meaning

KEYS OF UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE: (Detail) 1. Read the Bible - over and over - again and again. By repetition you will gain familiarity with the stories, with the characters, with the authors, with the teachings and doctrines and, most importantly, with our Lord and Master. "If we are to know God, we must read His words, for therein He stands revealed to the honest in heart." Bishop J. Richard Clarke, General Conference, Oct.'82. 2. Ponder, Pray and Seek the Spirit. Most important above all others! Seek always to have the Spirit with you. ". . . the things of God knoweth no man, except he has the Spirit of God." 1 Corinthians 2:11. Listen to that "still, small voice." 3. Use the New LDS Edition of the King James Version..."The most significant event in Bible publication in over a hundred years," Daniel H. Ludlow. Forget other translations. 4. Use & rely on the JST, for clarification. Especially as foot-noted in the New LDS Edition of the King James Version. Mark the JST footnotes throughout your Bible. 5. Don't get "hung up" on individual words. Don't be distracted by archaic spellings and usages or "little words" that might not be correct. Read for the Meaning and for the Story while relying on the Spirit. 6. Use commentaries & dictionaries for background . . . history, local customs & traditions; (Use the Bible Dictionary & Maps in the LDS Edition). For doctrinal interpretations, use the scriptures themselves and prayer along with the writings of inspired scholars. "Don't drink from the stream below the horses." 7. Study individual scripture passages in context with all others which are pertinent as to time and doctrine. 8. "Rightly divide" between literal and figurative. Study inspired writings of latter-day apostles and prophets. 9. Modern scripture sheds true light on the ancient. Footnotes and Topical Guide will help. 10. Become familiar with ancient biblical literary styles. Learn some of the basic elements of Israelite writing such as: parallelism, chiasmus, figurative imagery, and dualism. 11. Learn Hebrew and Greek. [For the very ambitious.]

To invoke the Buddha's name you have to understand the dharma of invoking. If it's not present in your mind, your mouth chants an empty name. As long as you're troubled by the three poisons or by thoughts of yourself, your deluded mind will keep you form seeing the Buddha and you'll only waste your effort. Chanting and invoking are worlds apart. Chanting is done with the mouth. Invoking is done with the mind. And because invoking comes from the mind, it's called the door to awareness. Chanting is centered in the mouth and appears as sound. If you cling to appearances while searching for meaning, you won't find a thing. . . .

Words differently arranged have a different meaning and meanings differently arranged have a different effect.

The doctrine, as I understand it, consists in maintaining that the language of daily life, with words used in their ordinary meanings, suffices for philosophy, which has no need of technical terms or of changes in the significance of common terms. I find myself totally unable to accept this view. I object to it: 1.Because it is insincere; 2.Because it is capable of excusing ignorance of mathematics, physics and neurology in those who have had only a classical education; 3.Because it is advanced by some in a tone of unctuous rectitude, as if opposition to it were a sin against democracy; 4.Because it makes philosophy trivial; 5.Because it makes almost inevitable the perpetuation amongst philosophers of the muddle-headedness they have taken over from common sense.

Words may show a man's wit but actions his meaning.

It is said that [Robin Hood] fought against the looting rulers and returned the loot to those who had been robbed, but that is not the meaning of the legend which has survived. He is remembered, not as a champion of property, but as a champion of need, not as a defender of the robbed, but as a provider of the poor. He is held to be the first man who assumed a halo of virtue by practicing charity with wealth which he did not own, by giving away goods which he had not produced, by making others pay for the luxury of his pity. He is the man who became the symbol of the idea that need, not achievement, is the source of rights, that we don't have to produce, only to want, that the earned does not belong to us, but the unearned does. He became a justification for every mediocrity who, unable to make his own living, had demanded the power to dispose of the property of his betters, by proclaiming his willingness to devote his life to his inferiors at the price of robbing his superiors.

The idea that 'the public interest' supersedes private interests and rights can have but one meaning: that the interests and rights of some individuals take precedence over the interests and rights of others.

Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove.

Faith gives the courage to live and do. Scientists, with their disciplined thinking, like others, need a basis for the good life, for aspiration, for courage to do great deeds. They need a faith to live by. The hope of the world lies in those who have such faith and who use the methods of science to make their visions become real. Visions and hope and faith are not part of science. They are beyond the nature that science knows. Of such is the religion that gives meaning to life.

If women didn't exist, all the money in the world would have no meaning.