RAMA'S LEGACY: Some Thoughts about the Role of Books

IMAGE: A fragment of the Tripitaka in Thai along with some basic geometric patterns.


Daiki:   It seems books only "lives" as long as they are taken to heart and practiced. 
         In that sense, many sacred texts of the past are now dead.

Bhäraté: Books have lifespans – just as people. We should accept the natural recycling process.

An-Yi:   (nodding) Yet unlike people, sometimes lost books come back to life. At times 
         books have actually been revived.

Chariya: You guys confuse books with essential teachings. Essential teaching require no 
         books – just committed beings to embody them and transmit them . . .

Tim:     (shaking his head ) Ahh, book-schmook-crook! Today we are flooded with so 
         much information that few books will have much impact: they are just passing blips 
         on a computer screen. The Great Silence of the universe is the only real "book" we 
         should be listening to.


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from _Pan-Asian Pulses: Poetry, Art, and Dialogs about Asia_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:  An image of a sacred Buddhist text and discussion about the function of literature.
KEYWORDS:  living books, knowledge transmission, information overload, embodying discourses

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 2004 in Nagoya, Japan ≜ Finished: 2021 in Yokohama, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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TRANSLATION

Spanish:   https://www.tnewfields.info/es/lega.htm