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Post by antoninus9 on Sept 5, 2007 2:28:14 GMT
Mission statements are common among almost all modern organizations. American Freemasonry (perhaps others as well) has adopted: "We make good men better" or some derivative of that idea.
I believe this is a very poor mission statement for two reasons:
1. It focuses on the individual and does not provide a vision of how this is to be accomplished.
2. As Aristotle pointed-out we tend to believe that we are already good, and that our actions always benefit the good (self).
The earlier mission of Freemasonry was better (IMO) and provided a stated goal and purpose.
"Freemasonry is dedicated to the brotherhood of all mankind under the all-seeing eye of deity."
In today's language it may be more accurate to say: "Freemasonry is dedicated to the brother/sisterhood of all of humanity under the all-seeing eye of deity."
There are multiple benefits to the old mission statement:
1. It is a group vision as opposed to an individual one. In other words it is something we, as Masons, can work towards together as a group.
2. It lights the path to resolving many of our own internal problems as an organization. i.e. If our mission is the brother/sisterhood of all then we must begin by recognizing all Masons as such and do away with the divisive internal politics.
3. The brother/sisterhood of humanity is a concept that the public can understand and buy into.
4. The concept of the brother/sisterhood of humanity does not step on the toes of the world's religions. Religion is about making you better and purifying your soul, while extending brother/sisterhood to all is a part of universal human morality.
This mission does not reflect anything overtly spiritual. The spiritual aspect of the Craft is unique to every individual and their experience. By not being overtly spiritual we avoid issues with the world's religions.
What are your thoughts on this?
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Post by hollandr on Sept 5, 2007 3:40:07 GMT
And the reference to the deity allows for the existence of a divine plan and (hence?) a human responsibility to contribute to the greater good
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Post by 2 BOWL CAIN on Sept 5, 2007 5:10:40 GMT
Are Freemasons really being taught how they can contribute to the greater good? If so, as an individual or as a group? And to fully explore the possibilities of the divine plan, should we set limits on what "Freemasonry" studies and teaches, and should the rules of qualifications amd recognition be looked at, to really be able to have both genders promote freemasonry as well as Bodies that operate a little different?
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Post by thedixiemason on Sept 5, 2007 5:13:13 GMT
If you listened to the lectures, you would know that Freemasons are taught to contribute to the greater good... The EA Charge is a good example.
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Post by 2 BOWL CAIN on Sept 5, 2007 8:05:33 GMT
I am sorry, I thought I had listened and given and understood them. thank you for your insight It was well recieved and added much to the conversation. thank you Dixie for pointing that out to me. i am more enlightened now that you have dispensed it so wisely and compassionately. i am appreciative of you insight. The EA charge, which I have given many of times teaches nothing more than what we learn in gradeschool, in reakity if it is briken down. it hasn't progressed in a couple hundred years in its teachings IMHO
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Post by parisfred on Sept 6, 2007 21:35:17 GMT
don't forget brethren that the lectures depends of the masonic ritual you use, And there are dozens of masonic ritual, some don't have "lectures" as you know it. we always forget that our lodge are not the freemasonry, and so our local usage are not "the real values" of freemasonry but just "our local" values.
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Tamrin
Member
Nosce te ipsum
Posts: 3,586
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Post by Tamrin on Sept 7, 2007 3:58:54 GMT
don't forget brethren that the lectures depends of the masonic ritual you use Very true. I quite like the practice of each Grand Master adopting a theme or Mission Statement for their particular jurisdiction and for their respective terms of office. I am a bit uneasy about any such statements being more encompassing or more enduring, as we risk falling into a similar error as when some Grand Lodges unwisely specified particular, so-called, "Ancient Landmarks." The following is attributed to Preston and is from the Canadian (British Columbia) Installation Ritual ( Address to the Brethren). In New South Wales it is the first part of the Sectional Lectures. Therein is to be found as prescriptive a definition of the object of Freemasonry as I would personally find comfortable. Masonry, my brethren, according to the general acceptance of the term, is an art, founded on the principles of Geometry, and directed to the service and convenience of mankind, but Freemasonry, embracing a wider range, and having a nobler object in view, namely the cultivation and improvement of the human mind, may with more propriety be styled a science, inasmuch as availing itself of the terms of the former, it inculcates the principles of the purest morality, though its lessons are chiefly veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. To draw aside this veil, therefore, or more properly speaking, to penetrate through it, is the object of rulers in Freemasonry, and by a careful and appropriate attention to them, we may hope ultimately to become acquainted with all its mysteries.
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jmd
Member
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Posts: 1,081
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Post by jmd on Sept 8, 2007 0:05:05 GMT
I was going to make a similar reply to what ichabod mentions: let's learn from the lessons of the past and not sow for the future some kind of statement that is then considered to be akin to a 'Landmark'! As for "mission statements", I am personally not in favour of them, unless they are so vague as to effectively become meaningless. In essence, the problem I see with mission statements is that it focusses on the future. For a business whose board of directors have the power of periodically altering this in light of market changes (such as BP, for example, moving from petroleum to other energy sources, and altering its parochial 'British' to 'Beyond'), a mission statement and even slogan may be appropriate. For a fraternity, it can have the effect of locking future brethren into social understanding that may have been transcended with time. An example of this is in the opening example mentioned by antoninus9: "under the all-seeing eye of deity" - though many constitutions of course still require a belief in a supreme Being, and may thus be for them something that is apt, it is not universal, and other constitutions would see that as a religious statement only pertinent to the individual's prerogative, having nought to to with Freemasonry as such. The only kind of 'mission statement' that would likely be reasonable would not, therefore, be a statement of 'mission' - ie, would not be future oriented, but would rather be a statement of historical basis: "Freemasonry is founded on the symbolic uses of implements formerly employed in the art of building". To what end? this is where I suppose something like those threefold statements that are found in both English and French in different guises may be appropriate: "Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth" vs "Freedom, Equality, and Fraternity (Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité)" (which in any case are equivalent in my view - see my brief outline here). Combining this together, we have a desciption (rather than 'mission statement') of something like: "Freemasonry is founded on the symbolic and ritual initiatic uses of implements formerly employed in the art of building, in working towards building community with individuals developing fraternal love, relief arising from equitable values, and the freedom to pursue truth"... hardly something catchy like the current triforms of "Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth" and "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité"!
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Post by antoninus9 on Sept 9, 2007 3:39:45 GMT
The All-Seeing Eye of Deity could mean anything. Perhaps it is a reference to Spinoza's god?
It should not be taken as a qualification to be Mason. Anderson's Constitutions of 1723 do not require a belief in deity they simply state that no one who rightly understands the art will be a stupid atheist or irreligious libertine. What if he is a smart atheist and very "religious" libertine? ;-)
Jeff
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Post by hollandr on Sept 9, 2007 5:34:56 GMT
>The All-Seeing Eye of Deity could mean anything.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh we have various references to a god with an all-seeing eye
For example at Enlil's base "His raised Eye scans the land.... His raised Beam searches the land"
(quoted from The Twelfth Planet by Sitchin)
Enlil as the second Sumerian deity may be represented by the Second Principal in Holy Royal Arch who carries an all-seeing eye raised on a rod
Of course there are other sources of all-seeing eyes as might be noted by brethren in meditation when they attract the attention of one of the Officers in the Temple in the Heavens
Cheers
Russell
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Post by maat on Sept 10, 2007 0:30:48 GMT
The All-Seeing Eye of Deity could mean anything. Perhaps it is a reference to Spinoza's god? How about the Pineal gland (the Third Eye) at the top of the spinal column, illustrated by the Caduceus? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_eye"The principle power comes from the two snakes that wind their way up the central staff, the spinal column. The two snakes represent the kundalini energies that move up the two etheric channels which, in Eastern (Sanskrit) lore, are called the ida and pingala. These are the conduits that carry the energies of the earth up through the body so that they can unite with the energies brought down from above, bringing the physical and spiritual realms together. Serpent energy rising in a person's body is the same as the kundalini energy seen in the Eastern imagery. The snakes of the caduceus are associated with the elements Water and Fire, with female and male, yin and yang. The central staff is the spinal column, the shushumna canal, the primary channel for our energy. To the ancient Egyptians it would have been the djed pillar, the backbone of Osiris. The staff appears to be made of metal, perhaps gold, and represents the element Earth. The wings of the caduceus represent Air, the element that we associate with our higher self, that aspect of our self that connects us with spirit. These wings unite us with the entire cosmos and give us the freedom to explore it. The round ball at the top of the staff symbolizes both the prima materia, (the first matter) and the pure diamond body, the essence of spirit. It is superimposed over the pineal gland, in the center of the brain, and is pictured as a glowing crystal or diamond orb. Occasionally it appears as a pinecone, for which the pineal gland was named, perhaps because of the similarity in shape. This may well be the stone, the first matter which, when infused with spirit, is transformed into the diamond body, the universal medicine, the philosophers’ stone.... " shamanicjourneys.com/articles/articleframe.html?frame=http%3A//shamanicjourneys.com/articles/caduceus.htmlMaat
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Post by maat on Sept 10, 2007 0:40:04 GMT
>The All-Seeing Eye of Deity could mean anything. In the Epic of Gilgamesh we have various references to a god with an all-seeing eye For example at Enlil's base "His raised Eye scans the land.... His raised Beam searches the land" (quoted from The Twelfth Planet by Sitchin) Enlil as the second Sumerian deity may be represented by the Second Principal in Holy Royal Arch who carries an all-seeing eye raised on a rod Of course there are other sources of all-seeing eyes as might be noted by brethren in meditation when they attract the attention of one of the Officers in the Temple in the Heavens Cheers Russell Background info for readers unfamiliar with the above... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NephilimMaat
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Post by 2 BOWL CAIN on Sept 10, 2007 13:28:12 GMT
Could not the All Seeing Eye of Deity refer to just the SUN. The Eye of the Creator that is always vigilant in it's watch over us. The sun has always had a mysterious involvement with mystery schools. It is tangible, and applicable in any age, because if the Sun disappears, then nothing really matters any more
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Post by lauderdale on Sept 10, 2007 14:17:01 GMT
The Aten? I hadn't thought of that! Thanks.
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Post by antoninus9 on Sept 10, 2007 15:01:26 GMT
Now I will proceed to make the sun go away as a demonstration of this truth. ;-)
Jeff
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Y Mahomed
Member
3rd door left of right
Posts: 97
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Post by Y Mahomed on Sept 10, 2007 19:36:36 GMT
I agree with most of your statements ... very well put
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Post by maat on Sept 10, 2007 22:26:47 GMT
So we do not way lay Freemasonry's Mission Statement I will direct you to Tonyg's new thread "Zero Point" which refers to the Light behind the Sun, the Moon and the Stars, who are merely messengers...
Maat
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Post by hollandr on Sept 10, 2007 22:38:14 GMT
>Could not the All Seeing Eye of Deity refer to just the SUN.
As I recall in Egyptian beliefs the Sun is the physical eye of Ra
Thus Ra as a spiritual being has also a physical body (solar system?) of which the eye is the Sun
But as I indicated above it is a common experience in meditation to see an eye looking at one, and often close up
This experience is combined with the raised eye of the gods that searched all the lands (corresponding perhaps to a satellite) to present a combined image with both physical and spiritual meanings
cheers
Russell
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Post by sid on Sept 10, 2007 23:06:06 GMT
Greetings, >Could not the All Seeing Eye of Deity refer to just the SUN. As I recall in Egyptian beliefs the Sun is the physical eye of Ra Thus Ra as a spiritual being has also a physical body (solar system?) of which the eye is the Sun But as I indicated above it is a common experience in meditation to see an eye looking at one, and often close up This experience is combined with the raised eye of the gods that searched all the lands (corresponding perhaps to a satellite) to present a combined image with both physical and spiritual meanings cheers Russell In Arabic Al/Allah signifies the Sun behind the Sun in triple aspect, also known as A.G.L.A. in the Hebrew i.e., Elohim (God).
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