"Thought is the compensation of the original thinker. In matters of the mind, as in matters of finance, man is paid for what he gives, and owes for what he gets. No creative mind can be underpaid, for thought is its own reward and comes as adequate compensation for rational endeavor. Enriched by his own activities, the philosopher soon becomes fabulously wealthy in that most priceless of all possessions: reason. On the other hand, he who listens to the thoughts of the wise is daily contracting new debts, and the longer he listens the poorer he becomes. This may explain why disciples seldom surpass their masters, unless, as Aristotle, they depart from the master’s premises. Men eagerly frequent the assemblages of the wise hoping to pick up the stray bits of knowledge that may fall like crumbs from the banquet table. Those who feed upon the crusts of wisdom, however, become more impoverished even as they cat, and he who listens long enough will eventually become bankrupt from his listening. When the day of payment arrives the unfortunate debtor has nothing with which to pay but his own life. Most of those who now suffer from spiritual and intellectual ailments suffer from the listener’s disease. Men who seek masters shall be rewarded by becoming slaves, for it is the free man who speaks and the bondsman who listens. The modern school child is impoverished through the act of remembering, and starts life hopelessly in debt. To a certain extent the great minds of the world have rendered humanity mentally indigent. By being a great philosopher Plato has rendered innumerable other minds unsound, and thus contributed to the ethical delinquency of millions. In a similar sense Christianity is in bankruptcy to its founder, and the Orient will never be able to pay Buddha the interest on its indebtedness.
Instead of stimulating the body of thought the philosopher all too often paralyzes it. The great teachers of the world have ever drawn to themselves a coterie of mental corpses which, like dead planets, take on a semblance of life by reflecting the radiance of the central orb about which they revolve. Followers, to use the words of Shakespeare, “have a lean and hungry look.” Though totally unmindful of the fact, they are actually economizing in an effort to liquidate. Disciples owe so much that they dare look no man in the face, but feel duty bound to spend their days and nights hymning their instructors with proper “Glorias.” Philosophy today is overwhelmed by a deluge of nondescript “ites”. We have the Hegelites, the Bergsonites, the Benthamites, the Millerites, the Watsonites, cum multis aliis. This -ite is the significator of approbation and agreement, a fervent so-mote-it-be, as it were, from the “Amen” corner. Individuals incapable of formulating even a notion of their own, frantically search for someone to agree with, thereby entering upon the path of mental deterioration in which the intellect descends from the simple state of not knowing to the actual inability to know. An individual who becomes an -ite consequently pleads intellectual bankruptcy and assumes what must ultimately prove to be the odious role of serf.
From all this it becomes evident that thought is its own reward; that no man can actually profit from the labors of others but must work out his own mental salvation with untiring diligence. The purpose of a great mind is to inspire to accomplishment, but this end is usually frustrated by an adoring multitude who cannot preserve inspiration as an indefinite quality but must become letter worshipers by prostrating their own minds before a superior intellect. It has always been a serious question to me whether Jesus ever actually spoke the words: “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” for the statement is clearly out of accord with both divine and human reason and reeks to high heaven with the sanctified odor of pious interpolation. Truth personified might well cry out: “Let him who loves me, seek me himself and discover me in his own way, and I will reward him with myself.” In an old alchemical figure is depicted an aged alchemist out with a lantern at night following in the footsteps of wisdom, while in another part of the picture is a group of worldly-wise men huddled together exchanging their notions with each other, and totally oblivious to the spirit of Truth but a few feet distant from them. You who would discover the inner mysteries of life, depart from the concepts of the many. Be not followers of strange gods, but seek Reality according to the impulses of your own higher rationality. Become creative thinkers, not simply followers of blind cults. Admit enslavement to no mind; read the words of the wise, but think for yourself. Attend to the conversations of the learned, but let your conclusions be your own. Be not hasty to condemn, but accept only that which you are capable of reasoning through with the aid of that divine power resident within. And finally, remember the words of Buddha: “I will not believe a thing because any man says it, not even if it be the reputed word of God. I will only believe it when to me it is true.”
Excerpt from Lectures On Ancient Philosophy, page 405
Manly Palmer Hall