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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Why Jesus and Socrates did not Write Books

"A teacher should not mean but be"

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BOY. I've wondered why Socrates and Jesus, arguably, the wisest ever to walk the Earth, did not commit to writing even a word of their visions of life.

GIRL. That is odd – they wrote not a word while we fill libraries. Is it that they left this work to others, or are we misguided to write things down?

BOY. That’s the question. And I think I have a partial answer.

GIRL. Tell me.

BOY. This subject is hard to talk about – it encompasses so much. Let me start with a personal detail. When I worked on my master’s degree I was taking a lit class. I’d gone into the program wanting the credential but did not think I’d gain very much.

GIRL. (small smile) Sounds like my over-confident friend.

BOY. Right. So, I was surprised when I found myself learning a lot. I was introduced to many things, but one thing I remember especially is Archibald McLeish’s “a poem should not mean, but be.”

GIRL. mmm…

BOY. Well, you know how left-brained I am, so this was "against my religion." I’d thought that all writing must have a clear, bullet-point format of instruction to be any use. And now I’m told that some writing does not need to have a meaning. What good is it? I thought.

GIRL. But think about the arts - we recognize that beauty has no necessary utilitarian function.

BOY. That’s obvious to me now, and I’ve become more like you in this, but back then, this was a new idea.

GIRL. Wasn’t it Ben Franklin who answered a similar question with, “Of what use is a newborn baby?”

BOY. And then from Dr. Robinson I learned that Socrates said that virtue cannot be taught – in fact, as I came to see, nothing of ultimate value can be taught. The best we can do is to lead others to find these things for themselves.

GIRL. I can see that these discoveries were directing you on a certain path. What came next?

BOY. It’s hard to remember the order, but I learned from Dr. Adler that all great literature, great art, great music, is deemed to be such because these will speak to the great ideas of history – all of which resonate deeply with people, and if you address these ideas, by the "halo effect," you will be considered great, too.

GIRL. mmm...

BOY. And I finally came to see that, as a teacher, I might inform others about certain factoids of the world – but, 100 years from now, with a new technology and information, how valuable will that be? And I realized that I might explain to a child something about how electric cars work – and that has some value – but I rapidly began to see that anything of true, enduring worth cannot really be given to another.

GIRL. I see what you mean. A teacher cannot really convey to another human being the eternal truths - the meaning of love, or beauty, or courage – or any virtue. These are things that each soul must come to discover for him or herself.

BOY. Yes… I finally saw that.

GIRL. But, why would Socrates and Jesus not write of their findings? Surely there is value in reading a master teacher’s advice. He can tell us how to find these virtues on our own!

BOY. And that’s a really good question, and I had a problem with that for some time.

GIRL. What’s the answer?

BOY. Is the answer something that I can give to you? – or will you need to discover it on your own?

GIRL. Give me a push in the right direction.

BOY. Alright… Let me restate first. All information of the ephemeral world has limited value. For example, electric cars will soon be replaced by something else. And soon we’ll go to a world where there are no cars, and we’ll transport ourselves at the speed of thought; therefore, any information about this changing world will soon be obsolete.

GIRL. It’s Heraclitus’ river – we can’t dip our foot into the same one twice! Everything's in flux.

BOY. Exactly. But things of the “invisible world” are eternal and do not change – not the really good things.

GIRL. And these are the things we access via the soul, and each person must embark upon that quest of discovery on an individual basis. But, even if we grant all that, we still need to answer, why the reluctance of Socrates and Jesus to write anything down?

BOY. Here’s my theory. If we are led by the Small Ego, we can become mesmerized by the stature of a great teacher. The ego wants to cling to coat-tails, to engage in “transference,” to dysfunctionally identify with the master sage.

GIRL. Wait a minute! Transference, Freud said, is to ever remain a child. This is heavy! This would mean that each of us must grow up and become… like Socrates and Jesus!

BOY. And why not? Does not each of us, if we call ourselves human, have a soul as potentially sturdy and capable as any other in the universe?

GIRL. Even as that of a Socrates and Jesus? People are afraid of that kind of power.

BOY. People are afraid to grow up, to become who they truly are. It’s so much easier to "stay in the nursery and be fed cookies and juice" by the great teachers.

GIRL. They didn’t want us to become co-dependent, did they. That’s why they didn’t try to build a big organization to officially perpetuate their teachings.

BOY. I think that’s correct. But here’s what I want us to understand – it was not “their” teaching, not “their” exclusive wisdom, they didn't own it, as such. Tell me why this is so.

GIRL. It was not “their” teaching, as such, because all virtue finds natural home in each of our souls. God doesn't play favorites. There are no gurus, no infallible popes or books. There is no final word on anything. We are to hold whatever truth we have loosely in our hands, pending further light, as there will always be more to come. Further, we are all on a path toward becoming more and more, and the only delimiting factor separating the “highest” from the “lowest” is the level of consciousness attained.

BOY. Your own soul has taught you these things – and now it’s part of you. So, tell me… why didn’t those two write books? – even when certain advice might be helpful.

GIRL. For them, they felt that it sends the wrong message. It suggests that they are elites; that God loves them more; that we should study them instead of the “life within.” But this is wrong. We should not be constantly looking back thousands of years to great teachers as if wisdom died with them. That misrepresents the reality of the glory of each individual soul. In every age, in every time and place, there will be those who know the great truths. And if we are open to the process, the Spirit Guides will direct us to what we need to know. And that’s what you said “The Course In Miracles” asserts – and now I understand why.

BOY. Interestingly, the purported teacher of “The Course” is Jesus. But he does not use the book to aggrandize himself, but to direct us inward, and to other teachers who will present themselves, as we are ready to receive.

GIRL. mmm...

BOY. I think some of us should write books. I’ve learned a lot, for example, from Eckhart Tolle; but Eckhart, as all great teachers, does not make himself a guru. He tells everyone that each person has the riches within. And the truth is, there are many, a great many, in this world to lead us into wisdom. If Eckhart were not here, and if Socrates had never advocated “know thyself,” and if Jesus had not spoken of the “artesian spring” within, there would still be a multitude of others to take their pedagogical place.

GIRL. "A teacher should not mean but be!"

BOY. I like that - because the best that even the greatest teacher or literature can do is not to offer facts of the changing world, or the "last word" on a subject, but to inspire us to go inward and to find these things out for ourselves.

GIRL. How it must grieve brother Joshua, the True Human Being, to see people stunt the soul-development process by insisting on thinking of him as a god! – which is code language for, “I’d rather stay in the nursery and let someone else change me!”

BOY. Yes…

GIRL. I just thought of something. If Jesus and Socrates hadn’t been so advanced, they might have written some of their thoughts. But since, to have done so would have encouraged a cult following, they declined the honor. The uncomfortable implication for us, however, is that those who write might be among the least qualified to do so.