Following the ways of our ancestors unquestioningly can blind us to the truth.

 

76. Following the ways of our ancestors unquestioningly can blind us to the truth: If we follow the ways of our fathers without an open mind we could be like our ancestors who, in the days of the manifestations of God, rejected the manifestation, out of ignorance, and said we have the ways of our fathers why should we believe in your words; thus, thereby, closing the door leading to the gates of heaven to themselves.  BABI RELIGION: “In every Dispensation a number of souls enter the fire by reason of their following in the footsteps of others.” (The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 89)

 CHRISTIANITY: Mark: 7:8 “Laying aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups: and many other such like things ye do.” 7:9 “Ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” 7:13 “Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.” Luke: 6:39 “Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?”  We should always have the doorway of our hearts open to the spirit of the word of God, else- wise we could be like our long lost ancestors who, through closed minds, shut themselves out from the face of God.  CHRISTIANITY: John: 8:38 “I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.” Holding strictly to the beliefs, of our ancestors, can blind us to the truth of God’s holy message to mankind, which is, for all intents and purposes, staring us right in the face. John: 7:45 “Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him (Jesus)?” John: 7:46 “The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.” John: 7:47 “Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived?” John 7:48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?” Even the leaders of the religions, in fact, especially the religious leaders, found in the highest positions of their religious faiths fail to see beyond the traditions, dogmas and theologies, leading their congregations of followers down the wrong paths: Matthew: 15:14 “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” Matthew: 23:1 “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,” 23:2 “Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:” 23:3 “All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.”  JUDAISM: Joshua: 24:14 “Now therefore fear The LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye The LORD.” Joshua: 24:15 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve The LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve The LORD.” Judith: 5:8 “For they left the way of their ancestors, and worshipped the God of heaven, the God whom they knew: so they cast them out from the face of their gods, and they fled into Mesopotamia, and sojourned there many days.” (Apocrypha) Amos: 2:4 “Thus saith The LORD.…They have despised the law of The LORD, and have not kept his commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked:” 2:5 “But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem.”

 ISLAM: “Remember also that the worst descendant is one who follows in the footstep of his ancestor in the way of paganism, hypocrisy and Hell.”

(Ali b. Abi Taalib, Letters from Nahjul Balaagh)

 “He (Muhammad) tells us to worship Allah (God) and Allah alone and not to worship anything along with Him, and to renounce all that our ancestors had said.”

(Hadith, Bukhari Vol 1, book 1 # 6)

 104. “When it is said to them: ‘Come to what Allah hath revealed; come to the Messenger:’ they say: ‘Enough for us are the ways we found our fathers following.’ What! even though their fathers were void of knowledge and guidance?”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah   5)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: “Ahura Mazda (God) answered: ‘He makes himself guilty of the same guilt,”’ (By blindly following the ways of his ancestors).

(Zoroaster, The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Vendidad)

 “Hear the best with your ears, and discern by pure mind. Choose the ought, man by man (every man), for his own self. Before the great trial comes, wake up to this my counsel.” “One should rely on his own conviction, and not allow himself to be drifted by the opinions of others.” “Let not any of you lend ear to the creed and canon of the knave.”(ZOROASTER, Hymns of Atharvan pp. 87, 169 and 197)

 “Do not hear the advice of those who deprecate religion. They do more harm to you than anybody else by their misleading doctrines.” (ZOROASTER, Hymns of Atharvan p. 748)

 Denkard. Zoroaster, “Those priests who disseminate vice among men are morally blind.”

 HINDUISM: “Nor must we forget that though oral tradition, when once brought under proper discipline, is a most faithful guardian, it is not without its dangers in its incipient stages. Many a word may have been misunderstood, many a sentence confused, as it was told by father to son,”

(Hindu, Upanishads vol. 1, Introduction to the Upanishads, vol. 1)

 BUDDHISM: “A wrongly directed mind will do greater harm.” “It is like a string of blind men clinging to one another. The foremost can’t see the way neither can the middle nor the hindmost. Methinks that the talk of the Brahmans versed in the three Vedas is but blind talk. The first sees not, the middle one sees not the hindmost sees not. The talk of these Brahmans turns out to be mere words vain and empty.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 2 (tr. J. Richards and Buddhist Bible))

 “The ignorant cling to names, signs and ideas as their minds moves along channels that feed on multiplicities of objects and fall into the notion of ego and what belongs to it.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 “Clinging to the memory of erroneous speculations and doctrines accumulated since beginningless time, they hold fast to such ideas In the same way, the ignorant and simple-minded who are favorably influenced by the erroneous views of the philosophers do not recognize that the views that are influencing them are only dream-like ideas originating in the mind itself, and consequently they are held fast by their notions. In the same way there are people today being brought up under the influence of similar erroneous views whose mentality is being conditioned by the habit-energy of these false-imaginings and who later on will declare those who hold the true doctrine (as iniquitous) and by so doing will bring themselves and others to ruin. By the natural law of cause and effect these followers of pernicious views uproot meritorious causes that otherwise would lead to unstained purity. They are to be shunned by those whose desires are for more excellent things. (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 “If a disciple takes pleasure in a narrow and exclusive form of doctrine, or is attached to false ideas as to an entity, a being, a living being, a personality, he cannot receive with profit the instruction of this Scripture nor can he find delight in its study.” (Buddha, Diamond Sutra)

 SABEANISM: “In the name of The Great Life (God) The great Light be magnified! To you do I call and (you) do I teach, Men who have received the Sign. Hearken not to the talk of all peoples and generations; Let not their stumblings cause you to stumble, Stumble not because of their stumblings!” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 89)

 BABI RELIGION: “Nay, by the righteousness of My Lord! They are bereft of power, nor are they endued with perception. They professed faith in the past without understanding its significance, then later they repudiated the Truth; for they are devoid of discernment.”

“O peoples of the earth! I swear by your Lord! Ye shall act as former generations have acted. Warn ye, then, yourselves of the terrible, the most grievous vengeance of God. For God is, verily, potent over all things.”

“It is for this reason that at the beginning of every Dispensation a vast multitude, who fondly imagine that their deeds are for God, become drowned and ungodly, and perceive this not, except such as He guideth at His behest.”

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, pp. 21, 71 and 93)

 “The malediction of God be upon these evil people,’ he exclaimed, ‘a people who, in days past, treated in the same manner our holy and illustrious ancestors!”

(H. M. Balyuzi, The Bab – The Herald of the Days, p. 75)

 “My faith in this Cause…. is born not of idle imitation.”

(Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 406)

BAHA’I FAITH: “The nations and religions are steeped in blind and bigoted imitations. A man is a Jew because his father was a Jew. The Muslim follows implicitly the footsteps of his ancestors in belief and observance. The Buddhist is true to his heredity as a Buddhist. That is to say, they profess religious belief blindly and without investigation, making unity and agreement impossible. It is evident, therefore, that this condition will not be remedied without a reformation in the world of religion. In other words, the fundamental reality of the divine religions must be renewed, reformed, revoiced to mankind.”

“For it is evident they have not found reality and are not engaged in its adoration. They are holding to certain imitations which have descended to them from their fathers and ancestors. They have become accustomed to passing a certain length of time in temple worship and conforming to imitations and ceremonies. The proof of this is that the son of every Jewish father becomes a Jew and not a Christian; the son of every Muslim becomes a follower of Islam; the son of every Christian proves to be a Christian; the son of every Zoroastrian is a Zoroastrian, etc…. Therefore, religious faith and belief is merely a remnant of blind imitations which have descended through fathers and ancestors. Because this man’s father was a Jew, he considers himself a Jew. Not that he has investigated reality and proved satisfactorily to himself that Judaism is right — nay, rather, he is aware that his forefathers have followed this course; therefore, he has held to it himself.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 141 and 221)

“Nay, each must see with his own eyes, hear with his own ears and investigate the truth himself in order that he may follow the truth instead of blind acquiescence and imitation of ancestral beliefs.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 246)

“This is the Day when the loved ones of God should keep their eyes directed towards His Manifestation, and fasten them upon whatsoever that Manifestation may be pleased to reveal. Certain traditions of bygone ages rest on no foundations whatever, while the notions entertained by past generations, and which they have recorded in their books, have, for the most part, been influenced by the desires of a corrupt inclination. Thou dost witness how most of the commentaries and interpretations of the words of God, now current amongst men, are devoid of truth. Their falsity hath, in some cases, been exposed when the intervening veils were rent asunder. They themselves have acknowledged their failure in apprehending the meaning of any of the words of God.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 171)