*72 Tear up the books is advice to forget the intellect and fully serve God. We find this unusual advice in numerous tracts. Once the novice enters the vortex of laboratory work, he must forget about theory and rely on his own experience. It certainly isn't easy for a novice in alchemical operations to rid himself of his revered respect for the acknowledged authorities of alchemy, but a spiritual path is the same as this advice. If a person arrives in spiritual understanding to the point in which any further research of the numerous spiritual writings fogs his path, it means the need of his own experiences is coming into play (meditation, vision, archetypes), so that at the end of the path he completely forgets about the intellect and, like a perfect Bhakti yogi, surrenders himself to God with love and devotion in his heart. Any thought returns him to his original state before the ultimate goal of the spiritual endeavor. Jesus speaks similarly: "Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child, will not enter it."  (Luke 18:17)