The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (2033 page)

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Authors: John Bowker

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Sabbatical Year
(Heb.,
shemittah
). The year in which, according to Jewish law, the land lies fallow. According to Exodus 23. 10–11 and Deuteronomy 15. 1–11 on the Sabbatical Year, all agricultural work must be suspended and all debts remitted. The seventh Sabbatical Year (or possibly the year after the close of seven Sabbatical cycles) was designated the
Jubilee
Year.
Sabbatthiv
dins
(school of early Buddhism):
abda
(Skt., ‘sound’). Indian, and especially Hindu, recognition that ‘sound’ has levels of meaning, and is not mere noise:
(i) 
spho
a
, arising from the eternal, unmoving principle with illuminating power (
akti
);
(ii) 
n
da
, perceptible only to a poet or
i
;
(iii) an
hata, potential (e.g. a thought) but not expressed;
(iv) 
hata, sound of all kinds, whether humans can hear it or not.
abda has power in its own right, not just in speech, especially in
mantras
or in bells and drums:
iva's
drum (
amaru
) manifests creation.
abda-brahman is the ultimacy of sound devoid of attributes, the realization of
Brahman
. Initially, this was equated with the
Vedas
, but in the
Upani
ads
it is Brahman.
For the particular Sikh understanding of
abda, see
ABAD

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