Laozi and the Bahá'í Faith (Part II)
First presented at the Irfan Colloquia Session #116
Bosch Bahá'í School: Santa Cruz, California, USA
May 30 – June 2, 2013
(see list of papers from #116)
Bahá'u'lláh admonishes Bahá'ís (and all human beings) to converse with adherents of all religions in the spirit of understanding and love, because all religions emanate from one source and all human beings are created from the same dust and to reflect the infinity of divine attributes. While Bahá'í Scripture recognizes many of the great religious traditions, Daoism, one of the most ancient efforts to build a peaceful and universal civilization, is barely mentioned. After exploring and situating the two-fold symbol of its becoming, the Laozi (Dao De Jing), its scripture, and Laozi, its sage, two questions will be raised: What are the resonances of early Daoism with the Bahá'í Faith? And how can we understand the station of Laozi from a Bahá'í perspective? This exercise is an attempt in sensibility for the mission of the Bahá'í Faith to facilitate the universal mutual understanding of religions and to reflect their unique contributions to unity in difference.
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