In the way that people currently use the word religion, the Toltec teachings are not a religion, and neither are they a philosophy, yet… the Toltec teachings can reveal the fundamental truths behind all religions

Awaken

For many people, religion implies going to church, or becoming involved in some kind of worship. Religion is often looked at as a matter of faith that is largely determined by one’s background and race, while a philosophy implies a pursuit of intellectual ideas and ideals.

The word “Toltec” means “a man or woman of knowledge”, and so the Toltec teachings may be described as a pathway to knowledge. This may sound like a philosophy, until one discovers that knowledge, in the sense used by Toltecs, means experiential knowledge. Information only becomes knowledge once it has been put into practice in one’s life – once it has been directly and empirically experienced.

The wonderful thing about life is that everyone’s experience of it is unique! We know all too well how so many different people participating in an event can have equally many and differing experiences of that event.This implies that our experience of life is always personal; that our knowledge is personal. It is inextricably tied up with who we are. For if we were someone else we would not experience life in the same way. Therefore our experiences often tell us more about our self than about the event, since our perception of any event is anyway always subjective in nature.

The Toltec teachings represent a way in which we can go back to our roots, and going back to our roots, in order to find that inner spark or essence, is the very purpose and meaning of the word religion. In this respect, then, the Toltec teachings are deeply religious in essence, even if they do not form what is currently looked at as a religion.

Going back to our roots implies a journey back to the Self. This is quite the hardest of all journeys, for this is a journey of rediscovering who and what we really are, as well as what our purpose or fate encompasses.

The warrior’s aim is to unravel our own spark of individuality; to find out what it is that is unique and special about us – what makes our unique signature – and then to make our full committment to life by exploring and utilising our gifts or potential to the utmost. For this reason Toltecs claim that the only true knowledge is of the self – knowledge that is gained through one’s practical experiences of life.

Each of us has a unique role to play in life. Therefore, unless we start uncovering our potential and learn to unfold our fate in our own unique way, we deny our reason for being alive, or as Christians would say, we are failing to live as a son of God.

At the end of the day there is only One Truth, and One Life and it is the knowledge of this that forms the base of all true religions.

What separates and divides, and causes so much strife is humanity’s tendency to compartmentalise and, in doing so, to set themselves apart from other people and other religions. It is only a short step from this to religious intolerance and aggression.

One of the effects of this intolerance is to breed more intolerance and suspicion, so that there are today a host of different churches, going their own way, and most highly suspicious of each other.

Yet all of these churches have a truth that is based upon the One Truth, and it is an understanding, and an experience of the nature of this One Truth that will lead to the building of bridges, and to the realisation not only that we are all One, but that each and every one of us is needed in his or her true uniqueness, in order for the One to become a proper functioning whole.

Toltecs do not wish to start another religion; that is not our purpose, and the time for structures is past. However, we are willing to become involved in the building of bridges – to share our knowledge with existing structures and religions who wish to open themselves to a fresh insight.

Source: AWAKEN