The literal interpreted letter of the word, by itself, can lead to spiritual death, but the inspired word of God can also lead to spiritual life.

 

134. The literal interpreted letter of the word, by itself, can lead to spiritual death, but the inspired word of God leads to spiritual life: The letter of the word of God without the influence of the spirit is death, or I should say, it leads to death, but we are not talking about death of the physical body, we are talking about the death of the spiritual soul in man. How many times has a prophet of God been sent to this earth and the people and the religious leaders of his time held onto the literal interpretation of the letter of the word they are familiar with, and failed to recognize God’s holy prophet, because he came with the spirit of God in his teachings.  Christianity: John 5:46 “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” John 5:47 “But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” The people in Christ’s day held onto the literal interpretation of the words of Moses, and the other prophets of the Old Testament, and not only failed to recognize the spiritual authority of Jesus Christ when he came to them, but they also had Jesus, The Son of God, put to death for their lack of understanding.

So again I say, when men hold on strictly to the word of God without digging deeper into the writings of God looking for the spiritual content of the word, the letter of the word they are holding onto can leave the spirit of those men dead.  Christianity: 2 Corinthians 3:6 “Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” Paul states that the letter killeth, or the word alone can harm the soul of man by causing him to fail to see the true light of the word which enlightens the spirit and causes the soul to be alive in God. This is hinted at numerous times in the bible when Jesus makes statements like let the dead bury the dead: Matthew 8:22 “But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.” God does not consider us to even be alive when our spirits are filled with darkness and worldly thoughts. Luke 15:24 “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.” 1 Timothy 5:6 “But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.”

It seems apparent that if we only think worldly thoughts holding onto the pleasures of this earthly life and only hold on to the literal letter of the word without considering the inner spiritual meaning, God considers us to be dead to the spiritual world; even though we are living and breathing in this world, we are dead and spiritually blind to God.  Babi Religion: “Should anyone possessed of insight behold, he will see how the people of paradise have preceded the rest into heaven, even though their food was no more than the leaf of a tree; whereas the people of hell have entered therein by their own consent, bringing with them those things (shu’un) in which they benefited from the word of negation, in which they pride themselves, and by which they are tormented in the fire, although they are unaware of that.”

(The Bab (unauthorized translation), The Persian Bayan)

BAHA’I FAITH: “It is evident that the bounties of Christ transformed the eye which was blind into a seeing one, rendered the ear which was formerly deaf, attentive, and made the hard, callous heart tender and sensitive. In other words the meaning is that although the people possess external eyes, yet the insight or perception of the soul is blind; although the outer ear hears, the spiritual hearing is deaf; although they possess conscious hearts they are without illumination; and the bounties of His Holiness Christ save souls from these conditions. It is evident then that the manifestation of the Messiah was synonymous with universal mercy. His providence was universal and his teachings were for all. His lights were not restricted to a few. Every ‘Christ’ came to the world of mankind. Therefore we must investigate the foundation of divine religion, discover its reality, re-establish it and spread its message throughout the world so that it may become the source of illumination and enlightenment to mankind, the spiritually dead become alive, the spiritually blind receive sight and those who are inattentive to God become awakened.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 105)

But for many, the letter of the literal word without spiritual insight on the part of man, as I said, leads to the spiritual death and spiritual blindness in man:  Christianity: 2 Peter 1:20 “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.” 2 Peter 1:21 “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” So, as I have stated several times now, the literal word in the writings of God by itself, without the hidden spiritual content of God’s loving influences guiding the way leaves the soul of spiritless man quite dead to God and the spiritual concourse on high: But, if this is the case, then conversely, with spiritual insight, on the part of man, the word of God should lead to spiritual life; and I have found by doing some research in the bible and the Bahá’í Writings that this was the case. The word of God gives life to the soul of those who are spiritually receptive. (See 135. The word of God giveth life to man, for more information) because in this dogmatic topic we only discuss the letter by itself leading to spiritual, blindness and death.  Judaism: Deuteronomy 16:19 “Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous:” Which can lead to the misconception or deliberate corruption of the word of God and inadvertently the spiritual demise of those individuals involved, by the corruption of God’s Holy Word. Deuteronomy 30:15 “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;” Deuteronomy 29:4 “Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”

BAHA’I FAITH: “Many divine messengers have appeared in Persia, the land of many sects. One of these sects occupies itself with ceremonies and forms and considers relations with other sects quite impossible. Its followers blindly accept the sacred writings. Another sect among the Shuhites attempts religious research and weighs theological questions and metaphysics and the Sufis have their own special dogmas. These groups spend their lives in useless arguments and wrangles and are continually at war.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 62)

 BABI RELIGION: “The essence of these words is this: Were We to bring thee to a reckoning, thou wouldst prove thyself empty-handed; We in truth know all things. Hadst thou uttered ‘yea’ on hearing the Words of God, thou wouldst have been seen to have been worshiping God from the beginning that hath no beginning until the present day, never to have disobeyed Him, not even for the twinkling of an eye. Yet, neither the upright deeds thou hast wrought during all thy life, nor the exertions thou didst make to banish every thought from thy heart save that of the good-pleasure of God, none of these did in truth profit thee, not even to the extent of a grain of mustard seed, inasmuch as thou didst veil thyself from God and tarried behind at the time of His manifestation.”

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 31)

 ISLAM: “The Prophet said, ‘You will follow the wrong ways, of your predecessors so completely and literally that if they should go into the hole of a mastigure, you too will go there.’ We said, ‘O Allah’s Apostle! Do you mean the Jews and the Christians?’ He replied, ‘Whom else?’

(Hadith, Vol 4, Book 56, # 662)

Islam: 59. “But the transgressors changed the word from that which had been given them; so We sent on the transgressors a plague from heaven, for that they infringed (our command) repeatedly.” 13. “But because of their breach of their Covenant, We cursed them, and made their hearts grow hard: they change the words from their (right) places and forget a good part of the Message that was sent them, nor wilt thou cease to find them, barring a few, ever bent on (new) deceits:” 104. “When it is said to them: ‘Come to what Allah (God) hath revealed; come to the Messenger’: they say: ‘Enough for us are the ways we found our fathers following.’ What! even though their fathers were void of knowledge and guidance?” Being filled with spiritual blindness and death.

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surahs 2 and 5)

Islam: “Let every nation follow what they used to worship, and now we are waiting for our Lord.’ Then the Almighty will come to them in a shape other than the one which they saw the first time, and He will say, ‘I am your Lord,’ and they will say, ‘You are not our Lord.”’ They will be blind to the new manifestation of God, Allah will send them. They have eyes to see, but don’t see the true light of Allah when it dawns, and fail to hear the truth of His words, but, instead, hold onto the literal words of their holy books, failing to see the new light of the spirit of God in the words of the new manifestation, and the new book.

(Hadith, Bukhari Vol 9, Book 93, # 532)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: 9. “The teacher of evil destroys the lore, he by his teaching destroys the design of life, he prevents the possession of Good Thought (the insightfulness into the holy writings) from being prized. These words of my spirit I wail unto you, O Mazda (God), and to the Right.”

(The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 32)

 HINDUISM: “In many cases a literal translation may convey an entirely wrong meaning.” “I felt, that in our passage a strictly literal translation would be wrong, would convey no meaning, or a wrong meaning;”

(Hindu, Upanishads vol. 2, Introduction to the Upanishads, vol. 2)

 Hinduism: “One steadfast rule- while shifting souls have laws Many and hard. Specious, but wrongful deem The speech of those ill-taught ones who extol The letter of their Vedas, saying, ‘This Is all we have, or need;’ being weak at heart With wants, seekers of Heaven: which comes- they say- As ‘fruit of good deeds done;’ promising men Much profit in new births for works of faith; In various rites abounding; following whereon Large merit shall accrue towards wealth and power; Albeit, who wealth and power do most desire Least fixity of soul have such, least hold On heavenly meditation.”

(Hindu, Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold tr) chapter 2)

 BUDDHISM: “Disciples should be on their guard against the seductions of words and sentences and their illusive meanings, for by them the ignorant and the dull-witted become entangled and helpless.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 Buddhism: “Objects are discriminated by the ignorant who are addicted to assertion and negation, because their intelligence has not been acute enough to penetrate into the truth.” “Objects, by reason of habit-energy that has been accumulating since beginningless time, that one builds up erroneous views whose only basis is false-imagination.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 Buddhism: “If a man becomes attached to the literal meaning of words and holds fast to the illusion that words and meaning then he will fail to understand the true meaning and will become entangled in assertions and refutations.” “The ignorant and simple-minded declare that meaning is not otherwise than words, that as words are, so is meaning. They think that as meaning has no body of its own that it cannot be different from words and, therefore, declare meaning to be identical with words. In this they are ignorant of the nature of words, which are subject to birth and death whereas meaning is not; words are dependent upon letters and meaning is not; meaning is apart from existence and non-existence, it has no substratum, it is unborn. The Tathagatas do not teach a Dharma that is dependent upon letters. Anyone who teaches a doctrine that is dependent upon letters and words is a mere prattler, because Truth is beyond letters and words and books. This does not mean that words and books never declare what is in conformity with meaning and truth, but it means that words and books are dependent upon discriminations, while meaning and truth are not; moreover, words and books are subject to the interpretation of individual minds.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 Buddhism: “The ignorant and simple-minded declare that meaning is not otherwise than words, that as words are, so is meaning. They think that as meaning has no body of its own that it cannot be different from words and, therefore, declare meaning to be identical with words. In this they are ignorant of the nature of words, which are subject to birth and death, whereas meaning is not; words are dependent upon letters and meaning is not; meaning is apart from existence and non-existence, it has no substratum, it is unborn. The Tathagatas do not teach a Dharma that is dependent upon letters. Anyone who teaches a doctrine that is dependent upon letters and words is a mere prattler, because Truth is beyond letters and words and books.” “This does not mean that words and books never declare what is in conformity with meaning and truth, but it means that words and books are dependent upon discriminations, while meaning and truth are not; moreover, words and books are subject to the interpretation of individual minds, while meaning and truth are not. But if Truth is not expressed in words and books, the scriptures which contain the meaning of Truth would disappear, and when the scriptures disappear there will be no more disciples and masters and Bodhisattvas and Buddhas, and there will be nothing to teach. But no one must become attached to the words of the scriptures because even the canonical texts sometimes deviate from their straightforward course owing to the imperfect functioning of sentient minds. Religious discourses are given by myself and other Tathagatas in response to the varying needs and faiths of all manner of beings, in order to free them from dependence upon the thinking function of the mind-system, but they are not given to take the place of self-realisation of Noble Wisdom. When there is recognition that there is nothing in the world but what is seen of the mind itself, all dualistic discriminations will be discarded and the truth of imagelessness will be understood, and will be seen to be in conformity with meaning rather than with words and letters.” “The ignorant and simple-minded being fascinated with their self-imaginations and erroneous reasonings, keep on dancing and leaping about, but are unable to understand the discourse of the words about the truth of self-realization, much less are they able to understand the Truth itself. Clinging to the external world, they cling to the study of books which are a means only, and do not know properly how to ascertain the truth of self-realization, which is Truth unspoiled by the four propositions. Self-realization is an exalted state of inner attainment which transcends all dualistic thinking and which is above the mind-system with its logic, reasoning, theorizing, and illustrations. The Tathagatas discourse to the ignorant, but sustain the Bodhisattvas as they seek self-realization of Noble Wisdom.” “Therefore, let every disciple take good heed not to become attached to words as being in perfect conformity with meaning, because Truth is not in the letters.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 SABEANISM: “Between the Hidden and the Radiance,” is the place where the hidden letter of the word can blind man unto spiritual death, while the seeing can see the radiance of the word of God throughout the spiritual letter and come closer to God. Some will see and some won’t; or as this Sabean parable tells us: “There were those who bought my wares (The Holy Words). The eyes (of such a one) were filled with light, Filled with light were his eyes (On) beholding the Great (One) in the House of Perfection. There were those who did not buy my wares. (or ignored the spiritual content of His holy words) They went on, reached their end and lay down. They were blind and saw not, Their ears were stopped and they heard not And their hearts were not awakened,” and understood not. (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapters 70 and 90)

Sabeanism: “In the name of The Great Life (Haiyi, God) The great Light be magnified! To you do I call and you do I teach, Men who have received the Sign. (the seeing men). Hearken not to the talk of all peoples and generations; Let not their stumblings cause you to stumble, Stumble not because of their stumblings!” Don’t let those blind to the letter of the word cause you to fall down with them. Matthew 15:14 “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 89 and King James Bible, Matthew)

 BABI RELIGION: “Flee from dead words, from whatever distracts you from God. Indeed such is a deadly poison which will consume you in flames while you are unaware.”

(The Bab (unauthorized translation), Journey Towards God – Lawson)

BAHA’I FAITH: “Had they but fixed their gaze upon the testimony of God itself, had they refused to follow in the footsteps of the abject and foolish among their leaders and divines, they would doubtless have attained to the repository of guidance and the treasury of virtue, and quaffed from the crystal waters of life eternal in the city of the All-Merciful.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, p. 10)

Baha’i Faith: “Nay, each must see with his own eyes, hear with his own ears and investigate the truth himself in order that he may follow the truth instead of blind acquiescence and imitation of ancestral beliefs.”

(Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 246)