Divine Knowledge Has
No Owners, And The
Wisest Among Men Are
Humble Truth-Seekers
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
The Eastern concept
of Karma teaches the law of equilibrium in life. It combines time, space, and
movement. Worldly existence is seen as a vast magnetic field created by everyone’s
actions and their effects.
There is an intuitive History, and a Geography of planetary
consciousness. The multiple-lined chain of causation in the life of our globe seems
to unfold with special strength in some special places. A higher inspiration irradiates
from them in rhythms and cycles that are also determined according to the Law
of action and reaction.
Stonehenge is well-known in Europe. Machu Picchu, in
the Andean Cordillera in South America, is also one of such key-places. Its
influence is quietly inspiring, just as the energy of many other points in the Andes.
Each country has magnetic points in its territory. In esoteric circles, there
is no need to mention the Himalayas.
The karma or accumulated experience of present
civilization is significantly magnetized by Jerusalem, the city considered
sacred by the three best-known forms of monotheism. Judaism is the oldest of
these religions; it has pantheistic dimensions, as in the Kabalah, and it is the
one with the strongest Ethics.
In simple words, an Eastern definition of Ethics would
say that it is the art of sowing good karma, or generating justice and balance.
In the Pirke Avoth, Perek V, Mishnah 26,
one reads: “According to the pains [taken] is the reward”. [1]
In the city of Jerusalem one finds the Mount Moriah or
Temple Mount, which constitutes the holiest site in the planet, for Jews. It
has worked across the centuries as a worldwide magnet for noble feelings. It
has inspired the search for a divine view of the world and the feeling of respect
for all life. It has also inspired war, hatred, fanaticism and acts of
terrorism.
Few Muslim leaders are ready to accept the central
contribution of Judaism and the Jewish nation to human experience in the last
millennia, to actively denounce anti-Semitism and cooperate with Israel. And these
are pioneers of the future. The dominant sectors of Christianity also suffer
from the disease of fanaticism. All is not easy in human progress, and some significant
obstacles must be removed before the bright side of future can emerge.
Political correctness should not prevent us from
acknowledging facts. Everyone must be free to respectfully investigate and
experience the mystery of the Temple Mount. The Mount Moriah is not only about
the past. It holds a key to the future. A basic fact must be accepted: sensible
efforts for world peace must take into consideration the decisive, if often invisible
role played by the Temple Mount in History.
Since ancient time, its cultural and magnetic centrality
in human evolution has been undeniable. From a practical point of view, one thing
stands to reason: it is the natural right
of the Jews to safely pray and contemplate on the Temple Mount.
It is also the right of Muslims, Christians and men
and women of every faith or philosophy. However, true devotion does not include
hatred. The Mount Moriah must be dedicated to inter-religious wisdom and to the
cross-cultural practice of inner peace. The place has to be respected. It
cannot be used to justify intolerance or anti-Semitism. Those who are
unprepared to live in harmony with religions different from their own lose
their moral right to anything that belongs to mankind as a whole. They are
unable to accept anything universal in
the true and interdisciplinary sense
of the term. The Temple Mount has precisely this kind of universality: it must
be accepted as a multi-cultural place in order to cease being a source of
conflict, and start being a center of universal harmony among nations.
Justice is the unavoidable foundation of harmony. Therefore appeasing dead letter worship and
fanaticism, whether it be Jewish, Muslim or Christian, cannot pave the way to
peace.
Protecting fanaticism stimulates
narrow-mindedness. The naturally
universal character of Judaism is a lesson that Israel has been teaching the
world since 1948. Such intrinsic wisdom has been transmitted to many by example
and not by preaching. True, there is narrow-mindedness in sectors of Judaism;
and it is bound to disappear, just like the narrowness of other religions.
Little by little, the Temple Mount gets widely
recognized as one of the main symbolical places for the spiritual evolution of mankind.
Research and bibliography expand and two
carefully prepared guides to the Temple allow one to better understand the
issue.
One of them is “Jerusalem:
The Temple Mount”, by Leen & Kathleen Ritmeyer. [2] The other and equally interesting book is “Arise and Ascend: A Guide to the Temple Mount”.[3] Richly illustrated, the volumes are respectful of the
inter-religious complexities of the issue.
A third and larger book is not a guide. A thorough
study, “Jerusalem, an Archaeological
Biography”, Hershel Shanks, reveals some of the common aspects between Judaism
and the ancient Egyptian religion. One example is the Egyptian form of the Jewish
Cherubim, in the Temple of Solomon.[4]
This is no isolated evidence. It is easy to see that Moses learned more
than one tenet of his secret wisdom while he lived in Egypt; and Helena
Blavatsky elaborates on that. [5] According
to esoteric philosophy, Moses was an initiate in the Wisdom of Hermes.[6] H. P. Blavatsky writes of “the
Hebrews, whose prophet Moses was so learned in the esoteric Wisdom of Egypt,
and who adopted their numerical system from the Phoenicians…”. [7]
No single religion or philosophy is the “sole
proprietor” of truth. Divine knowledge has no owners. The wisest among men are
humble truth-seekers, and the various religions have nothing to lose - except
their naivete - in a frank cross-cultural dialogue. They will powerfully widen
their wisdom and their horizons by talking honestly to each other.
NOTES:
[1] “Ethics
From Sinai”, by Irving M. Bunim, Philipp Feldheim, Inc., New York, copyright
1964, edition in 3 volumes. See volume
3, p. 246.
[2] Published by Carta
Jerusalem, Israel, 2015, 160 pp.
[3] Published in Jerusalem in 2015 by The Meeting Place
Association and Temple Mount Heritage Foundation, and with 76 pp.
[4] “Jerusalem, an Archaeological Biography”, by Hershel
Shanks, Random House, New York, copyright 1955 and 1983, 1995 edition, 256 pp.
The Egyptian elements of Jewish Cherubim are mentioned on pp. 56 and 57. See also “Jerusalem’s Temple Mount”, by
Hershel Shanks, Continuum, New York - London, copyright 2007, 206 pp.
[5] “Isis Unveiled”, Helena P.
Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, volume I, p. 228, and p. 415, among
others. See “Moses” in the Index, on p. 671, volume II.
[6] “The
Secret Doctrine”, Helena P. Blavatsky, Theosophy Co., Los Angeles, volume I, p. 73, lower half.
[7] “The Secret Doctrine”, H.
P. Blavatsky, volume II, p. 560, last paragraph.
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The above text
was first published on January 1st, 2016 in the author’s blog at “The Times of Israel”.
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Read more:
* Jerusalem Is Israel’s Capital (by Donald J. Trump).
* Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel (by CCA).
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In September 2016, after a careful
analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students decided
to form the Independent Lodge of
Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in
the different dimensions of life.
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