The Encyclopedia of World Religions

Santería S 407

life (he died around the age of 30) Sankara systematized the Advaita (non-dualist) school of V EDANTA —with profound consequences. He developed his views in commentaries on the U PANISHADS , the B HAGAVAD -G ITA , and the Vedanta sutras; he traveled throughout India, debating the leaders of rival schools and converting them to his point of view; and he founded four monasteries, one in each of India’s regions. These monasteries are among the most respected of India’s religious institutions today. In doing all this, he helped to revive H INDUISM and contributed to the decline of B UDDHISM and J AINISM in India. Central to Sankara’s position is the insistence that BRAHMAN , the ultimate reality underlying all that we perceive, is not dual. Sankara developed this view by identifying four levels of reality. From lowest to highest, these are the self-contradictory (for example, a square circle), the illusory (for example, a mirage), the pragmatic (in which we ordinarily live), and the ultimate (brahman). San kara teaches that we “superimpose” lower levels of reality on the next higher level. For example, at night a person may step on a rope and mistake it for a snake. That person superimposes the illusion of a rope onto the pragmatic reality of a snake. Similarly, Sankara says, we superimpose the per ceptions of pragmatic reality onto brahman. Santería A popular religious movement origi nating in Cuba that combines African and Roman Catholic themes. Santería, “The Way of the Saints,” developed among African slaves in Cuba, and has spread throughout the Caribbean and the United States. In it, Catholic SAINTS are identified with tradi tional African deities ( see A FRICAN RELIGIONS ), mainly Yoruba from the area that is now Nigeria and Benin, and worshipped in colorful rites that include veg etable and animal SACRIFICES . Santería ALTARS and costumes are often magnificent works of art. The most impressive ceremonies are those in which the deities, called orishas, “mount” or possess initiated devotees. The possessed one will then speak and act in ways characteristic of that god. The rites by which a devotee becomes an initiate of a particular

series in which each craving-motivated event is both the result of a prior event and the cause of a future one. It is thought that this causal chain is not interrupted even by death. Both Hinduism and Buddhism have developed schools of thought that downplay the significance of samsara. Like K RISHNA in the B HAGAVAD -G ITA , many Hindus have taught that since the self is eter nal and unchanging, it can experience neither birth nor death. The cycle of samsara occurs, then, only on the less real level of appearances. Mahayana Buddhists have tended to follow the great teacher Nagarjuna in asserting that NIRVANA , release, is not separate from samsara. Rather, nirvana is simply a manner of living within samsara. sangha “Group” in Sanskrit and Pali; the name for the religious communities of B UDDHISM and J AINISM . The sangha is one of the three “jewels” in which all Buddhists take refuge. Sometimes sangha refers to the entire religious community of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen. It often refers more narrowly, however, to the com munity of MONKS AND NUNS . No centralized authority oversees the entire sangha in either Buddhism or Jainism. Instead, the sangha consists of self-govern ing local groups. This arrangement has led to dis sension and division, so that different communities follow different traditions of “discipline.” In the earliest days members of both the Jain and Buddhist sanghas wandered the countryside begging. They settled in one place only during the rainy season when travel was difficult and hazard ous. With time wealthy patrons endowed monas teries and convents. The life-style changed drasti cally, but the distinction between lay and religious remained. In some Buddhist schools, however, this distinction has almost completely broken down. For example, in several schools of Japanese Buddhism, it is no longer meaningful to speak of the sangha.

Sankara (eighth century C . E .) also spelled Shan- kara. Also known as Sankaracarya; the most influential Indian philosopher During his short