Dear Member,
By Enquiries
Theosophy and Religion
Sometimes questions which are related to each other come to us from different sources and it seems useful to discuss them together. The subject of this month's letter, then, comprises a number of questions which can be summarised as follows: 'What is the purpose of religion?' and 'In what way is Theosophy related to religion?' These questions touch on a vital area of our lives, both as members of the Theosophical Society and as aspiring Theosophists.
Again, it should be emphasised that in dealing with these questions, no attempt is made to give complete answers, which would be quite impossible. We shall simply set forth a few ideas which may lead you along your own paths of exploration which, in the long run, are the only ones on which you can find insights that are meaningful to you.
Many definitions of religion are to be found in books. Some of these definitions are satirical and even cynical; some are arid, unsatisfying; some are profoundly reverent and touch or even awaken the deepest longings of our hearts, the wellsprings of our own being. What all definitions underscore is the fact that religion, per se, is inherent in the very nature of humankind, even in the so-called irreligious who make a religion of their unbelief. For no-one escapes a religion of some sort, even if it be that which binds one to oneself - for the word religion actually comes from a Latin word meaning 'to bind back'.
Religions as such are but the changing garments of eternal truth. And, as always when we attempt to classify and press into rigid form that mysterious and elusive 'something' we call truth, we lose its essence, its reality, its dynamism. For truth can never be static, can never be fixed. Truth is not a 'thing' to be possessed; it might be thought of as a process or a function - perhaps a function of reality, a 'true making', if you like. This does not mean that reality 'makes' itself into something it is not, but only that everything is what it is, and is what it does. Or we can say that being and becoming cannot be separated; they are 'there' and 'going on' all the time. Reality, in other words, reveals itself in the truths we can comprehend, each truth being but a facet of the whole.
From such a point of view, truth expresses itself to our consciousness as truths that are aspects of the Absolute. It is the Absolute which is infinite, and therefore may never be completely known; yet the Absolute or Reality is capable of an infinite number of expressions. Those expressions, aspects, or truths, are finite, never complete, never total, never final. This may seem somewhat abstruse, but it may also give us some concept of the various religions as fragments or phases of an eternal and illimitable process of 'true-making'. The founders of the great religions may be said to have 'tuned in' to the process of reality, the process we are calling 'true-making'. They have entered the flame of Reality which is the innermost core of human existence, as it is of the cosmos, and then they have sought to draw others into that holy light. But their pure illumination has been filtered down as they tried to express their vision, their insight, the revelation they perceived. Then the illumination became further filtered through the minds of those who had not touched the flame and who sought to entomb the living splendour in creeds, to fix it in rigid and unchanging systems. Often their followers have tended to revere the systems as the reality, proclaiming the transmitted vision as the 'only truth'.
Yet in quite a practical way, religion may be said to serve the purpose of enabling us to live more fruitful and meaningful lives, particularly if we can see beyond the outer forms to the inner essence of the original vision. Theosophy is inextricably linked with and related to that purpose. As H. P. Blavatsky pointed out in an article, 'Is Theosophy a Religion?' (see Vol. X of the Collected Writings of H.P. Blavatsky, p 159 et seq), 'Theosophy is not a religion, but is religion itself.' She says that Theosophy is the 'Wisdom-Religion' from which all individual religions have come, and added 'Every such religion, or religious off-shoot, be it considered orthodox or heretical, wise or foolish, started originally as a clear and unadulterated stream from the Mother-Source. The fact that each became polluted with purely human speculations and even inventions, due to interested motives, does not prevent any from having been pure in its early beginnings ... each and all are divine because natural and true in origin.' Further she said: 'All the worships indicate the existence of a single theosophy anterior to them. The key that is to open one must open all; otherwise it cannot be the right key.'
Thus H.P.B. pointed out that every true religion is a form of 'true-making' expressing a phase of eternal Reality. It is a beam from the light which dwells within humankind as within every creature, at the heart of the cosmos itself, pointing the way to the goal of ultimate perfectibility. True religion is not a system of restraints, as one materialistic writer has expressed it, 'a sum of scruples which impedes the free exercise of our faculties'. Nor is it a mere statement of belief through which we hope to save ourselves — or be saved — from our own sins.
Clara Codd in one of her Letters to Aspirants has written:
Religion is an is-ness, not an ought-ness. If we place too much emphasis on 'ought' we create dividing lines between our souls and others; we shall begin to create that peculiar hardness of heart called self-righteousness. There is no 'ought' in the universe ... but if we dwell in the Divine Light we shall inevitably radiate justice, mercy, and truth.
