Why Do Some Religious Paths Fail?

Why Do Some Religious Paths Fail?

When looking at Enlightenment paths from a religious point of view, there seems to be two basic philosophies. One is to seek that path from inside oneself, and the other is to have faith and believe that it will just happen.

Generally speaking, most of the Eastern paths such as Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism, and several more all teach that the path is found within.  Many of the Western paths advocate a path of faith, believing that you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven after you die. Ironically, even though most of the Western religions advocate a path based on faith, they still have roots that suggest the inner path. Within Christianity, Jesus is quoted as saying "The kingdom of Heaven is within" and "Know Thyself".  If you accept this as true, it then begs an obvious question. Why would you sit back and have faith, waiting until you die, to experience that kingdom?

Faith by definition is a strong belief or confidence in something despite the fact that there is no concrete proof or justification for that belief. As society continues to grow and we as a race become collectively more intelligent, fact and proof begin to offset the balance between faith and belief. It has always been within our nature as a race to seek answers to that which we don't understand. It is for this reason that people with higher educations, or those with scientific or inquisitive minds have less tendency to follow faith based religions.

Whether you seek a path through religion or are of an atheistic or agnostic persuasion, common sense would dictate that "knowing oneself"  is simple common sense. Understanding how and why our mind does what it does is the wisest thing we can ever do.

As Buddha is often quoted as saying, "Don't blindly believe what I say. Don't believe me because others convince you of my words. Don't believe anything you see, read, or hear from others, whether of authority, religious teachers or texts. Don't rely on logic alone, nor speculation. Don't infer or be deceived by appearances."
"Do not give up your authority and follow blindly the will of others. This way will lead to only delusion."
"Find out for yourself what is truth, what is real. Discover that there are virtuous things and there are non-virtuous things. Once you have discovered for yourself give up the bad and embrace the good."

Take the time to understand how your mind works, see how judgement sets into motion thoughts that will loop back to alter perceptions of events at a later date in the form of prejudices. Learn to observe the mind and all of its thoughts, see how these thoughts can bring about harm and suffering to the self and to others, see the good, bad and the ugly. It is only in this way that wisdom can emerge, and thus peace, tranquillity and joy will follow.

It doesn't require faith to observe ones own mind, only diligence.

Michael L. Fournier