Last time in class we talked about non-western religions. Non-western religions include Hinduism, Budism, Taoism, etc. These religions are monistic. In contrast of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam where people believed in one personal god, in non-western religions there is one nonpersonal ultimate reality. These religions are not liner, but nonlinear (circular views of time): reincarnation, endless rebirth, karma.
Some of the gods of non-western religions include: Brahma (creative aspect, deep meditation), Vishnu (preserve, no chaos), and Shiva (destruction, chaos, fire, death). An interestic myth I read about on the assigned reading “Divinity Diffused” about the God Shiva, went like this: “A myth is told in sacred Hindu texts about the goddess Sati, wife of Shiva. Sati’s father is said to have performed a sacrifice to which neither Sati nor Shiva was invited. Sati went to the ceremony nevertheless, but was insulted by her father. As a result, she is said to have died of a broke heart, or possibly by suicide. Shiva, inconsolable at her death, traversed the earth in a mad dance, carrying her body. The gods became anxious to free him of his grief and decided to deprive him of Sati. They therefore dispersed her body bit by bit, and places where the body fell became holy. These sacred sites became major pilgrimage centres for goddess worship in India.” I think this is a really intersting myth and very different from the ones I have heard on western religions.