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One of the Kabbalah's chief texts is the Zohar (meaning ''Splendor"), which dates between the first and third century A.D. Considered the product of divine revelation, believers feel that the Zohar is a description of how a mortal can ascend to God as well as how God descends toward mortals. The Zohar contains numerological principles and describes a tree of life with 22 branches that are connected to 10 branching points, also called "spheres," which represent the godly qualities that one seeks to attain while in a physical form. Traditionally, only Jewish males over the age of 40 have studied the Kabbalah, but in recent years the information has become accessible to younger spiritual seekers, who have greeted it with enthusiasm. |
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The Eastern Tradition: Are You a Yogi or a Buddha? |
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The Babylonians weren't the only early culture to use body parts to predict the future. Ancient Chinese cultures began a body-reading practice that used bones (certainly animal and perhaps human under certain circumstances) instead of organs to get the inside scoop. They would carve questions to the gods in the bones. Then they heated the bones, which caused cracks to appear across the questions. The configuration of the cracks revealed the gods' answers, usually in the form of a "yes" or "no." |
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Another ancient form of divination, which has gained great popularity in the West recently, is the I Ching (a.k.a. Book of Changes). Dating back to about 2000 B.C., its predictions are based on 64 possible arrangements of six lines. This system probably originated from ancient diviners who dropped sticks and then gave a reading based on their positions when they landed. Today, special coins are available for that purpose. |
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Meanwhile, Siddhartha Gautama (a.k.a. Buddha) was born in India around 563 B.C. At his birth, someone predicted that if he ever encountered suffering, Siddhartha would renounce the comforts of the physical world. For this reason, his well-off father protected him from seeing any type of suffering. But when Siddhartha became an adult, the inevitable happened. Siddhartha discovered suffering, and off he went to find out what to do about it. |
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For years, Siddhartha studied under yogismen who practiced meditation and yoga as the main means to spiritual growth. Although these teachers were India's main source for spiritual gurus, Siddhartha eventually developed his own path to enlightenment. What he realized was that suffering is caused by desire, and that enlightenment comes through freedom from desire. The religion he developed, called Buddhism, spread from India to China around A.D. 100. |
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