I want to learn about esoteric hinduism/buddhism, where should I start...

Take it from a guy who spent about eight years in esoteric practice of Shingon Buddhism, Shinto, and various forms of mysticism (and who still has friends involved in these things - people who have now been involved in it for 15+ years) - don't.

Just seek Jesus Christ. You're wasting your time if your aren't getting to know the one true God.

You'll spend years devoted to doctrines of veiled sensuality and lesser spirits only to find its all a great waste - worse than really. You'll find your end in a lake of fire. All the enlightenment chasing will amount to nothing - the only enlightenment offered by them is as a vessel filled, or, as Yeats put it, as a mask tried on for a little while and tossed aside. True enlightenment is to know your creator God, His Son, and to be filled with His Spirit. Any substitute will not fulfill you. However, you may think it does (because, in relation to being spiritually empty it appears an awakening and increase in power), but what you will come to possess through your toil and discomfort, your chastening and refining, will be less than a pittance to what you were destined for.

Please user, please, don't waste your time and your destiny. Find Jesus.

>You're wasting your time if your aren't getting to know the one true God.
yeah right.... so what? you actually believe what you write... so there is one god, one true god,
and somehow someone manages to slip past it, and to waste his own time? what a load.

>True enlightenment
yeah... you know what you talking about.

how about you stop wasting our time with this marketing shenanigans, and present your case with some enlightening parables of wisdom.
you sound just like the snake in the garden full of promises which are sweet to the eyes but sour to the tongue

you can't tell people to find jesus caus he is great. lead by example. show us your own love care and humility, and we'll follow no need to fill us with empty promises.

I'm getting really sick of these Christian roleplayers.

You'll notice that as the number of monks residing together increases a few things happen: respectability and courtesy towards Gentiles vanishes; productivity increases; loyalty becomes an excuse to form a brotherhood among the people in the abbey; anyone's SO is non-existent and the existence of one will get bombarded with accusations of faithlessness and evil intent; filth and disease spread quickly (outside the monastery, that is); degenerate psychotic explosive outbursts are lovingly tempered by the Lord our God; Drama becomes a currency for the morality plays of Hildegard, which keeps them from the path to venial sins. Basically, if you desire to live with anyone that isn't your fellow brother in Christ, you're an infidel and you need to purify your soul. People who seek strangers to have in their fucking places of worship are the most enlightened kind of disciples imaginable. Nothing could be more dulcet than fellow neighbors and nothing could be more rewarding than fulfilling Christ's commandments in your home, especially more than one of them. You delight me.

I did. By taking the time to warn him. What he, and you, do with the warning is up to you, but I hope you'll heed it. It will help you.

What, do you think all Christians were always Christian?

One more thing.

You've called my promise empty, but have you attempted to cash it in?

This is my promise, and it is a reliable one, as I am not He who made it, but it was made by God Himself:

"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you."

>. so there is one god, one true god, and somehow someone manages to slip past it, and to waste his own time? what a load.

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. ..."

One lost soul is as tragic to our Lord as the loss of every soul as it must be to us

Luke 15:1-7

>made by God Himself
empty empty empty

>Me Me Me He God Himself
sup with your caps?

you are SNAKE OIL for low tier bainlets
i hope find kuni, caus if not, bad stuff, look for kuni, kuni is great, trust me, kuni is the best,
you got soul, kuni will save it, kuni is the creator of kunimaton, kuni kuni kuni
do you have a minute to listen about kuni?

Someone hasn't read Hegel

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How will you ever know without trying?

(Don't be mistaken though, you will know. Every eye will see Him, and every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that He is Lord, but you don't want to wait until it comes to that.)

Preach brother

are you some sort of a trainee in a jesus cult trolling bootcamp?
is this an assignment for you? to come and bait?
What are you even asking?

Can you please share with me your experience getting into christianity after practicing for 8 years esoterics?

“Esoteric” Hinduism seems to boil down to “dude smoke weed and fuck bitches” hippy shit, where westerners circle jerk about how “spiritually enlgihtened” they are for growing dreadlocks, doing ketamine, fucking random strangers, and abandoning “egotistical illusions” like raising a family, seeking genuine connections with other people (rather than a constant stream of banalities and self affirmation), having a career, contributing to society, etc.

Shiva is a miserable “””god””” who literally spites his own followers to bestow blessings on the absolute scum of the earth. If you ever come across a statue of Shiva you should spit in his face and take a piss on him, since it’s pretty much the only way to gain any of his respect.

Don’t use religion as a crutch for affirming your own shitty and selfish behaviour. Read the gospels, read the Quaran, read the Gita, wage Jihad on yourself, remind yourself constantly of the mayrters for Christ who gave everything to transform the evils of Rome into pre modern Europe. Fuck, read Céline and Hollebecque and Plato even, but most of the noble sentiment in Hinduism is shown not by their avatar but by various aesthetics who purposely spite them.

Also some Buhddist monks have remarked that the surest way to get on the path to enlightenment, short of a monastic life, is to join the military.

Already made a post on this so I'm gonna copy and paste.

I worked in a buddhist temple for 2 years. While the temple was of chan tradition, the master there studied in India the Gelug tradition and received his Gelug ordination from Dalai Lama.

Read, study and practice the three volumes of Je Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo (The Stages To the Path of Enlightenment). Accompany this with Liberation at the palm of your hand of Pabongka Rinpoche.
Practice bodhicitta. read Shantideva's A Guide to the Bodhisattva's way of life.
After the Lamrim you should have a very decent idea of tantra, find yourself a tibetan master of any of the 4 main schools of tibetan buddhism (Gelug, Nyingma, Kagyu, Sakya) and get an initiation and just follow your master.

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I'm just a Christian Veeky Forumsizen who saw your thread and wanted to spare you some pain and substitute joy.

I once shared it in another thread. I tried to find it in the archives to link, without success. Fortunately, I thought a situation like this might come up, so here's a copy-paste version from a saved Wordpad file.

This is the testimony of my conversion. I'm posting it as it was in the previous thread, so certain portions are out of context. I apologize in advance for how much space this will take up.

-------------------------

I do not believe one can truly be Christian through persuasion. One must experience the power of God first hand; He must convince you Himself. I believe Scripture supports this, however, I will share with you my own testimony and a few verses from Scripture. Hopefully, you will be led by the Spirit of God to seek Him earnestly further.

When I was 21, I was deeply involved in Buddhist practices, predominantly Shingon sect, as well as esoteric studies in Shinto, Taoism, and Hermeticism. I had been in the martial arts since I was a young boy, and around the time I turned 15 my studies in those areas led me into the study of Eastern Philosophy and Religion (Truly, I was already a student of many religions, without my awareness, through a passion for mythology. My studies in Asiatic myths began when I was roughly twelve, and my first exposure at roughly five). Gradually, those studies turned into a practice, and that practice into a major part of my life.

Anyway, at 21 my desire was to move to Japan for a few years, study in a temple on Mt. Hiei and Wudangshan in China and return to the West. To this end, I spent most of the time I was not working in deep meditation, yogic exercise, linguistic study, or practicing my martial arts.

One evening, after I had just finished my daily training regimen which ended in meditation, I went inside my house to unwind with a video game before going to bed. Shortly after sitting down in our (I lived with four of my friends at the time who were all, unusually, absent) game room I felt an intense spiritual force.

In order to explain what I felt, I'll use martial arts as a reference. In Japanese arts, there is the concept that a sufficiently powerful, or refined, spirit can use its very energy as a weapon against the opponent. Not in the sense of Kamehameha waves, but as an overwhelming presence or pressure which renders an opponent physically and mentally inert, or impotent.

[Continued below]

This was the sensation which I was experiencing.

An overwhelming spiritual force, rife with animosity, engulfed me, and the entire room, in an instant. Although I took notice, I attempted, at first, to ignore it. This lasted only a few moments. The spiritual pressure was so immense I began to experience extreme discomfort physically. I got up from my seat to go and look in the mirror, relax myself, and make certain this wasn't merely physiological or psychological, but upon stepping out of the game room, I immediately felt normal again.

Inquisitively, I stepped back over the threshold into the game room once more. The malicious force was still there. I decided to go for a walk to think, and by the time I returned it was gone.

The next night, at about the same time (with roommates still curiously absent), it happened once more. The pressure appeared as instantaneously and with even more force. This time I immediately had a physiological response - my tongue became swollen, and my breathing became strained. I stepped out of the game room once more, this time to no avail; the mysterious presence was wherever I went.

Heading to my room, I reclined on my bed to consider what I should do to rid myself of this spiritual adversary. The house was completely silent, until at that moment, directly in my right ear, (the ear with my the empty space of my bed, flush to the wall, at its side) came an ear-piercing shriek.

It sounded human, but not quite human, and almost digital. So suddenly had it resounded that I unconsciously leapt from my bed, scrambling in the other direction, looking over my shoulder at nothing but the empty space from which the shriek had come, and ran into my roommate's bed. After that, I left the house. The presence did not follow me out of my room or house.

After my practice, again in the game room, I heard the barely audible voices of a multi-person conversation happening outside the window. At the time, we lived in street-corner house which was flush on three sides to roads, one, a major street. It was not uncommon for pedestrians to walk by, or for vehicles to be in-line down the street. I looked out the window on my left first, and saw no one. Then I arose and went out onto the back porch, supposing perhaps someone had returned home and was in the driveway - no one.

Still hearing the hushed voices, whose words I could not make out, I walked down the driveway and looked up and down the street - deserted.

As I returned to the house, the voices began to get louder. Their sources drew closer and closer to me, until I could clearly distinguish three individual voices, which had surrounded me in a triangular fashion, speaking an unintelligible language in whispered wails. By the time they had encircled me the unforgiving spiritual pressure had returned.

I decided to leave the house once more, but it provided no relief. As abruptly as they had started, the voices stopped speaking. However, the pressure came with me, even into the empty night's streets.

As I walked, yet stranger things began to occur. I heard a labored grinding, creaking, and rattling. I could not make out what it was precisely, but as I drew closer and closer to the end of the street the sounds grew louder, louder, and immaculately aligned with an immense sycamore tree - whose every sinew and root I could now hear as it wound in the wind.

[Continued below]

Rounding the street corner, two new voices spoke. These were clear from the outset. Faint but clear, they were a man and a woman's voice, in English. Gradually, they grew louder as a small blue-grey truck pulled up to a residence about a quarter mile down the road. The doors opened, the couple emerged, and as the driver's foot hit the street, I realized it was they who I had been hearing, as I could frighteningly make out every infinitesimal portion of his first footfall on the pavement, and every word of their conversation, which should have been altogether inaudible to me.

I made my way toward the nearby college campus, perplexed by what I was experiencing, and the presence, intense as ever, came with me. At a certain moment, a brief instant, it became suddenly so intense, that I felt certain the source had manifested itself physically just behind me. I whirled to face my pursuer; no one was there, but the moment I spun around, I felt a strike to my stomach so forceful it knocked my breath out for a moment, and then a sensation as though something peeled me open and crawled in through my belly. Then everything outwardly ceased: the voices, the pressure - it had come in.

By this point I was certain I had to speak to someone, as I thought I was either (a) going insane, (b) under a level of spiritual warfare I did not know how to deal with, or ((c) which is really a variation of 'b') assailed by demonic forces which sought to possess me for their own use.

Having already tried what I knew, and having consulted a friend who was an experienced shaman in the days prior to no avail, the next day I spoke with the only one of my roommates who was religious - a Jehovah's Witness.

[Continued below]

When I asked him if we could talk, he offered me a drink. I accepted. In small glasses, he poured each of us a sparing portion of rum and mixed it with Coca~Cola. Then we sat down and I told him the story of my last three nights. He listened, eyes bulging at times, and each time followed by a quick swig of his cocktail, until I was finished. He then told me, noticeably shaken, that he did not know how to help me, apologized, and went to bed. I thanked him anyway and did the same. That night, I slept without incident.

When I awoke, in spite of having only the one small cocktail (which could not have contained more than two shots of liquor), I had the worst hangover of my life. Lights blinded me, watered my eyes, and exacerbated an already unrelenting migraine; my stomach lurched and heaved, forcing me to cough up everything in it until there was nothing left to cough up, yet did not cease. I writhed on the couch for thirteen hours, waiting for the pain to cease before deciding to call my mother, who lived a short distance across town, to bring me medication, as I kept none in the house. By this time it was night, and when I called she asked me to come stay the night instead. I obliged, grateful to have medication on the way.

The ride over was uneventful, but almost immediately upon arriving, I started to feel a numbing sensation spreading from my navel outward in a symmetric fashion. I said nothing of this, but it must have produced something visible as my younger siblings, 7 and 11 years old, were gaping at me from a corner of the living room before my sister shouted, "Mom, come quick, something is wrong." I explained the sensation, which had nearly reached my feet and face, to my mother, with my siblings screeching for her to take me to the hospital. She agreed and I stood to lurch my way to the car. Upon opening the front door, I blacked out.

[Continued below]

When I came to, I was on the outside stone walkway. Ambulance lights were flashing across the walls, and there were a couple of paramedics examining me. Seeing I was conscious, they shined a light in my eyes and began to ask questions. My legs and hands were in an obscure position, and I could feel only portions of my face at this point, but I answered.

I no longer recall what they asked me, but I do recall the discernible skeptic tone in their voices as they asked. I believe they asked if I was on any drugs: I was not. They then asked if I would like to be driven to a hospital, in spite of the fact they could find nothing wrong with me. I thanked them, but said no, as feeling was beginning to return to my body, and I was able to unclasp my hands and stand.

After they left, my mother offered to drive me to a hospital, but said first, "I don't believe this is a physical problem, son, but a spiritual one."*

*Note: my mother is, and has been, a devout and fervent Christian since her youth, and she and I had grown distant over the years as I wearied of her unending attempts to convert me.

At this point, I was thinking, "Well, duh." However I replied, "Okay, what do you propose?" "I want to pray over you, for you to sleep here, and I will put on the Word for you to listen to all night. Having no better ideas, and, honestly, a bit frightened, I consented.

I had grown up in churches. My great-grandparents were missionaries in India for 20 years, my grandfather was a pastor, my father and mother had both been Christians since long before I was born. I had even though I had seen the supernatural power of God, as well as experienced it, many times growing up, but as I studied science and the occult, I had come to believe there were other explanations for what I had seen and felt back then.

[Continued below]

So it surprised me when my mothers prayers drove the force which had come in me back (not because she had spiritual power, but because it was so effective, where all else had failed thus far) - the spirit's hold was not quite removed, but for the first time since that moment on the empty streets two nights before I felt it only from a distance. In fact, for that entire night, the spirit would not enter the room in which I slept.

Next morning, I felt good. In fact, I felt so good I convinced myself the night before was a fluke, had nothing to do with the supremacy and deity of Christ, and I was going to go home and return to my predominantly Buddhist physico-spiritual training regimen. I would not throw away four years of serious training, and many more of study over five nights of strangeness. And NO WAY would I return to the bland and dogmatic religion of my forefathers - it was uninspired, unenlightened, lacking in power, and bigoted - to my mind then.

Back at my own house that day, I acted as though nothing had happened at all during the past week. I spoke with my roommates normally, I performed my training as per usual, and, feeling no sign of the aggressive spirit since the previous night, I was determined to continue on with my prior plans.

Until that night.

[Continued below]

After finishing my training, once more the malevolent spirit returned. Not only the spiritual pressure returned, but everything and more - the unintelligible screaming voices, cold sweats, pounding heartbeat, spreading numbness, a steadily increasing amount of pain running down my left arm, shivering, strained breathing, and a dry and swollen tongue - all in an instant (as I was walking down the hallway to my room, in fact).

All my friends had gone to bed already, and I stood in the hallway, milliseconds feeling like minutes, seconds, like hours, trying to decide if I should burst into one of their rooms, wake them in desperation, and go to the hospital, but I remembered the paramedics, their skepticism, and decided against it.

After finishing my training, once more the malevolent spirit returned. Not only the spiritual pressure returned, but everything and more - the unintelligible screaming voices, cold sweats, pounding heartbeat, spreading numbness, a steadily increasing amount of pain running down my left arm, shivering, strained breathing, and a dry and swollen tongue - all in an instant (as I was walking down the hallway to my room, in fact).

All my friends had gone to bed already, and I stood in the hallway, milliseconds feeling like minutes, seconds, like hours, trying to decide if I should burst into one of their rooms, wake them in desperation, and go to the hospital, but I remembered the paramedics, their skepticism, and decided against it.

I went into my room and sat on down on my bed, contemplating what would happen next. "Am I about to die?" "Will I become fully possessed and lose control of myself?" "Will anyone even know?"

It was at that point that a Bible my father had given me as a gift upon graduating high school caught my eye. It had sat at the bottom of my bookshelf, collecting dust, since had given it to me. I didn't have the heart to throw it out.*

*When my father had graduated high school, his father had given him a personalized leather Bible which he had kept and used until it was little more than rags and ribbons, fifteen years later. This one had been personalized for me, in identical fashion.

I thought back to my mother's prayer. I recalled how effective it had been. I picked up the Bible and said out loud, "God, if You're real please save me." Then I flipped it open. The first verse my eyes landed on was Joshua 1:9.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

[Continued below]

As soon as I cried out to God, all the supernatural and physical affliction I had been feeling stopped. Not later that day, not later that hour, not even five minutes later - immediately.

I took that and the verse as a sign and gave my life to the Lord right then, but being the stubborn person I was, I told Him, "Okay God, for one year I will set all my plans aside. I will cease all my training. For one year I will read the Bible and try to do everything it says; I will dedicate myself to Your ways as I dedicated myself to my training, but if at the end of that year I am not certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that You are God and there is no other, then I will throw this Bible in the trash, burn it, and no matter if I get possessed or die or whatever, I will not call on Your name again!"

I began immediately. And it did not take a year. Not even a month. It took me about two weeks to be absolutely certain that Jesus Christ is who He says He is; that the God of the Bible is real, and Christ is His only begotten son.

[Continued below]

Note: it is interesting, to me, that my ordeal took place over six days (nights), and my conversion took place at approximately sun-up on the seventh day. No joke.

Since I did not have a church, I began simply reading Scripture. My Bible (a NASB Thomas Ryrie study Bible) had a "read the Bible in a year plan" in the front, so I started doing that. I also looked up Bible studies online, and began watching Christian programming online. When my grandmother found out, she mailed me a box of Christian books, which I also began to read.*

*I believe I started with one called, "Surprised by the Power of the Spirit," by Jack Deere, a pastor who once taught at Dallas Theological Seminary where they teach cessationism, the idea that the miracles of God ceased with the Apostle John's death, but who had since become a believer in miracles.

Anyway, the books may have come after. What is important is that I began to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit show up during my Bible studies or prayer times. However, and I did not yet realize why, whenever the Spirit of God came, His presence felt clean, bright, light, and tingly (in a good way) outwardly, but my inward self would recoil. I would feel immensely uncomfortable when the Holy Spirit showed up.

One morning I was trying to do my Bible readings and started to get uncontrollably sleepy, and had the thought that the sleepiness itself may be a form of warfare. I don't remember if I prayed for the Lord to take it away, or commanded it away, but it left, and I no longer battled with that, but on rare occasion. Instead I began to gain a voracious appetite for the Word, but that may have also come later.

The first real turning point came about a week in to my year.

[Continued below]

youtube.com/watch?v=W9X57QxVMcA

I had read in the Old Testament, or Tanakh, places where the Word would say someone had a "spirit of infirmity," or a "spirit of divination," or a "spirit of such and such," and so I simply made a list of spirits I wanted and a list of spirits I did not want to pray to the Lord about (it seems naive to me now).

Note: my door used to drag my bedroom carpet when I closed it so that no space was left beneath, not even for air.

I went to my room that afternoon, perhaps to take Communion and pray, but perhaps I didn't start taking Communion until later - either way, I was kneeling on my floor praying that list to the Lord, when, for the first time since I was much younger, I heard God speak.

He did not speak to me in an outwardly audible voice, but clearly and firmly, with a voice that gave evokes the sensation of watching gentle waves on a clear body of water, "Ask to be released from the spirit of Sorcery." I was so surprised I prayed it out loud almost like a question, "I pray to be released from the spirit of Sorcery??"

No sooner had the words left my mouth then a force like a rushing wind shot out of my torso, and my blinds rattled from the top to the bottom like they had been slapped! I spun around to look at them. Then I looked up at the ceiling fan - which was off. Then I looked at the door (and now you know why I mentioned it). Then I ran out of my room and ran to my roommate, who was not religious, and told him what happened. He looked at me with skeptically, but I was too excited to mind, and went back to my room to keep praying.

[Continued below]

After the Lord delivered me from the spirit of sorcery which had apparently possessed me, I no longer felt discomfort at the presence of the Holy Spirit, and approximately one week after my deliverance, I would become fully convinced of God.

It was night. I had just finished my Bible study and was going to bed. My roommate was already asleep in the bed behind me (we shared a room), and I was kneeling in front of my own bed to say my nightly prayers.

They were mundane prayers, by my count - thanks, forgiveness, praying for friends, praying for family, that sort of thing, but all of a sudden I saw a short vision with the eye of my spirit.

I saw God's hand stretch out over me with the index finger of His left hand pointed down. He reached forward with His right hand and wrapped those fingers around His left index finger, squeezing it - like gently wringing a cloth. As He did, I saw a single golden drop of oil, form on the tip of the finger He was squeezing, and when it fell the vision ended.

However, I felt it hit me, and when it did the power of the Living God hit me with an intensity immeasurably beyond any of the myriad spiritual forces and powers I had experienced in the occult. I felt incredibly, INCREDIBLY good - more fully of joy, gratitude, love, and pleasure - a pleasure beyond physical pleasure, and yet, I felt like a glass vase which was having such large amounts of water pressure forced into it it could shatter at any moment.

Face-down on the floor, uncontrollably weeping and snotty, I thanked the Lord for showing me His power, and I prayed for Him to take it away from me so I would not die. He obliged, and the force of His power relented, but His presence, the warmth, and the joy remained.

This was the moment I became certain God was real, and He is who the Bible says He is.

[Continued below]

It has been seven years since then, and I have been blessed to see the power of God in many ways since then: hearing His voice with increasing clarity and regularity, visions, healings (of myself and others), prophetic utterances, deliverances, dreams, etc.,.

After that night, and for about a month afterwards, the demonic spirit which was cast out of me came to my room at night, and stood at the foot of my bed.

At the time, I did not know what had happened with regards to the short vision of God's finger with Oil, or why the demon kept showing up in my room, but continuing in the Word, I have since learned.

Christ said, in a passage referred to as "The Parable of the Strong Man," occurring in Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 11:

"When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are undisturbed. But when someone stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away from him all his armor on which he had relied and distributes his plunder. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters. When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

Because I had no church of my own at the time, but was possessed, the Lord delivered me Himself. However, when a person is delivered of a possession they need to receive Christ as their Lord, if they have not already done so, and get what Scripture calls, "the Baptism of the Holy Spirit." This is so that the spirits which were cast out cannot return to reclaim lost territory. They may not do so, of course, without some form of permission, but this permission may take many forms.

[Continued below]

There is far more to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit than spiritual defense, but that is for a later time.

The final verses I wanted to leave you with, on your original topic of "Make Me Believe in Christ," are these:

Jeremiah 29: 11-14
>For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
>Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
>You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
>I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

1 Corinthians 2:1-5
>And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.
>For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.
>I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
>and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,
>so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

1 Corinthians 4:20
>For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.

I knew many would not, most probably. Just like many on this board do not read much, if at all. Still, I hope you'll change your mind and that some will read it and take caution and wise counsel from it.

I'm not the guy you responded to, but why does Christianity get the declaration of the one true faith?
These other religions predated Christianity.
Is pic related going to a lake of fire?

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>Yeats

He didn't know shit about eastern religions, he mostly larped around with theosophy

Because God is the one true God, and Jesus is his only Son, and the only way to pay for sin is with His sinless blood.

Let me be very clear. There are many non-believers in Jesus who are better people than I who will see Hell. The Dalai Lama included if he does not accept Christ and renounce the doctrine which he teaches. It is not by a man's own righteousness that he enters the kingdom of God. No man is righteous, for the righteousness of man is so far beneath the righteousness of God it may as well be rags. Only God Himself could redeem us from sin and death, and only by accepting this payment for our sin may a man enter the kingdom of God. It has nothing to do with our own measure of purity and goodness. Only God is good. Only He could pay for sin because if any one of us makes the payment we only pay what is justly owed for ourselves and no one is redeemed. Christ, God in the flesh, the only sinless man, had to pay the payment which was not owed of Him for all of us, and He is loving and good to have so done.

This doesn't mean I do not respect or care for the Dalai Lama, or many, many, many, many, other people who are at a terrible risk of losing eternity. I only know that they must know Him, and can, if they wish to escape the fire. It is a terrible price to pay and no man should pay it still while the mercy of Christ's blood is yet extended to us.

Yes, you're right. He wasn't speaking on Eastern religion (he only got interested in Japanese culture toward the end of his life). He was recounting his experience in Theosophy and the occult revival. I placed it in the context which I did because it still applies.

I know the Christian doctrine. I would not presume that the Dalai Lama should enter heaven based on his good works or righteousness.
My argument is that he was born into an ancient religion, one that has values many agnostic/atheist humanists might even share. He was also proclaimed to be the reincarnation of its holy leader. The religion he follows essentially predates Christianity. For him to abandon his faith for Jesus would be akin to a Christian converting to Islam. That idea is always in my mind and really prevents me from accepting Christian dogma.

How do you know that you aren't being mislead and going through hell because of it? For us Buddhists you don't go to any of the hell realms by the judgement of anyone, merely believing and honoring someone won't save you from hell. The Buddhas and Holy Bodhisattvas don't impart judgement and don't save you from the karma you create.
Now, if you believe no man is righteous and only accepting Christ as your lord is enough to be saved, you are in danger of giving up the practice that creates merit.

The fact that you encountered the Dharma and I suppose at least are acquaintances with the Mahayana makes it even sadder. Shantideva said that human life is a very very very very rare occurrence in samsara and a human life where you have the good karma of encountering the Dharma even more so, why would you all of sudden toss it away and disregard it so foolishly?

I'm not saying this is the one only truth like you proclaim of yours but think that this line of thinking is a double edged sword and goes both ways.

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There's a lot of stories like this and while maybe it has some truth in it, it doesn't follow that your Baptist/evangelical sect started by some guy based on his own understanding a few hundred years ago is a true religion. You may have been healed but it doesn't mean the dogmas formulated by christian sects are truth. Use your critical thinking.

You have a completely rational argument. I don't think light of it.

The only way to know Him is to know Him. Only by knowing Him can you escape the uncertainty. Reason will never assuage the doubts associated with belief - not the reason we speak of anyway. A person accepts Christ on the basis of reason, but it is a reason based on a revelation of Himself to that person.

All I can say on the Dalai Lama, and those like him is this: God knows the position they are in, and He will reach out to them at a time when they are open. If they accept Him they will have life. Every man gets the chance. If you wish to know why I believe, I have posted my testimony (its long, I know, but the only way to tell it is to tell it). There are many testimonies of men in predicaments as you have described who have come to know Christ - many. I encourage you to look for some of them if you wish see that God can reach a man - even one bound by tradition, duty, and society.

I understand your concern. A close friend of mine who is still following that path has shared similar concerns which I appreciate because of the place it comes from.

I can only say that God has proven Himself, to be who He says He is and to do what He says He will do, to me many times over the years since the conversion story I shared, and that story is merely my own. I have since had the pleasure of witnessing conversions, first hand, which are more supernatural in nature than my own - more surpassing in demonstration of the power of God. I also understand that there are explanations for what I have seen Christ do in Hindu, Buddhist, and other traditions. However, what I have not seen is any man called by a name other than Christ's who can do the miracles God has done (never mind the non-physical demonstrations of God's power).

This is the nature of relationship. It is a private affair. God calls you, and everyone, to relationship with Him through Christ. The revelation of Himself which you will see is for you. It will be the anointing of prophecy placed on your life - a prophetic utterance of deliverances which He intends to bring, manifested in you and accessible to those who hear you share what He has done in your life.

You're right. It doesn't follow, and there are untruths to be found there. However, His Word is sure.

The Lord has confirmed the authenticity of the Word to me. In fact, that is one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit, according to the NT (and it has so seemed in life). If you accept Him into your heart, He will confirm the authenticity of His Word to you as well. Make no mistake, I was well ready accept the reality of a humanly-distorted "Word of God." It is God who has given me assurance and comfort that He has preserved His Word.

I understand that you cannot take my word for it. I would not want you to. I do hope, however, that my word will provoke curious desire in you - for a private audience with the Living God - enough that you may seek Him out.

The conditions will create again where you encounter the Dharma once more, in this life or aeons afterwards. You can still work towards avoiding the lower realms of existence while under your Christian beliefs. I'm not well verse in Christianity but I'm sure wisdom and compassion are in it, act always mindful of this two virtues and live morally. Be it the christian or Buddhist hell, we all want to prevent future suffering.

>He will reach out to them
I had a philosophy teacher in college who said that some professionals argue God spoke to different people at different times. Socrates frequently talked about his daemon. Mohammed spoke to the angel Gabriel. Christianity does not have a monopoly on revelation.
>every man gets the chance
Unless you believe in reincarnation this is historically wrong. Thousands or millions lived before Jesus and knew nothing about him. Even after him. Imagine an Aztec who died right before Cortez got there...he never had a chance to convert. There around countless others who encountered Christianity and viewed it as hostile, in the same way Crusaders opposed Islam maybe.
>There are many testimonies of men in predicaments who have come to know Christ
I have heard of some very powerful ones, so I completely agree with you.

In the end I grew up Christian but my faith has wandered. I like studying other religions, but have far less experience than you. I am not looking for power but peace. Thank you for sharing your story.

It's all just your mind. Once you understand your mind more it can all be explained. There is a principle of the higher part of the mind that we normally don't have access to, which is the nous and which early Christians personified as Jesus. In other Christians it has a different name. Perhaps that is what you came into contact with. The other stuff like the church etc don't matter.

Read the Gita, followed the vedas and the upanishads.

I'm aware of revelatory experiences in other religions. As I said, I've read many myths. However there is only one God. This is why I refer to these other systems as "doctrines of demons." It isn't that no one else has revelations (I had supernatural experiences within the occult, some which could have been called revelatory), it is simply that their source is not God. This does not, however, mean there is no truth or goodness in these systems. In fact, the best way to tell a lie is in the middle of two truths, as they say. Likewise, the Father of Lies has no good in him with which to lure man. Any good comes from the Father in Heaven. He specializes in the distortion of truth and the creation of intricate webs with which to lure man to his death.

In the famous passage of Ezekiel 28, when God addresses the "Prince of Tyre," a figure many associate with Satan, He says he was "abundant in wisdom" and "perfect in beauty." We can be sure that when Almighty God calls a being abundant in wisdom there is a frightful level of comprehension at work. We cannot know that the King of Tyre is Satan and not merely a principal spirit whose domain was Tyre in the same way that the angel Michael had to deal with the Prince of Persia, however, if it is not, Satan's relative power or intellect becomes all the more intimidating for a human to face without God.

I have considered the isolates of the ancient and recent past (even those of the present). I stand by my assertion. You and I will only see the truth of it ourselves on the day when our secrets, and those of every man, are laid bare before the judgement seat of God.

If it is peace you seek, seek the Prince of Peace whose name is Jesus, and like Paul, I would urge you to enter the rest which is available in God.

I have a habit of sounding formal, which I would break if I could, but I hope you understand there is no formality in the love of God. It is a father's love.

I don't know of what you speak, but that is not the conclusion I would draw from my experiences.

I know the Lord and I could be more convinced that you did not exist, nor the computer on which I'm typing, nor my hands, nor my feet, nor my body, nor the food which I've eaten, nor the air in my lungs than the He, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, did not exist and did not shed His eternal love on my heart, mind, and spirit.

If you're absolutely new to Vajrayana and Tantra, you better start from the beginning.
In order to understand Vajrayana ("esoteric" Buddhism), you must know the core tenets of Buddhism (4 Noble truths, Eightfold path, Buddhist concepts about personality, existence, rebirth) and also Mahayana innovations ( Concepts of shunyata, tathagatagarbha, alaya vijnana), since they form the philosophical background of Vajrayana. Then, you can proceed to Vajrayana proper, otherwise you'll get mired in concepts and terms that you don' understand and end up with a headache.
Books:
Richard Robinson. The Buddhist Religion. A Historical Introducation.
David Snellgrove. Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Indian Buddhists and Their Successors.
Geoffrey Samuel. The Origins of Yoga and Tantra. Indic Religions to the Thirteenth Century.

The same goes to Hindu Tantra. If you'll plunge directly into Hindu tantra without background knowledge of Indian philosophical and religious though, you will misunderstand the whole thing and end either in the "tantra is about sex" camp or the "Aghora is the best" edgy camp.
You'll need to have an overview of the Vedas and Upanishads, and an understanding of Advaita Vedanta (if you'll get into Tantra, you'll meet mainly monist sects). Bhagavadgita also should be read, since its influence on the Indian religious landscape was immense. In addition, a background in Hindu Medieval Society, the caste system, Hindu norms of purity, and Hindu understanding of the sacred should be present.
Books about Tantra
Georg Feuerstein. Tantra. Path of Ecstasy.
N.N. Bhattacharyya. History of The Tantric Religion.
S.C. Banerji.A Brief History of Tantra Literature.
David Gordon White. The Alchemical Body. Siddha Traditions in Medieval India.
David Gordon White. Kiss of The Yogini. "Tantric Sex" in its South Asian Contexts.

Although old, a general introduction work to Tantric and Yogic Thought is Mircea Eliade. Yoga. Immortality and Freedom.