Truth

[tommylama]

Picture God sitting in a room with a book. The book contains all of the answers to all of the questions which can be asked. There are no errors in this book. It is the Book of Truth. It is the instruction manual for the entire universe. Our only access to God and His truth is via our own personal port hole. This port hole is covered with a filter which impedes our clarity of God and His truth. Each of our filters is unique in its construction. Each filter is a function of our knowledge, our culture, our prejudices, our opinions, our faith, our superstitions, our hopes, our dreams. Each filter clouds our vision of truth. Our filter is a gauge of our point in evolution. Some filters are almost opaque, completely obscuring our ability to see the truth. These individuals have no experience or grasp of the unity of all things and love little more than self. Other filters are almost completely transparent affording a clear understanding of truth. These Masterful individuals know that Love is the key to the door which allows entrance to God's room. They have learned that discipline, discrimination, dispassion and detachment are crucial for progress along the Path which leads to expanded awareness. They have shared Their science, to some extent, with humanity and wait patiently for the correct response from us in the form of right human relations and service to God and His Plan.

What about these Masters? Through Blavatsky and Bailey and Creme, as well as other Theosophists, we have learned of Their exalted existence. The externalization of Their Hierarchy is an important theme throughout Their literature. One would have hoped that Their influence would have increased over time, but I see little evidence of Their presence in today's world. One day there will be a universal religion based on Their disseminated teachings. That day is nowhere in sight.

[Baile]

Originally Posted by tommylama

One day there will be a universal religion based on Their disseminated teachings. That day is nowhere in sight.

Because it's not meant to be taught as a universal religion. It is occult and hidden for a reason. The idea is to ensure it doesn't become a religion because that is the death of truth. Religion is static, stagnant external tenets. Esoteric teaching is holistic, alive inner wisdom. And it is happening now, I know dozens, hundreds of esoteric spiritualists.

[MARDAV70]

For me truth is simple. It's unconditional love. Religion only serves to distort the truth because humankind started religions. All humankind has the ego to contend with...no one is completely free of it.

[tommylama]

Religion is man's relationship with his Creator. There is a chapter on Religion in God's Book of Truth. The connotation of religion as the death of truth. static, stagnant external tenets has formulated as a result of our history of misunderstanding this relationship. Dozens and hundreds of esoteric spiritualists will not save this planet. God will save the planet through the Masters and Their disciples. We are all disciples of Truth. How can we turn the dozens and hundreds into millions and billions of followers?

[Baile]

Originally Posted by tommylama

Religion is man's relationship with his Creator. There is a chapter on Religion in God's Book of Truth. The connotation of religion as the death of truth. static, stagnant external tenets has formulated as a result of our history of misunderstanding this relationship. Dozens and hundreds of esoteric spiritualists will not save this planet. God will save the planet through the Masters and Their disciples. We are all disciples of Truth. How can we turn the dozens and hundreds into millions and billions of followers?

Sorry tommy I mis-read or misunderstood, I thought your first post was about esoteric wisdom, not your personal religious beliefs.

[Baile]

Originally Posted by MARDAV70

For me truth is simple. It's unconditional love. Religion only serves to distort the truth because humankind started religions. All humankind has the ego to contend with...no one is completely free of it.

Yes, pretty much that exactly. And the distortion of religion has mostly to do with locking truth into one specific and hardened, and very often negative and fundamentalist, viewpoint. Tommy's comment about God saving the planet, and the belief this planet even needs saving, for example.

[MARDAV70]

Originally Posted by Baile

Yes, pretty much that exactly. And the distortion of religion has mostly to do with locking truth into one specific and hardened, and very often negative and fundamentalist, viewpoint. Tommy's comment about God saving the planet, and the belief this planet even needs saving, for example.

So true...! Thank you for adding that, Baile.

[tommylama]

Originally Posted by Baile

Because it's not meant to be taught as a universal religion. It is occult and hidden for a reason. The idea is to ensure it doesn't become a religion because that is the death of truth. Religion is static, stagnant external tenets. Esoteric teaching is holistic, alive inner wisdom. And it is happening now, I know dozens, hundreds of esoteric spiritualists.

The day is dawning when all religions will be regarded as emanating from one great spiritual source; all will be seen as unitedly providing the one root out of which the universal world religion will inevitably emerge. Then there will be neither Christian nor heathen, neither Jew nor Gentile, but simply one great body of believers, gathered out of all the current religions. They will accept the same truths, not as theological concepts but as essential to spiritual living; they will stand together on the same platform of brotherhood and of human relations; they will recognize divine sonship and will seek unitedly to cooperate with the divine Plan, as it is revealed to them by the spiritual leaders of the race, and as it indicates to them the next step to be taken on the Path of Approach to God. Such a world religion is no idle dream but something which is definitely forming today.

The above is a quote from Alice Bailey's Problems of Humanity, Chapter 5, The Problem of the Churches, copyright 1944.

[Baile]

Originally Posted by tommylama

The day is dawning when all religions will be regarded as emanating from one great spiritual source; all will be seen as unitedly providing the one root out of which the universal world religion will inevitably emerge. Then there will be neither Christian nor heathen, neither Jew nor Gentile, but simply one great body of believers, gathered out of all the current religions. They will accept the same truths, not as theological concepts but as essential to spiritual living; they will stand together on the same platform of brotherhood and of human relations; they will recognize divine sonship and will seek unitedly to cooperate with the divine Plan, as it is revealed to them by the spiritual leaders of the race, and as it indicates to them the next step to be taken on the Path of Approach to God. Such a world religion is no idle dream but something which is definitely forming today.

The above is a quote from Alice Bailey's Problems of Humanity, Chapter 5, The Problem of the Churches, copyright 1944.

Right. And Theosophy is a religion. It is as much a religion as Christianity. It has its specific tenets and beliefs. And I assume that "divine plan" Bailey speaks of has everything to do with Theosophical beliefs, and how Theosophy sees this divine plan. So again, it's religion. They thought Krishnamurti was the new Jesus, didn't they? Which he refuted. That tells you Theosophy is a religion.

Esoteric wisdom is not religion. It is inner self-realization work. The world is moving away from religion. Religion is the consciousness model of the Pisces Age. That was the age of external truth, as determined and taught by religious institutions. Whereas the Age of Aquarius is about inner truth, inner knowledge, inner wisdom. It is an individual path. It is not a path of following religious tenets and beliefs.

[Molearner]

Originally Posted by Baile

Because it's not meant to be taught as a universal religion. It is occult and hidden for a reason. The idea is to ensure it doesn't become a religion because that is the death of truth. Religion is static, stagnant external tenets. Esoteric teaching is holistic, alive inner wisdom. And it is happening now, I know dozens, hundreds of esoteric spiritualists.

Baile,

The occult and hidden aspects of esotericism can only appeal to those who consider themselves elite. This is the trap of esotericism to fall prey to the programs of the ego. Esotericism is unlikely to reveal a higher truth than the transforming power of love. This truth is articulated quite well by religion....especially Christianity. There is no superiority in either religion or esotericism if their tenets are not adopted on the spiritual level and lived in real life. Thus, for me, a humble and simple person who believes in God and lives a life of love is greater than any occultist who prides himself on his superior knowledge. The possibility that you seem to miss is that an esotericist can function quite effectively within the framework of religion.