Why do the Eastern religions seem to be closer to the Truth than the Abrahamic?

[Leo Gura]

1 minute ago, Elham said:

Maybe, but they have twisted it so much. I mean for example they have made concepts of heaven and hell with so much detail !

Consciousness can create heaven and hell experiences.

[Adamq8]

I think it is funny that people clearly have no clue about the rich spiritual traditions these Western religions have, why do you even have to bring some eastern religion into it if you are from the West?

The Western tradition's got all the teachings you need, in a language that is more accessible imo.

Christianity has an really profound mystical tradition,  especially the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Here are just a handful of profound teachers:

Pseudo-dionysius the areopagite. 

St John of the cross.

Meister Eckhart.

Gregory of Nyssa.

Origen.

The Desert Fathers.

Augustine Of Hippo.

Maximus The Confessor.

Johannes Scotus Eriugena

St. Teresa of Avila.

Thomas Keating, a modern mystic.

And ofcourse the original mystic , Jesus.

This is just an example, there is plenty more.

One does not have to go running to the East to find some good spiritual tradition, that is purely a bias because you perhaps dont like how some Christians are behaving etc.

But if you truly look into the Tradition you will see that it got everything you need to in order to live a spiritual life.

Trust me, i've been into the eastern teachings as well, and when I discovered the Western counterpart, it hooked me in.

Not as an ideology , but as an actual practice.

But everybody likes different ofcourse, but I feel that we in the West have somehow pissed on our local religions in hope that the eastern is better, which I say is a mistake imo.

We should cherish our religions and also sort of the bad stuff and look at how rich the spiritual tradition in for example Christianity really is.

That's just my two cents tho ?

Also Leo is more Western in his approach to GOD then perhaps he care to admit ?

God is ineffable but also a divine infinite mind, that is what Christianity has been saying all along, the Logos.

The uncaused cause, infinite love, infinite goodness, infinite power, infinite intelligence, infinite wisdom etc.

"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God " 

 

[Shin]

8 minutes ago, Knowledge Hoarder said:

I'd like to know how Jesus was really like, what he really believed in back in the day. Bet he'd be dissapointed if he saw what route Christianity took.

I'd wish to travel 1000 years in the future and see what Leonism is like at that time.

That'd be so funny ???

[Tyler Durden]

@Adamq8 Interesting perspective. I was raised as Christian but since my awakening I looked in Eastern religions for explanations I needed because I thought that mainstream Christianity didn't have much to offer in that regards. Thank you for your eye opening post. I'll definitely check out all those mystics and see what can I learn from them.

[silene]

1 hour ago, Tyler Durden said:

@Adamq8 Interesting perspective. I was raised as Christian but since my awakening I looked in Eastern religions for explanations I needed because I thought that mainstream Christianity didn't have much to offer in that regards. Thank you for your eye opening post. I'll definitely check out all those mystics and see what can I learn from them.

Mysticism is more explicit in eastern religions imo. Although my impression is that actual mystical practitioners are still rare over there, most people follow the rituals, believe in the Gods or Bodhisattvas etc and just want a regular life with money and family. Enlightenment is way off in the future after many reincarnations.

But the far east was more tolerant of spiritual diversity, so mystics didn't need to hide away like they did in the west and middle east. Even now, nonduality and mysticism in monotheism is hidden in plain sight, and not really taught in mainstream seminaries. It would be too much of a shock to the churches to admit we're all prophets, christs, the kingdom of heaven is right here and now. 

Edited December 9, 2021 by silene

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, Adamq8 said:

The Western tradition's got all the teachings you need

Of course it does. But it's all been horribly corrupted and sidelined for mainstream trash religion.

It's like diving for pearls in a sea of liquid shit. This is Jordan Peterson's career in a nutshell, and he will drown in it before he realizes God

[Rilles]

Christianity was very mainstream and used to create the society we live in today during the Viking Ages. It softened the warring tribes of Europe under an authority like God and the king. So it was more of a moral system rather than real spirituality, sure you might have had some mystics but those mystics were frowned upon as heathens and dangerous. In the East I think religion was more of a hidden away thing were you could go away into a Buddhist monastery if you felt like letting go of life. The teachings most likely stayed inside those monasteries and hence werent messed with that much and stayed fairly pure to the original intent of spirituality. Alot of Buddhism even require initiation rites and was hard to get into while Christianity was forced upon everyone. 

Just an idea, I have no fucking clue really.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Rilles

[Salvijus]

My theory would be that eastern civilizations are much older and thus far more evolved. For example spirituality and yoga and enlightened beings existed like 10000 years or more before christianity even came into existence. Nobody probably even heard of the word enlightenment in the western world until then. So naturally eastern traditions evolved into a much more developed and powerful movement. The older the religion is, the more developed it becomes. Christianity is still growing. One day christianity will grow to the point where there will be many enlightened christians and mystics giving proper teachings and guidence for people to awaken. I think that time is near. More and more people are starting to grasp the real essence of western religions. I think it will become a powerful force in the near future. 

P.S. ACIM will transform christianity upside down. I bet my life on it.  ? 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Salvijus

[omar30]

5 hours ago, Adamq8 said:

Christianity has an really profound mystical tradition,  especially the Eastern Orthodox Church.

 

what kind of practices do they do?

[Carl-Richard]

The Abrahamic religions got intertwined in a memetic arms race by catering to the survival challenges of the times in between the rise and fall of great empires. Basically, the memes that replicate the most, win. The most truthful memes die, because they're not about survival. The newer religions are typically more survival-based: Islam > Christianity > Judaism. They cater more to laws, power and conquest, because that is what survives in a growing world. Back when the older religions were created, the world was a much smaller place, rivalry was much more local and empires had less power. During the Abrahamic times, rivalry became global.

[omar30]

@Carl-Richard do you know why Islam is the last Abrahamic religion?

[Carl-Richard]

2 minutes ago, omar30 said:

@Carl-Richard do you know why Islam is the last Abrahamic religion?

... because Muhammad was born in 570 CE?

[Jodistrict]

The below link gives a comprehensive overview of Christianity.

 

https://www.badnewsaboutchristianity.com/

 

Edited December 9, 2021 by Jodistrict

[omar30]

1 minute ago, Carl-Richard said:

... because Muhammad was born in 570 CE?

@Carl-Richard I dont know 

[Rilles]

@Carl-Richard @omar30 Probably because Islam totally dominated the Middle-East from year 600 onward. Not much space for other religions to grow unless they want their heads chopped off. 

750 AD map.

Edited December 9, 2021 by Rilles

[Adamq8]

1 hour ago, omar30 said:

what kind of practices do they do?

There is meditation, prayer, breath techniques, asceticism etc, all that you find in an eastern religion for example 

[Gregory1]

15 hours ago, Nahm said:

I honestly don’t know anyone who has went to or even mentioned going to India for spiritual purposes.

I have. Bentinho Massaro is an example of that. From his telling, he went to India to seek enlightenment, and found it there.

[silene]

4 hours ago, omar30 said:

@Carl-Richard do you know why Islam is the last Abrahamic religion?

Is the Bahai religion Abrahamic? For example. There may be others too, such as Druze. Abrahamic religion is still evolving, eg are Mormons & Jehovah's Witnesses Christian, or new religions developed out of Christianity (but still in the Abrahamic family)? 

[Gesundheit2]

Because they are currently the least aligned with the global narrative. Eastern religions are one step ahead, but that's about it.

[Lyubov]

I've noticed eastern religions tend to give more direct practices to find God that are sometimes esoteric but also sometimes easy to understand if you take a bit of time to learn them. For example, yoga and meditation. Christianity kinda bogs you down with a lot of bible shit and rules but it teaches heavily through stories and that can be kinda poetic in a way. It is kinda practical in the sense that it gives you some examples of challenges you may face in life. In the form of some abstract bible story and then how one might overcome them in alignment with god for you to then apply to your life. Prayer also is powerful as well which is sorta the Christian practice. I've been to some awful sermons though in Christian churches where the pastor basically went on about absolutely nothing for an hour.