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The Baha'i writings
> forbid monasticism, but due to this translation issue could it be that
> actually hermetism is what is forbidden instead?
I don't think so. Baha'u'llah's statements in this regard is pretty general:
"Say: O concourse of monks! Seclude not yourselves in your churches
and cloisters. Come ye out of them by My leave, and busy, then,
yourselves with what will profit you and others. Thus commandeth you
He Who is the Lord of the Day of Reckoning. Seclude yourselves in the
stronghold of My love. This, truly, is the seclusion that befitteth
you, could ye but know it. He that secludeth himself in his house is
indeed as one dead. It behooveth man to show forth that which will
benefit mankind. He that bringeth forth no fruit is fit for the fire.
Thus admonisheth you your Lord; He, verily, is the Mighty, the
Bountiful. Enter ye into wedlock, that after you another may arise in
your stead. We, verily, have forbidden you lechery, and not that which
is conducive to fidelity. Have ye clung unto the promptings of your
nature, and cast behind your backs the statutes of God? Fear ye God,
and be not of the foolish. But for man, who, on My earth, would
remember Me, and how could My attributes and My names be revealed?
Reflect, and be not of them that have shut themselves out as by a veil
from Him, and were of those that are fast asleep. He that married not
(Jesus Christ) could find no place wherein to abide, nor where to lay
His head, by reason of what the hands of the treacherous had 50
wrought. His holiness consisted not in the things ye have believed and
imagined, but rather in the things which belong unto Us. Ask, that ye
may be made aware of His station which hath been exalted above the
vain imaginings of all the peoples of the earth. Blessed are they that
understand.
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 48)
The prbolem is that there is a flexibility of definition in the word
monaticism. Some monks and nuns work. Some do charity. Some are out helpin
people like Mother Teressa was for an example. Some marry (rare, but this was
due to East Asia and Tibet not fully accepting celibacy). Some are pop
stars and novelists. Some teach. Some preach. Some are active politically like
Thich Nhat Hanh was. Right now only a minority of monks and nuns cloister
themselves in churches, monasteries, etc.
Being a monk or a nun really doesn't preclude one from contributing to society,
unless one belongs to a contemplative order that prays or meditates litterally
all the time. The vows a monk or nun takes depending on the order they join:
chastity, poverty, obedience, stability, conversion of life, prayer, etc.
That's a list of the diverse vows they take. They don't all take all of them,
but depending on the order the altealst take vows. It's really a vow roulette
if you picked an order at random. Unless you join an ultra strict order, you
will have lots of oppurtunities to benefit society via the order.
Also, since monasticism goes hand in hand with the denomination teaching
apostolic succession, it was a teaching of the Apostles as per the writing of
Saint Clement of Rome and Saint Ignatius of Antioch.
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