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FAQs on "Is Light Net a religion?"
No. Light Net is not a branch, subdivision or a direct affiliate of any religious sect, organization or group. It is independent and does not have any dogma or doctrine, although its ideals, objectives and sevice activities are premised on timeless spiritual principles. You mentioned about "timeless spiritual principles". Isnt that religious? Usually in religious organizations, a dogma or tenet of faith should be accepted by members as a final truth and there is person or a priest or a representative of a deity who acts as revealer of truth from divine sources. The members cannot question as these are divine revelations. Light Net does not have a dogma. But there are principles or values that are not confined to any specific religion, but are widely accepted by major world religions or philosophical systems. For instance, the values of non-violence or truthfulness are widely accepted as a right human conduct by all religions, even those who dont have one, like the atheists and agnostics. International institutions like the United Nations recognizes these values or principles as standards of the civilized world. Another is prayer or divine invocation which are principles that most people accept and practice - both the religious and scientific communities. Modern psychology now is beginning to explore the various benefits of prayer and meditation in positively affecting various biochemical responses in the human body as well as contributing to one's psychological well-being. Thus, these "timeless" values or principles, among others, are also used and adopted by Light Net for constructive purposes. Isnt your philosophical frame work mentioned in About Light Net a dogma? It is not a dogma as it is not imposed to our volunteers and affiliates. People who participate in our service activities naturally believes and sympathizes with our philosophical framework. If the person does not agree or is not comfortable with the frameworks we stated, we do not encourage him/her to sign up and participate. It would be futile, for instance to pray for world healing, if the person does not believe in a deity, or a cosmic intelligence/force or the ability of humans to affect world events for the better. But most people have reservations at the start due to some "new" terminologies we use to describe old concepts or practices they also share and do, but once we explain it to them and their queries are satisfied they sign up. We also want to stress that the philosophical framework we stated are not final truths. We consider them as tentative working hypothesis. The individual can prove it to himself on the subjective levels. It can also be proven through research and the scientific method once the instruments for gathering information for this type of work (ie. the realms of energy) are already developed. The Ageless Wisdom is not a religion. It is just a word coined to describe traditions and wisdoms handed down from generation to generation since ancient times. It is what the Christ Jesus said in the New Testament as the "mysteries" taught to the apostles not written down in the scriptures. It is also what the Catholics claim to be the source of much of its teachings not directly mentioned in the Bible, like the 7 Sacraments, purgatory, belief in Saints and angels, Holy Rosary, the Immaculate conception of our World Mother, Mary-mother of Jesus, and many others. You can read our short essay on "What is the ageless wisdom?" by clicking the link. You always quote the Bible and some spiritual books in your articles. Why is that? We cannot deny the fact that majority of the peoples in world are Christians, and in the Philippines, most people are Catholic Christians by birth. We quote the Bible and often use Christian terms to facilitate understanding of similar concepts and principles. Most of the time, timeless spiritual principles have a counterpart terminology in different religions which we also use like those belonging to the Vedantic/Buddhist traditions. And also the fact that many Light Networkers are also practicing Catholic Christians, Protestants and Gospel Christians :-). Your meditation and prayer methods have similarities with yoga, which is an eastern religious practice? It is true. But it is possible to adopt the techniques or use technologies without assimilating the religious Hindu or Buddhist contents that go with it. That is what we do. Progressive Christian groups have also began adopting these techniques but were able to separate the eastern dogma from the practice. They call it "Centering Prayer" or "contemplative prayer", "deep prayer time", spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, "faith pictures", Gregorian chants, Cenacle rosary-meditation, etc.. Among the Christian pioneers are Fr. Nicolas Caballero, Anthony de Melo, DeGrandis and many others. With the development of biofeedback machines that measure the brain's activity, science is also discovering that yoga techniques can be used positively to affect the health of a person like lowering high blood pressure, stress reduction, etc.. But these scientists never practice Hinduism or Buddhism! We believe there is nothing wrong with transference of technologies and traditions from one culture to another. We all belong to one human family, and it is but natural to have these exchanges, especially if for the improvement of civilization and the quality of human life. For instance, if Jewish scientists were able to develop new ways of farming to increase food supply; cant our Islam or Muslim brothers use same technology to improve their food production? Does it follow that the Muslims will have to adopt Judaic religious beliefs just to benefit from the farming technology they developed? The Renaissance artists and painters like Michaelangelo are Roman Catholics. Do you have to convert to Catholicism just to use the painting styles and techniques they pioneered? The use of music, musical instruments, singing or dancing in worship is a pagan practice from different cultures, since the ancient times. Why is it that majority of present day "modern" religions use the same in their services or rituals? :) Who is DK whom you always quote or mention? And Alice Bailey? DK is an initial for Djwal Khul, a Tibetan spiritual teacher and writer who expounded on the ageless wisdom and introduced revolutionary methods on living the spiritual life, particularly meditation technologies, techniques of goodwill, the science of right human relationships and other innovative ways of serving humanity like the "triangles" or light networking, among other things. We quote him and draw inspiration from his works due to the relevance and practicality of his approach to service and the spiritual life. In his own words, DK described himself, in a statement he published in 1934: "Suffice it to say, that I am a Tibetan disciple of a certain degree, and this tells you but little, for all are disciples from the humblest aspirant up to, and beyond, the Christ Himself....I am a brother of yours, who has travelled a little longer upon the Path than has the average student, and has therefore incurred greater responsibilities. I am one who has wrestled and fought his way into a greater measure of light than has the aspirant who will read this article, and I must therefore act as a transmitter of the light, no matter what the cost. I am not an old man, as age counts among the teachers, yet I am not young or inexperienced. My work is to teach and spread the knowledge of the Ageless Wisdom wherever I can find a response, and I have been doing this for many years.... The books that I have written are sent out with no claim for their acceptance. They may, or may not, be correct, true and useful. It is for you to ascertain their truth by right practice and by the exercise of the intuition. Neither I nor A.A.B. is the least interested in having them acclaimed as inspired writings, or in having anyone speak of them (with bated breath) as being the work of one of the Masters. If they present truth in such a way that it follows sequentially upon that already offered in the world teachings, if the information given raises the aspiration and the will-to-serve from the plane of the emotions to that of the mind (the plane whereon the Masters can be found) then they will have served their purpose. If the teaching conveyed calls forth a response from the illumined mind of the worker in the world, and brings a flashing forth of his intuition, then let that teaching be accepted. But not otherwise." Alice A. Bailey is an English Bible teacher who collaborated with DK in writing the books (24 in all) on esoteric philosophy. The work lasted for 30 years until her transition to the other side in 1949. She also founded the Arcane School, training aspiring world servers in esoteric work. Some of the terminologies you are using are very new age. Are you a part of the new age movement (NAM)? This question cannot be answered categorically. If by the new age movement, you mean we teach or practice "sitting down for development", channeling to contact spirits, spirit guides and "beings", using crystals for healing or contacting "little green men" or UFOs, using ouija board to quest or talk to "Aunt Matilda", remembering soulmates and past lives so we feel good that we were Maximus, Mark Anthonys or Cleopatra centuries ago, projecting astrally to meet some bearded guys and participate in ethereal jamming sessions in a heaven-like shamballa, make some voodoo dolls to get a raise, use candles and affirmations for prosperity, using tea leaves or palms to predict when will be your divorce, or perhaps joining pilgrimages to mt. Shasta to meet Elvis or Princess D, sorry we dont. By these definitions and mental associations, we are not a new age group. Actually these practices are giving the real new age movement a bad name. We are not saying that these are evil or quack or that the claims are not true but they do not represent the essence of what we call the "new age". They represent the non-essential part- or the periphery that can mislead. To understand the new age, as it is, you have to go to its core, which is very far from what is publicized and heavily criticized by other religions. The same misconceptions were also experienced by the Catholic church, for instance. The fanatical practices of some Catholics were often attributed to its official doctrine by outside observers. Where in fact, some of the extreme practices lilke the veneration and "worship" of graven images and saints, observance and overemphasis on external rituals, etc., were never part of the official church doctrines. They were just products of the "intraculturalization" or assimilation process of the Christian teachings to a predominantly superstitious cultures(some use "pagan-rooted" cultures). (We used the word "pagan" here in its colloquial context but we do not mean to degrade the authentic pagan religions practiced in ancient times). To shorten the explanation, the core idea in the new age movement is the desire to change and "renew" the system in our the planet to something better. We all recognize the fact that the world now is far from the ideal. The ideal is either something that we already had before but have somehow lost it...or a vision of what a better world should be. The Bible described it in Genesis in Adam before the "fall". And in the New Testament, the Christ described it as "the kingdom of God that is at hand" and in His statement, "I came here to give you life, life in all its fullness". The Great Invocation expresed it as letting the Plan of light, love and will of God be restored on earth. To us, it is not necessarily a perfect world- a "heaven on earth"- but a place where sufferings and misery are at a minimum and where justice, social equity, cooperation, truth and goodwill prevail, which we scarcely have right now. But how is this achieved? Methods are varied but if you believe that a transformation in consciousness of humans to higher states is necessary to effect this change, you are following the "new age" line of thought. The proliferation of Charismatic and Revival movements that uses "the life in the Spirit" paradigm and the "baptism of fire and of the Spirit" to attain personal transformation is well a symptom of this need. Even modern business management thinkers like Stephen Covey recognizes this fact in his "inside-out model" to personal effectiveness and leadership. Therefore to us, all individuals, groups and religions who desire and work for human and world betterment and who believes in the transformation of consciousness as one way of achieving that, can be considered as part of the new age movement. :)
Do you endorse all the teachings in the books listed in your online Reading Room? Not all. The only condition with working with us is sympathy with our objectives and 10 philosophical framework. You do not have to believe in all the teachings in those books. They only provide very good information about the subject matters, with the least distortion. There are also many other good materials on those subjects however complete texts are not available online freely.
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