( ́su ̄dras) perform the manual work the other classes need in
order to fulfill their responsibilities.
Dharma ́sa ̄stra literatures similarly outline the four stages
(a ̄ ́sramas) of one’s individual life, each having its own disci-
plined requirements. According to a representative text, the
Ma ̄nava Dharma ́sa ̄stra (the Laws of Manu, second century
BCE), a student (brahmaca ̄rin) must study the Vedic scrip-
tures under the guidance of a master until he is old enough
to marry. Becoming a householder (gr:hasthin), one must
raise a family and secure its well-being. Having carried out
these responsibilities long enough to see one’s grandchildren
grow to be adults, one leaves the demands of family life to
the children and enters the stage of the forest-dweller
(va ̄naprasthin) in order to offer private oblations to his ances-
tors and various deities. Only if one lives long enough, and
has met all of these other responsibilities, can one then be-
come a wandering ascetic (sam:nya ̄sin) who, having finally
abandoned all possessions and family obligations, seeks the
inner wisdom that will bring eternal release.
SEE ALSO Asceticism; Eremitism; Ecstasy; Martial Arts;
Meditation; Monasticism; Mortification; Obedience; Reli-
gious Communities, article on Christian Religious Orders;
Retreat; Yoga.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Readers interested in discussions of spiritual disciplines in several
traditions not outlined above and interpreted from a variety
of approaches by eminent scholars will want to consult Pa-
pers from the Eranos Yearbooks, vol. 4, Spiritual Disciplines,
edited by Joseph Campbell (New York, 1960), a collection
of papers read over several years at the Eranos meetings in
Ascona, Switzerland.
On the development of Islamic shar ̄ıEah and its relationship to
personal piety, see Marshall G. S. Hodgson’s The Venture of
Islam, vol. 1, The Classical Age of Islam (Chicago, 1974),
pp. 315–409; Fazlur Rahman’s Islam (New York, 1966),
pp. 100–116; and Frederick Mathewson Denny’s An Intro-
duction to Islam (New York, 1985), pp. 216–292. On Islamic
spiritual traditions and mystical poetry, see Annemarie
Schimmel’s Mystical Dimensions of Islam (Chapel Hill, N. C.,
1975), esp. pp. 98–227 and 287–343; Reynold A. Nichol-
son’s Studies in Islamic Mysticism (Cambridge, 1921); and
William C. Chittick’s The Sufi Path of Love: The Spiritual
Teachings of Rumi (Albany, N.Y., 1983). One of the better
translations of the QurDa ̄n remains A. J. Arberry’s The Koran
Interpreted (London and New York, 1955). For an elucidat-
ing introduction to QurDanic thought, see Fazlur Rahman’s
Major Themes of the QurDa ̄n (Chicago, 1980).
Translations of traditional accounts of the Buddha’s enlighten-
ment, mostly from Pali sources, appear in E. J. Thomas’s The
Life of Buddha as Legend and History, 3d rev. ed. (London,
1949), pp. 38–96, esp. pp. 61–80, and in Edward Conze’s
Buddhist Scriptures (Harmondsworth, 1959), pp. 34–66,
which is a translation of A ́svaghos:a’s Sanskrit work,
Buddhaca ̄rita (Acts of the Buddha). For a traditional com-
mentary on the Noble Eightfold Path, see Buddhaghosa’s Vi-
suddimagga 16.77–83, translated by Bhikkhu Ñya ̄namoli as
The Path of Purification (Berkeley, Calif., 1976), vol. 2,
pp. 583–584. For commentaries on the First Sermon, see
Nalinaksha Dutt’s Aspects of Maha ̄ya ̄na Buddhism and Its Re-
lations to H ̄ınaya ̄na (London, 1930), pp. 129–202. An exam-
ple of Maha ̄ya ̄na Buddhist spiritual discipline can be found
in Marion L. Matics’s translation and study of S ́a ̄ntideva’s
Bodhicarya ̄vata ̄ra entitled Entering the Path of Enlightenment
(New York, 1970). Robert C. Lester discusses Therava ̄da
Buddhist ideals in Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia
(Ann Arbor, Mich., 1973).
The quotation from Vincent van Gogh comes from Dear Theo,
translated and edited by Irving Stone (New York, 1969),
p. 114; that from Paul Klee is taken from The Diaries of Paul
Klee, 1898–1918, edited by Felix Klee (Berkeley, Calif.,
1964), p. 386.
Selections of Japanese haiku poetry appearing above come from
D. T. Suzuki’s Zen and Japanese Culture, 2d ed. (Princeton,
1959), pp. 215–268. See also R. H. Blyth’s Haiku, 4 vols.
(Tokyo, 1949–1952).
On the American Indian practices centered on the vision quest,
see Ruth Benedict’s “The Vision in Plains Culture,” Ameri-
can Anthropologist 24 (1922): 1–23; Benedict’s The Concept
of the Guardian Spirit in North America (1923; Millwood,
N.Y., 1974; Ake Hultkrantz’s The Religions of the American
Indians (Los Angeles, 1979), pp. 66–83; and Sam D. Gill’s
Native American Religions: An Introduction (Belmont, Calif.,
1982). For personal accounts of the vision, see Gill’s Native
American Traditions: Sources and Interpretations (Belmont,
Calif., 1983). On patterns of initiation in North America,
see Edwin M. Loeb’s Tribal Initiations and Secret Societies
(Berkeley, Calif., 1929). The best general discussion of sha-
manism around the world remains Mircea Eliade’s Shaman-
ism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, rev. & enl. ed. (New York,
1964).
Translations of the Bar do’i thos grol into English may be found
in W. Y. Evans Wentz’s The Tibetan Book of the Dead, 2d
ed. (London, 1949), and in Francesca Fremantle and
Chögyam Trungpa’s The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The
Great Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo (Berkeley,
Calif., 1975). The notion of dao in China is discussed by Ar-
thur Waley in The Way and Its Power (New York, 1958).
Rodney L. Taylor offers a concise discussion of Neo-
Confucian sagehood in The Cultivation of Sagehood as a Reli-
gious Goal in Neo-Confucianism (Missoula, Mont., 1978).
The translation from Gao Pan Long’s Fu qi gui is taken from
Taylor’s work.
The only available complete English translation of the S ́atapatha
Bra ̄hman:a is by Julius Eggeling, The S ́atapatha Bra ̄hman:a,
5 vols., “Sacred Books of the East,” vols. 12, 26, 41, 43, 44
(Oxford, 1882–1900). The Aitareya Bra ̄hman:a has been
translated by Arthur Berriedale Keith in his Rigveda
Bra ̄hman:as: The Aitareya and Kausiktaki Bra ̄hman:as of the
Rigveda, “Harvard Oriental Series,” no. 25 (Cambridge,
Mass., 1920). The best English translations of the Upanis:ads
are Robert Ernest Hume’s The Thirteen Principal Upanis:ads,
2d ed. (London, 1931), and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan’s The
Principal Upanis:ads (London, 1953). There are many trans-
lations of the Bhagavadg ̄ıta ̄. One of the best remains Frank-
lin Edgerton’s Bhagavad Gita ̄ (Chicago, 1925), which in-
cludes helpful studies and a summary. Patañjali’s Yoga Su ̄traSPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE 8707