Reb Nachman's thought is often presented as Eastern Mysticism. This started with Reb Aryeh Kaplan and continues. I think the reason this is done is to try to get people whose thoughts are already influenced by Yoga and eastern religions.
However there are differences. One aspect of the difference is simply the existence of good and evil.
In Torah thought, there is evil, and one must actively avoid it.
M own feeling about all this is more or less based on Dr. Kelley Ross's essay "The Dark Side of the Tao" in which he posits a difference between religions that have a conflict between good and evil with good eventually winning-- as opposed to religions that say there is no such conflict.
My own background in the Mir Yeshiva in NY indicates to me a more Musar based approach. But my main thought here is that I must have a blind spot in which flaws in my own thinking and world view are not apparent to me -in the same way I see people in Eastern religious though (including Reb Nachman's groups) also seem to have a blind spot.
However there are differences. One aspect of the difference is simply the existence of good and evil.
In Torah thought, there is evil, and one must actively avoid it.
M own feeling about all this is more or less based on Dr. Kelley Ross's essay "The Dark Side of the Tao" in which he posits a difference between religions that have a conflict between good and evil with good eventually winning-- as opposed to religions that say there is no such conflict.
My own background in the Mir Yeshiva in NY indicates to me a more Musar based approach. But my main thought here is that I must have a blind spot in which flaws in my own thinking and world view are not apparent to me -in the same way I see people in Eastern religious though (including Reb Nachman's groups) also seem to have a blind spot.
