One God, Many Paths

[wil]

Dang it, that weekend is Mothers Day and I will be taking mom out to a ball game!

MLK Jr Library Washington DC

Is it possible that all the world’s great spiritual and religious traditions originated from the same source, even if we refer to or understand that Source in many different ways?

Throughout history, religion and religious differences have often been identified as a point of division amongst the world’s peoples, as a source of strife and contention – and even of bloodshed. But is that the whole story? Is it possible that when you look more closely at what the various religions of the world actually teach, that there is in fact much more overlap and agreement than one might initially be led to believe? Looking beyond the teachings of daily practice, are there deeper truths that unite the world’s religions? How many people actually investigate the seeming differences, or similarities, for themselves? Is it possible that they share a common thread or even originate from one common, divine source?

Come join a different kind of conversation – one that welcomes every perspective in a search for the truths that unite us all – as we discuss the spiritual perspective offered by the Bahá’í Teachings on the fundamental oneness of religion. Join us for a lively discussion as we explore the purpose and role of religion in promoting true unity and the progress of us all.


"...for all religion is founded upon the love of humanity." – Bahá’í Teachings

*** This event is free and open to all regardless of background or belief. Donations will not be accepted.

One God, Many Paths (Free Event)

Religion event in Washington D.C. by Meaningful Conversations Washington, DC on Sunday, May 11 2025

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One God, Many Paths (Free Event)

Get a ticket to let us know you are coming!

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[TheLightWithin]

That really looks like an interesting event!

I think this is the concept of Perennialism, and Omnism, too, alongside Baha'i beliefs, though those are all very different and contain nuances beyond my current level of knowledge.

If I remember correctly, there are things in the idea of mystics such as Meister Eckhart which would confirm something like this. Something called "the grounds" or "the ground of all being"

Why a 14th-century mystic appeals to today’s ‘spiritual but not religious’ Americans

Meister Eckhart was a 14th-century Dominican friar, who gave sermons on the direct experience of God. His words are finding resonance among today’s spiritual seekers.

theconversation.com

Or the poet Rumi
“I looked for God. I went to a temple and I didn’t find him there. Then I went to a church and I didn’t find him there. The I went to a mosque and I didn’t find him there. Then finally I looked in my heart and there he was.”
— Rumi

Rumi Quote: “I looked for God. I went to a temple and I didn’t find him there. Then I went to a church and I didn’t find him there....”

“I looked for God. I went to a temple and I didn’t find him there. Then I went to a church and I didn’t find him there. The I went to a mosque and I didn’t find him there. Then finally I looked in my heart and there he was.” — Quote by Rumi

quotefancy.com

I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.​

I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was there.​

I entered the mountain cave of Hira and then went as far as Qandhar but God I found not.​

With set purpose I fared to the summit of Mount Caucasus and found there only 'anqa's habitation.​

Then I directed my search to the Kaaba, the resort of old and young; God was not there even.​

Turning to philosophy I inquired about him from ibn Sina but found Him not within his range.​

I fared then to the scene of the Prophet's experience of a great divine manifestation only a "two bow-lengths' distance from him" but God was not there even in that exalted court.​

Finally, I looked into my own heart and there I saw Him; He was nowhere else.” ​

― Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi

A quote by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi

I searched for God among the Christians and on the Cross and therein I found Him not.I went into the ancient temples of idolatry; no trace of Him was th...

www.goodreads.com

​

 

[TheLightWithin]

Regarding Meister Eckart, I just discovered this YouTube channel called "good to think with" which also seems to be speaking to this topic

good to think with

Meister Eckhart’s ideas and translations.. and other philosophical ideas that are good to think with! I'm Dr. Clint Johnson of Georgia Tech (all opinions are my own) and I've taught philosophy for nearly twenty years now. I'm the author of Paradox at Play: Metaphor in Meister Eckhart's...

www.youtube.com

 

[Thomas]

Is it possible that all the world’s great spiritual and religious traditions originated from the same source, even if we refer to or understand that Source in many different ways?

Yes. Absolutely.

Throughout history, religion and religious differences have often been identified as a point of division amongst the world’s peoples, as a source of strife and contention – and even of bloodshed. But is that the whole story? Is it possible that when you look more closely at what the various religions of the world actually teach, that there is in fact much more overlap and agreement than one might initially be led to believe? Looking beyond the teachings of daily practice, are there deeper truths that unite the world’s religions? How many people actually investigate the seeming differences, or similarities, for themselves? Is it possible that they share a common thread or even originate from one common, divine source?

Yes. Absolutely.

Come join a different kind of conversation – one that welcomes every perspective in a search for the truths that unite us all – as we discuss the spiritual perspective offered by the Bahá’í Teachings on the fundamental oneness of religion. Join us for a lively discussion as we explore the purpose and role of religion in promoting true unity and the progress of us all.

My only issue here is that, with regard to Christianity, the Baha'i 'Oneness of religion' is effectively the Baha'i way, and where other religious traditions differ from the Baha'i understanding and interpretation, they are wrong.

So Baha'i 'oneness' is in fact a discreet supersessionism, by which all sacra doctrina need to be interpreted and where necessary corrected to sit within Baha'i principles.

+++

I prefer a Sophia Perennis that says all truth is One, that all religious endeavour is a discernment of the Real and the True; the ultimate Ground of All.

So this scholl says – where R means a particular religious tradition – "This R is right, according to its principles" and "That R is right, according to its principles", whereas Baha'i says "This R is right and that R is provisionally right but out-dated, according to and by our R perspective."

The error of anybody – the Baha'i, Theosophy, and anyone who voices a 'one religion above all' – is that no single religious expression can sum up the totality, entirely and completely, to the exclusion of all else, the universal imperative seated deep within all being – that is to seek its source.

It's simply a categorical error to assert, in a relative and contingent existence, a singular means and method to be intrinsically absolute.

+++

In short, all true religions are equal, and no single religion is superior to or more equal than any other.

To honour any one religion is to live according to its precepts, and in so doing honours all of them.

One God, many paths indeed, but one can only walk one path, and to seek to walk them all is never to leave the foothills.

 

[wil]

I have been to a few of these types of events over the decades...put on by various religions, bahai, seventh day Adventists, Moonies, etc. It often seems to me they are actually advertisements for their belief, trying to increase their numbers by gathering from those on the fence or dissatisfied somehow with the religion they were indoctrinated in.

I think overall they are worthy endeavors exposing folks to more and different options in belief.

 

[TheLightWithin]

In short, all true religions are equal, and no single religion is superior to or more equal than any other.

I've always liked this message

To honour any one religion is to live according to its precepts, and in so doing honours all of them.

Sort of, but I'm conflicted by and/or a little put off by the position favoring orthodoxy

One God, many paths indeed, but one can only walk one path, and to seek to walk them all is never to leave the foothills.

I don't know how many people try to walk all paths.
People may try to learn from all paths or forge their own path
Or make some combination of two paths rather than try to follow all
If I understand correctly, Sophia Perennis does not endorse that

 

[wil]

Thomas said:
In short, all true religions are equal, and no single religion is superior to or more equal than any other.
@TheLightWithin ....I've always liked this message

Me too....I think most agnostics and atheists would agree with this statement.

I think all religions have value...how much is determined by the follower, everyone's mileage varies.

Like I taught my Sunday school students...everyone is a mentor...some for what to do... others for what not to do..
Most a little of both.

Sometimes there ain't enough salt!

 

[muhammad_isa]

Sort of, but I'm conflicted by and/or a little put off by the position favoring orthodoxy..

There has to be a "default" position .. a common belief of the majority, perhaps.

People may try to learn from all paths or forge their own path..

Some scholars don't like that, as they think it's dangerous due to human error/desire.
..but I think that it depends on the intentions of the one trying to understand.

..so it's OK up to a point.

 

[Tony Bristow-Stagg]

Thomas said:
In short, all true religions are equal, and no single religion is superior to or more equal than any other.
@TheLightWithin ....I've always liked this message

Me too....I think most agnostics and atheists would agree with this statement.

I think all religions have value...how much is determined by the follower, everyone's mileage varies.

Like I taught my Sunday school students...everyone is a mentor...some for what to do... others for what not to do..
Most a little of both.

Sometimes there ain't enough salt!

Thank you for the OP, I will give some of my thoughts.

Baha'u'llah has shown us how all the religions are from One source, the One God and that we are to make no distinction between any of the God given Messengers. We are to embrace the eternal essence of them all, the spiritual capacity we find in them, one and all. We are taught to appreciate the differences in the Messages are only a requirement and a product of the age they were given to humanity.

I would suggest that a key here is, if we are truly to embrace religion as equal we will need to consider that the Faiths given of God do teach a progressive thought from the last revealed Message. How then, can we embrace them as equal, if we reject the progressive Message they teach? I personally see all God given Faiths as equal, and embrace all the Messengers that delivered those Faiths to humanity, but recognise there are things from the past that are no longer to be practiced, as another Message abrogated those requirements.

The most obvious example for a Christian is how will they see Islam as equal, if they do not see the wisdom in why Muhammad told them to cease with the trinity? They will see error not equality. For a Muslim they will never honestly see the Baha'i as equal while they embrace finality of God's Messengers, and that is another hurdle for Christians who see no other Messengers after Jesus, or who see Jesus in a light that does not allow for other Messengers.

It is then logical, that true honesty in embracing the equality of the religions would also require us to embrace the Oneness of God, yet who can honestly say here, that they embrace the Oneness of God? Be honest here, as true equality rests on that honesty. Equality that rests on anything else really has foundations build on sand, easily destroyed by the first tempest that comes along.

The times may require us to attempt reconciliation of Faiths built on a fragile equality, but in the end, I see only one path that can make it a true reality. That would require us to embrace teachings, which when read in the light of equality of faiths do take on new meaning, a meaning larger than the name "Christianity", or Muslim, or Hindu, or Buddhist, etc, such as;

JOHN 10:16 “And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.”

Thus enabling the lords prayer, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven".... the Kingdom of God on earth, really becoming a reflection of what that kingdom is in heaven.

Isaiah 54:10 "“For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.""

The oneness is found in our own hearts.

Regards Tony

 

[TheLightWithin]

There has to be a "default" position .. a common belief of the majority, perhaps.

Why?

 

[muhammad_isa]

Why?

Creeds have roots .. and have evolved through time into different groups/sects.

eg. there were no Protestants before the Reformation

 

[Thomas]

I think this is the concept of Perennialism, and Omnism, too, alongside Baha'i beliefs, though those are all very different and contain nuances beyond my current level of knowledge.

Baha'i doctrine is not properly omnism nor perennialism, it's supercessionism.

 

[Thomas]

People may try to learn from all paths or forge their own path

Rather than a path, think of it as a river, and of finding the source of a river – that preserves one from the human folly of the path analogy.

If I understand correctly, Sophia Perennis does not endorse that

No, it doesn't ... it says pick a path and do it.

 

[TheLightWithin]

Creeds have roots .. and have evolved through time into different groups/sects.

eg. there were no Protestants before the Reformation

Quakers are explicitly non-creedal and identify as such.

There were other reform minded thinkers and writers before the Reformation, they were just put down.
Jan Hus, others

Proto-Protestantism - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[TheLightWithin]

Rather than a path, think of it as a river, and of finding the source of a river – that preserves one from the human folly of the path analogy.


No, it doesn't ... it says pick a path and do it.

By that you mean an existing orthodox religion... I know that only from what you have said before.
What do they posit will go wrong if one does NOT do that?

 

[Thomas]

By that you mean an existing orthodox religion... I know that only from what you have said before.
What do they posit will go wrong if one does NOT do that?

Because in all authentic religions there is a supra-rational element, a transcendent element, that sits at its core – its heart – and everything else 'forms' itself around that. One might call it Word or Logos or Aum or Dao or what have you, it is ageless and Eternal, it is, in Itself, utterly transcendent and unknowable, and it is that which is immanently present in the 'ground' of every living thing, every mode of being, and it is that by, through, in and with, all being is united and related ... all is one.

The 'vocation' of all being, the 'calling' of all being, is not only to respond to that primordial, Eternal Call, but to add one's voice to it, so that the Single, Simple, One(-note, or sound or tone), becomes a harmonious melody, a theophany, and that is what doing religion is.

When people seek tin invent their own religion, or make their own way, they forget one simple thing –

That individual way was determined at the foundation of the world. We do not compose it, it was always there in us, it is us, we did not compose it, any more than we generated our own being. And the theoria and praxis of the religions is the means of harmonising the song of the soul with the Song.

Religions are the winnowed wisdom of the human race – Huston Smith

To not do that is to think one knows better than the cumulative wisdom of millennia of human experience.

If psychology teaches us anything, it's that we are prone to make the same choices, the same errors, over and over again.

+++

I do not disallow the individual spiritual path – the Spirit blows where it wills, and who's to say?

But one thing I can tell you, is that such a path, when it is authentic, is wholly and utterly real, in body, mind, spirit and soul ... it is solitary and sorrowful, desolate and alone – it is to walk the vale of tears, and those tears are your own – it exists because it needs must in a contingent cosmos such as ours, but its a hard path, a life of loss and loneliness.

It is a test of the greatest saints.

The path is Great Burden, and whosoever walks that path pays a great price, and its rewards are not in this world.

Lastly, I would add that on the spiritual path there lies somewhere ahead 'the dark night of the soul' – which one can read about in any number of intellectual and emotional essays – but the experience of that renders everything 'as chaff before the wind', it is a whole-person experience, its is beyond experience, it is beyond that place governed by reason and rationality, void of every support ... and if that does not terrify the solitary seeker, then there's a case of 'fools rush in, where angels fear to tread'.

+++

 

[muhammad_isa]

There were other reform minded thinkers and writers before the Reformation, they were just put down..

That was just an example..
If one doesn't know basic theology i.e. the orthodox view, then I don't
see how one can have a valid opinion about the subject at all .

In other words, without Orthodoxy, there is nothing to compare against.
..and we need a good reason for veering off the path (of orthodoxy) .. and not just dislike of church leaders or whims .. imo.

However, I leave it to Bahai members to espouse their views of Orthodox here..
(This is in Bahai forums)

 

[Ahanu]

Baha'i doctrine is not properly omnism nor perennialism, it's supercessionism.

@Sen McGlinn, would you like to address @Thomas' claims about the Baha'i Faith being supercessionist in nature?

 

[Ahanu]

So this scholl says – where R means a particular religious tradition – "This R is right, according to its principles" and "That R is right, according to its principles",

Be careful.

I assume this doesn't imply that every single principle within each tradition (say, a historical practice like slavery) is considered absolutely right from the perspective of the ultimate Ground you described for us here?

If the Perennialist view doesn't assert that, then perhaps the concise way you've summarized this school’s stance might be missing something.

 

[Thomas]

Be careful.

I assume this doesn't imply that every single principle within each tradition (say, a historical practice like slavery) is considered absolutely right from the perspective of the ultimate Ground you described for us here?

If the Perennialist view doesn't assert that, then perhaps the concise way you've summarized this school’s stance might be missing something.

I would hope people read my post in the spirit it was intended.