Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00173)

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

 

            For consideration:         A  FOUNDATION OF RELIGION

 

Best wishes

 

Dallas

 

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A  FOUNDATION OF RELIGION

 

T0 most people the word "religion" signifies something separate from human
existence, and presents the idea of preparation for some unknown future
existence. Some religions are based upon the knowledge of an individual who
laid the foundation for them; others are believed to be the revelations of a
Supreme Being at the time of the creation of the world. Each people has a
God of its own; so many peoples, so many Supreme Beings corresponding to the
mental ideas of the people. And so with individuals-as the ideas of men
differ widely-so many individuals, so many Gods. All these Gods or Supreme
Beings are the creations of men, and not facts in themselves. But back of
all those ideas does lie a Reality. The very power that resides in man to
create images and endow them with virtues which he does not possess points
to something greater than the things created. The creatures cannot be
greater than the creators. That which in man creates ideas is greater than
any idea he may at any time have held or now holds. We have, then, to get
back of all ideas to find the true ' true religion.

True religion must give us a basis for thinking, and consequently, a basis
for acting; it must give us an understanding of nature, of ourselves and of
other beings. Religion is a bond uniting men together-not a particular set
of dogmas or beliefs- binding not only all Men, but also all Beings and all
things in the entire Universe, into one grand whole. Just that basis and
that bond are presented in the three fundamental propositions of the Secret
Doctrine.

Behind everything that exists is the Sustainer of all that exists, of all
that ever was, is, or shall be. Nothing exists without It. It is
omnipresent, and It is infinite. But, if we take that idea and endeavor to
confine it to the form of any Being whatever, we shall find we have
attempted the impossible. We cannot hold the idea of being with that which
is omnipresent and infinite. No being can exist outside of Space which
itself is, whether there is void or fulness, whether there are planets, gods
or men, or none; which itself is not altered in any way by objects occupying
it; which is illimitable-without beginning and without end. A Being must
exist in Space, and so must be less than Space. We can then call the Highest
Power any name we choose-the Supreme, the Self-so long as we do not limit
It, or give It attributes. We may not say It is pleased, nor angry, nor
rewards, nor punishes; doing so, we limit It. If Space itself cannot be
measured or limited, how can we limit the Supreme? The Highest Power cannot
be less than Space. Even to name It is to limit It; yet It must be the One
Reality, the One Sustainer, the One Cause of all existences, the One Knower,
the One Experiencer, in all directions and in every thing. This proposition
drives us back to the very basis of all thought-the power to think,
itself-the power which is in each and every being.

We cannot understand nature, other beings and ourselves, by going outside to
any conceivable being. The growth of knowledge must be within the perceiver,
the thinker himself. All his observation and experience bring him knowledge
which he relates to himself in connection with others. Each stands in the
vast assemblage of beings, seeing them all, understanding what he may of
them all, but himself the only one who sees; all the rest are seen. All
others are the same as he is in their essential nature; all are endowed with
the same qualities, the same perfections and imperfections; all are copies
of every other, differing only in the predominance of one or another
quality. But the thinker is the Self-the only Self, so far as he is
concerned-the One Life, the One Consciousness, the One Power. As action
proceeds from that basis, the greater the powers which flow from that
spiritual quality, the greater the increase of knowledge.

Knowledge is religion-not a supposed "revelation" from some superior being
who created us as inferior beings, but an

actual knowledge gained through myriads of years and many existences by
Those who have expressed them all. Those beings above us on the ladder of
evolution, who are greater than any "Gods" we can conceive of, passed
through the same trials and the same sufferings which we are undergoing,
until they learned to know their innermost nature and to act in accordance
with it. They came to know that true religion is a knowledge of one's own
self, and action in accordance. Drawing nearer in themselves to the very
Source of their being, they found the source of every other being to be the
same-only the knowledge acquired and the use of that knowledge making the
differences between all beings. Their knowledge is an absolutely accurate
knowledge of the essence of everything in nature, which alone is the
foundation of all true religion.

What is it that prevents us from understanding true religion? It is our
minds, which we have filled with narrow ideas of life, with small ideas of
the nature of humanity and of ourselves. It is our beliefs which constrain
us. A belief is always a statement of ignorance. If we believe, we do not
know; if we know, there is no occasion for belief. Unless beliefs are tested
out in the fires of experience and show themselves true, they are absolutely
useless and worse than useless, because they tempt us to use the very powers
of our spiritual being in wrong directions which bring suffering and
disaster upon ourselves. It is our very spiritual nature which makes our
present unhappy condition possible, for from it flows the One power, either
exercising itself through small ideas-its obstacles-or acting fully and
without constraint. Each man is his own creator, and each one has to be his
own savior through learning right use of the One Power. Those who have
learned can only point out to us the Way they learned it; no one can learn
for us. We ourselves have to clear away the obstacles that prevent us from
knowing our inner selves. We ourselves have to throw aside the hindrances in
thinking, in forms of religion, in mental as well as physical idols.

There is one realization which immediately sets our minds in order: it is of
That in us which is unchangeable and unchanging. We are that Spirit in very
essence; all that has been in our past lives and in our present life, all
that will in future be, proceeds from the power of that Spirit itself, and
is sustained by the power of that Spirit itself. There is nothing apart from
us. Nature does not exist separate and apart from us. The laws of nature are
but the interrelations and interdependence of all the beings concerned in
this stream of evolution. The forces of nature do not exist of themselves.
There never was a force of any kind that was not the result of intelligent
action. We as spiritual beings are eternally creating forces; for every
man's brain and every thought has a dynamic power. Are they lost? No: all
the thoughts, all the feelings of all the beings in the universe, provide a
store of dynamic energy which constitutes the forces, as we know them, of
nature. We draw upon that general reservoir of force in accordance with the
ideas held and in accord with our present inward nature. All the time we are
adding to the powers of nature for good or for evil. So, too, we are taking
from the powers of nature the additions which other beings have put in-the
forces which other beings have aroused in nature.

All the powers in the universe are latent in us if we only open the doors to
their use. Everyone of us is a little copy of the whole universe. There is
not one single element existing any where which each one of us does not
contain within his own sphere; there is not a power anywhere that can not be
drawn upon. Always the director of that power is the Self within each one.
If that Self sees darkly, it is because the mirror into which the Self looks
is covered with the dust of false ideas; he sees distorted images. He moves
in the directions suggested by the mirror, but it is the Self which supplies
the power to move. We would open the door to all powers by a daily and
hourly living in accordance with the nature of the Self-seeing that every
other being is but an aspect of Self, and acting so that every other being
will be helped on its way. For we can not go on our way alone. We have our
duty to fulfill by every other being, whether in the kingdoms below us,
without which we could not 

exist, or in the human kingdom. Every other stands as a vicarious atonement
for us-an object lesson-and if we have reached a point higher than that
which is ordinarily reached by men, then all the more are we constrained to
duty by them.

We come to physical existence incarnation after incarnation under the law
inherent in our natures, to work with mortal ideas and passions and
thoughts; but we who created them, we who sustain them, are immortal. If we
were not immortal in our very natures, never by any chance could we become
immortal. If we were less than Divinity, then we never could by any
possibility understand divinity. Those beings who have been men and who have
gone beyond our degrees of illusion-like Jesus of Nazareth, Buddha, and many
others-have attained to Their Divinity. They accept the woes of birth to
which Their younger brothers are subject, to remind us of our own
natures-the only natures over which we have permanent control-that we may
become as One of Them, bound to Them as to all nature. To live for others is
the foundation and basis of religion-of true spiritual knowledge.

 

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Best wishes

 

Dallas

 



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