PRINCIPLES

• Duty is God. Work is Worship.
• The regular work one does, day in and day out, is worship. What is ordinarily thought of as worship -- singing, speaking, ruminating in a Sanctuary -- is not more important for spiritual well-being than the regular vocation is. There are circumstances in which it is less important than the vocation.
• Everything is sacred. Each moment is divine. Put this principle into practice and life will become a constant joy, the common things splendorous receptacles.
• A Sanctuary confers upon creation the boons of Silence and Prayer.
• Silence and prayer are the chief service spiritual aspirants perform for their fellow beings, human, animal, fish, plant and mineral. Spiritual aspirants are ceaselessly engaged in conferring these boons upon one and all.
• Service is spontaneous and uncompensated. Reaching for the fruits of one's labors is an act of ego.
• Silence is the essence of existence, the Summum Bonum. It is the Goal of Life. When the mind is still, the world is at Peace.
• Prayer is not for someone. You do not know even yourself. How can you pray for an other? Prayer for someone is conjuring, white or black, 1 not prayer.
• Prayer is being in the Presence of the Source, the Supreme Person, the God.
• God is not only a Christian. He is also a Jew, a Buddhist, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Sikh, and more.

THE SANCTUARY

The Sanctuary should be open always, on all days.

There are several main types of Sanctuaries. Even within one religion there are several such. The architectural characteristics of each main type of Sanctuary reflect significant sadhanas (spiritual disciplines).

In a sizable community, such as a city, one of each of the main types of Sanctuary should be used by aspirants. The efflorescence of sadhanas (spiritual disciplines), as reflected in the various main types of Sanctuary, is wholesome and should be preserved and encouraged.

On the other hand, in emerging conditions, even in a large city, supporting many main types of Sanctuary may be unnecessary. Also, it may be impractical.

The most revered Sanctuaries should be maintained and the rest dismantled. The most revered Sanctuaries are those whose architectures best reflect significant sadhanas (spiritual disciplines).

Main types of Sanctuary include: Jewish (several), Episcopalian, Protestant Reformed, Lutheran, Roman Catholic (several), Greek (several), Muslim, Vaishnavite, Saivite, Parsi, Buddhist (several), Shinto, African (several).

A committee comprising laity, clergy and religious should bear responsibility for the Sanctuary and its grounds. In most cases, current arrangements for this purpose are proper but not thorough. Religious (monastics) other than those who are also serving as parochial clergy should be invited onto the committee. They may decline, but the invitation should be kept open.

The Sanctuary should be staffed by clergy and lay people in six-hour vigils:

6am to 12pm,
12pm to 6pm,
6pm to 12am,
12am to 6am.

The Sanctuary should be under observation always.

The staff should represent any of the religions that have been created by the human family for its own uplift and for fostering the universe.

Ideally, adherents of each religion will be available to keep vigil at each Sanctuary. If such are not available, the principles of catholicity and secularity 2 can be promoted and kept in mind.

The staff of a Sanctuary can wear a uniform that is selected or designed by the Artistic Director (see PRAYER, below) in consultation with the committee that has responsibility for the Sanctuary and its grounds. The uniform should be purchased by the committee and given to the staff. The expense of maintaining the uniform (cleaning, replacing) should be borne by the committee.

THE CLERGY

The era of secular clergy 3 is over. Today and futurely, only religious clergy are acceptable servants of the servants of God.

People do not respect secular clergy. They respect religious clergy.

Religious clergy are monastics. Secular clergy are not. Religious clergy are seasoned by education and renunciation. Secular clergy are not. Religious clergy care about souls. Secular clergy usually do not. Religious clergy can be with wife and children. Secular clergy frequently do not adhere to Dharma (proper conduct).

When clergy are religious they function as teachers. When they are not, they are just officiants. Today, rabbis are respected more than priests and ministers because they function as teachers. They are religious.

Christians are entering upon a Diaspora similar to that already undergone by Jews. Led by parochial clergy, Christians have refused to get along with adherents of other religions. They deplore tolerance and charity as weakness and pandering. They cannot be trusted to be fair to fellow beings. For decades, they have been conjuring rather than praying. Therefore, Christians have been disestablished and sent out into the blue relative to the axis of development of the culture.

Now, secular culture has stepped in to accomplish what Christians, led by parochial clergy, will not do: practice their religion. Today the church is a more dangerous place than the society is. This is an irony, but true. 4

In a Diaspora, teachers are wanted, not officiants, rabbis, not priests. Clergy must be able to live in a dis-established condition, but without giving in to a ghetto-mentality. Above all, they must support themselves and cease being a burden on the people.

They must be self-confident, aware of the religious source of the values held by secular culture. This awareness will enable clergy to confound tyrannies of secular culture. Rabbis have fulfilled this role for centuries -- very efficiently.

The primal duty of clergy is to operate the Magisterium, to teach all people the ways of earning peace and happiness. The Magisterium is the authority and responsibility to preserve the race. The race means all beings.

The base of the Magisterium 5 is Prayer, the practice of the Presence of God. Each cleric attached to a Sanctuary should be in that Sanctuary for five six-hour prayer vigils each week. This will train them to regard the Sanctuary as a place of service rather than as a place of employment.

Ceaseless practice of the Presence of God -- Prayer -- is the primal activity of sadhana (spiritual discipline). It is the source of learning and the origin of instruction.

Clergy should earn a living in the regular economy. They should support themselves at manual labor. This is a monastic principle that has stood the test of time. It is enshrined in the Rule of St. Benedict.

Clergy who receive money from a community are not dependably impartial. The leadership they give will not be above suspicion.

Again, a community that pays clergy is not dependably trustworthy. Probably, it will expect to control or condition the Magisterium, to compromise the authority and the responsibility of clergy to teach the Truth.

Clergy currently paid by a community should be set free in increments over a five-year period. Year one, full base salary. Year two, 80% of base salary. Year three, 60% of base salary. Year four, 40% of base salary. Year five, 20% of base salary. Year six, nothing.

The willingness of clergy -- even present parochial, standing and secular clergy -- to earn their living at manual labor in the regular economy is evidence of capacity in them to provide spiritual leadership in emerging conditions.

If they will work, they are religious clergy. If they will not work, they are unfit for clerical orders and should be taken for apostates.

Clergy who are first-generation believers (children of parents who are not believers) should have minor responsibilities in the community of believers. Their experience is shallow and so their faith is weak. They are repenting for previous misdeeds and have not yet turned Godward. They are atoning for negatives rather than moving forwardly in positives. They lack experience necessary to qualify them for leadership positions.

Mid-life calls to clerical orders do not occur. The call to clerical orders is anterior to conception and is recognized by the twentieth year of life. A person who claims to have received such a call during mid-life (after the twenty-eighth year) either frustrated it when first it was felt or is lying. They are perfidious or they are larcenous. Whichever it is, they do not and will not ever deserve the trust of a community of believers.

Ask denominations for their lists of non-parochial and non-standing clergy. 6 These people may have leadership qualities that are appropriate for emerging conditions. Present parochial and standing clergy likely do not have the necessary qualities. Most of them got where they are by retailing nostalgia instead of facing facts.

The assertion that personal life is not connected with the capacity for leadership, that private habits do not affect the discharge of professional responsibilities, is Invita Minerva.

The fitness of clergy to provide spiritual leadership and to discharge the duties of the Magisterium will be evident in the nature of their personal and family life, in the children they help raise and the wife they care for.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. Clergy who have addictions, whose children are a wreck or whose wives are unhappy cannot provide spiritual leadership in the Community of the Faithful. For the same reason, they cannot provide leadership in the company of the unfaithful, either.

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