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We could easily say that the Least corruptible parts of religious traditions are the artistic aspects; that would be, visual art, music, poetry, and really any aspect that's difficult to concretize or render literal or legalistic. This is so because the corruptors of religion are usually the sort of people who possess very little in the way of artistic aptitudes. They are the personalities we would recognize today as lawyers, bean-counters, politicians, businessmen and establishment propagandists journalists; people who are quite gifted in the realm of quantity but are sorely lacking when it comes to understanding and appreciating the finer nuances of symbolism and metaphor (quality). And thus the literal-minded are unable to corrupt what they do not sufficiently understand. We see here the Pharisee archetype that Jesus so rightly lambasted at every opportunity.
So now we know that it's the literal and concrete aspects of religions that are the most easily-corruptable. Those particular aspects are the dogmas, doctrines and rules found within a given religious tradition. These things are always reflective of specific social context based on a particular time, place and cultural environment. And if its a big, institutional religion we're talking about, we have to take into account the worldly political agendas of the particular priesthood at the time a certain dogma or doctrine of theirs was solidified into a "final" written form. During a canonization phase, the lawyer-minded Pharisee priest is tempted to redact, reword, or omit the doctrinal elements he lacks the higher intuition to grasp; such is the murky stuff of mystics, seers, poets and sages; the type of people who don't need the priests in the first place. The Pharisee priests is most concerned with keeping his flock of simpletons in line and regularly offering tithes into the coffers of his religious body. High-minded mysticism and philosophy is of little use for telling the average person the do's and dont's of mundane, everyday living.
We could say that the genuine seeker can take the dogmas of his religion with a grain of salt, or at least interpret such things in the most allegorical or symbolic manner within his set of intellectual abilities. But this is not where his faith dies. There are all the aforementioned artistic elements embedded within the religion that are really sacred forms which have been passed down via much earlier traditions; the sacred products of the great sages and poets of yore. In this sense, even some of the most mainstream religions like Christianity contain those primordial pieces of Tradition the Perennialist thinkers love to talk about. The moral of the story here is that one's Tradition is much more than mere words written on paper. Focusing religiosity just on texts can be termed the idolatry of the written word. Specifically referring to Protestantism, we can use the term: Bibliolotry.
To continue with Christianity as an example, let's look at all the beautiful liturgies (music), the stunning works of visual art and architecture of the best Cathedrals, and all the other symbolism associated with the apostolic tradition. These are all works of higher intuition. We could say all these works together constitutes the real religion. Gnosis was never fully eradicated from the religion, just from overt, open practice. Gnosis never goes away, but it does go underground in times of trouble.
The good news is that Gnosis is safe and sound; it's locked up within all the arcane patterns and symbols which the petty-minded, earth-bound souls are unable to understand, much less penetrate and defile.
So now we know that it's the literal and concrete aspects of religions that are the most easily-corruptable. Those particular aspects are the dogmas, doctrines and rules found within a given religious tradition. These things are always reflective of specific social context based on a particular time, place and cultural environment. And if its a big, institutional religion we're talking about, we have to take into account the worldly political agendas of the particular priesthood at the time a certain dogma or doctrine of theirs was solidified into a "final" written form. During a canonization phase, the lawyer-minded Pharisee priest is tempted to redact, reword, or omit the doctrinal elements he lacks the higher intuition to grasp; such is the murky stuff of mystics, seers, poets and sages; the type of people who don't need the priests in the first place. The Pharisee priests is most concerned with keeping his flock of simpletons in line and regularly offering tithes into the coffers of his religious body. High-minded mysticism and philosophy is of little use for telling the average person the do's and dont's of mundane, everyday living.
We could say that the genuine seeker can take the dogmas of his religion with a grain of salt, or at least interpret such things in the most allegorical or symbolic manner within his set of intellectual abilities. But this is not where his faith dies. There are all the aforementioned artistic elements embedded within the religion that are really sacred forms which have been passed down via much earlier traditions; the sacred products of the great sages and poets of yore. In this sense, even some of the most mainstream religions like Christianity contain those primordial pieces of Tradition the Perennialist thinkers love to talk about. The moral of the story here is that one's Tradition is much more than mere words written on paper. Focusing religiosity just on texts can be termed the idolatry of the written word. Specifically referring to Protestantism, we can use the term: Bibliolotry.
To continue with Christianity as an example, let's look at all the beautiful liturgies (music), the stunning works of visual art and architecture of the best Cathedrals, and all the other symbolism associated with the apostolic tradition. These are all works of higher intuition. We could say all these works together constitutes the real religion. Gnosis was never fully eradicated from the religion, just from overt, open practice. Gnosis never goes away, but it does go underground in times of trouble.
The good news is that Gnosis is safe and sound; it's locked up within all the arcane patterns and symbols which the petty-minded, earth-bound souls are unable to understand, much less penetrate and defile.
