Exoteric Religious Beliefs

Not all major religions introduce the concept of God, nor monotheism. Buddhism has no concept of God and of course Hinduism literally has thousands of gods. But all major EXOTERIC religions (looking at the externals) embrace a trinity of conceptual beliefs that the ESOTERIC (the mystical WITHIN-ness) crowd does not.

Here are the trinitarian conceptual beliefs of exoteric religions of which Christianity is a main player.

1-There’s something wrong with humanhood (ignorance, original sin, evil, suffering, etc.)
2-Religion has the WAY to FIX you if you’ll be an obedient follower
3-Each religion has their own ideas of the code of ethics and social rules to make # 2 successful.

Voila! Follow the man with a plan, toe the doctrinal commandments, be faithful to the ritualistic commandments, and life will be good!

On the other hand, those who follow a more ESOTERIC approach to spirituality (the mystical journey) seek to transcend all dualities- including the good and evil one. The promise of heaven and hell that’s so popular with mainline Christianity is a really hard one to break free of especially since Sunday school is all about reinforcing the FEARS of hell and the PROMISES of heaven. And then we have all those cute little BIBLE STORIES that give kids nightmares. You know them right?

>Bears eating kids for making fun of a prophet.
>A big fish swallowing a person for being disobedient.
>Killing 70,000 people because someone (David) took a census.
>Wiping out the whole earth in a flood except for a handful of people.

Dang, man. Do we really need to pass these things on to our babies? Can I get a witness that God is Love, that we’re created in His (loving) image, and that He’ll NEVER leave us nor forsake us. Can’t we go WITHIN and find the comfort of the Spirit and leave all that external, exoteric HARSHNESS behind?

I AM!