The biggest difference between eastern and western religions as I see it concerns the view of death - westerners believe you have this one chance to attain salvation (by whatever means), and easterners generally acccept reincarnation, having multiple chances. Both advocate doing good to others, a.k.a. ‘the golden rule’ and the law of karma.
I feel that I lean more toward the eastern view as I get older. There is so much to reality we cannot begin to comprehend. All that we can detect with our physical senses is said to make up less than one millionth of the total reality. I feel that our selves are permanently written into the fabric of the frame, and that the western idea of one life unto eternity is an expression of their fear of change. It isn’t enough to live forever, they must live forever as the entity that they currently define themselves as. This is ludicrous, however, because if any of us were to witness the infinite we would have to change; we are made form the same particles as the universe around us, and it is constantly in flux. Stars are born and nebulaes are dispersed.
Science has shown that we do in fact exist on planes besides the physical one we see everyday. We have our quatum counterparts. What is so absurd about there being a higher existence than ours to offset the lower, quantum one of which we have proof? And carry that further - that higher level may be the quantum expression of one even greater in transendece.
I believe that we exist in flux as well, and we constantly range among these many planes, often having effects we know nothing of and experiencing the repercussion of events without any apparent source. Your body is merely the expression of your factual self on the physical level. If that is so, then our dreams would be another one of those planes, and we should approach them with respect just as the ancients (who were in so many ways wiser than ourselves) had done. Even minor, seemingly secret things you do in a dream affect your own psyche, and those effects may take on exponential values that you know nothing about yet. You are responsible even for your private thoughts - you know, those little electrical impulses that travel around the mushy physical matter you call a brain (an organ, you might take note of, that was provided by molecules in the universe . . . don’t forget to say ‘thanks’!).
