Hindu, Buddhist, Daoist and Sikh traditions have shaped religious thought through texts, teachers, institutions and practices. The geographical label “Eastern religions” groups together communities with different histories and ideas. To understand their influence, ask what a particular teaching meant in its setting and how it reached a new audience.
A text translated into another language, a public address and a place of worship established by migrants are three different ways religious ideas travel. Each gives readers a way to trace an exchange in concrete terms.
Hindu traditions: duty in the Bhagavad Gita and a speech in Chicago
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna addresses Arjuna as he faces a battle and struggles with his responsibilities. Verse 3.35 places particular weight on carrying out one’s own duty, even imperfectly. The Sanskrit word dharma has a range of meanings. In this passage it concerns the obligations appropriate to a person’s situation. Arjuna’s dilemma gives the teaching its setting and invites readers to consider why a duty could matter even when carrying it out is difficult. Bhagavad Gita 3.35.
Religious teachers can give audiences a new point of entry into a tradition. Swami Vivekananda spoke at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago on September 11, 1893. In his opening address he emphasized tolerance and acceptance across religions. He was speaking to a gathering whose format invited participants to describe their traditions to people from other backgrounds. His address records how a Hindu teacher chose to present his religious commitments in that setting. Vivekananda’s opening address, 1893.
The Gita’s dialogue and the Chicago speech answer different questions. One develops a teaching about action through a conversation between Krishna and Arjuna. The other expresses the speaker’s approach to religious encounter. Reading each in context gives a more precise account of Hindu thought and its public presentation.
Buddhism: intention, change and transmission
In a discourse preserved in the Pali Canon, the Buddha identifies intention with kamma, the Pali form of karma, and connects it to action through body, speech and mind. The emphasis gives ethical weight to the reasons for an action. Two outwardly similar acts can involve different intentions, such as a gift meant to help someone and a gift meant to make the recipient feel indebted. Access to Insight, excerpt from AN 6.63.
Another discourse, SN 22.59, examines experiences such as feeling, perception and consciousness in its analysis of what is called self. Its questions about change and attachment show why the relation between action, continuity and liberation needs careful explanation in Buddhist terms. The idea that the same unchanging soul passes from body to body gives a poor account of this teaching. SN 22.59, Discourse to the Five Brethren.
As Buddhist teachings reached new communities, translation and institutions gave them new forms. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes Buddhist centers in China with foreign monks working as teachers and translators by the second century CE. It also discusses the later development of Pure Land and Chan traditions. This history connects movement across regions with the work of explaining texts and sustaining communities in another language. The Met, Chinese Buddhist Sculpture.
Daoism: the language of action and the life of ritual
The Daodejing and Zhuangzi are important texts in the history of Daoism. Chapter 48 of the Daodejing considers what happens when a person following the Dao reduces deliberate intervention. In James Legge’s English version, the passage moves from diminishing one’s doing to non-action and applies the idea to governing. It raises a question about the value of restraint when a person seeks to direct events. Daodejing 48, translated by James Legge.
Translation offers one path into Daoist thought. Ritual objects give another. The Metropolitan Museum of Art describes a robe probably used by a Daoist dignitary in ritual, with sun and moon emblems and figures including cranes and dragons. The garment shows how symbols could belong to the work of a ritual specialist. Daoist traditions include texts, institutions and practices whose meanings become clearer when considered together. The Met, Daoism and Daoist Art.
Sikhi: scripture, worship and a place to gather
The Sikh tradition took shape in Punjab with Guru Nanak and the line of Sikh Gurus who followed him. The Guru Granth Sahib holds central authority. The Sikh Coalition describes its compositions being read and sung in the gurdwara, the Sikh place of worship. It also describes langar, a communal meal prepared and served by volunteers, as a practice of hospitality and equality. Sikh Coalition, History. Sikh Coalition, Sikh House of Worship.
In California, the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society was formed in 1912. An educational account published by the Sikh Coalition describes how the Stockton gurdwara served as a place for worship, meetings and exchanging information about work. In this case, migration created a setting in which a religious institution helped people sustain their practices and organize aspects of community life. Sikh Coalition, Stockton and Sikh immigration.
Conclusion
The influence of these traditions becomes visible through particular acts of transmission. Vivekananda addressed an interreligious audience. Buddhist teachers and translators helped establish teaching in China. An English translation gives readers access to a Daoist argument about action. A gurdwara gave Sikh migrants a place to gather and carry on their practices. Studying what moved, who carried it and how it was received gives a concrete account of religious influence and preserves the differences between the traditions.
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