Historically, religion is the
venerated source for answers to the great mystery of life questions that hauntingly
preoccupy humanity and are considered too difficult to be answered
otherwise. The advantage religion has in answering these unanswerable
questions is that it is not limited to what is known. It has the advantage of being able to exploit
the incredible human capacity to fill in the vague and missing pieces in what is
known with things that have simply been accepted as belief.
This heavy reliance on belief can ultimately
become a problem. This problem is compounded by the extreme
diversity of religious perspectives that shapes their many beliefs. The
world is home to a multitude of religions, and each of these religions has
multiple sects each with their somewhat different religious interpretations.
All these many groups think the things they hold as beliefs are correct, and
everyone else is wrong.
With all these different beliefs
about so many things that matter, how does one choose the correct religion? Reviewing the merit of all these individual
religions and their many sects might seem like an impossible task, but at a
high level, most of these religions and their many sects can be reduced down
into either of the two very broad categories that have historically been designated as Western and Eastern.
The terms Western and Eastern
in this context simply refers to the general geographic points of origin of
these various religious tradition which has made them historically, culturally,
and theologically distinct. After centuries of intermingling and
sharing of ideas between cultures, both Western and Eastern religious
traditions can be found in all parts of the world today, but the fundamental
difference between the two different religious approaches is still very
apparent.
The fundamental difference
between eastern and western religions is the clear distinction between how the religions in each category advocate spiritual progress.
Western religions are based on
faith. Followers are expected to believe on blind faith what they are
told to
believe by religious leaders who have assumed the responsibility for
sorting out all the spiritual details to be spoon fed to the masses of
followers. On close examination however, many of
these religious answers are filled with inconsistencies, missing big pieces of
the story, and things that just don't ring true.
Instead of faith, eastern religions
are more focused on spiritual growth through introspection, practice, and study. Eastern religion rituals and personal practices (e.g. meditation and
asanas postures) promote personal spiritual growth on the path to
spiritual enlightenment. In these eastern religions, the aspirant is more focused on seeking and finding salvation rather than simply holding some belief of faith and expecting salvation to find them.
These high level, specific ideological differences between
western and eastern religions has a significant impact on each religion's ability to
support the search for the Ultimate Truth.
Those who are about discovering the truth will be drawn to the Eastern religions. Those who want to believe what someone else has told them to believe is the truth will be drawn to Western religions.
In reality, life is a spiritual journey of self discovery that spans many lifetimes to complete. As such, it must be lived actively questioning all things, rather than being slavishly bound to blind faith obedience and stale outdated dogma. In the context of discovering the Ultimate Truth, the eastern religious approach is superior and will ultimately as one's spiritual journey advances become the approach of choice.
As it turns out though, you really don't need affiliation with any religion. All you need is the correct and relevant knowledge that a religion might be able to offer because ultimately you alone are responsible for validating the things that you believe. You alone are responsible for your own salvation.
Many
times we find ourselves faced with decisions that though difficult
could be reasoned through to sensible solutions, but somehow, something
inside us, compels us to make the wrong choice. Repeatedly in spite of a
clear understanding of the consequences based on our personal
experience, some mysterious force misguides our decisions. These
miscues are the price we pay for not having a good understanding of who
we are.
The real mystery here is to understand these internal forces that compel us to consistently move in the wrong direction. Some of these internal forces are coming from thoughts and feelings that we don’t even necessarily understand, perhaps do not even realize we are having. They just make us react in certain ways. These internal forces and the frequently confusing external circumstance we encounter make it critically important for us to understand who we are so that we can better deal with our lives.
The reality is that these internal forces are largely (perhaps exclusively) driven by the impressions from past experiences. Our past experiences leave us cluttered inside with these impressions that range all the way from traumatic to comfort and peace, but by far, the most compelling are these impressions resulting from traumatic or painful past events. These trauma induced impressions are also most likely to result in decisions that lead to some sort of bondage related situation.
Substance abuse is one such example of internal bondage: Substance abuse is the result of a person’s belief that ingestion of a particular substance is necessary for their happiness. Typically, the root cause is physical or psychological pain relief. Perhaps, the origin of this addiction was real pain, but over time, it becomes a convoluted tangle of cause and effect in one’s personal truth that is not easy to understand and thus is very difficult to overcome.
Another internal bondage example is the existence of unresolved childhood traumas. Children are very impressionable, and certain issues that happen in early life can have a long lasting effect on one’s person truth creating learned responses that extend way into adult life.
Traumatic past experience live on into our present in the form of these impressions created in the endless cycle of desire, action, and impression (illustrated in figure below). In this cycle, we desire something and act to that end. The result is an impression that takes root inside us shaping our next desire to act.
There are two level of understanding the endless cycle of action. At the simplest level, it can be understood intellectually. Understanding the existence of the mechanism that drive us to action is helpful in developing strategy to remediate the possible negative impacts, but there is a deeper understanding that actually helps us rise above this cycle of action.
Coming to know this cycle from the direct experience of consciousness can actually create a situation where our in present actions are not dictated by past impressions because over time the practice of direct experience of consciousness actually minimizes the significance all these past impressions.
Overcoming without the advantage of these regular direct experiences of consciousness will inevitably take a long time with any one of these internal bondage experiences could easily span a single lifetime. With the regular direct experiences of consciousness, all past impression will be neutralized and the capacity to create new impressions will be suppressed.
