So I Did The Research ...

[Shin]

Just use the ctrl+f command to check where it is on the webpage.

 

 

Sikhism (Hinduism)

Sikhism is a monistic religion and states that there is one supreme entity holding control of the entire universe.

The essence of Sikh teaching is summated by Guru Nanak's words: "Realization of Truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living".

In Sikhism, the concept of "God" is Vāhigurū—is shapeless, timeless, and invisible (i.e., unable to be seen with the physical eye): niraṅkār, akaal, and alakh.

It states that "God" is omnipresent and infinite with power over everything, and is signified by the term Ik Onkar.

"There is but one all-pervading spirit, and truth is its name! It exists in all creation; it does not fear; it does not hate; it is timeless and universal and self-existent"

According to Guru Nanak the supreme purpose of human life is to reconnect with Akal (The Timeless One), however, egotism is the biggest barrier in doing this.[...]Once truth starts to shine in a person's heart, the essence of current and past holy books of all religions is understood by the person.

 

Jainism (Hinduism)

Jain texts reject the idea of a creator or destroyer God and postulate an eternal universe.

Jainism has been described as a transtheistic religion, as it does not teach the dependency on any supreme being for enlightenment. The tirthankara is a guide and teacher who points the way to enlightenment, but the struggle for enlightenment is one's own.

Jain texts propound that the universe was never created, nor will it ever cease to exist. It is independent and self-sufficient, and does not require any superior power to govern it.

According to Jain belief, souls, intrinsically pure, possess the qualities of infinite knowledge, infinite perception, infinite bliss, and infinite energy in their ideal state. In reality, however, these qualities are found to be obstructed due to the soul's association with karmic matter. The ultimate goal in Jainism is the realization of reality

For Jains, non-absolutism means maintaining open-mindedness. This includes the recognition of all perspectives and a humble respect for differences in beliefs. Jainism encourages its adherents to consider the views and beliefs of their rivals and opposing parties, including other religions.

 

Shaivism (Hinduism)

Shaivism theology ranges from Shiva being the creator, preserver, destroyer to being the same as the Atman (self, soul) within oneself and every living being […] It is the Hindu tradition that most accepts ascetic life and emphasizes yoga, and like other Hindu traditions encourages an individual to discover and be one with Shiva within.

God (Shiva) is within man, God is within every being, God is present everywhere in the world including all non-living beings, and there is no spiritual difference between life, matter, man and God.

 

Theosis (Christian)

Every being and reality itself is considered as composed of the immanent energy, or Energeia, of God.

This synergeia or co-operation between God and Man does not lead to mankind being absorbed into the God as was taught in earlier pagan forms of deification like henosis. Rather it expresses unity, in the complementary nature between the created and the creator. Acquisition of the Holy Spirit is key as the acquisition of the spirit leads to self-realization.

 

Kabbalah (Hebrew)

Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal, and mysterious Ein Sof (infinity) and the mortal and finite universe (God's creation).

The nature of the divine prompted kabbalists to envision two aspects to God: (a) God in essence, absolutely transcendent, unknowable, limitless Divine simplicity, and (b) God in manifestation, the revealed persona of God through which he creates and sustains and relates to mankind. Kabbalists speak of the first as Ein/Ayn Sof (אין סוף "the infinite/endless", literally "that which has no limits").

God's existence is higher than anything that this world can express, yet he includes all things of this world within his Divine reality in perfect unity, so that the Creation effected no change in him at all.

Compassionate actions are often impossible without faith (Emunah), meaning to trust that God always supports compassionate actions even when God seems hidden. Ultimately, it is necessary to show compassion toward oneself too in order to share compassion toward others.

 

Dzogchen (Tibetan)

Rigpa is a central concept in Dzogchen. It is "reflexively self-aware primordial wisdom,"which is self-reflexively aware of itself as unbounded wholeness.

"In Gelug, the conscious experience is some level of blissful awareness of voidness."

The Dzogchen meditation practices also include a series of exercises known as Semdzin (sems dzin), which literally means "to hold the mind" or "to fix mind."

The practice of Trekchö […] In this practice one first identifies, and then sustains recognition of, one's own innately pure, empty awareness.

Insight leads to nyamshag, "being present in the state of clarity and emptiness".

 

Zoroastrianism (India/Iran)

There is only one God, the singularly creative and sustaining force of the Universe.

In Zoroastrianism, Ahura Mazda is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything that can and cannot be seen, the Eternal, the Pure and the only Truth.

Zoroastrianism's divinity covers both being and mind as immanent entities, it is better described as a belief in an immanent self-creating universe with consciousness as its special attribute.

In Zoroastrianism, the purpose in life is to "be among those who renew the world...to make the world progress towards perfection". Its basic maxims include:

Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta, which mean: Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds.

There is only one path and that is the path of Truth.

Do the right thing because it is the right thing to do, and then all beneficial rewards will come to you also.

 

Plotinus (Greek philosopher)

Plotinus taught that there is a supreme, totally transcendent "One", containing no division, multiplicity or distinction; beyond all categories of being and non-being. His "One" "cannot be any existing thing", nor is it merely the sum of all things [compare the Stoic doctrine of disbelief in non-material existence], but "is prior to all existents".

"We ought not even to say that he will see, but he will be that which he sees, if indeed it is possible any longer to distinguish between seer and seen, and not boldly to affirm that the two are one."

 

Heraclites (Greek Philosopher)

"We both step and do not step in the same rivers. We are and are not."

"To God all things are fair and good and just, but people hold some things wrong and some right."

"Eternity is a child moving counters in a game; the kingly power is a child's."

 

Transcendantalism (Early 19s – USA)

Transcendentalists also believe that all people possess a piece of the "Over-soul" (God). Because the Over-soul is one, this unites all people as one being.

 

New Age (Late 20s – Western countries)

This intentional vagueness as to the nature of divinity also reflects the New Age idea that divinity cannot be comprehended by the human mind or language.

There are nevertheless a number of traits that are repeatedly associated with divinity in New Age literature, the first of which is the idea that it is holistic, thus frequently being described with such terms as an "Ocean of Oneness", "Infinite Spirit", "Primal Stream", "One Essence", and "Universal Principle".A second common trait is the characterisation of divinity as "Mind", "Consciousness", and "Intelligence", while a third is the description of divinity as a form of "energy". A fourth trait is the characterisation of divinity as a "life force", the essence of which is creativity, while a fifth is the concept that divinity consists of love.

The New Age worldview emphasises holism and the idea that everything in existence is intricately connected as part of a single whole, in doing so rejecting both the dualism of Judeo-Christian thought and the reductionism of Cartesian science.

"Higher Self" which is a part of the human but which connects with the divine essence of the universe, and which can advise the human mind through intuition.

 

 

This is by no mean a complete research, it would take way more than 5-10 hours to do that.

I intentionally didn't mention Buddhism and Yoga.

 

Concerning Sufism, I didn't find anything in the wikipage that clearly indicate non-duality teachings (probably missed it).

Just read some Rumi quotes, obviously enlightened.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Shin

[Leo Gura]

Fantastic! Some great holistic understanding right there.

[Shin]

I'll probably update it, with deeper sources (especially for Sufism), if you guys could share some sources, it would be easier

Edited March 21, 2017 by Shin

[Empty]

1 hour ago, Shin said:

I'll probably update it, with deeper sources (especially for Sufism), if you guys could share some sources, it would be easier

Sufism changed Islam radically, because they knew that Muhammad was not enlightened, and probably had nothing to do with spirituality. If you want to learn about Sufism, you can check Ibn Arabi, Rumi, Al Ghazali, ect.  

[Nahm]

@Shin nice work. Interesting read. Thanks

[Loreena]

Wow this was concise and informative

[Prabhaker]

5 hours ago, Shin said:

I intentionally didn't mention Yoga.

Yoga is a science. It is just an accident that Hindus discovered it. It is not Hindu. It is a pure mathematics of the inner being. So a Mohammedan can be a yogi, a Christian can be a yogi, a Jain, a Buddhhist can be a yogi. Yoga is pure science, and Patanjali is the greatest name as far as the world of Yoga is concerned. For the first time in the history of humanity, this man brought religion to the state of a science: he made religion a science, bare laws; no belief is needed.

Yoga has nothing as far as belief is concerned. Yoga doesn’t say to believe in anything; Yoga says experience. Just as science says experiment, Yoga says experience. Experiment and experience are both the same; their directions are different. Experiment means something you can do outside; experience means something you can do inside. Experience is an inside experiment.

Yoga is existential, experiential, experimental. No belief is required, no faith is needed...only the courage to experience. 

Yoga is not belief. That’s why it is difficult, arduous, and sometimes it seems impossible. It is an existential approach. You will come to the truth, not through belief but through your own experience, through your own realization. That means you will have to be totally changed. Your viewpoints, your way of life, your mind, your psyche has to be shattered completely as it is. Something new has to be created. Only with that new will you come in contact with reality.

Yoga is not a philosophy. It is not a religion. It is not something you can think about. It is something you will have to be; thinking won’t do.Yoga is concerned with your total being, with your roots. It is not philosophical. So with Patanjali we will not be thinking, speculating. With Patanjali we will be trying to know the ultimate laws of being: the laws of its transformation

[I Am That]

@Shin

I came across this passage a couple of days ago and thought it relevant regarding Sufism. It is from the book, Introduction to Sufism: The Inner Path of Islam.

p14

- Union with God, or "Extinguishing Oneself" in Him? The ultimate goal of the mystical life cannot be to know God but to be united with Him. However, in Islam one cannot speak of via unitiva as the same sense as in Christian theology. From the point of view from the central dogma of tawhid, which focuses only on "the divine Oneness," the very concept of "union" with God is eminently paradoxical. Indeed, union presumes the coming together of two entities, of two substances. Now, the profession of faith (shahada) of Islam affirms: "There is no god but God." For the Sufi, this negative assertion actually means: "Only God is," since that which is created, the contingent, vanishes in the face of the Absolute.

[Shin]

Albert Einstein

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

The only real valuable thing is intuition.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.
 

 

Carl Jung

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.

Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word happy would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness. It is far better take things as they come along with patience and equanimity.
 

 

Nikola Tesla

It is paradoxical, yet true, to say, that the more we know, the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations. Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the continuous opening up of new and greater prospects.

There is no conflict between the ideal of religion and the ideal of science, but science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine.

 

 

Edited March 30, 2017 by Shin