THEORY AND PRACTICE

1. The connection between philosophy and religion is so very intimate because, essentially, they are two approaches to the same thing, viz. metaphysics.

2. This is so, at any rate, of genuine philosophy (aphoristic) and religion (transcendentalist), whose approach to metaphysics is not hyped or clouded by physics, chemistry, or metachemistry, as the case may be.

3. The only difference between philosophy and religion is that whereas the former approaches metaphysics theoretically, the latter's approach to metaphysics is from the practical standpoint, with a view to actually experiencing truth and joy.

4. For while philosophy can only speak of truth and joy, religious praxis affords one experience of truth and joy, the former as God and the latter as Heaven.

5. Thus while terms like 'truth' and 'joy' are germane to the theoretical approach to metaphysics, which is called philosophy, 'God' and 'Heaven' are their experiential fulfilments in relation to religious praxis, the praxis that, far from theorizing about truth and joy, actually allows one to become God (the knower of truth) and Heaven (the feeling of joy) through transcendental meditation.

6. Thus religion is the vindication of philosophy, the practical fulfilment of a metaphysical theory. And we may believe that without philosophy, genuine philosophy, there would be no genuine religion, no transcendental meditation and related metaphysical experience. They are, in a sense, two sides of the same coin - the 'tails' side of metaphysical theory, and the 'heads' side of metaphysical practice.

7. Thus religious praxis is the test of philosophy, as of the philosopher. For to theorize for the sake of theorizing would be a sheer waste of time and confirmation, if ever one needed it, of philosophical insincerity.

8. No theory is valid until it has been put into practice and, hopefully, proved to be the basis of experiential fulfilment, vindicated in terms of its ability to deliver that which until then had been merely theoretical.

9. Philosophy may talk about the truth of God and the joy of Heaven, but only religion can deliver experience of God through truth and of Heaven through joy - the truth of meditative praxis, which is God, and the joy of ego-transcendence, which is Heaven.

10. It is on this basis, metaphorically speaking, that one moves from the 'tails' to the 'heads', from the 'dark' to the 'light', from the philosophy to the religion. And a religion is only as good as its philosophy!

11. Should the philosophy be ultimate, as genuine and 'true' as it is possible to be, then the religion will be likewise, with truly divine and sublime implications.

12. If I am the 'philosopher king', the truest philosopher, then Social Transcendentalism will be the 'religious king', the godliest religion, against which all other religions will have to be judged. Doubtless that accords with Judgement.