Higher Religions

[Toramana]

Which religions can be counted higher religion? Has it something to do with monotheism? Is Hindu religion also a higher religion?

[R3SISTANC3]

Which religions can be counted higher religion? Has it something to do with monotheism? Is Hindu religion also a higher religion?

If you mean a religion that stresses higher spirituality than others then it has to be Buddhism. Monotheism is more concerned with a purest and rationalist approach to belief and/or spirituality, but it draws clear boundaries and red lines.

My personal hypothesis is this sequence = Animism > Shamanism > Polytheism > Monotheism which then leads to either atheist or agnosticism, and they yet lead to nihilism.

It is the result of the quintessential primitive human mind trying to rationalize the irrational = existence.

[faye]

shamanistic religious rituals with peyote, mescaline and amanita mescaria, get you higher, tors.

[randolph85]

according to islam?

it would be the abrahamic monotheistic faiths. even in judaism and christianity there are shreds of truth.

[RevolutionThroughReason]

The Higher Religion is simple, it teaches us the value of all things in the universe, the interconnectedness of all life and all matter, the need for respect and responsibility and encouraging justice done in accordance to the well-being of all beings within the order of nature.

[faye]

i don't categorise religions as higher or lower and i like different ideas from them, including pagan religions.
zen buddhism is one i like a lot but i don't agree with the idea of karma and their view of reincarnation.
the ideas i have found more comprehensive overall, are from non-religious sources.

[Hakim Khan Urgonai]

Shiva-based Hinduism and Qalandariyya Sufism are two religions where you can get HIGH on some cheeba.

[faye]

ah, but i was talking about the 'higher'

[Badlun]

i don't categorise religions as higher or lower and i like different ideas from them, including pagan religions.
zen buddhism is one i like a lot but i don't agree with the idea of karma and their view of reincarnation.
the ideas i have found more comprehensive overall, are from non-religious sources.

I also like zen buddhism. Osho the guru and master is mainly inspired from Zen. Read his books and every where he refers to Zen. Although Zen is not a religion in the true sense of the word.

All religions have good points. I follow Islam as a religion in beliefs, worship and morality. The problem with Islam is that it has been misinterpreted as a system and not as a religion specially by Ahle hadith, Wahabis and Salafis. Thats why the spiritual and sufi concept is dwindeling in Islam.

I dont understand the concept of High religion. Can you elaborate it a bit more please?

[faye]

if you are talking to me osho, i was playing on the word 'higher', in that some of the shamanistic and shiva religion, get high on psychotropic drugs.

[RevolutionThroughReason]

All religions have good points. I follow Islam as a religion in beliefs, worship and morality. The problem with Islam is that it has been misinterpreted as a system and not as a religion specially by Ahle hadith, Wahabis and Salafis. Thats why the spiritual and sufi concept is dwindeling in Islam.

http://www.mojaddedi.org/sufism-and-shariah.html

SUFISM AND SHARI`AH,
FROM SHAYKH AHMAD SIRHINDI
The Shari`ah is of fundamental importance to the Sufi path. This point is very strongly made by the great Naqshbandi Sufi, Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi (also known as Imam ar-Rabbani), in his letters. Here is a small excerpt from one of his letters, where he clarifies this topic:

The Shari`ah has three parts: knowledge, action, and sincerity of motive (ikhlas); unless you fulfil the demands of all these parts, you do not obey the Shari`ah. And when you obey the Shari`ah you obtain the pleasure of God, which is the most supreme good in this world and the Hereafter. The Qur'an says: "The pleasure of God is the highest good." Hence, the Shari`ah comprehends all the good of this world and the next, and nothing is left out for which one has to go beyond the Shari`ah.
The tariqah ["way"] and the haqiqah ["reality"] for which the Sufis are known, are subservient to the Shari`ah, as they help to realize its third part, namely, sincerity. Hence they are sought in order to fulfil the Shari`ah, not to achieve something beyond the Shari`ah. The raptures and ecstasies which the Sufis experience, and the ideas and truths which come to them in the course of their journey, are not the goal of Sufism. They are rather myths and fancies on which the children of Sufism are fed. One has to pass over them all and reach the stage of satisfaction (rida) which is the final goal of suluk ["travelling", i.e. the Sufi path] and jadhbah ["overwhelming love"]. The purpose of traversing the stages of of tariqah and haqiqah is nothing other than the realisation of ikhlas which involves the attainment of rida. Only one out of a thousand Sufis is graced with the three illuminations (tajalliyat sih ganah) and gnostic visions, given ikhlas and elevated to the stage of rida.

[Quoted from "Sufism and Shari`ah: A study of Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's Effort to Reform Sufism," by Muhammad Abdul Haq Ansari, pp. 221-2. Originally from Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi's letters, Vol. I:36.]