The written vs the spoken traditions

[Plenum]

much has been made in certain traditions of having a lineage of teachers and training. Here the disciplining and screening and assessment is strong. This is more a personal tradition, of one to one teaching.

Then there is the written tradition, which enables a wider dissemination of ideas, but also permits the proliferation of confusion as the written word can be much misinterpreted, and there is not the corrective measure of a teacher assessing the learning as the teachings are given.

it is not one or the other; we can make use of both techniques.

- -

there also seems to be something in the written tradition which leads to codification and rigidity; although the same thing can happen in any group where there is a strong leadership presence.

in the end, its the transmission and dissemination of understandings, regardless of the words used that is the important thing. Or as the buddha has referenced in the past - the use of expedient means.

anyway, the thought just came up in relation to a small quote; which was purely informative (on Ra's part) and contained no seed of this written/spoken divide. (that was purely me).

"88.20 Questioner: Well, how did the teacher relay information to the student with respect to visualization?

Ra: I am Ra. The process was cabalistic; that is, of the oral tradition of mouth to ear."

- -

[Marc]

I very much appreciate that there is written material out there. It does have the ability to be very distorted, take the bible for example, but I still find it necessary. Not everyone that wants to learn the mysteries can just find a master to initiate them.

The downsides to the written word are mass ignorance of actually having some decent sort of comprehensive skill of reading.

On the other hand keeping that away from people exerts a sense of control to the ones who do know it. Take the reformation, for example.

The elite who had acess to the bible would misinterpret it and hide parts of it to control the mass populace. But then when people started reading it for themselves they came up with some pretty crazy doctrines...