No offense please. I don't mean to judge. Is New Age just a rip-off of Buddhism? Also are New Agers co-opting and appropriating indigenous cultures?
It is the Hindus who built a temple to the unknown gods, and they wrote many centuries ago that there are many paths to god, many messengers of god, and many sons of god, not necessarily just the ones that they knew and wrote about at that time. This part of New Age, I find closer to Hinduism than Buddhism. New Age does not borrow from one religion only, but from wherever it finds something useful for insight. The key New Age teaching from Buddha, in my opinion, is to have faith and trust in only that which you can verify for yourself. That is contrary to the teachings of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
To some degree, yes. I don't care about crystals, pyramids, or anything like that which some people consider to be important parts of it.
Not exactly. There is a primary investigative premise in christ teaching. Seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you. Another saying like it, we know them by their fruit. Them speaking for what a thing is for, i.e. whether a thing is nourishing to our ends of not. We have in christ teaching adjuncts to buddhist teaching as in buddhism we have adjuncts to hinduism indicating a universal curriculum that emerges in many forms of which appear increasingly complementary as we share in-formation thus new age synthesis. Another element of christ teaching is our relationship to perceptive apprehension including sayings like the measure, (being an evaluation,) you give is the measure you receive and so the teaching on relative evaluations or the subjective quality of such perceptions extends to the exhortation not to judge or measure the value of a man because that is all you will see of him but to rather use right judgement in terms of coming to understanding him and our function in the world. Either make the tree good and it's fruit good or make the tree bad and it's fruit bad. Either make humanity qualities good or make them bad.That is what is the same is the same and what is different is different and not the same. This is the beginning of the idea of taxonomical classification.
But you are asked, in the monotheistic tradition, to believe, at risk of pain of eternal agony. Blind faith in the statements of the holy books is the highest virtue . . . doubt is not seen a strength, but as a weakness, sometimes even planted in you by dark demonic influences. In fact just to believe in the divinity of jesus is enough; no other moral, metaphysical, physical, or any other kind of actions need be done. Once you claim membership to the club of belief, you have attained the highest goal you can, and your place in heaven is guarranteed in due time. No other tasks need be done; no other considerations matter.
I wasn't referring to monotheistic tradition but to the teaching of logos or the christ teaching which consists of axiomatic sayings which serve as a basis for further reasoning. One of those sayings being they worship me in vain teaching as doctrines the precepts of men. This statement refers directly to what you are talking about. There are sectarian divisions in all religions based on this phenomena.and of these it is said they neither enter in themselves nor allow anyone else to enter. Jesus claim was that those who believed him believed not on him but on the one who sent him. Further not everyone who says to me lord lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven but those who do the will of the father. For an additional perspective on the kind of devotion looked for every sin and blaspheme will be forgiven but blaspheme against the spirit will not be forgiven. and whoever says a word against the son of man will be forgiven but blaspheme against the holy spirit, (in men,) shall not be forgiven. By this then they shall know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. This summary statement shows that contrary to what you have heard the route to the salvation of the world is through loving each other.
For a base similarity in different forms the way to approach god in christ teaching is to go in your room and shut the door and pray to your father in secret who knows you in secret. Zazen that.
In response to the Indigenous question, in many ways, yes. Here is a great zine on the important issue Wanting to be Indian: When Spiritual Searching Turns into Cultural Theft
