Seeking Deeper Meaning In Scripture

I would like to discuss a topic which I find to be interesting and worthy of consideration. And that is religious scripture, particularly as one comes to embrace open-minded spirituality rather than traditional adherence to religious dogma. Because, I have not been traditionally religious, one who adheres to a religious dogma, in quite some time. But, I have had the belief that there were deep spiritual truths in religious scripture, they just don't get noticed because the majority representation of the text in the religious institutions don't explore these deeper meanings so much, and instead just stick to the dogma. In reality, I don't read those sorts of scripture all that much anymore, but theoretically I am interested in the idea.

Now, usually when I do read a religious scripture, like the bible, I will feel that I am seeing deeper meanings behind what is being said than what it would generally be thought to have. And I will often get into a spiritual seeming mindset. But then as I keep reading, I get this sort of opposing force in my mind. Like...you're reading the bible. Just, the sense of it being an old text, which is used to prop up a religion, which usually has a very restrictive effect on the mentality of its adherents. And then this starts up a sort of feeling of aversion to it again. But, really I do tend to think there are deeper, esoteric truths in religious scripture. You just have to read it a certain way. You have to look for subtle things in the way its written. Things which it implies, but doesn't directly say. How characters, objects, events, descriptions, can be paralleled to philosophic and spiritual principles, and descriptions of internal processes.

That's just this idea of, reading deeply into scripture. This is a major method in kaballah, and in Jewish tradition generally really. Sometimes I even have the urge to try to seek out deeper, esoteric meanings in the quran. I have also had impulses into doing this with the Vedas. And this is related to another idea that I've had floating around in my mind for a while, but haven't presented itself as adequate context for a thread. And that is, the idea which oftentimes is the source of the mystical offshoots of the religions, the idea of legitimately sacred, divine, perfect, scripture. That scripture, or at least parts of scripture, are literally perfect. And what that means is, every minor little detail in the way it is written and structured, is absolutely specifically chosen, for reasons that are beyond what we would generally even consider. There is infinite depth of meaning to it. There is nothing arbitrary in a sacred scripture. You must seek out the meaning in every single detail of its composition. And it is this analysis that oftentimes lends itself to mystical illumination, and esoteric philosophy.

And so I would just like to explore this idea, and hear what others have to say. What do you think of reading religious scripture with the intent of seeing deeper esoteric meanings in it, as opposed to reading about a dogma to believe in. This also ties in with another thing. I think we all have our own dispositions. One cannot use ones own dispositions as a context for another. Sometimes it seems to me that I simply have a disposition for reading. Reading has always been a useful and enjoyable tool for spiritual illumination. And, I think this is why a part of me is attracted to this idea of using religious scripture as a source of esoteric wisdom. It is like a self-standing source, where the wisdom is to be uncovered layer by layer as you read deeper and deeper into it.