You don’t understand what a perennial tradition is - that it always was . You are unaware of the distinction between exoteric and esoteric teachings so must limit yourself to rejecting exoteric beliefs. Fortunately there are those who are still aware that esoteric Christianity is a perennial traditionRCSaunders wrote: ↑Fri Aug 16, 2019 2:26 pmAll religion and mysticism is nonsense, and most of it is not only wrong, but dangerous. But most people do embrace some form of superstition or another and I have found it interesting to study most of those superstitions.
However, I think it is dishonest to claim adherence to a specific superstition, such as Christianity, and to quote its accepted authority, the Bible, and then contradict both the teachings of that religion and what the Bible actually says. One is certainly free to make up their own religion which is a mishmash of other religions (it's called syncretism), but to claim that monstrosity is one of the religions one has borrowed from is deceitful.
You seem to be reacting against superficial expressions of exoteric and man made Christendom. Fortunately there are still those with eyes to see and ears to hear which enable them to begin to understand the objective meaning and purpose of Christianity rather than continually reacting to what is is not understood. Jacob Needleman describes what made him begin to understand.………………..Jesus indicated that his message consisted of a public (exoteric) message for all the people and an advanced (esoteric) teaching reserved for initiates.
The Esoteric Tradition
Mark 4: "Then when they were by themselves, his close followers and the twelve asked about the parables, and he told them: 'The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those who do not know the secret, everything remains in parables, so that, seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them.'"
"So he taught them his message with many parables such as their minds could take in. He did not speak to them at all without using parables, although in private he explained everything to his disciples." [Phillips translation]
Matthew 13: "The man who has ears to hear should use them"
"At this the disciples approached him and asked, 'Why do you talk to them in parables?
"'Because you have been given the chance to understand the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven,' replied Jesus, 'but they have not. For when a man has something, more is given to him till he has plenty. But if he has nothing even his nothing will be taken away from him. This is why I speak to them in these parables; because they go through life with their eyes open, but see nothing, and with their ears open, but understand nothing of what they hear."' [Phillips translation]
1 Corinthians 2:6-15: "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew.
"We interpret what is spiritual in spiritual language. The unspiritual man rejects these truths of the Spirit of God; to him they are 'sheer folly,' he cannot understand them. And the reason is, that they must be read with the spiritual eye. The spiritual man, again, can read the meaning of everything; and yet no one can read what he is."
Clement of Alexandria (150-220 C.E.)
"The Lord . . . allowed us to communicate of those divine Mysteries, and of that holy light, to those who are able to receive them. He did not certainly disclose to the many what did not belong to the many; but to the few to whom He knew that they belonged, who were capable of receiving and being moulded according to them. But secret things are entrusted to speech, not to writing, as is the case with God."
"Many things, I well know, have escaped us, through length of time, that have dropped away unwritten."
"Even now I fear, as it is said, 'to cast the pearls before swine, lest they tread them underfoot, and turn and rend us.' For it is difficult to exhibit the really pure and transparent words respecting the true Light to swinish and untrained hearers."……………………………………………………….
https://thewayofimprovement.com/2010/01 ... ve-in-god/
The majority prefer to react and reject. There are those like Prof Needleman who are willing to understand rather than just give in to reacting to negative life experiences. He was able to experience that he was reacting to worldly interpretations. You prefer to react and condemn while I am humble enough to admit the depth of a perennial tradition which threatens my attachment to the darkness of Plato’s cave.How did your ideas about religion change?
Well, as I say, in my life it was more or less thrust upon me. I needed a job. It was 1962—ancient times—I was hired at San Francisco State and I was obliged to teach a course called the History of Western Religious Thought. For me I had no desire to teach anything like that. I was totally allergic to religion. But I had training as a philosophy student, a grad student, a PhD. I did very well, was at the best colleges, best universities— Harvard, Yale—and I was willing to undertake preparing myself to teach such a course. Philosophers generally don’t want to come anywhere near that kind of stuff—nor did I. But I honorably tried to prepare myself.
It meant I had to read theologians, Christian writers like St. Augustine—whom I had hated. You see in my book where I talk about burning the pages of the book, that’s exactly what happened. I’m not exaggerating. I was so happy to see it go up in flames; I had suffered so much from that book. And later I read it and I loved it—a great, great man.
So it forced me to read and prepare myself, and I couldn’t believe how superficial my understanding of religion had been, even with a liberal education from the best universities. I discovered things about religion; I couldn’t believe how good, how interesting, how profound—and how distorted it had become, how shallow it had become. So more and more I got deeply interested in religion because I had to teach it. And then I got personally interested in my own personal, spiritual search which I started to undertake.
