If your definition of religion is “human system which attempts to confront and understand/master the unknown, spiritual, and metaphysical principles of reality” then I think Buddhism and Taoism can fit quite nicely (even Science looks more and more like a religion through this lens). But if your definition is more along the lines of “top-down hierarchy from God down to his agents down to his priests down to us”, then I could see how the eastern religions and western religions seem irreconcilable