than writing it.
Yuga
(Skt.). An ‘age’ in Hinduism, one of the four periods into which a world cycle is divided:
(i) k
ta (or satya)-yuga, the golden age when there is unity (one god, one
veda
, one ritual), in which the
varnas
perform their roles without oppression or envy;
(ii) 
tret
-yuga
when righteousness begins to decline by a quarter and sacrifice begins;
(iii) dv
para-yuga, when righteousness again declines by a quarter, the Vedas split into four, and few study them;
(iv) 
kali-yuga
, further decline by a quarter, when disease, despair, and conflict dominate. At present, we are in (iv), which began 3102 BCE, so that one should not be optimistic about the general prospect for the world.

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