[Practitioner]

I believe there is nothing wrong with having faith in a principle or teaching during one's quest for truth. And actually, whether 'science' or 'spirituality,' aren't both seeking truth, understanding and actualization?

I can say that there historically have been many prophets, many ways of practice, and several ways that have taken the form of religion. Ultimately, one practice would disparage another and tell its followers not to listen to others. The issue with orthodox religions and ways of cultivation practice is that the underlying principles do vary between them, their goals may be different, their methods of progress are different, and the forms of energy circulation and bodily transformation (if any) are different. At a certain point it has thus been necessary for a practitioner to choose one path in order to make real progress, else the different practices would conflict with one another. This is one reason that orthodox practices would disparage or discredit one another.

There are also different forms of gods and higher beings, including Buddhas, Taos and Gods that westerners are familiar with. Their characteristics and forms of existence are different, and as a result their teachings and methods of cultivation are somewhat different as well.

What is a higher being then? A higher being is one who is composed of more refined, more microcosmic, and more potent energy matter than we human beings.