Theos-Talk Archives (January 2003 Message tt00287)

From: "Zack Lansdowne" <zackl@sprynet.com>
> Next, let us turn to Alice A. Bailey. In "A Treatise on White Magic", first
> published in 1934, AAB wrote:

So a Tibetan Master of the Wisdom did not write this book, but AAB did? That
is a new wrinkle.

> "All that is possible for me is to grope for those feeble words which will
> somewhat clothe the thought. As they clothe it they limit it and I am guilty
> of creating new prisoners who must ultimately be released. All books are
> prison houses of ideas."

Are spoken words also prison houses of ideas? Is each one of us a warden or a
prisoner? I would suggest that the reader or listener or thinker has the
power to go within & beyond words. Why else would there be thousands upon
thousands of written texts and millions of spoken words issuing forth from
varied spiritual paths. Books are no more limiting, per se, than our own
limiting selves. To paraphrase the Gita "books can be our spiritual friends
&/or spiritual enemies".

> Here AAB is pointing out that even her own books are "prison houses of
> ideas." The purpose of her books was to free her readers from past dogmas
> that had become barriers to their spiritual progress. But if her readers
> turn her own books into hard-and-fast dogmas, as many of her readers have
> done, then they have become prisoners of those books who must be freed by
> future writers.
[.......]

> I think that HPB, AAB, and ACIM are telling us the same thing: namely, it
> is a mistake to turn any written doctrine into a hard-and-fast dogma, or
> standard of truth.

So also does Buddhism where it is said to go beyond the written to the
meaning, & beyond the meaning to definitive meaning . I would think we all
know this. Perhaps you think debate in seeking better discernment of the
written truth is always profitless. Not true. It can also be very helpful
in our growth in understanding. It is an ancient approach recommended by
Shankara, Buddha and other lights from the East.