For example, I believe that practicing Yoga can improve your health better than any modern health practice like jogging or weightlifting (disclaimer: I don't actually practice Yoga and I lift weights to stay in shape haha). But I believe that a practice that's been handed down and evolved over many centuries is, not certainly, but very, very likely to be highly optimized and efficient. I don't even think the creators of the system necessarily know why it works. Yoga has this theory of Chakras that attempts to explain it. I'm sure it's completely valid from a functional perspective. I really don't know much about that theory, but it has survived the evolutionary process, so it probably has a lot of merit. Science may validate it someday, if it hasn't already, which merely means that it will add another theoretical layer on top if it that's more modern so Westerners will be more likely to accept it.
This is why I respect religious scriptures, which I consider to be equivalent to Yoga for the mind.
When I was young, around 19-20, my friend had a book called "Kung Fu Meditations". I don't remember much about it, but I remember it was a compilation of verses from the Tao Te Ching, and it advised you to memorize them and recite them in your head without trying to understand them. Eventually the understanding will dawn on you. The first verse went something like this:
It was a partial verse 42 of the TTC. I gave it a try. I memorized it and tried to think about it a lot. I do think it helped my consciousness develop. There's not much evidence I can give other than what you're reading right here and can judge for yourself, maybe even try it yourself for awhile. But assuming for the sake of argument, that it does help you, then I have to say that it's not entirely clear to me why that is. These words have a "magic" power that I can't explain and possible nobody can explain. I guess the best explanation is that they came from an advanced mind who traced his steps in retrospect and offered a map for us to follow.The Tao gave birth to One.
One gave birth to Two.
Two gave birth to Three.
Three gave birth to the ten thousand beings.
The ten thousand beings carry the Yin on their back and encircle the Yang.
I teach what others teach: A violent man will die a violent death!
This will be the essence of my teaching.
I actually think that advice of holding something in your head, not struggling, and allowing the understanding to come to you is possibly the best on thinking I've ever received. It works great for solving any kind of problem.
I really think the Buddhist teachings have a lot of "magic" power:
I can't defend this belief in any rigorous way. Certainly the scientist/skeptic types would write it off as insane. And I have to draw the line in arbitrary ways.The Real Teaching of the Great Way (Mahayana)
Buddha said: Subhuti, all the bodhisattva heroes should discipline their thoughts as follows:
All living creatures of whatever class,
born from eggs, from wombs, from moisture, or by transformation,
whether with form or without form,
whether in a state of thinking or exempt from thought necessity, or wholly beyond all thought realms -
all these are caused by me to attain unbounded liberation nirvana.
Yet when vast, uncountable, immeasurable number of beings have thus been liberated,
verily no being has been liberated.
Why is this Subhuti?
It is because no bodhisattva who is a real bodhisattva cherishes the idea of an ego entity,
a personality, a being, or a separated individuality.
Astrology is really old, for example, but I don't think it has a lot of value. I'm kind of agnostic about it. Maybe the descriptions of personality traits are accurate. My horoscope says I'm musical, which is true, but I don't really think daily horoscopes mean anything and are little more than a scam on the highly emotional.
Also, I've never been a fan of religious rituals, but maybe they have the power to transmit some understanding. Probably not since they're nonverbal, but maybe they provide some other type of actual spiritual utility?
Same with meditation. I don't know if I really believe in it as a path to enlightenment in and of itself, like the Pali Canon seems to suggest. I suspect it's more of a drug substitute, a type of therapy that helps you overcome the dopaminergic rewards of attachments.