"Do not go by reasoning, nor by inferring, nor by argument" -
the Buddha.
"When you do not understand, then you will know". - Zen student
"Mind always protects what is false. Mind is a black light"
- Guru Maharaji Ji
"He who knows, doesn't speak; he who speaks, doesn't know" -
Lao-Tse
"To the law and the testimony! If they do not speak according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isaiah 8:20, The
Bible.
Turned off by the deadness and hypocrisy of much of conventional churchianity,
multitudes of people have sought wisdom, inspiration and inner peace by
turning to the philosophies and religions of the East. A guru once
told Os Guinness:
"To the Christian, talk of God is rather like the great bulk of an
iceberg, whereas his experience of God is only the tiny tip of the iceberg;
but for the Easterner the experience of God is the bulk of the iceberg,
whereas his talk about God is only the tip."
It is true that in many churches there is more talk of love than love, more talk of peace than real peace, and more talk of God than God. Jesus promised living water to those who believe in him, but many churches have left people thirsty because they have not known how to receive this living water of the Spirit. I know this from personal experience myself. Having been brought up in the church all my life, it was not until the age of 19 that I actually became conscious of the powerful reality of the presence of God in my heart for the first time. My own church had not taught me how to know God in that way.
George Harrison, of the Beatles is reputed to have said, "I kicked the concept of the man in the sky a long time ago." He wanted to experience divinity. We live in an age where people want more than a religious theory or dogma. People want the reality of an experience that gives them true fulfilment in life. The Eastern philosophies promise this, and multitudes have turned to them for help and enlightenment. But is it right? Is it true? Can something so illogical actually be the path to true enlightenment? See "Irrationality and the Eastern Mindset".
What Feels Good is not always true
Many eastern philosophies encourage people to throw out their minds, so that they can shake off their delusions and come into a knowledge that they are "part of everything" and "One with the Universe". Even though our minds are not perfect, and sometimes deceive us, we should approach suggestions to discard our rationality with a great deal of caution. Why is this?
To give an example: they say it feels good to be under hypnosis. So relaxed, so peaceful. Yet a person under hypnosis has lost the ability to resist deception. Such a person can easily be made to believe things and experience things that are not true. They can be tampered with emotionally, intellectually and in every way, given enough skill and patience on the part of the hypnotist.
A lot of practices in eastern religion is similar to hypnosis. Yoga and meditation is related to self-hypnosis. It may offer some short term emotional benefits. But the lock to the mind and will has now been broken open, and now the person is more vulnerable to suggestion and manipulation. A lot of psychological damage can be done in this way. The mind becomes vulnerable to suggestions from a source which will always actually oppose the Spirit of God. This is why you will find a hostility towards the Bible and Christian concepts amongst those who have given themselves over to eastern meditation.
Eastern meditation sometimes fails to give the practitioner the peace and sense of well-being that they were looking for. They may then feel attracted to some guru, who is supposedly far more advanced and can help speed them along their way in the quest for godhood.
But all this can lead to blind, irrational devotion to a guru who becomes your master. Gurus, while perhaps preaching simplicity to their followers, often live lives of incredible opulence and luxury. They can easily achieve this by manipulating their willing followers to discard their rationality, abandon themselves to the guru, and give all they own to him. Some are happy to do this because of the pleasant experiences they may have in the process, and the belief that somehow they are becoming wise and enlightened in the process. I feel that people who do this are selling themselves short. Once a person consents to be brainwashed and enslaved to a person, they are in serious trouble.
The experiences obtained through eastern meditation can generally be obtained more quickly through the taking of drugs - especially drugs like LSD. Such drugs can produce such amazing, exhilirating illusions in the mind that can seem so ultimate and beyond all that has been known before. But are these kinds of experiences going to lead to the true and living God? That is certainly an important question, and one that should be considered.
There is a negative side to these practices also. Not all trips on drugs are pleasant or exhilirating. Many are hellish, tormenting and destructive. The same is true in the area of eastern religious practice. Take for example this testimony of a film maker who tried eastern religion for a time. Many other similar testimonies exist.
There is nevertheless an uncanny power associated with eastern religions and gurus. An example of this can be seen in one incident, reported in the book "Riders of the Cosmic Circuit". A lady went to the commune of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (who actually died of a heart attack a few years ago). She went distressed because her daughter, a devotee of the guru, had committed suicide there. Yet this lady was so overpowered by the spirit in that place that she herself became a devotee of the same guru whose teachings led her daughter to commit suicide. One is hard pressed to explain such stupidity in naturalistic terms alone. The power at work here I believe was the same power that caused the nation of Germany to worship and adore Adolf Hitler, and caused multitudes of young women to fanatically worship the Beatles in the 1960's. The Beatles, incidently, became followers of the founder of Transcendental Meditation for a period of time, and used their influence to hugely popularise Eastern religion in the western world.
It has been the tendency of mankind to worship something less than the Creator God Himself. Whether we worship men, or demons, idols or material things, we will be the losers. The Universe itself is not God - but it points to the reality of an intelligent, caring Creator, who wants us to give ourselves to Him and to trust Him. The root of all our problems is our deception which has led us to reject Him and go after other sources of spiritual life. But these sources turn out to be cruel deceptions, gateways to everlasting torments. Not a few taste of these torments even before they die.
Please consider the gospel of Jesus Christ.
You don't have to throw out your mind to believe in Jesus. But knowing
God through Jesus Christ will put you in touch with a Love that is more
than words themselves can express. Can you overcome the resistance within
yourself to God's love and the message of God through the Bible? Why not
read some of the testimonies of those who
have been touched and changed by God's power.
Michael Fackerell