133
358
|
Mankind standing on the threshold of the Age of Maturity, the Age of Peace
2/4/2008 8:35:36 AM
|
Hello
Dear readers and visitors.
Again I would like to mention something about the popular belief that we are born into this world several times, in order to learn and mature. One life, it is said, is not enough. Therefore we reincarnate.
I do not believe in this being necessary. But I am not here to critisize the ones who believe in this.
I believe the great question while on earth is whether our hearts long for and want to turn to God or not. So the main reason for us to be here is to get prepared through Godly education to be able to live in the next world. And not only just exist there, but to live there eternally by that divine energy, through faith, called the love of God, and things like radiance and illumination. Just like a naval-string gave us nourishment to grow physically in our mother's womb we also can chose, using our godgiven will power, to cling to that cord, called faith in God, and grow towards higher understanding, a deeper love and mature spiritually which is necessary if we want to live in that spiritual world.
I have a friend, a Bahai too. Many times she has dreamt about other lives, then being strong, being a man, being somebody else, but she cares only about her life as a Bahai. To be a servant of Bahaullah. If I had not been a Bahai I might have wanted to live once again, reincarnated and then for earthly reasons, and for the sake of my art. I would not have chosen to believe in the old Christian faith, because it seemed to me, long time ago, that one has to believe in things that are contrary to reason and science. Now I know better, and I recognize there are Christians who are very spiritual and are receiving the blessed confirmations of the Holy Spirit that enables them to perform a wonderful work as humble servants and this is the main thing for them.
But nowadays there is much talk about and belief in reincarnation, I believe, because one is not confirmed spiritually about the next worlds at all. They even say one gets bored after some time "in the next world."
When one is, confirmed, then one's whole attention is directed towards the life near the Eternal creative Source which we call God. You definitely would not get bored there, in the vicinity of God.
Buddha emphasized that we should live a righteous life to be freed from reincarnation.To get to Nirvana. He pointed out the same things that Bahaullah or Christ did.
Now this is Nirvana as set forward by Bahaullah:
After scaling the high summits of wonderment, the wayfarer cometh to
The Valley of True Poverty and Absolute Nothingness
This station is the dying from self and the living in God, the being poor in self and rich in the Desired One. Poverty as here referred to signifieth being poor in the things of the created world, rich in the things of God's world. For when the true lover and devoted friend reacheth to the presence of the Loved One and the fire of the lover's heart will kindle a blaze and burn away all veils and wrappings.Yea, all he hath, from heart to skin, will be set aflame, so that nothing will remain save the Friend."
This quote is from "The seven Valleys and the Four Valleys" a letter written in response to a Sufi-leader who asked Bahaullah to explain the stages, said (traditionally) to be 7, of the spiritual soul towards God.
This is a very deep spiritual guide beginning with the Valley of Search. I can recount some of that here:
The Valley of Search
The steed of this valley is patience; without patience the wayfarer on this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal. Nor should he ever be downhearted; if he strive for a hundred thousand years and yet fail to behold the beauty of the Friend, he should not falter. For those who seek the Kabih1) of "For Us", rejoice in the tidings :
"In Our ways We will guide them "2)
In their search they have stoutly girded up the lions of service, and seek at every moment to journey from the plane of heedlessness into
the realm of being. No bond shall hold them back, and no counsel shall deter them.
It is incumbent on thses servants that they cleanse the heart - which is the wellsping of divine treasures - from every marking, and that they turn away from imitation, which is the following the traces of their forefathers and sires, and shut the door of friendliness and enmity upon all the people of the earth.
In this journey the seeker reacheth a stage wherein he seeth all created things wandering distracted in search of the Friend".
1) Here the word means "goal"
2) Qouran: 29:69 And whoso maketh efforts for us, in Our ways will We guide them
Concerning the "World" I'd like to present some lines from the Hidden Words, which is easier to understand:
O SON OF BEING!
Busy not yourself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.
Say: If ye be seekers after this life and the vanities thereof, ye should have sought them while ye were still enclosed in your mother's wombs, for at that time ye were continually approaching them...
The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections upon it. Break not the bond that uniteth you with your Creator, and be not of those that have erred and strayed away from His ways. Verily I say, the world is like a vapour in the desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion. It may moreover be likened unto
the lifeless image of the beloved whom the lover hath sought and found, in the end, after long search and to his utmost regret, to be such as cannot fatten nor appease his hunger.
I personally am not more than wandering to and fro between the very first stages. I go back and forth I believe. I am not Tahirih.
But I will never leave this wonderful Faith, as it contains all in the more than a hundred volymes and thousands of letters of revelation, that Bahaullah and Abdu'l-Baha has given us. All is clearly stated, is in harmony with science, you choose to follow Bahaullah at the age of fifteen, after "independent investigation of truth", including other religions too, gives you the joy of heaven in your heart,( the honeyheart, I use to say),explains ageold abstruse mysteries, (He shall unseal the prophesies) gives you spiritual guidance in your ordinary life, gives a world explanation, has given an administration with Spiritual Assemblies on all necessary levels forming the basis of the Kingdom of God on earth, gives you not only a vision of the future, but an understanding that mankind is, at long last, standing on the threshold to its Coming of Age, is entering its stage of maturity, which is the long awaited Age of Peace and reconciliation, between the warring and contending peoples on earth.
This is the meaning of the wolf and the lambs eating together and nothing else..The prophetic Age is finito by the Coming of the Bab Who ushered in this Age of Fulfillment
If we think of the life of one individual we can see, that childhood is a very short period, the teenage period is rather short too, but the age of maturity is comparatively long. So, similarly, the universal Bahai World Faith is going to last a considerable amount of time. The Universal House giving us guidance, now and then adding new rules and guiding us through new conditions, and then abolishing those rules, when new ones have to be enforced, according to the exigencies of time. So, no stagnation here. No blind imitations of past rules.
During this very long period of maturity of mankind, other Messengers will appear in the Shadow of Bahaullah. But not until after yet another thousand years. This is the "millennium" talked about in the Bible.
Bye for now
Many kind regards from
Laila
|