Judaean DesertThe Judaean Desert or Judean Desert (Barr al-Khalil, Midbar Yehuda) is a desert in the West Bank and Israel that lies east of Jerusalem and descends to the Dead Sea. Under the name El-Bariyah, it has been nominated to the Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in the State of Palestine, particularly for its monastic ruins. The term originates in the Hebrew Bible, and it is mentioned in Judges and Psalms. It is sometimes known as יְשִׁימוֹן Yeshimon, meaning desert or wildland, or yet Wilderness of Judah or Wilderness of Judaea, among others.
Protestant work ethicThe Protestant work ethic, also known as the Calvinist work ethic or the Puritan work ethic, is a work ethic concept in scholarly sociology, economics, and historiography. It emphasizes that diligence, discipline, and frugality are a result of a person's subscription to the values espoused by the Protestant faith, particularly Calvinism. The phrase was initially coined in 1905 by Max Weber in his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism.
ShugendōShugendō is a highly syncretic religion, a body of ascetic practices that originated in the Nara Period of Japan having evolved during the 7th century from an amalgamation of beliefs, philosophies, doctrines and ritual systems drawn from local folk-religious practices, Shinto mountain worship and Buddhism. The final purpose of Shugendō is for practitioners to find supernatural power and save themselves and the masses by conducting religious training while treading through steep mountain ranges.
NirjaraNirjara is one of the seven fundamental principles, or Tattva in Jain philosophy, and refers to the shedding or removal of accumulated karmas from the atma (soul), essential for breaking free from samsara, the cycle of birth-death and rebirth, by achieving moksha, liberation. Literally meaning "falling off", the concept is described first in chapter 9 of the classical Jain text, Tattvartha Sutra (True nature of Reality) written by Acharya Umasvati, in 2nd century CE, the only text authoritative in both Svetambara and Digambara sects of Jainism.
AbstinenceAbstinence is a self-enforced restraint from indulging in bodily activities that are widely experienced as giving pleasure. Most frequently, the term refers to sexual abstinence, but it can also mean abstinence from alcohol, drugs, food, etc. Because the regimen is intended to be a conscious act, freely chosen to enhance life, abstinence is sometimes distinguished from the psychological mechanism of repression. The latter is an unconscious state, having unhealthy consequences.
FlagellantFlagellants are practitioners of a form of mortification of the flesh by whipping their skin with various instruments of penance. Many Christian confraternities of penitents have flagellants, who beat themselves, both in the privacy of their dwellings and in public processions, in order to repent of sins and share in the Passion of Jesus. In the 14th century, a movement within Western Christianity known as Flagellantism became popular and adherents "began beating their flesh in a public penitential ritual in response to war, famine, plague and fear engendered by millenarianism.
SallekhanaSallekhana (IAST: ), also known as samlehna, santhara, samadhi-marana or sanyasana-marana, is a supplementary vow to the ethical code of conduct of Jainism. It is the religious practice of voluntarily fasting to death by gradually reducing the intake of food and liquids. It is viewed in Jainism as the thinning of human passions and the body, and another means of destroying rebirth-influencing karma by withdrawing all physical and mental activities.
AshramAn ashram (आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery in Indian religions. The Sanskrit noun is a thematic nominal derivative from the root 'toil' (< PIE *ḱremh2) with the prefix 'towards.' An ashram is a place where one strives towards a goal in a disciplined manner. Such a goal could be ascetic, spiritual, yogic or any other. An ashram would traditionally, but not necessarily in contemporary times, be located far from human habitation, in forests or mountainous regions, amidst refreshing natural surroundings conducive to spiritual instruction and meditation.
SamaneraA sāmaṇera (Pali), श्रामणेर (), is a novice male monastic in a Buddhist context. A female novice is a śrāmaṇerī or śrāmaṇerikā (Sanskrit; Pāli: sāmaṇerī). The sāmaṇera is a Pali language diminutive equivalent to the Sanskrit term śrāmaṇera, which indicates an ascetic practitioner. Therefore, sāmaṇera might be said to mean "small or young renunciate". In some South and Southeast Asian Buddhist traditions, the term refers to someone who has taken the initial pravrajya vows but not the upasampada or full ordination.
AkrodhaAkrodha (Sanskrit: अक्रोध) literally means "free from anger". It's an important virtue in Indian philosophy and Hindu ethics. Akrodha is a fusion word between the Sanskrit prefix a (Sanskrit: अ; "without", "non") and the term krodha (Sanskrit: क्रोध; "anger"), meaning "without anger". A related word is akrodhah (Sanskrit: अक्रोध), which also means "absence of anger". Akrodha is considered a virtue and desirable ethical value in Hinduism. When there is cause of anger but nevertheless there is absence of anger, this is non-anger or akrodha.
