The reader may remember me making in the course of this book numerous negative references to the rather offensive and obnoxious term new age. There is a general consensus of ignorance that new age is a Western invention, which is only partially corresponding to reality, to the extent that all modern new age movements bear the indelible stamp of Western adaptation on them, and are indeed predominantly located in the West, with America undeniably in the lead on this account. However, the true origin of new age thinking boasts of a distinctively Russian parentage. Rooted in Mme Blavatsky’s (who was, of course, an adventurous Russian noblewoman) theosophy, as elaborated by the legendary Russian couple of Nikolai Konstantinovich Roerich and Helena Ivanovna Roerich, it received the name Living Ethics, also known as Agni Yoga. It is a spiritual teaching, claiming mystical origins, but its essence is rendered in the following ten principles.---
---Our Universe is governed by Cosmic Laws, and man is the most powerful implementer of these laws, being a part of the cosmic energy, a part of the cosmic intellect.
---The principal task of the evolution is the spiritualization of matter through the refinement of its energy. Man affects the cosmic evolution by means of the energy of his spirit.
---Man’s cosmic effect is determined by the moral motivation of his activity. It can be positive, creative, but it can also be negative, destructive, anti-cultural.
---Culture is the life-saving self-organizing system of the Spirit. Culture produces Love and Beauty seen as the underpinnings of the evolution. Lacking either, evolution stops, and involution begins.
---The Teacher-Student principle, known since ancient times, is here expanded to become the cosmic principle of instruction and learning, the basic instrument of the evolution.
---Recognizing the immense role of religion in the history of mankind, Living Ethics sees an expanding role of science in the process of cosmic evolution, and empowers it with vastly increased responsibilities in psychic and spiritual matters.
---The greatest task of the evolution in its current stage is a transition from conflict and disunity to agreement, unity and cooperation.
---The Living Ethics calls the coming era The Epoch of the Woman. The woman must apprehend her cosmic purpose, rise to equal rights in society, and bring in with her the cosmic concept of love and harmony.
---The basic tools of self-perfection are education and labor. Man must purify his thinking, elevate himself through art appreciation, and let his heart strive toward the light.
---The Living Ethics rejects any missionary activity. Her doors are wide open, but all who are willing to enter must do it on their own.
Such are the ten principles of the Living Ethics, and we shall leave them at that, as just another example of wishful thinking, full of grand words and going nowhere. Remarkably, the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church toward the Roerich spiritual teaching stops short of anathemizing its areligious substance. There is no need for that, according to the Church Fathers, as the Living Ethics lies outside the religious boundaries. Metropolitan Cyril, before he became the current Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Cyril I stated this opinion as follows: “No, nobody anathemized them. They cannot even be anathemized, being outside the Church, not being Christians. Just as you cannot anathemize an atheist, or a theosophist. These are all outside the Church.” Needless to say, the Russian Church does not consider itself in competition with any wishful thinkers. It sees itself as the only real thing, and the time has finally come when it can prove to the Russian people and to the world whether this is in fact so.
---Our Universe is governed by Cosmic Laws, and man is the most powerful implementer of these laws, being a part of the cosmic energy, a part of the cosmic intellect.
---The principal task of the evolution is the spiritualization of matter through the refinement of its energy. Man affects the cosmic evolution by means of the energy of his spirit.
---Man’s cosmic effect is determined by the moral motivation of his activity. It can be positive, creative, but it can also be negative, destructive, anti-cultural.
---Culture is the life-saving self-organizing system of the Spirit. Culture produces Love and Beauty seen as the underpinnings of the evolution. Lacking either, evolution stops, and involution begins.
---The Teacher-Student principle, known since ancient times, is here expanded to become the cosmic principle of instruction and learning, the basic instrument of the evolution.
---Recognizing the immense role of religion in the history of mankind, Living Ethics sees an expanding role of science in the process of cosmic evolution, and empowers it with vastly increased responsibilities in psychic and spiritual matters.
---The greatest task of the evolution in its current stage is a transition from conflict and disunity to agreement, unity and cooperation.
---The Living Ethics calls the coming era The Epoch of the Woman. The woman must apprehend her cosmic purpose, rise to equal rights in society, and bring in with her the cosmic concept of love and harmony.
---The basic tools of self-perfection are education and labor. Man must purify his thinking, elevate himself through art appreciation, and let his heart strive toward the light.
---The Living Ethics rejects any missionary activity. Her doors are wide open, but all who are willing to enter must do it on their own.
Such are the ten principles of the Living Ethics, and we shall leave them at that, as just another example of wishful thinking, full of grand words and going nowhere. Remarkably, the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church toward the Roerich spiritual teaching stops short of anathemizing its areligious substance. There is no need for that, according to the Church Fathers, as the Living Ethics lies outside the religious boundaries. Metropolitan Cyril, before he became the current Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Cyril I stated this opinion as follows: “No, nobody anathemized them. They cannot even be anathemized, being outside the Church, not being Christians. Just as you cannot anathemize an atheist, or a theosophist. These are all outside the Church.” Needless to say, the Russian Church does not consider itself in competition with any wishful thinkers. It sees itself as the only real thing, and the time has finally come when it can prove to the Russian people and to the world whether this is in fact so.
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