Questions on a variety of things
Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 5:22 pm
Hello everyone,
I’ve just recently begun reading about the Baha’i faith, although it is not my first encounter with such core beliefs as the oneness of humanity, the essential unity of religion, etc (ideas which I first encountered in Aldous Huxley’s magnificent “The Perennial Philosophy,” and in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna as expounded by P.J. Saher in “Eastern Wisdom and Western Thought” – whose Religionsphilosophie bears a striking resemblance to Baha’i ideas* see: footnote to this post)
Just a bit of background... I consider myself spiritually-inclined, although my beliefs do not fall into any single religious category (i.e. Buddhist, Christian, etc) – instead I’ve inherited ideas from a diverse field of teachings, taking in what resonates with me most on an intuitive level. In this way I’ve absorbed ideas from Zen Buddhism, Taosim, Romantic philosophy, Neoplatonism, modern cosmology and physics, and teachings from select sages such as Sri Aurobindo and the aforementioned Sri Ramakrishna, amongst many others. I do a lot of reading over a diverse area of topics and over the past few years have formulated a lot of my own ideas about the nature of the world and about the promise of things to come, about education and spirituality/philosophy and how these might interlink, about social dynamics and the possibility of tightly-knit, diverse and interacting communities spread out over self-sustaining regions (as opposed to the modern-day centralized and anonymous social sphere of THE CITY), etc..
Basically, the Baha’i faith, to me, is extremely interesting and captivating, and its existence resonates well with what I see as a major phenomenon of modern 20th/21st century civilization – that is, the increasing global interconnection of mankind, the emergence of institutions designed to assist those in need (i.e. Amnesty International, etc, - institutions whose existence would have been unthinkable even 200 years ago!) and the creation of new global governmental orders like the United Nations and the European Union.
In an effort to better understand the Baha’i faith, I’ve found my way here! So, naturally, I have a couple of questions...
a) What is the ideal future envisioned in Baha’i religion? Is it a global order in which the world is composed of many diverse religions, each tolerant of one another, and the Baha’i just one amongst many? Or would the Baha’i be the organizing principle? What texts are mainly concerned with these ideas of future social organization, etc?
b) In particular and in relation to this first question, what about government? What would be the ideal governmental form be, and would it be governed by Baha’i institutions or would they merely be involved? Is it a belief that we do not need government, or that it is a necessary though misunderstood form of human organization? (I’m guessing there is a tendency towards the latter, based on the fairly rigorously organized ‘Administrative Order’)
c) A question of education, in situational form: Say there is a hypothetical child, perhaps 10 years of age, who has no religious or spiritual knowledge of any kind, and is something of a blank canvass. Would it be considered ideal to instruct him in the ways of the Baha’i, or to present him with the many diverse religions already existent (the Baha’i among them) and to let him take what he can from these, or to merely instruct him in essential principles that have no particular affiliation with Baha’i or with any other principle religions, i.e. to merely teach the inherency of human unity, etc. – and would the age of the child make a difference here?
d) Following on from C, are there specific Baha’i texts and teachings and ideas related to human education? What are the main ideas? Basically – is it assumed that, as with government, there is a better way of doing things?
I’ll leave it at that for now! I’m sure your answers will drum up many more questions from me and will hopefully refine my questions somewhat, making them less generalized (as they are bound to be at this stage in my inquiry!)
Thanks =)
Alex
* footnote. Excerpt from “Eastern Wisdom and Western Thought” ----
“Thus when Radhakrishnan advocates a return to religion he does not mean a specific one but sanātana dharma – the universality of an experience which forms the nucleus of all specific religions. Sanātana dharma is the other side of ista devata. Infinite variety is permitted in the latter (selection of a chosen deity and/or religion) because the former (the universal nature of the experience forming the nucleus of every religion) is invariable. One will always get the same answer to a sum, irrespective of whether one counts a column of figures from top to bottom or the other way round, provided one adds correctly. “
I’ve just recently begun reading about the Baha’i faith, although it is not my first encounter with such core beliefs as the oneness of humanity, the essential unity of religion, etc (ideas which I first encountered in Aldous Huxley’s magnificent “The Perennial Philosophy,” and in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna as expounded by P.J. Saher in “Eastern Wisdom and Western Thought” – whose Religionsphilosophie bears a striking resemblance to Baha’i ideas* see: footnote to this post)
Just a bit of background... I consider myself spiritually-inclined, although my beliefs do not fall into any single religious category (i.e. Buddhist, Christian, etc) – instead I’ve inherited ideas from a diverse field of teachings, taking in what resonates with me most on an intuitive level. In this way I’ve absorbed ideas from Zen Buddhism, Taosim, Romantic philosophy, Neoplatonism, modern cosmology and physics, and teachings from select sages such as Sri Aurobindo and the aforementioned Sri Ramakrishna, amongst many others. I do a lot of reading over a diverse area of topics and over the past few years have formulated a lot of my own ideas about the nature of the world and about the promise of things to come, about education and spirituality/philosophy and how these might interlink, about social dynamics and the possibility of tightly-knit, diverse and interacting communities spread out over self-sustaining regions (as opposed to the modern-day centralized and anonymous social sphere of THE CITY), etc..
Basically, the Baha’i faith, to me, is extremely interesting and captivating, and its existence resonates well with what I see as a major phenomenon of modern 20th/21st century civilization – that is, the increasing global interconnection of mankind, the emergence of institutions designed to assist those in need (i.e. Amnesty International, etc, - institutions whose existence would have been unthinkable even 200 years ago!) and the creation of new global governmental orders like the United Nations and the European Union.
In an effort to better understand the Baha’i faith, I’ve found my way here! So, naturally, I have a couple of questions...
a) What is the ideal future envisioned in Baha’i religion? Is it a global order in which the world is composed of many diverse religions, each tolerant of one another, and the Baha’i just one amongst many? Or would the Baha’i be the organizing principle? What texts are mainly concerned with these ideas of future social organization, etc?
b) In particular and in relation to this first question, what about government? What would be the ideal governmental form be, and would it be governed by Baha’i institutions or would they merely be involved? Is it a belief that we do not need government, or that it is a necessary though misunderstood form of human organization? (I’m guessing there is a tendency towards the latter, based on the fairly rigorously organized ‘Administrative Order’)
c) A question of education, in situational form: Say there is a hypothetical child, perhaps 10 years of age, who has no religious or spiritual knowledge of any kind, and is something of a blank canvass. Would it be considered ideal to instruct him in the ways of the Baha’i, or to present him with the many diverse religions already existent (the Baha’i among them) and to let him take what he can from these, or to merely instruct him in essential principles that have no particular affiliation with Baha’i or with any other principle religions, i.e. to merely teach the inherency of human unity, etc. – and would the age of the child make a difference here?
d) Following on from C, are there specific Baha’i texts and teachings and ideas related to human education? What are the main ideas? Basically – is it assumed that, as with government, there is a better way of doing things?
I’ll leave it at that for now! I’m sure your answers will drum up many more questions from me and will hopefully refine my questions somewhat, making them less generalized (as they are bound to be at this stage in my inquiry!)
Thanks =)
Alex
* footnote. Excerpt from “Eastern Wisdom and Western Thought” ----
“Thus when Radhakrishnan advocates a return to religion he does not mean a specific one but sanātana dharma – the universality of an experience which forms the nucleus of all specific religions. Sanātana dharma is the other side of ista devata. Infinite variety is permitted in the latter (selection of a chosen deity and/or religion) because the former (the universal nature of the experience forming the nucleus of every religion) is invariable. One will always get the same answer to a sum, irrespective of whether one counts a column of figures from top to bottom or the other way round, provided one adds correctly. “