Hi, Gilberto, At 05:43 PM 1/21/2005, you wrote: >>I don't see what you didn't like about how I characterized what you said. >>Seeing the souls of the various figures as one instead of many is exactly >>what I had in mind by "stronger sense of unity".<<
Unity, in the sense of tawhid, is the prerogative of God. The Prophets, IMO, manifest that Unity. They do not incarnate, or share in, it. Aside from tawhid, I don't understand how Meher Baba's view reflects a "stronger sense of unity." Unity, in my view, requires at least two particulars. What would it mean to say that I am united with myself? I suppose one could justify the concept based on some notion of cognitive consonance, or an avoidance of cognitive dissonance, but it would not reflect my own understanding of unity. I wrote: >>>>I don't think that Baha'u'llah was trying to reconcile the Baha'i Faith >>>>with Hinduism (although He did point out how various views, including Hindu >>>>advaitism, are valid from certain perspectives).<<<< You replied: >>What is the difference between recognizing Krishna as a Manifestation of God >>and pointing out at least the partial validity of advaitism and trying to >>reconcile with Hinduism?<< Reconciliation, as I meant it, would be syncretism, not comparison. I wrote: >>>>It [the view expressed by ibn al-Arabi] is usually mistaken for pantheism >>>>(or perhaps, more accurately, panentheism), not polytheism. You replied: >>Yes, my brain was misfiring. I had meant to say was: >>"What is a stronger affirmation of unity than wahdat-al-wujud, the >>philosophical position of Ibn al-Arabi which sometimes gets mistaken for >>pantheism?"<< It is easy to have unity when all things are "consubstantial" with God. Regards, Mark A. Foster • http://markfoster.net • [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger." ---- Abbie Hoffman __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:archive@mail-archive.com To unsubscribe, send a blank email to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, use subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu/read/?forum=bahai-st News - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Public - http://www.escribe.com/religion/bahaist Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
