[continued from previous message]   
      
   After exchanging news of family for news of the young man's recent exploits,   
   the proud father enquired as to how his son come to be custodian of this   
   important new temple. The young man felt somewhat abashed, but finally he   
   confessed, “Father, it is all    
   a mistake. No saint is buried underneath that altar. There rests only the   
   remains of my unfortunate donkey.” The old man started to laugh; and, still   
   smiling, he confided, “Son, there is no mistake here. Underneath the altar in   
   my temple, you would also    
   find nothing but the skeleton of an old donkey.”   
      
   Donkey or Divinity   
   On the path of Neo-Humanism there are three overlapping stages. The first   
   stage is Spirituality as a Cult.   
      
   In every sphere of life there is movement. The function of spiritual cult is   
   to remove all of the obstacles which may block a person's progress toward   
   perfect spirituality. Hence, spiritual cult must be physico-psycho-spiritual   
   in nature; that is, it    
   must operate on all three planes of human existence. As the human being is a   
   social creature, spiritual cult must also provide practical guidance in   
   respect to the moral and social aspects of life as well.   
      
   The goal of spiritual cult is the expansion of individual self-awareness to   
   the point of cosmic consciousness. However, even after achieving this goal,   
   one still continues to practice spiritual cult, for spiritual cult is not an   
   unnatural or unpleasant    
   discipline but rather the quintessence of a healthy lifestyle.   
      
   Certainly one's concept of God and the universe will affect a human being in   
   every walk of life. If one's approach to living is not rational and scientific   
   but rather dogmatic, countless problems will definitely crop up to hamper   
   one's spiritual progress.   
    Thus, if one pays scant attention to the food one eats, the cleanliness of   
   one's body, the requisite exercises for maintaining a healthy physique and a   
   balanced glandular system, or if one neglects the appropriate practices that   
   provide preventative or    
   post-facto medical treatment, then one becomes subject to many physical   
   maladies that will surely inhibit the ability to utilize one’s fullest    
   abilities. Similarly, if one perceives this material world as unreal or   
   unimportant, if one disregards the    
   present-day realities out of longing for a chimerical afterlife in some place   
   called heaven, or out of fear of future and imaginary torments in another   
   place called hell, or even if one's vision of the world is just distorted by   
   various geo-sentiments    
   and socio-sentiments, then it is quite probable that one will soon lack the   
   basic material necessities to maintain one's physical existence.   
   Alternatively, one might possess an overabundance of material goods, which can   
   also prove to be dangerous for    
   human beings, both individually and collectively.   
      
   A diseased, deprived or depraved physical condition will likewise cause   
   considerable difficulties and uneasiness on the physico-psychic stratum of   
   human existence. A sick, hungry or greedy person can usually think of little   
   else besides physical    
   difficulties and desires. Dominated by selfish group or individual interests,   
   s/he fails to consider the problems of collective humanity, much less the   
   problems of the fauna and flora. In short, the mind does not expand – instead   
   it becomes extremely    
   narrow.   
      
   Ultimately, the root of all humanity's problems lies in the psychic stratum.   
   There, goaded by cheap sentiments associated with the Principle of Selfish   
   Pleasure, the minds of most people have been imprisoned by the dank and dirty   
   dogmas of their fathers'    
   fathers. In the absence of any real free thinking, human beings cannot work in   
   a fully practical manner to improve the quantitative and qualitative sides of   
   their own personal lives, not to speak of the quantity and quality of   
   collective life. Nowadays    
   one hears many people talking about freedom of speech and freedom of action;   
   but, when the thoughts of those very people who are most vocal on this subject   
   have been thoroughly conditioned by dogmas in every sphere of life, where then   
   is that real    
   freedom? At present the free flow of human thought has been completely   
   stifled, and where there is no free thought there can be neither freedom of   
   speech nor freedom of action.   
      
   Furthermore, when human thinking is not clear, when human beings are saddled   
   by many psychic complexes, there can be no proper progress in the   
   psycho-spiritual realm either. When one's very thoughts are defective, when   
   one's perception and conception of    
   this universe is distorted by dogmas and dogmatic thinking, how can one   
   realize the Truth? In such a condition one can understand neither the nature   
   nor the purpose of life, let alone make any real progress toward the Supreme   
   Desideratum or help others    
   to advance in that direction.   
      
   Hence, the first stage of practical Neo-Humanism is the adoption of a   
   systematic spiritual cult, which can cater to all one's needs in the physical,   
   psychic and spiritual strata of life, and which is fully capable of guiding   
   the individual to the    
   ultimate goal of life, perfect spirituality. [426] Such a spiritual cult,   
   based on Neo-Humanism rather than dogma, is the only reasonable path for   
   humanity. If the path one follows does not reach to the desired destination,   
   then eventually one must    
   abandon it in favor of the correct path. Today or tomorrow, human beings will   
   have to realize that Neo-Humanism is the right road to travel, but how much   
   better it would be if all could actually start their life's journey on that   
   very path. In that way    
   their progress would be faster and much smoother, and the entire universe will   
   benefit immensely by their service as they move along the way.   
      
   Temple of Gold or Temple of God   
   By diligent performance of spiritual cult, one's mental waves gradually get   
   lengthened until, at last, they are capable of flowing in a straight line. At   
   that point the mind maintains a perfect parallelism with the infinite   
   wavelength of the Supreme    
   Consciousness; indeed, the mind becomes merged in that Supreme Consciousness.   
   Properly speaking, it is only that psycho-spiritual parallelism which can be   
   termed as Idea. And when this Idea is conceived on the pure psychic level, we   
   may call that    
   Ideology. In other words, Idea refers to the state of psycho-spiritual   
   parallelism, and Ideology consists of those principles and precepts that are   
   derived from Idea. [427] The second stage of Neo-Humanism, Spirituality in   
   Essence, signifies the degree    
   to which the individual and the society have been able to assimilate Idea and   
   Ideology.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)