Great as is the number of present-day religious movements, both heterodox and orthodox, few of them inspire their followers to serve their fellow men along practical and intelligent lines. One by one the various cults are being involved in materialism and commercialism, among which by necessity they have been established. This is not to be wondered at, for it is difficult to separate our religion from our daily lives. We may call it by many different names, but it still reflects the thoughts and moral character of those who form its organization.
Modern attitudes on life are not healthy, and organizations built up by unhealthy people cannot be normal. Commercialism has attacked every plane of society. It has entered into all the walks of life. Our race is money mad. It is insane on the subject of personal gain. It will give nothing to serve others, but will give everything to gain the knowledge which will make it possible for the mediocre to become a commercial power overnight. The struggle inseparable from the ethics of competition is largely responsible for this condition. Graft has appeared in almost every walk of life. Nearly every existing institution is overrun by some mild form of moral dishonesty, and if every walk of life is commercialized and perverted, we cannot expect religion to escape.
History records no graft or prostitution equal to the grafts that today masquerade under the names of “psychology” and “new thought.” The art of duping the public has evolved from the disreputable buffoonery of the Middle Ages to the polished pharisaism of the twentieth century. As seagulls follow a ship, so this curse has followed in the wake of that great wave of selfishness and moral perversion which is the product of our commercial age.
When correctly understood and properly used for the service of humanity, psychology, metaphysics, and new thought are highly commendable and their truths are sorely needed by ignorant humanity today. But what has happened? These names have been used to conceal all forms of mental, moral, spiritual, and physical infamy until everything we know of them today is a prostitution and commercialization of the truths for which they once stood. Their success is based upon the assumption that the people with whom they work are too ignorant to realize the injury that is being done.
We are not attacking the principles underlying these cults and philosophies nor the true thing for which the names stand. Neither are we attacking those sincere people who seek to assist others to build and unfold their characters. We are attacking perversion of truth and those persons who, shielding their crimes under the cloak of wisdom, deliberately and consciously mislead the public for the aggrandizement of self.
In the 14th chapter of St. John, 30th verse, Jesus states: “Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” The Ancient Wisdom is not of this world; it belongs to an entirely different sphere. It is not interested in improving the material condition of the individual from the standpoint of placing him in executive positions or surrounding him with opulence. The Ancient Wisdom seeks to build the character of man, knowing that if he can be made right with himself, far more is accomplished than when he is made a ruler over many men.
Truth expresses the synthesis of the Divine Wisdom. Truth is the eternal reality of things. Psychology and metaphysics as taught today are not true, and the things taught under the guise of Truth are no better than those who disseminate them. An intellectual fact is not necessarily a truth; the misapplication of it is a falsehood.
If an individual wishes to take a course in business efficiency at the expense of others; if he wishes to attend a night school class in order to learn how to become a moral pickpocket, he is privileged to do so as long as he is willing to accept the Karmic consequences. You will remember that when Lucifer decided to rebel against God, the Deity allowed him to do so. It is demoralizing to a community for people to believe that God either gives or authorizes classes in slick salesmanship, shrewd bargaining, and mortgage foreclosing, or that He advocates sitting in the silence to get rid of an undesired marriage partner. Modern psychology has made God appear to be as dishonest as the persons who promulgate these doctrines. All this has a destructive effect on the life and health of the race. Let us consider a few points toward which the Ancient Wisdom was adamant and modern religion is lax. We can pick them from things going on around us all the time without going into abstractions.
1. In all things involving the acquirement of knowledge, the Ancient Wisdom says, “First purify your own life.” This means literally what it says. Until selfishness is removed from the soul of a student he can never hope to gain any knowledge that will serve him for any purpose more lofty than as a mental stimulant. The modern psychological cults overlook this entirely, failing to emphasize any virtue essential for the human nature outside of endless desires for things not normally attainable. Once men died for Truth, but now Truth dies at the hands of men.
2. The Apostles who died for their faith, the Christians who sang in the arena while the lions were turned loose upon them, or who hung coated with tar as living torches in Nero’s gardens—these furnished vivid demonstrations of the sincerity, humility, honesty, and devotion of the early followers of Christ. The Master himself was led up into the mountain by the demons and tempted by a vision of the cities stretched out in the plains below. The ancient initiates were tempted by the things of this world. Buddha, standing beside the crib in which lay his infant son, chose between all the things which life held dear and the wandering life of an ascetic. But the great need of humanity filled his soul, and he sacrificed all to his great, unselfish love.
Again and again students are tempted by the voice of the world, and only if they are strong, will they gain that wisdom which they seek. The true occultist wants nothing but wisdom. When Solomon raised his hands to his God, Jehovah spoke from the heavens asking him what he would have, and he answered, “God give me the gift of wisdom.” Jehovah asked him if there were not other things he desired, but Solomon answered, “No, only wisdom.” And God told Solomon that because he had asked only for wisdom that all the other things should be added unto him and that from this day to the end of the world there would never be another king so rich, so great, or so blest. These are facts well worthy of consideration in the light of modem psychology.
As we listen to the words of the modern exponents of things divine, we see them making converts by offering to the ignorant the very things by which the ancient Masters were tempted by the demons of the air. Again and again the new cult leader promises his disciples the cities of the plains. His credulous followers fall over each other to study at his feet and learn how, through magnetic personalities or mental gymnastics, they can acquire the earthly possessions which he promises them. The crime does not lie in desiring the things of this world, for to a certain degree they are both necessary and good. Man would not be placed in his present environment unless he were expected to study and benefit by his experiences. The great crime lies in claiming these perverted doctrines to be spiritually inspired and representing God’s chief desire to be making people financially independent.
3. Compare the initiates of days gone by, fighting a people who could not understand, struggling with idolatry and superstition and seeking to mold out of these things a truer and nobler concept of life, wandering day after day over the blistering sands like Moses in the wilderness—compare those master minds with the self-termed master minds of today and then ask yourself if you should follow them. The human race has never desired that which was best for it, but like a child it reaches out its hands and cries for the moon. Today the race does not know what is good for it, and individuals, instead of seeking to unfold their constitutions symmetrically, have gone mad over a system of philosophical hocus-pocus which promises something for nothing and exchanges divine wisdom for a moderate fee.
4. Without labor, there is no inspiration, and none can do our work for us but ourselves. The Ancient Wisdom demanded many years of purification and preparation before the adepts were willing to instruct in even the simplest things. Many modern occultists are glibly teaching Pythagorean mathematics and numerology, and if you come every afternoon for a week you will be greatly amazed how little you will discover. They wonder why it is that many of the keys of the Pythagorean mysteries have been lost to the world. The answer is simple. Pythagoras never instructed his disciples in any of his philosophical concepts until after they had passed through five years of the strictest discipline, among other things one provision being that during the entire time they were not to speak a word, in order that afterwards they might know how to hold their tongues. We would have much less trouble if our psychologists refrained from speaking for the first five years, for most of them are preaching with no more foundation for their eloquence than two weeks’ study with someone no better informed than themselves.
5. There is another class of people who go about discussing the Infinite with ease and fluency who as yet have never acquainted themselves with the finite. A most interesting rule of the Ancient Wisdom is that none of its initiates discuss the Absolute. They explain the hypothesis of First Cause, but state finally that no human being, themselves included, know sufficient concerning it to give an intelligent opinion or definition; and no wise man presumes to discuss that about which he knows nothing.
When Buddha was asked concerning the Absolute, he declined to discuss the subject. He was also silent concerning the gods, feeling that they were beyond the range of human intelligence. As a result, it has been said that he was an atheist, or at least a pantheist, when in reality it was his respect and reverence for Deity that led him, in his sublime wisdom, to refrain from giving utterance to words whose very inadequacy would but defile. When the disciples of Socrates questioned him concerning the Absolute, he also refused to discuss it, stating that it was beyond his wisdom and that it played no practical part in everyday life. But again and again fools dash in where angels fear to tread. While the greatest minds ever evolved by the human race dare not speak for fear they will desecrate that which is too sacred for words, some person, with neither record of accomplishment nor prospect of anything better, seeks to impress the uninformed by glibly discussing things he knows nothing about.
6. There is only one series of true occult exercises in the world—namely, esoteric exercises. Every nation has adopted these exercises with certain modifications to meet the needs of race, color, and organic qualities. The Christians took theirs from the Jews, the Jews from the Egyptians, the Egyptians from the Brahmans, and so on ad infinitum. When Buddha gave his faith to India he merely gave a doctrine for the consideration of the common people, for, being a Brahman himself, he followed the Brahman culture of esoteric exercises. The so-called occult exercises are those formulas given by word of mouth by the initiates to their disciples under the pledge of absolute secrecy, in order that these disciples may use the exercises in spiritualizing, etherizing, and purifying their bodies.
One of the most reprehensible crimes perpetrated today is the teaching by present-day occultists of crazy, homicidal, and suicidal practices under the guise of esoteric instructions. If followed persistently, these practices will result in the death of those who attempt to follow them. The redeeming feature is that the average Western mind is incapable of concentrating long enough or consistently enough upon anything to be seriously harmed. All the esoteric instructions in the hands of unqualified people today are the result of treason and broken vows among the lower degrees of initiates. In order to receive them from such sources the recipient must become a party to the crime. Not only this, but when the student permits himself to listen to instructions gained falsely, he nullifies any good which he might otherwise gain.
Having obtained the instructions without the necessary preparation and apprenticeship ordered by the Great School, he cannot receive the spiritual insight that he desires. It breaks the hearts of the Masters to see people who know better dabbling with so-called esoteric exercises, gathering in circles to go into the silence, rolling their eyes into the tops of their heads and sitting in darkened rooms hoping to see something. It is not the mere fact that the student does these things which hurts the Teachers; it is the fact that the disciples have grown so little in discrimination that it is possible for them to become parties to such absurdities. We do not mean that they will not see things, hear voices, and gain certain mediumistic powers. We mean that they will be less useful after they have secured those powers than before, for they will have to unlearn again all those things and habits which they learned unwisely.
7. The Masters are ever waiting to entrust their disciples and students who show desire to receive with that wisdom which the world so sadly needs. If the student desires to go forth and teach, he will be given a work to do—that is, if he will honestly, sincerely, and intelligently prepare himself for his labors. The reason why so many false doctrines are being taught is that people who have an idea do not ask themselves, “Is this theory which I have, true? Am I living the sort of a life that would permit me to receive real truth into my soul? Am I unselfish, open, obedient, humble, and consecrated? Have I developed my mind so that it can think? Have I opened my heart so that it can feel? If I have not, then the thing which I have received is distorted by the glass through which it shines, and all I can give the world is a distorted image, a dishonest representation of truth. Have I actually consecrated my life and all that I am, unselfishly and without reservation, or am I only an intellectual dabbler? Am I a success or a failure in life? Am I surrounded by friends or by enemies of my own making? Am I respected by my community? Do I allow other people to live their own lives, or am I trying to force my beliefs upon all with whom I come in contact? Have I, or have I not, consciously and beyond all possibility of mental exaggeration, received personal instruction from the inner schools? I and I alone know that. The rest of the world, except the enlightened few, must believe what I say. If I have not received such instructions, am I big enough to admit it and say, with respect to my doctrines, that they are only my own opinions; or am I palming off these opinions as cosmic truths upon no firmer ground than the fact that I believe them?”
All these questions the student must ask himself, for he alone can answer them; but he is capable of injuring many if he is not honest in his statements concerning these fundamental truths. If every teacher and student would thus interrogate himself, endless sorrow could be avoided, for he would realize that as an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit, neither can a sin-filled body nor a perverted mind be the channel for the transmission of wisdom. Like begets like; the eccentric individual thinks eccentric thoughts, while the sane mind views all things sanely.
8. Psychologists today teach how one person may influence another to do things otherwise foreign to his nature. Let each student of the Mystery School be careful, therefore, when he studies with psychologists that the psychologist does not turn the tables on him. If he teaches you how to gain some advantage over another and twist that individual to your own ends, take care that he does not discover your gullibility and capitalize on you by way of demonstrating the application of his own philosophy. These things work both ways, and if you expect to psychologize others you must expect to be psychologized in turn; for it is a poor rule that does not work both ways. It is, however, a good rule which most people are willing to have turned around and applied to them. Psychology has psychologized the public and, like the children of Hamlin town who followed the Pied Piper, immature minds have followed false teachings until they have disappeared into the unknown.
9. Among the so-called students of truth we see the fruitage of the delusions from which the world suffers. Sickly, nervous, no longer capable of solving their own problems, they sit around treating each other, waiting like spiritual Micawbers for “something to turn up.” These people were once useful, intelligent members of their community, but they are now so involved in mental absurdities that they are useless both to themselves and to society in general. Most of all, they are like gaunt scarecrows who frighten others from the paths of wisdom.
10. The Ancient Wisdom is sane. It seeks to solve the problems with which we are surrounded today. It is spiritual and reasonable, in the highest sense of the word. It is seeking to develop better men and women to meet the problems of future generations. It is based upon the law of cause and effect. It has no patented formula, no shortcuts, but builds firmly and solidly the characters of those who unite themselves with its work. It is not led by mountebank teachers, but by great minds that have dedicated themselves since the beginning of the world to the promulgation of the sacred truths. It speaks with the experience of eternity, for it has led a thousand nations into being and buried as many when they turned from its course. The nations of antiquity which still exist are the ones which have preserved its laws, while those that have fallen are the ones that have ignored its commandments.
There is no greater honor than to be called to the service of this eternal Wisdom which was before the beginning and which will ultimately become the visible esoteric ruling body of the planet. Through the doors of its temple man passes from the temporal to the eternal, from ignorance to wisdom. It is strong and great, this Ancient Wisdom. It is the earth moistened with the waters of life in which are planted the seeds of doctrines, faiths, and religions. All these are dependent upon it for nourishment and growth. They blossom forth and are glorified, but the dark and mysterious soil in which they all grow is the Ancient Wisdom. From it they come; to it they will again return. They are temporal; it is eternal.
Excerpt from What The Ancient Wisdom Expects Of Its Disciples