Religion, Why? -Exclusive Feature With Mark Amaru Pinkham

SIM: To give our readers some understanding of your perspective and background, can you discuss briefly your interest in and study of various religious and spiritual traditions? How did you first become interested in this topic and how have you pursued knowledge relating to it?

Pinkham: I was drawn into the study of the world’s religious and spiritual traditions when I was in my late teens. I was quite unhappy with my life at the time and was hoping I could find some relief, and possibly even some joy, through this avenue. I began my search with yoga after hearing that its practices are designed to generate a continual inner joy. This led to my traveling to India and living most of my twenties in the ashrams with the hope of finding that inner peace and joy. At that time I followed the path of Siddha Yoga – a kind of yoga that begins with the activation of the alchemical Kundalini power. Once this power is awakened by a Gnostic Master (a “Siddha”) it purifies a seeker on all levels while activating his or her inner centers of Gnosis. Eventually it culminates in eternal joy and the Gnostic awareness of “I AM GOD.”

Later, in my thirties and forties, I continued my search for eternal peace and Gnostic awareness by traveling around the globe and intensely studying and experimenting with many Gnostic adepts and their ancient spiritual traditions. I deeply studied the spiritual traditions of Peru, Egypt, Tibet, and Mexico, as well as the esoteric doctrines of Theosophy, Sufism, Alchemy, the Kabbala, and even Christian Mysticism.  I eventually realized that all these paths lead to the same goal of Gnostic Awareness via some form of yogic purification. It ultimately also became very clear to me that all religions began as spiritual traditions based upon universal wisdom. I found that most religions began with an enlightened Gnostic who shared his or her lofty spiritual revelations with a group of disciples. But the disciples, not being enlightened themselves, proceeded to create a religion around their Master’s teachings even though they had very limited understanding of them. Their limited interpretations formed the doctrines of the new religion, and eventually such doctrines crystallized to become religious dogma. During the ensuing centuries more and more dogma was added to the doctrines, so that eventually it became impossible to discern the original Master’s teachings within the religion.   

SIM: From your perspective, can you share with our audience some of the commonalities that you have noticed are shared by the various traditions you have studied? In particular, I would be curious to hear about how various creation mythologies compare and what these stories have in common.

Pinkham: Their similarities relate back to the first question. Most were initially founded by a Gnostic Master and based on universal spiritual principles. In regards to their creation myths you typically find that they begin with a scenario before the universe was created, when all that existed was a great cosmic sea. Floating upon this sea was an egg, a serpent or a great dragon. When an egg is depicted in a creation myth it eventually bursts open like the Big Bang and its fabric becomes the substratum of the new universe. When a serpent or dragon is present in the legend, the creature creates the universe out of its own body.  A unique feature of most creation myths is the eventual appearance of the Twin Boys. There are usually only two twin boys, although they can manifest as 2, 4, 7 or more. They seem to show up out of nowhere and assist in the creation of Earth, as well as the education of humanity. One gets the feeling that they come from another dimension of part of the universe. It has been speculated that they were ET missionaries who came to uplift humanity by teaching the sacred and mundane arts.        

SIM: Assuming that these commonalities reflect something that is inherent to our perspective and experience of the universe as humans, what does this say about atheistic beliefs? Do you see the same commonalities being reverberated in atheistic ideologies?

           Pinkham: The Gnostic Masters maintain that all wisdom is contained within the Spirit residing in the heart, and once we truly unite with our inner Spirits we will know everything, including that a Creator God (us) manifested the universe.  If these Masters are correct, then atheism can only be a temporary state. The atheist simply has not yet discovered (or stumbled upon) a way to open to the latent Gnostic wisdom within him or herself yet.

SIM: Do you agree that humans naturally seek to know something greater than self? In your experience, is this desire for deeper knowledge something that creates faith or is it more something that religious institutions have used as a way to indoctrinate believers? How has humanity used organized religion to both explore and express their natural inner faith?

Pinkham: Again, the Gnostic Masters maintain that all souls are on an adventure of evolutionary unfoldment that will lead to the Gnostic revelation that each one of us is Spirit incarnate. Along the way Gnosis will first emerge as faith that a higher intelligent power created and governs the cosmos. This awareness will likely seek a vehicle for its sustainment, such as an organized religion. The person will then worship a god or supreme deity outside the self. Later, his or her gradually expanding Gnostic wisdom will inform them that that same deity is also inside the heart.     

SIM: Many organized religious leaders, particularly within the Vatican, would argue that our world wars have taken more human life than religious warfare. Can you talk a little about the internal struggles faced by world governing religions, and how they have used warfare to defend their political interests?

Pinkham: To understand this history you must first understand the two paths: the Right Hand Path and the Left Hand Path. The Right Hand Path is the path of organized religion and the Left Hand Path is the path of pure spirituality that is devoid of any dogma. The Right Hand Path is male in nature and the Left Hand Path is female. Because of its male nature those following the Right Hand Path primarily know God through their intellect. They learn about God through a book or priest, and they are taught to discriminate between what is good and what is evil while placing God upon a throne in some distant universe or Heaven. Because of its female nature the adherents of the Left Hand Path move in an opposite direction. They principally learn about God through emotion and intuition. They learn that God is everywhere, including inside all of us. They daily live with the wisdom that everything comes from God and is God.  

In the East it is said that a soul follows the Right Hand Path until it has matured enough to adhere to the Left Hand Path. The discrimination that comes from the Right Hand Path must be developed first so that a human can discriminate between those things and actions that support an experience of God and are in alignment with His laws.

While a person is fully immersed in the Right Hand Path his or her intellect and level of discrimination becomes acute. He or she is fully aware of God’s laws and they are constantly monitoring their actions and the actions of others in accordance to what they believe to be right or wrong, good or evil.  If they believe that a person or institution goes against one or more of God’s laws they might decide that it is their duty to God to destroy the transgressor. By doing so they will have a better chance of going to Heaven or Paradise at the end of life.

Later, however, when the same person embraces the Left Hand Path his or her Gnostic intuition will emerge from within and inform them that we are all one, and that by destroying another human being you destroy yourself.       

SIM: In your expert opinion, at what level is free Masonry tied into the Vatican agendas politically? And how do right hand and left hand path faiths merge at a higher social governing level?

Pinkham: I have known many Freemasons who have reached the 32-degree of the Scottish Rite. They have told me that they were still not privy to the “secrets,” and that they believed they were only revealed upon reaching the final 33^rd degree.

The Right and Left Hand Paths have been united for millennia. The great Gnostic sage Patanjali first wrote about this union in 200 BCE in his Yoga Sutras, wherein he stated that both paths had been united for thousands of years in an archetypal system of eight yogic stages that lead to Gnosis. The first stage of the eight stages, Yamas and Niyamas, contain the observances and ideology associated with the Right Hand Path and the next seven stages – from Hatha Yoga to Samadhi, the state of the highest Gnosis -  are associated with the Left Hand Path. The two paths have also been united as the Kaula Tantra Path of India that contains 8 stages, four of which contain the ideology and practices of the Right Hand Path and the final four which are associated with the Left Hand Path. It should be noted that both paths are necessary for the evolving soul, and that Gnostic awareness only results from fully activating and uniting both the intellectual and intuitive sides of the brain. The left side of the brain gives the articulation of I AM GOD while the right side supplies the intuition that fully confirms that notion. 

SIM: As the Grand Prior of the IOGT, you interact with thousands of spiritual seekers and initiates. In your experience as a spiritual leader, do you feel that the modern world, specifically within north and south America, is now placing more reliance in Gnostic based faiths, or are the traditional western traditions still dominate?

Pinkham: There is no question that traditional religion is still dominant throughout the Earth, however Gnosis is certainly gaining momentum. This is to be expected with the numbers of souls that are now waking up.

What is needed now is more education regarding alchemy, Gnosis and the evolutionary goal of human life. This has been a big problem for thousands of years. Most of us have been following a divisive religion and, consequently, very few of us on the planet have been able to agree on what the true goal of human life is. But now, as more people embark upon the Left Hand Path (either consciously or unconsciously) perhaps the maxim of the mystery schools, Know Thyself, will enter the mainstream of consciousness and gain universal popularity.  

SIM: It seems common for many spiritual seekers who are born onto strict religious faiths to naturally seek and explore inner truth by first throwing off their inherited dogmas. Baring in mind that all religious paths share the common roots of one tree, how should we use our religious roots from birth to advance on our spiritual paths of inner Gnosis and wisdom?

Pinkham: If a seeker does a serious study of religion they will indeed see that they all lead to the same place. Even within the Right Hand Paths of Christianity and Islam the Left Hand Paths of Christian Mysticism and Sufism have been able to thrive. So a person does not need to completely leave his or her native faith if they don’t want to. They just need to understand how the practices of their faith are alchemical in nature and how he or she can be purified through them and achieve Gnosis. 

SIM: Do you have any closing thoughts or words of wisdom for our audience regarding religion, and how it ultimately helps humanity explore its spiritual nature?

Pinkham: I have already described how religion helps to develop the good discrimination that is necessary on the spiritual path. If you don’t know what is supportive to your path you won’t get very far on it.  Religion also helps in the development of purity of heart through service to a higher power and through striving to live a good life in order to achieve Heaven. Unfortunately, as we have seen, religion can take discrimination and the dualistic consciousness it promotes to an extreme and even motivate a person to commit destruction and murder in the name of God. This is why the Left Hand Path is so important. Through it we develop a Gnostic awareness that transcends duality and reveals the oneness and divinity of all people and life forms in the universe. Eventually the LHP will take us all to the final realization of “I AM GOD.”