-Futurist-

Eastern Pantheistic Monism transcends the impasse of Western thought which provides only a choice between an infinite-personal God on one hand, and a meaningless existence on the other. Eastern Pantheistic Monist rejects the presupposition that reason can lead to truth. It can be considered anti-rational.

 

The East and West operate on two very different sets of assumptions. Western technology has made modern war possible. Western economics has led to gross inequality and the economic oppression of masses of people. Western religion seems largely to support those who control the technology and economics, so that route is a trap. Western thought appears ugly to the Eastern mind.

 

That is not to say that Eastern Pantheistic Monism arose as an answer to Western thought. In fact, Eastern Pantheistic Monism predates Western modes of thought to a significant degree. With its syncretism, its quietism, and uncomplicated lifestyle it provides an exotic and radically different religious framework that many people find extremely attractive.

 

Eastern Pantheistic Monism is, by its very nature, difficult to label and categorize in terms of Western thought. We must realize that worldview categories do not neatly fit the various modes of thought (or lack of them) that characterize Eastern thought. Also, we must be aware of the vast differences among religious and cultural embodiments of Eastern Pantheism. We must not conclude that because people identify themselves as Buddhist of Hindu, they hold any of the propositions identified here as Eastern Pantheistic Monism.

 

With that in mind, we can say that God is the cosmos. God is all that exists; nothing exists but God. If anything appears to exist that is not God, it is Maya, illusion.

 

Paraphrase: Sire, J. (2009) The Universe Next Door. 5th ed. (pp. 144-149) IVP Academic

 

Survey Questions:

 

- What is Prime Reality? What is really real? – The soul of each and every human being is the soul of the cosmos (ultimate reality).

 

- What is the Nature of the World? - Some things are more than others - reality is a hierarchy of appearances.

 

- What is a Human Being? - To realize one's oneness with the cosmos is to pass beyond personality.

 

- What Happens at Death? - Death is the end of individual, personal existence, but it changes nothing essential in an individual's nature.

 

- Why is it possible to know anything? -To realize one's oneness with the cosmos is to pass beyond knowledge.

 

- How do Eastern Pantheistic Monists know Right from Wrong? - To realize one's oneness is to pass beyond good and evil, the cosmos is perfect at every moment.

 

- What is the Meaning of Human History? - To realize one's oneness with the One is to pass beyond time. Time is unreal. History is cyclical.

 

- What personal, core commitments are consistent with your worldview? – The elimination of desire is the achievement of salvation, that is, to realize one's union with pure consciousness.