My Dear Brothers and Sisters,
All those
who are Incarnate in this world owe a double debt to two Creators who are :
1 . God the
Creator or the Eternal, who gives us each a portion of His Eternity, which is
represented by our soul. Thanks to this divine spark, we are separated from the
other creatures by our intelligence, which leads us towards the Perfection of
our being, so that we are led towards the Good and the Beautiful. The aim of
each human being is to consolidate this understanding, so that they may form an
intellectual torch which illuminates and guides all souls in the way of Wisdom.
After we have shed the flesh, that we should leave behind some mutual
assistance and education worthy of Humanity is the Will of God.
Thanks to
our research and our instruction, we are able to enlarge our knowledge and
develop our minds to follow the example of our ancestors. Time flows by,
generations pass, and Humanity draws nearer to perfection from one day to the
next; certainly at a moment in the distant future, Humanity will be able to
gain much knowledge about the mysteries of the Invisible. There are many proofs
to let us know that a Supreme,Supernatural Being really exists to encourage
Humanity to undertake the path of Spiritual Evolution.
2 . Our
Parents who produce our fleshly body, who nourish us and educate us to make us
wiser. We are born under the determinism of knowledge and the mission to be
accomplished is a heavy one. We have duties to fulfil towards our country, our
parents, our teachers, our home, towards ourselves and Society. These duties
weigh us down like burdens, as long as the way of life is sown with
difficulties while at every step we may stumble. If we resent these burdens and
avoid them, we do not fulfil our duty as human beings. What misery! In the
ocean of life, so many sufferings and miseries lie in wait for us to hinder our
Mission
If we do
not know the purpose of our existence which can provide us with a clearly
defined programme of action, we will never escape the errors caused by our own
clumsiness. The programme is based on the principles taught by religions which
show us the true Way of the “Dao” or of Salvation. This is the Way towards
which Humanity must be guided and led to avoid the painful dangers of life.
Thus it is vital to have a clear aim, to establish a rule of life so that
modern [people] may be in harmony with people of former times, and these be one
with those who are to come.
To that the
Universal Spirit may become a Source of Light to illuminate the world, all sins
and sufferings must be dissolved into a Caodaiist Arch to save Humanity from
the valley of tears!
Sakyamuni Buddha through love for Humanity has found the Path of
Deliverance;
Lao-Tzu, through love for Humanity, triumphed over
Death and Suffering;
Jesus-Christ, for the redemption of Humanity, glorified the
Passion;
Finally the
Saints and the Sages, to guide Humanity, endured Suffering.
Sufferings are the tests in the Great School
Every end
has a beginning, every cause an effect. Unless debts are paid and wiped out in
the chaos of time, even higher spirits once reincarnated will have difficulty
escaping from the Karmic Law.
Here below,
" all is relative "; there
is a turning point defined by Omnipotence, where regression moves onto an
upward path, where Evil seeks out good, perversity becomes righteousness, and
wickedness becomes gentleness once again. This involves the laws of Reparation,
Repartition and Evolution. Intending to guide Humanity and to help in the
avoidance of certain danger spots in life so that progress can be rapid, the
Great Spirits, out of universal love, undertake to return to this earth to
fulfil their Mission
The Visible
and the Invisible go together. The Creator has based the material world in the
image of the Spiritual World. As well as the power of the Eternal, there exist
an extraordinary mechanism which drives men towards the path of moral
perfection, following the example of the Wise, the Geniuses, Saints, Angels and
Buddhas. God too must uphold carefully the forward movement which regenerates
the world.
Universal
Love is the basis of the Unique Law of the Supreme Being. Divine Justice, like
human justice, rewards all progress towards Good and punishes all deviation
towards Evil.
In Divine
Peace the Mystery of the Invisible rules, and by following the Peace the
Universe and Planets evolve in the Infinite. Our Earth too must live in peace
to remain intact. Humanity must be in harmony in the Peace so that it can exist,
just as the Body and the Spirit must have a peaceful agreement to attain to
Wisdom.
Since the
greater infinite allows us to guess at the lesser infinity, and the lesser
infinity helps to reveal the greater infinity, we may conclude that our perishable
body is no more than a formation of Matter, and our soul, truly a spiritual
creature of God, is to return to God once it is disincarnate.
Religions
have preached their gospel, but the enigma resides in the universal peace which
leads all souls to God.
"A holy soul in a holy body", such is
the basic rule of Wisdom. If our holy soul knows how to resist the "Seven passions", it
encourages the growth of the Holy Spirit or Spirit of Light, which always
remains in harmony with the soul Root, and acquires in this world, the mystic
secret of Spirituality.
The body
represents matter, the mind is the Breathing, and the soul is the Holy Spirit.
Once this Trinity is totally dedicated to Unity, a human being becomes immortal
in spirit and wisdom.
To sum up,
the Third Amnesty of God preaches universal Love which brings forth Union and Peace. Such universal Love is the only key
which opens the Gates of the Thirty-Six Heavens of Nirvana or Paradise , according to the teachings of Our Divine
Master.
Eternity
and Wisdom can only be obtained by Mercy and the Love of Nature and of all
beings. The fusion of all Doctrines can only be achieved by Union and Peace. By creating the New Alliance God
gave human beings the proof of self-knowledge for the children of the Heavenly
Father always walk in the path of Virtue and Charity.
The
exoteric part of Caodaism represents the Holy Image of Our Divine Master, and
it must depend on the Law of Creation to find it Form. Thus the Temple Temple
If there
existed here any power capable of sowing discord in the divine Constitution of
Caodaism, the Doctrine taught by Our Master would not be the True One and would
be worthy to be cast out after a brief appearance. But if it true that Our
Master is the eternal, All Powerful God, who comes and preaches His Gospel to
save the world, the stratagems and snares which Heresy has constructed on His
Path aimed at slowing down the spread of Caodaiism, will soon disappear.
What a
miserable fate for dissidents who seek to form sects and schisms to dismember
the Physical Body of God.
What misery
for the unfortunates who deny the teachings of God and wish to fight against
the Holy Spirit. We can only lament for them, for the greatest sin is to walk
in opposition to God. The fault of Judas who sold Jesus Christ for thirty
pieces of silver is much less serious that the faults of these rebels who
betray their Father and Master for empty status.
God humbled
himself to teach us. He affirms that he is our Master and expects from us a
holy understanding of the true life of the soul which urges us to be united
with Him to give the good news to the world and to save lost souls.
Six years
have gone by and the Physical Body of God is still badly formed. What are the
Great Spirits of the Invisible World doing to communicate with the Visible
world, so as to reform the Divine Plan and group all predestined souls in the
Lap of the Eternal?
The five
religious branches are not in the process of uniting; rather Humanity is
divided by differences of opinion. The Divine Master came to gather us together
again, to unite us and to encourage us to live in peace like children in one
large Family. The prediction of His coming in the Christian Gospel is fulfilled
: “I have other wandering sheep to bring back to the fold.” This means that He
has to unify many religions.
Among the
religions founded by those Sent by God at different times, we can mention :
The Doctrine of the Buddhas which includes
Brahmanism, Vedantism, Buddhism, and the Philosophy of Pythagoras;
The Doctrine of the Seraphim which includes
Taoism, the theories of Yang-Tsu and Mei-Ti, Exorcisms, Idolatry and the occult
Sciences;
The Doctrine of the Saints which includes
Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam;
The Doctrine of the Genies which includes the
Chinese, Greek and Egyptian Mythologies;
The
doctrine of the Sages which includes the Theories of Socrates, Aesop, Plato,
etc.. in Greece; and of Confucius, Mencius, the Trinh brothers, etc.,
encompassing the fine practices and customs of the Han and Tan dynasties, and
the Classical Literature of the Duong dynasty from the early age of China.
Before
revealing Himself to found Caodaiism which is the syncretism of the ancient
doctrines, God sent the Great Spirits incarnate in the World to create various
philosophical societies aimed at giving new life to human consciousness.
Examples are the Theosophical Society, the Society for research into Buddhist
Philosophy, the Psychic Society, study of Spiritism, etc…Most of these
societies are founded to teach the Truth to all the countries of the World, one
century before the appearance of Caodaism.
Today our
Master comes and builds "The Lofty Palace Lofty Church Far East , for that is what Viet-Nam is, to carry out this prophecy : "The Holy doctrine of God comes from
the East. The Priestly Group is thus the Spotless Body of the Eternal One, and
by the beating of the drum called "Loi-Am" (Loi Am is sound of
Thunder which created the First Logos - Manifestation of God to create the
worlds)and the ringing of the bell called “Bach-Ngoc" (Bach Ngoc is
the Bell which has the power to rouse sleeping souls, as it rings out God's
Call to His children), they wake God's children from the sleepy lethargy of the
present times and lead them towards their Father's Home.
Although
Our Divine Master humbles himself to provide us with an example, He comes to us
from his Omnipotence, with might and power and glory. Though Invisible he makes
himself seen, without a word he makes himself heard, and in His hands he holds
all divine power to direct and teach His Holy Doctrine. As a form of control He
has given us a “Conscience”, and his
only power is His Universal Love. His children can recognise Him by these two
powers which spread through Humanity the traces of His Supreme Wisdom and the
proof of His Lofty Holiness.
Though this
is the loftiest Mission
Foreseeing
the weakness of our body, Our Master created the demanding laws to make us bend
beneath the discipline of a double Priesthood, both spiritual and temporal. As
a means of control we have the New religious Code; for organisational purposes
we have the Rules (Phap Chanh Truyen) and the priestly laws, and as a source of
authority we have the Tribunal of the Saints.
These form
the horn, the staff and the invisible enclosure used by God to gather again his
wandering flocks. But unfortunately the shepherd cannot hear the horn clearly,
the flocks have no fear of the staff, the thin-walled enclosure lets in wolves
which attack the flock! How does this misfortune occur: Certainly it comes from
our divided Priesthood, from our idle office-holders, so that the Priestly Body
is in no position at all to follow the divine plan to avert the evils caused by
Heresy.
The Holy
Words which Our Master taught us since the creation of Caodaiism form at
present the New Gospel which the adepts have not clearly understood, influenced
as they were by the bad interpretation made by careless office-bearers who do
no more that lessen the value of the divine law and discourage the coreligionists.
In the face
of such a situation, how can we evangelise the world and reestablish a strong
organisation to world salvation?
Like all
other religions, Caodaiism, has both an outward (“Exoteric”) and inward (“Esoteric”)
aspect. Now the outward aspect is not achieving even a third of its programme,
and the inward aspect is not understood by anyone. This is the reason that the
true value of the Third Amnesty of God is misunderstood by the people, the Holy
Doctrine is criticised by the older religions and the New Faith is so weakened;
this is the cause of the perplexity experienced by our adepts.
Great
Spirits have already predicted that the Lofty Souls alone can preserve their
Faith intact. The trials we are experiencing indicate the truth of these words.
My dear
Brothers and Sisters,
I think
that we all have a great responsibility entrusted to us. If we lack clarity in
ourselves, we will never be able to justify ourselves to anyone. We must
acknowledge our weakness since we have the support of the Holy Doctrine, the
very thing that has given others the freedom to form sects and to strengthen
their power.
There are
two personalities in each of us : our Ego and the Servant of God
(office-bearer). As far as our bodily “ego” is concerned, there is nothing wrong
if it perishes with our life! But here it is a question of our duty to God. If
we have not reached the lofty height of our divine task, to keep intact the New
Faith destined for Humanity, How great will be our fault in the eyes of the
Supreme Being?
So from now
on let us be united and be strongly determined not to allow our power to be
usurped by anyone at all, for this power is our Master's. Even if only one
adept remains, the Priesthood will always uphold its authority.
To finish
may I be allowed to make one recommendation to you all : " From this day on, let us unite, let us concentrate all our
strength around the Banner of Our Divine Master, and this means the Holy See.
Let us be full of determination to build in the Far East , in our own country, Viet-Nam,
a Lofty Church
(This
Address was given by His Holiness Ho-Phap Pham-Cong-Tac before the Great
Sacerdotal Assembly held at the Holy See of Tay Ninh, November 28, 1938 . Translated from Vietnamese to French by His Holiness Cao Tiep-Dao, Lord
of the Zodiac, Religious Legislator of the Legislative Body. Translated from
French to English by Lucy Davey)
by His Holiness Ho-Phap
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