The Role of Memorization in the Early Tradition

I wonder whether a monastic practice, which can now be taken up by individual readers is maybe displacing certain forms of encounter with the text that would have been more communal in the past. I do think that the technological development production of books has opened up and approaches to script to open up that weren't there before. It seems to me that memorizing of scripture allowed one to reflect to meditate on the scriptures without having any access to text whatsoever. That's something that we've largely lost across the board, I would say, on the emphasis on memorization. Only something that's in your head really, really can transform you can transfigure you.

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