The Philosophies of Religion and Spirituality
To a God of Greater Love
by
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Ordinarily we place great emphasis upon our personal values. Our personal values change with the acquisition of knowledge we gain through experience. There is one class of values that is constant. These consist of the values of what we call Godly. (Spiritual values) These absolute values are timeless, and never change because they are fiats of the God of all men. However our human values are constantly changing. Our human values change as we learn to interpret the divine or cosmic values more effectively, or as we improve in our understanding of our conception of God. There are discrepancies about what we believe about God and the actual truth about God. There is definitely a discrepancy between the God that we want, the God we believe in, and the God that we have. This is one fact that we all must someday come to terms with. We eventually have to accept the fact that the God we believe in is most often different from the God we have. The true God is a God of absolute values. Justice and spirituality are examples of absolute values. These absolute values are a part of the underlying eternal nature of the world. All absolute values (which are spiritual) are esoteric values that cause exoteric counterparts to manifest in the world (which are physical). These absolute values are ever being taught to the world by God. Proof of the reality of an absolute value lies in its actions in the physical realm. The whole world manifests as a result of absolute value, or through the fiats of God. Through its actions absolute value, and the will of God manifests in all things. The true nature of the world accords to absolute law. The true nature of the world is not generally in accordance with the way man perceives it to be. Man has a mistaken appraisal of the world. All physical or material things have immaterial or non material causes, or essences. These causes are known as absolutes. Absolutes are values like love, justice, truth, and harmony. The existence of absolutes in the cosmic realm leads to manifestation of corresponding material structures. Various organizations which are examples of such material structures that have their sources in the absolute exist in the world. All such structures are necessitated by the need for people to remedy their human weaknesses. The church is one such structure. The physical church is an imperfect replica of the system of God’s perfection. It is the plan of God to make this structure a more perfect manifestation of His love. The Church is evolving, just like the rest of the universe, propelled into the direction of perfection by God. Religion is an attempt by man to organize his collective understanding of God. Divine providence designs that the purpose of the Church is to assist the spiritual growth of humanity. The justice system is another such structure, as is the government and the educational system. These organizations exist because there is a need for them. They are meant to help man evolve. Thus the manifestation of absolute value (the Divine nature of God) in the world through the action of man is assisted through the establishment of human organizations. There is a place for everything in God’s creation, and everything has its place. In spite of their obvious shortcomings, schools, churches, religions, governments, and other social institutions are an integral and necessary part of all creation. Without them all progress would stop. They all serve an important function in promoting and assisting in the evolution of the individual and of all humanity. The problem is that we are now in a cycle of our human evolvement where the Church is more of a hindrance to our spiritual progress than it is a help. Unfortunately, all organizations naturally have the potential to grow in complexity to the point of losing the original intent of their creation. Organizations can eventually become more concerned with self preservation and self perpetuation than with their idealistic goals, aspirations, and purposes. They can and do become mired in bureaucracy and red tape. They can lose track of the importance of the means in establishing their ends. They can even lose the quality of the absolute value upon which they were founded. The organizations then become empty shells unless they regain contact with their source of existence, which is the absolute value they were founded upon. Organizations must repeatedly review and remind themselves of their original mission in order to keep themselves on track. The Church grew out of the need for absolute value to manifest in the world of man. There was a time when the church became an empty shell, a poor representation of what it should have been. Very dark and evil occurrences ensued. However, by divine providence, some semblance of sanity was restored. Since the twelfth century, this tendency has continued into the present. People like St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226AD), and St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253) were sent to the rescue by the divine system which insures man’s eternal progress. They understood what was happening to their beloved organization. They placed the Church back on track in respect to many of its activities. Periodically, through divine providence, enlightened people appear in the world and place organizations back on track. Surely this is not without design. It is only confirmation that all is as it should be and that God has taken measures to take care of His creations. Organizations grow out of the efforts of mankind to express as a social and gregarious being. Compared to God, or the Absolute, man is imperfect. Therefore all man made institutions and organizations fall short of serving their intended functions. All organizations must continually evaluate themselves. There is an urgent need, especially at this time in history for all of our modern institutions to evaluate themselves. This is not so easy for some of our organizations to do. Since churches and religions are so resistant to change, this could present a major problem for them. Perhaps if they would consider some hard questions and their answers it would help spur them on toward further reformation with certain considerations that they got away with by ignoring in the past. It is now incumbent upon the church to do so. The reason for this is the new mindset of society. This new mindset makes it impossible for more and more people to give credence to the church teachings in their present form. The old belief that the universe, including all of the animals, minerals, and vegetables were created for the use and the dominion of man no longer holds water. We are now at the stage where many people realize that we have taken a far too egotistical view of ourselves. We have not respected the right to life of every living being. We have ignored our responsibility as guardians and servants of the universe. We must realize that we are not situated in the center of the universe. We are now, at this point in history, forced to admit that the universe was created for a far greater purpose than man can comprehend. Man has historically mistaken his part in the creation of the universe, and this is reflected in his religious beliefs. Man may not, is probably not the supreme intelligence in the physical universe. On one hand man promotes the existence of higher intelligences like the Angels, and denies them in the next. Man because he has believed what he wanted to in spite of what his better judgment could tell him, has played a parasitic part in the workings of the world. The truth is that man is in fact not the master of the universe, but a steward of it. Man is failing to meet his responsibility, and the church, through its teachings does not effectively help him to do so. A change is necessary. We live in a confusing, perplexing, and challenging world. Individually and socially we face very serious problems in the world. If we are to survive as a species, save other species in the wor
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MORAL
It is not so much that we don’t know, but that we know so much that isn’t so that is the cause of our problems.
SUMMARY
Among the most astounding recent academic discoveries is the true history of the development of man’s spirituality, philosophy, and religion, and their relationship to each other. It is becoming more apparent that the Christian, Islamic, Hebrew and all other monotheistic religions of the world have the same origin and have more in common than is generally believed. Man will not achieve world peace until his religions are once again reintegrated. As brothers and sisters with one God as our father, all humanity must learn to live together and assume a sense of greater universal responsibility. Our greatest challenge today is that our new global community demands that every individual must develop a greater sense of spirituality.
THEME
There is a place for everything and everything has its place. Everything is as it should be. The Universe is evolving according to the will of God. It is our failure to see the good in everything, to realize the perfection in Man, God and the whole Cosmos which is the cause of our unhappiness, the source of our discontent, and at the root of our suffering. The realization of the goodness of all Creation is man’s ticket to his life in a Paradise on Earth.
About the Author
Lloyd Lefteruk was born on Selkirk, Manitoba on May 17, 1941. He was a second generation Canadian of Ukrainian decent. He was the son of Nicholas and Annie Lefteruk. He had two brothers and two sisters, Donald, Boris, Polly Ann, and Caroline-Rose. He grew up on a diversified farm in St. Peters, Manitoba. He attended a one room rural school where he received a Grade eight standing. In his rural school he was an active member of the Junior Red Cross where he served as secretary, and then treasurer, and eventually president. After gaining his Grade nine diploma by correspondence, he attended Selkirk Collegiate. After earning a Grade twelve standing, he went on to Manitiba Teachers’ College. He taught at Mapleton School in the Lord Selkirk School Division for three years. During that time he enrolled in the University of Manitoba as a part time student from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1970. This degree was earned while teaching full time. University courses were taken in evening and in summer school courses. In university Lloyd took three majors. These were history, geography, and sociology. It was at this time in university that he developed an intense love for history. He has retained a fascination with ancient history to the present. Lloyd taught for thirty six years, thirty-three of these in the Transcona Springfield School Division before he retired in June, 1996. During his teaching career he served for many years as a member of the executive of the T.S.T.A. He headed the United Way campaigns in Transcona. He also spent several years as an active member of Toastmaster’s International, and serve in many capacities in that organization. He served on many committees in the Transcona Springfield School Division. He retired from teaching school in 1996. In 1980, Lloyd enrolled in the Rosecroix University, A.M.O.R.C., in San Jose, California. He served for fifteen years in various capacities in the Charles Dana Dean Chapter of A.M.O.R.C. in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Positions held included secretary, treasurer, group leader, master, chaplain, and regional monitor. After The Charles Dana Dean Chapter had to discontinue its activities due to unforeseen circumstances in 1995, Lloyd was instrumental in reviving activities of the group under the name of Winnipeg Atrium Group, A.M.O.R.C. in 2OOO. He served the Winnipeg Atrium as group leader for four years. After twenty seven years of study, he has recently completed all of the degree studies provided by the Rose Croix University. His first three books, Quest for Divinity, Reflections on Reality, and Mirror of Consciousness were self published and were printed by Tartan Graphics in Sanford, Manitoba. Retired from teaching, Lloyd operates a small tree nursery. He has many hobbies. Among these are reading and writing books. He loves to read books and articles written by the early founders of America. He loves the computer and has taken on line courses on scientific, historic, mystical, and other topics. For many years Lloyd has presented free public lectures on various mystical topics such as Karma, Reincarnation, Mysticism, Meditation, and the Cycles of Life in various locations in Winnipeg.