Four Religions, Four Paths to Transcendence

Some people like to argue that every religion is the same.  This is not true! Not only do various religions have different doctrines, they also provide fundamentally different paths towards what Julius Evola called transcendence.  This “transcendence” does exist in Christian thought though it has usually been called apotheosis.  The Buddhists call it enlightenment (to use the English equivalent).  Whatever you call it, this state can be achieved by following any of the major religions but the path to this state is very different depending on which religion you follow.  A “master” of one religion is mostly if not entirely the same as the master of another which is to say that they are generally headed to the same place but in very different ways.

My analysis identifies the following paths to transcendence as set out in the world’s four largest religions: Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism.

In Hinduism, the path to transcendence seems to be related to physical discipline and training through exercises associated with yoga, or meditations sometimes associated with Indian Buddhism.  This may be why Hinduism is not very popular outside of India — without the trappings of Hindu life, Hindu spirituality seems to be harder to grasp.

Islam’s path to transcendence is through submission to God’s will.  As has been previously noted, the word Islam itself is best translated as “submission.” As with Hinduism, it is difficult to know how to submit without the trappings of Arab culture.  This is why the Hadith is so important to Islam, even though the Qur’an says that no text besides the Qur’an is needed or should be trusted; it is simply difficult for most (but probably not all) people to submit to God’s will if they do not have an extensive body of secular laws available.  Sharia law provide a body which anyone can submit to and this helps the Muslim on his way to transcendence.  Yet obeying secular laws is never enough in of itself.

This brings us to Christianity.  Like Islam, Christianity provides secular laws.  Unlike Islam, Christianity emphasizes the possibility for deviance from these laws and that has been both a boon and a hurt for western culture.  The Christian path to transcendence is the path of forgiveness and it is the most difficult path to understand.  It is hard to understand because secular forgiveness is not the same thing as spiritual forgiveness.  It is possible to punish or even execute someone that you have forgiven spiritually.  The difficulty many people have in understanding and accepting this concept stems from the fact that fundamentally, those who cannot discern between secular and spiritual forgiveness do not believe in souls.  If someone believes in the soul, executing someone because it is necessary makes sense because their soul will go on to its destiny and be judged by God, not man.  If someone does not believe in the soul, it makes no sense to forgive someone who is dead and even less sense to execute (or punish) someone you’ve forgiven.  As some Buddhists have noted, forgiveness has an internal component and as the Bible says, one should forgive for their own sake and not actually for the sake of others because it is God who ultimately judges people and not men.

Last we can consider Buddhism.  The path to transcendence or enlightenment in Buddhism focuses upon denial of the self.  One should deny all attachments; not just pain but also pleasure and even love.  In materially dysfunctional forms this can mean that a Buddhist permanently abandons his family or even his society.  This monastic impulse can be found in many religions, including Christianity.  A more active form of Buddhism shows us the path of Avalokiteśvara, aka the “Bodhisattva of Compassion” who is reincarnated (and thus postpones his own Buddha-hood) in order to continue helping others in attaining their own enlightenment.  This form of Buddhism seems fundamentally opposed to the monastic trend which is probably stronger in Buddhism than in any other religion.  The monastic trend may also be associated with Buddhism’s modern decline today.  Of note is the lack of religious doctrines in Buddhism relating to fertility, something that has been hypothesized as influencing the low fertility rates found in east Asian countries today.

At this point, I personally believe that the Christian path to enlightenment is either the best or the worst path for most people to take.  Christianity is the world’s largest religion and Christian countries are by far the most powerful countries, yet great wealth has made us lose sight of the spiritual meaning of forgiveness as set out in the bible.  We’ve conflated spiritual forgiveness with material forgiveness and the results have been terrible: a breakdown of the family and countries so deep in debt that they become dysfunctional, limited for now to Greece but it’s something that will surely spread.  When western people approached forgiveness as a spiritual thing, they conquered the world; when they approach it as a material thing they lose the world.  One can only hope that not too many souls are lost with it.

Why Christianity?

Here is my catechism on “why Christianity” as well as “why have religion at all?” It’s based on reason and not scripture.

Why have Religion at all?

To have religion means to believe in a soul.  If someone does not believe in the soul then they have two choices: to be a complete nihilist and generally duck out of politics (and almost everything else) entirely, living only for their own enjoyments.  Most find that unacceptable even if they don’t believe in spirits or souls, so they go and affiliate themselves with a political ideology that makes quasi-religious overtures.  These overtures are usually a reference to the idea of creating a “heaven on earth” through wealth redistribution.  Wealth redistribution seems easy at first, but if one person grows their share of the wealth while others do not, you eventually have inequality all over again.  This usually results in those want to create a heaven on earth becoming communists or fascists.  These ideologies accept the idea of constant and endless warfare as a solution to the return of inequality.  Their governments don’t seem to stand the test of time; they are prone to corruption and infighting.  They never seem to satisfy themselves as much as other civilizations can, not even if they succeed in expelling their outside enemies and securing their hegemony.  The “revolution” never stops and this failure must rationally draw into question the objective value of their beliefs and goals.

This dilemma is one of the destructions that I believe God heaps upon the unfaithful; that they can never rest and never succeed.

I do believe in spirits or souls; so why not Buddhism?

You could be a Buddhist and believe in the soul but Buddhism has a doctrinal flaw.  This flaw is the idea that you are expected to avoid all “attachments” without exception.  A Buddhist’s own family is considered an attachment to the material world.  This means that Buddhists are encouraged to reject and even leave their own families, as the first Buddha Shakyamuni did.  This anti-family dialogue is probably why Buddhism is declining and is probably also indirectly responsible for the low fertility rates found in east Asian countries.

Why not Islam?

You could be a Muslim but this requires something very difficult and rationally questionable; namely Jihad.  Jihad is the state of endless conflict against the unbelievers and most of all against the fake Muslims.  The warrior Jihadist is said to rank above the non-violent Jihadist in heaven and this naturally means that the conflict will spill over into physical altercations.  Ironically, this makes Islam very similar to communism and fascism in that all of these ideologies result in endless conflict.  Islam is basically a totalitarian ideology (as communism and fascism are) except that Islam believes in a soul.  As with communist and fascist countries, Muslim countries usually lack the peace and prosperity which Christian (or non-totalitarian) countries have due to the infighting engendered by their beliefs.

Why Christianity?

If you’re a Christian, you can strive to do good and even to obtain and distribute communal luxuries.  You can avoid the pitfalls of extreme political ideologies because you believe in the soul; this belief obviates the need for building a heaven on earth.  Unlike with Buddhism, you can strive for (and are encouraged to seek) a large family.  Unlike with Islam, you can forgive and even be kind to those who won’t follow you.  Only in Christ can you find peace.  For me, I studied all of the major religions and decided that Christianity was rationally the best choice.