 67. G.O.D. (God) |
Conventional and popular human culture has historically been limited to the conflicts and alternatives represented by theism and atheism, or egoic idealism and egoic realism. And the large-scale ordering of humankind has always tended to be dominated by the politics of materialistic “knowledge” and power. It is simply that, in the “late-time” (or “dark” epoch), the materialistic culture is approaching the status of a worldwide mass-culture in which all individuals will be controlled by a powerful and materialistically oriented system of political and technological restriction.
The usual (or most commonly remarked) criticism of theism (or conventional “God-religion”) is based on the evidence of suffering and material limitation. Therefore, the common arguments against theism are generally those proposed by the “point of view” of atheism. Likewise, the common arguments against atheism are generally those proposed by theism (which are based on an egoic appeal to the evidence of “religious” history, cultic revelation, mystical psychology, and psychic “experience”). For this reason, there may seem to be only two basic cultural alternatives: atheism and theism.
Theism and conventional “God-religion” are, at base, an expression of egoity in the first three stages of life—just as is the case with atheism and conventional materialism. Therefore, whenever theism (or conventional “God-religion”) becomes the base for political and social order, it inevitably becomes the base for “knowledge” and power in the material “world”. And exoterically theistic regimes have historically been equally as aggressive in the manipulation and suppression of humanity as have atheistic regimes. Exoteric theism is, at its base, egoic and fitted to “worldly” concerns. Therefore, when it achieves “worldly” power, it simply adopts the same general materialistic means that are adopted by atheism. “Knowledge” and power are the common tools of egoity, not merely the tools of atheism. In its esoteric forms, theism (or conventional “God-religion”) can, via the exercises and attainments of Saints and mystics, apply “knowledge” and power to purposes that extend beyond the first three stages of life. However, in the terms of the first three stages of life (or the common and practical social order), theism (or conventional “Godreligion”) is inclined to make the same demands for social consciousness—and to apply fundamentally the same kind of political and authoritarian “techniques” for achieving obedience and order—as atheism and scientism. And the more important esoteric matters of Spiritual Wisdom, mystical “knowledge”, and the transformative power of Sainthood or Adeptship are as much in doubt and disrepute in the common “religious” circles of theism as they are in scientific and atheistic circles.
All of this is to indicate that conventional “God-religion” (or theism)—and even all “religious”, “Spiritual”, and “Transcendental” pursuits of the first six stages of life—share a “root”-error (or limitation) with atheism and “worldly” culture. That error (or limitation) is the ego itself, or the presumptions and the seeking that are most basic to the conception of an independent phenomenal “self” in a (less than hospitable) phenomenal “world”. Thus, what is ultimately to be criticized in conventional “God-religion” (or theism) is the same limit that is to be criticized in atheism and materialism. It is the ego, the phenomenal “self”-base—from which people tend to derive their conceptions of “God”, cosmic Nature, life, and destiny.
It is only when the egoic “root” of one’s functional, “worldly”, and “religious” or “Spiritual” life is inspected, understood, and transcended that “self”, and “world”, and Real God are seen in Truth. Therefore, it is necessary to understand your own egoic activity. It is necessary to aspire to Wisdom, Truth, and Enlightenment. All occupations derived from the ego-base are (necessarily) limited to egoity, and all conceptions that feed such egoic occupations are (necessarily) bereft of a right view of “self”, “world”, and Real God (Which Is the Acausal Divine Reality and Truth).
When the mechanics of egoity are transcended in “self”-understanding, then it becomes obvious that life (or conditionally manifested phenomenal existence) is simply a “play” of opposites. Neither “Good” (or “creation” and preservation) nor “Evil” (or destruction) finally wins. Conditional Nature, in all its planes, is inherently a dynamic. The “play” of conditional Nature, in all its forms and beings and processes, is not merely (or exclusively and finally) seeking the apparent “Good” of “self”-preservation (or the preservation and fulfillment of any particular form, “world”, or being), nor is it merely (or exclusively and finally) seeking the apparent “Evil” of “self”-destruction (or the dissolution of any particular form, “world”, or being). Rather, the “play” in conditional Nature is always in the direction of perpetuating the dynamics of the “play” itself— and, therefore, polarity, opposition, struggle, alternation, death, and cyclic repetition tend to be perpetuated as the characteristics of phenomenal existence. Therefore, the “play” of conditional Nature is always alternating between the appearance of dominance by one or the other of its two basic extremes. And the sign of this is in the inherent struggle that involves every conditionally apparent form, being, and process. The struggle is this dynamic “play” of opposites, but the import of it is not the absolute triumph of either half. Things and beings and processes arise, they move, they are transformed, and they disappear. No conditionally apparent thing or being or process is ultimately preserved—nor, by contrast, is there any absolute destruction. Cosmic Nature is a transformer—not merely a “creator” or a “destroyer”. To the ego (or present temporary form of being), “self”-preservation may seem to be the inevitable motive of being. Therefore, a struggle develops to destroy or escape the dynamic of conditional Nature by dominating “Evil” (or death) with “Good” (or immortality). This ideal gets expressed in the generally exoteric and Occidental (or more materialistic) efforts to conquer conditional Nature via “worldly knowledge” and power. However, it also gets expressed in the generally esoteric and Oriental (or more mystical) efforts to escape the plane of conditional Nature by ascent from materiality (or the “Evil” of the flesh) to “Heaven” (the “Good God” above the realm of conditional Nature).
