Traditions

Traditions are living conversations, not single answers. Enter each one through its own history, texts, practices, and internal differences, then follow the places where its questions meet others.

• Advaita Vedantaclassical systematization often associated with Shankara (c. 8th century CE); roots earlierThe line between “me” and everything else can feel like the most basic fact of experience. Advaita Vedanta, an influential school of Hindu p…
• Analytical psychologyearly to mid 20th century origins; continuing schoolsWhat if the familiar “I” is only one part of the mind? Analytical psychology, founded by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung in the early twent…
• Bahá'í Faithfrom the mid-nineteenth centuryThe Bahá'í Faith began in nineteenth-century Iran with a vision of religion still unfolding. Emerging from the Bábí movement and the writing…
• Buddhismfrom c. 5th–4th century BCE onwardBuddhism begins with a practical human problem: suffering arises, and the conditions that sustain it can be understood. The traditions gathe…
• Christianityfrom the first century CEChristianity grew from communities gathered around the life, death, and remembered teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, a first-century Jewish te…
• EssenesSecond Temple period (centuries around the turn of the era)The Essenes were one Jewish response to a difficult question in the Second Temple period: how can a community live faithfully when the wider…
• Hinduismroots in ancient South Asia; living traditions worldwideHinduism is lived in temples and homes, carried in ritual and devotion, told through epics, and examined in schools of philosophy. These tra…
• Islamfrom the seventh century CEIslam begins with a life turned toward the one God. Its name is often translated from Arabic as “surrender” or “submission”: the willing ali…
• Judaismancient Israelite roots; living traditions worldwideJudaism is the living religious tradition of the Jewish people, rooted in ancient Israel and carried through scripture, prayer, study, law, …
• Kabbalahmedieval flourishing; roots earlier; living schools todayHow can the God who exceeds every name become present in a world of names and forms? Kabbalah is a family of Jewish mystical traditions that…
• New Thought19th–20th century onwardNew Thought took shape in nineteenth- and twentieth-century North America around a striking conviction: mind, imagination, and belief help f…
• Stoicismfrom c. 3rd century BCE; influential through Roman era and later revivalsA plan fails, a reputation changes, illness arrives, or another person refuses to act as we hoped. Stoicism begins inside pressures like the…
• SufismWithin Islam, Sufism names paths of inward devotion shaped by the desire to draw near to God. Its schools, poets, teacheWithin Islam, Sufism names paths of inward devotion shaped by the desire to draw near to God. Its schools, poets, teachers, and communities …
• Taoismfrom classical Chinese antiquity onwardWhat might change if life were met with less strain and more attention to the way things move? Taoism is a diverse family of Chinese traditi…
• Zoroastrianismancient Iranian origins; living communities todayWhat would it mean to take the side of truth with an entire life? Zoroastrianism answers through asha: the truth, rightness, and order assoc…