Western Seekers of Eastern Enlightenment

The concepts of meditation and yoga are commonly understood in a casual way by pretty much everyone in Western culture today, but that was most certainly not the case prior to the arrival of Vivekananda at the Chicago 1893 Parliament of World Religions.  Vivekananda was a charismatic Indian monk who ended up spending about three years in the West before returning to his native India. During that time he wrote four books that introduced Westerners to the classic yogic pathways and established a series of Vedanta Societies to promote the study and practice of one of the six orthodox schools of Indian philosophy called Vedanta.

Vivekananda was the first, but he most certainly was not the last.  In 1920, Yogananda arrived in Boston, and after making the West his home, established the world headquarters of his Self-Realization Fellowship in Los Angeles.  Much later in 1959, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi made the first of many trips to the West as part of a global effort to spread his Transcendental Meditation program.  Initially he attracted only small numbers of grown-up middle-class seekers, but when TM caught on among students and the Beatles followed him to India, Maharishi became a counterculture icon. 

These three spiritual leaders in particular and some other less well known ones brought this concept of enlightenment to very receptive Western audiences and left a lasting impression on Western culture.  They each created a layer of trained intermediaries to support the seekers they had established, and these trained intermediaries actively solicited new seekers onto the path in lieu of direct access to the primary guru. In their wake, they left many new seekers looking for this Eastern vision of spiritual enlightenment. 

There are three different Eastern spiritual traditions that describe this state of enlightenment, and in each of these traditions, there are many slightly different specific interpretations of approach to reach this common goal of enlightenment. But across all the three religious traditions and all the variations that exist in each of these traditions, there are only two recognized self-discovery paths to enlightenment. One path is the traditionally understood way of the ascetic, but the other path is structured around a typical householder who is simultaneously engaged in the pursuit of both spiritual and regular worldly activities.

Those who choose the path of the ascetic withdraw from the world to contemplate and meditate as they aspire for their one and only goal of attaining a state of enlightenment. The ascetic renounces all worldly things at the onset of their search. They live their lives withdrawn in seclusion denying all worldly things beyond the bare minimum required to survive. It is a hard and difficult path that is right only for the very select few who are so inclined to pursue it.

The other path of householders engaged in worldly activities is reputed to be the more noble of the two paths because the householder seeker is a productive member of society in additional to being a spiritual aspirant. In fact, the classic tale of enlightenment in the Bhagavad Gita describes the enlightenment of Arjuna who is a man actively engaged in the pursuit of war. The warrior Arjuna received his enlightenment from Krishna as he is surveying his impending enemy and the battlefield that he is about to engage. Instead of the ascetic who withdraws from the world, Arjuna actually received his enlightenment just prior to going to war.

On the path of action, the seeker does not withdraw from the world to pursue enlightenment. Seekers on the path of action create a balanced lifestyle that integrates a system of regular contemplation and meditation into their ongoing activities of living a life and contributing to society. Those on the path of action renounce worldly things by internally eliminating over time their tendencies to become attached to worldly things. As they progress, they can own worldly things without developing binding attachments to them.

All seekers soon come to realize that no matter whether they have chosen the path of the ascetic or to actively be engaged in life, their actual pursuit of this enlightenment is a path that can only be tread alone.  On the path of action, they might find themselves in the company of many other people. Some of the other people may actually be sympathetic to their spiritual journey, but none of them can can actually directly engage one’s solitary spiritual journey because it is a path of self-discovery that can only be traversed alone.

There are two possible outcomes from a lifelong commitment to the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment via these Eastern technologies.  The most common scenario is a life filled with the peace and fullness that comes from the regular practice of meditation and the slow but steady forward progress without actually reaching the goal of enlightenment in that lifetime.  The individual’s unfinished journey will eventually through the process of transmigration of consciousness start a new life and continue the process until full spiritual enlightenment is finally attained.

Alternately, the one who aspires to know given the right conditions will forge ahead and complete the journey of discovery on their own to actually reach the state of enlightenment during the course of their lifetime. In these very rare cases, these pioneering seekers are largely left to their own devices without direct access to a guru. Their seeking experience becomes something of an improvised enlightenment experiment wherein they are left with the responsibility to address all the gaps in methodology and interpretation of results.

The Two Core Questions

Humanity, we presume, is the pinnacle of intelligence on Earth, and from this high place of intellect and understanding, humanity finds itself confronted by the mystery of its very own conscious existence. This mystery by virtue of its great complexity and extreme level of detail is very intimidating to the point it seems to be unapproachable

To consider the overwhelming enormity of this problem all at once is beyond the ability of human intelligence. The problem is, however, manageable when it is reduced down to its most elemental forms that are still sufficiently detailed to develop a clear understanding of everything hat really needs to be considered. The secret to solving this great mystery lies in finding this optimal level of simplification that addresses the problem without all the incredibly overwhelming details. 

This simplification must reduce the matter down to its core elements without the unmanageable burden of all the other details that only clutter the big picture we seek.  At its most basic level, the great human conundrum is driven by the two facts that we are 1) consciously aware and 2) surrounded by an elaborate combination of things in the surrounding physical world.   These two core components inspire in everyone the two fundamental questions of: ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What is going on around me?’. 

The ‘Who am I?’ question is the basis of our unending search to discover the who, what, and why of our personal existence. This line of questioning exists because we are consciously aware beings trying to figure out the nature of our conscious experience in a physical environment. Initially, this question is focused on the topic of our physical body, but progresses more to the conscious experience of our existence as our understanding matures. 

The ‘What is going on around me?’ question is posed by the physical challenge presented by the hostile physical environment around us that cannot be ignored. This question exists because our conscious awareness is constantly being challenged in a complex physical reality of forms with which we must interact in order to survive and hopefully even thrive. The most prominent of those physical forms is the human body directly connected to our individual conscious experience. 

The human life experience is above all else a journey of spiritual discovery. In this spiritual journey every thought and every action no matter how coarse or misguided is driven by a core primitive impulse to understand the personal true of ‘who am I?/ and the everything else truth of ‘what is going on around me?’. The short term goal of spirituality is to define your conscious identity in terms of functioning in the physical world (i.e. ‘who am I and what do I want to do?’), but its ultimate goal is to develop the conscious spirit to its highest potential and live life to the fullest possible extent. 

 With the passage of time, these natural occurring and seemingly superficial discoveries driven by the core primitives eventually become more clearly recognizable as spirituality, the only path to the ultimate truths. Every individual interpretation of spirituality is different based on their particular level of spiritual evolution and their special interpretation of their surrounding reality. 

From these two fundamental questions, all further human inquiry ensues.

Off-the-Shelf Solutions to the Human Conundrum

Everyone must face the same Great Human Conundrum, but how we each individually approach it is a matter of personal choice from a spectrum of options.  The low effort required end of this spectrum is for those who choose to know only the minimum amount required by their immediate circumstance.  At the high effort required end of this spectrum is for those who want to know it all.  The majority of humanity tends toward the low effort end.

The choice to subsist on knowing only what is needed to just get by seems sufficient in one’s early years, but as time passes and the trials of life beset us, the answers to these more difficult questions become a greater priority. Eventually, everyone wants more than just the bare-bones survival this basic understanding of these immediate surroundings is able to support. They also want to be happy and content, and they eventually realize more knowledge enables this better quality of life.

One approach frequently used by those who want to prolong their avoidance of these most difficult questions is to adopt some of the many off-the-shelf solutions that are readily available. These off-the-shelf solutions are offered as a one size fits all solution to large portions of the conundrum problem, but all too often, the material in these all inclusive declarations is actually wild speculation that is glossed over as fact. Another common problem with them is the fact that they don’t suitably overlap with other off-the-shelf solutions about other parts of the problem. In most cases, they generate more darkness than illumination. 

The time comes when these off-the-shelf solutions don’t really address a particular life situation. These times are generally the result of some situation, usually traumatic in nature, that forces deeper consideration of these difficult things. It is in those trying moments when we desperately need the answers to some of these hard questions and that we are willing to accept just about anything to find comfort. It is so much better to have considered them properly in advance.

Considering these seemingly imponderable things is not just an intellectual folly. It is a necessary choice to optimize success in life. In fact, it is the only choice that will lead you to the ultimate truth about life and the liberation that truth entails. Simply accepting what someone else claims to be true is not enough. These questions actually need to be personally considered by everyone who really wants to know the truth.

The matter at hand here, the all-that-is of reality, is a vast concept beyond comprehension in all its detail, and language is not sufficient to describe it. The words chosen by one person to describe it might not be the same words that someone else would choose to describe the same thing. These words can convey an impression of their understanding of the all-that-is and a description of the methodology they used to approach the concept of the all-that-is.

The truth of enlightenment is not a concept to simply be intellectually understood. It is a state of being that is comprehended by experiencing it. From these impressions and application of the methodology share through the words of others, someone else can position themselves to see it for themselves and choose their own words to describe it. The only way to know it is to personally consider it and derive a personal understanding of the all-that-is.

The material offered in this discussion is not meant to be taken as yet another of these off-the-shelf solutions. Rather, it is meant to illustrate the process of considering these seemingly unapproachable questions and offering some possibilities to consider in one’s personal quest for answers. The real intent of this discussion is to prime and fuel this personal consideration. The answers to these questions are truly meaningless unless you have really consider them for yourself.

When it comes to understanding your own personal truth, there are those who can assist you, encourage you, and inspire you, but no one can give you with your personal truth.  You travel that path alone. 

The Great Human Conundrum

Everyone is eventually confronted by the great mystery of their very own conscious existence, but the importance of our conscious existence is initially overshadowed by another priority that must be considered first. Our conscious existence is embedded in an elaborate combination of things including our own physical bodies that makeup the world of things around us. Establishing some measure of rapport with this physical world must be considered a first priority to simply engage in the basic aspects of survival. The extraordinary fact of conscious existence is not even immediately recognized by most as a specific matter requiring consideration. That consideration comes later.

Our preoccupation with the physical world is further complicated by the more superficial matters of being happy and content in the context of living in this external physical world. An elaborate array of feelings are generated in our conscious existence by physical sensations originating from contact with objects in this surrounding physical world. These sensations when properly chosen entice this intangible happiness and contentment out of the two sensation extremes of pleasure and pain. Initially, it seems that this surrounding physical world is the source of both our survival and our happiness and contentment.

These two separate and distinct things, our conscious existence and the elaborate combination of things in the surrounding physical world, are the core components of the great human conundrum of life. No one is immune to the effects of this conundrum, and it is impossible to ignore. At a minimum, a sufficient understanding of our immediate surroundings is required to survive the many challenges that our very existence forces us to face, but ultimately beyond simple survival, our conscious existence’s nagging anticipation to be happy and content is what keeps forcing us to deal with this human conundrum.

A common approach to the most puzzling of these questions is to defer considering them in our initial rush to be blindly engaged in this great celebration of life. Such is the case with the whole matter of our conscious existence. Most don’t consider this for years. Some don’t consider it until they are near death. The key to really understanding the human conundrum is to recognize early on that there exists two different but interconnecting pieces of 1) a physical world with its pleasure and pain and 2) a conscious existence with its desire to be happy and content. These two things need to be considered together to be successful in life.

The choice to subsist on knowing only what is needed to just get by seems sufficient in one’s early years, but as time passes and the trials of life beset us, the answers to these more difficult questions become a greater priority. Eventually, everyone wants more than just the bare-bones survival this basic understanding of these immediate surroundings is able to support. They also want to be happy and content, and they eventually realize more knowledge enables this better quality of life. 

Divine Intent or Marketing Plan

The life blood of any religious institution is its aggregation of followers. Followers equate to power, wealth, and most importantly relevancy.  Since western religion traditionally reserves study and interpretation of the scripture to the clergy, attracting followers with a really strong spiritual seeking message isn’t very effective. The message needs to be that just right combination of easy to do and compelling that only makes sense when viewed from a marketing perspective.

Take the Christianity salvation belief for example. How did the teacher who said “And unto him that smites you on the one cheek offer also the other; and he that takes away your cloak forbid not to take your coat also” become the terrible tyrant who will condemn you to a lake of fire for all eternity for the seemingly insignificant slight of not formally declaring him as your personal savior?

It really never says that outright in the Bible. It all begins with the seemingly benign quote “Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.” This harsher salvation principle is developed by inference from this saying in combination other things in the Bible outside the context of this one, but this salvation principle is what many if not all Christians believe. 

Since it wasn't specifically stated, who made this salvation principle revelation, and by what logic, did it become the cornerstone of the Christian belief?  The call was made by very mortal religious leaders centuries after Christ was crucified by cherry-picking Bible verses (the content of the Bible was also decided years after the crucifixion).  It is no coincidence this salvation principle revelation reinforced the religious leadership's existing power structure.

“No one reaches the Father but through me” was been embellished into ‘believe in me or suffer horribly for all eternity in the afterlife’. This embellished message has no real spiritual value, but it does have great marketing potential because it is very easy (i.e. all you do is believe and support the belief support institution) and what could be more compelling than the gut wrenching threat of burning for all eternity in the lake of fire. In short, it is very effective in getting followers and keeping them in the fold.

The message really isn’t even very well thought out. Certainly the prospect of burning for all eternity in the lake of fire is frightening for anyone with a body, but probably does not present much of a threat to the spirit after the body dies. This weakness has never been a real problem for this message because so far no one has ever come back from this torment to report on that and likely never will.

Additionally, it seems inconceivable that a loving god could do such a terrible, cruel thing. Condemning anyone to a terrible torture for all the remainder of eternity is certainly terrible, but it is unthinkable that the warning of these dire consequences is so cryptically stated in the Bible that it has to be interpreted from numerous disjointed verses. The very least a 'loving' god could do is spell it out in one place and move it up to the front of the Bible in bold print.

It is not uncommon to hear Christians justify their faith by saying ‘what if they are right?’ This statement is a clear indication of the effectiveness of this salvation message as a marketing strategy. This salvation principle is clearly more the contrivance of mortal men who want to get and control follower and not the intent of the Divine. This salvation message seems incredibly inconsistent with other Bible quotes that have been carefully overlooked in the collection of quotes used to support the justification for this salvation story such as:

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

A set of parallel notions to this salvation principle is the contention that the one and only god is a 'jealous' god [“For you shall worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous god”] that does not want you to have any other gods before you. In fact, he hands down a commandment to Moses that “Thou shalt have no other gods before me”. 

Why would the almighty creator of the universe who purposely seems to be staying out of the obvious picture be jealous of other gods that don't exist? Isn't it more likely that religious leaders who like the power and advantage afforded by a flock of believers are the ones who are jealous? 

Jealousy, wrath and any other petty quality attributed to the Divine are qualities of shallow, mortal men.  They do not apply to the Divine.

This question about the fairness of this salvation principle is not new.   Universal Reconciliation is a doctrine that all lost souls will eventually be reconciled by god’s divine love. In this controversial doctrine (it is generally rejected by most Christians), those who created this doctrine generously allow some truth to the ‘believe in me or suffer horribly for all eternity in the afterlife’ notion, but they expect that love directed Divine intervention will eventually forgive all these lost souls and welcome them into heaven.

The Universal Reconciliation doctrine is being very generous. This ridiculous notion was intentionally contrived by mortal men with the specific intent to garner and control followers through fear and intimidation.


Fear and intimidation are not the Divine intention.

Disturbing Preoccupation with Worldly Things

The concept of religion is as old as humanity.  It exists in some form in virtually every human society, and it typically holds a position of high esteem in those societies.  But religion for all of its high aspiration is the work of mere mortal men, and as such, religion is prone to the weaknesses of these very mortal human administrators. 

Albert Einstein addressed these issues of weakness in his New York Times Magazine, 1930 article 'Religion and Science'.  In this article, he called out the most primal emotion in the original development of religious thought and experience as fear.  What he said in paraphrase is that:

'it does not take much consideration to see that the predominant emotions presiding over the birth of religion has been above all else our fear of the great unknown that surrounds us. The human mind creates illusory beings more or less analogous to itself on whose wills and actions these fearful happenings depend. Thus one tries to secure the favor of these beings by carrying out actions and offering sacrifices which, according to the tradition handed down from generation to generation, propitiate them or make them well disposed toward a mortal. In this sense [he was] speaking of a religion of fear.

This fear is  an important element that stabilizes the formation of a special priestly caste which sets itself up as a mediator between the people and the beings they fear, and erects a role of societal dominance on this basis. In many cases a leader or ruler or a privileged class whose position rests on other factors combines priestly functions with its secular authority in order to make the latter more secure; or the political rulers and the priestly caste make common cause in their own interests.'

Albert Einstein - 'Religion and Science' - 1930

In these few words, Einstein has captured the essence of the great problem that plagues all religions in all times.  They all beginning with the message of some noble moral intent, but the process of getting this message out inevitably results in the creation of an organization that needs followers to fund the effort and make the existence of the organization relevant.  These organization's pursuit of followers can lead its leadership to a disturbing preoccupation with worldly things.  A trap that seduces many of these religious leaders who control the religious message to become false prophets.


This disturbing preoccupation with worldly things can have a very divergent affect on the religion's messages and intent when changes are made to the message for the worldly sake of the organization. This control of the message affords those church leaders considerable power.  When they control the scripture and its interpretation, they have a lot of opportunity to insert personal opinions and prejudices. Through the ages there have been church leaders with personal opinions who wanted to insert their thinking into church doctrine. In some cases, these insertions were done to promote a cause they thought had been overlooked. In other cases, they were trying manipulate thinking a more selfish way. 

This primal fear of the great unknown that surrounds us creates a special vulnerability in potential religious followers that can be exploited to extreme advantage.  To allay this primal fear in their followers, religions profess to assume a higher ground to provide comforting explanations and a sense that a higher power is providing us guidance.  They frequently  proclaim  there is a powerful being who is watching over us, and this loving being has a code of behavior that must be followed to warrant the favor of reward over the punishment for misdeeds.  

Some succumb to the temptation and exploit this special vulnerability for personal gain.  There are no shortage of those willing to exploit.  These exploitation problems with organized religions can be found throughout history. Some recent examples include the Prosperity ministries and The Guru of Bling, but the decadence of the 16th-century Roman Catholic Church that led to the Protestant Reformation is a classic example.   But as Einstein said, the problems goes back much further than this as in all the way back to their inception

The fact that the western religion clergy control their scriptures has been known for a long time. Even Jesus acknowledged the problem in one of his sayings recorded in the Gospel of Thomas: 

Jesus said, “The Pharisees and the Scribes have taken the keys to knowledge and have hidden them. They have not entered, nor have they allowed those who want to enter to do so. As for you, be as clever as snakes and as innocent as doves.” 

--  Gospel of Thomas saying 39

In eastern religion, the Buddha denied many things around the ritualistic brahminism that dominated the Hindu world view of his times.  His teachings are filled with truths from the Veda scriptures, but he denounced organized Hindu brahminist that lead how the Vedas were understood and practiced then. He took the radical position of taking only the Vedic inspired kernels of truth and dismissed the rigid structure of rituals, forms, and methods that largely favored the religion organization.  He made enlightenment a personal struggle to overcome to overcome illusion and suffering.

Many people derive great solace from their religious beliefs, but much of this solace is from the fear of the dire consequences their religion has instilled in them about not believing their religious doctrine. Somewhere along the way, many religions have become very aggressive in their pursuit of followers sometimes to the extent of actually waging war against those of different faiths. Some religions actually regard apostasy as a capital crime in places where they have the political clout to enforce these executions. Ironically, all this coercion, hate and violence is being done in the name of their god(s) who they say is full of love and mercy.

The religious messages of love and compassion have become corrupted and mangled by centuries of manipulation by persons and institutions that are much more focused on power and wealth instead of spiritual fulfillment. After centuries of this corruption, any spiritual value these religious messages may have had originally are now pretty much diluted away with religion being plagued by a number of problems such as religious inspired hate and prejudice and faiths sharing the same scriptures openly hating and are in conflict with each other.

These religions all claim to be the worldly representation of the same god(s) who lovingly created life and gave it free will, but their leadership ranks are filled with those who are much more interested in their personal well-being. Many of them are quick to point out these weaknesses in the religions they compete against for followers, but they are unable to see the very same corruption in their own ranks. Some are involved in religion for the right reasons of doing right unto others, loving their neighbor, and loving (not fearing) their god. They may even be a majority, but this scourge of personal self-interest for power and wealth seems to overwhelmingly predominant perception.

All these religious zealots who want to forcefully apply their religion seem to have missed one very important point. All men are endowed by their creator with the free will to aspire to whatever spiritual pursuit they choose. No mortal man or institution has the right to abridge that god given free-will.

In many ways today, it appears that religion has created more suffering than it has alleviated. 

So where do we find our salvation?

False Prophets: Those Who Would Deceive Us

The great mystery of life is bigger than a single person can handle by themselves.  Everyone needs a little help on occasion as they sort through all the details trying to get a handle on their particular great mystery.  They seek counsel from family, friends, teachers, doctors, and clergy to name but a few.  We even have institutions such as science and religion that are venerated for the integrity and knowledge that they are assumed to represent.  

Most of these counseling resources are struggling with the great mystery themselves so there is only so much help they can provide.  This abundance of difficult things to understand and the shortage of counselors with a comprehensive understanding creates a gap in everyone's reality that needs to filled.  

Some well meaning souls try to step up and address this gap as honestly as they can, but many of them are simply not as informed as they would like to think.  They are well intentioned and believe the things they are promoting.  Many of them are unconsciously motivated to promote certain of their beliefs because if others believes these same things that reinforces their commitment to the belief.  Frequently, this need for external validation of their beliefs is indicative of a weakness in those beliefs.  As well intentioned as they are on the surface, these ill informed helpers are really only contributing to the confusion.

From a darker perspective, there are many others who see this information gap as an incredible opportunity for themselves.  These other helpers are not motivated by the purest of intentions.  Rather, their motivation is purely personal gain by way of some sort  of deception and ultimately manipulation.  They are the frauds, cheats, con-men, and charlatans that are so common in our world. They not only contribute to the confusion, they actually profit from it.

Both the ill informed and deceptive/manipulative helpers want to seduce others for a variety of their own selfish reasons.  The ill informed are trying to find support for their own weak beliefs, and the deceptive/manipulative are more interested in personal gain in the form of money, power, or prestige.  In western religions, both these types of opportunists are called out as false prophets (those who would lead you astray) and those who choose to follow them are told to beware.  The details in those warnings on how to spot and avoid the false prophets are sparse to nonexistent.

Western religion has a prominent, central placement in society where its organizations have garnered much power, wealth, and influence in the name of their god. These resources could be used to do their god’s work like administering to the poor and down trodden in our midst, but all too frequently, these resources are used instead to provide lavish lifestyles for the persons administering those resources or promote some political agenda that is favorable to them. 

Instead of their god, these organizations are managed by very mortal men with all the frailties and vulnerabilities of mortal men (though most of them would never admit it) while the god remains invisibly in the background.  Many of these mortal managers succumb to their human frailties and vulnerabilities and become these false prophets. Most are so self-absorbed they don’t even recognize themselves as false prophets.

In established religious institutions, there are varying degrees of vetting required before someone can be trusted into the clergy. In less structured situations, some can be self-ordained on the Internet, but all too frequently, there are no certifications or tests required before someone can independently declare themselves the voice of god. 

Anyone can stand-up and declare themselves to be ordained by god without a shred of qualification or ability, and if they have sufficient charisma with an aptitude for public speaking, they will gather some followers. Since these self-ordained religious spokesmen represent a god who is conspicuously not around, they in many cases have near absolute power over their followers, and as is widely known, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Common to most western religions is some sense of good versus evil with an associated reward versus punishment. A loving god rewards good behavior while punishing the evil, but since the loving god isn’t obviously available, there is considerable wiggle room for the religious spokesman to interject some of the own feelings into their particular message. This mortal meddling in the religious message has been going on for a very long time. As a result, much of this meddling is very established in western religious thought, but it can be identified by careful examination and analysis by looking for mortal fingerprints.

As with so many things, the industrial age has greatly extended the reach of the false prophets. Once constrained to the small communities in their immediate reach, these manipulators could only impact small groups of people, but mass media outlets like radio, television, movies, and now the Internet have enabled them to extend their influence in the form of political propaganda, market manipulation, and religious opinion into mass markets that are national and even global in scale.

The eastern religions approach is less inclined to the false prophet’s tools of manipulation because it is less based on faith and more on personal spiritual growth by way of study and experience on the path to ultimate enlightenment.  Eastern religion scriptures are very cryptic, but since they are more knowledge than faith based, they do not appear to be as contaminated by human intervention like western scripture.  In spite of this better foundation, there are some false prophet issues even here.

There is an old saying in the eastern traditions that ‘The well doesn’t go to the thirsty man. The thirsty man comes to the well.’ The problem with this notion is that there are lot of thirsty men of varying degrees of thirst and not nearly enough wells (i.e. well versed and good intentioned god men). 

False prophets in the eastern traditions are generally charismatic leaders who pass themselves off as more evolved than they actually are to take advantage of the spiritual yearnings of common people for personal gain and enrichment. The advantage they have is that the path to enlightenment described in their scriptures are not that easy to understand. The cryptic nature of the teachings is the opening that clever, unscrupulous conmen exploit.

Though not originally as well organized for fraud as the west, these eastern false prophets have taken to the Internet and television emulating the western industrialized flock fleecing approach to enrich themselves from larger, international audiences. This difficulty in understanding eastern thought makes it easy for charlatans to perform their magic that works particularly well on naïve western paying audiences.

By far, the most common false prophet targets are those persons who are passive in their approach to belief.  Passive believers are those persons who just adopt notions as beliefs without adequate questioning or verification.  These people are basically inclined to believe things they are told by persons they regard trustworthy, and their threshold for trustworthy can in some cases be quite low. Lower thresholds of trustworthiness tend to create a much greater risk of vulnerability.

There are two huge problems with this passive approach.  First, manipulation of passive belief is their primary (perhaps only) mode of operation of the false prophets.  Passive belief can render someone utterly defenseless against their assault.  Secondly, it is also by far the least useful (as in not useful at all) in the process of evolving your understanding of anything.

Intellectual evolution requires the thinking and critical analysis that are not being used in passive belief.  Thinking and critical analysis are critical steps in believing effectively, and believing effectively is required to ultimately discover the core truth of existence. 

There is no shortage of those willing, many even yearning, to provide spiritual assistance, but not all of these would-be prophets are reliable sources.  Many of these are the false prophets who try to exploit others to their advantage by manipulating this very human tendency to believe.  That certainly includes the traditional notion of religious false prophets, but it is extended here to include all manners of individuals who try to exploit human belief to their personal advantage because they all contribute to humanity’s suffering and bondage.