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Quote by Kenneth S. Leong

“The presence of multiple interpretations is never a problem; it is simply a manifestation of the diversity of life. It is only when we try to enforce uniformity in interpretation that acts of violence, human suffering, and the deadening of the soul begin.”

Quote by Kenneth S. Leong

Work

The Zen Teachings of Jesus

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Kenneth S. Leong

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“Many people have completely missed out on the joy, humor, and profundity of Jesus' teachings because they keep holding on to the first interpretation they were taught back in Sunday school. In a way, they are like butterflies that are too afraid to come out of their cocoons or grown-ups who will not let go of their childhood clothes. By refusing to let their understanding grow with their personal experience, they are ensuring that the scriptures remain as a dull document progressively fading into oblivion rather than metamorphosing into the living words of God.”

“Spiritual truth has more to do with meaning than with facticity, and meaning is a function of personal experience. If we reread the fairy tales that were told to us as children, it is very likely that we will discover a wealth of new meanings. But these meanings could not have been made available to us when we were children because we simply did not have the maturity then to understand them. In a sense, there is not just one Bible but millions of them. For each of us is effectively reading a personalized version of the Bible, even if we all try hard to be "objective" in our reading. Subjectivity in interpretation is built-in - for we read what we are.”