LMAO so according to you “withdrawal from a false reality out of deference to a hidden one” is morally appalling, but “appreciating that everything is part of Supreme Being and thus worthy of love and compassion” is “not as profound or subversive” as the former thing you call appalling. You can’t have it both ways.
It seems like you warp your argument so that no matter what, you can appear superior.
It doesn’t matter what you define as “profound and subversive”, if you believe in pantheism you believe it’s TRUE, so it doesn’t matter if a different belief system is theoretically “more profound” if you don’t believe it’s true.
In Western society finding all life to be valuable, including non-humans, is pretty subversive tbh unless you’re a vegan (which I am). The common belief in the West is either pure materialism or Christianity which holds that only humans have souls/proper consciousness.
Also Spinoza didn’t come up with the idea of pantheism even if he was the first in the West to describe it as such, and it exists in Eastern mysticism as much as in Western mysticism.
In fact one of the cool things about mystical experience is that it’s common to almost all religions when you get past the actual mythology/dogma. Almost all religions have their mystics, and some atheists/agnostics came to experience mystical experiences via nonreligious means (like Sam Harris experienced it via meditation, Ralph Waldo Emerson experienced it by walking through nature etc.)
Hinduism isn’t the same as Buddhism but Hinduism inspired Buddhism and their roots are similar although different people interpret mysticism differently of course. There is no “one way” to be Hindu, like there is no “one way” to be Buddhist despite what certain gurus might say.
Rape, murder etc are not equally good because harming others is like harming self. And why would you want to harm yourself? Again, this assumes that people have empathy, which you seem to always discount. Mystical experiences tie into empathy.
If you’re a psychopath, with no empathy, then yes maybe any kind of morality could be twisted to make abhorrent behaviour justified, but the majority of people have empathy and that does factor significantly into their morality.
