Have you read your holy book

[VoidCat]

This is true of almost all words and books, but not that of guidance from God. Kids books are obviously not written for grown ups. There are books meant for higher academics and not meant for people reading subject first time. However, God's book is not like this. The reason being that's God words are layered go reach out to all minds of mankind and still never be fully appreciated and understood by anyone save himself. Ahlulbayt (a) words are similar, in that, only they realize the full meaning and appreciate it, but they speak in a way all can listen and benefit.

God's book, the more you recite, the more deeper it gets, the deeper it gets, the more clear it gets. It's clarity expands and it's outward clearness expands the more knowledge you get.

As for Ahlulbayt (a) words. Alone they are almost nothing. With Quran and the way they compliment it, their eloquence and insights and level of light, too high for Devils to imitate for "they are from the hearing far removed".

To me all books are holy so that's the issue. The question is whats the most important if ive read them.

 

[Secret Chief]

More than an inch. Please

I tactfully refrained from turning my comment into a single entendre. I don't know why I bothered.

 

[ChristineM]

I tactfully refrained from turning my comment into a single entendre. I don't know why I bothered.

Nor do i

 

[Link]

To me all books are holy so that's the issue. The question is whats the most important if ive read them.

But your usage of "holy" is not the same as most people usage of it. That's fine though (people take words and understand them in a way special and different from others a lot), just explaining that books address different levels and types of people, and how Quran and Ahlulbayt (a) words are kept in mind of the comprehensive nature of humans and there levels of understanding, knowledge, wisdom, and familiarity with subjects.

 

[Secret Chief]

Ahh, so your faith is not a religion as such but a way of life. Fair enough

I think this opens up the whole can of worms as to the scope of the term "religion." I consider for it to be meaningful to be expressed in one's living. Is that a "way of life"? A person could read the Tipitaka from cover to cover and obviously that does not mean the person considers themself to be a Buddhist. We all know the example of people going to church every Sunday but then not living a "Christian" life. I would personally say that that person is not actually a Christian, no matter how many Biblical verses they can quote.

 

[paarsurrey]

Inspired by a conversation with @Mark Charles Compton about whether Christians actually read the bible.

@Mark Charles Compton suggests that in his experience the majority of Christians have read the entire bible though it may differ by denomination. While my view again based on experience is that very few Christians have actually read the bible and are satisfied with snippets handed to them, so long as those snippets.meet their expectations.

Here i am going to expand the idea across all religions. First I ask for a simple Yes/No answer to the questionnaire then add a quick post naming which of the Bible, Qur'an, Gita, Torah, Guru Granth Sahib, Tripitaka or other named holy book of your religion you have read cover to cover.


Edit for clarity.

Some faiths have more (many more) than one book, for these, full read of the book(s) you consider most important will suffice for a tes vote

I have read Quran for approximately a hundred of times from cover to cover. Right?

Regards

 

[Link]

I have read Quran for approximately a hundred of times from cover to cover. Right?

Regards

Nice, I got some catching up to do lol.

 

[Wildswanderer]

Inspired by a conversation with @Mark Charles Compton about whether Christians actually read the bible.

@Mark Charles Compton suggests that in his experience the majority of Christians have read the entire bible though it may differ by denomination. While my view again based on experience is that very few Christians have actually read the bible and are satisfied with snippets handed to them, so long as those snippets.meet their expectations.

Here i am going to expand the idea across all religions. First I ask for a simple Yes/No answer to the questionnaire then add a quick post naming which of the Bible, Qur'an, Gita, Torah, Guru Granth Sahib, Tripitaka or other named holy book of your religion you have read cover to cover.


Edit for clarity.

Some faiths have more (many more) than one book, for these, full read of the book(s) you consider most important will suffice for a tes vote

Yes, much of it multiple times...I don't read the book of Numbers often for obvious reasons, but I've even read it.

 

[Kenny]

Inspired by a conversation with @Mark Charles Compton about whether Christians actually read the bible.

@Mark Charles Compton suggests that in his experience the majority of Christians have read the entire bible though it may differ by denomination. While my view again based on experience is that very few Christians have actually read the bible and are satisfied with snippets handed to them, so long as those snippets.meet their expectations.

Here i am going to expand the idea across all religions. First I ask for a simple Yes/No answer to the questionnaire then add a quick post naming which of the Bible, Qur'an, Gita, Torah, Guru Granth Sahib, Tripitaka or other named holy book of your religion you have read cover to cover.


Edit for clarity.

Some faiths have more (many more) than one book, for these, full read of the book(s) you consider most important will suffice for a tes vote

yes, I have.

 

[VoidCat]

yes, I have.

Lol you are a pastor. Unless you were terrible at your job it's kinda your job to read that sucker

Not saying you have to have it memorized but as a pastor you should at least read the bible or have read it cover to cover at least once

 

[paarsurrey]

Nice, I got some catching up to do lol.

Quran is not voluminous, as a Muslim one finishes it at least once a year in the month of Ramadhan and if one reads a quarter of part/para of Quran that also becomes two times in a year. It doesn't require much effort. Right?

Regards

 

[Kenny]

Lol you are a pastor. Unless you were terrible at your job it's kinda your job to read that sucker

Not saying you have to have it memorized but as a pastor you should at least read the bible or have read it cover to cover at least once

LOL True.... true.

I don't know how many times and certainly some books much more!

 

[crossfire]

I'd love to be able to finish the Reading list for Joseph Campbell's Comparative Mythology class!

Here's this list:

Joseph Campbell's Reading List for his Comparative Mythology Class at Sarah Lawrence College:

Ovid's Metamorphoses
Homer's Odyssey
Frazer, Sir James George The Golden Bough
Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life
Levy-Bruhl, Lucien. How Natives Think
Freud, Sigmond:
⦁ The Interpretation of Dreams
⦁ Three contributions to the Theory of Sex
⦁ Totem and Taboo
⦁ Moses and Monotheism
Jung, Carl Gustav:
⦁ The Integration of Personality
⦁ The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life (Translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a forward and commentary by Jung)
⦁ The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Forward by Jung)
Coomaraswammy, Ananda. The Dance of Siva
The Bhagavad Gita
Okakuru Kazuko. The Book of Tea
Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen
Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery
Lao-Tze. Tao Te Ching
Sun-Tzu. The Art of War
Confucius.
⦁ Analects
⦁ The Great Digest and Unwobbling Pivot
Chiera, Edward. They Wrote in Clay: The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy
Bible, New Testament: Book of Luke
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound
Euripides.
⦁ Hyppolytus
⦁ Alcestis
Sophocles. Oediups Tyrannus
Plato.
⦁ Phaedrus
⦁ Symposium
The Koran
The Portable Arabian Nights
Beowulf
Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson
Poetic Edda
The Mabinogion
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimm's Fairy Tails
Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres
Boas, Franz. Race, Language, and Culture
Mann, Thomas. "Tonio Kroger"
Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indians
Opler, Morris Edward. Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians
Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture
Stimson, John E. Legends of Maui and Tahaki
Melville, Herman Typee: The Library of America
Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C Fox. African Genesis
Radin, Paul. African Folktales and Sculpture
Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen
​

 

[crossfire]

First off, I consider nothing to be holy.
Minor point aside, how many Buddhists would read all of the Tipitaka - one of the three "baskets" is rules and regulations for monastics. <...>

You'd be surprised at some of the stuff in the Vinaya! Some of the unexpected stuff I've come across include a monk being allowed to consume blood if he thinks he has been possessed by a demon (so I tell any sanguinarian or vampire I come across that vampires can become Buddhists if they are interested.) Another surprising rule I've come across is allowing a monk who is affected by "wind diseases" (movement disorders such as arthritis, tremors, muscles spasms, etc) can treat the disorder by digging a pit with hot rocks and steam, making a bench to lie down on in the pit, covering one's body with bhang (marijuana plants,) and letting the plants steam along with the monk to release their medicines.

 

[Secret Chief]

You'd be surprised at some of the stuff in the Vinaya! Some of the unexpected stuff I've come across include a monk being allowed to consume blood if he thinks he has been possessed by a demon (so I tell any sanguinarian or vampire I come across that vampires can become Buddhists if they are interested.) Another surprising rule I've come across is allowing a monk who is affected by "wind diseases" (movement disorders such as arthritis, tremors, muscles spasms, etc) can treat the disorder by digging a pit with hot rocks and steam, making a bench to lie down on in the pit, covering one's body with bhang (marijuana plants,) and letting the plants stream along with the monk to release their medicines.

When you said "wind diseases".....

 

[firedragon]

Inspired by a conversation with @Mark Charles Compton about whether Christians actually read the bible.

@Mark Charles Compton suggests that in his experience the majority of Christians have read the entire bible though it may differ by denomination. While my view again based on experience is that very few Christians have actually read the bible and are satisfied with snippets handed to them, so long as those snippets.meet their expectations.

Here i am going to expand the idea across all religions. First I ask for a simple Yes/No answer to the questionnaire then add a quick post naming which of the Bible, Qur'an, Gita, Torah, Guru Granth Sahib, Tripitaka or other named holy book of your religion you have read cover to cover.


Edit for clarity.

Some faiths have more (many more) than one book, for these, full read of the book(s) you consider most important will suffice for a tes vote

At least in the United States, Atheists seem to have read the Bible more than Christians.

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Edit for clarity.

Some faiths have more (many more) than one book, for these, full read of the book(s) you consider most important will suffice

Unfortunately I am not able to, they are not all translated as yet. So one has to do a round of reading all those that are translated. That is so more of it sticks to mind. There is a vast amount to read, but luckily I have had 40 years so far to do so.

It is good to consider that there is reading of the book, and then there is reading with the intent to study the meaning, which means much less content is covered. If one always used the later, most likely, a lot would remain unread.

I am an impatient person, so I have read all that is translated, but would see that I have only studied a small proportion.

Also the Bible and Quran, I have read them, but only considered aspects of them.

With other scriptures I have read extracts when I am looking for comparisons between them and the Baha'i Writings.

This is the advice I see we need to use, which I find more difficult.

“One hour’s reflection is preferable to seventy years of pious worship.” Baha'u'llah

Regards Tony

 

[TransmutingSoul]

Unfortunately I am not able to, they are not all translated as yet. So one has to do a round of reading all those that are translated. That is so more of it sticks to mind. There is a vast amount to read, but luckily I have had 40 years so far to do so.

It is good to consider that there is reading of the book, and then there is reading with the intent to study the meaning, which means much less content is covered. If one always used the later, most likely, a lot would remain unread.

I am an impatient person, so I have read all that is translated, but would see that I have only studied a small proportion.

Also the Bible and Quran, I have read them, but only considered aspects of them.

With other scriptures I have read extracts when I am looking for comparisons between them and the Baha'i Writings.

This is the advice I see we need to use, which I find more difficult.

“One hour’s reflection is preferable to seventy years of pious worship.” Baha'u'llah

Regards Tony

I see it is important to note.

Reading is not necessarily equal to understanding.

Regards Tony

 

[Clara Tea]

Inspired by a conversation with @Mark Charles Compton about whether Christians actually read the bible.

@Mark Charles Compton suggests that in his experience the majority of Christians have read the entire bible though it may differ by denomination. While my view again based on experience is that very few Christians have actually read the bible and are satisfied with snippets handed to them, so long as those snippets.meet their expectations.

Here i am going to expand the idea across all religions. First I ask for a simple Yes/No answer to the questionnaire then add a quick post naming which of the Bible, Qur'an, Gita, Torah, Guru Granth Sahib, Tripitaka or other named holy book of your religion you have read cover to cover.


Edit for clarity.

Some faiths have more (many more) than one book, for these, full read of the book(s) you consider most important will suffice for a test vote

Clearly, Christians don't understand the bible (by accepted verbal snippets), nor have they read the whole bible, or the world, that they control through voting, wouldn't be in such a mess (disease, environmental destruction, wars, torture camps, tapped phones, etc).

Some know that they do is wrong (wars, though God commanded not to kill), but they do wrong anyway. Surely Reverend Tim and Tammy Faye Bakker knew that it was wrong to steal donations to starving Africans to air condition the dog house of their mansion (in their lawyer's name to evade detection).

Many Christians believe that they have original sin anyway, and believe that they will be eventually pardoned for any sins, so they continue to sin.

They cherry-pick the bible, and selectively pardon their own members (gawking at the splinters in the eyes of non-Christians, while ignoring the logs in their own). They sluffed off the steamy sex scandal between President George H. W. Bush and British secretary, Jennifer Fitzgerald, whom Bush had hired at the CIA. Yet, when President Bill Clinton had a lesser sex scandal, he was impeached by their so-called Independent council, Ken Starr (note that witch trial rooms are called Star Chambers)--impeachment followed.

"Do as I say, not as I do," was the advice of the daughter of Senator Palin (Republican, Alaska), who had been the poster-girl for their chastity campaign while she was having babies with three men out of wedlock. Apparently, all of her problems were "little ones" (kids).

It makes no sense to scrutize ever concept and word of the bible, while disobeying God. It was like the scene from Roots (Alex Haley's movie/book about his genealogy and slavery), in which the master was piously reading the bible so couldn't be disturbed by Kunta Kinte being whipped to accept the name Toby. To be, or not to be Toby, that was the question.

Okay for us, not okay for you. The bible commands that Christians prostelytize, so they walk door to door to convert everyone. Yet, get into a religious forum, and suddenly America's freedom of speech should be turned into the former Soviet Union's Iron Curtain. People come to religious forums, with people of various faiths, no exchange ideas and understand other cultures. Yet, it ends up with the Cancel Culture allowing people to speak as long as they are saying what you want them to say.

America allows all religions to exist simultaneously, and to assure this, they have a separation of church and state, by which the government doesn't favor any particular religion. Yet, there are christmas trees in public squares, and we swear on Christian bibles in courts, and we have presidents who "fight evil" (while doing evil, like war). Led prayers in schools, and teaching creationism rather than evolution and DNA (which proves evolution) are contrary to this separation. Passing welfare and food distribution to churches saves government money, but cedes power to religions (austensibly any religions, but actually just a few). Jewish senior centers don't get funded if they just provide Jewish food (because it excludes others)--The Ezra center, of Temple Beth Emet, decided to do without Federal and state funding for their senior meals, and get seniors to pay their own way. Yet, Christian senior centers continue to exist. Many religious schools can't get government funding, so they have to pay their own way. Beth Emet had classes taught in Hebrew.

With corrupt religion rife within the Christian churches, Christians claim that Atheists are evil or sinners, and they have nor morals. Yet, we don't see many scandals of atheists. We do see lawsuits against child molesting priests (and the Catholic church).

We can't complain about such scandals because the church and forums claim that it is blaspheme to object to child molesting priests, and that it hurts God or hurts the church. Is molestation of little boys a standard part of the religion? If not, then we have an obligation to stop it.

 

[Clara Tea]

Unfortunately I am not able to, they are not all translated as yet. So one has to do a round of reading all those that are translated. That is so more of it sticks to mind. There is a vast amount to read, but luckily I have had 40 years so far to do so.

It is good to consider that there is reading of the book, and then there is reading with the intent to study the meaning, which means much less content is covered. If one always used the later, most likely, a lot would remain unread.

I am an impatient person, so I have read all that is translated, but would see that I have only studied a small proportion.

Also the Bible and Quran, I have read them, but only considered aspects of them.

With other scriptures I have read extracts when I am looking for comparisons between them and the Baha'i Writings.

This is the advice I see we need to use, which I find more difficult.

“One hour’s reflection is preferable to seventy years of pious worship.” Baha'u'llah

Regards Tony

Even I have to reread the entire internet, because it didn't soak in the first few times that I read it. (Joking). There is too much to learn in the world. Some cope by learning a lot about one subject. Others (like me) try to get a very broad education.