5. What Religious Associations Should Do

The Meaning of Our Lives / 5. What Religious Associations Should Do

5. What Religious Associations Should Do

5:1. Ritual forms of religious practice can be well used by beginners. But one should understand that rituals are useful only for helping people remember about God’s existence. Participating in ceremonies — whatever they are called or whatever value people assign to them — cannot by itself solve the problem of realization of our purpose of life.

5:2. Activities of religious associations should not be limited just to performing rites. It is necessary to explain people what God is, tell them about the meaning of their lives and the way of its realization. Great focus should be on ethical work involving discussions on ethical principles, practice of conscious and sincere repentance, and collective analysis of ethical problems — using specific examples from life, books, newspapers, films, and other sources.

Aesthetics, including attunement to the subtlest manifestations of living nature and to certain works of art, can be extremely helpful. Sublime and inspiring beauty of human body may also play an important part in this work.

The spiritual work will be much more effective when complemented by lessons on ecology, sport training, lectures, and discussions about healthy lifestyle, as well as mastering healing and self-healing methods.

The methods of psychic self-regulation should be taught with the emphasis on mastering functions of the spiritual heart.

5:3. Serious meditative techniques must not be taught to children and ethically and intellectually immature adults, especially the methods related to the power aspect of development of consciousness. Breaking this rule can lead to serious mental disorders, which stop positive evolution of a given soul.

Initiations to spiritual knowledge should be done strictly on a step-by-step basis — new stages should be given only after disciples have mastered the previous ones.