First of all, I will state that I believe that religion in general, as presented to the masses is mostly unnecessary window dressing that likely does more to obscure the value of the religion than enhance it.
In comparing eastern and western religions I see one astounding difference. Western religion is all about obedience to a higher being in order to fend off his wrath, whereas eastern religion is all about realizing the potential within yourself. Christianity actually bridges the gap to some degree, being an axial religion along with Buddhism and post-vedic Hinduism.
Exhibit A: Deuteronomy 28:
This chapter begins with Moses telling you all the ways God will bless you for perfect obedience, but then it gets down to the real meat:
Hinduism has 330 million gods. A few of them are worshiped in some places with the same devotion and intensity as Yahweh. Even some sects of Buddhism worship the Buddha as a god. BUT if you remove the gods entirely, those traditions still work to help people improve themselves and to serve others because they recognize the divine as part of each of us. Hinduism embraces polytheism, monotheism, monotheism, pantheism, panentheism, agnosticism, and atheism. So does Buddhism. Even Sam Harris, one of the atheistic Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse embraces Buddhist concepts and teaches meditation. Once you get away from magic people in the sky, eastern religion, it seems to me, appears to have a more substance and usefulness.15 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
19 Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
20 The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me.
21 The Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou goest to possess it.
22 The Lord shall smite thee with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew; and they shall pursue thee until thou perish.
And this is where Christianity becomes interesting again. If you strip away the virgin birth and resurrection and walking on water, it seems like maybe the essence of Christianity is: 1) Do unto others, and 2) The Kingdom of God is within you. Those philosophies seem to share a lot more with eastern religions than with anything else that came out of the Ancient Near East.
Imagine a world where everyone believed those two concepts and lived accordingly.