The Problem of the Churches

   "It is important for all thinking people to seriously examine the major global problems
we are currently facing. Some of them can be solved fairly quickly, provided
we exercise common sense and show the right kind of personal commitment; others will require
long-term planning and patience as, one by one, the
necessary steps are taken leading to a reevaluation of human values and the establishment of new
perspectives on proper human relationships."
                Alice A. Bailey, «The Problems of Humanity»


                Global Issues:

1. The psychological recovery of nations.
2. The issue of children in the world.
3. The issue of capital, labor, and employment.
4. The issue of racial minorities.
5. The issue of churches.
6. The issue of international unity.

                The Problem of the Churches.

                "There is no religion higher than truth."
                E.P. Blavatsky.

                Introduction.

  The topic “The Problem of the Churches” can be explored from various perspectives, which are determined by the level of consciousness of each group of people. We will attempt to examine this topic as part of the Group of People of Good Will (GPGW) and the New Group of World Servers (NGWS), who direct their efforts toward uniting humanity into the Third Spiritual Planetary Center, ready to receive the light of the other two spiritual centers: the Hierarchy and Shambhala.

  For some, the Church is a temple or a community. For others, it is a patriarchate, an institute of senior muftis, a chief rabbinate, and so on. For still others, the Church is a global organization with state authority, a bank, and property in various countries (the Vatican). And so on.

  But the Church is always an organization made up of people who have their own understanding of God and the path to Him, united by the idea of service and faith in the scriptures, rituals, and symbols that are common to them. Even “...if two or three are gathered in My name, there I am among them” (Teacher Jesus)—this speaks of an organization of two or more people.

  Spiritual organizations may call themselves “churches” and maintain traditional church structures, or they may have other names and exist as secret spiritual orders, philosophical schools, esoteric groups, yoga centers, and so on, living by their own rules.

  However, if a spiritual school or organization fails to recognize how it employs ancient mechanisms to control the minds of its adherents and encourages them to isolate themselves from the rest of humanity and from religious people of other faiths, then it repeats the mistakes of traditional churches and hinders the unification of humanity into the Third Spiritual Center.

  The Age of Pisces has provided a wealth of experience in the organization of churches, revealing that there is an ancient way of thinking that divides humanity into factions, plunging them into strife and the illusion of spirituality. People of Good Will face the task of recognizing and describing this pattern of thinking so that it becomes recognizable and does not hinder the unification of humanity into a single spiritual family.

  Therefore, when considering the “Problem of Churches,” it is worth noting that the issue is not so much about well-known churches and religions as it is about distortions in patterns of thinking when creating spiritual organizations, in order to avoid repeating similar mistakes of the past, present, and future.
Shifting the focus from the consequences—as manifested in the problems of the world’s churches— to the causes of these problems will help avoid criticism and steer the discussion toward a research-oriented approach.
                1. God and the Right to Research This Topic.
  A natural question arises: Do people who are seeking the Truth, but do not identify with any religious denomination, have the right to explore this topic?
  Such a question is rarely raised, as the fear of the violence perpetrated by churches over the centuries—both against their own flock and against people of other faiths—remains strong to this day.
  Consciously overcoming this fear of the churches frees a person from the power of the illusion of a “Punishing God” and transmutes the karma of the churches.
  People are forced to pay attention to this issue because religious organizations are trying to influence their minds. The churches’ demand—echoing from the depths of the ages—to regain the control over the will and thinking of the masses that they once held creates problems not only for people but also for the fulfillment of the Divine Plan.
  Essentially, the question is this: Does a person have the right to think?
  Before answering this question, it is necessary to remember that:
  God and Freedom are synonyms; a person is a disciple of Christ (the Coming One), not of the churches. The human soul expresses divine love and the principle of Christ-consciousness. It is broader and higher than any church.
  God is the Freedom of the development of consciousness, not the freedom to give free rein to animal instincts, to which the dark forces call.
  He gave humans Free Will, and it is impossible without freedom of thought. A person does not become free unless their mind is directed toward Freedom, and the more developed a person’s thinking is, the freer they are.
  According to the law “Energy follows thought”—learning to control one’s own thoughts and thinking leads to learning to control energies, both one’s own and divine ones. Thus, by learning to control their thoughts and attuning them to God’s thought, a person becomes a co-creator with Him.
  The suppression of thought and the prohibition of inquiry amount to a ban on the development of active intellect, through which a person overcomes their animal nature, breaks free from the dominion of matter, and finds the path to the Creator who brought them into being.
Humankind has always been aware of the supernatural and recognized its guiding role in life. People have referred to it by various earthly terms—the Absolute, Brahman, the Tao, the Force, the Supermind, the Spirit, and so on—all of which denote an abstract Idea commonly known as “God.”
  The word “God” denotes a meaning that is far broader than the human mind can comprehend or describe in earthly terms. It expresses an abstract, unified Idea for the entire universe created by it, an Idea that is understood differently by every spiritual civilization inhabiting it, including the human race.
  Through every civilization inhabiting the universe, God expresses one of His designs, principles, or ideas.
  Through human civilization, God desires to be known and manifested as Freedom, which is expressed in free thought and co-creation with Him. The evolution of human civilization is the evolution of the divine principle of Free Will, through which the Creator explores and comes to know Himself.
  God is a unified consciousness that perfects itself through the development of the consciousness of every particle created by Him: a human, an angel, a planet, or a cosmic system.
  Throughout the entire history of the human race and its entire evolution, the Idea of “God” has always been the foundation and meaning of its existence. Societies that rejected God, as well as His Messengers, degenerated and died out at varying rates.
If the Idea of God—the Idea of Freedom—did not exist in human consciousness, there would be no meaning to life for humans. They would not know what they were living for or what they should strive toward.
  Human evolution is the comprehension and expression of the Idea of “God” through the development of intellect and free thought, which leads to the proclamation and establishment of freedoms in society, both in religious and social life. The extent to which human society has been able to establish the principles of freedom in its life is an indicator of its spirituality and level of spiritual evolution.
  In many spiritual primary sources, God’s plan for the creation of the manifested worlds is explained by the fact that He, first by creating them and then by dissolving them, explores Himself and the many variations of His manifestation.
  This suggests that God possesses the capacity for self-exploration, self-awareness, and self-knowledge.
  These same divine functions—self-exploration, self-awareness, and self-knowledge, both of oneself and of one’s Creator—are also inherent in His particle: the human being.
  Therefore, a human being, with fearlessness and awareness, has the right to explore the topic of “The Problem of the Churches” and to correct the mistakes made on their spiritual path toward Freedom.
                2. The Nature of the Mind.
  The mind has a fiery nature, and fire cannot be at rest, in bondage, or in a dormant state. It always strives upward, toward Heaven. The fiery nature of the mind manifests in a natural striving for Freedom, for knowledge of the Source that created it, and in the burning away of all that has outlived its purpose.
  True religiosity begins with the awakening of the fiery nature of the mind, from which the questions arise: “Who am I?” and “Why did I come into this world?” Until one begins the search for the meaning of one’s existence, one’s animal nature still weighs heavily upon them.
  The desire for pleasure and the indulgence of passions, the desire to be safe, to have an abundance of food and finances, and—as is commonly said today—“to live well”—indicates that such a person’s consciousness is still rooted in animal nature, and they remain a “well-off” person—a thoughtless slave to material forces.
  One of the qualities of a fiery mind is self-sacrifice. A rational person is ready to make sacrifices, and this is a fundamentally important distinction between them and those who are still under the sway of lower instincts.
  In seeking answers to questions about the meaning of their existence, a person sacrifices everything that stands in the way of Freedom and does not correspond to the Truth.
  They are ready to take up the cross and sacrifice their “good life” and their illusory self-image for the sake of Freedom, higher ideals, and the revelation of the divine within themselves.
We are living in a historic period when the fire blazing in people’s minds is freeing them from the power of church dogmas and leading them forward, burning away all obstacles to Freedom and Truth along the way.

                3. The “Church” Thought-Form.
  The creation of any organization, including a religious one, begins with the vision of one or more people, which leads to the formation of the organization’s thought-form on the subtle plane.
  The Age of Pisces, whose purpose was to develop “Devotion to Idealism” in people, left its mark on the thinking of the spiritual leaders of that time, resulting in the quality of “Devotion” becoming the primary one in the thought-forms they created.
  This was a natural evolutionary process of the realization of the divine plan.
  “The Problem of the Churches,” which affected all the world’s religions, arose when church leaders began to demand loyalty to themselves rather than to the Truth, which distorted the thought-form and led to a deviation from the fulfillment of the divine plan.
  Over the course of millennia, the global thought-form “Church,” consisting of a multitude of smaller thought-forms of churches from all religions, has “evolved,” and has now gained enough power to keep the consciousness of a portion of humanity under its control to this day.
  Under its control are the followers of all well-known traditional religions, and esoteric groups also fall under its influence if they begin to claim that only their spiritual organization or school was established on Earth by God Himself, that they are the chosen group of bearers of the Truth, and that all other spiritual groups are mistaken and are the creation of dark forces.

  If esotericists studying Agni Yoga, Theosophy, the books of A.A. Bailey, and so on, emphasize the sinfulness of all who have not joined their organizations and see the devil or dark magicians in everything they do not understand, then this is an indication that their group consciousness is smaller than the “Church” thought-form of the Age of Pisces, and they are under its control.
  In their efforts to perform spiritual service and bring light into the world, spiritual leaders whose consciousness is smaller than the “Church” thought-form fail to notice how they are creating, under different names, the very same churches with which our world is already overflowing, while they themselves risk joining the ranks of New Age theologians.
  The thought-form “Church,” created in the Age of Pisces and having become part of humanity’s collective consciousness, is based on the idea of religious authority over the people who created it—people who believe in the delusion that “Their Church on Earth was created by God.” It is based on the fact that people forget that they are the ones who must take the first step toward God, rather than God coming to them.
  Often, a person comes under its influence as early as childhood, in accordance with the traditions of the people or the country in which they were born. The “Church” thoughtform plays an active role in shaping a child’s worldview and, over the years, becomes part of an adult’s mind. Throughout their life, a person may change religious affiliations, but if, in their quest for God, they do not change the religious, isolating principles of the “Church” thoughtform that they have absorbed since childhood, they remain under its power regardless of the spiritual organization to which they belong.

  A distinctive feature of the Churches founded in the Age of Pisces is that people united within them on the basis of underdeveloped minds and highly developed emotional fears, rather than through their souls; therefore, churches are filled with fear rather than love, and as a result, there is no love for people themselves within the churches.

  Devotion to the religious leaders—muftis, rabbis, brahmins, and so on—has diverted the masses from seeking God toward the worship of external religious symbols: temples, icons, relics, and so on.

  Devotion is an emotional quality, and without a developed intellect capable of discerning it, it remains blind and easily manipulated. The Age of Pisces demonstrated how sincere believers—devoted people—lacking discernment often unconsciously served the forces of darkness.

  A thought-form created by minds incapable of receiving the light of the Hierarchy always depends on an increase in the number of followers and their material resources. It is always more materially oriented than spiritually, which creates problems both for the people themselves and for the Divine Plan. The Age of Pisces has provided a wealth of experience with such organizations, which can now be taken into account and avoided when establishing mystery schools and spiritual communities in the Age of Aquarius.

  Such a spiritual organization, like any thought-form manifested in Matter, desires to survive—and to live comfortably in material terms—more than it desires to serve spiritually. And, like any thought-form manifested in Matter, it fears death.

  Spiritual salvation for such an organization or community may come from an enlightened leader who wisely guides members toward the growth of consciousness.


                4. Theologians and Dogmas.

   Theologians include not only preachers of traditional world religions but also interpreters of esoteric, philosophical, and other teachings of our time—those who speak of God in new terms yet actively create spiritual organizations based on the old patterns of the “Church” thought-form of the Age of Pisces.

  A mind that has not developed the ability to analyze, think critically, and think systematically always gives rise to a theologian—a person who lacks a conscious connection with God but speaks about Him and strives to take the place of the Teacher who has departed from the earthly plane, through whom the Revelation was conveyed.

  The creation of the “Church” as a thought-form—with its inherent power over minds and earthly resources, its manipulation of consciousness, and its suppression of people’s free will—is their “achievement.”
  The theologian’s mind is based on memory, the ability to manipulate the meaning of words, and a talent for agitating and convincing others of his own righteousness. He remembers what is written in the texts and interprets it through his own mind, adding his own speculations for the sake of persuasiveness.
  The phenomenon of theologians emerging in religions and esotericism stems from their failure to realize that their judgments about God—presented as absolute truth—are incomplete and relative. The strength of their faith in their own words is so great that it compels other minds, not yet capable of analysis and inquiry, to believe them.
  Thus, the light of the Teaching is supplanted by earthly verbiage—a collection of interpretations about God concocted by the human mind.
  The more time passes since the Teacher of Light departed from Earth, the more interpretations and distortions theologians introduce into the living Revelation that was previously conveyed through him.
  Distortions of divine knowledge can survive only when they are dogmatized. Therefore, they are crystallized by the theological mind, turning into dogmas, and passed down to subsequent generations as a spiritual legacy.
  For a religious dogma to remain alive, it must be repeated from age to age and brought to the attention of as many people as possible; otherwise, it quickly dies and disappears from the collective consciousness of humanity.
  A dogma created by a mind that has lost its passion always defends what it has, since the mind that created it has spent millennia learning to seize, hold onto, and defend.
  Dogma is always radical and aggressively combats the dogmas of other religions, and a person whose consciousness is underdeveloped quickly becomes infected by this aggression and turns into a radical fanatic, ready to kill anyone who seeks God outside his own denomination and anyone pointed out by a theologian who holds power over him.
  The theologian’s mind is isolated from everything that goes beyond the interpretations of the scriptures. He has not developed within himself the capacity for cognition, analysis, and exploration of the unknown; therefore, he cannot accept anything new, including Revelation from above, which has long been knocking at the door of humanity’s collective consciousness.
  The more a person’s mind, illuminated by the light of the soul, penetrates the Idea of God, into Divine Reality, the fewer words of our world about God that person utters.
  He becomes more silent, and now the divine Word resounds through him.
Art in the form of classical music, painting, and literature consists of divine images conveyed to Earth—the resounding Words of God spoken through a person who has united with Him through thought.
                5. Spiritual Organizations of the Age of Aquarius.
  The purpose of spiritual organizations is to create a focus of light and direct a sustained Call to God, to which He will send a Response.
  A genuine spiritual organization is created by mentally polarized individuals into whose minds the light of the soul penetrates, and whose motivation is selfless service for the Common Good. However, even after becoming a focal point of light, a group is not immune to setbacks or interruptions in the channel of light, since, being in the manifested world, it is subject to many temptations and delusions.
  “All worlds are being tested”—so it is said in Agni Yoga, and spiritual organizations are no exception. Affiliation with a spiritual teaching or sitting at the Master’s feet is not yet a guarantee against sinking into the illusion of spirituality and a reversal of consciousness. Therefore, every group needs to consciously adjust its spiritual course.
  Whether a group can receive the light of the Hierarchy and become a stable focus of light on Earth depends on the level of development of the active intellect of the people who form the spiritual organization and on the degree to which the light of each person’s soul has penetrated that intellect.
  Truly spiritual groups of the Age of Aquarius differ from the churches of the Age of Pisces in that their efforts are directed toward the development of both individual and group consciousness, rather than focusing on differences from other groups.
  Just as a person’s consciousness expands when it can consistently encompass the mind and thinking of another person, so too does a group’s consciousness grow only when it can encompass the group mind of another group or several groups.
  The consciousness of the larger group harmoniously unites the group Fires and those of each small group included within it, which contributes to the development of their fiery nature and an increase in their luminosity.
  The consciousness of the unified group unites the consciousnesses of the small groups in such a way that, through this unification, all small groups see the Truth more clearly.
  The path to God, for both an individual and a spiritual group, lies in the development of group consciousness and its elevation to a higher and more synthetic consciousness. In this process, the group’s consciousness does not disappear but is enriched and expanded.

  If a group responds to the light of the Hierarchy, it accepts the thought-form of a spiritual organization from Above and embodies it in the form of a spiritual school or community. Its energy and luminosity depend on the quality of the participants’ minds, not on their number or material resources.
  Material support for such a spiritual organization is secondary for the people who created it. The primary task is to preserve the purity of thought, which ensures the uninterrupted functioning of the channel of light.
  Leaders of spiritual organizations speak very little. They work on the level of thought, keeping consciousness focused on the Higher Idea, and directing people’s attention toward mental polarization, the unity of souls, and the inner revelation of God within each person.

                6. The Global Crisis.
  The current global crisis, which is shaking every sphere of human life, is a Spiritual Crisis.
  Throughout the Age of Pisces, a battle raged between two global ideas:
“God is Love” and “God the Punisher.”  In this battle, on the plane of the earthly world order, the idea of “God the Punisher” was more successful, but it did not achieve a final victory, since the idea that “God is Love” became firmly established in the consciousness of humanity and gave rise to the birth of the sixth race—the Race of the Heart.

  The idea that “God is Love” has prepared humanity’s consciousness for a fiery baptism—both of the planet and of all who live upon it.

  The Fiery Energies of Christ, descending upon Earth, subject the unified mind of all humanity to a light-based transformation, stimulating it to unite into the Third Spiritual Planetary Center.

   The descent of divine meanings and fiery energies onto Earth is dismantling the outdated structures of control over human consciousness and giving rise to a society of greater social justice and spiritual freedom.

  In the dawning Age of Aquarius, the guiding principle is the Idea of “Brotherhood,” which can fully manifest only through the energies of Divine Love, accompanied by a qualitative transformation and expansion of human consciousness—the Third Planetary Center.

Global organizations established over the past 2,000 years—including both traditional churches and esoteric groups—are compelled either to restructure themselves to embrace the idea of “Brotherhood” or to cease to exist.

  The human race has reached a level of collective consciousness where a unique opportunity has arisen to recognize and overcome the errors in thinking inherent in the religious organizations of the Age of Pisces, and to enter the Age of Aquarius with a new level of spiritual cooperation.