These religions are
connected to Nature and to the Earth, and thereby are peaceful and
passive. They are part of an organic unfoldment of life, and not the
imposition of an ideology or dogma. They breathe the cycles of
eternity and are not historical revelations. They are interwoven
with the culture of the people and must be taken up as part of the
whole way of life.
They aim at spiritual
experience, a greater awareness of both the cosmos and oneself,
which they would never reduce to a series of beliefs, and they
generally believe in rebirth or reincarnation. They contain similar
traditions of Yoga, shamanism, dance and chanting as the Hindu, and
a knowledge of higher states of consciousness, both occult and
spiritual, though not always to the same degree.
Buddhism
and Jainism primarily belong to this category, as they have an
organic basis and emphasize meditational experience rather than
belief (which cultural base is largely Hindu), and have a great
respect for Nature and the sacredness of all life. Taoism and Shinto are
entirely of the second group. Judaism contains aspects of the second
group as well, as it is an organic tradition, rooted in a people and
a culture, and not seeking world domination. Yet rejecting the image
worship and the multiple deities of native religions, it has aspects
of the first group as well.
|