Theos-Talk Archives (January 1998 Message tl00217)

Ramadoss & Alan:

>M K Ramadoss <ramadoss@eden.com> quotes Ernest Wood:
>
>>It is not here, nor is it there, that pure life or truth shall be found.
>>There are no secret passages to truth. No hocus-pocus of incantations, of
>>word or of the subtler word that is thought, can light or fan the central
>>fire. No establishment can establish it; no communications communicate.
>
>AMEN, AMEN, AMEN.
>
>Alan

It may depend upon which road up the mountainside that you take.
There are different approaches, depending upon which religion or
spiritual tradition that you align yourself with. One approach
may use ritual, rites, ceremony, others may stress direct
meditative insight like Zen. Some approaches may use the word,
thought, and reflection to awaken one's inner fire, and as a
technique for self-development, and they are just as useful to
some people as other, mystical, anti-intellectual approaches.
Ramadoss is right *from one standpoint*, and those words would
ring true to the followers of certain traditions; the same words
word come across as nonsense to equally sincere and effective
followers of differing traditions. Which tradition is right?

For a particular culture some approaches may prove most effective
and should be promoted first, but for any of us as individuals
it's *what works* that counts.

-- Eldon