The Stew

There is our direct Experience,
And our interpretation of it.
And therein lays all manner of trouble.

And the venerable traditions,
With centuries of accrued interpretation?
Not without benefit… but not without trouble.

All is as God wills it.
To each his own.
Let everyone be free.

Speaking only for myself…
I will not put the Great Mystery,
In a box.

And interpret,
And qualify
And quantify.

There seems no doubt, to me, that teachers pour their unique propensities, proclivities, and preferences into the stew of their teachings. And these, in turn, are taken by students as expressions of “enlightenment”, as “Truth”.

And the longer and more venerable the tradition, lineage, or religion, the more detritus – concept, theory, and conjecture – accrues into the “scriptures” and teachings.