The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1376 page)

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Lilith
.

A female
demon
in Jewish mythology. Isaiah lists Lilith among the beasts of prey which will devastate the land (34. 14). According to a
midrash
, Lilith was the first
Eve
who disputed with
Adam
because she was unwilling to forgo her equality.

 
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(Lat.,
limbus
, ‘border’,
sc
. of hell). In Catholic theology, the place for the dead who have deserved neither the beatific vision nor the punishment of hell. These include the righteous before the coming of Christ, and also unbaptized babies (and some children) held to be in
original sin
but innocent of actual sins.

 
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see
RITES OF PASSAGE
.

 
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d
. 867 CE)
. Chinese master who founded the Zen Buddhist Lin-chi line (
Rinzai-sh
in Japanese). Lin-chi was noted for his emphasis on shouting (
ho
) and striking (
kyosaku
) as techniques for spurring on the spiritual progress of his students. ‘A type of Chinese Socrates’ (Demiéville), he is one of the outstanding figures, not just of Buddhism, but of humanity.
The Lin-chi way is characterized by dialectical formulae, the three statements (
sanku
), three mysteries (
sangen
), and three essentials (
sany
); and the sets of four—four alternatives (
shiry
ken
), four conversations, four types of shouting (
shikatsu
). The threefold formulae are dense and not explained.
His sayings and some biographical information are gathered in
Lin-chi lu
(tr. R. F. Sasaki, 1975; see also
Rinzairoku
), which includes the notable command: ‘If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha; if you meet the patriarch, kill the patriarch’, which summarizes the goal of independence from even the highest authority in the achieving of what they alone have the authority to teach.

 
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