(July 16, 2009 at 8:40 pm)padraic Wrote: "There were no sacred books,
Really.
Ever heard of:
"The Book of Coming Forth By Day", aka "The Book of The Dead" ( Egyptian )
"The Epic of Gilgamesh" (Sumerian)
The Pali Texts? (Buddhist)
"The Popul Vuh"? (Mayan)
The Vedas and the Upanishad. (Indian)
We seem to be arguing from different perspectives. I guess we'll need to agree to differ. I have nothing further to say on this matter.
Just to add what Ledo said about the difference between religious inspired/themed books and sacred texts.
The Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead were not accesible to the priesthood let alone the public at large. They were not copied or transcribed and certainly not read privately. They are dramatic scripts to be acted out by actors when initiating an individual. Priests, by definition, are neither the initiators nor initiated, they are the proxy's by which the initiatic masters relate with the public and vice versa.
Now in my previous post I only mentioned that there were no sacfred texts in Egypt, you have taken this to mean there are no sacred texts, period. That's not what I said, but even the texts you describe are not neccesarily sacred.
The Epic of Gilgamesh was written by poets and/or dramatists for mass consumption. It is lacking in religious content, the major exception being the descent into the underworld, although this is a well known theme even among the masses. This Epic in many respects is a forerunner to Homer's Epic poems, and which certainly wasn't a sacred text.
The Pali texts yes can be considered sacred, but I never said there are no sacre texts in the world, I just said, Ancient Egypt never had any. The books of the Pali Canon are probably the clearest example of sacred texts you described considering their origin in orally transmitted teachings. (which continues to this day)
The Poul Vuh was written by Christian missionaries, as was the Irish Lebor Gabala Eireann. A good source when researching a culture's religious beliefs, but not a text held sacred by the people concerned.
And yeh, the Vedas and Upanishads are definately sacred (although remember that the Oral versions are always the best)
And next time, please quote my words within the context in which they were written. I was clearly talking about Egypt.
