Flight of the Garuda

Once again, at the library. There's a kind of in-joke with my sweetheart about the library, as she once called me the day of a surprise party we were planning for her- I was not there, and she was told (correctly) that I was at the library, as I had a little time before the party. So she assumed that this was some premeditated excuse to tell her as to why I was not there. Actually, that would make a good deal of sense. At any rate, the library is indeed filled with books- this is strangely comforting, to be in a large room filled with bookshelves. I have heard that the Christian churches sometimes burn or destroy books, as this is listed in the book of Acts- something about a sorcerer bringing books to the apostles, which were subsequently destroyed. I find this completely repellent in every way- I don't believe any book should be destroyed, especially if it does not agree with a predetermined set of ideas. I should clarify, I don't condemn all churches because of this practice, and am well aware that the Christian monasteries were the main force in preserving written works throughout the Middle Ages. Without them, no doubt many works which we have today would be lost forever. I also am aware that this practice is far from the norm- certainly not every church burns books, nor would that provide an accurate picture of churches. Most churches are peaceful places, and the exchange of ideas is usually free and open. However, to decide what books should be preserved and which burned should not be the decision of any one group.
Of course, not all books are for all people- I can remember the controversy surrounding the book Flight of the Garuda, by Keith Dowman. It revealed some teachings of a Buddhist school called Dzogchen that had prior to this been kept secret, available only to initiates. That is, a person would have to prove their readiness to the school before being able to learn these things. I have a copy of the book, and it is indeed pretty heavy stuff, dealing with the nature of reality vs. perception. But for this reason, should that book be destroyed? It existed in one form or another long before, (it's actually a translation of old Dzogchen texts that the school had used for hundreds of years prior to the book's open publication) and was fine for certain audiences. To say that a book is evil takes away any semblance of the idea of free will- we are rendered to little more than passive containers, incapable of deciding good from evil, and blindly accepting whatever comes our way. Perhaps this is what the same people who would burn books want- that we accept and do not question, as long as we accept and do not question what they tell us to. Control is maintained this way, but not the exercise of the mind the self-same God these people claim to serve so faithfully gave us. If there is a sin, it is to waste intelligence and the spark of creativity, and to encourage others to do the same.
This was one of the main things that drove me away from the Orthodox Church, and subsequently out of Christianity altogether. Not that I have any real issue with Christians, and know that the official position of the Church is not always the same as the thoughts of its members- it turned out my own understanding grew along different lines, although I'd like to think that ultimately we wind up in the same place.