What Are the Differences Between Eastern And Western Religions? (punishment, Buddhism)

[Seyorni]

The Abrahamic idea of a judgemental, anthropomorphic God does not fit well into the Eastern worldview.

It also seems to me that Eastern and Western religion have different goals.
The Western religions seek to avoid punishment and obtain reward by subscribing to correct beliefs and opinions. The concept of enlightenment is foreign to mainstream Abrahamic faiths.

Eastern religions seek a mystical psychic transformation. The seek to "wake up" to a different consciousness. The Eastern religious traditions are thus more like what we westerners would consider psychotherapeutic modalities

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by Victor

If I was to sum it up in two words I'd say the West has a more legalistic approach vs. the East has more of a metaphysical approach. Everything else is a domino affect of these two approaches.

If this is true then Orthodoxy would be an eastern religion, which I don't think it is. Maybe Middle Eastern would truly work for us? We're certainly rather different to the eastern religions (as all Christians are) but we're also rather different in terms of legalism from western religions. I've often thought (having, as I do, a background in both Protestant Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism) that there are certain aspects of Orthodoxy that are closer to the east and others that are closer to the west. On the approaches you mention here, we're certainly well to the east.

James

[James the Persian]

Originally Posted by Seyorni

The Abrahamic idea of a judgemental, anthropomorphic God does not fit well into the Eastern worldview.

A judgemental and anthropomorphic God is not a necessary idea for Abrahamic faiths. Orthodoxy sees God as neither jus=dgemental nor anthropomorphic.

It also seems to me that Eastern and Western religion have different goals.
The Western religions seek to avoid punishment and obtain reward by subscribing to correct beliefs and opinions. The concept of enlightenment is foreign to mainstream Abrahamic faiths.

Whilst we have no concept of enlightenment as such, the idea of theosis is not so very different. Certainly, the focus of Orthodox practice is not simply to attain reward and avoid punishment but rather the transformation of the self in such a way as to become more perfect and, through God's grace, more godlike. It is not so far from eastern ideas (and we, as the second largest Christian church, are most certainly mainstream).

Eastern religions seek a mystical psychic transformation. The seek to "wake up" to a different consciousness. The Eastern religious traditions are thus more like what we westerners would consider psychotherapeutic modalities

As I said above, this is not so very different in Orthodoxy. We, too, see our practice in a therapeutic light and see God as the chief physician and His Church as hospital. Personally, I se the idea of eastern and western religions as being two wholly dissimilar groupings to be wrong. We, as I said in my reply to Victor, seem to stradle the two to some degree.

James