Re: An Apology to Searles
Searles

Tue Dec  5 10:02:09 2000
Daven,*p*Thank you for the apology though I personally see no need from my point of view for you to make an apology to me.  I don't view differences of opinion or a different interpretation of the information being discussed on newsgroups or message boards as being an attack or a "shredding." I enjoy discussing topics that are important to me.*p*The idea that the Druids embraced knowledge in three forms is something that I've constantly presented and have long supported. Tradition is as important as experience in bringing knowledge to each of us.  However, no information or knowledge should be accepted and embraced without scrupulous judgment, hearty debate and insightful inquiry.  Tradition, experience and inquiry are a triad of approaches to knowledge among Druids. *p*I've come to a study of Druidic and Celtic tradition because I've had many experiences that are strange and wonderful.  I've sought out the ways that the ancients dealt with the same experiences in hopes of gaining wisdom to cope with my own experiences.  I've studied their techniques and I've built upon them so that it is possible to use them as tools in seeking new ways of understanding what happens in the world around us or within us.*p*Tradition stands the test of time.  Indeed, tradition is actually experience that has time and again demonstrated that there are skillful ways to address and to handle many of the peculiarities of life. These traditions and ways of experiencing are cultured and cultural.  They are a working group of predefined approaches to experience.  If this type of tradition is all we use or have, then we live only in the past. Our approach to life becomes static and entrophically dying.  That is why we should also seek new ways and new experiences.  The value and weight that new experiences have for us should be based on the same criteria used to judge tradition (or at least it should be IMO). Inquiring into what makes an experience unique and worthy is one of the tools used by Druids to discover whether knowledge is information, dreck or wisdom.  Through inquiry and use, the experiences of today become the traditions that are studied in the worlds of tomorrow.*p*Inquiry is a tool, along with tradition and experience to increase wisdom and to distinguish fact from foolishness.  I hope that every Druid utilizes its edge to separate one from another without injudiciously cutting off what is worthy from what is worthless or even destructive.  Continuing to learn and to seek while opening the mind in a discerning manner promote a growth of knowledge and wisdom within each of us.  I'm encouraged to see that you are discovering these things for yourself as you journey through this lifetime. Tradition, experience and inquiry are three names for Druidic knowledge.  Without them, there is little wisdom to be found.*p*Searles*p**br*Daven wrote,*br*: Searles,*br*:*br*: I wanted to publically apologize to you.*br*:*br*: Recently, you put up a topic thread called "When Druids *br*: Meet" and I went through it point by point and *br*: basically ripped it to shreds.  Mainly the thrust of my *br*: argument was that tradition had no place in Modern Druidry *br*: since there is little verification to back it up.*br*:*br*: The feelings ran deeper than that.*br*:*br*: Tradition, for me, has always been used as an excuse by *br*: those who wished to keep others from thinking, and to make a *br*: generation hidebound and staid.  And that is a failing in *br*: myself.*br*:*br*: Recently, in meditations, and slaps from the Gods, I have *br*: changed my mind on this topic.  I came to realize that *br*: Druidry is all about tradition and a connection to the past. *br*:  Tradition is the center Mystery of the Druids, and as such *br*: we can't ignore it or villify traidtion.*br*:*br*: So, in the same manner that I ripped into your post, I *br*: hereby apologize for that.  I am incorrect in all counts on *br*: this subject.*br*:*br*: I will try, and that is what learning is.*br*:*br*: I don't want to have us, the modern Druids, become so *br*: wrapped up in what is traditional that it blinds us to the *br*: needs of today, or have it wrap us in chains of the past to *br*: the detriment of today and tomorrow.  That is what I fear *br*: above all else.  *br*:*br*: Again, I am sorry.*br*:*br*: (Copied to the Summerlands Message boards)*br*:*br*: -- *br*: Stars light your path.*br*: Daven*br*
An Apology to Searles
Daven
746
Mon Dec  4 11:47:28 2000