How much study is needed to realize the wisdom in scriptures?

[Jim]

In the old days it was only oral tradition. Writing came later.

Are you quibbling about semantics? This is about meditating on words of divine (or sacred) wisdom, whether they are written or not.

 

[Jim]

re: The Bible, the wisdom derives from studying and from a relationship with The Author. This explains the deficiencies in logic for some here.

Brilliant.

 

[Jim]

That depends on what you have to assume. In Christianity we have a God. Thus we have to rely on God in a form to do our studies.

First we need approach a church ...

I like this because of the reminder about the importance, I would even say indispensability, of a practicing community, for learning to be fruitful and beneficial to all.

 

[Windwalker]

To really understand and realize the truth in spiritual/religious scriptures one must study every day. If the study is scattered and not consistent, then there will not rise wisdom from within. If one does not constantly contemplate the teaching and see the truth of it in daily life, one has not yet gained inner wisdom.

I'm not sure this is something I would agree with. To start the conversation of this with a comic I saw a while ago which gets right to the heart of this.

What I see the point is, is that one can read scriptures all day, everyday of their lives, and not understand them. It is the changed heart and mind that can read those same words the most devoted religious person is reading, but see a truth far beyond what they are seeing, or ever will be capable of seeing merely relying on their intellects and religious sensibilities.

This is not to say that scriptures are unimportant. They can very much be that, because it can inspire the soul. But it's that which ultimately needs to be engaged, not reason alone. The key is to move beyond "thought world", into "soul world", or "heart world", which are multidimensional realities, beyond the flatland, two-dimensional "thought world" which is a flattened representation and substitution of Reality. If that is where one lives, that is what one sees, and reading scripture in that world, will be hard pressed to get one to rise above it, if the will and the heart are not engaged.

I like to say that all of Creation is Scripture. It's read with the eyes of the soul, or Spirit. It speaks truth in every breath, and does not need to be reasoned to be heard, and understood, and embraced. It goes far beyond written words.

 

[InChrist]

Personally i never understood the born again concept within christianity ( I was born in to a christian family) But my understanding is that when the wisdom from the teaching arise from within the person ,that is the moment of "Born again" Do you agree on that?

I believe the moment one is born again is the moment one comes personally to Jesus Christ, because it is the Person of Christ Himself and a relationship with Him wherein all wisdom and eternal life exists and is received. Jesus said...

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. John 5:39-40

 

[Vinayaka]

Are you quibbling about semantics? This is about meditating on words of divine (or sacred) wisdom, whether they are written or not.

Not semantics at all. In the Hindu mystic view, oral is the best way. There are hundreds of Gurukulams across India today where the learning (mostly chanting and memorization of Vedic rituals) is done orally. It's actually considered better within sampradaya, as it's more alive than written words. The ideal it to listen to the living Guru, in person. That's just the traditional tried and true way.

 

[arthra]

Scriptures for me are clues to what was revealed at various times in the ages gone by and they can be more recent as well... conveying what is called for and needed in our times.

I went through periods where I read Hebrew or Aramaic or learned more Sanskrit to comprehend the verses better. In Baha'i Writings we have the original Arabic and Farsi as well as translations into various languages.

I also believe a useful tool can be a search engine that can provide us with similarities of meanings across various scriptures...

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