The purpose of this article is to consider Aum Smnrikyd as a religion, and to clarify the defining characteristics of its universe of belief. Asahara Shoko was a member of Agonshu, one of the New New Religions, and spent several years diligently practicing that faith before founding his own religious group in 1984. He emphasized intense ascetic practices for the acmevement of sfedatsu (emancipation) and the teachino- of a world- renouncing enlightenment. The tendency towards an introspective faith, seen broadly in the New New Religions, is especially striking in Aum Smnrikyd. The group fell into conflict with the surrounding society because of its push to rapidly increase the number of its world-renouncing members, adopting a style of proselytization common to previous New Religions aimed at mass mobilization. Rather than trying to resolve the tensions peacefully, Aum adopted an aggressive position, and especially after 1989 its isolation deepened and headed towards violent introversion. Although its destructive violent nature only became evident in 1994，the roots of that violence were already present from the group’s beginning. Elements that invite an eruption of violence, such as a conception of the human person as a mass of data that can be manipulated, a distorted understanding of Buddhism as justijying violence as a means and per ceiving reality as an illusion, and an intense leader worship, were all pre sent in Aum，s universe of belief.
