Religious experience as meditational insight

Experience shows that disciplines of study and meditation may lead to realization of identity of the individual self with the one Self, the ultimate reality. This realization is beyond intellectual or conceptual understanding but a total experience of unity, of identity with the ultimate. Many systems may be quoted from all religions and cultures and most involve the guidance of a teacher or sage who is further along the path of knowledge and can guide his disciple. Aids to attain this unitive insight include the numerous systems of meditation and yoga, in particular in Buddhism, such as the [eightfold path]

and [four noble truths]

; but similar meditative practices occur in the Confucian tradition, Taoism, Shintoism, and in movements within Islam (Sufism), Judaism and Christianity (as for example the contemplative hermits of the Orthodox Church).