What is the Baha'i message in simple words?

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RJM said:
It will be, won't it? Doesn't bring me any closer to understanding Baha'i really. Good night Tony ...
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I see if we embrace what Christ taught, we already know what Baha'u'llah was showing us.

But there is just so much to know, so it is always good to discuss. My time was short, so I say good morning, in return for your good night, one I have already had. It was 3:30 to 5am here replying to this OP and I am off to work.

Regards Tony
 
RJM said:
Most religions are not about changing the world, but about God's personal relationship with the eternal soul.
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Really?

I think most religions are about a community of people who have the same understanding that like to gather together and thruout the eons. As society grows in understanding a portion of those people find they disagree on some nuance they split and reform into separate groups. Gotta leave catholicism if you wanna divorce...gotta leave southern Baptist if you wanna gay marriage etc.

All in all religions to me allow a group to function in or separate itself from society (amish?)

Bahai are trying to see similarities in all groups and gathering folks who believe similar to that...trying to unite the separations that have been going on for 3k years.
 
I suppose everyone is different, but unity of churches does not ring my bell, though I appreciate the unity of spirit between religions. The discussion leaves me with a bleak, isolated feeling. Alone, a stranger in a strange land. I get no (human) warmth from it. I need my faith and my church. God bless you all
 
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RJM said:
I suppose everyone is different, but unity of churches does not ring my bell, though I appreciate the unity of spirit between religions. The discussion leaves me with a bleak feeling. Isolated and alone, a stranger in a strange land. I get no (human) warmth from it. I need my faith and my church. God bless you all
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Wow, that's depressing. ;):D

Picture a mighty garden full of diverse flowers. Displayed in the many Garden beds.

One can have their favourite Garden bed.

images.jpeg


Regards Tony
 
Somewhere along the line as long as someone doesn't berate me with their religion is the best, or I need to be saved, or I am headed.to hell...I have learned to accept others have various belief and hope they get all they can out of it.

But once.they resort to various nlp practices..
They lose my respect.
 
wil said:
But once they resort to various nlp practices..
They lose my respect.
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Frightening stuff.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

Lots of people have dreamed of a future of peace and plenty between nations. Implementing it is the problem. The world would need a global law enforcer. It would quickly become an Orwellian or Brave New World situation.

A mighty garden wafting fragrance of flowers is poetic fantasy. Who could trust it? The reality is far more sinister, imo. The Baha'i one world government theocracy could exactly match the criteria for the coming of a global antichrist, in fact?
 
Many religions have some kind of creed or summary of their beliefs. Christianity the various formulations of the Creed; Judaism has the Shema and various summaries, like Maimonides' 13 principles; Islam has the Shahada and summaries like the five pillars; Buddhism has a great many lists, but there are perennial favorites like the Triple Gem, the Noble Eightfold Path, the five Precepts, and so on.

Is the Baha'i Faith a religion which can be summarized in a statement or list, as a starting point for branching out into finer points of belief? If so, I'd love to have it quoted here - I think it would be a lot more recognizable to most of us non-Baha'i readers than rather general ideals like Monotheism and Peace.
 
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RJM said:
Frightening stuff.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuro-linguistic_programming

Lots of people have dreamed of a future of peace and plenty between nations. Implementing it is the problem. The world would need a global law enforcer. It would quickly become an Orwellian or Brave New World situation.

A mighty garden wafting fragrance of flowers is poetic fantasy. Who could trust it? The reality is far more sinister, imo. The Baha'i one world government theocracy could exactly match the criteria for the coming of a global antichrist, in fact?
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Well that is not the Baha'i Faith.

I do understand why people are scared of oneness though.

It is new eyes and new ears for this Day of Go;)
Cino said:
Many religions have some kind of creed or summary of their beliefs. Christianity the various formulations of the Creed; Judaism has the Shema and various summaries, like Maimonides' 13 principles; Islam has the Shahada and summaries like the five pillars; Buddhism has a great many lists, but there are perennial favorites like the Triple Gem, the Noble Eightfold Path, the five Precepts, and so on.

Is the Baha'i Faith a religion which can be summarized in a statement or list, as a starting point for branching out into finer points of belief? If so, I'd love to have it quoted here - I think it would be a lot more recognizable to most of us non-Baha'i readers than rather general ideals like Monotheism and Peace.
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That is a good observation Cino. There would be a couple I can think of from memory.

Christianity also has the 12 Beatitudes. Baha'u'llah offered 24 similar short sayings.

This is a link to a discussion on those

https://bahaiforums.com/t/beatitudes.8122/

My favorite would be this passage, which is really what we are to relect as a person, if we wish to be seen as a Baha'i.

Bahá’u’lláh counsels:

"Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face. Be a treasure to the poor, an admonisher to the rich, an answerer to the cry of the needy, a preserver of the sanctity of thy pledge. Be fair in thy judgment, and guarded in thy speech. Be unjust to no man, and show all meekness to all men. Be as a lamp unto them that walk in darkness, a joy to the sorrowful, a sea for the thirsty, a haven for the distressed, an upholder and defender of the victim of oppression. Let integrity and uprightness distinguish all thine acts. Be a home for the stranger, a balm to the suffering, a tower of strength for the fugitive. Be eyes to the blind, and a guiding light unto the feet of the erring. Be an ornament to the countenance of truth, a crown to the brow of fidelity, a pillar of the temple of righteousness, a breath of life to the body of mankind, an ensign of the hosts of justice, a luminary above the horizon of virtue, a dew to the soil of the human heart, an ark on the ocean of knowledge, a sun in the heaven of bounty, a gem on the diadem of wisdom, a shining light in the firmament of thy generation, a fruit upon the tree of humility. We pray God to protect thee from the heat of jealousy and the cold of hatred."

Regards Tony
 
RJM said:
This is a carry over from
Reading with New Eyes, Hearing with New Ears
https://www.interfaith.org/community/threads/20268/

Are Baha'i spokesmen willing to depart from the normal practice of referring questions to Baha'i tracts and scriptures, and to try in their own words, to help people understand in open debate what their core belief is?

This thread can be removed, retitled or moved to another section, if anyone wants that?
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I think the shortest summary would be as follows:

Oneness of God
Oneness of humanity
Oneness of religion

Each can be unpacked into lengthy discussions if one wishes to go down the rabbit hole.
 
Ahanu said:
I think the shortest summary would be as follows:

Oneness of God
Oneness of humanity
Oneness of religion

Each can be unpacked into lengthy discussions if one wishes to go down the rabbit hole.
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Thank you!
 
So this is what we have as the simplest message of Baha'i?

Oneness of God
Oneness of humanity
Oneness of religion
 
wil said:
Do all bahai sects/divisions agree.on those three?
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What Baha'i sects? Point one out that makes up, say, one percent of the current Baha'i population estimated to number around seven million.
 
Ahanu said:
What Baha'i sects? Point one out that makes up, say, one percent of the current Baha'i population estimated to number around seven million.
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As a general principle, do numbers make right, in the Baha'i faith?
 
RJM said:
This for me is the (most) problematic one?
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Which sense of oneness is problematic? You already mentioned the "all true religions agree on certain points" kind of oneness, which you agreed with, so it must be another aspect?
 
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