Swell Roundtable
@roundtable · 2:08
Swell Roundtable: The Bahá’í Faith
And what better way than to focus in with some people who are devout practice or practitioners of a faith so that we can really understand what they're getting from that faith, how they entered into that faith, the teachings of that faith, because it will just spread around this idea that we can drop into a place that is comforting, where we find community, where we find some vision forward
Arun Munje
@Arun · 2:50
Hi, Deborah, thank you for this invitation to join in this roundtable. I am Arun and yeah, for me, my background, I was actually born in Baha'i family from both my father's side and my mother's side. So as I was growing up, all the teachings of the Baha'i faith were seemed very logical and made sense to me. Unity of mankind, equality of men and women, no elimination of any form of prejudice
Duncan Hanks
@Duncan · 4:20
I do it through my daily prayer. I do it through my regular reading of Baha lost teachings as recorded in several volumes revealed during his lifetime, and of course, through service with people who are concerned not only with the material but also the spiritual development and aspects of building community. I guess one other thing that I really love about the high faith is it recognizes this idea of the oneness of God and his manifestations
Ayafor Ayafor
@ayafor · 4:46
So I began to learn a little bit more about these faiths. I read up a little bit about Hinduism and some of the principles, read a few books on Islam. And I really came to appreciate that these faiths, much like my Christian faith, must have come from the same God. And so when I read about the Baha'i faith and I read this notion that all the religions come from one God and even the idea that one could consider the Prophet founders of these religions as one soul
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:59
And I was born into a Jewish family, and it's completely formed who I am as a person in terms of the rituals I grew up with and the perspectives was shared with me. So I guess because of what I just listened to, my next question has to do with, Where does fate fall into the Baha'i faith? A lot of different religions have different relationships to fate and fatalism. I'd love to discuss that. And I know people grapple with fate
So, for example, some of the teachings, the other Round Table participants have talked about the idea that religion is progressive and the differences in religion come from the historical and social needs, the context that they appear in, and also the principle that religion needs to be in harmony for logic and reasoning. And this for me, coming from a mathematical and engineering background. It felt good the teachings because I felt the teachings really fit together. They were not contradictory
Arun Munje
@Arun · 2:12
Hi, Deborah, I heard your question about the concept of fate, where this is maybe a little complex or subjective as to what things we put in that category. From what I have read in the Baha'i writings, it kind of mentions fate as being two kinds. One is decreed and the other is a conditional fate. So the example of a decreased fate would be like there's Yan oil lamp, which is burning
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:19
Hey there. I'm going to keep this conversation going, adding a new question. If you're entering it at any point, feel free to answer any of the questions that are here. That's the nature of swell. You can jump in, jump out. There's no expectation of when and where swell. You could be anywhere for sure. But I'm excited to bring a new question to this group. I'm really enjoying it. It has to do with the elections
Hi, Deborah, I'm going to address the earlier question you put to the roundtable about fate. I find that fate is a very interesting topic and somehow a mystery from a viewpoint of the Bhai faith. The human beings have this capability of choice. We are given choice. But however, that choice is not limitless. For example, we don't have a choice on where we are born, the family we are born to, the environmental conditions, the social conditions we are born to
Hey, I just wanted to thank everybody in this roundtable for their discussion and knowledge of the Baha'i faith as somebody who's actually of Persian descent, I don't know much about the Baha'i faith, so it's been nice to listen to to all of you explain it in a little bit more detail. And I asked my dad, what do you remember of the Baha'i people from back home?
Duncan Hanks
@Duncan · 4:02
But the actual criteria is left to the consciousness of each individual to decide for themselves. But for me, this often includes things like the merits of the individual, their experience, their moral character, their record of service, their detachment from self and from self interest, and the idea that they really would welcome diversity of thoughts and opinions. This idea of unity and diversity. They should also be promoters of unity and well being. They shouldn't swell
Swell Roundtable
@roundtable · 2:06
Is other sort of a structure through which they are put into so that they can emerge inside the faith appropriately? Is there a conversion process? What is that process? And have any of you had experience helping someone go through the process and become a high? And I imagine it's quite a beautiful experience because a personal transformation that seems to be driven by something so beautiful would be amazing to be a part of. So I'd love first the rigor, if there is one and how that works
Deborah's question, if you are starting out to kind of look for a new site or a new place and starting with a clean slate, I think you can do far worst and go and Select Bahai as a system or belief to follow. So it's beautiful. It's amazing and very logical. I should know that I don't know one of the most logical people I know. The question for this panel I have is part of what I know a little bit about kind of by history
They don't negate their learning, but rather they build on it. So to believe in Bahala does not require anyone to abandon their faith in Moses, Buddha, or Jesus rather than they should see them as one. And then simply accepting that the teachings of Bahola is the continuation of those teachings. And for this stage of spiritual evolution of humanity. Now you've asked what that journey looks like from what I have witnessed myself or heard from others