“All truth is worth knowing. Some truths are more useful, but there are truths that are most worth knowing.” - President Boyd K. Packer, November 6, 2011
Isn't the internet helpful? Not only are summaries of President Packer's talk available in several places already, but there are pictures of the actual event.
But that's not really a subject from this semester of our class.
What I really wanted to talk about was something rather interesting that President Packer said, something that later reminded me of our discussions here about oral and written knowledge. Near the beginning of his talk, he asked us to 'listen' rather than 'take notes'.
He said if all we took away from his talk was what was said, we had entirely missed the point.
The gospel, and more particularly the Holy Ghost, brings an important new aspect to the idea of this comparison of knowledge mediums.
"When a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men." - 2 Nephi 33:1
We know from several sources that the scriptures we have written down are a primary source of personal revelation (Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do” (2 Ne. 32:3, emphasis added)). We also know that the words of the modern prophets can, through the spirit touch each of us personally, especially in General Conference, where we are often promised that we can receive through revelation a spiritual message for our circumstance:
"If we teach by the Spirit and you listen by the Spirit, some one of us will touch on your circumstance, sending a personal prophetic epistle just to you." - Jeffrey R. Holland, April 2011 General Conference.
I know that both of these methods are viable and true, since I have received inspiration or revelation through both ways.
So my question at first was why President Packer asked us to listen more than to record, and I think that this has answered it for me - if we merely "parrot" all that he says onto the paper, it might be more of an in-one-ear-and-out-the-other situation. I know that sometimes taking notes during a lecture or a talk or whatever can actually be detrimental to our overall comprehension.
Here's another point: I believe that he wanted us to listen more to the Spirit's voice than to him. That's a sign of a true servant of the Lord, in my opinion. All missionaries learn that it's really not them that converts people to a knowledge of the truth:
"If ye receive not the Spirit ye shall not teach." - D&C 42:14
The Lord knows all things, including which way is best to teach His children. He makes use of both orality and literacy to bring us the knowledge of His gospel, since each has its own separate applications. I think it's very interesting to note, as I mentioned in this post, that the Lamanites lost their written language for a time, and therefore declined as a society - and in their religious beliefs as well, of course. The Lord knew well beforehand that this would happen without a way to preserve EXACTLY certain truths. Oral knowledge, while incredibly applicable to the here and now, can be ephemeral when it is transmitted through the generations.
(In fact, look what some scholars believe happened to the story of Jesus's visit to the Americas, which, while recorded, was lost except in orality to those who became wicked and lost their records. The story changed quite a bit over time: http://www.crystalinks.com/quetzalcoatl.html)
This also relates to what I thought after reading Marc's post about the First Vision. If we'd only had an oral version of that critical event, it might have been altered slightly despite our best efforts.
Therefore, while the Lord knows how critical it is to have written knowledge of the gospel, the orally transmitted knowledge of His modern prophets is also necessary to the functioning of the Church.
And beyond this, a kind of knowledge that we can't really quantify as easily - spiritual knowledge, the kind communicated directly to us by the Holy Ghost. That's the most important of all, and can be facilitated not only by our faith but also by our study of what has been written or what is being spoken to us now. It allows us to know SPECIFICALLY what we need to know for ourselves.
Isn't the gospel great? :)
Oops. Random bits have highlights on them. Sorry guys!
ReplyDeleteBut also, the site says this is our 100th post! :) congrats, all, on the ton of teaching and learning we've done over this semester so far!
I have been thinking about this same thing. They also advise us to not write down exactly what they were saying in specific quotes and rather write the way their words make us feel in stake conference on Sunday morning. I used to take notes a lot in church, but I've pretty much stopped because I realized that I'm not going to go back and read my notes unless they included something meaningful to me, not just the same gospel principles, but something that helped me understand them better or feel the Spirit.
ReplyDeleteThis poses the question...Is it better to listen intently than to take notes? If you're taking notes, you can look back at them later if your memory starts to fade, but you are also not as focused on the speaker and what they are saying.
ReplyDelete100% agree about the importance of spiritual knowledge and being taught by the Spirit. We also need to remember the counsel that many General Authorities have given us to keep a notepad with us so that we can write down personal revelation. Without it being written down, it might fade and the Lord might become less inclined to give us promptings in the future.
ReplyDeleteThe cool thing is, if we focus on only writing down the personal revelation we receive during a talk, we don't have to worry about remembering the specifics: we can easily look up the talks, word for word, on the internet whenever we need to!
ReplyDeleteJenna, I think that notetaking is for some people a way to be more focused rather than a distraction. I know it often helps me pay better attention, and I usually process and remember information better if I write it down (even if I never look at it again) than if I try to just listen. Plus...if I'm already taking notes, it's easier to jot down ideas or impressions that come to me.
ReplyDeleteI really liked what President Packer said about listening. When I listen to General Conference, I don't take notes because I'd rather sit and listen to the Spirit and let impressions come uninterrupted to me. Since I know that the talks are recorded and can be read in the Ensign or listened to online, I don't worry about not taking notes. While I do think that it's helpful, if I do take notes I feel like I might miss out of something very important that is said because I am so focused on writing my thoughts down. I think for the Spirit to take effect, I need to be focused on the Spirit, not on my notes.
ReplyDeleteI am a strong advocate in not taking notes because of this very reason. I believe that now I only remember from high school what was important and meaningful to me because I experienced and learned from them. I won't look at notes from class about what date the 6 day war was or what specific UN resolution did what, but I do remember from my own discussion and listening the implications and casuses of the arab israeli conflict and why the 6 day war was important. Same thing goes for church, we don't need to write that specific quote down from said apostle, but we do need to put our own personal perspective into a subject so that it is meaningful and memorable to us.
ReplyDelete