Nearer My God To Thee

The weather is so unbearably hot that nothing could be done outside though there is a lot need to be done. Both Mingway and I got sick after the carnival of July 4^th. I stay inside lazily listening to music or reading a book or flipping through old pictures.

Some time ago I came across this song called “Nearer My God To Thee” from Mingway who told me it was the last music heard on Titanic before it sunk. The melodies of this song touched me deeply, and aroused deep longing of my heart to be nearer to the Source of Perfection. I listened to it again this afternoon and felt the incredible beauty from within and the magnificence of life seems to become sharply focused.

It seems that time and distance, sometime viewed as the biggest obstacles against our desire to be near right here at this moment, could act as filters that events happened in the past and hopes for the future, people far away or parted from this physical world are formed and reformed so that only the beautiful are remained. When we (mainly me) live in daily life, busy ourselves with mundane details that life demands, it is so easy not to see, not to feel and not to value properly the beauty that life presents in every moment. Time and distance simply have that magic to add beauty into all things happened and push deep down into our heart the beautiful feeling of appreciation for each other. Sometimes I believe that beauty, true beauty could only be seen, felt when one is in suffering. How could a person who has everything, who owns everything appreciate anything, properly? How could a person who is always full enjoy any food, however delicious? In this sense, hunger, loss or deprivation could be a blessing in disguise. They seem to sharpen our senses, cultivate our feelings and align our views that we could see farther, feel deeper and focus on right direction. Is this why, I wonder, that God starts our eternal journey toward Him on this earthly plane, the farthest point from Him where our deep longing for perfection could never be satisfied, where anything that maters is intangible, veiled or inaccessible to us, while anything that doesn’t matter is solid, clear and all the time accessible? How wonderful it shall be when that day will finally come that the veil will be lifted, we shall see the world in its true reality, we will see each other in our true beauty, there will be no more time and space that can separate us, we will walk together, with hand in hand, toward the Source of Perfection, eternally.

Nearer, My God, to Thee

Titanic Last Scene (1953)

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.’ ”

Posted via email from The Garden of Heart

Love can only be attracted

A friend sent me this story on this Christmas day that I’d like to share it with you:

There once lived a king.  He was a king, but he was more than a king.  He was THE king, the king of kings.  He was incredibly rich.  He was enormously powerful.  His realm of influence stretched far beyond the horizons.  

Other kings would send him very expensive gifts, even though not all of them liked him.  No one wanted to make him angry.  Because all he had to do was speak and, at once, it was done.

He was rich and powerful.  He was also very good.  He was wise and just.  This king knew his subjects well.  He knew where they lived and what they did.  He would often venture out from his castle in his royal carriage, so he could see his people at their work and at their play.  

One day, he was looking around and he saw a young woman.  She was at work taking care of goats.  He asked some others about her and found out that she lived in a tiny cottage with her mother.  She and her mother were very poor.  Her father had been dead for some time.  Sometimes in the evenings she would sit in front of her cottage and play a wooden flute for the children in her village.  She loved the children and they loved her.

Well, the king, this king of kings, fell in love with this lowly young woman.  He wanted to marry her and to make her his queen.  But he also wanted her to love him.

Of course, the young woman knew that there was a king, a king above all kings, and she was grateful for what he did for everyone.  But she had no idea that this king loved her.  There were so many other women in the kingdom – beautiful, rich, talented women.  He could marry any one of them.  She was poor and plain.  Yet, for reasons he could not explain, he loved her.  He loved her because of who he was.  And he wanted her to love to love him.

The question was – how could that happen?  What could he do?  The king called together the wisest in his court to get their advice.  He told them of his love for this young woman.  He didn’t tell them who she was.  He only told them she was poor.

One of them piped up, “Congratulations your majesty!  How wonderful that you have finally chosen a queen!  We shall send messengers to the young woman and order her to come to the castle that she might become queen!”

 “No,” said the king.  “Soldiers I command; servants I order; all my subjects obey my decrees.  But this woman I love.  I can’t order her to love me.  I don’t know that she would be happy with me.  If I ordered her to be my wife, she could resent me the rest of her life.”

Another stepped forward and said, “Your majesty, then we must set out to win her love for you.  We shall send her gifts…yes, gifts beyond her wildest dreams!  We will build a great house for her.  We will send her servants.  She can have everything she ever wanted.  Why, she’ll be so grateful, she’ll just have to love you!”

Now the king became angry.  “Are you suggesting that I buy her love?  That I bribe her?  Every time she would look at the gifts, she would feel obligated to love me.  Or, worse, that she actually deserved my love.  

 “My love for her is free and undeserved.  I don’t want her to feel obligated to love me.  I don’t want to deceive her into thinking that she deserves my love.  That is not true love and will not win her love.  I cannot force her to love me by power or by price.”

 At this all of the king’s advisers fell silent.  So, he dismissed them.  After some time of thinking on his own, the king decided what he would do.  He took off his crown and his royal robes and set them aside.  He put on the clothes of poor peasant and dropped a few small coins in his pocket.  

Then, in the middle of the night, he left through the back door of the castle.  He went to the village where the young woman lived.  He begged for a place to stay.  No one would take him in, so he slept in a barn with animals.  The only job he could get was the lowest job – a goat herder.  Because people didn’t know him, and maybe because they could sense something different about him, they laughed at him.

In the evening, he went with the children to listen to the young woman play the flute.  That is how he got to know her.  Then, he offered to help her.  He helped her with the goats.  He did small things to fix up their cottage.  When her mother became sick, he brought her soup. 

Then he waited.  He waited and waited for a sign of her love – not merely of her gratitude, nor of her respect, nor of her admiration, nor of her friendship, but of her love.  At times, he became very sad and discouraged.  He wondered if she would ever love him.  He spent many long and lonely nights.  But at last joy came to him when he discovered that the poor young woman did indeed love him.

He asked her to marry him and she consented.  When her neighbors found out, they scolded her.  “He’s so poor!  He has no prospects!  He doesn’t even herd goats very well!”

But she simply said, “He loves me and I love him.  He wants me to be his wife and this is enough for me.”

Then he told her, “I live in another place not far from here.  I want you and your mother to come live with me there, but I need to go first and get it ready for you.”

He went back to his castle.  Then he returned in order to marry her according to the customs of her people.  Then, together, they walked to the castle.  To her great surprise, they strolled right through the gates and the guards did not stop them.  She was surprised again when others came up to her husband and bowed to him.  She was most surprised when he invited her to take a seat on the throne next to him.  But, because of how he had loved her, she was always amazed, but she was never surprised by his love.

And every evening she would sit at the castle gate and play her flute for all the children of the kingdom who would gather there.  And her audience always included the king.

Posted via email from The Garden of Heart

Searching for the meaning of life (cont'd)

(3)
It was when I first arrived in US, my husband had told me once that there were two persons in our area I should meet. I asked him why. He said he didn’t exactly know why, but felt that they possessed certain qualities which I might like. That was the end of conversation. I didn’t understand the meaning of it, neither did he.

One day during those confusing period, at supermarket, my husband suddenly said loudly to me: “Le, look, that’s Bill, whom I told you before.” I remembered what he said to me about Bill. Yes, there was something special in Bill that I could not describe, but I did like for sure. After exchanging a few greetings, Bill said: “Do you have time on Wednesday evening? Let’s have dinner together at my home.” Before we realized, the invitation was confirmed.

On the way home, I asked my husband: “Do you know Bill well?”

“No, just met him one time when he came to where I lived to visit some one else, we chatted in the hall way and after that met him several time in restaurant where I worked as a waiter, that’s it.”

I asked : “Is this the custom here, people invite each other for dinner at home even though they don’t know each other well?"

“I don’t think so.” We were not sure what all these meant.

On the evening of that Wednesday, right before we were ready to go to Bill’s home, my husband decided he would not go after all. I decided I was going all by myself.

On the way to Bill’s home, I lost direction for a while in the darkness. I had never been in that area. I couldn't decide should I turn back or go forward. I asked myself that I didn’t know Bill at all, why I’d go to see him even by myself. Beside to keep my word, were there any other reasons? Another day when I saw Bill at National, I felt clearly there were something in him that attracted me. I was not sure what it was, but I'd like to find it out.

When I arrived at Bill’s home, he and his wife had prepared a whole table of food and were waiting for us. Five minutes into dinner, I was about to ask Bill questions concerning religion. I didn’t know then that the conversation was about to lead me to answers to all my questions and concerns, and would change the rest of my life and my 15-year-long search would come to a conclusion.

(The following is not exactly quotes of our conversation, rather they are what I remembered the principles I learned).

I asked Bill: Are you a Christian?

Bill said: We believe Christ is a Messenger from God, and Bible is the teachings from God brought to us by Christ.

I noticed immediately that Bill’s answer was different from a standard Christian’s answer. I was encouraged and asked another question: Beside Christ, are there any other Messengers from God?

Bill: Yes, God has sent to mankind many Messengers in history and will send many more in future. In fact, we believe all of the founders of major religions are Messengers from God.

I: So what’s the relationship between those religions? Do they believe in the same God? ( This was a big and crucial question for me)

Bill: We believe all religions are from the same God. The relationship between them we call Progressive Revelation.

I: What is Progressive Revelation?

Bill: We view religious history as a succession of revelations from God and the term "progressive revelation" is used to describe this process. We believe that in reality, there is only one religion, the religion of God. This one religion is continually evolving, and each particular religious system represents a stage in the evolution of the whole. All of the religious systems "have proceeded from one Source and are the rays of one Light." Religion is like a book, different religions are different chapters in the same book.

I felt that the clouds in front of me were slowly dispersed away, there was a ray of light shining through the cloud directly to the very depth of my heart. My inner being recognized instantly the truth of these few words. It's like a magic, religion was no longer a lifeless system, rather suddenly become alive. God was no longer so far removed, but became near, so intimately near to my heart.

I couldn't wait to hear more: What’s the relationship between science and religion? Do they have to contradict with each other?

Bill: We believe that science and religion are two sources of knowledge ordained by God. Science is the source of understanding the laws of physical reality while religion, true religion, is a source of understanding of the laws of spiritual reality. Fundamentally science and religion should agree and complement to each other. If they appear to contradict with each other, it’s because either religion has become superstition, or science has not yet discovered complete truth.

I breathed deeply. Everything sounded refreshing and made sense to me and I still had one last question that had been buried deeply in my heart for 15 years: "What is indeed the meaning of our existence?"

Bill: We believe that human reality is fundamentally spiritual. If there were no Creator, if humans were simply chance products of a thermodynamic system, there would be no purpose in life. Each individual human being would represent the temporary material existence of a conscious animal trying to move through his or her brief life with as much pleasure and as little pain and suffering as possible. It is only in relation to the Creator, and the purpose which that Creator has fixed for His creatures, that human existence has any meaning. And in this context, life should be seen as an eternal process of spiritual discovery and growth. God has endowed each human reality potentials to reflect all of His attributes. Thus the development of these spiritual potentials constitutes the meaning of our life. And as we develop and as we progress, we become more and more God-like and thus drew ever nearer to God.

How wonderful and beautiful insights of understanding! Everything suddenly made sense and all pieces had simply come together. My puzzle had finally been solved!!

It was obvious to me that all of these understandings were not from traditional Christianity.

I asked Bill: "What is your religion?"

Bill: "We are Baha'is, the followers of Baha'u'llah."

The name was new, never heard before. But it's alright with me. There was first time for all new things. I could get used to the new name.

"Who is Baha'u'llah?"

Bill: "We believe that Baha'u'llah is the latest Messenger from God, He brought teachings for our time."

No wonder everything sounded so current, so accessible to modern mind!

I sat there for a while quietly, hardly comprehending what had just happened to me. I looked at Bill. His face was luminous that it seemed there was light shinning through him. His eyes were full of warm kindness that could move one to tears. I wished he kept talking and that moment would never end. I had no doubt at that moment that it was God who had sent Bill to guide me and to teach me. God had kept His promise. My fifteen-year-long fervent search had finally been answered, and my mind and my heart could finally rest for peace.

I ran home that night and shouted to my husband:" I found it, I found it, I found it!!!" He looked at me puzzlingly: " I never know you have lost anything." Never mind, he didn't know this. I never told anyone my inner struggles, my desperate desires. I wished I could share this with someone, anyone that how much this meant to me. God cares, God really cares for me and equally for everyone. God's grace did not just pour out at an arbitrary point of history and stopped pouring for ever for no reason. God has been and will always be raining down His grace to mankind. And with the one simple teaching that religion and science should be in harmony, my heart and my mind are brought together into one single entity. Truth must be beautiful and beauty cannot be false. Everything becomes one and I become whole. 

I'd like to finish this post with a paragraph from the Writings of Baha'u'llah concerning how a seeker of truth should go about his searching:

"On this journey (searching) the traveler abideth in every land and dwelleth in every region. In every face, he seeketh the beauty of the Friend; in every country he looketh for the Beloved. He joineth every company, and seeketh fellowship with every soul, that haply in some mind he may uncover the secret of the Friend, or in some face he may behold the beauty of the Loved One." (Baha'u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 7)

Searching for the meaning of life (Part I)

Searching for the meaning of life

During this Thanksgiving season, while counting the blessings of family, friends and all the good things in life, my deep gratitude is especially given to those who guided me on my journey of seeking meanings and answers. Their patient and unreserved guidance had changed the course of my life and enriched it most greatly in both depth and breath.

It is said that every life has a story. Though my story may differ from yours, I believe no matter where we were born and in whichever cultural background we grew up, all of our stories are ultimately related to our searching (knowingly or unknowingly) for the identity of who we truly are and what the life is all about beside and beyond it’s obvious, visible and material form.

(1)

“What is indeed the meaning of life?” I started to ponder this question when I was in high school. Growing up in communist country, I was told that life was only an accidental product with no predetermined purpose. But somehow this materialistic view bothered me. Deep down in my heart, I wished this were not true. I tried to find possible answers from different aspects that were available to me at the time: books, friends as well as the experiences and understandings of others. Although all of those enhanced my understanding and helped me to look at life from different perspective, they didn’t answer the question to my satisfaction and didn’t completely comfort my agitated inner being.

In the spring of 1990, when I was trapped in Prague of Czechoslovakia alone, and life was at its lowest point. One evening while I was wandering in the street pointlessly, a group of students handed me a Bible. Though I didn’t believe in any religion, I read it anyway when I had nothing else to do. But I couldn’t comprehend it at all. One evening however, somehow one of these verses (Matthew 7:7) jumped out at me and I actually could understand its meaning: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” It sounded like a promise. How wonderful it would have been if it were truly a promise, I pondered: if I kept seeking, I might one day find. But by nature and training, I was a person with mathematical mind, anything not logically sound was hard to accept. Besides, atheism was instilled in me from very beginning and was held true for the past thirty years. It was impossible for me to say “I believe” overnight. Nevertheless religion became a topic that interested me and I started to observe the life of those who believed. In the class I was attending, there were two students from Egypt, who were faithful Muslims. They were openly practicing their faith: morning prayer, evening prayer, fasting, seemingly it’s a real thing. One day I got a chance in the lab to ask the young and intelligent student Magdy: “Magdy, you are very intelligent, plus you are a student of science, how could you believe in God with such sincerity? You know that science and religion can not coexist, as I have learned.” Magdy’s answer was much unexpected: “Because I am a student of science, so my belief is more sincere!” This was exactly opposite to the knowledge I acquired about science and religion. I encouraged him eagerly: “Tell me about it.” I didn’t realize that my request was about to have Magdy to begin a wonderful explanation from an unexpected angle, which in turn, would change my 30-year-long atheist mind.

Magdy said: “We are both chemists, we understand the second law of thermodynamics. It is stated that in a closed system, if there is no energy introduced from outside, the system can only develop spontaneously from relatively higher order to lower order till it reaches completely chaotic state. For example, a beautiful garden must have a diligent gardener, otherwise the garden will for sure be full of weeds; a home, if there is no one to clean, to organize, it will not spontaneously become neat and orderly; and if you see a line of footprints on desert, you will sure think someone has just passed by, and will not believe just because of wind blowing here, accidentally left the footprints on the sand. In summary, that is ‘where there is will, there is order, otherwise, there is only chaos.’ The same is also true for the universe. Through out the nature we have come to know so far, order is everywhere. In all directions we look, small or big, near or far, life or lifeless alike are governed by predetermined natural laws. If we consider the whole universe a closed system, in order to sustain the highly ordered state, there must be energy introduced from outside the universe. The One who is beyond the universe, who is constantly putting energy into the universe is the God I believed in.”

What a reasonable explanation, at least to me! I never knew the existence of God could be explained scientifically. Magdy’s vivid explanation made me feel that switching from an atheist to a believer was not impossible as I thought before and could be reasonable. I had been in the world of atheism searching for the meaning of life for the past 15 years, and had not been able to find answer. Perhaps, it’s time for me to honestly ask myself questions concerning my belief. I thought I was an atheist, was that what I’ve studied thoroughly and came to the conclusion myself? No, I was taught to be an atheist; I was never given an opportunity to choose. Magdy could explain the existence of God scientifically, but I’ve never thought about what was the proof of my atheist belief. If believing/not believing was only a choice of 50-50%, what should I choose? I’ve seen enough what could happen in a society where there was no God. Perhaps, even if it's just a 50-50% choice, I’d rather choose to believe. I’d like to see the other half of the world. Plus, Magdy's explanation was somewhat sensible to me, I could not just ignore it.

I asked Magdy one more question: “Magdy, where did you learn all of these things?”

Magdy replied seriously: “Have you ever heard of ‘Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom’?”

I decided that I was willing and ready to search after the wisdom from God!!

(2)

In the spring of 1991, I finally entered US, the land of the free. The opportunity was precious. With the little knowledge about God from Magdy, I dived myself into Chinese Christian Fellowship organized by students. I studied Bible with them diligently for months and learned many explanations from them as well. I realized by surprise that believing in God was not just a question of believing or not, believing in God was also implying who to believe, which religion to join, even which sects to belong to. This was beyond my comprehension. Honestly, I had nothing to be against Christianity. As matter of fact, I was baptized towards the end of my Bible study, becoming a Christian of my own choice. I believed that Christ was a way leading to God, but I just couldn’t convince myself that Christ was the only way. I was once an atheist, the world was only divided into two half: believing and not believing. A verse from Bible had once given me a leap of faith; the intelligent and warm-hearted Muslim Magdy had led me crossed the line from the non-believing world to the Kingdom of God; I had also shared an apartment with a girl from India for almost a year in Prague, and witnessed her worshiping her God with the same sincerity; and also from my own homeland China, I had learned a little about Buddhism. Were they not all Religions? Beside the different names, did they not all believe in the same God? I happened to become a Christian, just because it was the most popular religion in this country. Had I not come to US then, instead gone to Middle East, I’d have become a Muslim for sure. Oh, religion, I once thought believing in God was all that a religion was about, never expected such complication and confusion.

Although I had many concerns and confusions about religion, I still remembered the verse from Bible which had once gave me comfort and encouragement:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” --- Matthew 7:7

I still believed that this verse was a promise to me: if I ask, I shall be answered.

After I finished studying Bible, I began to ask questions. My major concerns at the time could be summarized as follows:

* What’s the relationship between different religions? How could we know they didn’t believe in the same God?

* According to the current belief of Christianity, Christ was the only Son of God, never before and never after would be another One like Him. Why? If God is all powerful, HE surely could send many Christ-like Ones to mankind, Why not then?

* What’s the relationship between religion and science? Science as the sum of discovered natural laws and religion as the teachings from the Creator of our universe must have something in common, surely not contradict to each other as most have believed?

I started asking those questions in Chinese fellowship, in different Churches. And soon I realized that Christianity as a whole had very rigid doctrines. Any questions that were beyond the scope of these doctrines, they tended to avoid answering them. I knew then that in order to find answers, I must search outside Christianity.

One thing I never doubted that I should one day find answers. God would never fail anyone who asked Him.

(to be continued...)

Searching for the meaning of life (Part II)

Grew up as atheist

A friend sent me this link (http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html) written by a once atheist talking about several reasons of believing in God. I really like the first 5 points about our marvelous world. It never stops amazing me that our universe operates not only on a lawful base, but also in an unbelievably beautiful way. The world, as the author has said, doesn’t have to be orderly and beautiful. It actually has much more chances to become chaotic. Nevertheless it is highly ordered and harmoniously gorgeous. These points may not be a direct proof of the existence of God, but very valid points to invoke one’s deep thoughts.

I grew up also as an atheist in communist country. But people who believed in God never bothered me, they were just irrelevant to my life. Till I left China in late 1980’s and went to Europe, I realized that many people and many intelligent people in the world believed in God. I remember clearly that a question popped into my head one time “How come we (Chinese) are so smart that we have figured out there is no God, but the rest of the world are so ignorant that they still believe in God even in this modern age?” But not until I was trapped in utterly desperation and completely out of option in life that my heart became softened and I started to think seriously about the issue of God. I was fortunate, very fortunate to meet a couple of highly intelligent and enormously loving people to guide me on my journey of seeking answers in a way that was most suitable to my understanding. How utterly despair I would have felt if they were not there to answer my questions when I needed them the most. Every time when I read the quote by Baha'u'llah: ‘What "oppression" is more grievous than that a soul seeking the truth, and wishing to attain unto the knowledge of God, should know not where to go for it and from whom to seek it?’
my heart sorely testifies the truth of these words.

Now I look back after twenty years of experience in the world where there is God that my life has been so enriched beyond any wild imagination. The horizon of my life and my perspective about life has changed from a few limited decades to eternity in duration, from a meaningless and hopelessly imperfect random product to a purposefully designed human reality with a potential for perfection. I lived through the two worlds for almost equal amount of years. Often I thought that growing up as an atheist has certain advantages: I have seen both sides of stories. The most striking difference which matters to me is that in the world where there is God, being good actually counts. It is a great feeling to know that there is a foundation for everything to be built upon, a standard to strive towards and a purpose in everything that exists. And above all, there is a Power in control and that Power represents goodness and perfection.

To bring about human potentials is the true purpose of creation

Seeking to understand the mysteries of universe always brings me joy and being a Baha'i is specially fun for me because within the Baha'i teachings many mysteries about our existence are explained clearly and logically. The following is one of these mysteries about human being and human progress that I learned lately*.

There is objective existence which we call the reality and within the framework of the overall wholeness of reality, there are four distinct levels of being (see the attached picture):

1. The first and the highest level is that of the essence of God, our Creator;
2. The second level is that of the Manifestations of God, who perfectly manifest all of the attributes of God;
3. The third level is that of the human soul, which has consciousness and endowed with capacity to reflect progressively (potentially) all of the attributes of God;
4. The lowest level is that of the material world, which is totally devoid of consciousness and will.

It is worth noticing that the third level, that of the human soul, is the only level of being that is capable of true irreversible progress. God and the Manifestations are already in perfect states of existence on Their respective levels and therefore have no need of progression. On the other side, the material world only exhibits continual movement within fixed limits. All material systems are composite and temporary. They have a finite life span and progress only to a fixed degree and then decomposition sets in and death is inevitable. Thus there is no real progress in material world, or in purely material sense.

However, the human soul, while created in an imperfect state, has or is endowed with the potential for perfection. From the picture we can see that human beings occupy an unique position among all creations. If we say the material world is the world of imperfection and spiritual world is the world of perfection, and then we may also say that human being is the end of imperfection (highest level in material world) and beginning of perfection (lowest level of spiritual world). Thus to bring about human potentials to reflect all perfections latent within him is not only the purpose of individual's life, but also the business of whole creation. It is not for human being to find his purpose in the universe, but for the creation to find its purpose in helping bringing about human potentials. God has ordained for the training of human beings "every atom in existence and the essence of all created things."

Human capacity is God's given. No one can ever change it and no circumstances of life can destroy it. But this human capacity is latent and needs to be developed. And the development is not automatic. As Baha'u'llah stated in this quote:

"Know thou that all men have been created in the nature made by God... Unto each one hath been prescribed a pre-ordained measure, as decreed in God's mighty and guarded Tablets. All that which ye potentially possess can, however, be manifested only as a result of your own volition."

Effort is needed from our part for our own development. Our soul is threaten by and only by undevelopment. Another day, a friend of mine asked "What is good?" while talking about "Do well by doing good". From Baha'i perspective we may say: that which fosters and advances the process of human spiritual development is good and that which tends to inhibit this development is bad.

How then, one may ask, do we go about to develop our soul?

From the point view of human spiritual development, the material world serves as the womb of preparation for birth into the spiritual world. Let's first take a look at the development of a fetus in a mother's womb. There are two prerequisites for a fetus to effectively progress from one-celled organism to a mature human form which if left out in the physical world could take five hundred million years of evolution. These two conditions are: the special environment of mother's womb and the encoded human DNA information within the cell. The same is true for the development of a human soul . The material world serves as that special environment, but this is not enough for a human soul to progress, just as mother's womb alone will not enable a rock to develop into a human baby. The knowledge brought by the Manifestations of God serve as the second condition for human development. Their teachings may be thought of as the spiritual counterpart of the genetic code. These teachings are recorded (encoded) in the holy writings of the great religions and when the knowledge they contain is implemented, genuine spiritual growth is the result.

Thus, striving to understand and implement the laws that govern the process of spiritual growth is the fundamental task of our earthly lives. In doing so we may generate the appropriate, growth-inducing responses to the circumstances of our lives and thereby profit from the unique opportunities for our spiritual growth with which God has endowed this life.

*Ref.: "The Law of love enshrined" by Hatchers

Life is a fleeting moment

When contemplating the mysteries of life, the mystery of suffering seems to me the most mystic of all mysteries. Difficulties and challenges seem to be part of the make-up of our world. Few hearts are not afflicted by sorrows and few lives are spared by sufferings. Is there a meaning in this, I often wonder, is this a necessary step in a bigger process? Is there any good in bad?

This physical world is a world of opposites. Thus polarities exist universally: light and darkness, positive and negative, health and disease, yin and yang, life and death… More specifically, there are two opposite forces operating simultaneously upon the world of human being: physical and spiritual, thus creating tension between good and evil, moral and immoral, right and wrong. To make things more complicated, we, humans, are given the free will to choose between the two. No wonder suffering is generated. Suffering, in its essence, is our struggling between our desires to satisfy physical needs and our desire to be good as well as to be near to the source of all good. Thus all forms of unhappiness come from one form or another of attachment to the material world. This is the condition of this physical world and for as long as we live here, no one seems to be able to escape.

Why then do we have to suffer?

This question is closely related to the purpose of life. If life does not have purpose, of course suffering does not have any meaning (This is an awful situation, isn’t it? We have to suffer anyway, but without meaning, we suffer in vain!). But suppose that our purpose of living here on earth is to grow our soul, then this physical world might be the special environment in which our soul can make true progress. That is exactly some have suggested that this physical world is a vast “Soul School”, and everything in the world is but a tool to help human souls to learn.

And the suffering is the one condition under which our soul can be best trained:

“The mind and spirit of man advance when he is tried by suffering. The more the ground is plowed, the better the seed will grow, the better the harvest will be. Just as the plow furrows the earth deeply, purifying it of weeds and thistles, so suffering and tribulation free man from the petty affairs of this worldly life until he arrives at a state of complete detachment.”

Guy Murchie also suggested that “human soul thrives on a challenge or a problem and, once it is stretched by struggling with any sort of adversity, it can never shrink all the way back to its original dimensions. And so it grows bigger. Therefore, one should think of adversity as a kind of growth hormone at the opposite pole from, yet absolutely essential to, spiritual development.”

It might be comforting to know that this special condition of physical world does not exist in the next life. There are no opposite forces in the next world, thus test and suffering do not exist there either. Sound pretty good, but there is trade-off like everything in life: the trade-off is we don’t progress as fast in spiritual world as we do in physical world! We don’t have test, we don’t have opportunity either. So rather than to look at it as vale of tears, this life with its multitude tests and sufferings could also be seen and more correctly seen as an unique opportunity. It is an opportunity to get a jump-start to eternity. By struggling against the resistance of material world, it enables us to make enormous amount of spiritual progress in a very short period of time.

However, understanding the cause and the reason of suffering may make it easier to bear the difficulties of life, but it does not completely erase the pain of suffering (to me at least). At the end of a day, whenever sorrow threatens to overtake me, it is always the words of Baha’u’llah that provide consolation to my heart:

 “Sorrow not if, in these days and on this earthly plane, things contrary to your wishes have been ordained and manifested by God, for days of blissful joy, of heavenly delight, are assuredly in store for you…”
 “Live then the days of thy life, that are less than a fleeting moment, with thy mind stainless, thy heart unsullied, thy thoughts pure, and thy nature sanctified, so that, free and content, thou mayest put away this mortal frame, and repair unto the mystic paradise and abide in the eternal kingdom for evermore.”