faiththirsty. These forms of self-mortification are believed to make a suppli-
cant weak and pitiable before the spirits, who are overcome by pity and
grant visions. An Indian might have a vision of terrible Thunder beings,
animals, an old man, or the sun. Any of these figures communicate impor-
tant messages that are revealing and useful to the person eager for them.
Religious experiences in other traditions are somewhat more abstract,
such as the Buddhist notion of nirvāÏa, which metaphorically means the
blowing out of a flame. The experience or attainment of nirvāÏa repre-
sents the end of suffering, desire, causation, and rebirth. The early
Buddhist tradition distinguishes two kinds of nirvāÏa: with a basis
remaining and without a basis remaining. The former refers to an embod-
ied experience and the latter represents final nirvāÏa, which represents a
complete cessation of the psycho-physical aspects of a person, whereas
the embodied experience includes the cessation of defiled outflows. The
experience is described positively as equanimity and blissful.
The highest experience in Hindu, Advaita Vedānta, is expressed as the
realization of being, pure consciousness, and bliss. For the tantric thinker
Abhinavagupta, there are several levels of bliss. Different devotional tra-
ditions in India describe love of God as a blissful experience. Within
Krishna devotion, the bliss of love is also associated with passion and
eroticism that overwhelms a devotee.
Further reading: Katz (1983); Olson (2005, 2007); Otto (1928); Powers (1982);
Proudfoot (1985); Taves (2009)FAITH
A concept that reflects a personal act of adherence associated with an
inclination, commitment, and acceptance of claims made by a religion.
In some contexts, it is to believe in God, an unperceived being of imag-
ined great power. Faith has been defined differently by thinkers even
within the same religious tradition, and it plays a central role in the path
of salvation in many religions from a cross-cultural perspective.
In the early Christian tradition, the apostle Paul urges his listeners to
walk in the path of faith (2 Cor. 5.7). Not only did Paul include faith
among the primary Christian virtues along with hope and love (1 Cor.
13.13), he also preached about justification by faith alone, by which he
implies that faith is a gift of grace from God. Moreover, it becomes the
foundation of Christian belief. The Protestant reformer Martin Luther
(1483–1546) argues against stressing good works that can be used to