Religion and Humanity for a Global Society

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENS

Graphics table of Contents ................................................................................................. x

Translator’s Introduction ................................................................................................... xi

  Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. xxii

  

Part I: A Paradigm for a New Global Religion

 

Preface to Part I ............................................................................................................ 2

I. Differences in the Teaching of the Present World Religions ................................. 3

1.      The Issues of Karma and Reincarnation .................................................................... 3

2.      Eschatology: Its Presence and Absence .................................................................... 4

3.      The Relationship between Mind and Matter ............................................................. 4

4.      Morality, Sin, Punishment and Judgment .................................................................. 6

5.      Conceptual Differences between God and the Absolute ............................................ 9

 6.      The Relationship between God and Human Beings .................................................. 12

 

II. A Synthesis between Semitic Religions and Hinduism and Buddhism:

Self-power vs. Other-power ...............................................................................16

7.      Other-power religions and Self-power Religions ..................................................16    

    1. Religions of the Desert Zones Are Essentially Other-power Religions ............... 16
    2. Religions of the Forest Zones Are Self-power Religions ................................... 17

8.      A Synthesis between Other-Power and Self-power Religions.............................. 18  

    1. The Insistence on Individual Autonomy in Other-power Religions ......................18
    2. Weak Autonomy in the Actual Life of Self-power Religions ............................. 19
    3. A Synthesis between Other-power and Self-power ......................................... 20
    4. Differences and a Synthesis between Religions of the Desert Zone and

Religions of the Forest Zone ........................................................................... 21

 

III. A Synthesis between Other-power Religions and Self-power Religions ............. 23

IV. Religion and Science: Their Differences .............................................................. 27

9.      Science ............................................................................................................... 27

10.  The Desert Religions Have a Material Basis for Establishing Science ..................... 28

11.  Peoples of Asian Religions Lived Interfused with Nature ....................................... 31

  12.  The Difficulty of Establishing Science for Asian Religions :

Nature and Matter Are Grasped from the Mind-aspect ........................................ 33

13.  Are There Material-aspects and Mind-aspects in Matter ?..................................... 34

14.  A Method of Observing the Image and Flame of a Candle .................................... 36

15.  The Light Experiment ........................................................................................... 37

  16.  Mind Exists at the Base of Matter and at the Base of Science is

the World of Spiritual Beings ................................................................................ 41

V. Religion and Politics ................................................................................................ 44

17.  What is religion and What Is Politics? ................................................................... 44

18.  The Relationship between Religion and Politics ..................................................... 45

19.  What Is Human Existence? .................................................................................. 45

20.  Modern States and Their Forms of Politics ........................................................... 47

21.  The Relationship between Politics and Religion in Modern States .......................... 47

22.  The Relationship between Politics and Religion in a Global Society ........................ 49

VI. A Paradigm for a New Global Religion ............................................................. 51

23. Karma and Reincarnation ..................................................................................... 54

A.     Reincarnation ................................................................................................. 54

B.     Karmic Retribution and Free Will ................................................................... 54

24.Precepts and Morality ........................................................................................... 56

25.Mind and Matter .................................................................................................. 57

26.Co-existence of Religion and Science .................................................................... 57

27. Religion and Politics ............................................................................................. 58

A.     Holistic Human Existence ............................................................................... 59

B.     Politics in Actuality ......................................................................................... 59

C.     A Future Political Form .................................................................................. 60

   28. Conceptual Integration of the Creator God in the Semitic Religion and

the Absolute in Buddhism ..................................................................................... 61

 

Part II: The Holistic Human Being

Preface to Part II ........................................................................................................... 65

I. The Relationship between Humans and Nature and between

Mind and Matter ....................................................................................................... 67

1.      The Relationship between Humans and Nature and between

a.                                                                               Mind and Matter in the Semitic Religious and Cultural Sphere ............................... 67

A.     Opposition ..................................................................................................... 67

B.     The Establishment of Science ......................................................................... 67

C.     Reason for Oppositional Thinking ................................................................... 68

2.      The Relationship between Humans and Nature                                                           

a.                                                                                           and between Mind and Matter in the Asian Sphere ......................................... 69

A.     The Explicit Manifestation of the Greater Life of Nature .................................. 69

B.     Homogeneity and Interfusion with Nature ....................................................... 70

C.     The Difficulty in Developing a Science ............................................................ 70

D.     The Spiritual Element in Matter: Another Reason Science Was Not

Developed ..................................................................................................... 70

  3.      An Initial Experiment Exploring the Mechanism and Condition for

Interaction between Mind and Matter ................................................................... 71

II. The Relationship of Humans to God and to the Absolute ..................................... 73

4. The Semitic Cultural Sphere ................................................................................... 73

A.     The Absolute Distinction between God and Humans ....................................... 73

B.     No Freedom for Human Beings ..................................................................... 73

C.     Christ as Mediator ......................................................................................... 74

D.     The Relationship between the Creator and Created ........................................ 75

E.      Revelation: A Connection between God and Humanity ................................... 76

5. The Asian Cultural Sphere ..................................................................................... 76

A.     Homogeneity between God, Humans and Nature ........................................... 76

B.     The Logic of Sokuhi ...................................................................................... 76

III. Humans and Morality ............................................................................................ 79

6.      Morality in the Semitic Cultural Sphere ................................................................. 79

A.     Morality and Precepts as God’s Command, Torah and Covenant ................... 79

B.     The Necessity for Strong Control of Community Life in the Desert .................. 79

C.     Absolute Observance of God’s Morality and Precepts and

Its Consequences: Sin and Punishment ........................................................... 80

D.     Is There Autonomy for the Human Who Observes Morality? .......................... 80

E.      Morality as a Humanly Fabricated Regulation ................................................. 80

7.      The Asian Cultural Sphere: Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism and Shintoism ............... 81

  A.     Spiritual Training for the Purification of One’s Soul

and for Achieving Satori ................................................................................. 81

              B.     The Difference in Morality between the Asian Cultural Sphere and the Semitic                             Cultural Sphere Arises from Their Respective Fundamental Worldviews ......... 82

 C.     Individual Responsibility and the Karma of Action .......................................... 84

D.     Individualism in the Semitic Cultural Sphere and Groupism in the Asian Cultural                                                      Sphere........................................................86

 

IV. The Community and the Individual ........................................................................ 87

8.      The Relationship between the Community and the Individual in the

Semitic Cultural Sphere ........................................................................................ 87

A.     The Islamic Cultural Sphere............................................................................. 87

  B.     The Western European Cultural Sphere and

                     the Eastern European Cultural Sphere ................................................ 88

9.      The Relationship between the Individual and the Community in

the Southeast and East Asian Cultural Spheres ..................................................... 95

 

V. Karma and Reincarnation ....................................................................................... 101

   10.  Christ Knew the Fact of Reincarnation ................................................................101

11.  Reasons for the Difficulty in Developing Teaching on Karma and Reincarnation in the Semitic Religious and Cultural Sphere................................................... 103

A.     The Difficulty in Incorporating the Thought of Reincarnation in an Eschatology.... 103

B.     Emphasis on God’s Singularity, Transcendence and Spirituality Denies

the Theory of Reincarnation .......................................................................... 103

C.     Tending toward Heaven Involves Rejecting the Theory of Reincarnation............104

D.     The Theory of Reincarnations Is Difficult to Develop in Faiths Centered on Other-                                         power......................................................................104

E.      The Theory of Reincarnation Is Difficult to Develop in a Communal Religion .... 104

F.      The Idea of Karma Is Difficult to Develop in the Islamic Tradition ................... 105

 

12.  The Asian Cultural Sphere (Buddhism, Hinduism, Daoism and Shintoism)

Teaches the Theory of Reincarnation .................................................................... 106

13.  Definitions of Karma and Reincarnation ................................................................ 110

14.  The Purpose and Necessity of Reincarnation ........................................................ 112

 VI. Individual Freedom, Rights and Obligations.............................................. 115

  15.  A Comparison between Europe and Asian in Regard to

Individual Freedom, Rights and Obligations .......................................................... 115

VII. The Holistic Human Being ................................................................................... 120

16.  Holistic Human Existence: Its Multi-Dimensionality ............................................... 120

17.  The Body ............................................................................................................ 120

A.     The Nature of the Body ................................................................................. 120

B.     The Principle of Matter .................................................................................. 121

C.     The Principle of Mind .................................................................................... 121

D.     University (Sociality) and Particularity of the Body .......................................... 122

18.  The Mind ............................................................................................................ 123

A.     The Structure of the Human Mind .................................................................. 123

B.     Sensory Perception and Desire ...................................................................... 124

C.     Emotion and Imagination ................................................................................ 124

D.     Thinking ........................................................................................................ 125

E.      Will and Action .............................................................................................. 125

F.      Consciousness and the Unconscious ............................................................... 129

19.  Differences between Particularity and Commonality in the Human Body

                         and Mind ................................................................................... 130

20.  The Soul................................................................................................................ 132

A.     Ki-energy and the Meridians .......................................................................... 132

B.     Cakras and the Meridians .............................................................................. 137

C.     The Astral Mind and Body ............................................................................. 141

a)      The Astral Mind: Emotion and Imagination ......................................... 141

b)      The Astral Body, Matter and Nature .................................................. 141

c)      Cakras .............................................................................................. 144

d)      Sexual Distinction .............................................................................. 144

e)      Particularity and Universality of the Astral Soul ................................... 145

f)        Perception of the Astral Soul .............................................................. 145

D.     The Soul in the Karana Dimension ................................................................. 146

a)      The Soul of the Body in the Karana Dimension .................................. 146

 b)      Characteristics of a Free Soul: The Ability to

Simultaneously Exist ........................................................................... 147

 c)      The Essential Activity of the Karana Soul: The Realization of

the Universal Truth ............................................................................. 147

d)      The Individuality of the Karana Soul ................................................... 148

e)      Particularity and the Karmic Law ....................................................... 148

21.  The Relationship between Humans in the Physical, Astral and

Karana Dimensions ............................................................................................. 149

A. The Astral and Karana Soul Working with Respect to the Restrictions

of the Physical Body ...................................................................................... 149

a)      Cognition of the External World and Activity Based on

Perception and the Limbic System ...................................................... 149

b)      Emotion in the Astral and Physical Dimensions .................................... 150

c)      Reason .............................................................................................. 151

B. A Psi-Energy Experiment: The Light Experiment .............................................. 151

a)      AMI Data on the Psychic M.Y. ......................................................... 151

  b)      Experiment on M.Y.’s Psychic Power:

The Light Experiment ......................................................................... 154

                                                                                 i.            The Experiment Room and the Method of Measurement ......... 154

                                                                               ii.            Polygraph Recordings ............................................................ 158

c)      Implications of the Light Experiment ................................................... 161

                                                                                 i.            Refutation of the Christian Interpretation of Miracles ............... 161

                                                                               ii.            Subjective and Objective Science .......................................... 162

d) Concluding Remarks ........................................................................... 163

C. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 165

Appendix 1 ........................................................................................................ 167

Appendix 2 ........................................................................................................ 170

Endnotes ............................................................................................................ 173

Bibliography ...................................................................................................... 220

Index .................................................................................................................. 223

 

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Differences and a Synthesis between Religions of the Desert Zone and Religions of the Forest Zone

         What seems to be the fundamental difference between the religions of the desert zone and the religions of the forest zone is the absolute distinction between God qua creator and nature/humans qua created. It is the contention of the desert religions that humans can never become God. By contrast, in the religions of the forest zone, the greater life-power of the cosmos, God or the Absolute, manifests itself in nature and humans and their relationship is accordingly understood: All natural existence and human are essentially the same as God or the Absolute. Therefore, humans can also become a God.

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