A Package Has Arrived

Picture this. A group of people waiting at a designated grassy field and looking up towards the sky, expectantly. They start to get excited when a jumbo jet flies overhead slightly in the distance. A package drops from the aircraft, and a second later the parachute opens and the big package comes lazily floating down.

The people eagerly rush toward the spot where the package has landed in the grass. As they get closer, their hopes are confirmed as they see the stenciled letters on the outside of the wooden crate: "The Kingdom of God on Earth."

Someone pries open the boards and the people strip away the packaging with hearts filled with joy. Then everyone steps back to see what they have just unravelled.

The sight before their gaze causes the people to look around at one another with a new understanding in their eyes. Because the contents of the package were not what they'd all expected.

As it turns out, the package was actually a do-it-yourself kit. Some assembly required.

It can be hard to explain to people that the Promise is fulfilled when they don't see the immediate result of it, but there's some major construction work going on, and we'll have to march onward despite any obstacles, because we need all the hands we can get.

How to <insert task>

Whether you just got a harebrained idea or you've pondered it for years, whether you feel incarcerated in the prison of self or feel free of free will, whether your aim is to better yourself or to build a peacful and harmonious Kingdom, there are three simple steps to achieve.

"The attainment of any object is conditioned upon knowledge, volition and action. Unless these three conditions are forthcoming there is no execution or accomplishment. In the erection of a house it is first necessary to know the ground and design the house suitable for it; second, to obtain the means or funds necessary for the construction; third, to actually build it. Therefore a power is needed to carry out and execute what is known and admitted to be the remedy for human conditions; namely, the unification of mankind...."

`Abdu'l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pg 157

What if it's hard?

"To try, to persevere, is to ensure ultimate and complete victory."

from a letter on behalf of Shoghi Effendi

What if someone wants to do it differently?

"Whoever consults, he is not denied attaining the right, and whoever leaves it falls into deviation."

a reported statement of Muhammad

"Two words we all should recognize"

If you ever wonder what causes war, poverty, and disunity in the world, your answer lies in these two words.

Prejudice:n.
1.a.) An adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts.b.) A preconceived preference or idea.
2. The act or state of holding unreasonable preconceived judgments or convictions.
3. Irrational suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, or religion.
4. Detriment or injury caused to a person by the preconceived, unfavorable conviction of another or others.

Ignorance:n.
The condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.

Ok. Obviously, this is why there has been the hatred between blacks and whites and the oppression of women and whatnot. But the fact is, we have made progress in these areas. Educated people are generally forced to admit that skin color doesn't matter, or else face ridicule from the general population. Everyone hates the KKK. The president of Harvard has pretty much killed his career by suggesting that women's brains are inferior to men's.

...But there has been almost NO progress in the eradication of religious prejudice!!! These days it's religious fanatacism and hatred that are causing all the wars. It's not racial groups, but religious groups that are being denied access to education and full citizens' rights.

Let us consult one of my favorite documents, One Common Faith.

"If the religious crisis is to be addressed as seriously as is occurring with respect to other prejudices afflicting humankind, organized religion must find within itself a comparable courage to rise above fixed conceptions inherited from a distant past.”

“The time has come when religious leadership must face honestly and without further evasion the implications of the truth that God is one and that, beyond all diversity of cultural expression and human interpretation, religion is likewise one.”

Rather audacious, I know. A lot of people disagree with that. But we can't avoid it any longer. The document explains this subject further and with amazing clarity. Just listen to what Baha'u'llah says.

"O contending peoples and kindreds of the earth! Set your faces towards unity, and let the radiance of its light shine upon you. Gather ye together, and for the sake of God resolve to root out whatever is the source of contention amongst you. Then will the effulgence of the world's great Luminary envelop the whole earth, and its inhabitants become the citizens of one city, and the occupants of one and the same throne. This wronged One hath, ever since the early days of His life, cherished none other desire but this, and will continue to entertain no wish except this wish. There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God."

talking to God?

I read this earlier today:"When did I realize I was God? Well, I was praying, and then I realized I was talking to myself."Later in meditation, I realized it was true, but not in the sense that you may be thinking.I know why we feel like God doesn't exist. It's because whenever we imagine the Great Being, whatever we imagine is something that doesn't exist. We may imagine God as vibrations in the air. Guess what? That's not God. The God you're thinking of doesn't exist. We may imagine God as a person listening to our thoughts. But God is so much more than that! All of our conceptions of God are just thoughts inside our head, and therefore not worth believing in. So to anyone who has prayed to God and then realized what they thought was God was really just an illusion: I agree with you.

But my inability to fully conceive of God does not lead me to conclude His nonexistence.

66. O CHILDREN OF THE DIVINE AND INVISIBLE ESSENCE!Ye shall be hindered from loving Me and souls shall be perturbed as they make mention of Me. For minds cannot grasp Me nor hearts contain Me.(Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

a word on epistemological thought processes.

This refers to the means by which people decide what they accept as true.Pretty much, most people have figured out by college age that it's not cool to blindly believe in things. We like to know how they figured out the earth is round. We don't believe in Santa Claus. And if we go to church, it's because we believe in it for ourselves, not because our parents make us go.But there is another side to this coin that I find most people don't even think of! If you're not going to blindly believe in anything, then it makes sense that you wouldn't allow yourself to blindly DISbelieve anything. Skeptics will tend to dismiss ideas without examining evidence for or against their validity.People who want proof that there's a God must also look for proof that there isn't a God. People who believe in one religion and not another must not only know why they believe in the one, but also why they don't believe in the other.

What is Progressive Revelation?

So here's a concept that gets me a lot. God = Perfect. Perfect = Changeless, because perfection doesn't really have a lot of room for improvement, dig? But humanity changes. Individuals, societies, the advances in technology all over the world...you know what I mean. We have a heightened capacity compared to before. So check this out.

67. O SON OF BEAUTY!By My spirit and by My favor! By My mercy and by My beauty! All that I have revealed unto thee with the tongue of power, and have written for thee with the pen of might, hath been in accordance with thy capacity and understanding, not with My state and the melody of My voice.(Baha'u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words)

The Baha'i concept of Progressive Revelation: As humankind and civilization progress, our relationship with God (read:religion) must also grow and evolve, not by stuff we make up, but by the successive nature of God's Manifestations. If this is new to you, read more about it at www.bahai.org

It makes too much sense.

Another old musing

Hmm, okay. Here are some thoughts. If John the Baptist could be the "return" of Elijah without actually being the same physical person Elijah, is it at all possible that other "returns" spoken of in the Bible might be of a similar nature?

An old musing

I don't believe anyone can sit down and think for a while and eventually figure out whether or not God exists. People argue about it all the time and can never prove it to each other. And if you can't even be sure God exists, then it wouldn't make sense to go looking for some sort of religion. What's the point, right? There's nothing to base it on anyway. On that premise, everyone should be agnostic. Seriously, it's the smartest thing. But then there's this other way of looking at it. Where we're not sitting around trying to figure out whether or not to believe in God. In this scenario, God is actively telling us He exists, and He has something to say to us. So if you got a message that was from God, then you'd know that God exists.

So pretty much, only God has the power to prove to us that He exists. So it's not that we figure that out first, and THEN go look at the religions. It's the other way around. We have to look at the religions first to decide whether they are the lies of men, or something else entirely.