A man formed a religious group. People esteemed him a very learned person. He had a few followers, and they wrote his instructions in a book.

Over the years the book became very large, with all sorts of instructions therein. The followers were advised not to do anything without first consulting the holy book. Wherever the followers went and whatever they did, they would consult the book, which served as the manual in guiding their lives.

One day when the leader was crossing a timber bridge, he fell into the river. The followers were with him. But none of them knew what to do under the circumstances. So they consulted the holy book.

"Help! Help!" the Master shouted, "I can't swim!"

"Please wait a while Master! Please don't get drowned!" they pleaded. "We are still searching in our holy book! There must be an instruction on what to do if you fell off from a wooden bridge into a river!"

While they were turning over the pages of the holy book to find out the appropriate instruction, the teacher disappeared in the water. He drowned.

*Told by Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda. How to Live Without Worry and Fear.

I am all for the importance of holy books. I have much enjoyed reading the great classics of the world faiths, a few in many renditions. These have much divine wisdom. They are means of revelation of universal, timeless truth arising from the living Word, or the Cosmic Christ: The Upanishads, The Dhammapada, The Bhagavad Gita, The Tao Te Ching, The Tanak, ... Of course, I do not claim that any of these are inerrant means.

Certainly, being a Christian, I read The Holy Bible daily. The Bible is the chief holy book for my personal life and my giving spiritual guidance as a pastor to my congregations. The Bible has been and is an indispensable guide to how I am to live a Christian life and become more in the likeness of Christ. So, the Bible has a Christocentric intent in my faith journey.

However, rightly, the Christian group I belong to recognizes the Bible is not an inerrant~word for word guide. The Bible does not give accurately and timelessly in all its pages the Mind of God. No book does that.

Continued...