ALL WE NEED TO KNOW
An analysis of Micah 6:8


1

Theosophy, as I see it, is the practice and knowledge of what is essential, in order to live a self-transcendent life. How do we find that knowledge? Religious myths and doctrines can be quite beautiful; their worth, however, is evinced by the degree they inspire us to do good and to turn inward. God is indeed (mostly) silent, yet we are His ventriloquists. The words we have attributed to Him over the centuries can help us make spiritual progress or hinder that progress. If we consider religious doctrines not as signposts that give direction, but as absolutes in themselves, we are like inchworms crawling up a tree stump. We will never reach the green we need unless we climb down the signpost and seek verdure in the direction indicated. If we don't, we writhe on dry wood, doomed to perish miserably.
The classics of religious literature, like secular classics, contain passages that transcend their times—the best of which transcend time itself—and other passages that are of only historical interest along with others that are best forgotten due to their destructive nature. Denigration of women and denigration of sexual minorities are examples of the latter. True knowledge is not dogmatic or divisive; it is knowledge to be used as a universal guide through life. Micah 6:8 is a stellar example of supreme guidance, and we will discuss in this article why we believe this is so.
True seekers know that religious writing is to be understood as poetry rather than as prose. Truth is far too subtle and far too glorious to be contained by literal interpretations. Believing that the Bible portrays facts the way science does is as absurd as extracting from the verse, "My love is like a red, red rose," the doctrine that Robert Burns's unfortunate sweetheart had a body made jagged by thorns and was plagued by aphids.
True seekers, as we hope has been made clear, use religious doctrine as signs to keep them on the right path, rather than as ends in themselves. Walking on the right path, however, does not mean that reaching our true home is inevitable. The opportunities to follow butterflies and get lost are myriad. We all need signposts from time to time; especially signs that clearly help us to get our bearings.
Maimonides, the great Jewish sage, wrote several hundred years ago a book entitled, "A Guide for the Perplexed," a remarkable, long book that contains many genuine directional arrows. As one would expect from a text written so long ago, several of its arrows, however useful, have been rotated by age or by cultural differences and may not be as understandable as others. What if we were to discover a clear directional that has not been distorted by time and is as reliable a guide for the perplexed as it was centuries ago?
What would you reply if someone asked you what is the essence of all religious teaching? You would not go astray, we believe, if you quoted Micah 6:8 as the answer. A discussion of this biblical passage follows, in an attempt to inspire us on the road toward greater theosophy.


2

The Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, contains three sections, Torah (Teaching), the Nevi'im (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (Writings). The book of Micah, written in the eighth century before the common era, forms part of the Nevi'im section. "Micah" means "God is with him," or alternatively, "He is like God." Little is known about the historical Micah; he might have grown up poor, but was certainly well educated. His prophecy begins with severe criticism of his people—for they had gone astray, just as we have today. The book continues with threats of divine retaliation caused by the vanities and the injustices committed against the poor. It ends, however, with a note of hope. Micah 6:8 informs us what we must do to heal both ourselves and the world. What follows is a translation of this passage by the Jewish Publication Society:

He hath told thee, O man, what is good and what the Lord
doth require of thee: Only to do justly, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God.

What an extraordinary guide for the perplexed! It contains all we need to know to lead a deeply spiritual life, which the following interpretation we hope will make clear.
The first phrase of the prophecy, which states that the Lord has revealed to us what is good, is a summary of what follows. According to our interpretation, it is of crucial importance that the three requirements are to be met in chronological order. First we must do justice; only after we are on the path of righteous behavior do we proceed to the next step, the internalization of doing good, that is, by loving mercy. If we then walk on with a combination of these two virtues, as if the right foot were justice and the left foot were love, we eventually realize that we are walking with God.
In the beginning of the prophecy, God commands: what is good must be fulfilled. At this point, human beings might not know, or refuse to do, what's good for them and the world. Left alone, one assumes, they would quickly and comfortably settle on a life based on greed, hate and delusion. God does not give them time to work out for themselves what is good; he has told us what we need to know. We need not waste time seeking the right path, since it has been revealed to us. Since it has been revealed to us by "the still small voice" within us, we have no excuse not to follow. At the beginning, we are commanded to do good as if God were our father and we were little children. Only as we progress to the next step, loving mercy, do we internalize our acts of justice, and become good. Once this step is reached it is automatic that we find ourselves walking in the company of God; the requirement here is that we are to keep vigilant to assure ourselves and the world that we are walking humbly.
In the Jewish tradition, outward activity is paramount. The world is crying out to be healed and we must do our best to accomplish this—this became known centuries after Micah as tikkum olam, the healing of the world. A just outward life, however, is not enough; the inner life must not be neglected. If one is told to do something and one doesn't know why, one tends to shirk duty. Why bother to do the good? God's first requirement must be internalized; we must look deep inside ourselves. The second requirement of God is to love mercy; once this is accomplished a human being is no longer a child, but a mature adult. He now knows not only what to do but why; from now on the outer life increases the inner, and vice versa. The outer life without the inner withers; the inner life without the other is vain. With justice increasing love, and love increasing justice, the borders blur and love and justice become one. Man becomes a Moebius strip, a figure whose inner and outer aspects are one and the same. This is, we believe, the summit of humanity.
Let us return to the beginning: God gives us requirements. They are the same for Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Christians and Muslims; they are also the same for agnostics and atheists. Working for justice and loving mercy enhance the humanity of all. It is important for us, racked as we are by religious and political strife, to realize that according to this great prophet, God does not require us to believe anything particular, that is, parochial, about Himself. There is no mention that we must believe that God literally gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, not to mention requiring us to believe in such things as a virgin birth or that Jesus of Nazareth is God's only begotten Son. We need not take our poetry literally; we need only walk down the right path.
According to Micah 6:8, God reveals Himself first as abstract commands or requirements. Once these requirements are fulfilled, one finds oneself walking with God. The Lord, previously concealed, now reveals Himself inwardly as a person; man has finally found his true companion. That God is found through working for justice and love is of crucial importance. It implies that God is not found in dogma, ritual, theological writing or in philosophy books. (I must pause here. While writing this on a train traveling from Alleppy to Chennai, I hear a noise. I look up and see several injured people, young and old, some on stretchers, being led down the aisle of our bogey, inches away from my eyes. The conductor tells us that they had been injured when their bus overturned during a pilgrimage to Shabarimallai, a famous religious site in Kerala. O how I wish I could convey to them that one doesn't have to go on dangerous pilgrimages to find God. God is more easily found beside you, at home or wherever you may be, by living a life of love and wisdom.) You need not even call God God—call Him the Self, Nirvana or whatever you feel appropriate. Follow this path and you will find Something so great, so beyond words, that any description thereof, even by using the word 'God,' the most transcendent word we have, is like a lightning bug's light compared to the sun's.
Lord knows, we humans are vain creatures. There is a danger of hubris everywhere, even here—that is why God qualifies the verb 'walk' with the adverb 'humbly'—the final requirement. There is no room for a person here to claim, "I am walking with God; therefore I'm superior to those who do not." If such a thought arises, one must rededicate himself to a life of good works and of inner development. As Lao Tse taught, we must go to the foot of a mountain and meditate until only the mountain remains. To work for justice is our walking meditation; to love mercy is our silent meditation. Practicing both is our path.

3.

According to Jewish tradition, a Greek asked the great sage Hillel to explain to him the meaning of the Torah while standing on one foot. Hillel told him that which one doesn't want others to do to oneself, one should not do to others. Hillel said that this was the true meaning of the Torah and that the rest was commentary. In other words, stop all sinful actions with the implication that once the barrier of sinful action is removed, one's true nature, to do good and to be good, can be realized without impediments. Wonderful advice, but how do we accomplish this? By following Micah 6:8; only thus are the masks of sin removed and our true nature revealed. There is no more we need know; to do right and to be right is the direct path to God and to ourselves.





Thomas Dorsett
Ramanatom@gmail.com
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