From: tyagI@houseofkaos.Abyss.coM (tyagi mordred nagasiva)
To: alt.magick
Subject: Burning Bibles 451 :> (9408.bblburn.ttm)
Date: 49940824
Quoting: |sahr@thuja.FSL.ORST.EDU (Kevin Sahr) 
    and  "Theophane the Monk (Idries Shah?)

|Please; if it is your inclination to tell me to simply toss the
|bible in the fire and forget about it, I would prefer that you
|enjoy your opinion in silence....

:>  Here you go:

"I've been going there on retreat each year for the past forty years.
 Each time it's the same, yet somehow always different.  The first
 time I went I forgot to bring my Bible.  When I asked the guestmaster
 if I could borrow a Bible, he said, 'Wouldn't you care to write your
 own?'

"'What do you mean?'

"'Well, write your own Bible - something of your own on the order of the
  Bible.  You could tell of a classical bondage and the great liberation,
  a promised land, sacred songs, a messiah - that kind of thing.  Ought
  to be much more interesting than just reading someone else's Bible.
  And you might learn more.'

"Well, I set to work.  It took me a month.  I never learned so much about
 the official Bible.  When I was finished, he recommended I take it home
 and try to live according to it for a year.  I should keep a journal of
 my experience.  But I shouldn't tell anybody about the project, nor show
 anyone the books.  Next year, after Christmas, I could come back for
 another retreat.

"It was quite a year.  An eye-opener.  Most certainly I had never put so
 much energy and alertness into living by the official Bible as I was
 putting into living by this one.  And my daily meditations had never
 been so concentrated.

"When I arrived back for my next retreat, he greeted me very warmly,
 took into his hands my Bible and my journal, kissed them with greatest
 reverence, and told me I could now spend a couple of days and nights
 in the Hall of the Great Fire.  On the last night of the year, I should
 consign my two books to the flames.  And that's what I did.  A whole
 year's wisdom and labor - into the Great Fire.  Afterwards he set me
 to work writing another Bible.

"And so it went, these past forty years.  Each year a new Bible, a new
 journal, and then at the end of the year - into the flames.  Until now
 I have never told anyone about this."

_Tales of a Magic Monastery_, by Theophane the Monk, pp. 43-4.
______________________________________________________________

tyagi
tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com

Disclaimer: The file contained in the box above or displayed in a separate window from a link in the box above is NOT owned nor implied to be owned by BeYoND THe iLLuSioN. Most files at BeYoND THe iLLuSioN are originally from public Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) which were popular in the days before the Internet or from gopher, web, and FTP sites from the early days of the Internet which no longer exist today. Essentially, all files were acquired from the public domain in one for or another.

However, there have been occasions when copyright protected material has appeared on BeYoND THe iLLuSIoN without permission of the copyright holder. In these instances, we have and will continue to remove the copyright protected file as soon as it is brought to our attention. This can now be done using our Report Copyright Material form. Fill out the form, and the webmaster will be notified of the situation.

There are also times when files found on BeYoND THe iLLuSioN have a real home somewhere else on the Internet. In these instances, we will gladly replace the file with a link to its true home whenever it is brought to our attention. If you know of the true home of any of these files, you can use our Report Original URL form to bring it yo our attention.