The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2280 page)

BOOK: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions
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and
tapas
(to burn out offence) to gifts to brahmans and pilgrimage.
Buddhism
Buddhism does not accept the existence of an omnipotent deity and has no concept of sin as the offence against such a being by the contravention of his will as expressed through revelation or deduced by reason. It does, however (in terms of the doctrine of
karma
), distinguish clearly between good and evil deeds.
A wrongful thought, word, or deed is one which is committed under the influence of the ‘Three Roots of Evil’ (akusalam
la), namely greed (
lobha
), hatred (
dosa
), and delusion (
moha
). Wrongful actions are designated in various ways: as evil (
p
pa
), bad (
akusala
), demeritorious (
apuñña
), or corrupt (
sankili
ha
), and all such deeds lead inevitably to a deeper entanglement in the process of suffering and rebirth (
sa
s
ra
) and away from the fulfilment and enlightenment of
nirv
na
.
Sinai, Mount
.
The mountain on which
Moses
was given the Jewish
Torah
. Mount Sinai is also referred to as Mount Horeb (Exodus 33. 6). According to Exodus, Moses was given the
Ten Commandments
on Mount Sinai; he also received the tablets of the law after remaining there for forty days. In recent times the acceptance of the doctrine of
Torah mi Sinai
(‘Torah from Sinai’) is the primary criterion of
orthodox
belief. Jews have not been much concerned to identify the mountain, since it adds nothing to the revelation which occurred there (
ma‘amad har Sinai
) by which they are required to live. Jubal or Jebel Musa, the mount of Moses, in southern Sinai is an old (Christian) identification: the Monastery of St
Catherine
was built on orders of the emperor Justinian in the 6th cent. at the foot of Jubal Musa, at the traditional site of the burning bush.
S
n
n
(Ottoman architect):

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