Through Book & Memory: The L/L Research Library

[Dekalb_Blues]

A prodigious source of catalyst, its many dimensions which I contemplated for any possible inner silver lining (I went at this for all I was worth, believe me, until smoke poured out my ears), and lo! many an epic epiphany was reached, duly turning me into the pristine superbeing, immeasurably above all human vanity, that I am now. So, it was one of those unbearable little life experiences one would never consciously ask for, but after it's lived through (if you call that living!) one paradoxically wouldn't have missed it for the world, for all its excruciating stimuli that puts one through a remorselessly fine-grinding mill. But-- when all's said and done, it's just stuff! "Lay not up for yourself treasures on Earth where moth or dust doth corrupt..." I'm reminded of an anecdote involving Dr. Samuel Johnson, the famed litterateur of the early 18th century (considered perhaps the most distinguished man of letters in English history) who went to inspect the new home of his friend and pupil, Shakespearean thespian David Garrick, who had recently hit the big time and made a pile of money -- immediately outfitting himself with all the cultural trappings he thought proper for a wealthy gentleman aesthete. Garrick gave Johnson the grand tour of his luxurious abode, lavishly packed with paintings, books, sculpture, and so on, and finally proudly asked him what he thought of it all, expecting the flattering commendations he had been receiving from various sycophants. Johnson shook his head ruefully and said, "Ah, Davy, Davy -- I fear that all of this will make it very hard on you, when it comes your time to die."

 





“Anyone can see that an ass laden with books remains a donkey. A human being laden with the undigested results of a tussle with thoughts and books, however, still passes for wise."



A Disciple of Haidar
Haidar heard a disciple say:
'I am glad I did not buy such-and-such a book, for now I have arrived at
the Source of its knowledge I have saved myself pain and needless expense.'
After a year Haidar handed him a book, saying,
'You have served me for twelve months. The value of your labour has been
a hundred dirhams. That is the cost of this book.
'You would not have paid a hundred silver pieces for such an inanmimate
object as a book, and few people would do so. But you have been made to pay
for it, by me, and here it is.
'A camel is dear at a penny if you do not need a camel.
'A single word is cheap at a thousand gold pieces, if it is essential to you.
'If you wish to return to the Source of Being, you will always have to take
the first step, even though you may be demanding to be allowed to take the
hundredth step.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_the_Book
http://www.idriesshahfoundation.org/book...-the-book/

"Scholars of the East and West have heroically consecrated their whole working lives to making available, by means of their own disciplines, Sufi literary and philosophical material to the world at large. In many cases they have faithfully recorded the Sufis' own reiteration that the Way of the Sufis cannot be understood by means of the intellect or by ordinary book learning."