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Anarchists and The Golden Age- Extract One: The Path of The Masters
by Katherine Frisk, ThePhaser.com:
Introduction:
Over the coming weeks I will be posting extracts from: The Path of the Masters. by Dr. John Johnson and on the odd occasion putting in my two cents worth.
Most of what is written in this book was taught to me by my grandmother over a period of time between the ages of ten and sixteen years old. 45 years later I finally stumbled on the source of her teachings, found here in The Path Of The Masters published in 1939. These teachings have been a guide to me almost my entire life. Finding the source was a great relief and a blessing.
As with discovered treasure, some things remain valuable, others were only valuable in their time. The world and our knowledge of it has moved on, ever growing, discovering and re-discovering itself.
Then as now, there were and are still aspects of it that I do not agree with and would like to make clear right from the start. One of which is the central theme of Johnson’s work, the concept of a “Master.” Whether it is the actual term used which implies slavery to me, or my misinterpretation of Johnson, I will leave for you to decide for yourself.
“Friend,””guide,” “co-worker” rings more true in my ears. When we first learn how to drive a car, we need an instructor, somebody to teach us the gears. However, once we have learnt how to drive we do not sit with that person in our vehicle for the rest of our lives. We move on to independence and self reliance. So I believe it is with any “Master,” who has ever or will ever walk the earth. Once they have left, their teachings remain, but they have moved on to other adventures and it is for us to get on with the business of exploring the road.
In all things, exercise your own discernment. There is no shame in later saying, I was wrong. I misjudged. Maybe I have. Maybe I have not. But this is a decision you need to make on your own. No matter what that decision is, there is an absolute treasure trove of information here, which I will share, including some of my own insights.
Dr. Johnson was a man of many parts, and besides being a distinguished surgeon, was also an artist, scholar, pilot, an ordained minister of the church, and had been in India before, as a Baptist missionary. He could not, however, rest satisfied with orthodox religion and church dogmas. His soul longed for truth and firsthand experience. The Path of The Masters is the result.
Anarchists and The Golden Age- Extract One: The Path of The Masters:
[Editor’s note: Jeremiah 31: 33- 34
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.]
Civilization and governments have changed from age to age, in each age taking shape to correspond with the inner development of its citizens. Not only do the saints teach that there was a Golden Age from which the human race has descended, but they point out the more important fact that such descent has been marked by a gradual degeneration ‘of mankind from their pristine glory; also, that this degeneration has resulted in ‘establishing different sorts of governments and totally different social orders. The Mahabharat says:
At first there was neither state nor ruler; neither punishment, nor anybody to ‘administer it. The people used to protect one another by or through innate righteousness [dharma] and a lively sense of justice. Santi LIX:14
[Editor’s note: many scholars such as John Anthony West and Graham Hancock have flown in the face of accepted acedemia, and bodly stated that the world is far older and civilizations far more evolved than ours have already come and gone. The simplistic Adam and Eve story and Darwinism in it’s limited framework cannot and does not explain our history. An understanding of Dr. Johnson work, even if you do not agree with it in whole or in part, makes evident that our salvation rests with us, it is our responsibility, even though he advocates the concept of “Master.” As the ages have come and gone so have we degenerated ourselves also. It is for us, as individuals, to pick up our cross and walk with it to our own salvation without expecting “Aliens”or divine intervention. We have through our own actions and through a long process, degenerated ourselves. We must now take responsibility and drag ourselves out of the mud, face the sun and prepare for spring.]
It is a fact which must sooner or later be acknowledged that kings, rulers, courts, judges, priests, policemen, lawyers and regal punishments are all marks of racial degeneration and not indices of a high degree of civilization, as many fondly believe. We would much like to discuss this subject more fully, but this is a statement of Sant Mat and not a treatise on education and government.
All the sacred literature of ancient India teaches that kings, states and civil laws came about because of the degeneracy of mankind. Of course, this is a new idea to the West. But the West may do well to ponder over it. As evil tendencies became more and more manifest in society, some regulations had to be adopted to protect society.
Then a system of laws was worked out to suit the conditions. Manu became the great lawgiver for India as Moses was for the Jews. Laws were made suitable to the people and the times. A .definite code of conduct was established, a sort of constitutional law. In Manu Samhita (VII:14-32), the code is set forth as the concrete will of God, the foundation and support of society. It is the cornerstone, the pillar of the state.
It is an old trick of priests and kings to teach the mob that whatever they give out is the will of God. It makes a better impression. A moral code serves the will of God by restraining the evil tendencies of men, protecting the weak, and to some extent developing the higher impulses by inculcating higher ideals. It then aids all well-disposed people to establish a wholesome self-regulation in their own lives. If a state or an individual is governed by this fundamental code or law of life, it must follow the divine law.
The most successful stroke of statesmen was to make the people accept their laws as identical with the divine law. If a state is once established upon the supreme law, it is in a position to carry out the will of the Supreme. This was really the underlying principle upon which kings used to claim their ‘divine rights’. But that was a misuse of the whole idea of a law of life. The real code could be .only a righteous law. The real code had in view just as much the divine rights of the people as it had the divine rights of kings. Over this bar of divine rights even the king could not trespass.
We cannot fail to make note of the fact that as the human race entered upon its decline in civilized standards, there was a transfer of the center of government from within man to enacted statutes- in other words, from moral.standards deeply embedded in the inner consciousness of the people to laws written in books. When the time came that the fundamental law of life was no ‘longer in the hearts of the people but in books, then the decline of civiliiation had already set in. When the time comes, if it ever does, when fundamental law will again become established in the public conscience, enacted statutes with courts, judges and prisons will pass away as useless adjuncts of a more sane government.
The division du travail of which Durkheim speaks is a commonwealth in which every citizen shares in the general responsibilities and rewards of good government. And this is the only stable, as well as the only just, government-be that government either monarchy or democracy.This was the sort of government Manu had in mind, as well as Plato . But their ideas found a different expression in different times and among different peoples. It may be said also to embody the highest ideals not only of Plato and Manu, but of Moses, of Karl Marx and of Eugene Debs. Modern socialism is only a phase of the old, old struggle toward the realization of a civilized government. We believe that when this long struggle, worn on to its final conclusion, has reached its . ultimate solution, society Will finish up just where it began in the Golden Age-with no government at all, except that which has its fundamental code in the hearts of the people.
Most modern writers fail to call attention to the gradual change in governments and social orders due to the progressive degeneracy of mankind. They keep thinking too much of our ascent from the jungle beast. And they are right as far as they can see. But there was a period of descent, long ages of descent, before the comparatively modern era of ascent began. That earlier period the evolutionist cannot see, for he has not sufficient data at hand. It is only the great Masters who are familiar with that period. .When the Golden Age had long passed, and the Silver Age also, the Copper Age witnessed many degenerative changes. Kings and priests and manifold weaknesses made their appearance. Slowly then came the Iron Age, marking the lowest ebb in individual and social degeneration. It was during that period that modern laws, governments and social regulations began to appear.
The anarchist is quite correct in theory. But for anarchy to prevail with social equilibrium, it would be necessary for the whole race to become ideal citizens, individually governed by the fundamental law. Their self-regulation must come from a pure heart and an all-embracing love. Unfortunately, that condition -does not now prevail. But it will prevail, if ever the time comes when all men, having first deeply fixed the Great Law in their hearts, shall set out upon the path of the Masters. Shall we dare hope for that?
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Anarchists and The Golden Age- Extract One: The Path of The Masters
