Seven things are necessary for building the Temple of God in Humanity: the material, the foundation, knowledge, devotion, work, experience, and the blessing of the Master.

1. The material consists of the forces with which we are endowed by nature, and which we must learn to control and render subordinate to our design. All these forces are substantial; because what we call “force” and “substance” are only two aspects of one and the same principle; even our highest aspirations, if they are real, are not empty creations of fancy, but motions of spiritual life, causing the eternal substance of the soul to grow and expand. The Temple of God is as clear as crystal, and cannot be made of impure heterogeneous material. Therefore our aspirations and motives must be elevated and pure, and the first labor of the artisan is purification. Without this all other labor is worse than useless.
2. The foundation. The Temple of God in Man is not a castle in the air, but must be built upon a firm foundation. This foundation is the truth, and not the idle creations of the brain. Truth is that which is real and unchanging, and the recognition of truth is the cornerstone of the building. Everything in nature grows from a center within, and thus the real recognition of truth is not a merely intellectual perception of the brain, but a realization by the soul itself. It is the heart which feels and realizes the truth; the brain-mind only acts as a spectator and investigator. When the truth realized by the heart is confirmed by the brain, there arises that firmness of conviction, which cannot be shaken by doubts and opinions, and in this consists the solidity of the foundation.
3. Knowledge may therefore be divided in two parts-theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge is necessary, because we cannot accomplish a work without having some conception of how it ought to be done; but unfortunately, there are millions who mistake the knowledge of theories or mere “science”, for a realization of truth, and therefore never outgrow the plane of opinions, and perform no real work. What would we think of an architect, who would spend all of his life in studying how the bricks of a house might be put together, if a house were to be built, but who would make no effort to carry out the plan? There are many persons acting as teachers in the spiritual field, having no knowledge of their own. They are like guideposts on the road, showing the inscription that has been written upon them by another, be it true or false; but the guidepost itself has no experience of its own, and never makes any progress.

Now, it will be asked by many, “How can a knowledge of absolute, eternal truth ever be attained by mortal man?” Who can lift the veil of the unknowable mystery? Some base their belief upon the assertions of some supposed authority; others doubt or reject everything which they cannot grasp with their brain; but a blind belief and a blind unbelief are both enemies of true knowledge. Blind belief is afraid of seeing the truth and does not desire it, but hides its head in the dogmas which it has chosen and from which it does not dare to emerge; while blind unbelief seeks to dissect, analyze and destroy everything; and for the doubter, the truth, being one and inseparable, does not exist.

4.   Between the two monsters of superstition and doubt, walks man, and he is captured sometimes by the one, sometimes by the other. Real knowledge of truth is only attainable when the truth itself becomes manifest in the heart. The truth is God, and the word of God speaks continually in the center of our own being; it is the Christ crucified between the two thieves called credulity and doubt; it is that reality which in our innermost beings says, “I am the truth.” It is our own real self, and there is no real knowledge attainable, except through the internal recognition of the voice of God in His Temple within ourselves.
5. Devotion. How could we find God or the Truth in ourselves, if we were not devoted to it? The seeking of one’s own soul is the most difficult of all labors. We all live too much outside of ourselves and not in our inner Temple, our hearts. Men and women seek for refuge in outward things, in the things of this earth, or they let their fantasy fly towards heaven and imagine themselves to be with God; but they refuse to enter within the sanctuary of their own heart, although experience teaches that nowhere can we find true rest, peace, spiritual knowledge and happiness except at that center, where upon the altar of devotion burns the flame of Divine Love and shines the Light of Truth. How can we find that which we do not love? Love attracts, fear repels. Love not only binds creatures together, but unites man with his God. True love and true knowledge are one and the same thing. Labor performed without love is without true knowledge, and is therefore imperfect. Without love the Temple of God in humanity cannot be made.
6. Work. Love without action is a power which is not used, and is therefore unproductive. Love, to be useful, must give birth to works of love. True love is pure and simple; that is to say it has only one object and is not mixed with secondary considerations. It is undivided and therefore unselfish. If we love God for the sake of our own personal progress, we in reality love our personality and seek to make God subservient to our selfish purposes. But the illusion of self, the delusion that we are in reality that bundle of personal desires and conceptions, which we have created by our own spiritual ignorance, is the greatest hindrance for the manifestation of the light of truth in us, and the more we seek to make our false Ego great and prominent, the greater will be the obstacle which prevents the realization of the true Self in our soul. Therefore all our work should not be “our” work, but the work of love, performed by the power of love and wisdom in us and through us as intelligent instruments, in such a way as it is taught in the Bhagavad Gita and by all the sages and saints.
7. Experience. All the above is easily said, but it is difficult to be realized as long as we have not attained that higher consciousness which enables us to discriminate between the true, immortal, and the illusive, mortal self. Ever and ever have we to pass through the circle of birth and death and go through the school of life, until we have learned by repeated experience, that the illusions of our senses are really nothing else but illusions, and that there is no salvation from ignorance, except in the realization of truth. Our external and our internal selves are one; nevertheless they differ from each other as the flower differs from the soil upon which it grows. Our external self with its material and intellectual acquisitions is like the soil; the consciousness of our real self is the germ planted therein, from which may grow the tree of Divine Wisdom, the real knowledge of self.
8. The blessing of the Master is the Grace of God. It is the spiritual light, which is above all necessary for the growth of the soul as the light of the sun is necessary for the evolution of plants. We cannot make ourselves wise without the light of truth; we can only strive to remove the hindrances which prevent the grace of God becoming active in us. If we succeed in purifying our hearts and in removing these obstacles, the light of truth will manifest itself within our own temple, and without any aid or support that we might possibly attempt to give to it; while without the presence of that divine power all our efforts would be vain. Therefore the great teacher Gautama says: “To purify the heart and to avoid doing evil, this is the religion of all the Buddhas.” If we do this we need do nothing more, for the Spirit of God will perform its works of love through us, and we shall be the witnesses of its wisdom.

Franz Hartmann, M.D.
Courtesy of The Temple of the People, Halcyon California (German Archives)