OFFICIAL RELIGION/SPIRITUALITY/MYSTICISM RANKING THREAD
ABSOLUTE-TIER
Neo-Platonism
Sufism
Taoism
Zen Buddhism
Hermeticism
GOD-TIER
Christian Orthodox
Hinduism
Theravada Buddhism
Kabbalah
MID-TIER
Mahayana Buddhism
Vajrayana Buddhism
Confucianism
Judaism
SHIT-TIER
Islam
Catholicism
Protestantism
IDK ENOUGH ABOUT THEM-TIER
Jainism
Bahai Faith
Sikhism
Shinto
>Hermeticism not garbage tier
>ABSOLUTE-TIER
Neo-Platonism
LOOOONG LIVE PLOTINUS AND THE ONE !
>>431945
mah nigga
Good list
>he doesn't know how to do power rankings
Pathetic
>>431925
Whats really the difference between Orthodox Christianity and Catholicism/Protestantism that warrants such a different ranking? I assume your ranking is based on the actual doctrine, and not on the followers, otherwise Zen Buddhism, aka "goofy white American Buddhism that isn't really Buddhism" probably shouldn't be so high
>>431984
Because orthodox christianity has a higher spirituality i guess, hesychasm, gregory palamas, pseudo-dionysius you know
>>431984
I guess the solemnity and distaste for frills and whistles, I suppose. Orthobros just seem based as fuck. I was raised Orthodox and I wasn't diddled by priest, I didn't have dogma forced down my throat, I didn't have people shrieking at me about hell, all that. Just a chill religion for dudes who want to be closer to God. I can fuck with that.
and you know Zen is japanese right?
>>431925
>Truth tier
Islam
Why are Amerifats still butthurt. Islam is literally the most theologically perfect religion in history.
>>432004
>>432004
Bait?
>>431925
>Absolute
>Hermeticism
>God
>Kabbalah
But then where does that leave Hermetic Kabbalah? What about Hekhalot mysticism from Judaism which then developed into Kabbalah? Where would you put Bon?
Anyway, Jain material is really fucking cool, imo. It always resonated with me more than Buddhism, or the vast majority of the material within. Just my feelpinions.
>>432055
Why do you think so? Just curious.
To be honest I don't know enough about the difference between Kabbalah and Qabbalah to draw a distinction, besides the difference in terminology. I'd say Jewish Kabbalah is God-tier and Qabbalah is definitely Absolute-tier. Shit owns
>>431925
>Judaism listed as one religion
>Islam only divided into 'Islam' and 'Sufism'
Bullshit tier
Neo-Platonism
Sufism
Taoism
Zen Buddhism
Hermeticism
Christian Orthodox
Hinduism
Theravada Buddhism
KabbalahMahayana Buddhism
Vajrayana Buddhism
Confucianism
Judaism
Islam
Catholicism
Protestantism
Jainism
Bahai Faith
Sikhism
Shinto
>>432071
The metaphysics seems cleaner, tighter. Makes sense as they both arise out of Sramana so there's going to be a lot of functional overlap. It's an ascetic thin with less emphasis on everything being suffering and more directly on union w/ God(head).
To most Western eyes it looks a lot like it's sister and cousin traditions (liberation via yoga-like practices, enlightenment, nonviolence, etc.), I just like the details better.
>Kabbalah v Qabbalah
Linguistically there's zero difference but there's a kind of unspoken agreement in the publishing community that Qabbalah with a Q tends to cover a lot of what I guess would be Christian elaboration, particularly derived from the last couple hundred years. K gets used more often when describing more or less Hebrew systems, though it's not a hard/fast rule.
>>432124
dibs fedora
>>432125
I got you, thanks for clarifying.
>>432160
Well, again, not hard & fast: Godwin's Qabbalistic Encyclopedia uses a Q but is mostly Biblical Hebrew. Just maybe read a dustjacket to get an idea of how it's being used where.
RE: Jains - the wiki article here looks like it's been cleaned up and expanded a lot since the last time I looked. It's still got some issues but it seems better:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karma_in_Jainism
I don't think I have the book on them I used to read out of, I'm going to have to pick up some material for the library.
>>432179
Honestly, realtalk for a second. Is all this shit true? There's just so much congruence in religion about karma, reincarnation/transmigration of the soul, the primacy of love etc. Even NDEs support these views. Is this shit the real fucking deal? it just sounds too good to be true
What about Rodnovery?
>>432191
paganism in general goes under god-tier. it's too based for anything less
>>432188
>is all this shit true?
Pic related.
Try some practices from any given discipline and find out yourself.
>>432208
good answer to be honest family
i've read, pondered, and occasionally meditated on this shit for so long I really think it is. but I don't know
>>431925
>ABSOLUTE-TIER
>Neo-Platonism
>Sufism
>Taoism
>Zen Buddhism
>Hermeticism
white kids that dabble in eastern religions fuck off
better get ready for sunday service, faggot
>>432263
>neo-platonism
>eastern
>sufism
>eastern
>hermeticism
>eastern
Time to take the midnight train back to reddit friendo
>>432263
Christianity is literally an Eastern religion.
Biblical Christianity is the truth.
Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
>God Tier
Agnosticism
Catholicism
Platonism
Mahayana Buddhism
Sikhism
Taoism
Zoroastrianism
>High Tier
Aztec polytheism
Gnosticism
Mandaeism
Nihilistic atheism
Jainism
Orthodoxy
Shaktism
Sufi Islam
Vaishnavism
Zen
>Mid Tier
Anglicanism
Discordianism
Hellenic polytheism
Norse polytheism
Karaite Judaism
Secular humanism
Shinto
Smarta
Sunni Islam
Vajrayana Buddhism
>Low Tier
Bahai faith
Hermeticism
Kabbalah
LaVeyan Satanism
Jehovah's Witnesses
Protestantism
Rabbinic Judaism
Shaivism
Shia Islam
Theravada Buddhism
>Shit Tier
Creativity
Goddess movement
Hasidic Judaism
Mormonism
Nation of Islam
Sam Harris
Scientology
Spiritualism
Theistic Satanism
Raelism
Wicca
>>431925
SHIT TIER
Everything on your list
Tipping my fedora so hard right now btw
>>431925
That's actually pretty accurate of a list. Mysticism is ultimately one of the biggest factors in spiritualism. Shintoism is also pretty based since they emphasis spirtual matters as taking place on the same realm as humans, which means a very close relationship with the spirits.
>>431984
They actually take mysticism seriously. Protestants actively campaign against it and Catholics bureaucratize everything.
In general Catholics and to the mainstream islamics dislike mystism, because the it takes away institutional power from the church body and gives it to the mystical teacher or even worst the individual. Basically they want their own clerical body to be the highest authority people have available to them. No man God doesn't talk to you, he talks to the Pope and your job is to listen! Here read this officially sanctioned church doctrine and stop trying to actually connect to God!
The Protestants hate mystism because they tried to insist God isn't physically present in any rituals, which means you can't have a connection to him.
The Orthodox actually promote mysticism and stress the importance of connection the Divine through ritual and reflection.
>>432474
You're completely right. There certainly weren't any Catholic mystics.
>>431925
>judaism mid tier
You can't rank the truth
>>431925
my compilation of resources
http://pastebin.com/npKWszAt
>===RESSOURCES on the CONTEMPLATION===
===IMPORTANT BOOKS===
>insisting on the setting the samatha first, this book recast the use of the mindfulness through the three angas
[swift introduction to the various sources PLUS good introduction to ''mindfulness'']
A History of Mindfulness Bhikkhu Sujato.pdf
http://santifm.org/santipada/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/A_History_of_Mindfulness_Bhikkhu_Sujato.pdf
Bikkhu analayo:
His talk from 2015 exposes that he contemplates the metta because the contemplation of the breath fails for him.
http://dharmaseed.org/teacher/439/
http://www.audiodharma.org/teacher/208/
https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html
>Bhikkhu Anālayo is a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu), scholar and meditation teacher. He was born in Germany in 1962, and ‘went forth’ in 1995 in Sri Lanka. He is best known for his comparative studies of early Buddhist texts as preserved by the various early Buddhist traditions.Bhikkhu Anālayo is a Buddhist monk (bhikkhu), scholar and meditation teacher.
>the direct path to nirvana via the famous satipatthana sutta exposed by a theravadan
Anãlayo satipatthana direct path analayo free-distribution-copy2.pdf
https://ahandfulofleaves.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/satipatthana_direct-path_analayo_free-distribution-copy2.pdf
plus analayo's non-free book which continues satipatthana_direct-path_analayo
Perspectives on Satipatthana
>>432508
>My first book, Satipaṭṭhāna: The Direct Path to Realization, came out of a PhD I did in Sri Lanka. It was the product of my academic study of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the practical experience I had gained in meditation, and what I had read about the experience of other meditators and teachers – I tried to bring all that together to come to a better understanding of the text itself.
>At that time I was working on the Pali sources of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta because the Buddha’s teachings were transmitted orally from India to Sri Lanka and then eventually written down in Pali, which is fairly similar to the original language or languages that the Buddha would have spoken. However, the transmission of the Buddha’s teachings also went in other directions, and we have versions of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta in Chinese and Tibetan. So after completing my PhD I learnt Chinese and Tibetan so that I could engage in a comparative study of parallel textual lineages, and this is the focus of my new book, Perspectives on Satipaṭṭhāna.
>Although this was, at the outset, mainly an academic enterprise, what I discovered really changed the focus of my practice. When I took out the exercises that were not common to all three versions of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, I was left with a vision of mindfulness meditation that was very different to anything I would have expected. Contemplation of the body, which is the first of the four satipaṭṭhānas, for example, is usually practised in the form of the mindfulness of breathing and being mindful of bodily postures, but these exercises are not found in all versions. What I found in all three versions were the exercises that most of us do not like to do: seeing the body as made out of anatomical parts and thus as something that it is not beautiful, as something that is made up of elements and thus does not belong to me, and the cemetery contemplations – looking at a corpse that is decaying.
>>432512
>So then I understood: body contemplation is not so much about using the body to be mindful. It is rather predominantly about using mindfulness to understand the nature of the body. As a result of these practices one will become more mindful of the body, but the main thrust is much more challenging. The focus is on insight – understanding the body in a completely different way from how it is normally perceived.
>Normally we look at the body and see it as ‘me’, but these texts are asking us to take that apart and see that actually we are made up of earth, water, fire and wind, of hardness, fluidity and wetness, temperature and motion. They are asking us to directly confront our own mortality – to contemplate the most threatening thing for us: death.
>I found a similar pattern when I looked at the last satipaṭṭhāna, which is contemplation of dharmas. The practices that were common to all three versions were those that focused on overcoming the hindrances and cultivating the awakening factors. The emphasis is not so much on reflecting on the teachings, the Dharma, but really on putting them into practice, really going for awakening. As a result of this discovery I have developed a new approach to the practice of satipaṭṭhāna which I have found to be very powerful, and this would never have happened if I had not done the academic groundwork first.
>BA: I think that balance is an absolutely central aspect of mindfulness practice. If you look at the Awakening Factors, the first one is mindfulness and the last one is usually translated as ‘equanimity’, but in my opinion it would be better to understand it as balance or equipoise. To be balanced means to be mindful and open to the present moment, to be free from desire and aversion, and this is what the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta continually comes back to.
>>432513
>This site is dedicated to the teachings of Venerable Ayya Khema (1923-1997), a Theravada Buddhist nun ordained in Sri Lanka . Her teachings (which were prolific) describe simple and effective meditation methods for development of calm and insight, for expanding feelings of loving-kindness, compassion, joy and equanimity towards others, and for overcoming obstacles to practice. She also gives detailed and lucid instructions for the meditative absorptions (jhanas) which provide access to higher states of consciousness, the way the Buddha himself practiced.
http://ayyakhematalks.org/
>an approach focused more on vipassana
In This Very Life, The Liberation Teachings of the Buddha, Sayādaw U Pandita (1992), (Serialised with the Sayādaw’s Express Permission)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pesala/Pandita/index.htm
>are the jhanas required for stream-entry ?
The Jhānas and the Lay Disciple According to the Pāli Suttas, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi
http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha267.htm
>>432518
>a book to become a yogi in vipassana
Pa Auk Sayadaw Knowing and Seeing 4th Ed 2010.pdf
http://www.dhammatalks.net/Books13/Pa-Auk-Sayadaw_Knowing-and-Seeing-4th-Ed-2010.pdf
>This Burmese method puts forth the quality that is SATI [translated as mindfulness generally]: alertness/attention to whatever we perceive, plus a constant effort to recognize the five aggregates, learnt from the dhamma and remembering it, into every phenomenon. There are other qualities to have, such as effort [in walking or standing up], tranquillity, faith in the dhamma, wisdom [little insight, not the one of the five aggregates, but wisdom on being able to make headways], but the Burmese bet that the more SATI we have, the closer we are to nibanna. SATI does not need to be done a little, to be compensated by another quality if done too much, contrary to, for instance, samadhi [=concentration, generally gotten after samatha-tranquility of the mind and body] which needs to be balanced with effort. We can never ever do enough sati.
a general pdf more about overview on buddhism through this technique
http://www.paaukforestmonastery.org/books/teaching_training.pdf
>>432520
Explanation of the meditation on the spheres [kilesas], relevant for the most imginative contemplators, as well as the contemplation without signs (animitta-ceto-samadhi) which is the samadhi wherein the Tathagata enterred when he was ill. The animitta-ceto-samadhi is the contemplation that people call ''pure hindsight (vipassana)'' when they think in terms of the dichotomy ''samatha-vipassana''...
===A GOOD WEBSITE INSTRUCTING ON THE ''VIPASSANA MEDITATION'' WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND VIDEOS OF EACH STEP.===
>What is Vipassana or Insight Meditation?
http://www.vipassanadhura.com/whatis.htm
http://vipassanadhura.com/howto.htm
with video of a duration of 50 minutes
http://vipassanadhura.com/mindfulness.html
>Vipassana (insight meditation) is the ultimate expression of Socrates' dictum, "know thyself." The Buddha discovered that the cause of suffering can actually be erased when we see our true nature. This is a radical insight. It means that our happiness does not depend on manipulating the external world. We only have to see ourselves clearly— a much easier proposition (but in the ultimate sense, knowing oneself with clarity reveals there is no permanent self, as the Buddha taught).
>Vipassana meditation is a rational method for purifying the mind of the mental factors that cause distress and pain. This simple technique does not invoke the help of a god, spirit or any other external power, but relies on our own efforts.
>>432525
>Vipassana is an insight that cuts through conventional perception to perceive mind and matter as they actually are: impermanent, unsatisfactory, and impersonal. Insight meditation gradually purifies the mind, eliminating all forms of attachment. As attachment is cut away, desire and delusion are gradually diluted. The Buddha identified these two factors— desire and ignorance— as the roots of suffering. When they are finally removed, the mind will touch something permanent beyond the changing world. That "something" is the deathless, supramundane happiness, called "Nibbana" in Pali.
>Insight meditation is concerned with the present moment— with staying in the now to the most extreme degree possible. It consists of observing body (rupa) and mind (nama) with bare attention.
>The word "vipassana" has two parts. "Passana" means seeing, i.e., perceiving. The prefix "vi" has several meanings, one of which is "through." Vipassana-insight literally cuts through the curtain of delusion in the mind. "Vi" can also function as the English prefix "dis," suggesting discernment— a kind of seeing that perceives individual components separately. The idea of separation is relevant here, for insight works like a mental scalpel, differentiating conventional truth from ultimate reality. Lastly, "vi" can function as an intensive, in which case "vipassana" means intense, deep or powerful seeing. It is an immediate insight experienced before one's eyes, having nothing to do with reasoning or thinking.
Moment to Moment Mindfulness, A PICTORIAL MANUAL FOR MEDITATORS, Achan Sobin S. Namto
http://vipassanadhura.com/momenttomoment.htm
>>432527
>an exposition of the flaws of ''pure vipassana meditation'' which focuses more on loving-kindness meditation
The Anapanasati Sutta --A Practical Guide to Midfulness of Breathing and Tranquil Wisdom Meditation by Ven. U Vimalaramsi
http://www.ic.sunysb.edu/clubs/buddhism/vimalaramsi/main.html
Talks given by Bhante Vimalaramsi at at the Easter Retreat in San Juan Bautista April 2014.
MN 2 All the Taints - Sabbāsava Sutta - Easter Retreat 1 - Day 2 17-Apr-14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygzy_SU5n-k&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix&index=2
MN 111 One by One as They Occurred - Anupada Sutta Easter Retreat 1 - Day 3 - 18-Apr-14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLZx-ZVXGsY&index=3&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix
MN 18 The Honeyball - Madhupiṇḍika Suta - Easter Retreat 1 - Day 4 - 19-Apr-14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbE3hSgC3WA&index=4&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix
MN 38 The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving - ER1 Day 5 20-Apr 20, 2014
by Bhante Vimalaramsi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i37cB5yeYlk&index=5&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix
MN 148 The Six Sets of Six - Chachakka Sutta - Easter Retreat 1 - Day 6 - 21-Apr-14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiCtt3VLy9E&index=6&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix
MN 44 The Shorter Series of Questions and Answers - Cūḷavedalla Sutta ER1 Day 7 22-Apr 2014
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8_N6FAitbg&index=7&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix
MN 43 The Greater Series of Questions and Answers - Mahāvedalla Sutta Day 8 23-Apr-14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8JUk95JpCY&index=8&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix
MN 21 The Simile of the Saw - Kakacūpama Sutta - Easter Retreat 1 - Day 9 25-Apr-14
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THyhazOcAkY&index=9&list=PL3sECDBQqxlEIZKN4bYGrHo_jSpgOfjix
>>432531
>exposition of the path by one of the monk from the monastery of the forest
Ajahn Maha Bua
http://www.luangta.eu/site/downloads.php
>collection of sermons on Nibbana
>This penetrative study[5] shed new light on the early Buddhist views on the psychology of perception,[6] the conceptualizing process and its transcending.[7]
Katukurunde Nanananda Thera, Nibbana - the mind stilled
http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/eng/gen.php?gp=books&cat=ms&p=1
http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/eng/gen.php?gp=sermons&cat=nn&p=1
http://www.seeingthroughthenet.net/files/eng/books/ms/html/Mind Stilled.htm
>talks on Vipassana meditation
Sayadaw U Pandita
http://www.panditarama.net/#ui-tabs-9
Burmese forest tradition
The Essential Practice Part I Dhamma Discourses of Venerable Webu Sayādaw
http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh375-u.html
The Essential Practice Part II Dhamma Discourses of Venerable Webu Sayādaw
http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh384-u.html
The Essence of Buddha Dhamma
http://host.pariyatti.org/treasures/The_Essence_Buddha_Dhamma-Ven_Webu_Sayadaw.pdf
a short video on the jhanas
>[YouTube] What is Jhana? By Ven. Henepola Gunaratana Nayaka Maha Thera(Bhante G) (embed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Lv0PFLZ12o
>[YouTube] Bhante Gunaratana (1) What is samatha-vipassana? Part 1: samatha (embed)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaFOjJtEd2g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESQOi9djyaA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41NpmB2le3I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=div3NnAIoYU
and all the others videos from this series
>The Jhanas in Theravada Buddhist Meditation by Henepola Gunaratana
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/gunaratana/wheel351.html#ch1.3
>Mindfulness in plain English, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana.
http://www.urbandharma.org/pdf2/Mindfulness%20in%20Plain%20English%20Book%20Preview.pdf
>>432499
Judaism is Hermetic teachings for inbred sociopaths
>>432508
thanks bro
this is probably the most helpful thing if people know what this is talking about
those who want a quick exposition on the three major currents in vipassana meditation [which is not a meditation nor vipassana, let's recall]
The Basic Dynamics of Insight Meditation RSS iTunes
Veneerable Analayo compares the three main insight traditions (Mahasi, Goenka, Pa Auk) and traces back similarities via the commentarial scheme of insight knowledges to a basic pattern of insight in the suttas.
http://www.audiodharma.org/series/208/talk/2749/
TRANSCENDENCE-TIER
Gnosticism
>>431925
OP is a fucking joke. Your absolute-tier is complete shit. Taoist and Zen Buddhism are topical garbage.
Sufism and Hermeticism LOL
>>433137
To expand on this, it is evident that this list is compiled by someone with an extremely superficial and overly romantic idea of what these traditions entail.
I'm out, /his/ fails again.
>>433156
Guess I had to be there at the time to enjoy it, just like any religion.
>>431925
>>431925
Where's gnosticism? And perrenialism?
Listing them is dumb anyway, all are avenues of truth. It all depends on the integrity of the practitioner.
>>432004
>Islam is literally the most theologically perfect religion in history.
As an Atheist, I agree :^)
>>433263
You obviously don't know shit about religion and the sophia perennis.
>>433233
That's a long-winded way of saying you're a conservative catholic.
>all these people that can't understand what criteria the list is using
They all belong in the trash
>>432156
dukh'ung bihhj chasheuey hyoh hoh hoh hoh boop! singey songey!
>>433263
Please refrain from posting about shit you don't know the first thing about next time, cheers m8
>>433156
>his top religions aren't abrahamic, he must be a hippie!
Go back to /b/ you cretin
>>431925
I'm an Anglican who is heavily inspired by Taoism and Zen Buddhism. How do I fit into your little scheme, you false prophet?
>>432344
>the Bible is the truth
>I read it in translation
rio jej
>>434200
You fit just fine. It's all the same truth. It's just the religions that cling to their doctrinal baggage more than they do to the spirit of the doctrine that give the rest of them a bad name.
>>434244
Case in point: Mr. I am the Way and the Life up there. Only a fucking illiterate would read that and, knowing who Jesus is and what he represents in the human imagination, imagine it referred to Jesus himself, his ego, and not the state of enlightened consciousness he happened totally embody
ajhan bhram has a live cession soon normally
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2M302_Cuf1s
