Why isn't "heightened consciousness" a reliable form of salvation?

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Some religions rely on Gods, saviors, and moral laws for salvation.

Other religions or philosophical groups rely on one’s own ability for salvation by achieving heightened consciousness: Enlightenment, nirvana, moksha, gnosis, illumination, etc…Why is salvation in this way unreliable?
 
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In honesty we simply don’t know where we came from, if anywhere, what we’re here for, if for anything, and where we’re going, if anywhere; man is lost. From that perspective nothing we do or know is sufficient; we’re unable to find, much less save, ourselves. Something “bigger” than ourselves, Something from outside of our world, must, if possible, enlighten us. Only knowing and trusting that Something, that Other, personally can satisfy the soul in any kind of permanent and reliable manner. That’s my experience of it.
 
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From what I gather, adherents to religions or philosophies in which the goal is enlightenment do not see the problem of human suffering or human realization as a matter of being saved from sin. They don’t see a moral debt that humans cannot pay.

Rather, they see human suffering as coming from some form of blindness, confusion or immersion in unreality that can be remedied when the person sees or understands or orients themselves according to reality.

In that sense, then, no one thinks that heightened consciousness is a form of salvation. Those who believe that their future depends on reaching a heightened consciousness don’t believe they need a Savior because they don’t see their problem as having a moral debt they have no way to pay. They see their problem is being afflicted with a wrong-headedness that can only be remedied by applying themselves studiously to getting their heads on straight (or getting their selves straightened out and real instead of living in a self-con job).
 
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CatholicHere_Hi said:
Other religions or philosophical groups rely on one’s own ability for salvation by achieving heightened consciousness: Enlightenment, nirvana, moksha, gnosis, illumination, etc…Why is salvation in this way unreliable?
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Because, in these systems, ‘salvation’ is seen as a work that an individual does (whether intellectually, or mystically, or in combination with one’s body), and not a work of God which is freely given to us.

In a sense, it’s a kind of Pelagianism, which asserts that we don’t need Jesus in order to be saved, but only our own efforts.
 
I like to study other religions. There is the possibility of grace and divine intervention in most of them, I think. And even in Christianity there is a need for a renewed and transformed consciousness, a receiving the mind of Christ. I think we benefit more from looking at similarities in religions than focusing on the differences. Is it possible that some of the same truths are stated in different languages?
 
I’m not so sure. I studied other religions and philosophies as well, sometimes more intensely, other times less so, for many years before coming to believe the Christian message. It finally ended up with the others just falling by the wayside while the bible spoke more and more powerfully to me, to my surprise. I would’ve preferred to believe one or two of the others BTW. But while others had their contributions of truth, sometimes beautifully so, they ended up ringing much shallower to me, with something missing. Christ spoke authoritatively and personally. And the main message is that God is infinitely superior while yet personal-and fully understood that personhood is actually a superior attribute compared to a merely aloof, distant and vague Presence or Ultimate Reality, etc- and that Person embodies goodness and love as it’s essence; love, according to the Christian faith, is foundational to the universe. And Jesus came to reveal and demonstrate just that. I just can’t find anything more valuable, more clearly and boldly stated in it’s way, more important.

My consciousness becomes less important than my appreciation for His, and then He promises to elevate mine anyway, so to speak.
 
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I Find that other religions help me to see Christ in a new light and way. I may see something in another religion that says the same thing that I have heard a thousand times in my own. But with a different language or terms it seems fresh even as it reaffirms or confirms.
 
A person can be plenty smart or think themselves enlightened and still do evil.
Only God decides who receives salvation. Not ourselves.
 
When I hear “heightened consciousness” I think God consciousness, awareness of God, God’s presence and our relationship to God: the mind of Christ.
 
People who believe these things stay with the premise that we are here to learn. If you learn what you come here to learn, you are ready to go to the next step of existence (which Christians call salvation). They Don’t Really embrace the concept of salvation like Christians do.
 
Shakuhachi said:
I Find that other religions help me to see Christ in a new light and way. I may see something in another religion that says the same thing that I have heard a thousand times in my own. But with a different language or terms it seems fresh even as it reaffirms or confirms.
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I can appreciate that. It hasn’t been that long since I’ve read a sutra or two.
 
Lately I have been seeing a lot of similarities with Sri Aurobindo. He is very incarnational and all about surrender so that the Divine can work in us even as we are being transformed.

“All our thoughts, impulses, feelings, actions have to be referred to him for his sanction or disallowance, or if we cannot yet reach this point, to be offered to him in our sacrifice of aspiration, so that he may more and more descend into us and be present in them all and pervade them with all his will and power, his light and knowledge, his love and delight.” Chapter VIII The Mystery of Love

https://sanskritdocuments.org/surasa/aurobindo/synthesis/part-3.html#ch05

I love Aurobindo more than any other writer even though his sentences ar long and complex. If taken slowly they are a meditation. It took me several years to get through Synthesis of Yoga but well worth it. Now I am almost done with The Life Divine (even longer, like 1109 pages.)
 
Well, those are certainly some ambitious undertakings alright. And it sounds like there’s some good stuff to be found there. I would just suggest, in any case, that you won’t end up with much there to worship, to place above yourself IOW. Either way pride must end up vanquished to the greatest extent possible, and some disciplines actually end up bolstering it-but maybe your readings won’t lead down that path.

My guess is that you’ll still end up recognizing the greatest good in the one who is Love Incarnate, and who proved that love more by deeds than words during His incarnation, especially in His willingness to suffer an excruciatingly humiliating and painful death at the hands of His own creation if that what it takes to prove that love in spite of our sin, in spite of the lack of our own love, in spite of our darkness- in spite of the lack of enlightenment that causes so much harm to ourselves and others in this world. And the One who had the power to resurrect as well, proving that this love and the sheer happiness and bliss that it produces is eternal, not merely temporary and ultimately futile. We just won’t find anything quite like this story and the claims it makes anywhere else.
 
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CatholicHere_Hi said:
Some religions rely on Gods, saviors, and moral laws for salvation.

Other religions or philosophical groups rely on one’s own ability for salvation by achieving heightened consciousness: Enlightenment, nirvana, moksha, gnosis, illumination, etc…Why is salvation in this way unreliable?
Click to expand...
The Catholic faith is correct in saying that only God can save, because God is the power by which we exist; he is the power by which we move and have our being. Without God we are nothing. The effect cannot give itself what it does not have. Only God can give his heaven to us. We cannot cause God to give himself to us.

But can we reach higher states of consciousness that western religions might not be aware of? It’s possible. Who knows what potentialities we have? That’s why i try to look for the good in all religions. But at the same time i recognize one simple fact; Only by God’s power..

I could be incorrect, but some eastern philosophies seem to promote the idea of realizing your true nature as God. And when they speak of oneness with God it’s very monist and singular.as opposed to the dualism of Christian thought.

I don’t want to be God, i want to be with God.
 
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