08-09-2007, 06:31 PM
Excerpts from the Introduction
to
THE PRINCIPAL UPANISADS
1. Devotion to the personal God is recommended as a means for attaining spiritual
enlightenment.
2. The Upanisads give us different modes of devotional exercises, by which we are trained
to fix our minds on a single object. Gradually we get prepared for the contemplation of
Absolute truth.
3. The individual is free to select for worship any form of the Supreme. This freedom of
Choice means that the different forms are all included in the Supreme. The acceptance of
one form does not mean the rejection of others.
4. The relativity of the symbols does not destroy either our capacity to discover the truth
or our faith in the existence of objective reality. It is true that different objects appear
differently from different points of view, but the validity of the different points of view
need not be denied.
5. The Upanisads do not speak to us of limited dogmas. The life of spirit is wider than
any particular religious formulation. Our minds are not detached from the circumstances
of time and place. Full truth can be known only by a mind of transcendent rationality.
6. As the Upanisads lay stress on spiritual experience and psychological discipline, they
do not insist on any one set of dogmas, rites, or codes. They are also aware that we may
touch different aspects of the spiritual experience when we attempt to define it. We may
use any symbols and methods which help to bring about a change of consciousness, a new
birth.
7. The soul of man is the home of God. God is in every one of us ready to help us though
we generally ignore Him. Whatever be the form we start with, we grow to the worship of
the one Universal Spirit immanent in all.
8. Spiritual training begins with the external, with word and gesture in order to produce
the answering spiritual content,, but we should not stop at any stage short of life in God.
9. The Upanisads speak to us of different forms of genuine religious experience. Whether
it is contemplation of the Absolute, or meditation on the Supreme Person or worship of
the Cosmic Spirit, or absorption in the world of nature, they are all genuine forms, as they
aim at the same ultimate conclusion of self-transcendence.
10. The word of God is not bound by languages in which it is spoken. It is the one voice
that is heard in all religions.
11. We are heirs of a richer heritage than most of us are aware of . The life of the people
of spirit, from the beginning until now, has a great deal to offer us. If we cut ourselves
away from the rich treasury of wisdom about man's aspirations on this earth which is
available to us from our own past, or if we are satisfied with our own inadequate tradition
and fail to seek for ourselves the gifts of other traditions, we will gravely misconceive the
Spirit of religion. Loyalty to our particular tradition means not only concord with the past
but also freedom from the past. The living past should serve as a great inspiration and
support for the future. Tradition is not a rigid, hidebound framework which cripples the
Life of spirit and requires us to revert to a period that is now past and beyond recall. It is
not a memory of the past but a constant abiding of the living spirit. It is a living stream of
spiritual life.
With love,
Rev Dorris
to
THE PRINCIPAL UPANISADS
1. Devotion to the personal God is recommended as a means for attaining spiritual
enlightenment.
2. The Upanisads give us different modes of devotional exercises, by which we are trained
to fix our minds on a single object. Gradually we get prepared for the contemplation of
Absolute truth.
3. The individual is free to select for worship any form of the Supreme. This freedom of
Choice means that the different forms are all included in the Supreme. The acceptance of
one form does not mean the rejection of others.
4. The relativity of the symbols does not destroy either our capacity to discover the truth
or our faith in the existence of objective reality. It is true that different objects appear
differently from different points of view, but the validity of the different points of view
need not be denied.
5. The Upanisads do not speak to us of limited dogmas. The life of spirit is wider than
any particular religious formulation. Our minds are not detached from the circumstances
of time and place. Full truth can be known only by a mind of transcendent rationality.
6. As the Upanisads lay stress on spiritual experience and psychological discipline, they
do not insist on any one set of dogmas, rites, or codes. They are also aware that we may
touch different aspects of the spiritual experience when we attempt to define it. We may
use any symbols and methods which help to bring about a change of consciousness, a new
birth.
7. The soul of man is the home of God. God is in every one of us ready to help us though
we generally ignore Him. Whatever be the form we start with, we grow to the worship of
the one Universal Spirit immanent in all.
8. Spiritual training begins with the external, with word and gesture in order to produce
the answering spiritual content,, but we should not stop at any stage short of life in God.
9. The Upanisads speak to us of different forms of genuine religious experience. Whether
it is contemplation of the Absolute, or meditation on the Supreme Person or worship of
the Cosmic Spirit, or absorption in the world of nature, they are all genuine forms, as they
aim at the same ultimate conclusion of self-transcendence.
10. The word of God is not bound by languages in which it is spoken. It is the one voice
that is heard in all religions.
11. We are heirs of a richer heritage than most of us are aware of . The life of the people
of spirit, from the beginning until now, has a great deal to offer us. If we cut ourselves
away from the rich treasury of wisdom about man's aspirations on this earth which is
available to us from our own past, or if we are satisfied with our own inadequate tradition
and fail to seek for ourselves the gifts of other traditions, we will gravely misconceive the
Spirit of religion. Loyalty to our particular tradition means not only concord with the past
but also freedom from the past. The living past should serve as a great inspiration and
support for the future. Tradition is not a rigid, hidebound framework which cripples the
Life of spirit and requires us to revert to a period that is now past and beyond recall. It is
not a memory of the past but a constant abiding of the living spirit. It is a living stream of
spiritual life.
With love,
Rev Dorris
