SPIRIT: Bahá'í faith

A friend I once worked with, Ruth the Truth (as we called her), made a lasting impression on me with her theory about religion. She likened one's spiritual journey to climbing a mountain. Everyone's goal is to reach the top, but different people have different challenges along the way. One person may face an icy slope and need an ice pick to make it up. Another person may be climbing up a sandy, desert slope and need water. Still another person may be climbing a grassy, gravely ascent and require hiking boots. Whatever the situation, each person needs a different tool to reach the top - and these tools Ruth likened to religions. In her book, no one religion was better than any other - just as an ice pick is no more "right" than hiking boots - your faith just depends on what kind of spiritual slope you are climbing.

I couldn't help but think of Ruth and her theory this morning as I read about the world’s youngest monotheistic religion, the Bahá'í faith. One of the faith's core beliefs is that there is a God - though this entity is unknowable in human terms - who throughout history has sent teachers fitting for their own time and place. Among these teachers have been Mohammed, Jesus, Budhha, and the Bahá'í faith's founder Bahá'u'lláh, who taught in 19th-century Persia. Despite the diversity of these teachers, Baha'ism puts forth that they have all shared the same purpose: to unite the world in peace. If the Bahá'í Web site is accurate, there are plenty of people this idea appeals to: "With more than five million followers, who reside in virtually every nation on earth, it is the second-most widespread faith, surpassing every religion but Christianity in its geographic reach." But, what exactly is this faith? Wikipedia's entry on the Bahá'í faith quotes Shoghi Effendi, the religion's appointed head from 1921 to 1957, on the principles of Bahá'u'lláh's teachings:

“The independent search after truth, unfettered by superstition or tradition; the oneness of the entire human race, the pivotal principle and fundamental doctrine of the Faith; the basic unity of all religions; the condemnation of all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national; the harmony which must exist between religion and science; the equality of men and women, the two wings on which the bird of humankind is able to soar; the introduction of compulsory education; the adoption of a universal auxiliary language; the abolition of the extremes of wealth and poverty; the institution of a world tribunal for the adjudication of disputes between nations; the exaltation of work, performed in the spirit of service, to the rank of worship; the glorification of justice as the ruling principle in human society, and of religion as a bulwark for the protection of all peoples and nations; and the establishment of a permanent and universal peace as the supreme goal of all mankind—these stand out as the essential elements [which Bahá'u'lláh proclaimed]."

Sounds a little like John Lennon. Sounds a lot like reaching the top of the mountain.

Maybe the real spiritual truth lies in accepting the fact that we are all on a journey, struggling on our way to the top. If we put down our tools and stop climbing in order to argue about whose tool is the best, we halt our progress toward that spiritual summit. Maybe, as we head into 2008, we would do well to accept each other's tools and in so doing, find peace by reaching the spiritual summit together.