Sacred–profane dichotomy

The dichotomy between the sacred and the profane has been identified by French sociologist Emile Durkheim as the central characteristic of religion: "religion is a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden. In Durkheim's theory, the sacred represented the interests of the group, especially unity, which were embodied in sacred group symbols, totems. The profane, on the other hand, involved mundane individual concerns. Durkheim explicitly stated that the dichotomy sacred/profane was not equivalent to good/evil: the sacred could be good or evil, and the profane could be either as well.

Durkheim's claim of the universality of this dichotomy for all religions/cults has been criticized by scholars like British anthropologist Jack Goody. Goody also noted that "many societies have no words that translate as sacred or profane and that ultimately, just like the distinction between natural and supernatural, it was very much a product of European religious thought rather than a universally applicable criterion."

Some Eastern religions like Buddhism disapprove of cultivating dualism, even between the sacred and the profane. A disciple is first asked to cultivate "a good mind". In the intermediate stage, the disciple is asked to "break through the good mind" (i.e, stop distinguishing between the sacred and the profane). In the final stage of learning, the monk lets go of all conceptualizations of good and bad or sacred and profane. This is called the final good. However, Zen Master Pai Chang states that if a master teaches only one of these three stages to the people, he will cause them to go to hell and if all the three stages are taught at once, people will go to hell on their own. The work of a true master, then, is to teach the three stages with caution.

Further readings bibliography

 * Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World [1941]. Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
 * C. Renate Barber Sacred and Profane: Some Thoughts on the Folk-Urban Continuum of This Dichotomy Man, Vol. 65, Mar. - Apr., 1965 (Mar. - Apr., 1965), pp. 45-46 doi:10.2307/2797525
 * S. S. Acquaviva, Patricia Lipscomb The Decline of the Sacred in Industrial Society. review: