In broad strokes

By editor in World picture May 20, 2021

All serious and deep spiritual teachings always have one and the same problem: they are very difficult to summarize. It’s an advantage to have an extensive picture of the world, richness of details and nuances, a system of principles related to human life, etc. However, this advantage sometimes turns into a disadvantage for some people. They are simply intimidated by such amount of information and mental work associated with it. After all, you have to master everything, understand the interrelationships of the elements of the worldview and learn to apply what you have learned in practice. Of course, you have all time you need, and it is normal for a person to study all his life, but … Not everyone aims at understanding thoroughly. Well, according to the Teaching, this is important, but not obligatory. What is more, we always want to grasp the whole picture quickly, albeit in general terms. This makes it easier to grasp the general essence, navigate what is what, and then gradually supplement and clarify, detailing what you see. This approach has its drawbacks: the overall picture, devoid of details, raises more questions than answers. Although is it really a minus? It all depends …

If you look at the amount of literature that is devoted to various religions, you will find that a significant part of it is all kinds of “Foundations”, “Briefs”, etc. Various authors try to arrange them as well as possible – as concise and clear as possible. They are intended both for beginners and for those who are already quite knowledgeable, as a general scheme that organizes what has been learned. It’s inevitable.
Our Teaching is still young, and there is still little literature related to it. The presentation of its various aspects is mainly scattered across the pandect and articles. Although there is an essay called “The Foundations of the Teaching of the United Temple” which is as concise and clear as possible, it is still several dozen pages long. And this is really short, believe me. While writing it, I had to omit and delete some important aspects. That was not easy.

Could we make it even shorter? We have to. So, we have to try. Of course, we have to omit some more important points. It is necessary to select only the most important things, and at the same time to ensure that logical connections between the remaining vital things are not lost. We have to make it clear how they relate to each other.

The shorter, the better. And it makes sense to make it as concise as possible, identifying only the most basic points and their interconnections. Reduce it to several paragraphs. Sketch the general picture of the world according to the Teaching in broad strokes. Let it raise questions, but the general meaning will become clear. Well, the questions can always be answered.
So, let’s get started.

It all starts with the Being. It is an infinite space, infinite in time, in which everything that exists is. The Being gives life to everything. For this, it must live itself (then all its particles will be able to live); and in order to live, it needs to develop. There is an impulse of destruction within it, which, theoretically, could destroy the Being. To prevent this from happening, the Being resists the destructive impulse, evolves, improves in order to be stronger than it. Due to this struggle, which stimulates evolution, the Being gets an opportunity to exist, and all its particles get an opportunity to live. They also develop, for they also contain the aforementioned destructive impulse. The general evolution of the Being consists of the total evolution of its particles. They support its existence as their habitat, and it, in turn, provides them with space for life, the substance of which they are made, and the very life force.

Our Universe is not unlimited. It is one of the particles of the Being, and it contributes to the general process of evolution. The Universe is a living and intelligent being, which we call the Creator. The Creator lives in his own world (i.e. in his Universe), developing, cognizing the world and himself. At some point, he realized that his current knowledge of the world had reached the limit and would not advance further until he knew himself more deeply to change. Then he rebuilt his body (his level of evolution allows it), laying the foundation for what we know as our Universe. This is a living organism of the Creator, in which we live as its full-fledged particles. Living things such as humans are called “sentient beings”, because unlike, for example, animals, plants and minerals, they are able to learn about the world around them, draw conclusions, comprehend the information received, creatively apply it in achieving consciously set goals, and make moral choices. Sentient beings appear due to the evolution that the Creator launched at the moment of his transformation into the Universe. There are many intelligent races in it; humanity is just one of them. When the Creator became the Universe, he ceased to be conscious. His current state resembles a dream. But his mind, consciousness, feelings and qualities are manifested through the sentient beings. They cognize the world and themselves – and self-cognition of the Creator is formed from their aggregate cognition. As they learn, they learn to distinguish between good and evil and to make moral choices. Making a choice in favor of good, each sentient being improves a part of the Creator’s soul, raises its quality. When the Creator goes through the full cycle of self-knowledge and inner perfection, with the help of sentient beings, he will experience a new transformation and will find himself on a new, higher stage of his evolution.

It is necessary to point out that the Teaching is not a religion. It does not recognize anything supernatural. The Creator is not an almighty God, not a supernatural being, but simply a very highly developed one. The way he transformed his organism into the Universe is not a miraculous act of creation of higher powers, but the realization of the possibilities acquired by him in the course of an unimaginably long evolution. This is his biology. And the laws that he established in the Universe are the laws of the world in which he lives, somewhat modified by him.

Let’s continue.

People are one of the intelligent races of the Universe. They are sentient beings, and the purpose of their existence is the cognition and perfection of the Creator. This is the goal of both humanity as a whole and each person individually. Each of us carries a particle of the Creator’s soul. Through cognition of reality and making a moral choice, a person improves this particle – a part of the Creator’s personality, which has now become the basis of his personality. This is our purpose, the highest meaning of human life. Therefore, the most important thing is to learn to live in the right way, morally – that is, in accordance with natural laws. Indeed, in the Creator, as in every particle of the Being, there is an impulse of destruction. Therefore, it is also present in a person. He manifests himself as the worst human qualities, vices. This is something that goes against natural laws and carries the potential of destruction, dangerous for humans, society, the Universe. Our task is to learn what is right and what is not, and to fight against everything that is wrong and destructive in ourselves and around us, while at the same time developing positive qualities in ourselves. This is the same struggle that the Being wages – only at the human level. By successfully waging this struggle, we improve ourselves and the Creator. It takes a lot of time to maximize the quality of a particle of the Creator’s soul in a person. One life is not enough. Therefore, when a body dies, a soul is separated from it and exists for some time in the world of energy (i.e. at the energy level of the Universe), after which it is born in a new body and continues its development. This will continue until the limit of development is reached, that is, until the full potential of a person and all his opportunities for improvement and creative activities are achieved. Then rebirths stop, and his soul merges with other souls who have completed the path of development. Moreover, not only with the souls of other people, but also with the souls of other sentient beings from all over the Universe. This is how the renewed, more perfect soul of the Creator is formed. When all its particles go through this cycle and reunite, merge together in a new, higher quality, then the Creator will experience a transformation, an evolutionary leap, which was discussed above.

We are not on our own. Life of each person is a part of the Creator’s life, and life of the Creator is a part of life of the Being. We are partakers of the Creator, and we are partakers of the infinite and eternal Being. Our struggle against evil is nothing more than a manifestation of its struggle against the impulse of destruction. Therefore, it is so important to cognize objective reality, be able to distinguish between good and evil, try to do the right thing, learn to love everyone and everything that exists in general. The ability to make the right choice and perform the right, moral deeds is exactly what makes us better and more perfect, and through us, the Creator. And through him – the Being itself. This is how we strengthen him; through our struggle we make him stronger in his struggle against the total destruction that threatens him. We have a huge responsibility. The future of the Creator depends on us. And what we do good is our contribution to the future of the Being. By doing the right thing, with dignity, as befits people, we strengthen the life of the great infinite Being. That is, in essence, we give life to everything that is in it. Everything that exists in our Universe, and beyond, and in other Universes, and in such infinity distances that we cannot even imagine. We cannot imagine, but we can give them life. As well as the inhabitants of these unimaginable distances give life to us. Everything is interconnected and interdependent. Each person is a thread in the living tissue of the Being. And this thread matters.

These are the very foundations of the Teaching. Its very essence. Cream of the crop, so to say. There are many things I have not mentioned, and have not used a number of terms that we usually use. This is exactly a sketch, in very general terms. Roughly the same as depicting a human face with half a dozen pencil strokes. But even from such a sketch, you can understand a lot, and even you can catch the most important thing. It is the most important thing about the Teaching that I wanted to show in my small verbal sketch. If everything is described in details, with nuances and worldview aspects, with causes and effects, moral principles, social aspects, an excursion into the history and inner life of the Teaching, we would get a huge number of volumes. All in due time. Well, the aim set for this particular article is achieved. And since this aim was very difficult to achieve, even a satisfactorily result is already a success.