What is the Teaching?

One of the strangest questions I was asked was “What is the Teaching? It is weird because it implies getting a short and simple answer to a very broad and complicated question. How would you answer if you were asked, for example, “What is life?” Of course, here you could stump and answer something like “Life is the road to death”. Such an answer will probably be successful, but only if the questioner originally wanted to hear something complex and deep, beautiful and paradoxical. However, if he wants to understand it truly deeply he will not be satisfied with such an answer. And it would be impossible to give him a concise answer because life is multifaceted. The answer can describe its biological, philosophical, biographical, psychological, or temporal aspects and… and… and… all separately and all together. Therefore, such questions look strange and strongly resemble rhetorical questions, although they are not.

The question about the Teaching can also have many answers, for the Teaching is also multifaceted. It comes in different guises, depending on how a person looks at it and how he perceives it. There are a lot of different characteristics of the Teaching. We can describe it by saying what it is or what it is not.

For example, it is not a sect – neither by the very definition of this notion nor by those propaganda-folklore notions about sects that are common in society. It is not a religion, because people who belong to the Teaching do not believe in the supernatural and do not worship anything. It is not a means for extorting money from people. It does not ask for donations, does not extort possessions or flats, does not charge for various pieces of training, and so on. It is not a place for superstitious people, lovers of mysticism, conspiracy theories, and all kinds of pseudo-spiritual nonsense. It is not for egoists who seek spiritual advancement only for themselves and forget about other people and the world, nor for complacent morons who want to become great enlightened ones so that they can revel in their greatness. All in all, it is not what many want and others fear.

What is it then? Many things can be listed. For example, one follower called it a life manual. And we can agree with this definition because the Teachings teach us to analyze life, to understand it and, so to speak, to deal with it properly. It is a manual. Although it sounds unusual, too modern. However, for someone who knows what manuals are, and is accustomed to using them, this word will say a lot about the Teaching. It will show one of its vital aspects. Very well, then. So, this definition, which was born spontaneously, and impromptu, is also good.

What else? Well, first of all, it is what so many people are looking for: a source of information. A treasure trove of knowledge about things that science has nothing to say about yet, or that it simply denies. For instance, it describes what the universe is and what the meaning of human life is; what happens to people after they die or whether there is life on other planets; what evil is to who the gods are. And all these – without mysticism, supernaturalism, or miracles. Yes, believe it or not, it’s possible to talk about all these things rationally.

In other words, we can say that the Teaching represents that third path that many people see as vital: a worldview by which the contradictions between science and religion can be resolved. It explains the phenomena that are known to us from religion (not from a particular religion, but from religion in general, from a religious view of the world) without appealing to the supernatural. All these phenomena fit into the system of Nature and obey its laws, they are scientifically cognizable, and can be investigated and described. The problem is that science does not yet have the instruments for such research and is yet to discover them. In the meantime, the Teaching can confirm the existence of what the religious people believe in and provide a rational explanation of everything. Of course, the meaning of some concepts is inevitably corrected and nothing can be done about that. A different view of known phenomena requires different descriptions.

Further, the Teaching is a holistic worldview. It does not simply provide answers to separate questions; it is a system that illuminates them and shows their connection to the world (and even more than this world), people’s place and role in this system, and human life. The system is comprehensive, informative, logical, consistent, understandable, and practical.

Hence the following aspect: the Teaching is a means of changing oneself. It offers a system of morality, which it justifies based on the structure of the world and the meaning of human existence. It does not simply say: “Do this and don’t think why. This is how the higher powers have set it, and they know best.” It says: “One should behave this way; it is right because it conforms with human predestination. And the predestination is like this and that and follows from the structure of the Universe and influences its destiny in this and that way, and in such a way it is consistent with the universal laws.” That is, the Teaching explains, makes it possible to understand the most important things. The things on which human life is built. If you understand the meaning of your life and its importance for the world, if you understand what you have to be and why you have to be like that if you know what you have to cultivate in yourself and what you have to overcome, and why exactly this and how to work on yourself to become better – if you know and understand all this, then you will have motivation, desire, possibilities and strength to change yourself and become better. Not through some questionable pieces of training and practices under the slogan “Become a superman in six months and bend the whole world”, but through knowledge, deep awareness of reality, spiritual work, and practice in the form of a moral choice and the resulting actions. True, it won’t be quick. The real work on oneself never ends. It continues throughout life. Because truly important and difficult things are not done quickly.

You could also say: the Teaching is a spiritual path. In our case, it is precisely a spiritual path, not a religious one, because spirituality and religion are not necessarily the same thing. It is the way of cognition and moral perfection of oneself, the way of changing one’s qualities through inner work. And what is the purpose of that? To do something for the world in the end.

Thus, the next aspect is this: the Teaching is the way to change the world and the very means of changing it. Everything is built on knowledge and action. First of all, you have to know what the world is and how it works. What does it mean to change the world for the better? What kind of changes are required and in which direction should it go? What is the role of people in it and what can they do to change the world for the better? How must this be done? And then deep, practical actions arise. The Teaching proceeds from the fact that the world is as those who inhabit it make it. If it is an unhappy, dangerous place where people suffer and die, it is because that is what people do. They destroy, oppress, torture, and kill each other. Change for the better in the world happens primarily through changing people for the better. This is why enlightenment, self-improvement, and human improvement are so important. As people change, our world will become a more pleasant place, and as they combine their efforts to improve it purposefully, it will change even more. The Teaching aims precisely at these goals: to enlighten people and change the world. This, again, will not be quick. Apparently, it will take centuries. It is a global and archaic undertaking. But the most important idea is that the Teaching explains the aims, gives direction, helps to identify the means, and gives strength for such a great work. And it also provides a real opportunity to unite to do this work together.

This is so important that we will leave it as a separate topic. The Teaching is the way to unite people globally, on the scale of humanity. It helps us to understand the essence of man, to see the aims common to all – the aims of human civilization – to realize the importance of unity and to achieve it. It will not be achieved in the immediate historical perspective, not tomorrow, not in a year or even in ten years, but it will be. Unification means the disappearance of state borders, the end of wars, the end of national and religious conflicts. It is the merging of humanity into one global nation.

Hence the following aspect arises: the Teaching today is a sprout of the future universal culture. A sprout that in time will grow into a world tree. The roots of this tree will be in the soil of our planet, but the branches will extend beyond it and spread throughout the universe. People settling on other planets will be united by the Teaching – the common worldview and the common culture formed on its basis.

And when communication with other civilizations begins, humanity will find that with some of them it is connected with the same common worldview. After all, the Teachings show the true picture of reality – and it is the same for everyone, as the universal laws of Nature are the same for the entire Universe. Therefore, the Teaching is known to many sentient races of the Universe. And this is another aspect of it: it serves as a unifying factor not only for humanity but also for the different sentient races. That is, it is a kind of common denominator for all who have come to know and understand reality sufficiently to develop an objective worldview. Since reality is one for all, there can be only one objective, i.e. corresponding worldview for all. Therefore, the Teaching reveals the worldview to those who do not know it – and those who cognize it on their own come to the Teaching by themselves. Whichever planet they inhabit. The Teaching connects sentient races of the universe (those whose worldview it represents), helps them to understand each other, avoid conflicts, and forms the basis of their cooperation – because as cognisors they have a common role and common goals in the system of Nature.

The enumeration of aspects of the Teachings could go on and on, but I think this is enough to give a general idea of their diversity and scale. So, in the end, I will mention only one more aspect, perhaps the most unusual.

The Teaching is also a living thing. For all the knowledge it contains, all the information, all the moral principles, and so on cannot be put into practice without those who are the bearers of the Teachings, its followers. Thus, the wisest book in the world, which teaches everything good and kind, would be just an object lying somewhere and having no influence on what is going on in the world unless someone reads it and becomes imbued with its contents; unless the ideas of this book come alive in his thoughts, aspirations, and actions. It is the same with the Teaching. It lives in its followers. It thinks with their minds, looks through their eyes, changes the world with their hands, breathes, rejoices, suffers, and loves because they breathe, rejoice, suffer, and love. It has as many faces as they do, as many bodies as they do. It also has a unified energy to which each follower is connected, a kind of circulatory system in which the role of circulating blood is energy. And there is unity on an even deeper, spiritual level. It is, so to say, the combined Spirit of all who belongs to the Teaching is its united soul. Not only a person can touch the Teaching intellectually by getting acquainted with it, but he can also talk with it, touch it with his hand, and feel its breath on his cheek. The Teaching is all its followers combined. It is a being of cosmic proportions, inhabiting many planets simultaneously, looking at the universe with a myriad of eyes, working for its good with a myriad of minds and hands. Amazing picture, isn’t it? It is to me. The Teaching is also able to marvel itself. Which is even more surprising – but also so natural.

That’s the review we got. It came out very short and dry – but it couldn’t have gone any other way. This is the format of our conversation. And for a more detailed consideration of each aspect, you would need to write a separate essay because, as it was mentioned, these are not all aspects.

I don’t think that I’ve fully answered the question in the title. Although I may have more or less clarified it. Mainly I wanted to explain how difficult it is to give a concise answer to this question which is always expected. I hope I at least managed to do that. And to put it nicely, to understand deeply what the Teaching is, one has to study it and become part of it. Just as to begin to understand what life is, one has to live it.

© Atharhat, 2022