The Kriyāvāda Pathway to the Sacred

The sacred template being discussed today, traditionally, is known by the terms, kriyāvāda (doctrine of action) or kriyā yoga (the system based upon right action). Purposely, I have chosen not to use the more common term, karma, as karma is a set of differing theoretical expositions explaining the consequences of intentional actions in this life and future lives. Moreover, I find most explanations of karma philosophically primitive and quite unnecessary as a guideline to how to best live ones life altruistically.

One day, I will discuss the competing doctrines of karma, but, in truth, the law of karma has nothing to do with following a sacred template. Kriyā yoga is one such template, as it instructs us to accept full responsibility for our actions, wholesome and unwholesome, premeditated or not. Ignorance is not compatible with true personal responsibility.

These rudiments underlying this sacred template have been present since the beginnings of our species. These rudiments consisting of the sundry ethical rules developed in each and every culture so to assure cooperation and stability of a social group. Most often, such rules are believed to come from a Higher Power and should be behaved. Personally, I believe that the source of such rules is the entrance of what is known as True Conscience. Whether, Conscience is an attribute of God, or an inherent force or principle within our material universe, remains to be demonstrated. As for our concerns, the existence of Conscience is all that needs acknowledgment.

Conscience is a much richer word in the English language than most people realize. Conscience is derived from the Latin conscientia “knowledge experienced within oneself manifesting as a subtle inner feeling of what is wholesome action,” from conscientem (nominative consciens), a present participle of conscire “be consciously aware, “from con- “with,” or “thoroughly” + scire “to know.”

Studying the derivation of conscience, we discover first that the word does not refer to a set of socially-agreed upon rules of conduct amongst persons, e.g., Hammurabi’s Code of Law (Babylon 1792 to 1750 BCE), the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, or the 42 Negative Confessions to the Goddess Maat (Egyptian Pyramid Texts circa 2375 BCE). However, in the examples cited above, the source for each confession was stated to be directly from the Divine, a revelation from God, so to ‘stamp’ the published rules with ultimate authority.

Regardless of political necessity and spin, it is difficult to dispute the premise that the pristine motivating force for establishing an ‘order of social law’ within human society has a trans-physical origin which works through of our biologically evolved psychoneurological apparatus. I posit that survival as a species required successful cooperation between an increasingly complex nervous system and the ever-increasingly complex social environment it created. Moreover, such adaptations-exaptations required expansion of our neurological and psychoistic organs so to better appreciate and manifest the inherent altruism underlying Creation.

So what I am suggesting is that each of us must stop looking outward to the external world with it’s myriad and contradictory social rules (most created so to protect material property and material life) for guidance as to our innermost feelings, cognitions, and actions. Forsooth, the proper place to search for and uncover the ultimate treasure provided by the Absolute, the Cosmic, Our Father, and so on, True Conscience, is only within, in the place Master Jesus called the Kingdom of God (or the Kingdom of Heaven).

For this is the lawful situs of the ‘noble organ.’ All travel in the astral worlds should properly begin and end with the noble organ. For the Kingdom of God is immune from the chaos, enmity, trickery, and phantasmagoria of the empyreal or astral worlds. Occultists, mediums, seekers of psychic powers, and unstable minds fail to heed the above warning and so travel using our more ignoble psychic centers.

Therefore, the truest sacred template is the template of honest altruism motivated those subtle feelings arising in the noble organ from the inflow of the miraculous power to Conscience. Such miraculous power stemming from Unconditional Love alone.

I do need to add that performing wholesome, altruistic action simply based upon fulfilling a particular set of cultural or religious “laws” is not the same thing. Behavior, absent of honest compassion, understanding, and caring, is sterile and without spiritual (or human) value. Such behavior is best seen in Jesus’ displeasure with the Pharisees.

Tomorrow, we will discuss the details of altruism in our day to day lives.