Suppose I knew all the secrets of the kabbalah, or of hermeticism or gnosticism... then what? How is that knowledge supposed to change me? Put in simplistic terms, "what's in it for me"? What is the goal?
I never quite understood that. In buddhism, meditation is obviously a transformative practice, and then there is the idea of practicing loving-kindness, so it is obvious how that would change a person over time. I can easily see why somebody would want that, and how people would imagine that this would be good for the whole planet. All those smiling buddhists... ;-)
But in all those "western" systems that are largely based on "secret knowledge", I never quite understood how that would bring about something akin to "enlightenment", or peace, or paradise, or whatever... and I never saw what the point of it all was supposed to be apart from that. To me, it was always fascinating from an outside perspective, but that's about it.
Can you enligthen me?
I never quite understood that. In buddhism, meditation is obviously a transformative practice, and then there is the idea of practicing loving-kindness, so it is obvious how that would change a person over time. I can easily see why somebody would want that, and how people would imagine that this would be good for the whole planet. All those smiling buddhists... ;-)
But in all those "western" systems that are largely based on "secret knowledge", I never quite understood how that would bring about something akin to "enlightenment", or peace, or paradise, or whatever... and I never saw what the point of it all was supposed to be apart from that. To me, it was always fascinating from an outside perspective, but that's about it.
Can you enligthen me?