Temple and Workshop

Turgenev’s Bazarov said: “Nature is not a temple, but a workshop, and man is its worker.” This statement by a fictional character sparked more debate than the words of many real celebrities. Materialists made it one of their slogans, despite the fact that Nature, in reality, created them, just as a Creator creates his creations. Meanwhile, many religiously inclined people tend to view Nature precisely as a temple built by God, meant to be a place of worship for Him.

Our teaching is neither strictly materialistic nor religious. It is called “the Teaching of the United Temple.” Why? For those just beginning to learn about the Teaching, this often becomes the first question.

The Teaching has been given to people many times, in different times and places around our world. It may have had different names, but this did not change its essence. In our time, during the last revelation, it bears the name given to it by Emere: the Teaching of the United Temple. In this case, the word “temple” has nothing to do with religion and does not refer to a place of worship of higher powers. The followers of the Teaching do not worship anyone. For us, the “united temple” is Nature. The Nature of our planet, in all its life-giving power and beauty, including man as its part. Broader still – the Universe, our living Creator in all its grandeur, with all the universal laws and principles that sustain its life and propel its development. Even broader – Being, boundless, unlimited in time and space, the great ocean of life in which our Universe is no more than a drop. Such is our temple. And it exists not for worship, but for work for the benefit of people, the world, and Nature in all its manifestations. We ourselves are particles of this temple, and we must work in it, with our hands, minds, and souls, making it more perfect and beautiful. In other words, our temple is also, at the same time, our workshop. And while we work in it, it creates us.

Inveterate materialists, who reject reverence for Nature and call for conquering and reshaping it for their own needs, are wrong. Those who view it solely as something given from above and subject only to higher supernatural forces are wrong as well. The truth lies at the intersection of these opposing views. It is where the temple and the workshop, worship and work, become one inseparable whole.

© Atarkhat, 2016