Eastern religions are not falsely dualistic. Western religions (including Christianity, Judaism and Islam) all incorporated Western ways of organization and categorization, which for the most part, run counter to the founding principles of these faiths: individualism prevailed over community, the brain over the heart, control over harmony, division over unity. Instead of asking, "How shall we live?" they ask "What should we believe?" Eastern religions (and Native-American and most indigenous religions) therefore tend to be religions of practice, while Western religions are (relatively) religions of doctrine.

Jesus didn't come to establish doctrine. He came to help people discover a fuller, more evolved, loving, richer way to  live–to find peace, wholeness–to stop hurting others–to draw closer to the divine–to be fully who they are meant to be. This is the same intent as any other, whole, highly spiritual leader. Same goal. Same point. Same purpose.

All faiths have the potential to be twisted to serve the needs of the distorted few–and probably most have. Does the "Western, dualistic mind" make it more likely than the "Eastern mind"? I'm thinking "yes," because the Western mind easily supports the notions of individualism, separation, isolationism–all of which, in turn, help justify prejudice, rejection, arrogance, grandiosity, selfishness, greed and materialism.

I want, in my faith, to escape these dangers of dualistic thinking, to return to what Jesus taught. But it's very, very tough to do, because I am so a product of the Western way of thinking and being in the world, a way of thinking and being that would have been foreign to Jesus and his first followers.

Text and image © 2010 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.