RELIGION TERMS
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Fast (Islam etc.)
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Going without food and/ or drink or certain foods, such as fish or meat, as a religious observance. Christians have Lent. Muslims observe sunrise to sunset complete fasts in Ramadan.
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Festival (Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity)
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An enjoyable, often annual, celebration.
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Fitrah (Islam)
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Man's original nature and in things.
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Font (Christianity)
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A perhaps fixed bowl for water used in the rite of baptism.
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Fordmaker (Jainism)
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Any one of 24 omniscient teachers known as tirthankara. Mahavira was the last of the fordmakers who followed Parshva, both of whom are historical figures with highly mythic content. The fordmakers established Jainism according to Shvetambara scriptures and Digambaras which lead to the Universal History. Jainism is a little like Buddhism but ascetic and has a divine element but no superior God. Mahavira was possibly born from after 600 BCE and died between 527 and 510 BCE depending on source. He was a contemporary of the Buddha. He was born of a transference of embryos between two women, his real mother Devananda being not the one who gave birth, Trishala. He was a wandering ascetic, treated violently by people and animal life, walked naked, rarely washed (so killed nothing), lacked sleep, shelter and contact to gain inner control and freedom. The Universal History says he was attacked by deities and serpents too. Thirteen years after taking renunciation gained kevala, or supreme and unique knowledge, in a field belonging to a farmer called Samaga, squatting on his haunches in fierce sun deprived of water for two and a half days. He then went on to create a community by preaching, one which is vegetarian and non-violent (a reversal of the Vedas' sacrifices into people and animals coming together to hear non-violence). Every Jain temple recreates the samavasarana or place of assembly, a general term for every fordmaker's first sermon as arranged by the gods. This is to repeat the sacred space and what is in the true teachings. Jainism influenced Gandhi. Incidentally, before Mahavira's enlightenment Makkhali Gossala became a fellow ascetic and pupil for six years. They split and according to myth Makkhali Gossala had to admit the other was superior spiritually and died. Parshva is probably the more popular fordmaker with more devotional focus towards him, but stands in relationship with Mahavira, the Parshva being cosmological and the Mahavira more rigorous. Parshva removes obstacles and can save..
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Free church (Christianity)
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Old Dissent (Presbyterian, Congregationalist, baptist) or New Dissent (Methodist and others) Church (in Britain) that formed separately from the Anglican Church.
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