The Major World’s Religions

K.S.Chow

Introduction

Statistics data in the website of www.adherents.com database  reveals the following statistics on the Religious Adherents ranked by the  Percentage of World Population in 2005.

Source:www.adherents.com

In the year 2005, Christianity as expected is the dominant  religion in the world. Expectedly, most of the westerners are Christians. Having received western education, many eastern religious adherents have been Christianized too.  If we examine the data sources from other survey agencies, such as  British Broadcasting Corporation, Encyclopedia Britannica, International Bulletin of Missionary Research and Wikipedia Enclopedia, according to the trend or rates of change for the past few years, the rate of change of Christian population is on the decline. Even Pope Benedict has admitted that Christian faith is on the decline in the west. Obviously, the predicament is rooted in  the political DNA of secular state. This is understandable as western governance separates the secular state from religious institutions  worshipping  the former and marginizing the latter. Paradoxically, the western political culture has also invaded the Asian political culture. The overdose of representative democracy has developed toxic contigent conditions in some  Asian political process of governance.

Islam

The statistics data also unveil that the diffusion of Islam is on the ascent. It is predicted that Islam will overtake Christianity as the world’s dominant religion later in the 21st century. The third dominant religion in the world is Hinduism which has undergone a very long period of Hindu civilization. Buddhism occupies the last position in ranking  in the desending order listed in the statistical presentation. It seems that the percentage of Buddhist adherents is relatively low with respect to the other major religions of the world, such as Christianity, Islam and Hinduism.

Neo-confucianism

In actual fact, many Chinese faith adherents in Chinese traditional religion are fundamentally Neo-confucianists. Neo-confucianism is the syncretism of three philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. These three traditions can be syncretized both exoterically  and esoterically like the metaphor of  mixing milk with water.  In other words, there are many Chinese Buddhist adherents among this so called Chinese traditional religion adherents. Furthermore, many Japanese adherents of Sintoism are fundamentally Buddhist adherents because Sintoism has been integrated with Buddhism like milk and water too.

Hence, the statistics datum of 6% for Buddhism is obviously underestimated as Chinese and Japanese Buddhists  among their traditional religions are not included in the statistics datum. The Chinese people are scattered globally in almost every corner of the world where they can do business or pursue their university education. They are able  to survive and prosper in overseas China towns owing to their Neo-confucian philosophy of Tao into which Buddhist faith is incorporated. Furthermore, the Japanese Sintoists are primarily adherents in Buddhist faith.  Hence, the statistics datum on the population of  Buddhists may not mirror the real truth. Many ordinary Buddhists are not aware of the fact that Japanese Buddhist research and development is professionally advanced and is on par with the works of modern western Buddhist scholars or intelligentsia.

Derailed

 Quantitatively, Christian faith is  the most popular religious faith with the largest population of adherents. However, the westerners’ full concentration focused on the affluence  of economic concrescence, creative advance of science and technology and their epistemological affinity for logical positivism have probably diluted the divine influence of Christianity in the west. The ongoing 2008-2009 financial woes mirror that the auto divine self-regulation or auto divine self-oversight mechanism of Christianity has not  operated well in preventing the systemic risk and crisis of western financial meltdown. It is the failure of the prayer of Heart in a sizable portion of the morally flawed consumers and the executives that has sickened the financial industry so direly.

 The grave systemic risks in the financial industry due to toxic contigent conditions contradict with the western norms of advanced TQM system that the easterners worship and emulate hitherto.  The spiritual desert in the western secular state has taken its heavy toll. It mirrors that  they  merely pay a lip service to Christianity. This scenario is equally true in the spiritual deserts in the east too. Contemplating on the predicament of excessive emphasis of a secular state, I am increasingly alarmed by the eruption of crisis after crisis globally. The toxic contigent conditions occurring in the financial industry are also evident in the eastern financial system. They are merely being  swept under the carpet in eastern culture as orientalists are fearful of being accused as being shameful or disrepute.

Western Supremacy

It is quite disgusting to witness the financial meltdown of the western financial institutions and other major auto manufacturers when U.S is the foremost nation in management prudence and  business organizational excellence. The western Total quality Management (TQM) is susposed to be superiorly advanced  because of their prudent  knowledge economy and cutting edge information technology. U.S and E.U are susposed to be the global supermodels in management science and  financial services unsurpassed or unmatched globally in its internal control. Traditionally, western management system is highly esteemed and venerated by the orientalists. The best and the brightest brains from the east are annually sent by their respective governments  to the western universities to obtain scientific or economic sutras from the western university professors, savants or intelligentsia. The eruption of 2008-2009 financial crisis mirrors secular knowledge alone does not suffice to preserve the economic accomplishment and concrescence of any nation. Supremacy in business management does not suffice to prevent systemic risks. Business management is merely phenomenal. Every phenomenon must be supported by the principal Order or Truth – the knowledge of the Absolute and the Infinite.

Balance

Traditionally, Western management gurus are esteemed and extolled  among the corporate leaders in the east. It mirrors that systemic risk and crisis have occurred due to poor regulation and oversight mechanism caused by moral flaws. Human greed, laxity and irresponsibilities are ethical issues correlated with religious faith and wisdom. To avert future global financial or economic catastrophes , modern governments ought to realize that business and public management  ought to be sanctified with religious wisdom or theosophical philosophy.

 Even the modern management gurus preach the win-win philosophy that  private victory precedes public victory. Private victory is personal development and self-cultivation to elevate human performance excellence. Personal development encompassing only secular knowledge economy is lopsided. It must seriously be complemented with the spiritual knowledge of God or Tao or Emptiness.  Knowledge economy must be integrated with the eternal Truth of God or Tao or Emptiness. Briefly defined, the knowledge of God is the knowledge of Unity of  harmonious association of  contigent conditions.  Knowledge economy is phenomenon, God or Tao or Emptiness is the Principle. Sustainable development is contigent upon the harmonious interpenetration between the phenomenon and the Principle. Systemic risk is generally anthropocentric. Anthropocentric problem is usually related to ethical issue.  

 The relatively advanced western business culture  of Total Quality Management (TQM) has failed  miserably because of massive moral flaws that have contributed to the 2008-2009 financial systemic risk and crisis of the western  financial institutions. Judging from the advanced management seminars presented by western management gurus in  the 20th-21st centuries, I ascertain that  Western business management philosophy is relatively much more advanced than those business practices adopted traditionally in Asia. It is indeed amazing and very alarming to witness many of the giant transnational business corporations in US have failed miserably in the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown. It mirrors that supreme secular knowledge alone  can not make one truly successful in businesses. That the westerners have plunged into the dark pit of financial woes and teetering economy is that they have divorced their secular life from spiritual life. Paradoxically, some of the best and bright brains of the world  in religion and philosophy are found in the western universities .

Another contribution is that modern Christians are exotericists rather than being esotericists. In fact, the majority of the faith adherents of any denomination are exotericists inclined towards ritualistic service or mere Sunday church attendance  rather than diligently seeking for the knowledge of the  communal Truth of God or the Essence of Jesus or Holy Spirit. Knowing God is the central tenet of Christianity. Likewise, knowing the Lord is the central theme of religious  knowledge. Prayer of the Heart but not of the head is the right practice.  Modern faith adherents mistakenly take refuge from God exoterically or outwardly. This prayer of the head. The prayer of the head is idolatrous.  The right attitude should be : Take refuge in God by oneself in oneself esoterically or inwardly .

True Believers

The  exotericists are those unsaved and carnal believers. These carnal   believers still  direct and empower their lives with the self-centric ego. They are devoted  faith adherents attending Sunday service regularly or frequent the temples or monasteries with the expectation of external blessings from the Lord.  However, they emphasize more the exoteric  dimension of  religion  rather than the discovery of communal Truth of Wisdom of  esoteric dimension of religion.

Human moral fallibilities and vulnerabilities originate from self-centric ego – the lower self of the human carnal self or false self. Whoever directs and empowers his  or her life with the self-centric ego is an exotericist. Whoever has annihilated the self-centric ego is an esotericist. An esotericist takes refuge in the knowledge of God or Tao or Emptiness. God or Tao or Emptiness is the knowledge of the  process philosophy of the ontology of dynamic process becoming.  The world is being imperiled because the number of exotericists excessively outnumber that of esotericists.

Christianity

The Christian esotericists are those saved believers who direct and empower their lives with the Holy Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit dwells only in  the Christians if and if they are born of God. To be born of God and receive the Holy Spirit, the believers must know the eternal Truth of God. To know God, one must know oneself rightly through oneself. To know oneself rightly, one must annihilate the false self of self-centric ego to reveal the True Self – the Holy Spirit of God.

Sufism

Likewise, it is witnessed  globally that the population of Muslims has surged  in the western and eastern countries. However, they are chiefly  main-stream Muslims priortizing the exoteric  dimension of Islam in Islamic Law only. They stay aloof from its esoteric tenet – Sufism. According to my personal  survey, the majority of the Muslims whom I have met is qualitatively ignorant of the soteriological  knowledge of  Sufism. The main stream Islam must be complimented with Sufism in order to obtain a complete set of Islam. What is mean is that Man and God must be integrated to manifest the innate wisdom and virtue of Man called Ihsān. Ihsan is the complete integration of the Islamic Law and the Truth or God (Ḥaqq). Ihsān is the quintessence of Islam. It is right believing, right thought  and right doing. Ihsān is synonymous with Buddhist concept of prajñāpāramitā (perfection of wisdom).

 Sufism is the heart of Islam focusing on the complete knowledge of God as the Unity of Existence (waḥdat al wujūd). If Sufism is learned well, the clash between the western political civilization and Islamic civilization will be averted. Islamic fanatism, extremism and sectarianism will be eradicated totally through Sufi theosophy of destruction of ego self (al-Fanā’). The recent 2009 U.N Conference on Racialism and Racial Discrimination in Geneva failed because the conference was exoterically approached  but not esoterically approached. Exoteric approach  has a propensity to fuel racial tension and grave disputations. The esoteric approach is cool and peaceful. 

Middle Path

Although the global Buddhist population is the lowest among the major world’s religions, there is a deep consolation. I have been preaching the Dhamma or Dharma for the past 30 years. I exuberantly discover that generally, the Buddhists in Asia have grown more proficient and more profound in both their exoteric as well as the esoteric knowledge of Buddhism. It is so because Gotama Buddha untiringly highlights the central doctrine of  Middle Path (Madhyama pratipat) of acknowledging the  bipolar Truth of Reciprocity of conventional truth and ultimate Truth.

The knowledge of Middle Path is the bipolar knowledge of the exoteric  knowledge of conventional truth and the esoteric knowledge of ultimate Truth. The phenomenal world and the eternal Truth of Tathāgata are innately inseparable.  Though Buddhist population has not increased as rapidly as those of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, the international Buddhist community has indeed  elevated  themselves  qualitatively in the past two decades owing to emergence of more international Buddhist universities and colleges which have produced more qualified Buddhist monks, nuns and Buddhist laity. Furthermore The Buddhist web sites or encyclopedia available freely in the internet service of the cyberworld have  educated the Buddhists along the right path of the Buddha.

 In fact, Buddhism has been diffused quietly but steadily in the west. The translators of Pāli and Sanskrit Canonical texts or Scriptures are mainly western eminent Buddhist scholars or savants. Western Buddhist professors have trained many oriental Buddhist professors  who return and train their oriental Buddhist students in their oriental universities. American Bhikkhu Bodhi is one of the modern eminent Buddhist scholars esteemed and extolled for his works on Buddhist scriptural translations from Pāli to English.

 Hinduism

The aforementioned statistics data reveal that adherents of Hinduism reached 14% of world population in 2005 , very close to Islam reaching 21%. Hinduism originated from Vedic religion which evolved into Upaniṣads known currently as Vedānta. Upaniṣads were integrated with other schools of Hindu thought and have been syncretised and  evolved into modern Hinduism. Since, the religious philosophy of Vedas and Upaniṣads has existed as Hindu civilization for more than 5,000 years, it is expected that it enjoys a  larger population of adherents than that of Buddhism which has a shorter history of only about 2,600 years.

Conclusion

The communalities which I have exuberantly discovered from the teachings of the major world’s religions of Hinduism, Taoism ,Buddhism, Christianity and Islam or Sufism are enumerated as follows :

1. The Truth of one’s Lord is Unity of existence.
2. The Truth is to be known by oneself in oneself.
3. The attributes of Unity are interconnectedness, interdependence, inseparation, holism, integration, insubstantiality, emptiness, dependent co-arising, process becoming, non-proprietorship, non-discrimination, and non-duality.
4. The multiplicity comprises divergent phenomena. It is illusory and unreal.
5. Multiplicity conceals Unity. It is the image of the Unity.
6. Multiplicity is manifest;  Unity is unmanifest.
7. Multiplicity is the conventional world; Unity is the eternal Truth.
8. The path to Unity or Lord  is the complete annihilation of self-centric ego
9. The path to salvation or liberation is the complete annihilation of self-centric ego
10. To see the Lord is to  become a perfectly wise and virtuous person
11. Gnosis is the highest good of life of self-redemption. It is the communal path to discover the communal Truth of Wisdom
12. The process Reality of the ontology of dynamic becoming is the communal Truth of Wisdom or perennial Wisdom  promulgated by all major world’s religions.

 Editor’s Note:

The aforementioned list can be utilized as  a general check list to evaluate and determine  one’s station of  spiritual progress in any one of the major world’s religions. The check list items are  effective evaluation feedbacks of one’s  spiritual attainment. Most significantly, they are the communal Truth of Wisdom promulgated by the major world’s religions.