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I am curious as to what fellow DaoBums count as Idolatry. I was watching Tenak Talk on Youtube today from a (supposedly) famous Rabbi and am just flabbergasted at the level of ignorance he's portraying about Daoism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Especially when it comes to Yoga and Nei Gong work. All 3 of these 'religions' are steeped at their very root in idolatry according to Rabbinic Orthodox Judaism. The whole talk - to me at least - came across as a One-Upsmanship of how superior Rabbinic Orthodox Judaism is to all 3 of these "idolatrous" religions. Judaism (and Christianity and Islam for that matter - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree) seems to really have a robust time slinging the judgment "idolatry!" at anything not found or practiced in it's own tradition. This Rabbi even attacked Karate and other forms of Martial Arts that pair it with spiritual Daoist principles, etc as idolatrous. Not kidding on that. Karate, Kung Fu, Judo, etc came in for a long segment of attack because they all peddle 'witchy woo', 'pagan' idolatry from Daoism while one is learning those martial arts. I've been following various Jewish channels on Youtube lately because I've always been of the belief by setting aside personal prejudices (not always successful but I try) I can discover new nuggets of wisdom that might not have come my way any other way. That's how I discovered The Cosmic Doctrine in fact. But I'm beginning to (sadly) come to the conclusion a lot of current Orthodox Judaism (or at least the ones on Youtube) doesn't have many even partially realized teachers anymore. When I went in I understood being a Rabbi was because this person was a 'guru' or 'lama'. Someone who had at least a modicum of 'self-realization' (or G*d realization as Judaism puts it) from implementing Torah/Tenak (Tenak = scriptural + oral Torah ie scriptures + oral teachings handed down from a G*d-Realized Tzadik (aka Rishi) lineage) - but from what I can tell the tradition has waaaay too much emphasis on reading texts and debate and is stagnating there. Intellectual debate is so far the only 'fruit' I'm seeing the Orthodox tradition transmitting well. I'd place many of these Orthodox Rabbis I've been listening to of late on Youtube at the same self-realization level as the very same Christian and Islamic fundamentalists they criticize. However, since Judaism is so fond of throwing the judgment "Idolatry!" around at any tradition not its own I've begun to wonder what exactly would other spiritual practitioners consider genuinely idolatrous.

Kabbalah Short video talking about Kabbalah- Kabbalah - Five Basic Principles The Tree of Life- Do We Reincarnate?- What is Prayer in Kabbalah?- What is the Meaning of Life?- The Sixth Sense- Animation- Attaining the Worlds Beyond- What is Kabbalah? Universal Kabbalah Series- Kabbalah Revealed- History Channel Documentary, Secrets of the Kabbalah- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye4_feytz-c http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bGF7tERZow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdFMj60JJ54 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRnAhl_HmPA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niGqxlJTehk Decoding the Past- Kabbalah http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8617500122476262686# Throughout history, those on the spiritual path who wanted to attain direct experience of and knowledge of God, contact with God, knowledge of Universal Laws, knowledge of the underlying causes of creation and existence, and enlightenment, needed to study the scriptures. That is for sure, but that is not all there is. There is also the oral tradition and the practice in daily life. The oral traditions and practices, which are in a way, the most important part for gaining direct contact with God, are passed from teacher to student intuitively and can't be obtained through only reading scriptures literally. The human mind is barred from heaven so heaven can only be understood intuitively through love, and understanding numerology, symbology and "myth", are but a few ways to better intuitively understand the truth of things. The inner meaning, the numerical meaning, and the symbolic meaning of the scriptures is not usually known or understood, but we know it exists and is in there. Originally the bible was written very symbolically and the "keys" to understanding a story were in the numerology. For example, 3 represents wholeness or a complete cycle, and 4 represents transformation or change. 40 days and 40 nights is obviously representing a transformation and purification. Over time the numerical keys to the metaphoric teachings were lost or deliberately obscured by the church. Much Kabballic teachings were removed from the bible in the first few centuries after the death of Jesus- Hebrew Gematria- The 72 names of God has astronomical implications and meanings- Kabbalah Kabbalah confirms the universe is 10 directional and emanates from 10 directions-