Moderation.

 

152. Moderation in our actions is taught in the religions of God to help us regulate ourselves and help us interact with one another: Moderation is a precept that needs to be a part of each and every one of us, the religions of God tell us.  Judaism: Sirach 31:29 “But wine drunken with excess maketh bitterness of the mind. Be not insatiable in any dainty thing, nor too greedy upon meats: For excess of meats bringeth sickness, and surfeiting (excessiveness) will turn into choler (bad temper). By surfeiting (excess) have many perished.” Sirach 31:20 “Sound sleep cometh of moderate eating: he riseth early, and his wits are with him: but the pain of watching, and choler, and pangs of the belly, are with an insatiable man.” “Be not greedy” and “Be not greedy to add money to money: but let it be as refuse” Psalms 23:1 “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”(Deuterocanonical Apocrypha, Sirach, 1 Maccabees, Psalms and Tobias)  Christianity: Matthew 23:24 “Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Matthew 23:25 “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” Philippians 4:5 “Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” 1 Peter 4:1 “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;” 4:2 “That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” In moderation. 1 Peter 4:3 “For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: 4:4 Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:” 4:5 “Who shall give account to Him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” 1 Peter 4:6 “For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.”

 BABI RELIGION: “He appealed to him to counsel moderation.”

The Bab: (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 35)

 ISLAM: 190. “Fight in the Cause of Allah (God), those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for Allah loveth not transgressors.” 87. “O ye who believe! make not unlawful the good things which Allah hath made lawful for you, commit no excess: for Allah loveth not those given to excess.” Follow the path of moderation for Allah loveth not those given to excess.

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surahs  2 and 5)

Islam: 55. “Call on your Lord with humility and in private: for Allah loveth not those who trespass beyond bounds.” “be moderate in thy pace,” “exceed not in your religion the bounds (of what is proper), trespassing beyond the truth,

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surahs 5, 7 and 31)

Islam: 171. “O People… commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but truth.” 105. “Say nothing but truth.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surahs 4 and  7)

Islam: “You should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded; and gain strength by worshiping in the mornings, the nights.”

(Islam, Hadith, Bukhari Vol 1, Book 2, # 38)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: Denkard. Zoroaster, “Be it known that, the original power of moderate thinking is the gift of the Moderate Thinker, Who is Ohrmazd; (Ahura Mazda, God) and it may be described as having the mind (occupied) in collecting a store of merits for the soul. The strength (or degree) of a man’s improvement depends on it (viz. moderate thinking).”

 HINDUISM: “That man I love! Who, dwelling quiet-eyed, Stainless, serene, well-balanced, unperplexed, Working with Me, yet from all works detached, That man I love! Who, fixed in faith on Me, Dotes upon none, scorns none; rejoices not, And grieves not, letting good or evil hap Light when it will, and when it will depart, That man I love! Who, unto friend and foe Keeping an equal heart, with equal mind Bears shame and glory; with an equal peace.” Moderate is action, thought and being.

(Hindu, Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold tr) chapter 12)

 Hinduism: 8. “The feet on which that Upanishad stands are penance, restraint, sacrifice; the Vedas are all its limbs, the Truth is its abode.” Moderate in its qualities.

(Hindu, Upanishads vol. 1, Talavakara-Upanishad (or Kena-Upanishad))

 BUDDHISM: “TO GIVE oneself up to indulgence in sensual pleasure, the base, common, vulgar, unholy, unprofitable; and also to give oneself up to self-mortification, the painful, unholy, unprofitable: both these two extremes the Perfect One has avoided, and found out the Middle Path, (moderation) which makes one both to see and to know, which leads to peace, to discernment, to enlightenment, to Nirvana.” The middle path is moderation.

((The Eightfold Path), Buddha, the Word (The Eightfold Path))

 Buddhism: 18. “Unrestrained men are evil. Don’t let greed and wrong doing subject you to lasting suffering.” 25. “Restraint of the body is good. So is restraint of speech. Restraint of mind is good, and so is restraint in everything (moderation). The bhikkhu who is restrained in everything, is freed from all suffering.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 1 (tr. J. Richards))

 SABEANISM: “Poor am I who make this petition: a lowly man. And I subdue my form and my loins,” “The mana rejoiceth in its treasure And in the glory of Life Which resteth on it. I have acknowledged Thee (O) Elect Righteous One, For Thou settest my soul free From transitory things,” and resteth my spirit in the valley of temperance. (Moderation) (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapters 93 and 410)

 BABI RELIGION: “Refrain from self-indulgence and to exercise moderation in all their acts.”

The Bab: (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 530)

BAHA’I FAITH: “Whatsoever passeth beyond the limits of moderation will cease to exert a beneficial influence.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 215)

Baha’i Faith: “Fear ye God, and take heed not to outstrip the bounds of moderation, and be numbered among the extravagant.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 250)

 BABI RELIGION: “Let them translate into deeds the exhortations We have given them. Let them beware lest the love they bear God, a love that glows so brightly in their hearts, cause them to transgress the bounds of moderation, and to overstep the limits We have set for them.”

The Bab: (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 582)

BAHA’I FAITH: “Whoso cleaveth to justice, can, under no circumstances, transgress the limits of moderation. He discerneth the truth in all things, through the guidance of Him Who is the All-Seeing. The civilization, so often vaunted by the learned exponents of arts and sciences, will, if allowed to overleap the bounds of moderation, bring great evil upon men. Thus warneth you He Who is the All-Knowing. If carried to excess, civilization will prove as prolific a source of evil as it had been of goodness when kept within the restraints of moderation. Meditate on this, O people, and be not of them that wander distraught in the wilderness of error. The day is approaching when its flame will devour the cities, when the Tongue of Grandeur will proclaim: “The Kingdom is God‘s, the Almighty, the All-Praised!”’ “All other things are subject to this same principle of moderation. Render thanks unto thy Lord Who hath remembered thee in this wondrous Tablet. All-Praise be to God, the Lord of the glorious throne.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 342)