Moderation in All Things
Moderation in diet, work, leisure, and all activities of life reflects wisdom and supports sustained service and spiritual development.
Bahá'u'lláh prescribed moderation in all things as a fundamental principle of spiritual and physical health. Excess — whether in eating, working, spending, or relaxing — disrupts the balance needed for sustained flourishing. The moderate person conserves energy for what matters most while enjoying life's legitimate pleasures.
In all matters moderation is desirable. If a thing is carried to excess, it will prove a source of evil.
Bahá'í moderation parallels Aristotelian virtue ethics of the mean and Confucian zhongyong in identifying balance as the characteristic of mature character.
Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh
Written about in
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about what to say and what to leave unsaid
Bahá'u'lláh's rule that anything carried to excess becomes a source of evil applies to talking. Frankness pressed past usefulness is excess; so is a scrupulousness about speech so fine that a person can no longer say anything at all.
- What the Bahá'í Faith says about habit and discipline
Bahá'u'lláh's rule that anything carried to excess becomes a source of evil applies to the disciplines themselves. Moderation is named as a principle of physical as much as spiritual health, which puts a ceiling on austerity that many traditions leave open.