Beyond the Cultic Tendency in Religion and Spirituality,
and in Secular Society
In My Wisdom-Teaching, I Speak critically of the conventional (or childish, and,
otherwise, adolescent) orientation of “Guru-cultism”. Such cultism is a tendency
that has always been present in the religious and Spiritual traditions of
humankind. Anciently, and in the present time, both true Spiritual Masters and
ordinary Wisdom-Teachers have been “cultified”, and (thereby) made the merely
fascinating Object of a self-contained popular movement that worships the
Spiritual Master as a Parent-like Savior, while embracing very little of the
significant Wisdom-Teaching of the Spiritual Master.
The error of conventional cultism is precisely this childish, and (otherwise)
adolescent, and (altogether) ego-based orientation to fascination with Spiritual
Masters, Wisdom-Teachers, “God”-Ideas, myths, sacred lore, inherited beliefs,
traditional propaganda, and psycho-physical (or merely body-mind-based)
mysticism. And the cultic tendency in religion and Spirituality is the essence
of what is wrong with conventional religion and Spirituality.
The “problem” is
not that there Is no Real God, or that there are no true
Wisdom-Teachings, or that there are no true Spiritual Masters, or that there
should be no devotion to any true Spiritual Masters. The “problem” with
conventional religion and Spirituality is the same as the “problem” of all
ordinary life. The “problem” is the childish, and (otherwise) rather adolescent,
egoism that is the basis of all forms of ordinary existence.
Yet un-Enlightened (or, otherwise, not yet
Most Perfectly Enlightened) people
are ego-possessed. Therefore, egoity is the “disease” that all the true
Spiritual Masters of religion come here to cure. Unfortunately, those who are
merely fascinated by Spiritual Masters are, typically, those who make (or, at
least, transform) the institutions of the religion and the Spirituality of their
Spiritual Masters. And true practitioners of religion and Spirituality are very
hard to find, or develop. Therefore, religious and Spiritual institutions tend
to develop along lines that serve, accommodate, and represent the common
egoity—and this is why the esoteric true Teachings of true Spiritual Masters
tend to be bypassed, and even suppressed, in the drive to develop the exoteric
cult of any particular Spiritual Master.
The relationship to Me that is Described (by Me) in My Wisdom-Teaching is not an
exoteric cultic matter. It is a profound esoteric discipline, necessarily
associated with real and serious and mature (ego-surrendering, ego-forgetting,
ego-transcending, and Divine-Guru-Oriented) practice of the “radical” Way (or
root-Process) of Realizing Real (Acausal) God (Which Is Reality and Truth).
Therefore, I am critical of the ego-based (or self-saving, and self-“guruing”)
practices of childish, and (otherwise) adolescent, and (altogether) merely
exoteric cultism.
The common religious or Spiritual cult is based on the tendency to resist the
disciplines of real (and really counter-egoic) practice, and to opt for mere
fascination with extraordinary (or even imaginary) phenomena (which are,
invariably, not understood in Truth and in Reality). Apart from the often petty
demand for the observation of conventional rules (generally, relative to social
morality, or merely social religion), the cult of religious and Spiritual
fascination tends to become righteously associated with no practice—that is,
with the even official expectation that there be no real (or truly right, and
full) practice of religious and Spiritual disciplines (especially of religious,
Spiritual, and meditative disciplines of an esoteric kind). Just so, the cult of
religious and Spiritual fascination tends to be equally righteous about
maintaining fascinated faith (or indiscriminate, and even aggressive, belief) in
the merely Parent-like “Divine” Status of one or another historical individual,
“God”-idea, religious or Spiritual doctrine, inherited tradition, or force of
cosmic Nature.
Religious and Spiritual cultism is, thus, a kind of infantile collective
madness. (And such madness is equally shared by secular cultists, in every area
of popular culture—including politics, the sciences, the arts, the
communications media, and even all the agencies and institutions of conventional
“officialdom” relative to human knowledge, belief, and behavior.) Religious and
Spiritual cults (and, likewise, all secular cults) breed “pharisaism” (or the
petty righteousness of conventional thinking).
Religious and Spiritual cults
breed “Substitution” myths (or the belief that personal ego-transcendence is,
both generally and ultimately, impossible—but also unnecessary, because of what
“God”, or some “Master”, or even some “priest” has already done). Indeed,
religious and Spiritual cults (and, likewise, all secular cults) breed even
every kind of intolerance, and the chronic aggressive search for exclusive
social dominance and secular power. Religious and Spiritual cults are,
characteristically, populated by those who are, generally, neither inclined
toward nor prepared for the real right practice of religious and Spiritual
discipline, but who are (and always seek to be) glamorized and consoled by mere
association with the “holy” things and beliefs of the cult itself.
This error of religious and Spiritual cultism, and of ego-based culture in
general, must be examined very seriously—such that the error is truly rooted
out, from within the cult and the culture itself (and not merely, and with
equally cultic cultural righteousness, criticized from without). Cultism of
every kind (both sacred and secular) must be understood to be a kind of
ritualized infantilism—bound to egocentric behavior, and to the embrace of
“insiders” only, and to intolerance relative to all “outsiders”. The cultic
tendency, both sacred and secular, causes (and has always caused) great social,
cultural, and political trouble—as has been seen, in this “late-time” (or “dark”
epoch), in the development of worldwide conflicts based on the exclusive (or
collectively egocentric) orientation of the many grossly competitive religious
traditions, political idealisms, and national identities.
All cults, whether sacred or secular, thrive on indulgence in the psychology
(and the emotional rituals) of hope, rather than on actual demonstration of
counter-egoic and really ego-transcending action. Therefore, when all egos meet,
they strive and compete for the ultimate fulfillment of searches and desires,
rather than cooperate with Truth, Reality, or Real (Acausal) God, and in a
culturally valued and rewarded mood of fearless tolerance and sane equanimity.
Clearly, this cultic tendency in religion and Spirituality, and the egoic (and,
thus, cultic) tendency in life in general, must become the constant subject of
fundamental human understanding—and all of humankind must constantly be put to
“school”, to unlearn the method of egocentrism, non-cooperation, intolerance,
and dis-ease.