“There is no religion higher than Truth!” That was the motto of the Theosophical Society, when it was founded in 1875 in New York.
What does this mean? Can this idea bring any benefit?
It might strike the observer as ironic that the various theosophical organisations and those inspired by them have become more and more religious in their thinking over time. You could argue that even having any fixed tenets at all contradicts a placing of Truth at the highest position. However, if we continue thinking in this way we run the risk of getting into intellectual semantics; the kind that philosophers — even great ones — often fall prey to.
The intellect can never rise above the sphere of its own existence, above earthly matter. We have proof of this from AI chatbots that are now able to display what appears to be “thinking”. Yet, they can never produce anything other than a re-organisation of what is given to them. There is a factor that is missing. There is no “willing”, no motive force driving them. But even the simplest animal displays the ability to will in some sense.
Eventually as we struggle further towards the Light of Truth we experience that this intellect has an advanced “defence mechanism” in order to keep itself in ruling position, should a courageous seeker step forward on the true path that leads upwards. Should we, on our individual journey as seekers of Truth, wish to transcend its limitation, we find it is not so easy for us. What holds us back is the Ego that has grown out of this intellect. The vanities that this Ego produces seem to be endless. Often the desire to pay homage to it lies hidden deep in our subconscious even outside of our own awareness. In ancient times, that the human race would take this path of increasing intellect-ego enslavement was already seen from the higher planes, and prophets in all countries were shown the path that the world would take. The “world judgement” is the natural coming to fruition of this wrong direction, as the results of all of the falsehoods created by human vanity are torn away and destroyed. —
Of course, we know all about this ego-enslavement from Buddha… Don’t we? Except… that again, Buddha’s teaching has been made into a religion. The outer form taken and packaged up. While the heart of the teaching is set aside and not used. This happened with every great teacher not long after they had departed the earth and could no longer see to it that people were kept to the right direction. But the outer form is only a structure — a set of signposts. It is not the heart of a teaching that can only be found in experience. In experience a person can begin to perceive the truth.
mna80 