From INFORMAL TALKS, delivered at Golden Gate Hall
Is it necessary to study Rings and Rounds?
So long as you have ignorance in your mind, you will always like to have all kinds of playthings all kinds of amusements. When you grow up, you will give up your toys. When you get real knowledge, you will give up the playthings of the material world or of the astral world. So long as you have not acquired that, you cannot but amuse yourself with these things.
Knowledge is the burning up of ignorance.
Ignorance and knowledge are the ascent and descent upon the same ladder. Ignorance is coming down the ladder, while knowledge is the going up the ladder, the same thing viewed from different standpoints.
Science proves that Light and Darkness are not different, but are one and the same, differing in degree only.
Sit in a dark room. After a time the pupil of the eye dilutes and you begin to see and what was darkness becomes Light.
Knowledge and Ignorance are not a pair of opposites. The difference lies in degree, not in kind. So long as you are in ignorance, you are on the lower round of the ladder of knowledge. While on the lower rounds, you can’t help amusing yourself with Rings and Rounds, and when you ascend higher and higher, it will be given up.