"Meditation is the key for opening the doors of mysteries.
In that state man abstracts himself;
in that state man withdraws himself from all outside objects;
in that subjective mood he is immersed in the ocean of spiritual life
and can unfold the secrets of things-in-themselves."
-- 'Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 175.
Dear All,
This 31 day period of NawRuz leading to Ridvan is of special spiritual potency and heavenly gift. Many have recently described the intensity of heightened vibration during these days at this time. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the public Declaration of Baha'u'llah in the Ridvan (Paradise) garden in the year 1863 and the 50th from the 100th anniversary Jubilee in 1963 the birth of the mission of the Establisher of the Baha'i Faith Dr. Leland Jensen.
"Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan." (Lev. 25:10 NIV)
Many outside the world of the Baha'i Faith and outside our current grounding in the Covenant of Baha'u'llah fulfilled in the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Baha remain in awe and caught up along with the ease in which science and religion--the confluence of inner and outer spiritual reality--are practiced by the guides and adepts who have publicly declared their allegiance to this unyielding Cause as servants of the light! I am happy to live in the great day when the spiritual and intellectual giants foretold by Baha'u'llah in His prophecies and eagerly awaited and anticipated by Dr. Jensen in The Most Mighty Document are now arriving on the scene from out all the corners of the world and within the United States of America at this time!
In the Iqan Baha'u'llah states: "Do men think when they say 'We believe' they shall be let alone and not be put to proof?"(Q. 71:26)
"Put to proof" means to "test." Like John says to test the spirits to see if they are true: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God" (1 Jn. 4:1 RSV).
This proving or testing is the foundation of scientific religion. Those steeped and engrossed in human learning are totally unfamiliar with this concept. This concept of scientific religion is a new teaching--of a new paradigm--that was revealed by Baha'u'llah, elucidated by 'Abdu'l-Baha, and established by Dr. Jensen and myself. It cannot be found anywhere else--or in any other school of thought. It is part of the essential remedy for the ills of humanity today--and constitutes a liberated dynamic approach to the process of individual human spiritual growth and evolution as well as that of the group from a scientific standpoint. It forms the basis of the Criterion.
Now other people have worked toward a similar understanding of this type colored through the lamp-glass of their own spiritual-biography and the degree of luminosity apparent in the day and age in which they lived--but their work remained for the most part unfinished and incomplete. As such, they can be considered forerunners to this new understanding and new outlook. Baha'u'llah refers to some of these personalities throughout history in His Tablet of Wisdom. Great persons involved in this struggle in modern times include Isaac Newton, Piazzi Smith, Albert Einstein, Immanuel Velikovsky, William James, and others. The point is this: as each individual has their own personal individual concerns--each person must be addressed individually based on their own context and their own independent views. What this means is that no matter what one person believes or experiences they do this from the standpoint of their own subjective perspective.
For example, 'Abdu'l-Baha tells the story of the King who wished all human knowledge to be condensed into one book. The scholars proceeded and made an vast encyclopedia set. The king stated this was too long. They came back with three volumes. He again said that was too long. They returned with one lengthy book. Again he said too long. They gave him one journal lengthy article. He again complained and after about a year they produced a single paragraph. He said it was still too complicated to understand. So he said he wanted it summed up in one word. They came back and gave it to him. He read the one word, it said: "Perhaps."
Thus the foundation of all human knowledge and human learning rests upon the foundation of maybe, maybe not. This is the modern appearance of ideas like the uncertainty principle in physics and the incompleteness theorem of Gödel in mathematics, and the moral and social relativism in succession to social Darwinism.
While this language may well be new to some, according to the mainstream current argument amongst the people the most advanced thought of the Western mind is infected with what they call "modernism" and "post-modern" critique. This has split current scientific thought of human learning in the West into two main warring groups: (a) the natural scientists and (b) the human scientists. Each group has a different approach, philosophy, language, terminology, and world-view. Each individual person that ascribes to either--or some hybrid of the two--remains in different levels of quandary. While the post-modern authors provide a strong critique against modernism they normally offer no viable alternative. To cite the history, source material, personalities, and cultural roots of this problem or to illuminate it more is beyond the scope of this short letter. To use the terminology of radical-empiricism, phenomenology, and existential and transpersonal studies is too cumbersome for this brief note--though 'Abdu'l-Baha expressly addresses all these points in his writings and talks--if the reader be sagacious and circumscript while reading the pertinent statements of the Master.
For example in Tablets (Vol. II, p. 287) 'Abdu'l-Baha refers to God as the Absent-Present in the world of humanity:
"Regarding thine entrance with thy friend into the gallery lighted with lamps, know thou that gallery is the world of humanity and the lamps His wonderful teaching, His all-wisdom, His perfect bounty and His clear manifestation. He is the Absent-Present in the world of humanity."
Thus Muhammad has declared Atheism: "There is no God"--and thus destroyed all idols of vain imagination and cleansed the doors of perception from falsity. Amin'u'llah then rejoins: "but God". So when we say we know nothing in essence. They say there is no God. They have no scientific or viable conception of the concept of the manifestation of the qualities and attributes of God either in general or specific revelation. Further they do not even know what we mean when we say general or specific revelation. They do not even understand what we mean when we speak of the Varieties of religious experience as did William James. They do not know of noetic pluralism. They remain destitute and ignorant of the scientific understanding of prophecy. They remain outside because they have not had the opportunity to enter within--or if given that opportunity they have refused, or having entered within, they have then left and gone back out.
Thus while science was meant to ground and purify the doors of perception from the dross of vain imaginations, the people have yet to use the grounding of being expressed as both inner and outer science to achieve an accelerated growth pattern in harmony and synergy with the dynamic potential of the Center of Being.
If we take 'Abdu'l-Baha for example we will see that he is caught up in the prophecies of the Bab and Baha'u'llah. He was born on the exact prophesied date for the Bab in 1844 on the same day. His mission is prophesied of as the BRANCH in the Bible (see Is. 11, Zech, 3., etc...). He was on Mt. Carmel and with Baha'u'llah in all his journeys at the prophesied place, and his name is given in various places as well. Now all this gave certitude to both 'Abdu'l-Baha and the believers of the truth of the Covenant of Baha'u'llah. But 'Abdu'l-Baha is clear that the Bab and Baha'u'llah are the supreme manifestations and all else are servants.
"His Holiness, the Exalted One (the Bab), is the Manifestation of the Unity and Oneness of God and the Forerunner of the Ancient Beauty. His Holiness the Abha Beauty (may my life be a sacrifice for His steadfast friends) is the Supreme Manifestation of God and the Dayspring of His Most Divine Essence. All others are servants unto Him and do His bidding."(W&T, p. 19)
Thus when God opens up the minds of the servants to see how prophecy is fulfilled, and when these servants are intimately associated with the living Promised One who comes in both the lesser and greater Covenant they will be guided by God to sometimes see how their personal role of service in the fleeting moment fulfills important tasks current in the Divine Plan. The Western people find this idea very foreign. First they are mostly "scientific" and by that they mean materialist (in philosophy and outlook) and atheistic. They view only material objects as the Real. They call this "objective." Second they view this type of religious experience at best as variable and subjective (irreal) and at worst through abnormal psychology.
This is why God has purposed the present Guardian to be knowledgeable about these things. As the world of Islam already experienced the Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'l-Baha whom they rejected, God has purposed the living Guardian and the loyal active companions of the living Guardian a special mission and special message to convey to the diverse peoples. In so doing he does not let the left hand know what the right hand is doing. God is no respecter of persons. We are all pawns in His grasp--including me--and He moves us along the board as he so pleases. The branch cannot boast for it is dependent upon the Root (Romans ch. 11). Thus we are servants, and unlike Iblis who refused to bow down before Adam, we are purposed to serve Adam and all his generations, in each and every generation: that is, that was, and that is yet to come.
"Thraldom to the Blessed Perfection is my glorious and refulgent diadem, and servitude to all the human race my perpetual religion... No name, no title, no mention, no commendation have I, nor will ever have, except 'Abdu'l-Baha. This is my longing. This is my greatest yearning. This is my eternal life. This is my everlasting glory."--'Abdu'l-Baha
Guardian.
Neal Chase.
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