September 2006

  Adapted from an interlodge symposium on “Universal Brotherhood and the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy”  held on June 10, 2006:

                   PART 3  (continued)
THE UNIVERSAL PROCESS OF EVOLUTION

   The idea of the perfectibility of the human being through evolution is found in many traditions around the world.  The basic idea is that the soul is here to make progress and to achieve perfection.

   Here we are, in the “Oriental Room” of this incredible Masonic Temple, so we thought we would start with a quote from Freemasonry.   “Freemasonry is an organization composed of free men united in the same conviction that man is perfectible and can, if he so wishes, improve the fate of humanity by the personal practice of an ideal of goodness, beauty, dialogue and solidarity.”

   The Muslims championed the belief in the beginning that man is perfectible by will and were tolerant to those who did not hold their views, with the assumption that someone who did not hold the view of perfectibility would, by degrees, by lives, become aware.  “Those who doubt immortality are dead and they do not know when they will be born again.”  From the Sufis:  “When the souls are nevertheless in a state of improvement, then in an ascending way, they migrate from body to body, each purer than the former one until the time of climbing up the steps of the wished-for perfection of mankind.  And, from Rumi:  “Once more I shall die as a man to soar with angels blessed, but even from angel- hood I must pass on.” 

   This is a Theosophical teaching; there is no end to the possibilities, no end to perfection.  All achievements are temporary stages.

   In Egypt we find:  “In the terrestrial abode, the sacred tribe of heroes is a colony from the gods, and humans that make the effort are changed into holy powers and become part of this colony of gods.”  In Zoroastrianism:  “Zarathustra does not believe in an original sin which cannot be conquered by man’s own exertions.”  In Christianity:  Thomas Aquinas states that “perfection presupposes perfectibility.”  In other words, you can’t have the results without having the possibility.  And Matthew says:  “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  If that were not a possibility, such a teaching is cruel.

   Protestants say that if one follows Christ’s teachings, one can become what Jesus was. “He only came to show men how to live because man is perfectible, possessing a spark of divinity.”  In Revelations:  “To him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go out no more.”  The implication is that if we have not overcome, we keep “going out” until we  do overcome.  It is a statement of human perfectibility and reincarnation.

   Regarding the theory of metempsychosis, the Catholic Encyclopedia states:  “It was held in a Platonic form by the Gnostics and was taught by Origen in his great work.  Several causes work together to produce metempsychosis.  The universal conviction that the soul is a real entity, distinct from the body, and that it survives the death of the body, and connected with this the moral demand for an equitable future retribution of rewards.”  Origen states:  “Every soul comes into the world strengthened by the victories or weakened by the defeats of its previous life.  Its place in this world, as a vessel appointed to honor or dishonor, is determined by its previous merits or demerits.  Its work in this world determines its place in the world which is to follow.”

   Perfectibility is recognized and taught as a concept in many religions and philosophies. But we would like to end with this statement from the Zohar.  “The souls must reenter the absolute substance from whence they have emerged.  But to accomplish this, they must develop all the perfections, the germ of which is planted in them; and if they have not fulfilled this condition during one life, they must commence another, a third, and so forth, until they have acquired the condition which fits them for reunion with God.”  In other words, they have acquired perfection.

QUESTION:  Is egotism an obstacle to physical, mental and spiritual evolution?

   Is a textbook or a workbook an obstacle to knowledge?  No for they are the exercise you work on to understand whatever it is you want to learn.  The personal ego is our workroom, our classroom, the way we learn through experience.  Once we realize that we are spiritual beings and take control of our personal nature, it is no longer the pre-dominating factor and the soul can use it, can transmute it.

   In each life, we have a different personality, and those personalities are evanescent.  Egotism comes because the personality is only interested in this particular life.  What we need to do is look within through study, through quieting the mind, through meditation, in order to understand that we are the permanent Individuality using that personality.

  FURTHER QUOTES ON PERFECTIBILITY

... at the outset Theosophy postulates this perfectibility of the race, removes the idea of innate unregenerable wickedness, and offers a purpose and an aim for life which is consonant with the longings of the soul and with its real nature...   William Q. Judge

This doctrine of the perfectibility of man is easily comprehended by some men, but is extremely difficult for others -- due to centuries of dissemination of the degrading and infamous doctrine that man is originally sinful, basically defective, inherently imperfect. If it may be said of man, the microcosm of the Universe,   it may also be said of the Universe, the macrocosm: This universe is originally sinful, is inherently imperfect, ... damned from the beginning -- all the rest is merely carrying that sentence into execution. Yet no one would think of maligning the universe in this manner, even materialistic scientists have more respect than that for the mysteries  of  Nature. 
    Magazine Theosaphy 44, page 516

"Amongst thousands of mortals a single one perhaps strives for perfection." So, among the many who may be interested in Theosophy -- the philosophy of the perfectibility of Man -- here and there will be one who may wake up. Therein lies the hope. And even those who are interested enough merely to listen or to read with attention, will get something in the way of a trend that may some day develop.      Robert Crosbie

     “Theosophical Independence” is produced monthly by Associates of The United Lodge of Theosophists in Philadelphia.  Comments, questions and contributions for publication may be sent to The United Lodge of Theosophists, 1917 Walnut Street, 
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