Sunday Thoughts

From One Mountain, Many Paths
An American Freemason Speaks Out for Peace

by Dr. Patrick Swift

Click book or here to go to the page and buy it for yourself,

I opened the book at random this morning and this is what came up.

"Beware, O believers in the Unity of God, lest ye be tempted to make any distinction between any of the Manifestations of His Cause, or to discriminate against the signs that have accompanied and proclaimed their revelation. This indeed is the true meaning of Divine Unity, if ye be of them that apprehend and believe this truth."

Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'ullah 24

On the facing page:

Then Peter began to speak to them: I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.

Acts 10:34-45
Christianity

I don't know why the book opened to this passage nor am I quite sure I understand the Baha'i faith. I have been to the Temple in Illinois and I have know several members of the faith and have found them to be very nice people with a deep faith. I do feel that I understand the spirit of the two pages. And that is that we are in reality all one people with many different manifestations of our spirituality and that we should respect all who attempt to do what is right and proper towards God as we understand it.

Unfortunately, in most religions, it doesn't work that way. People seem convinced that theirs is the only way to believe and they spend an inordinate amount of time telling others how to believe and how to live their lives. They claim that if you don't believe exactly as they do you will go to hell to be punished for all eternity. (As if a God called Love would do something like that to His creation?)

In the Baha'i faith a Manifestation of God is a Divine Teacher sent to teach Humanity religion. There have been many of them including Jesus and Mohammed. The statement above seems to be saying that we should make no distinciton between any of them but learn from them all. I can go with that. The Hindu religion was once explained to me as a religion that continually looks for the truth. I like to think of myself as that type of person. That is why I love this little book - because it is not limited to one faith tradition but takes wisdom from all of them and is trying to show the truth of the statement that has been one of my guideposts for many many years. "There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same."

Food for thought. Have a nice week.