Forces of Our Time (2)

Some of the chief dark forces of our time described by Mr. Hooper Dunbar are listed below:

The force of Irreligion:

“A primary force of darkness is irreligion. It ribs us of our understanding of the very purpose of life. It gives rise to materialism. It closes the door to the sources of power and well-being for humanity. Irreligion and materialism promote other dark forces. Whenever people lose their authentic religious foundation, their spiritual fibre, there is little left but the physical shell of  their beings, their animal selves. Their whole focus becomes the outer, ephemeral benefits of life and how to acquire them: they lose sight of their innate nobility and the heights of spiritual development to which human beings can aspire. This turning away from the higher nature and towards the lower nature spurs the growth of forces of darkness.

…

“It is important to make a distinction between true religion, a living force that connects human with God while bringing light and unity into the world, and what is often taken for religion, consisting mainly of form and ceremony, with much of the original teaching having become misunderstood or lost sight of. This state of affairs has come about in the winter of each cycle of religious renewal. Fanaticism, superstition, priestcraft, orthodoxy, narrowness and sectarian tendencies of whatever denomination are all forces of darkness that have long since lost connection with the spirit of the divine Messengers whom they claim to represent.”

…

“This is not to say there are no good intentions remaining among the followers of past religions, There appears to be many sincere people in groups of all kinds, both religious and secular; however ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains that in order to produce the desired result, sincere intention needs to be accompanied by volition and action, as well as requisite knowledge. When the aim is to change attitudes and human behavior, good intentions need to be supported by clear understanding and connected to a powerful source of dynamic energy capable of generating both volition and action. The Word of God, always divinely tailored for the needs of humankind at its current stage of development, provides that unique motive energy.”

…

“Irreligion comes in variety of forms, one of which has been termed functional atheism. We see a lot of this in the world today. A person may think that God exists but believe that human nature, economics forces or political traditions are the reason that things are, inevitably, the way they are. Generations of people have, understandably, failed to find much relevance to what passes under the name of religion, have come to consider it as a spent force and have basically adopted a secular, atheistic view of reality. Their whole tendency is not to believe, or to see God as pertinent only to the individual and not to society as a whole.”

Mr. Dunbar then concluded that “irreligion, secularism and the belief that political or economic forces alone animate humanity are spiritual illnesses. They act as veils or clouds, hindering and delaying the influence and action of the divine spirit of Bahá’u'lláh in human affairs.”

to be continued…

Forces of Our Time (1)

Recently I have been reading a book by Mr. Hooper Dunbar: “Forces of Our Time—The Dynamics of Light and Darkness”. I have really enjoyed it.  It helps me to deepen my understanding about the current trend in our confused society and where each individual stands as to our responsibility in helping shaping the society towards a brighter future.

The following are some excerpts from the book.

“Anyone looking at the condition of the world today will be struck by the dramatic changes taking place. On the one hand is the visible deterioration in so many fundamental processes and institutions, from the financial world, politics and the fabric of society to climate change and energy. On the other is an enlivening upsurge in knowledge, in concern for human rights and in technologies that bring people together.

These energies are spiritual in nature and result from the coming of God’s most recent representative to humankind, Bahá’u'lláh. He has set in motion processes that are creating a new, divine civilization. In response to this, negative forces have risen to resist the divine purpose.”

Mr. Dunbar has identified many of those negative forces (dark forces). They are dark forces, because they “accelerate the decline of humanity’s fortunes”, “whether they are expressed individually in our lives or collectively in the cultures and societies that surround us”. Some of these dark forces are (not an exhaust list):

• Conditions when humanity turns away from God: irreligion, atheism, naturalism, secularism;
• Things that humanity worships in place of God: materialism, nationalism, racialism, and communism;
• Perversions of religion with man made terms: fanaticism, superstitions;
• Consequences of humanity’s losing the moral compass provided by living religion: prejudice, corruption, immorality, moral laxity and widespread lawlessness;

In vivid contrast are those forces of light:

• Forces that derive directly from authentic religion: justice, trustworthiness, compassion, faith, interdependence, universality, insight, godliness, wisdom, rectitude, holiness and peace;
• Spiritual qualities resulting from our connection to God: love, unity, harmony, purity, consideration, courage, courtesy, and humility;
• Outcome of faith and obedience to the divine teachings: happiness, detachment, , integrity, truthfulness, moderation, chastity, trust and hope;
• Conditions that will heal the world: reconciliation, pacification, integration, orderliness, fellowship, non-violence and freedom from prejudice.

to be continued…

The Process of Integration

When talking about the achievement of the organic and spiritual unity of the whole world as the supreme mission of the Revelation of Bahá’u'lláh, Shoghi Effendi used the establishment of the United States of American as example to explain how the world unity will be eventually achieved:

 “Such a unique and momentous crisis in the life of organized mankind may, moreover, be likened to the culminating stage in the political evolution of the great American Republic — the stage which marked the emergence of a unified community of federated states. The stirring of a new national consciousness, and the birth of a new type of civilization, infinitely richer and nobler than any which its component parts could have severally hoped to achieve, may be said to have proclaimed the coming of age of the American people. Within the territorial limits of this nation, this consummation may be viewed as the culmination of the process of human government. The diversified and loosely related elements of a divided community were brought together, unified and incorporated into one coherent system. Though this entity may continue gaining in cohesive power, though the unity already achieved may be further consolidated, though the civilization to which that unity could alone have given birth may expand and flourish, yet the machinery essential to such an unfoldment may be said to have been, in its essential structure, erected, and the impulse required to guide and sustain it may be regarded as having been fundamentally imparted. No stage above and beyond this consummation of national unity can, within the geographical limits of that nation, be imagined, though the highest destiny of its people, as a constituent element in a still larger entity that will embrace the whole of mankind, may still remain unfulfilled. Considered as an isolated unit, however, this process of integration may be said to have reached its highest and final consummation.

 

Such is the stage to which an evolving humanity is collectively approaching. The Revelation entrusted by the Almighty Ordainer to Bahá’u'lláh, His followers firmly believe, has been endowed with such potentialities as are commensurate with the maturity of the human race — the crowning and most momentous stage in its evolution from infancy to manhood.

 

The successive Founders of all past Religions Who, from time immemorial, have shed, with ever-increasing intensity, the splendor of one common Revelation at the various stages which have marked the advance of mankind towards maturity may thus, in a sense, be regarded as preliminary Manifestations, anticipating and paving the way for the advent of that Day of Days when the whole earth will have fructified and the tree of humanity will have yielded its destined fruit.

 

Incontrovertible as is this truth, its challenging character should never be allowed to obscure the purpose, or distort the principle, underlying the utterances of Bahá’u'lláh — utterances that have established for all time the absolute oneness of all the Prophets, Himself included, whether belonging to the past or to the future. Though the mission of the Prophets preceding Bahá’u'lláh may be viewed in that light, though the measure of Divine Revelation with which each has been entrusted must, as a result of this process of evolution, necessarily differ, their common origin, their essential unity, their identity of purpose, should at no time and under no circumstances be misapprehended or denied. That all the Messengers of God should be regarded as “abiding in the same Tabernacle, soaring in the same Heaven, seated upon the same Throne, uttering the same Speech, and proclaiming the same Faith” must, however much we may extol the measure of Divine Revelation vouchsafed to mankind at this crowning stage of its evolution, remain the unalterable foundation and central tenet of Bahá’í belief. Any variations in the splendor which each of these Manifestations of the Light of God has shed upon the world should be ascribed not to any inherent superiority involved in the essential character of any one of them, but rather to the progressive capacity, the ever-increasing spiritual receptiveness, which mankind, in its progress towards maturity, has invariably manifested.”

 

 (Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u'llah, p. 165)

 

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Spring is here

I haven’t been able to write anything for the past two or three weeks. The reason is, of course, obvious: spring has once again arrived. I attempted to write something, but failed helplessly.  My thoughts could not be concentrating on anything else but spring. It seems I’d be better off just writing something about spring.Spring, with its life-giving energy and penetrating beauty, possesses such an attractive force that I just simply cannot stay inside. I get up at the dawn, watching the sun rises from behind the tree top, revealing all the hidden beauty that was behind the veil of darkness.

Pink dogwood is now blooming, its color is so vibrating and shining that I can almost see/feel its spirit dancing between branches.

And its tender leaves just emerge, collecting dew drops at the tip of every leaf:

The pure and white cherry flowers have brightened the earth for a short time by their evanescent beauty and purity just as some beloved and devoted souls did to the world.

Hostas seem to respond to the call of spring most readily, making the spring garden green, full and refreshing.

While in the yard at the dusk, sitting in the garden all by myself, the vitality of life and the freshness of spring air always make me wonder the miracle of life and the source of all beings.

I remember reading Guy Murchie’s book talking about the last and the ultimate mystery of universe: the mystery of divinity.

“Who or What runs the Universe?

Is there a plan behind the daisy, the hummingbird,

The whale and the world?

Who conceived the eye back in the primeval darkness

Of early evolution?

Who designed the fish’s air bladder in the ancient deep

As if foreseeing its future as a breath lung upon the dry land?

And out of what beginning evolved the mind?

By any stretch could mind have been mindlessly created?

Does science have answer

To the Voice out of the Whirlwind which asked Job

‘Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts?’

Is the world really drifting along without pilot,

Steering itself automatically,

Running its own affairs at random?

Could the Universe, just conceivably,

Have created Itself?

Surely there is Mystery in this Universe,

Not only somewhere and somewhen, but everywhere everywhen

And far, far beyond the scope of man’s feeble

Capacity to comprehend.

For man, puny, mortal and finite,

As he is in this nether phase,

Is permitted to visualize neither an end to space

Nor space without end;

Nor can he even grasp a start or a finish of time,

Nor any sort of beginning that has no beginning

Nor any end that has no end.

Hence the Mystery,

The abiding, pervasive, universal Unknowability

That many call by the name of God.

But what matters is what you call It?

It is abstruse, bewilderingly abstruse, and remains so

Whether or no we accept that somehow by Its agency

Out of utter nothingness that has arisen

Everything in the Universe.

Its station plainly implies intelligence,

Indeed Intelligence so far beyond the human

As to justify the adjective ‘Divine’,

And this seems to be relative.

If a human adult represents divinity to a baby or an animal,

So must the animal be divine to a vegetable,

The vegetable to a mineral…

Likewise, as wrote Paul to the Corinthians,

‘The foolishness of God is wiser than men’,

And there is presumably a hierarchy in Divinity above

As well as below us —

Even as the doings and thoughts of humanity and of Earth

Are but a negligible jot

In the eternal consciousness of God,

Even as the horizon of knowledge expands outward from our planet

Accompanied by the inexorable horizon of Mystery

Which expands even faster and farther than knowledge,

Leading man’s consciousness

To new dimensions.

Thus doth Divinity

Embrace all the other six mysteries of life

Even though callow man comprehendeth it not,

Even though the Mystery remainsth

So far beyond earthly finitude

That no eye but God’s own Eye

Hath the capacity to see

GOD.”

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Humanity’s Spiritual Education

“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.” (Abdu'l-Baha)

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 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:

“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.’ ” (from “Thief at Night” by William Sears)

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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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