If people don't care about Awakening why are Buddha, Krishna, and Christ popular?

[Davino]

I was thinking what are the most famous individuals on planet earth's history? I was surprised to see the obvious fact that nobody remembers the great kings, celebrities or even geniuses quite much.

How much time do you spend thinking about Julius Caesar Augustus, Abraham Lincoln, Leonardo da Vinci or Euler?

Not very much and most people don't care either.

Yet, what about those beings that wanted to Awaken, become more conscious, unite with God and find Truth? We see that they are still very relevant in the lifes of millions of people around the world.

Individuals like Christ, Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Abraham, Mahavira or Adi Shankara are the most popular, even shaping the worldview of almost all Humanity, quite literally.

Which then resulted in a gross contradiction in my understanding of humanity. If I see that humans don't really care about Awakening or God, why then those who have attained Great Awakening and God-Union are the most worshiped, glorified and remembered?

I'm quite uncertain and ask for your understanding on the question.

As a preliminary answer, it seems that despite the human ego and layers of delusion, there is a calling in each finite figment of Reality to reunite and realize its always already True Infinite nature.

[Salvijus]

1 hour ago, Davino said:

As a preliminary answer, it seems that despite the human ego and layers of delusion, there is a calling in each finite figment of Reality to reunite and realize its always already True Infinite nature.

Bingo. Because there's no one who doesn't want to be happy. And God is the only true fulfillment. Everyone is looking for God conciously or unconsciously. 

Edited 23 hours ago by Salvijus

[AION]

Who says people are not interested in awakening? I think all people want it but they are worshiping false gods like physical beauty, status, wealth, sex, psychedelics, food, other addictions/distractions.

[Hojo]

I'm going to say for consecration. This place is like dark souls. Humans made up holy men so they could us them as symbols for holiness and consecrate their homes to keep demons out. Consecrated spaces make you feel a certain way over being in a serial killers dungeon. This feeling of peace will allow you to transend. The world was very dangerous and literally would feel like a dark souls game.

If Christians found out that Jesus wasn't a perfect being and a normal person that did drugs they would lose their holy consecration device and they will see they are in a dark realm. Thats why they fight so hard against identity attacks against Jesus, he is just a  consecration tool to them that they use to feel the light of God.

Without Jesus they can't accept that God will accept them and they reveal the fear of self hatred. Without these perfect personifications of good feelings Christians have been taught they are in hell.

Edited 22 hours ago by Hojo

[Davino]

From your answers, I found another way to frame it:

At the core of every person lies an existential emptiness that only Awakening can satisfy. While people seek various means to fill this void, it's essential to recognize that not all that shines is Gold and even in Gold there are different karats, aka levels of Spirituality, Awakening and God-Realization.

[Leo Gura]

You're asking why religion is popular.

Because it takes the highest truth and perverts it into a cartoon fantasy for ignorant people to follow without actually doing the work.

Every ego wants to think that whatever fantasy it believes and follows is absolute truth.

It's like asking why is pizza and porn popular? Because it feeds the ego's deepest cravings.

In the case of religion, it feeds the ego's need to know and to be certain of itself.

Ego loves to worship God, but only on its own terms. Rats want to worship rat-God. Rabbits want to worship rabbit-God. Humans want to worship human-God.

Also, who do end up realizing God tend to be pretty exceptional people with what seem like magic powers. So it's like watching Tiger Woods play golf. It can look like magic which you cannot do yourself.

Edited 21 hours ago by Leo Gura

[LambdaDelta]

Because their 'aura' is so intense it penetrates through the fat devil that everyone is straight to the God within, making a temporary divine connection, which is transformative, even if you later slip back into ego dynamics. Leo says about the same thing in What is Integrity. 

The geniuses and rulers invent and enable material prosperity, which's great, but not what people truly want, so it ends up being taken for granted. Also they build on top of one another, while awakening only requires one's own mind. 

It's not that people don't care about awakening and God per se, it just seems so outlandish, difficult, and scary, that most take the more 'reasonable/grounded' path of attaining happiness through material pursuits, which counter-intuitively gets them nowhere. To care about Truth requires a certain degree of innate intuition, wisdom, and also faith. Or a radical experience that transforms you and sets you on the path. 

[PurpleTree]

I think because they don’t really think awakening is even possible.

I didn’t think liberation was possible until maybe one and a half years ago.

And i knew about Eckhart Tolle etc. for about 10 years.

[Davino]

14 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

You're asking why religion is popular.

Yes, in a way. Although I would frame it as: why is the religious sentiment popular across all cultures and times? Why are the maximum exponents of Religion so looked up, much more than the rest of human activitites like power, sex, science or art?

Maybe because the calling is much deeper than what other disciplines can give. That makes the delusion, fascination or engrossment more intense as well.

18 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Because it takes the highest truth and perverts it into a cartoon fantasy for ignorant people to follow without actually doing the work.

However, in a world of ilusions could it be that the pervesion of Truth made by the religious tradition over centuries, still carries a fragance of God that resonates with people?

Otherwise, I can't see why it should play such an asymmetric influence in contrast with other systems.

24 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

It's like asking why is pizza and porn popular? Because it feeds the ego's deepest cravings.

In the case of religion, it feeds the ego's need to know and to be certain of itself.

I see

 

It wants all the goodies without doing the work and still that diluted version satisfies more than most other things, which makes them so attached and defensive about their religion.

26 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Ego loves to worship God, but only on its own terms. Rats want to worship rat-God. Rabbits want to worship rabbit-God. Humans want to worship human-God.

Interesting to note that this happens even within each religion, there are lower branches and higher branches.

To put a few examples inside each religion (low vs high):

Judaism: Halacha - Kabbalah

Christianity: Contemplative and Hesychasm - Mormonism

Islam: Wahhabi - Sufism

Hinduism: Ritualism - Kashmir Shaivism

36 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Also, who do end up realizing God tend to be pretty exceptional people with what seem like magic powers. So it's like watching Tiger Woods play golf. It can look like magic which you cannot do yourself.

Maybe part of the fascination comes from there as well. There is usually a lack of useful methodology in most religions to attain the states their founders Awoke to.

[Leo Gura]

27 minutes ago, Davino said:

Maybe because the calling is much deeper than what other disciplines can give. That makes the delusion, fascination or engrossment more intense as well.

Because in the end God is the highest pursuit and purpose. Nothing else really matters. You can't compare God with shooting golf balls or making money. The promise of God is very enticing beyond material rewards.

When all these religions were founded humans were much less materialistic, capitalistic, pop-cultural. There was little to do other than God, family, and farming.

Edited 20 hours ago by Leo Gura

[Nemra]

Simply because it's drilled into the children's heads from the start.

Imagine no one ever talking about those religious figures to kids or even enrolling kids into some religion.

Also, when religious people talk about God or whatever else, they are not pointing to some direct experience that you could have by doing meditation.

[Daniel Balan]

7 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Because in the end God is the highest pursuit and purpose. Nothing else really matters. You can't compare God with shooting golf balls or making money. The promise of God is very enticing beyond material rewards.

When all these religions were founded humans were much less materialistic, capitalistic, pop-cultural. There was little to do other than God, family, and farming.

But why does one need to pursue God? I feel like pursuing God is no different that trying to pursue your foot! It is already there right under your nose. Isn't God everything ? isn't me messaging you on this forum also God? Isn't my laptop and my fingers typing these words God? I feel like the pursuit of God is redundant. Echart Tolle said it best. God is the now! And you can't find the needle in the haystack because you are both the needle and the haystack. Everything you need to do to experience God is to realize that reality is a Big Picture and you are one with it. You trying to find particularities within the picture is redundant due to the fact that even the particularity you find, it is still encompassed within the big picture which is reality. 

[Nemra]

11 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Because in the end God is the highest pursuit and purpose. Nothing else really matters. You can't compare God with shooting golf balls or making money. The promise of God is very enticing beyond material rewards.

@Leo Gura, why did you pursue truth before God?

There has to be something accessable to the person in the beginning.

[Sandhu]

41 minutes ago, Nemra said:

@Leo Gura, why did you pursue truth before God?

There has to be something accessable to the person in the beginning.

Truth and God are same

[Leo Gura]

1 hour ago, Daniel Balan said:

But why does one need to pursue God? I feel like pursuing God is no different that trying to pursue your foot! It is already there right under your nose. Isn't God everything ? isn't me messaging you on this forum also God? Isn't my laptop and my fingers typing these words God?

Because you are God but you have no idea yet what that means.

You haven't found God. You just have stories.

It's the difference between reading about billionaires and being a billionaire.

1 hour ago, Nemra said:

@Leo Gura, why did you pursue truth before God?

There has to be something accessable to the person in the beginning.

Because truth is the only thing that matters.

It just so happens that truth is God. But if truth were Satan, then Satan would be the only thing worth knowing.

Edited 19 hours ago by Leo Gura

[James123]

23 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

Because you are God but you have no idea yet what that means.

You haven't found God. You just have stories.

It's the difference between reading about billionaires and being a billionaire.

Because truth is the only thing that matters.

It just so happens that truth is God. But if truth were Satan, then Satan would be thing only thing worth knowing.

God is Silence. And lies within the Silence.

Edited 19 hours ago by James123

[Sugarcoat]

Everyone has a sense of mysticism about life. And many ascribe that to a god. And to imagine god as being this separate entity you worship suits the human mind that experiences itself as separate

[Aaron p]

When people don't want to face annihilation themselves they just slap a poster of Jesus or buddha up on their wall and think "Ahh I'm spiritual" 

It's a survival mechanism 

[Nemra]

43 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

It just so happens that truth is God. But if truth were Satan, then Satan would be thing only thing worth knowing.

@Leo Gura, a while ago you shared a quote about ditching God for truth. I absolutely loved it.

I prefer knowing the truth million times more than any story about God.

However, I would not pretend to know God just by listening to you, even though your descriptions of God are quite beautiful and make sense than anything I have heard of.

I have been waiting 5 years to actually experience what you have been talking about. I'm excited and can't wait to try psychedelics in about 3 weeks. Let's see what happens. Maybe Satan is the truth. Haha.

Edited 19 hours ago by Nemra

[gengar]

2 hours ago, Davino said:

Yes, in a way. Although I would frame it as: why is the religious sentiment popular across all cultures and times? Why are the maximum exponents of Religion so looked up, much more than the rest of human activitites like power, sex, science or art?

Maybe because the calling is much deeper than what other disciplines can give. That makes the delusion, fascination or engrossment more intense as well.

However, in a world of ilusions could it be that the pervesion of Truth made by the religious tradition over centuries, still carries a fragance of God that resonates with people?

Otherwise, I can't see why it should play such an asymmetric influence in contrast with other systems.

I see

 

It wants all the goodies without doing the work and still that diluted version satisfies more than most other things, which makes them so attached and defensive about their religion.

Interesting to note that this happens even within each religion, there are lower branches and higher branches.

To put a few examples inside each religion (low vs high):

Judaism: Halacha - Kabbalah

Christianity: Contemplative and Hesychasm - Mormonism

Islam: Wahhabi - Sufism

Hinduism: Ritualism - Kashmir Shaivism

Maybe part of the fascination comes from there as well. There is usually a lack of useful methodology in most religions to attain the states their founders Awoke to.

Sufism, although being less dogmatic on theology, has an extreme hierarchical system of master-students just like Hindu guru systems. Because of their lenient theology they also are filled with conspiracy bullshit and the like. They are more moral and spiritual than Wahhabis but still incredibly deluded.

In an ironic sense Wahhabis actually have a strict aversion to any superstition aside from the Quran and Hadith, and revert to strict materialism, scientism and naive realism outside of them. It's like they pick one fairytale and moral system and that's it. They also don't really have the hierarchical Guru system. 

However Sufis are of course very different from each other unlike Wahhabis. There are many different Sufi strands, some with less bs than others. But the majority of Sufi followers are like the new-age of Islam with their fantasies.

Edited 18 hours ago by gengar