Q. This should be interesting!
A. Ready?
Q. Set! Go!
A. So. Firstly Judaism is an exoteric (public) religion of collective observances of a public law (Torah) and belief in a public book (the Scriptures). But the gurus and mystics of all cultures teach an esoteric (private), individual, inner experience that cannot be communicated in words.
When Jesus was on trial and under oath, questioned by the high priest, he said: "I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together; I have said nothing secretly. Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me, what i said to them; they know what I said" (Jn 18:20-21). That is not what a guru says; that is what a rabbi says.
Secondly, the Eastern mystics or gurus believe in a pantheistic, immanent God. For them, "enlightenment" consists in the realization that we and everything else are all, ultimately, God. As the Upanishads, the holy books of Hinduism , say" "The idea 'one' is the source of all truth; the idea 'two' is the source of all error."
Judaism's distinctive doctrine of God is that God is distinct from the world. He created it out of nothing. There is an infinite gap between Creator and creature. To confuse or identify a creature with the Creator is idolatry, a terrible sin. The belief in the transcendence of God clearly distinguishes Judaism from the mystical religions, and Jesus from the gurus.
If a Hindu announced to his guru, "I just discovered that I am God", the response would be: "Congratulations. You finally found out." If a Jew had said that two thousand years ago, the response would have been stoning (Jn 8:31-59) or crucifixion (Jn 19:1-7).
Third, for Jews, God is a Person. The supreme revelation of God was to Moses in the burning bush when he told Moses his own true eternal name: "I AM." For Jews "I" is the name of Ultimate Reality - God.
For the gurus, "I" is the name of ultimate illusion. Individuality, personality, selfhood is the supreme illusion that must be seen through and dispelled if we are to attain the supreme truth of enlightenment. Far from being the nature of ultimate reality in God, it is not even real in us.
8th August 2017