Hortus Conclusus

Man on earth is the precondition for the origin and existence of earthly religions, but these are by no means conditional for the earthly existence of man! This sentence is not only based upon the famous passage in the Gospels about the Jewish Sabbath, but also, quite independently of it, is a self-evident assertion beyond contention by any rational person. And yet there are religious zealots in abundance who, contrary to all logic, would most like to reverse this self-evident statement. They can be found in every religion, if not nearly as numerous as in those religious groups which refer to the teachings of the Exalted One who described so clearly the Sabbath, and with it all religious conventions and regulations, as a purely human matter: ‘for the sake of man’. – Yet wherever the followers of a form of religion forget the incontrovertible truth of this sentence, the danger for this particular form of religion will come with the threat that what is ‘religion’ in it will be lost and for it to petrify into mere form with no other purpose than to maintain its sterile existence for its own sake, for the advantage of its servants, yet to the cost of its followers. Instead of preserving the religion for the best for man, and in the service of man, the form becomes empty, and its void, like a vacuum, mercilessly sucks man, who should be its master through the content he created himself, into it. – For this situation one certainly does not need to seek on earth, for it is currently found everywhere!

  Yet every form of religion which does not want to become an empty form must take care that it does not become ‘tolerant’; for it exists only through its intolerance by excluding all other religious forms. And each form of religion is regarded by its followers as being the ‘only one bringing blessedness’, even if in its profession no mention is made of this conviction. The claim arises automatically, since every sincere follower of a form of religion wants to see his temporal behaviour justified, and his eternal salvation established; therefore, he will certainly not prefer any form of religion of which he is not firmly convinced that it deserves to be preferred above all others, because it alone seems to him to be the guide to blessedness. The more tolerantly a religion behaves, the less capable it will be of looking after religion, – the greater the risk it will run of becoming an empty form, even if, in name, it maintains the appearance of ‘religion’.

  However, the tolerance every form of religion needs for its survival is only a good thing within its own sphere! – Every paterfamilias justifiably fulfils his duty by being intolerant towards everything threatening the survival of the household entrusted to him. In the same way those responsible for the survival of a form of religion are justified and required by duty to be intolerant within the form of their religion towards everything threatening the form of religion they are entrusted to protect. But beyond this, beyond the original and individual sphere of their religious form, no right and no duty to be intolerant exists! – Only when the rights and duties of others within the spheres of the religious forms entrusted to them continue to be conscientiously observed and scrupulously inviolate, are those reciprocal relationships worthy of man possible between the various forms of religion which within their own spheres mutually exclude each other with justified intolerance; these relationships remain absolutely vital for the healthy thriving of every single religion! Every expansion of that intolerance necessary within its own sphere for its own survival which goes beyond the borders of its own sphere is an interference of other forms of religion and only adds to the ignorance and hostility towards all that is religious in this age, already a thousand times provoked, which has become indeed indifferent and tired of religion. This age is already used to equating religion with the ‘history of religion’, where for all who know it, is exposed along chain of accounts detailing unjustified attacks by intolerance which would have been justified internally, upon the religious spheres of groups of people believing in different things, of the sort that even the worst hostility to religion could not have forged in a more terrifying fashion.

  Above all one must consider that religion in all its forms is without exception a make shift to man on earth which the eternal soul in certain individuals in concern for their fellows, lovingly created, so that those who were not able to find  themselves would have a good path ‘signposted’ which would surely lead to the eternal! It is foolish to argue about which of these paths is less of a ‘way round’; all are ways round because otherwise they would be too steep and perilous for those souls for whose sake they were made by knowledgeable road builders. But I have not come to build a new ‘way round’! Instead, I show the direct ascent into the eternal light which,  however, can only be climbed by souls who can release enough power within themselves to be able to safely leap across abysses which others are taught – on the path taken by a form of religion – to walk around… I am not here to write an apologia for one particular form of religion, or for many at the same time, although I could assuredly do so with greater certainty than the professional apologists for religions. I must refer those attached to a religion, to the paths of their religious form; I must try to find those lost who sought to climb their own path to the light but ‘went astray’ in their efforts. I must also help those who once walked on a well-marked path of a religious form until they lost confidence, for one reason or another, in their beaten track, and sought to walk upon another path right across the wilderness of scepticism without making any progress. But I will certainly not stand in the way of those, even if I cross their paths occasionally, who, content and certain in their cause, walk on the safe and sign-posted paths of their form of religion. I can only tell them again and again, as they reach what are for them incomprehensible yet necessary turns in the path, the direction of the final goal of their path. I can bring them spiritual power with which they can most effectively nourish the weakened powers of their souls so that they can at least persist upon the road they have taken until their souls are finally released from this earth.

  It is utterly removed from my intention to found ‘a new religion’, just as it is far from my intention to dedicate any other service to existing forms of religion, than the help allocated to them by the eternal spirit in accord with the extent of their treasury of lasting values. This help – where it is needed – does not need to be requested nor does it expect thanks; no human will could bring it about.