Mysteries in religion

The exoteric has been defined (René Guénon) as the individual human interest, while the esoteric is the reaching beyond the individual to embrace superior states of being, aspiring even to the supreme state, transcendence beyond all possibility of comparison. Paradoxically, esotericism is therefore that in a tradition which addresses the inner man - and its esoteric or secret quality exists because few are aware of this dimension of their nature. According to Seyyed Hossein Nasr, it is the esoteric which is the radius joining those living on the periphery or circumference of a religion to the centre, it is the path of the spiritual journey in this life. Those who confine themselves to the exoteric dimension are destined to remain on the circumference during this life, although they may follow the beatific vision in the life to come.

Whatever the formal framework of a religion, no authentic and integral tradition can exist on solely the exoteric and collective. Nor can it exist on esoterism. The one is religion without a heart, the other a wholly subjective and quasi-abstract spiritual life, all heart and no body. Because of the inclusiveness of Christianity, its formal framework is lacking in the esoteric. Similarly, some neo-Vedantist and other movements lack the exoteric.

Islam defines the two areas clearly - the law (shariah) being the exoteric and spiritual vision, the tasawwuf of the Sufi being esoteric. Judaism divides the two symbolically by the veil in the temple - on the one side is the religion as practised by all, on the other the empty holy of holiness, entered by the naked priest. This veil is rent by Christianity, it was never there in Buddhism. In Christianity this has resulted in a paucity of esoteric expression, in Buddhism in a regret for the necessity of the exoteric. Nevertheless, in Christianity and in Buddhism (Tibetan, Zen, Jodo) initiation ceremonies can be taken at both exoteric and esoteric levels. In Buddhism, particularly, this is clearly delineated. Again, Zen in the exoteric sense is a branch of [mahayana]

Buddhism, initially developed in China and strongly influenced by Taoism, a religion with specific teaching and practice and with the goal of [satori]

(self-realization) leading to enlightenment. But in the esoteric sense, Zen is the root of all religion, the indefinable and indescribable source of which all religion is an expression, the awareness of perfection always present in every person.