The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1302 page)

 
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Klong-chen Rab-’byams-pa
(often simplified to Longchenpa
,

1308–63).
Major Tibetan scholar of the
Nyingma
-pa. He was of particular importance in the transmission of
dzogchen
(Great Perfection). After a thorough education in the existing traditions, he became disillusioned with this and sought enlightenment as a pupil of Kum
rar
ja (1266–1343), a renowned wandering ascetic who was a noted exponent of dzogchen. For a time, Klong-chen Rab-’byams-pa was abbot of
Samyé
, but he could not avoid the political conflicts of the time and spent a period as an exile in (modern) Bhutan. He wrote many works, especially
The Seven Treasures (mdzod-bdun
) and
Trilogy on Rest
(
ngal-gso skor-gsum
). His own teachings were reorganized and promulgated by Jigme Lingpa (’Jigs-med gling-pa, 1730–98), whence they became widely influential and were transmitted especially through the
Rimé
movement.

 
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Knights of Malta
:

see
TEMPLARS
.

 
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Knowledge
.

A valued, but somewhat ambiguous, human competence in most religions.
Gnosis
(Gk., ‘knowledge’) as insight into the deepest mysteries flourished in the Hellenistic world, leading to both mystery religions (with initiates alone gaining access to healing or saving knowledge) and to
gnostic
religions. Christian history unfolds a tension between
fideism
and the exploration of the universe as God's creation, out of which the natural sciences eventually emerged. In Islam, knowledge receives the highest endorsement (see
‘ILM
); yet even here, knowledge in contrast to behaviour in conformity with
Qur’
n
and
shar
‘a
is suspect.
In Indian religions, the tension is equally evident.
Vidy
is the all-important counter-availing value. Ignorance (
avidya
) is the deepest fault and impediment which has to be dealt with if any progress is to be made toward a higher goal. Thus
jñ
na
-marga (the way of knowledge) is one of the three ways (
m
rga
) leading, in Hinduism, toward enlightenment and release (
mok
a
). Avidya is countered by
vidy
,
samjña
,
prajña
. Yet it is clearly recognized that there are different levels of knowledge, of which the earlier (e.g. knowledge of texts) is necessary, but comes to be seen as a kind of ignorance, compared with direct knowledge of
Brahman
.