Humanity’s Spiritual Education

Abdu'l-Baha: “The mission of the prophets, the revelation of the holy books, the manifestation of the heavenly teachers and the purpose of divine philosophy all center in the training of the human realities so that they may become clear and pure as mirrors and reflect the light and love of the Sun of Reality."

I was reading the section V: humanity’s spiritual education of a book: “Baha’u’llah’s Teachings on Spiritual Reality” compiled by Mr. Paul Lample. I was deeply impressed by the introduction of this section and like to share it with you here:

“Bahá’u’lláh indicates that the revelation of spiritual power comes to humanity in two ways. One is a general revelation which flows to all creation, without which the physical world would cease to exist. A second, specific revelation is accessible to human beings to provide for their spiritual awakening and transformation.

Despite the fact that the nature of spiritual reality is objective, human beings would never be able, unaided, to discovery the principles and laws which govern its operation. They would remain as an uncultivated orchard that bears no fruit. It is for this reason that God sends an intermediary – an Educator whose purpose is the cultivation of human spirit.

The series of divine intermediaries are like teachers in one school who contribute to a never-ending process of human development, each building on what came before while further releasing the potentialities latent in the human race. These Educators reveal teachings and laws suited to the current stage of human social progress. Thus true religion – which is essentially one despite its new manifestation in every age – is not humanity’s reaching for God but, rather, God’s instruction to guide humanity. Only when human interpretations have contaminated the original teachings does the perfect instruction in human reality degenerate into superstition. Then does the new Educator appear to renew the pure teachings.

Human beings are called upon to recognize the source of this spiritual education and follow its guidance. Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings are the latest restatement of the divine purpose suited to the current spiritual, social and material needs of the human race. Through His guidance the stupendous material achievements brought about by scientific mastery of physical reality will be renewed, reinforced and even overshadowed by the moral and social progress that will transform human civilization through mastery of spiritual reality.”
 

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Naw Ruz Reflection

Today is Naw Ruz, Baha’i New Year, also the first day of spring.

Happy Naw Ruz to you all,
Happy New Year to all of you and
Happy First Day of Spring to every one.

Spring is my very favorite season. I live on spring, live for spring. Every year at the end of February, I become increasingly restless and impatient. Every year when the spring is about to be gone (end of June) I become very depressed. People would often say that fall is beautiful too, summer is fun, and winter has its merits. True, but it’s not just the beauty of spring I love. I can find beauty in many things: in a picture, in morning dew drops, in an innocent baby face. But spring and only spring is life giving. While the beauty of fall can be enjoyed as a zoom out picture, the energy of spring can be felt in every details: every leaf in spring is new and fresh, every flower full of potential and bringing hope. It is this capacity of spring I love the most when it’s here and I miss when it’s gone. No one can talk me into that other seasons could be mentioned/compared along side with spring. There is phrase in Chinese that describes spring most accurately: “万物复苏, 万象更新”, I wish I could find an English phrase for it. Basically it means in spring everything is revived and renewed, only in a more poetic way.

I wished that spring would stay forever. I wished that there would be no other seasons but only spring. But one year I went to Baton Rouge in Louisiana at the end of March, where winder is not so severe that trees will not die back and flowers keep blooming through winter. When I was there, azaleas were blooming everywhere and trees were green all over. But something is missing: there was no feeling of spring, there was no smell of spring and there was no soul-stirring energy of spring. I puzzled for a moment and it dawned on me that because there they don’t have winter, so they don’t get the feeling and benefits of spring. So despite the degree I dislike winter, if it’s the price I have to pay in order to enjoy my spring, I am willing to go through winter with great patience and confidence that spring will one day for sure arrive. I am not going to trade my winter with a place with all seasons spring-like. "Unless the season of winter appear...the season of the soul-refreshing spring would not come, the fragrant breeze would not waft...”(Abdu’l-Baha)

The lesson learned from the season can be equally applied to human life in particular and human history in general. Suffering has been a mystic topic for many. Human nature seems to be created in such way that we learn most effectively through contrast. Without experience of pain and darkness, it would take a saint to appreciate the joy and light. I remember many years ago, after my husband was naturalized to become a citizen of US, his colleagues threw a party for him. One of his best friends came to him and said: I am jealous of you that what we are born with you have to earn. I often wonder how many who are born here in US truly appreciate the fact that many people in the world are willing to risk their life to come to the shore of this great country.

I like the way Guy Murchie put this point of view in his book: “Most humans seem to believe they want to attain something in life. But do they actually secretly yearn for frenzy, conflict, failure and more struggles? Can there really be joy if there be no pain?” I guess that’s why God has ordained that human’s eternal journey toward ultimate perfection starts here in this earthly plane where light is always followed by shadow, good by evil, health by sickness, wealth by poverty, and knowledge by ignorance.

It is Baha’i perspective that human history goes through a similar cycle of four seasons and right now we are living in the beginning of a new spring of another great cycle of history. The regenerating spiritual energy of spring has been released through the Revelation Baha’u’llah. Just as the energy released by the physical sun of spring will bring life to everything that is alive, while hastening the decay to anything that is lifeless, the new released spiritual energy will break down age long prejudices and out-of-date institutions while brings to life a new world order: “The world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of this most great, this new World Order. Mankind's ordered life hath been revolutionized through the agency of this unique, this wondrous System..." "Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead.” (Baha'u'llah).

At this early stage of development, it will take a spiritual eye to see what is happening right now and what lies ahead. Just as the son and the father in this fable demonstrated (from “Thief at Night” by William Sears) :

“Once upon a time, a father and his young son journeyed into a far land, and climbing to the mountain-top, they rested for the night. At dawn, the sun banished the darkness and painted the snow-capped peaks with brilliant orange.

“The son awoke; he saw the glowing sky and the flame-colored mountain-tops. He was a small boy, and could only see through the top of the window above him. He did not understand the brilliance. It alarmed him. He longed for the comfort of yesterday when he was at home with his mother. He wished he had never set out on the journey.

He was sure there was only disaster and fire in the strange new heavens.

“The rising sun warmed the winter snow which had lain cold and barren for so long upon the mountainside. It loosed the drifts and sent cascades thundering down into the valley below.

“The dreadful roaring sound terrified the young son even more than the flaming sky. He rushed to his father and shook him. He roused him, crying:

“ ‘Father! Father! Wake up! Wake up! It is the end of the world!’

“The father opened his eyes. He could see everything clearly through the window which was still too high for the vision of his son.

“He saw the sun-painted peaks with their morning fire. He heard the avalanche of snow released by the warming rays of the Spring sun. He knew that soon it would bring fresh water to the parched land below, restoring life. He understood these things. He took his son by the hand to comfort him.

“ ‘No, my son,’ he said. ‘It is not the end of the world. It is the dawn of a new day.’ ”

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Fundamental Principle of Religious Truth

(Passages from "The World Order of Baha'u'llah" by Shoghi Effendi)

… The Revelation, of which Bahá'u'lláh is the source and center, abrogates none of the religions that have preceded it, nor does it attempt, in the slightest degree, to distort their features or to belittle their value. It disclaims any intention of dwarfing any of the Prophets of the past, or of whittling down the eternal verity of their teachings. It can, in no wise, conflict with the spirit that animates their claims, nor does it seek to undermine the basis of any man's allegiance to their cause. Its declared, its primary purpose is to enable every adherent of these Faiths to obtain a fuller understanding of the religion with which he stands identified, and to acquire a clearer apprehension of its purpose. It is neither eclectic in the presentation of its truths, nor arrogant in the affirmation of its claims. Its teachings revolve around the fundamental principle that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is progressive, not final. Unequivocally and without the least reservation it proclaims all established religions to be divine in origin, identical in their aims, complementary in their functions, continuous in their purpose, indispensable in their value to mankind.

"All the Prophets of God," asserts Bahá'u'lláh in the Kitáb-i-Íqán, "abide in the same tabernacle, soar in the same heaven, are seated upon the same throne, utter the same speech, and proclaim the same Faith." From the "beginning that hath no beginning," these Exponents of the Unity of God and Channels of His incessant utterance have shed the light of the invisible Beauty upon mankind, and will continue, to the "end that hath no end," to vouchsafe fresh revelations of His might and additional experiences of His inconceivable glory. To contend that any particular religion is final, that "all Revelation is ended, that the portals of Divine mercy are closed, that from the daysprings of eternal holiness no sun shall rise again, that the ocean of everlasting bounty is forever stilled, and that out of the Tabernacle of ancient glory the Messengers of God have ceased to be made manifest" would indeed be nothing less than sheer blasphemy.

"They differ," explains Bahá'u'lláh in that same epistle, "only in the intensity of their revelation and the comparative potency of their light." And this, not by reason of any inherent incapacity of any one of them to reveal in a fuller measure the glory of the Message with which He has been entrusted, but rather because of the immaturity and unpreparedness of the age He lived in to apprehend and absorb the full potentialities latent in that Faith.

"Know of a certainty," explains Bahá'u'lláh, "that in every Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation has been vouchsafed to men in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun. How feeble its rays the moment it appears above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approaches its zenith, enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light. How steadily it declines until it reaches its setting point. Were it, all of a sudden, to manifest the energies latent within it, it would, no doubt, cause injury to all created things.... In like manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence of the Almighty has bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist."

It is for this reason, and this reason only, that those who have recognized the Light of God in this age, claim no finality for the Revelation with which they stand identified, nor arrogate to the Faith they have embraced powers and attributes intrinsically superior to, or essentially different from, those which have characterized any of the religious systems that preceded it.
…

If the Light that is now streaming forth upon an increasingly responsive humanity with a radiance that bids fair to eclipse the splendor of such triumphs as the forces of religion have achieved in days past; if the signs and tokens which proclaimed its advent have been, in many respects, unique in the annals of past Revelations; if its votaries have evinced traits and qualities unexampled in the spiritual history of mankind; these should be attributed not to a superior merit which the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, as a Revelation isolated and alien from any previous Dispensation, might possess, but rather should be viewed and explained as the inevitable outcome of the forces that have made of this present age an age infinitely more advanced, more receptive, and more insistent to receive an ampler measure of Divine Guidance than has hitherto been vouchsafed to mankind."

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Why do I choose to become a Baha’i?

Lately I was asked by three friends the same question: why do I choose to become a Baha’i? It might be coincident that they almost asked me at the same time, but it serves as a reminder to me that it probably is a good time to think about and answer to this question.

I thought to myself another related question: who am I? My parents gave me a name: Le Kang which became my identity in the society. I respond to it well, for a while at least. Then I married and came to US, and my name was changed to Le Wang. I felt strange at the beginning, but soon got used to it. I am still who I am, the name change did nothing to how I feel about myself. I also serve many roles in life: a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother and a friend. Plus, I am defined in society by my position in a job. All of those roles are import to me in its own right. If one day I no longer play one of the roles, I am sure I will feel lost for a while and even become profoundly sorrow in some cases. But I will not lose myself, I am still who I am. And then I also consider myself a Baha’i. I realize that this is a different story all together. This is not another role I play in society or in my life. This is who I am. All other roles are external, but this identity of being a Baha’i is internal. With it, all other parts of life can be set straight and become a channel or a mean through which I may express my inner belief in a concrete way; without it, all other roles in life shall become senseless and meaningless. Honestly I don’t really know how this has become the case. I guess this is what a belief means. Or we were made to be able to become a believer when we see the truth.

As to the question why I chose to become a Baha’i, the short answer is I didn’t choose: years back when I first heard about the Baha’i faith and the principles it promotes, my innermost being recognized the truth of these teachings and that left me no choice but to become a follower of Bahá'u'lláh. Prof. John Hatcher stated this point very logically and fluently in his recent book “Understanding Death”: “If there is a God, and if God has sent a sequence of Messengers, each with specific guidance for a particular period of time, and if Bahá'u'lláh is the Manifestation for this age, then how could I do aught else but accept His station and follow His guidance. Logically, to do otherwise would be to act against my own best interest.” It is that simple: how could I not follow what is true to me? How could anyone not follow what is true to him?

Yet the answer could also be very long, as long as the story of my life, a story of longing to be part of something greater than myself that could bring hope to a distressed society and the suffered multitudes. Some twenty years ago, I hopped on a train to Moscow, traveled around the world, hoping to find a society that promotes equity and justice for all, in which my son could grow up with a happier life than I had experienced. What I ended up with finding is much better than I could ever have thought: a Kingdom on earth in making. Nowadays, talking to a follower of any believing system, you will almost always hear about the end of world story, and the expectation of the Kingdom of God being dropped from heaven one way or another. Likewise, Baha’i faith believes that only the divinely inspired/ordained remedy could heal our currently diseased society. But unlike other belief systems that are still waiting, Baha’is are actively participating in building the Kingdom on earth based on the God given blueprint brought to mankind by Baha’u’llah.

“Humanity,” as Shoghi Effendi has pointed it out more than seventy years ago, “whether viewed in the light of man's individual conduct or in the existing relationships between organized communities and nations, has, alas, strayed too far and suffered too great a decline to be redeemed through the unaided efforts of the best among its recognized rulers and statesmen…”, and what else, but “the Divine Programme enunciated…by Bahá'u'lláh…is eventually capable of withstanding the forces of internal disintegration which, if unchecked, must needs continue to eat into the vitals of a despairing society. It is towards this goal -- the goal of a new World Order, Divine in origin, all-embracing in scope, equitable in principle, challenging in its features -- that a harassed humanity must strive.”

I can’t imagine a better way to spend my life, and to play my part, however small “in this greatest drama of the world's spiritual history.” I understand it will take a while and much hard work to carry out such grandeur undertaking.  It may well take more than one generation to do the work. The groundbreaking has taken place, someone has to do it.  If it’s not me, who else? Depending on how you view it, as to me, it is both privilege and responsibility.

Posted via email from The Garden of Heart