What is Dharma?
10,000 Dharmas
The terms „Dharma” and „Budda-Dharma” will appear often on this website. Therefore, I will define what I mean when I speak of Dharma or Buddha-Dharma. This post gives an overview of how I understand the historical development of the terms.
Dharma is an idea of Indian religions and philosophies. Through thousands of years of evolution, the term has many meanings and cannot be translated uniformly. Dharma roughly refers to the laws and order of the world in the physical and social spheres; in everything that is perceptible and in everything that is imperceptible.
As Concept Dharma„ appears in the more than 3000-year-old oral traditions of the Vedas in India, as the word Rta (Rita). Rta is the physical order of the universe, the order of the sacrificial rites and the moral law of the world. Because of Rta, according to the Vedas, the sun and moon follow their daily journeys across the sky, and the seasons are in regular motion; Rta makes the grass grow and the clouds rain - and people act.
When Buddhism and Hinduism developed under the influence of the ancient Vedic religion, the concept of the Rta to the teachings of Dharma and Karma (the effect of actions and intentions).
Linguistic is derived from the term Dharma from the Sanskrit root dhṛ and literally means ‚to carry‘, ‚to support‘ or ‚to preserve‘. In terms of content, however, dharma also refers to the ancient Vedic idea of ṛta the cosmic order that permeates and sustains all existence.
The antonym for dharma is adharma and means that which is „not dharma“. As with dharma, the word adharma contains and implies many ideas; in common parlance, adharma means that which is against nature, immoral, unethical, wrong or unlawful.
Dharma in Hinduism
In Hinduism, dharma is the religious and moral law that governs individual behavior. In addition to the dharma that applies to everyone (sadharana dharma) - consisting of truthfulness, non-injury and generosity - there is also a specific dharma (svadharma) that must be followed depending on class, status and station in life. Dharma is the subject of the Dharma Sutras, religious manuals, which are the earliest source of Hindu law. In the course of time, they became long compilations of laws, the Dharma Sastra, extended.
Dharma in Buddhism
The term dharma is used differently depending on the point of view:
1. Dharma in the narrower senseIn Buddhism, Dharma is the teaching proclaimed by the Buddha - and some later patriarchs. Dharma, Buddha and Sangha (community) form the Triratna („The Three Jewels“), where Buddhists seek refuge.
2. Dharma in the broader senseIn Buddhist metaphysics, the term is used in the plural (dharmas) to describe the totality of all elements and phenomena that make up the world. A dharma is a basic component of the world (Dharma is everything that is the case - and also everything that is not the case).
To the article „Was ist Dharma im Buddhismus“ >
Dharma in Jainism
In Jain philosophy (Jainism), apart from being commonly understood as a moral virtue, dharma also has the meaning - unique to Jainism - of an eternal „substance“ („dravya“: earth, water, fire, air, ether, time, space, soul and spirit), the medium that allows beings to move.
Dharma in Sikhism
For Sikhs (Sikhism), the word „dharma“ means the „path of righteousness“.
What is the „righteous path“? This is the question that the Sikh scriptures attempt to answer. The most important holy scriptures of the Sikhs are called Guru Granth Sahib or SGGS. It is considered more than a holy book of the Sikhs. The Sikhs treat this Granth (holy book) as a living guru.
The sacred text is 1430 pages long and contains the actual words of the Sikh Gurus and various other saints from other religions, including Hinduism and Islam.
Dharma in Indian legislation and law
The term dharma in Hindu law refers to the historical code of law that was applied to Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs in British India. Hindu law also refers to the legal theory, jurisprudence and philosophical reflections on the nature of law discovered in ancient and medieval Indian texts. It is one of the oldest known theories of jurisprudence in the world.
Old law books are the Dharmashastras by various „legislators“. They set out precise rules for all stages of life, all castes and for men and women.
However, Hindus do not claim to fulfill the ancient laws. Although many Hindus today still look for guidelines in them and quote them, no one today would understand these scriptures as generally valid instructions.
Resources
Timeline of the Dharma religions
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Sources and references
Sources and further references (Link opens a new browser window)
