Should I Read Bible?

[HGGabrielF]

I am always thinking about it.Should i read Bible?Does it help me?Can i learn something from that book.Maybe i can learn something but i am not sure.

I saw a lot of Enlightened people who have read Bible and other "holy" books and i was thinking about this.Does it help me?

Can someone help me??

[charlie cho]

In our depth of consciousness... It's worthless I believe. When one becomes enlightened... They actually understand it because of their consciousness expansion. We.. As egoes cannot understand the bible... If we do read it .... Well think of angels flying in the skies... God punishing us for not being "good" . That's what I hear from an enlightened person

Edited February 9, 2016 by charlie cho

[Saarah]

I don't think it would be worth it, a lot of stuff we learn in personal development like not being judgemental, this is a huge theme that runs many religious texts like the bible

I believe there are these 'golden threads' which run through religions, like being grateful (albeit to god) and being self-less towards others, these feel good factors of religion trick you into believing that you feel good because you follow god, in reality it's just those nice acts, the golden threads that can be done without religion that are actually making you feel good

[Nemo]

The inner core of Christianity points to a kind of enlightenment when it speaks of rebirth and of relinquishing the self. It also has some useful teachings about humility particularly helpful for us "know-it-alls".
I think thought, the real significance of such teachings are missed by most Christians.
 

[Guest]

I have read The Bible and I am not even a Christian. What I learned from it is that when live gets harder for a reason. It's better not to force it to be good in easy way, instead, continue to do what is right for you. I don't know it's just a book. You're what is "holy", not the book. 

[ayokolomo]

Just remember it is the B.asic I.nstruction B.efore L.eaving E.arth.

[jjer94]

7 hours ago, HGGabrielF said:

I am always thinking about it.Should i read Bible?Does it help me?Can i learn something from that book.Maybe i can learn something but i am not sure.

I saw a lot of Enlightened people who have read Bible and other "holy" books and i was thinking about this.Does it help me?

Can someone help me??

First of all, you shouldn't do anything. There's no rules to becoming enlightened. In fact, do whatever you feel moved to do. You don't even have to listen to me, because my advice below contradicts this point.

Secondly, you're asking "Outward?" when you ought to be asking, "Inward?" You're looking for some pre-determined path, some sense of certainty that guarantees you will be enlightened. Like a clickbait: "Follow these 10 easy steps to become enlightened!" But if you're really serious about this stuff, you have to strike out on your own. You are the only authority there could ever be. You have to do what feels right, and you have to examine yourself. 

This is the most personal journey you will ever take. It's your head that's on the chopping block. Enlightenment is not about adding new trinkets to your belief system; it's about destroying all of your beliefs about you and the world. If you think the Bible can help you with destroying beliefs, go ahead and read it, but I doubt it'll help because it's also covered in the muck and mire of false beliefs. 

In reality, anything can move you towards enlightenment. Anyone or anything can be your guru if they point out any hidden beliefs, any forms of resistance in yourself. 

I suggest checking out Leo's book list for more direct books on enlightenment. Cheers!

[Walter B]

I find it worth a look. But yes, it can be very hard to interpret with any justice to its contents. The golden threads can be hard to identify and to create. But some people choose to follow it blindly. And thus follow the interpreter. Who are we to judge. It just speaks to the responsibility of the interpreter and more importantly the follower who out of ignorance may miss the true form and beauty of it all.

It may prove to be a great experience.  It may show you spirits in the "skies". It may reveal the harm we do to each other when we harm each other in thought. 

Leo shot a neat video on being a spiritual seeker that you may like. Remember, everything in moderation. At least until you determine its function and use and find a passion to stick with. Even those "passions" can have their own "life times". 

[Keyblade Viking]

10 hours ago, HGGabrielF said:

I am always thinking about it.Should i read Bible?Does it help me?Can i learn something from that book.Maybe i can learn something but i am not sure.

I saw a lot of Enlightened people who have read Bible and other "holy" books and i was thinking about this.Does it help me?

Can someone help me??

YES! But ONLY if you can see some symbolism:

http://www.actualized.org/forum/topic/263-symbolism-the-truth-of-everything-reflected-in-everything/

Start of watching the 6 hours (or 4 part) series of the Jesus movies which are actually even better than the book.
You might not get a whole lot from part one but try it anyway.
I also recommend very very very very very veeeeery strongly to check out the Gospel of Philip online (it's not in the bible for some messed up reason) and it's pretty short (at least it feels like it) so I'd read it both before and after watching the movie.

The books of Adam and Eve are also really simple though not part of the official bible.

PS. ask for the truth, pay attention and don't let your ego get in the way expecting to find bullshit (if so that's what you will find and lots of it with holy incest to carry on family lines and dead wives who are sent in pieces to all of Israel lol)

Edited February 9, 2016 by Keyblade Viking - Tobias

[Keyblade Viking]

Check out Bill Donahue on as well, he's not flawless but he's still fucking awesome and explain so fucking much of the symbolism, he helped me a lot.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bdona4556/playlists

[Guest]

Read what you think you want to read.  But first carefully consider the following:

The important thing to know is that the words that you read are symbols of symbols.   They have been given meaning by society, then the author or author(s) have arranged those symbols in a particular order to hopefully convey a particular personal meaning. Further, the writer(s) cannot help but further interpret those symbols to their particular understanding.  Finally the reader of those words or symbols consumes this information (not knowledge, but simply information), and then interprets the information to be a particular sort of knowledge based on the readers background, upbringing, education, emotional bent (inclination), and other conditioned factors.  Then the reader might believe that they have absorbed some useful knowledge if their interpretation of the information leads him or her to believe that it somehow "adds" to what they are.

Seeing all this clearly, while you are reading, is a really in-depth sort of meditation.  If you have reached that state of attentiveness then you will see the truth of any matter put before you, or you will always be careful to contemplate things carefully without blind acceptance, or not jumping to conclusions of any sort.

joy

 

Edited February 10, 2016 by walt

[Prabhaker]

On 2/9/2016 at 2:02 PM, HGGabrielF said:

Should i read Bible?Does it help me?Can i learn something from that book.Maybe i can learn something but i am not sure.

The poetry of The New Testament, the poetry of the whole Bible, is something not of this world. The poetry is tremendously simple, but it has some quality which ordinary poetry cannot have. It has awe; that is, the religious quality. 

What is awe? Facing some thing or some being, thinking stops. Your mind cannot cope with it. When you come across a Jesus or a Buddha the mind falls flat, it bogs down. Something is too much for it. You cannot think about anything, you are as if in a deep shock — and yet the shock is blissful. That is awe.

The Bible has awe in it — the quality of putting your mind completely at a stop — but that you will have to reach directly. The missionary, the priest, the bishop, they destroy because they start interpreting. They put their minds in it and their minds are mediocre. It is as if you are looking at a tremendously beautiful thing from the mind of a very stupid man. Distorted. That is how it has been happening.

Throw all the foolish commentaries away. Go direct. Jesus is so simple, you can have a direct contact.

 

[AlwaysBeNice]

This book is better and free, Conversations with God by Neale Walsch (was on the new york best seller list for a 140 weeks or so)

www.universe-people.com/english/svetelna_knihovna/htm/en/en_kniha_conversations_with_god_1.htm

[Prabhaker]

15 minutes ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

This book is better and free

In India , when we start reading bible, we can get money , clothes, food, medicine, education with a free Bible !

[AlwaysBeNice]

12 minutes ago, Prabhaker said:

In India , when we start reading bible, we can get money , clothes, food, medicine, education with a free Bible !

Done by people. But not unconditionally. 

[Prabhaker]

43 minutes ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

This book is better and free

When an fully enlightened master speaks, even if his language is ordinary, it is poetic, it has awe in it  — the quality of putting your mind completely at a stop. Bible has awe in it. Otherwise unnecessary reading and collecting more and more knowledge is not good for a meditator. 

[ChimpBrain]

I've read it. I say don't bother. You've already heard all the parts that are worth hearing . In that 1000 page book (or whatever it is), if you strung together all of the worthwhile passages I bet they wouldn't total more than a few pages. Save yourself a lot of time and just Google something like "passages in the Bible spoken by Jesus" . 

[cetus]

@HGGabrielF 

50 minutes ago, ChimpBrain said:

if you strung together all of the worthwhile passages I bet they wouldn't total more than a few pages

@ChimpBrain

Here's the perfect example to illustrate what you said.

 

[Prabhaker]

1 hour ago, ChimpBrain said:

if you strung together all of the worthwhile passages I bet they wouldn't total more than a few pages

The inner world cannot be expressed literally, but symbolically -- only symbolically. Books like the Vedas, the Geeta, the Bible, the Upanishads -- they are not written by people who are asleep, they are not written as beautiful poetry or prose; they are written by people who know what truth is, who have awakened themselves to truth. Then whatsoever they write is almost like a map. You have to decipher it, you have to decode it, otherwise you will go on missing it. As we become more awakened, more we understand the hidden meaning. 

[ChimpBrain]

24 minutes ago, cetus56 said:

@HGGabrielF 

@ChimpBrain

Here's the perfect example to illustrate what you said.

 

I watched about 8 minutes worth but all I hear is 2 denominations arguing over details of the bible that there's no agreement on between Christian sects. Is there a specific part you were referring to?  What I gather from this video is that the scrolls that were gathered to cobble together what we know as the Bible are very old, very contradictory, poorly translated, missing pieces, and were obviously not dictated by an all knowing, all loving being.

 

To the OP's original question, I think the thing to do is take the good bits from all of the major faiths, exclude all the nonsense (which is 99% of the Abrahamic faiths), combine this with everything you can learn about science, psychology, sociology, history, cosmology, spirituality, etc., and create your own loosely held belief system. And always be ready to change, adapt or abandon your loosely held beliefs as you grow and learn.