On the threshold of a new world religion

Earth cannot be changed for the better unless the consciousness of individuals is changed. We pledge to work for such transformation in individual and collective consciousness, for the awakening of our spiritual powers through reflection, meditation, prayer, or positive thinking, for a conversion of the heart ...

"Earth cannot be changed for the better unless the consciousness of individuals is changed. We pledge to work for such transformation in individual and collective consciousness, for the awakening of our spiritual powers through reflection, meditation , prayer, or positive thinking, for a conversion of the heart. Together we can move mountains! Without a willingness to take risks and a readiness to sacrifice there can be no fundamental change in our situation! Therefore we commit ourselves to a common global ethic, to better mutual understanding, as well as to socially beneficial, peace-fostering, and Earth-friendly ways of life.

We invite all men and women, whether religious or not, to do the same."

Author Kenneth Sørensen

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As a result of internationalisation, a marked development has taken place during the past 100 years in the mutual relationship between religions. Globalisation has caused an increased rapprochement between the many peoples in the world, and this includes their religious sentiments. This universalism and unifying development has been of great importance for the propagation and acceptance of the eternal wisdom in all cultures.

There are at present two prominent currents. On the one hand, there is a growing consciousness of the importance of interreligious dialogue, an endeavour that isn't directed towards creating a new world religion, but instead towards acknowledging each others differences and the value of plurality. The Parliament of the World's Religions should be seen in this perspective.

The second current is an esoteric one, and it is arguably the cause of the first current. It manifests itself by the increasing human awareness of our common spiritual origin, that there is an esoteric core that has always been part of all traditional religions. This esoteric core is being brought forth by the new spirituality - the New World Religion. It is strengthened by the rapprochement of the traditional religions.

We will in the following describe the two currents in turn.

Parliament of the World's Religions

Since 1893, when the religions had their first World Parliament in Chicago, there has been focus on the peaceful coexistence of the religions. The meeting in Chicago was a decisive event in the history of religions, because during the 17 days of the meeting, more than 4000 participants representing all major religions were for the first time ever confronted directly with each other's fundamental values. This meeting was held in connection with the World's Fair in Chicago, as a contribution to the internationalisation of the Fair.

The meeting was characterised by an atmosphere of mutual respect and tolerance towards each other's religions. It also propelled a profound religious debate during the following years, i.a. about the nature of Christianity. The World Parliament became in practice the event that initiated the rapprochement of the religions, whereby it i.a. brought the wisdom of the East to the West over the following 100 years. There has ever since been a movement towards greater unity among the religions and interests in bring the religions together in a new community.

The Parliament of 1993 - towards a global ethic

In 1993 the World Parliament assembled again in Chicago to celebrate its 100-year anniversary. Over 8000 religious leaders and adherents were there to discuss the role of religion and spirituality in the new millennium. It was the hope that this meeting could initiate a more formalised cooperation between the religions.

The organisation that sponsored the meeting was the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR). It has taken up the spirit of the parliament of 1893. Its object is to further the dialogue and cooperation among religions on a world basis.

The focus of the parliament of 1993 was the document Towards a Global Ethic. It formulated a series of ethical principles that the religions have in common and that they strive to have incorporated in the charters of the international political institutions. The introductory quotation in the present article has been taken from this document.

The document was signed by nearly 200 religious and spiritual leaders the world over. It emphasises such ethical principles as:

• Do not kill.
• Do not steal.
• Do not lie.
• Do not commit immoral sexual acts.

These basic principles are also formulated in the following way:

• Show respect for life.
  
• Be honest and fair.
  
• Speak and act truthfully.
  
• Respect and love each other.

The document further proposes that these principles lead to the following political commitments:

• Non-violence and respect for life
  
• Solidarity and a just economic order
  
• Tolerance and a life in truthfulness
  
• Equal rights and partnership between the genders.
  

Parliament of the World's Religions in Cape Town

In 1999 the World Parliament assembled again, this time in Cape Town. More than 7000 participants from the different religions were there to share their insights, wisdom and inspiration . Again, the intention was not to try to create a new world religion, but instead to promote collaboration and a sense of community, where plurality is respected and valued. A further goal was to find new solutions to the extensive global problems that confront mankind today.

The conference included interreligious dialogue, building up networks, a declaration supporting action directed towards solving the global problems, and presentations of groups that are involved in humanitarian work related to the World Parliament.

The essence of the conference was summed up in the document A Call to Our Guiding Institutions. This document is directed towards the many institutions that govern human affairs. It takes its point of departure in the ethics of the 1993 conference and proposes solutions for a more just and harmonious world. Basically the objective is to promote good human relations.

The Parliament of the World's Religions assembles every five years. It is a powerful and synthesizing organ that inspires people all over the world to gather forces to make the world a better place for all.

The Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions has a website at www.cpwr.org where also A Call to Our Guiding Institutions can be downloaded.

On the threshold of a new world religion

We will now address the second current, the esoteric one.

The statement that we are on the threshold of a new world religion raises several questions, such as: Who is stating this? How do we identify this tendency?

It is primarily the English esotericist, Alice A. Bailey, in cooperation with the Tibetan master, Djwhal Khul who have presented the vision of a new world religion. They did this at the end of the 1930's and beginning of the 40's. It is particularly in the books, The Reappearance of the Christ, and The Externalisation of the Hierarchy that they have outlined the central theses on which this vision is built.

One of the clearest expressions of the New World Religion is the many new spiritual groups and initiatives that go under the collective name New Age. It spans widely, from the pioneers within humanistic psychology to the phantasts and their wild ideas. However, what all New Age adherents have in common is the idea of the deity within each of us, service to mankind, and a holistic outlook on politics, religion and culture.

It is "an undogmatic movement of individuals who share some basic ideas". "It is a path of knowledge rather than a system of faith." We can add that it is based on the esoteric values and insights of the traditional religions, as all new must take its origin in the best of the traditions.

What sort of people will make up the New World Religion?

It will be clear from the above that there can be no hierarchy of clergymen controlling the New World Religion. Instead of a discipline from above, the new spirituality is based on inner values.

The adherents of the New World Religion cannot be limited to any particular social, political or religious grouping. Instead they will emphasize the ageless values in all religions and harbour the same respect for the great initiates of the East as those of the West.

It will be humanitarian, holistic and spiritual thinkers who make up the New World Religion. They will set universal brotherhood above dogmatic teaching, and they will no longer think in terms of who is orthodox and who is heathen, pure and impure, saved and damned. These open-minded and consensus-seeking people are to be found in all spiritual groupings, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, as well as esoteric groups.

They have a global perspective, but don't seek uniformity. Their motto is unity in diversity. Holism is advocated, but not collectivism. Each individual's freedom to seek his own truth is seen as an inviolable right.

No common religion

The New World Religion neither wishes to see the theology of the traditional religions abolished. nor united. It would be a pity to lose the rich diversity of the many religions. Each of them represents a different path to the divine. It does not either itself strive to be a combination of the traditional theologies. They cannot be combined; they are too incompatible. The central ideas of karma and reincarnation in Buddhism cannot be combined with the Christian doctrines of one life, grace, and the Allmighty Father.

The New World Religion has as its source the inner esoteric teachings of all the great religions - the ageless wisdom. During the past 125 years, these teachings have been slowly percolating to the broad masses. They are more and more forming the basis of the new global spirituality.

One of the fundamental truths that the esoteric teaching brings us is that all evolution moves from within outwards. All action is impelled by ideas. This is also the case with the New World Religion. It already exists on the inner planes, as a structure emerging in the collective consciousness of mankind as the result of the inspiration received and transformed by the great thinkers.

The nine truths of the New World Religion

The New World Religion will be founded on nine divine truths that have been perceived by religious thinkers all over the world and that together constitute the essence of the old religions.

These truths are unchanging, because they have a divine origin and reveal the nature of God. All religious ideas are based on these truths.

The first truth is:

1. The truth of God.

This is the truth of the highest reality, the first cause. He has many names: God, The Absolute, The One, The Great Spirit, The Creator, Allah , Parabrahman , Tao , Ahura Mazda, Dharmakaya, Waheguru, and many more.

This truth emphasises the transcendent nature of God. All that exists has been created by the Creator and is maintained by His Will. Yet, the Creator is greater than the Created, or expressed in the words of Sri Krishna in the Bhagavad-Gita: "Having pervaded this entire universe with a fragment of Myself, I remain." (10,42)

It is a common conception that there is no Creator in Buddhism. However, Buddha himself never denied that there is a Creator. On the contrary, he raised this matter above cosmological considerations. He said: "There is, monks, an unborn -- unbecome -- unmade -- unfabricated. If there were not that unborn -- unbecome -- unmade -- unfabricated, there would not be the case that emancipation from the born -- become -- made -- fabricated would be discerned. But precisely because there is an unborn -- unbecome -- unmade -- unfabricated, emancipation from the born -- become -- made -- fabricated is discerned." (Udana 8,3)

2. The truth of Man's kinship with God

This truth emphasises the immanent nature of God. In every atom as well as in every human being there is a living fire that drives us on in our evolution to become in the last end "perfect, as the Father in heaven is perfect". It is this divine spark, of the same nature as the Creator, that ensures every pilgrims homecoming to his father's mansion. This immanent divinity is known in the east as the eternal Atman. Saint Paul accentuated this truth with the words: "He be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being" (Acts 17,27), and "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1,27).

Dalai Lama said about this at an interreligious meeting: "Just before our morning's session, I had a brief discussion with Father Laurence. He made the point that in Christian theology there is the belief that all human beings are created in the image of God - we all share a common divine nature. I find this quite similar to the idea of buddha-nature i Buddhism." (The Good Hearth - A Buddhist Perspective on the Teachings of Jesus . Wisdom Publications, website: www.wisdompubs.org)

Humanistic psychology refers to the divine spark with the concepts: Self or transcendent Self, and Superconsciousness.

3. The truth of immortality and eternity

All of the great World Religions have teachings of eternal life. Many Christians and Muslims believe in the Resurrection and eternal life. Buddhists and Hindus also believe in eternal life, but for them it is attained through liberation by way of yoga and complete illumination .

In the traditional Eastern religions, liberation is the result of the struggles of many lives. Reincarnation is therefore central to these religions. What is less known is that the other great religions also have reincarnation centrally placed in their esoteric teachings. This can be found in Christian Gnosticism, the cabbala of the Jews, and the Sufism of the Muslims.

There are clear indications that reincarnation was part of the teaching of Christ, the best-known example being His declaration that John the Baptist was a reappearance of Elijah.

The teaching of karma , that we reap what we harvest, is linked up with reincarnation. Karma is often regarded as an Eastern teaching, but we can find many examples of it in the Gospels.

4. The truth of the continuing revelation

Central to all World Religions is the faith that God, in moments of deep world crisis, reveals Himself through His emissaries. Whether we call these divine messengers Gods sons, prophets, wise men, enlightened souls, initiates, or avatars, history shows that they step forth every time mankind has a need for a new divine revelation. This truth is related to our faith in the grace of God. He is love and wisdom, and He always responds to our prayers. Proofs of this law are the Sons of God, who have stepped into incarnation to lead man from darkness to light and from death to immortality.

It is because of this truth that the Hindus await Vishnu's last incarnation as the Kalki Avatar . Krishna, who is one of Vishnu's ten incarnations, says in the Bhagavad-Gita: " Whenever there is a withering of the law ... and an uprising of lawlessness on all sides, then I manifest Myself. For the salvation of the righteous and the destruction of such as do evil; for the firm establishing of the law I come to birth in age after age. He who thus perceives My birth and work as divine, as in truth it is ... he goes to Me, Arjuna ." (4, 7-8)

The Christians await the Second Coming of Christ. The last words of Christ in the Gospel of Matthew is: "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." (28, 20)

Shakyamuni Buddha has foretold that when His teaching begins to decline, there will come a new Buddha, who will restore what has been lost through the years. Therefore the Buddhists await the Fifth Buddha, the Lord Maitreya, who will step down from the Tusita Heaven and appear to mankind.

Analogously, the Muslims await the appearance of Imam Mahdi, and the Jews the Messiah.

According to the esoteric teaching, we are now moving into a period of time, in which the Great World Teacher, known under the names mentioned above, is preparing to step forth.

5. The truth of our kinship with one another

The truth that we have emerged from the same divine source, that in each human heart there has been planted a divine seed that with time unfolds itself to became a perfect Son of God; this is the basis of all true brotherhood. When Christ was reproached for calling Himself a Son of God, He quoted the Old Testament: "Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods?" (Johs 10,34). We are all Gods in the make, borne by the highest principles, and as these principles are realised in each human soul, true human relations arise. Religion that doesn't lead to right human relations doesn't lead to God.

The three last truths are not new, but they haven't received as much attention in the traditional religions as they will in the New World Religion.

6. The truth of the Path to God

All spiritual traditions teach about a Path back to the Kingdom of God. Other names for it are the Path of Sanctification, Pilgrim's Path, Path of Initiation, and spiritual evolution . When a full experience of reality here on the physical earth has been attained, this Path leads to liberation, also called salvation, full illumination , Unio Mystica, rigpa and moksha.

This Path is the heritage of the saints, mystics and occultists of the ages. These great souls transcended all existing social and religious norms and trod the Path. They accepted the necessary conditions, hereunder a strict discipline. This led them to a greater life, where they could experience the higher mysteries and attain full illumination, also called samadhi and Buddha consciousness.

Fundamental to the esoteric teaching are the three pillars of spiritual evolution: Spiritual studies, meditation and service.

The three last truths are not new, but they haven't had as much notice in the traditional religions as they will have in the New World Religion.

7. The truth of the Enlightened souls

All the great religions have teachings of a "kingdom of the illuminated". Christ spoke of a kingdom that "is within you" (Luke 17,21) and that "is not of this world". Shortly before His Transfiguration, He told His disciples that "there be some standing here, which will not taste of death, till they see the Kingdom of God" (Luke 9,27). Eight days later, Peter John and James were witnesses to the Transfiguration and the Coming of the Kingdom of God, as Elias, Moses and a divine voice appeared to them.

The Buddhists speak of the Tusita Heaven, where the bodhisattvas and other illuminated beings dwell. The teaching of a superhuman kingdom is common to all religions. It explains what happens to the illuminated souls when they leave the earthly plane.

According to esoteric philosophy, the illuminated ones continue to participate in the evolution on earth. They are the guides of mankind and infuse inspiration into humans relating to all aspects of life - religious, political and cultural. The seventh truth is also about the existence of other beings than humans, animals and plants - called angels, devas, amesha spentas, creative hierarchies, and many other names - and that these superhuman beings cooperate with humans in furthering the evolution of all beings on earth.

8. The truth of invocation and divine intervention

All through the ages, men have invoked the higher powers for help and guidance. The answers to such pleas have been described by all religions. What we today call prayer, meditation and divine service has proven its worth and has become an inestimable heritage of man.

From an esoteric perspective, divine service is a common striving of a group toward the Kingdom of God. This group activity will become the foundation of the New World Religion. However, where mankind earlier used an emotional approach based on prayer, future practice will be a group meditation, which seeks to achieve direct telepathic contact with the illuminated souls.

The new mental form of divine service is a transformation of the old emotional practice. The emergence of the mental form is due to the growing mental orientation of humans. This gives the possibility of a deeper connection to divinity.

When a group of mentally focussed people together emit a divinely inspired thought, there is so much force in this that it may reach the illuminated souls on the higher planes. This is the invocation. The evocation is the response of the illuminated ones, a stream of divine inspiration into the group and further into the collective consciousness of mankind.

This process is governed by universal laws and is therefore called the science of invocation and evocation. According to the esoteric teaching, it will be the future divine service. It is based on knowledge of the creative power of thought, the fact that visualisation, affirmation and meditation create strong forces that evoke a response from the divine planes. This group work has a stronger effect than prayer, because it is more focussed and dynamic. The united concentration of the group creates a mental tension field into which the divine ideas can be born.

The meditations will be concentrated around the 12 full moons. They will unite the evocatory activity of men. A bridge of light and love will be built between mankind and the Kingdom of God.

The usage of common mantric formulas is central to all religions. The Christians have the Lord´s Prayer, the Hindus the Gayatri Mantra , and the buddhists the Om Mani Padme Hum. The Great Invocation is the World Prayer of the New Age. It is recited daily by thousands of people all over the world. It expresses the collective purpose of mankind in a concentrated form. When recited with intensity and purpose, a powerful stream of energy is created, which reaches the illuminated souls on the higher planes. They in turn respond by sending light, love and power into the collective consciousness of men.

Thus man uses his free will to create "a new Heaven and Earth" in communion with the Great Souls.

9. The truth of the Universe as a living organism

The New World Religion is also about the truth that the Universe is a living organism within which we live and move. The great cosmos is a living manifestation of the Nature of God. There is one Great Life that manifests itself in innumerable forms, from the gigantic galaxies, sun systems and planets to humans, animals, plants and the smallest atom .

The investigation of the space around us has also led to new ideas about the emergence and nature of the universe. The astronomer James Jeans once said that the universe resembles more a great thought than a great machine. Another astronomer, Arthur Eddington stated, "The stuff of the universe is mind-stuff". These ideas correspond well with what is written in the ancient Vedic scripture of India.

In this context, the increasing interest in esoteric astrology may be mentioned. It expresses the experience of the living relations between the heavenly globes - planets and stars - which has its correspondence in the relations between humans. Esoteric astrology gives us important clues as to the energies and qualities that influence us in the course of the sun's passage through the 12 signs of the zodiac.