Through Book & Memory: The L/L Research Library

[Steppingfeet]

You may or may not be aware that L/L Research has a home library of about 5,000 books. The collection began with Don and Carla's books and has continued growing since then, each of us contributing along the way. This simple video highlights some of that library along with photos. It is a gift to Jim.

The beautiful song you hear is called "The Wanderers" by the Lacy J. Dalton. Carla and Jim loved the song. We've used it on many an occasion for tuning the circle before meditation and channeling.

Thought you might dig. Enjoy!

[Diana]

Jeez, that song made me cry. Thanks Gary.

[Dekalb_Blues]

~
Dug. You know, as the camera panned over the fastidiously organized books, each carefully labeled as to subject category and with its appropriate Dewey Decimal System call number, I was thinking: Who would go to that much trouble?!  Then a Homeric D'oh!: Carla was only a bloody professional librarian... !

Incidentally, I've already gone through the experience of catastrophically losing an entire personal library, in my case one acquired over five decades, comprising over 5,000 volumes dating back to the 18th century, and containing many a bibliophile's gem (though I never did, alas, acquire that much-coveted first edition of the Gutenberg Bible signed by God). I liken the catalyst I experienced from this event as being not quite equivalent to the loss of a small child, but certainly the next-tragedy-down, a notch or so. However, I know some pretty annoying little children, so my judgment might be skewed benignently on this point. At any rate, it is wonderful training (certainly for an intellectual perhaps a bit too prone to take the abstract for the concrete) for letting go and living on -- if one can arise from the devastated pile of ashes of one's former bookish self, and look on the bright side: aren't the fabled Akashic Records purportedly the ultimate back-up for any seemingly "lost" data that is in fact truly useful to Man? In any event, as a certain Sufi said: Words must die if people are to live.

Cheers!






https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Library_of_Babel
http://www.konbini.com/us/inspiration/jo...ts-online/


 Me puzzling over The Ra Material: An Ancient Astronaut Speaks ca. late 1980s

 Among my first childhood experiences with the wonder of Literature

[Jade]

Dug. You know, as the camera panned over the fastidiously organized books, each carefully labeled as to subject category and with its appropriate Dewey Decimal System call number, I was thinking: Who would go to that much trouble?! Then a Homeric D'oh!: Carla was only a bloody professional librarian... !

Jim actually completed the project after Carla's passing, as an homage to one of her wishes. So it was a special labor of love.

[Diana]

Incidentally, I've already gone through the experience of catastrophically losing an entire personal library, in my case one acquired over five decades, comprising over 5,000 volumes dating back to the 18th century, and containing many a bibliophile's gem (though I never did, alas, acquire that much-coveted first edition of the Gutenberg Bible signed by God). I liken the catalyst I experienced from this event as not quite equivalent to the loss of a small child, but certainly the next-tragedy-down, a notch or so. However, I know some pretty annoying little children, so my judgment might be skewed callously on this point. At any rate, it is wonderful training (certainly for an intellectual perhaps a bit too prone to take the abstract for the concrete) for letting go and living on -- if one can arise from the devastated pile of ashes of one's former bookish self, and look on the bright side: aren't the Akashic Records the ultimate back-up for any seemingly "lost" data that is truly valuable? In any event, as a certain Sufi said: Words must die if people are to live.

LOL! This paragraph made my day. Thanks for the amusement Dekalb. 

[Steppingfeet]

Dug. You know, as the camera panned over the fastidiously organized books, each carefully labeled as to subject category and with its appropriate Dewey Decimal System call number, I was thinking: Who would go to that much trouble?!  Then a Homeric D'oh!: Carla was only a bloody professional librarian... !

It was her life's dream (or one of them, rather) to see the library catalogued. Not only to satisfy the librarian in her (her chosen vocation had not Don intervened), but Carla also envisioned a means whereby people could check out books using a computer dedicated to that purpose. This dream was developed and nurtured long before Google, of course.

So in the final months of her life we finally got cataloguing software. My wife, Trish, dewey decimalized about half the collection, then as Jade indicated, Jim, with great purpose and joy, finished the remainder. It was awesome knowing that Carla knew that her collection would finally get the official treatment before she left this incarnation.

I'm sorry to hear of the loss of your personal Alexandria. Let us hope that the Akashic Records keeps your stuff boxed up and marked with your name.

[Nicholas]

Jeez, that song made me cry. Thanks Gary.

I had something similar. Having only just discovered this absolute gem of a tribute I called to my wife, Heidi, to come and see the L/L home. Half way through she said "is that Don?", and the picture of him looking solemnly at the floor had me bursting into tears. The same thing happened to me when I read his fate in book 5 for the first time. I just want to give him a big warm hug and say "She never stopped loving you, you silly old sod!"

[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."

[YinYang]

Hi Gary, Austin & Jim

Do you by any chance have a catalogue of your books? One of the biggest gems I found through Carla was Joel Goldsmith, which she recommended in book 5 of the Ra material. I thought, as positive seekers, there might be some more great gems. I'm also curious what Don read, his questioning during the Ra contact reflected great depth of knowledge and insight.

Another question, tell us about the affinity with Don Quixote. Did that come from Carla initially? I remember Carla mentioned somewhere that she had a Don Quixote painting, and Don would sit and stare at it sometimes. He was so ahead of his time, as Carla would say. I have always considered him as the one who got the wheels rolling initially.

Okay maybe one more question, I remember yonks ago Carla mentioned in a podcast that reincarnation was removed from the bible during the Council of Nicaea, from which book did she learn of this? I think the Empress she mentioned who was mainly responsible for this omission was Empress Theodora?

[Steppingfeet]

Hi Gary, Austin & Jim

Do you by any chance have a catalogue of your books? One of the biggest gems I found through Carla was Joel Goldsmith, which she recommended in book 5 of the Ra material. I thought, as positive seekers, there might be some more great gems. I'm also curious what Don read, his questioning during the Ra contact reflected great depth of knowledge and insight.

Another question, tell us about the affinity with Don Quixote. Did that come from Carla initially? I remember Carla mentioned somewhere that she had a Don Quixote painting, and Don would sit and stare at it sometimes. He was so ahead of his time, as Carla would say. I have always considered him as the one who got the wheels rolling initially.

Okay maybe one more question, I remember yonks ago Carla mentioned in a podcast that reincarnation was removed from the bible during the Council of Nicaea, from which book did she learn of this? I think the Empress she mentioned who was mainly responsible for this omission was Empress Theodora?

Hey there YY,

All the books are catalogued in software. It would be a matter of whether that list could be exported. We shall see.

Regarding the affinity with Don Quixote, two resources:

• Carla's short essay here
  
• Pages 49-50 and 579-583 in Tilting at Windmills
  

As to Elkins, indeed the whole trajectory of L/L Research, including where we are now with the Bring4th forums, was put into motion by his desire to know. That began in 1948 and manifested into motion in 1955.

Have to get back to you on the other question.

[Steppingfeet]

Jim isn't sure where Carla got the information from. But he said that he had done some research by way of Google on the topic. This was prompted by the event discussed in this Q&A: 104.25.

He said it was indeed Empress Theodora. According to the information he dug up on the webs, she realized that she couldn't be properly deified were reincarnation a tenet of the increasingly popular Christian philosophy, so she intervened to cleanse Jesus's teachings of reincarnation.

If that's true, it's heartbreaking that one person's vanity could have such massive and enduring consequences for the world.

Edit: Jim said he wrote about it here.

[YinYang]

Thanks Gary (and Jim), yeah, it's indeed sad if that's how it all played out. That being said, I know many Christians who are quite open and receptive to the idea of reincarnation, the more intuitive ones. I guess truth can't be hidden for too long. I suspect it's not the only thing that was tampered with by the council, I think the nature of Jesus was also "decided upon", that this is possibly where he was deified and made into "the only Son of God", or as Ra would say "placed in a hypocritical position".

They forgot to remove this verse though: I said, “You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you"...

It makes me want to read the Nag Hammadi Scrolls.

[YinYang]

I found this little excerpt in the Nag Hammadi, which teaches the dualism in us all:

For it is I who am acquaintance: and lack of acquaintance.
It is I who am reticence: and frankness.
I am shameless: I am ashamed.
I am strong: and I am afraid.
It is I who am war: and peace.

Ra: I am Ra. Are you not all things?