Vision in Religion
This differs from other religious practices, such as Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Some other religions even view the use of idols/images as a sin, because they view it as worshipping a created item instead of the creator itself.
Greek philosophy views sensory perception alone as shallow and holds the perspective that things are seen with the mind alone which reminds me of the mind/body problem. The perspective of the Greek philosophers would be described as idealism- only the mental world exists and that is the mode of connecting with deities.
Eck goes on to explain that the use of idols is a sensory experience and the way they see these images has changed over time. She says something along the lines of "no idol worshipper thinks they're only worshipping stones, but instead what they represent" therefore seeing beyond the physical and accessing that mental world. This sounds, to me, like the concept of dualism- using both the mental and physical world in the experience.
There might be more similarities between Hindu ideas of darsan and Roman Catholic and especially Eastern Orthodox use of images, especially in comparison to Protestant Christianities, which can be anti-iconic. I'm thinking especially of the role statues, reliefs, and stained glass windows play in medieval Roman catholic cathedrals, and icons (2-dimensional images) in Eastern Orthodox traditions. Indeed, even in the ritual of communion, where the main connection with God is through eating and drinking, the medieval church emphasized the the raising ("elevation") of the bread and wine to be seen by the worshippers.
ReplyDeleteJust like the raising of the bread even in the bible sight is important. Because paul one of the apostles lost his sight for three days and got it back. It also talks about how you see people actions and know whether they are good or bad.
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