As are many folks.
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How are these Great Beings explained?
- Thread starter loverofhumanity
- Start date
As are many folks.
I don't think you understand the meaning of tolerance ... it simply means 'to allow to exist without direct interference'. So by that definition, you can disagree with another's faith as much as you want as long as you don't try to change them. By the same definition, proseltysing and evangelizing religions, by the nature of those actions, are intolerant.
Mmmm, no bet given on what I will choose
Interesting that you see belief as a choice. Same as homosexuality I suppose. A choice. I don't see belief as a choice at all. To me, it's far more in the realm of a discovery. Watch, observe, listen, have experiences, and then find a belief system (maybe, maybe not) that more or less matches those experiences, those intuitive 'Ah Ha!' moments. That's thinking for yourself, not looking at a bunch of beliefs and picking the one that best entertains a selfish outcome, and convincing yourself you believe in it. That's too much like convincing yourself the prettiest girl in high school has eyes for you and you alone.
Of course he does. How many times have the Baha'i here said the same thing? ... that Baha'i books are books of God. Baha'u'llah didn't write them, but God wrote them through Baha'u'llah.
Personally, I don't trust anyone who claims to be writing on behalf of God.
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Whoa! Careful how you tread there.............
religion/rɪˈlɪdʒ(ə)n/
noun
the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.
Is your Brahman a superhuma controlling power? If not, minus a God or Gods, you've just popped straight in among the cults, a minor following on thre edge of a great religion, Hindu.
Oops......
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
I never knew about stone circles in W. Canada.
And twice as old as Stonehenge.
I travelled all over the UK when working, and loved to visit such ancient monuments as hill-forts, circles, henges and more recent castles and forts.
Offshore on a shingle bank off where I live there is a fish trap 100 yards long with circular end-keep. I understand that it is thousands of years old, and mammoth teeth and tusks have been dug up not far from it by bait diggers.
The Truth that we have found, and lost...............
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
I'm very suspicious about folks who decide to change their name to such as 'Glory of God', or those who claim to be writing on behalf of God.
Yeshua BarYosef never claimed any such things, although liars or crazies later made such claims for and of him.
Seems I got my dates wrong. Only 5000 years old. And very speculative stuff. We went there last summer. If nothing else, very scenic and absolutely in the middle of nowhere.
Canada's Stonehenge - Wikipedia
The first reply above underestimates the power of the use of negation over affirmation.
Also
Hindu and thoughts on Moksha vary but this is available;
For example, Vivekachudamani - an ancient book on moksha, explains one of many meditative steps on the path to moksha, as:
जाति नीति कुल गोत्र दूरगं
नाम रूप गुण दोष वर्जितम् |
देश काल विषया तिवर्ति यद्
ब्रह्म तत्त्वमसि भाव यात्मनि ||२५४||
Beyond caste, creed, family or lineage,
That which is without name and form, beyond merit and demerit, That which is beyond space, time and sense-objects,
You are that, God himself; Meditate this within yourself. ||Verse 254||
— Vivekachudamani, 8th Century AD[17]
Regards Tony
I see in that answer the choice of feeding ones own self, finding or having a belief that fits most of ones own worldly desires,
or
Finding that one has to give of all those worldly desires to have found Faith.
So yes it is a Choice, a Faith that gives me a lot of what I want in life or a Faith in what God has shown us we need to be.
The latter is a much harder and much challenging choice.
Regards Tony
oldbadger
Skanky Old Mongrel!
Negation, as I'm reading this, is anything that disagrees with the Baha'i philosophy. Yes, I've been accused of being negative before, just for disagreeing. But that's not my doing. Just being a Hindu is negative for some. So I don't see that as negation at all, but simply as the right to disagree. On a personal level, we're trained in the art of positive affirmation, but that has to do with how the Hindu individual approaches life. It's basically saying 'I can' instead of 'I can't'. But that's a different concept entirely.
It's good to see you quoting the Hindus. Perhaps we have something to offer after all, but considering we 'got it wrong', that's doubtful. In this quote, Vivelachudamani is reaffirming that all of humanity is divine, or at least has the potential to be divine. He is saying to all men ... at the essence you are divine. I'm quite surprised that you would quote it, as it contradicts Abrahamic and Baha'i thought. So it's a negation.
In Abrahamic thought, only 'special' men are divine. They are called 'manifestations', saviours, sons of God, etc. and the rest of us can only be redeemed by following them, declaring our obedience, being slaves to their dogma.
This Hindu quote, of course, is in stark contrast, to Abrahamic thought, who affirm that we are all sinners. Vivekachudamani is simply reminding others, and certainly isn't boasting or self-declaring his own divinity above all others.
Negation is as it says it is. It is any negativity. It can be clothed in good intentions.
Negation can also have an Affimative aspect.
I see the Baha'i view of the Great Beings as the Affirmation.
They are all the exponents of "He is God"
The Negation now comes after this statement.
Regards Tony
DennisTate
Active Member
Yes..... we certainly are in need of the final Elijah.......
and yes.... all of the great teachers pre-existed before their conception as humans.
Pre-Existence and the Near-Death Experience
Pre-Existence and the Near-Death Experience
We also need the raising up of King David..... and
the taking of humanity up to the place where the feeble Jew is comparable to King David.....
which I assume corresponds to the time period when the least Christian will
have attained a level of faith, love, wisdom and understanding that will be even greater than
that of John the Baptist.
Zechariah 12:8
"In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them."
Matthew 11:11
"Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
Isaiah chapters 42 - 46 writes about Jacob / Yacob in one verse and Cyrus in the next verses...... implying that perhaps Cyrus may have been the reincarnation of Jacob.
Genesis and the book of Judges has some correllations that perhaps imply that the Danite Judge Samson may have been the reincarnation of the Patrirach Judah. If 3000 Jewish soldiers had had any idea about that possibility....... a few of them might have assisted him rather than simply turning him over to the Philistines in bondage?
I like this as it comfirms what I currently beleive.
The Bible says also we are all created with the potential of the Divine, in says Created in Gods Image. The Baha'i writings confirm this.
Baha'u'llah says this is latent within us all. It is choice and effort in practice that brings it from us.
Regards Tony
Of course there is a connection. The expression and encouragement of hate speech is linked to gratuitous acts of violence on ethnic and/or religious groups.
In other words, if I say I disagree, it's negation, but when you say something, anything at ll, it's positive affirmation. Good versus bad. Got it.
I understand that definition of tolerance where we endure or put up with people who we dislike. It is not sufficient to create lasting peace and tensions and resentments inevitably erupt.
There is nothing intolerant I can see about one person sharing their faith with another who is interested to hear it.
So, if you are divine also, then why pledge allegiance to Baha'u'llah? That would seem unnecessary since you have the tools to realise it yourself.
A agree ... operative words being 'interested to hear it.'