Experiencing sacred narratives and histories

Brief thought for consideration on a simple guide to reading or hearing sacred stories:


Be open to the emotional reaction of the literal interpretation, the intellectual "Aha!" of the symbolic interpretation, the metaphysical "Whoa!" of holding both views simultaneously, and the mystical silence of transcending all interpretations.

Being open to the insights of your sacred tradition and avoiding self-limitation

I recently suggested that when it comes to the stories, images, concepts, vows, creeds, etc that outline and highlight the insights of sacred traditions:  

These terms and the creeds and stories in which we hear about them can have different meanings for us depending on where we are in our lives. This doesn't mean we get to make up what we want -- in fact it means we have to be honest about how we are reacting to such stories, not how we ought to feel. Nor does this mean we can skip things just because they seem fantastic or miraculous because we are comfortable believing in our own version of what is acceptably possible while others are just so primitive in their thinking. How many modern thinkers do you think have been shocked and even disgusted or frightened to find that their encounter with such a story was not the sterile, logical and mundane account that had no "supernatural mumbo jumbo" but rather one filled with a power and mystery that defied their expectations? 

[To paraphrase the end to make it more approachable outside of its original context: How many modern thinkers have heard or read a sacred story and were upset to find that where they had already decided on a particular significance for it, perhaps a thoroughly dissected interpretation that had left it lifeless and acceptable as a lesson or conclusion that could be safely removed from its cultural and historical wrappings, they now found that the story had become real to them in a visceral way. It reached out an grabbed them and said, "Not so fast, there's more me to than some theological or philosophical observation." It broke open their preconceptions and forced them to beyond their predefined limits of the truth or value of the story.]

In the original context I was discussing specific beliefs peculiar to Christianity, but I wanted to take that thought and expand it to encompass other sacred traditions as well, such as Buddhism.  Not all of the stories in sacred text and oral traditions, not all of the experiences of ritual and practice, are going to "give us" what we expect, let alone what we want.  By pre-determining what is or isn't acceptable as an insight or revelation, we effectively neuter the experience --we make ourselves blind, deaf, and numb to what we might otherwise encounter. For example, I remember when someone sent me a link to a portion of the Lotus Sutra.  At the time, I was a self-described secular seeker, someone who thought strictly like a contemporary atheist but who dissatisfied with atheism.  Yes, I thought, there might be wisdom of some kind here but it is buried under all this other garbage about heavenly beings and other fantastic creatures.