God
There is only one God
God is without form, or gender
Everyone has direct access to God
Everyone is equal before God
A good life is lived as part of a community, by living honestly and caring for others
Empty religious rituals and superstitions have no value
Living in God and community
Sikhs focus their lives around their relationship with God, and being a part of the Sikh community. The Sikh ideal combines action and belief. To live a good life a person should do good deeds as well as meditating on God.
A man and woman praying in white garments at sunrise
God and the cycle of life
Sikhs believe that human beings spend their time in a cycle of birth, life, and rebirth. They share this belief with followers of other Indian religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
The quality of each particular life depends on the law of Karma. Karma sets the quality of a life according to how well or badly a person behaved in their previous life. The only way out of this cycle, which all faiths regard as painful, is to achieve a total knowledge of and union with God.
The God of grace
Sikh spirituality is centred round this need to understand and experience God, and eventually become one with God.
To do this a person must switch the focus of their attention from themselves to God. They get this state, which is called mukti (liberation), through the grace of God. That means it's something God does to human beings, and not something that human beings can earn. However, God shows people through holy books, and by the examples of saints, the best ways to get close to him.
Truth is the highest of all virtues, but higher still is truthful living.
Sikhs believe that God can't be understood properly by human beings, but he can be experienced through love, worship, and contemplation.
Sikhs look for God both inside themselves and in the world around them. They do this to help themselves achieve liberation and union with God....