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THE REMEDY

The essence—indeed, a distillation—of human wisdom is preserved in the sacred scriptures of the various cultures. When we eliminate the masses of commentary and interpretation that make up the bulk of these writings, there is a radical reduction of conflict both within and between the several major bodies of religious thought.

Each of the broadly-held faiths of mankind has a core of crystal-clear common sanity. And invariably, this central theme is expressed in a code by which people may live together in fruitful dignity and undisrupted decency. For the majority of widely-held religions, the clearest and least diluted expression of basic principles is contained in direct quotations ascribed to a great focal Personality. Predominantly (and logically) the founder, or central Personality is regarded as Ultimate Authority within the framework of the given faith, with his own statements of the code superseding all secondary and derived opinions concerning it.

It is immediately apparent to the serious student of the problem that our social-technical dilemma could be resolved if everyone faithfully applied and exemplified the simple basic teachings of any single major religion. For men to follow fully the direct personal instructions of any one of the Master Teachers is the whole—perhaps the only—solution to today's problems.

In recapturing and recovering these teachings, one is constantly struck by the internal coherence, the complete self-consistency, each of them exhibits. But it is almost staggering to discover the consonance between them, separate as were their origins in time and distance. The formulae they offer are so similar as to seem synonymous. Their stipulations are in the broadest agreement with one another; and there is startlingly frequent identity of language and detail.

This breath-taking harmony among the universally acknowledged Master-Thinkers provides the real and practical resolution of the atomic impasse. Because humanity's Wisest and Best all say substantially the same thing, the acceptability and rightness of the recommended course is itself enormously enhanced. To the devotee of any one of them, his own faith is strengthened and confirmed by such single-voiced corroboration of its basic tenets. Adherents of any religion can welcome and endorse acceptance by other people even of dissimilar beliefs, knowing they are consonant with their own. All of us can feel free to encourage real devotion to any major faith, when the conduct resulting from sincere, intelligent application of each will tend to the same goal of peace and productivity for everyone. Thus, the deadly restrictive and coercive elements of each system of worship wither away under the same creative influences that dissolve the irritants, frictions and animosities between them. The path away from danger leads also toward that harmony with our fellow-creatures so specifically enjoined on us by humanity's handful of Saints, each of whom categorically forbade divisiveness and conflict.

If those accepted as supreme and final moral and spiritual authority by virtually every person on earth, past and present, are in agreement on every aspect of a formula for social conduct and personal behavior; and if we can ascertain that formula in its simplest, most authentic form, then general adoption ought to follow disclosure almost automatically. All human thought would commence to converge on a common ground endorsed by the best minds humanity has ever produced. Human conduct, stimulated by our rededication to the highest principles known, in their simplest, most direct form, would surge in concert toward perpetual security from the sort of threat we now face. The cumulative effect of this fundamental unity of purpose and outlook would yield the sense of peace and productiveness we all basically crave. By the very nature of the code itself, all would be accomplished without our being driven or dominated. Yet, all we now have, and abundantly more, would be provided through voluntary co-operation by utterly independent, integrated individuals.

Not one of us need forsake his familiar and cherished creed. Entirely within an accustomed format, we have only, quietly and privately, to return to the basic and underlying truths of teachings known and acceptable to us. We need only refurbish our faith, and gradually, gently modify our conduct toward one another in the light of acknowledged great, good and beautiful values. As we literally re-created our beliefs, and ourselves, the world around would imperceptibly itself be rebuilt. And without dramatics or violence, a natural geometric progression would render the process swift and sure beyond belief.

This is a real and actual possibility by the word of these Masters themselves. If we cannot accept Their promise, then there is no one whose promise we can accept; and if They did not know, no-one can. They not only implied that conformity to Their tenets could be achieved by ordinary mortals, but stated so specifically. They not only prescribed the requisite conduct, but stipulated the inevitable and invariable result both for performance and for neglect of the prime principles. From the very language of the Teachings themselves, it is obvious that they were intended as specific and practical instructions, meant to be applied in ordinary, everyday life by plain, normal people, and are clear, definite and final. The mood of the material is the quiet imperative of definite directions for explicit application, stated in unmistakable terms. The record in which the teachings are embodied reports that the Teachers spoke by preference to average people of their times, illuminating and illustrating their remarks profusely with transparently understandable examples. To the extent one acknowledges Their superior wisdom and judgment, he admits Their ability to determine the ultimate practicality of Their strictures. If They believed their auditors could actually apply Their strictures, we must perforce believe so too. They quite evidently were confident that the common people They addressed, coming from every walk of life, could understand what was said without intermediary or intercession. This should reassure us as to the general understandability of those same words today.

One of the strongest and most reiterated points in the words of the Masters is that only voluntary application of these principles in fact and in deed by the individual himself has any use, meaning or validity. They seem to tell us over and over, in various ways, that lip-service or preaching to others without personal performance are worse than valueless; that they diminish and damage the potential of the creed, not only for one's self but for others, because they discourage honest acceptance and make a triviality of our greatest truths. Each of the creeds is alive with warnings against allowing their degradation by hypocrisy, or by being made a private preserve. Especially stringent are the strictures against any perversion which turns the creeds against their very own tenets, to produce precisely the conditions they deprecate; and to make them seem to validate the very acts and attitudes they most energetically forbid. Examples are: the use of force or violence of any sort; the assertion of superiority in any respect by one person over another, whether to lead or to dominate; or uses making psychological or monetary capital of them—directly or deviously.

Even sterner is the outright condemnation of any practice which attempts to secure adherence to the code by even the slightest violation of its own word or spirit. We may wisely suspect that adulterants or evasions designed to help "put it across" so weakens or contaminates the whole formula that it evaporates under the very attempt to administer it. It is most probable that such watering down and "adjustment to realities" introduces into the medicine the very virus that has already brought our whole society to death's door.

We have said that any one of these codes, or a reverent summation of them all, is the only possible prescription that can cure the essentially social sickness of Man. And we can easily learn, by reading them over, the salient necessities. What must be done, each and every one of us must do within himself. No one can do it for anyone else, nor in any way cause anyone else to do it for him. No one can be made to accept and act under these precepts, which would negate them, since the code can become anyone's at all, but only and alone by sincerely wanting it. And wanting it is the only way and the only requirement for securing its benefits.

It is interesting to note that even those who profess no formal faith can accept and apply these principles without compromising or abridging any intellectual position they may have taken. Even when we completely divest these teachings of any aura of magic or mysticism, they remain the time-tested and infinitely sane advice of the wisest and best minds man has ever known. They are real answers for a real world, because they embody the lucid, living truth.

They say that each of us must, among other things, avoid anger, tension, and strife; that we must not feel,—nor arouse in others,—fear, shame, or guilt; that we must become free of avidity, and anxiety; that we must never dominate, nor be dominated by, others. Their principles form a simple consistent pattern which is probably the only cure for the personal and group disorders that are becoming fatal to man.

Now, let us consider how the remedy may be applied.