Agni Yoga and
Maiteya Sangha.
What is Maitreya Sangha as a
philosophical concept? What is it related to?
Maitreya Sangha is a Brotherhood of men and women who
love beauty and knowledge and therefore love each other
because they are both beautiful and knowledgeable and
some of them are quite wise.
They love Art in the broader sense: Visual Art (Painting,
Design and Sculpture), Performing Art (Music, Theater and
Dance), Handicraft Art, anything which is beautiful
inside and/or outside. They love to sing and dance and
watch
beautiful singing and dancing, beautiful painting,
sculptures, folk art etc. Beauty is their oxygen, they
cannot live a day or even an hour without it.
Beauty gives them Love, it purifies them and makes them
open-minded and expands their consciousness to Higher
Truths. Purity gives them Wisdom and Inner Knowledge,
intuition or superconsciosness. It awakens their inner
voice, the
voice of their Heart. It awakens their conscience and
make them sensitive to the pains and joys of others. They
learn compassion from an early age. They cannot tolerate
injustice and therefore they are inborn fighters with the
evils of the
world, even if they are tender and physically weak. But
they are strong in spirit as they feed it constantly with
the energies of Cosmos which they do not waste carelessly
as most others do. They accumulate their energy by not
wasting
it on petty talk, petty thoughts and petty deeds. They
vaguely sense that they came not just in case but with a
Mission, to make the world a better place in their own
way.
They vaguely sense that they are not alone in the world,
yet most of their life they feel very lonely, like
Robinson on an uninhabited island. Their problem is that
they all scattered evenly on the face of Earth so that
their Rays of Love, Beauty
and Knowldge are spread more equitably among nations.
When they meet each other they feel enormous joy and
intimacy as if they knew each other for thousands of
years and very often it may be the case. However, they
cannot
always find common language or a suitable excuse to learn
each other better and later they suffer reproaching
themselves for faint-heartedness and shyness. They feel
they need unity but do not have enough strength or time
to seek it actively.
Epoch of Maitreya Sangha is the time when such people of
goodwill, of Love, Beauty and Knowledge will find each
other, will fall in love with each other and will become
like one. They will become one family, brothers and
sisters, and
will lead others to discover and embrace the sacred
principles of Love, Beauty and Knowledge too. They will
establish societies united by the same framework of
Ethics, Altruism and Culture and then will come to power
in many countries.
At that moment the world will become a Brotherhood, a
Federation or Confederation of free and open societies
which will overcome the limitations and inherent violence
of national statehood.
In terms of closeness to another philosophical system,
Maitreya Sangha path is essentially a petal of the Rose
of Agni Yoga, Living Ethics Teaching given to us by a
multitude of Messengers of Light but most recently
through Nicholas and
Helena Roerich, Helena Blavatskaya and Boris Abramov. But
it is also a petal of a larger Rose of Mahayana Buddhism
and ancient Kalachakra Teaching and is a sister to
Theosophy, Esoteric Christianity, Esoteric Judaism
(Kabbala), Baha'i
Ulla faith, Zoroastrism, Sikh Faith and a number of other
esoteric and exoteric paths of right hand. All Agni Yoga
does is removes the centuries-old dust from ancient
teachings, like the Teachings of Buddha and Christ and
re-emphasizes their
key principles forgotten in the mist of ages in a
language understandable to a modern man and woman.
Maitreya Sangha is a facet of diamond of Agni Yoga which
emphasizes the importance of unity of people of Goodwill
in order to defeat world's evils. It emphasizes the
practical ways through which such a unity can be built:
specific political, economic, social and cultural
measures that need to be taken.
Maitreya Sangha is Agni Yoga but also is the most
practical, down-to-earth part of it.
What is Agni Yoga? It is a supreme synthesis of all
highest yogas but Karma Yoga is an essential part of it.
Agni Yoga is the path of a conscious altruism, of balance
between self-improvement and service for the Common Good.
It is the most recent and at the same time is the most
ancient of all yogas. It is the ultimate shortcut to
knowing oneself and to highest worlds. It is the path of
all Messengers of Light, a common spiritual denominator
cutting across nations, centuries,
cultures and civilizations.
It is the most common path of the greatest of saints,
artists, military genia, scientists, philosophers,
composers, sculptors, statesmen, poets, authors and
dancers. Most of them did not call themselves Agni Yogis
or even Yogis but in reality they all were on that path
characterized by Beauty, Knowledge and Love which were
normally expressed through superhuman work, artistic,
military or political geniality, diverse talents, longing
for world unity, peace and justice, life of
self-sacrifice and compassion.
Is Maitreya Sangha a science, a philosophy, a religion or
an ideology?
It can be called either or neither depending on what is
meant by these terms. It is all a matter of definition.
If religion is apurely cultural phenomenon, set of
dogmas, rules and rites, Maitreya Sangha as a facet of
Agni Yoga is not a religion. If
religion is a true connection with God (from lat.
religare), then AY is a religion as any other yoga. It is
not a philosophy per se as it is very practical, ethical
teaching of daily life. It has its own set of beliefs and
principles. It is a path of selfless
altruistic service for Common Good, its main goal is
building a world without frontiers, a universal family of
humankind which can be politically expressed as a loose
Federation or Confederation. It can be called ideology as
it is based on
quite specific and powerful ideas but it is free of moral
and ethical flaws that each known ideology entails.
Maitreya Sangha as a facet of Agni Yoga is the one of the
most ethical and moral ideologies, one of the most
practical, flexible and open-minded religions, and one of
the most sophisticated, concrete and clearest
philosophies. It is scientific
in its nature, religious in its method, profound in its
philosophy and practical in its ideology.
Therefore, Maitreya Sangha as a facet of Agni Yoga is not
a religion, a philosophy, a science or an ideology taken
separately but their fiery synthesis. It shares features
of them all, as a system of universal knowledge and
virtuous
practice, but is a unique, a sui generis phenomenon. It
can be called modern secular spirituality and as such is
an heir to the ancient and medieval systems of secular
spirituality.
How can I contribute to the Cause of World Brotherhood?
Apply the principles of Beauty, Love and Knowledge to
your daily life, be beautiful inside and outside, emanate
love everywhere, with everything and everyone, try to
know as much as possible, be open to new information and
ideas.
After you have mastered these principles for yourself and
feel strong enough, go and share what you have learned
with your brothers and sisters. Save yourself and
thousands around you will be saved. BUT: remember about
the sacrifice of
Boddhisattva who renounces nirvana and stays with the
world to help others. Self-improvement by itself has
litlle value if it is not sought for the sake of others.
A better instrument to serve - this is the key principle
of self-perfection.
Practical application of these principles will make the
dream of World Brotherhood, le monde sans frontieres, a
reality since you will not differentiate people by race,
nationality, religion, gender or age but only by their
virtues. All virtuous people by definition will be
brothers and sisters. This will have to be reflected in a
political, legal and economic framework.Of course, this
will be a very long-term process. But only a gradual
improvement of human beings and their
relations can achieve it.
Any attempts to accelerate this process by forceful means
are doomed to failure. Alexander the Great, Chingiz-Khan,
Tamerlane, Napoleon, Lenin and many others -- all of them
tried in good faith but failed. History is a natural
process
based on objective laws of physics just like Newton's
laws. One has to respect them just like one respects the
law of gravitation and does not attempt to challenge it.
However, there is a shortcut to World Brotherhood short
of revolutions, wars and dictatorships: ART which is
embodiment of Beauty and CULTURE which is a synthesis of
Love, Beauty and Knowledge.
Language of Art in the broader sense is universal, it
ignores any national boundaries. Language of Culture is
also universal and is spoken heart to heart in avoidance
of cold, analyzing and dividing intellect. Let us speak
more of these
languages and less of the language of politics which is
in most cases divisive. Speaking language of business
will not lead to Brotherhood per se but it will help
create material foundations for speaking higher idioms.
Let us therefore be firmly in
the soil of Earth with both our feet and let us breeth a
rejuvenating and inspiring air of Art and Culture with
any opportunity.
Pax Cultura means Peace through Culture or else
Brotherhood through Culture: through Beauty, Knowledge
and Love. Only individuals who integrate in their
personality these three principles could be in power for
the World Brotherhood to
take place:
1. Who are so pure and ethical that they emanate inner
and outer Light and Beauty.
2. Who are so wise and knowledgeable that they can
resolve any differences and issues
3. Who are so selfless and altruistic that they will
never hesitate to sacrifice their lives for the sake of
others, of Common Good and who share everything they have
with those who need and deserve it - these Titans of
Heart are a permanent source of Love and Joy shining like
the Sun and warming everything and everyone around. Only
if these individuals assume ethical control over
governments worldwide, can there be a permanent peace and
justice on Earth. Ethics should again become a
cornerstone of our life, Heros should again become idols
for the young, and
ethical, wise and altruist leaders should be able to come
to power peacefully through democratic means.
India has shown a great example worth imitation
everywhere: Mahatma Gandhi was brought to supreme power
from nowhere only because he fully synthesized Love,
Beauty and Knowledge and became a living god in his
lifetime. Sergiy
of Radonezh achieved the same divine synthesis but
preferred life of a monk to the crown of Patriarch. When
such righteous rulers as Solomon and Akbar the Great are
in power, the country is prospering, the culture is
blossoming and
the people rejoice.
Let there be more Akbars, Gandhis, Solomons and Sergiys.
Let them come back. Let the Rose of the World blossom and
let Maitreya Sangha become a reality on Earth.
Link to their site.
http://sangha.net/FAQs.htm
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