"The Baha'i Faith"

[Siddhartha]

Too often in interfaith discussion “dialogue”, we have liberal Catholics talking to liberal Buddhists talking to liberal Muslims, all trying to find a liberal Zoroastrian while trying to avoid followers of neo-Egyptian, neo-Pagan, neo-Greco-Roman polythesims, etc.

Could you clarify this? Do you mean that neo-Pagans are not invited to interfaith dialogues, because neo-Pagans don’t seem “serious” in the eyes of liberal Christians?

 

[why_me]

Based on what I know of Baha’i, I have no problems with them. They espouse very positive values. Howvever, I can practice Baha’i values within Catholicism, so I have no interest in converting.

.

As you well know, I don’t think that you have followed Baha’i values in the mormon threads where certain catholics mock and bash the mormon religion. I have never known a Baha’i to do this. I remember the leader of the Baha’i’s in my town having the lds missionaries over to discuss religion or just to be friendly. No mocking or bashing of their faith. And I have never heard a Baha’i be disrepectful toward any religion. In fact, the Baha’i are very kind people.

But it is true that certain catholics on the mormon threads can learn something from the Baha’i’s and maybe they should start by practicing Baha’i values.

 

[Usbek_de_Perse]

Could you clarify this? Do you mean that neo-Pagans are not invited to interfaith dialogues, because neo-Pagans don’t seem “serious” in the eyes of liberal Christians?

First, let me say that, in my opinion, smaller religious groups take part in interfaith activities largely out of a motivation to become better known, and to gain some public credibility. I know that was my motivation for taking part in such groups, when I was a Baha’i.

Now for an anecdote. I attended the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, and I stayed with a well known Baha’i who works at the National Center. As we turned the corner by the Palmer House hotel in Chicago, we saw a sea of saffron robes. It was quite exciting. We were not able to be in the main auditorium, so we went to a video feed room upstairs. There was a procession of religious people, and during a long segment of Buddhist monks coming in, we heard Buddhist chanting, live I believe. There was a Christian group of monks, nuns, and others that came in to some Christian singing. At some point, I am not sure where, there were perhaps 5 or 6 people dressed like Egyptian pharos in procession. I kid you not, they looked like King Tut, and I was just last week at the Tut exhibit in San Francisco.

There was a woman, Rianne Eisler, who spoke and greeted us in the name of Isis. My point is that interfaith groups are often targets of fringe groups. Now, I do not feel the Baha’i Faith is a fringe group. Nor are all Wiccan groups, necessarily fringe, especially in Berkeley. But people who look like they come out of Steve Martin’s “King Tut” sketch on SNL, they definitely caused our video room to giggle a bit.

Interfaith dialogue is often the province of the large religions. There are issues between Christians and Jews, Christians and Muslims, Muslims and Jews, that just don’t arise between Baha’is and Jains, or between Wiccans and Taoists.

So, yes, there is a fringe factor that inevitably arises.

Amazing vignettes from the Parliament include, and I wish I had had a camera, two nuns, drinking 7-up. Just one of them was Catholic and the other Buddhist. I remember some Catholic nuns very excited at the top of an escalator shaft. I asked what the fuss was, and they squealed with glee that the Dalai Lama was coming. He waved at us from the bottom of the escalator. They could hardly have been happier had they seen the Pope.

 

[DavidMark]

Here is a passage from Bahá’u’lláh to help us understand His Teachings on Progressive Revelastion better:
**He Who is the Day Spring of Truth is, no doubt, fully capable of rescuing from such remoteness wayward souls and of causing them to draw nigh unto His court and attain His Presence. “If God had pleased He had surely made all men one people.” His purpose, however, is to enable the pure in spirit and the detached in heart to ascend, by virtue of their own innate powers, unto the shores of the Most Great Ocean, that thereby they who seek the Beauty of the All-Glorious may be distinguished and separated from the wayward and perverse. Thus hath it been ordained by the all-glorious and resplendent Pen…

That the Manifestations of Divine justice, the Day Springs of heavenly grace, have when they appeared amongst men always been destitute of all earthly dominion and shorn of the means of worldly ascendancy, should be attributed to this same principle of separation and distinction which animateth the Divine Purpose. Were the Eternal Essence to manifest all that is latent within Him, were He to shine in the plentitude of His glory, none would be found to question His power or repudiate His truth. Nay, all created things would be so dazzled and thunderstruck by the evidences of His light as to be reduced to utter nothingness. How, then, can the godly be differentiated under such circumstances from the froward?

This principle hath operated in each of the previous Dispensations and been abundantly demonstrated… It is for this reason that, in every age, when a new Manifestation hath appeared and a fresh revelation of God’s transcendent power was vouchsafed unto men, they that misbelieved in Him, deluded by the appearance of the peerless and everlasting Beauty in the garb of mortal men, have failed to recognize Him. They have erred from His path and eschewed His company – the company of Him Who is the Symbol of nearness to God. They have even arisen to decimate the ranks of the faithful and to exterminate such as believed in Him.** ( Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 71)

 

[Usbek_de_Perse]

My dear friends.

Cutting and pasting does not work.

 

[arthra]

One of the things our community sponsored was World Religion Day and usually it was hosted at the University in our town… Essentially it was a mini World Parliament of Religions. So there was representation from Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Sikh, Muslim, Christian and Baha’i community… Exciting at times because the Parsee (Indian Zoroastrian) learned of common roots with the Hindu… thisis something that Baha’is have been doing for quite awhile as well as Interfaith work where we have common interests and can combine our efforts.

Here’s an example of a World Religion Day:

worldreligionday.ca/

 

[DavidMark]

Usbek: If you want someone to taste something, it has to be provided.
But you can lead a horse to water, and still they don’t drink.
What is the use of talking about faith in Bahá’u’lláh,
unless we take into our minds and hearts the verses He wrote?

The greatest proof of any of the Messengers is Themselves, Their Verses,
Their works and the results of their teachings in the world.
Have they helped civilization? Have they overcome the human inertia?

But then the same Verses are like water to some and fire to others.
Some were guided by the Light of God, gained admittance into the court of His presence, and quaffed, from the hand of resignation, the waters of everlasting life, and were accounted of them that have truly recognized and believed in Him. Others rebelled against Him, and rejected the signs of God, the Most Powerful, the Almighty, the All-Wise.(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 145)

 

[Usbek_de_Perse]

Usbek: If you want someone to taste something, it has to be provided.
But you can lead a horse to water, and still they don’t drink.
What is the use of talking about faith in Bahá’u’lláh,
unless we take into our minds and hearts the verses He wrote?

The greatest proof of any of the Messengers is Themselves, Their Verses,
Their works and the results of their teachings in the world.
Have they helped civilization? Have they overcome the human inertia?

But then the same Verses are like water to some and fire to others.
Some were guided by the Light of God, gained admittance into the court of His presence, and quaffed, from the hand of resignation, the waters of everlasting life, and were accounted of them that have truly recognized and believed in Him. Others rebelled against Him, and rejected the signs of God, the Most Powerful, the Almighty, the All-Wise.(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 145)

I can quote the words of Baha’u’llah in Arabic, nearly from memory, certainly the Aqdas, the Tablet of Ahmad, and the Arabic Hidden Words. There was a time when simply the recitation of these words meant something to me.

My point is that long posts are not usually read, and you cannot simply paste passages and expect those who do not appreciate them to suddenly start to appreciate them. Were I to post long passages of Christian prayers and, say, the writings of Theresa of Avila, you might just appreciate their piety, but you are not likely to change your religion.

 

[DavidMark]

Usbek: You may have a point. But, whereas I have been enriched already by the prayers of Theresa of Avila, I find blocks are put up to these Verses, and I’m not interested in hashing with people who want to oppose the One I see as the Manifestation…and I don’t see anyone here hungry to learn about this Light, but rather wanting to oppose it.

O ye leaders of religion! Who is the man amongst you that can rival Me in vision or insight? Where is he to be found that dareth to claim to be My equal in utterance or wisdom? (Baha’u’llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 56)

Others may not see how the archangelic spirit will be victorious. Other “Baha’is” may fold and run, but I will not, unworthy tho I be. What we’ve learned here is that I regard the Verses as greater than my own convesation, and you have somehow been washed ashore, mistakingthe Leviathan in the depths, despite the knowledge of Arabic.

I find that casual conversation doesn’t work either, so I try different things. I could tell planten everyday that it is the Báb that is the Mahdí, but that Bahá’u’lláh is also the Báb, and it will not sink in, unless, God willing, the Finger of God touch his heart. Then, belief grows into steadfastness, such as we see in the Yaran in Evin.

Nevertheless, I recall these lines, because my intention is to re-gather sheep that think they know better than the Shepherd:
There is no hatred in Mine heart for thee nor for anyone. Every man of learning beholdeth thee, and such as are like thee, engulfed in evident folly. Hadst thou realized that which thou hast done, thou wouldst have cast thyself into the fire, or abandoned thine home and fled into the mountains, or wouldst have groaned until thou hadst returned unto the place destined for thee by Him Who is the Lord of strength and of might.
(Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 205)

 

[Sen_McGlinn]

Were I to post long passages of Christian prayers and, say, the writings of Theresa of Avila, you might just appreciate their piety, but you are not likely to change your religion.

Leaving conversion aside (as an event too personal to be engineered), please do share Catholic devotionalism with any Bahais you meet. I think it is one of the things that Bahai and Catholicism (and some branches of Judaism and Islam) ought to have in common: the lack is due to the historical bias to protestant modes of religiosity in western Bahai communities. So share Catholic devotionalism with them, by all means, in fact, try to set them on fire, drag them along to whatever is working best in your parish or city. It may convert them, or it may sensitise them to look for the devotional mode of religiosity that is there, potentially, in the Bahai Faith. Either way, a soul will be enriched.

I am convinced that Baha’u’llah intended and expected his community to be much more devotional in character than it has actually become. For example, he took the mosque and pulpit out of the centre of the community, and replaced them with the Mashriqu’l-adhkar, which in Christian terms translates as ‘chantry,’ or in Islamic terms as the ‘place for chanting dhikr.’ (He banned the pulpit entirely - which says something about where his priorities lay.)

He also wrote thousands of prayers and meditations, and poems written to be chanted, and the circle of his disciples behaved like a mystic fellowship. Take this incident reported by Nabil:

"That night a wonderful feast had been arranged and 'Abdu’l-Bahá, then eighteen years of age, was acting as host. … After partaking of food they began to chant the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, and soon the atmosphere became deeply spiritual. Hearts were filled with divine love and souls were illumined by the light of the new day; so when the poem of Az Bagh-i-Ilahi ‘From the Garden of Holiness,’ an antiphonal Persian-Arabic work] was chanted, its mysteries became apparent to them, revealing thereby the approaching hour of the unveiling of Bahá’u’lláh’s divine station. Every sincere soul in that company experienced ecstasy and joy, and the atmosphere became alive with excitement and rapture…
Then without warning the door opened and Bahá’u’lláh entered majestically, holding in His hand a small glass vessel of rose-water. He greeted them with the salutation ‘Allah’u’Akbar’, and bade them not to arise or disrupt their meeting. He had felt the spirituality of that gathering, He said, and so had come to anoint them with rose-water… (Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha’u’llah v 1, pp. 219-20)

 

[Usbek_de_Perse]

Leaving conversion aside (as an event too personal to be engineered), please do share Catholic devotionalism with any Bahais you meet. I think it is one of the things that Bahai and Catholicism (and some branches of Judaism and Islam) ought to have in common: the lack is due to the historical bias to protestant modes of religiosity in western Bahai communities. So share Catholic devotionalism with them, by all means, in fact, try to set them on fire, drag them along to whatever is working best in your parish or city. It may convert them, or it may sensitise them to look for the devotional mode of religiosity that is there, potentially, in the Bahai Faith. Either way, a soul will be enriched.

I am convinced that Baha’u’llah intended and expected his community to be much more devotional in character than it has actually become. For example, he took the mosque and pulpit out of the centre of the community, and replaced them with the Mashriqu’l-adhkar, which in Christian terms translates as ‘chantry,’ or in Islamic terms as the ‘place for chanting dhikr.’ (He banned the pulpit entirely - which says something about where his priorities lay.)

He also wrote thousands of prayers and meditations, and poems written to be chanted, and the circle of his disciples behaved like a mystic fellowship. Take this incident reported by Nabil:

"That night a wonderful feast had been arranged and 'Abdu’l-Bahá, then eighteen years of age, was acting as host. … After partaking of food they began to chant the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, and soon the atmosphere became deeply spiritual. Hearts were filled with divine love and souls were illumined by the light of the new day; so when the poem of Az Bagh-i-Ilahi ‘From the Garden of Holiness,’ an antiphonal Persian-Arabic work] was chanted, its mysteries became apparent to them, revealing thereby the approaching hour of the unveiling of Bahá’u’lláh’s divine station. Every sincere soul in that company experienced ecstasy and joy, and the atmosphere became alive with excitement and rapture…
Then without warning the door opened and Bahá’u’lláh entered majestically, holding in His hand a small glass vessel of rose-water. He greeted them with the salutation ‘Allah’u’Akbar’, and bade them not to arise or disrupt their meeting. He had felt the spirituality of that gathering, He said, and so had come to anoint them with rose-water… (Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha’u’llah v 1, pp. 219-20)

By the way, I am Episcopalian, closer to Rome than your average Baptist but not Catholic.

There is much in your post that comends itself. One reason I felt spiritually hungry as a Baha’i is the near total lack of corporate worship. Baha’i prayers, in the main, are written for the first person singular. They are lonely, or perhaps alone with God. And since Baha’is are not supposed to develop set worship patterns, corporate worship is hampered. And there is that thing in the Aqdas that forbids “congregational prayer” except in the Prayer for the Dead. Since the manner of prayer for the dead involves repetition of verses by the whole congregation, that sort of repetition seems to be out of bounds generally. Oddly, the Tablet of the Holy Mariner reads like a litany (look one up in the Book of Common Prayer to see what I mean). But because of the prohibition of congregational prayer, Baha’is often do not use it that way. The antiphonal reading you Taherzadeh describes sounds very lovely. Too bad these strictures exist.

Yes, it is a halmark of the Baha’i Faith in the West that its early believers were mainly protestants. In Star of the West, there is a hymn called “A temple to our Glorious King” that is written in the manner of church hymns.

I remember going to “church” at the temple in Wilmette, and the worship had no congregational participation. I like your rendition of Mashriq al-Adhkar as “chantry”. The social hour afterwards really did feel just like church, with more balast than fuel on offer. But no dry sherry, either.

 

[Madaglan]

I pray this email finds you all in good health.

I was wondering if anyone has had any encounters with a non-catholic religion called the “Baha’i Faith”? I am currently a student at a university and have encountered and dialogued with many different types of religions. This one in particular has given me a little more of a headache and is tougher to break down due to my lack of biblical and doctrinal knowledge within the Catholic Chruch. They claim to have 6.5 million members and say they have been growing fast. I was just wondering if anyone else has had encounters with this “Baha’i Faith” and if so how has it gone?

Paz de Christo,

Mateo

When I lived in Northern Virginia, I frequently drove past a Baha’i temple on Route 7, near Herndon and Sterling. Often wondered what they were all about.

 

[arthra]

Madaglan,

You mean the one in Wilmette Illinois?

By the way there are revealed prayers for meetings and groups…

A few samples:

O God! We are as plants, and Thy bounty is as the rain; refresh and cause these plants to grow through Thy bestowal. We are Thy servants; free us from the fetters of material existence. We are ignorant; make us wise. We are dead; make us alive. We are material; endow us with spirit. …%between%O Thou kind Lord! We are servants of Thy Threshold, taking shelter at Thy holy Door. We seek no refuge save only this strong pillar, turn nowhere for a haven but unto Thy safekeeping. Protect us, bless us, support us, make us such that we shall love but Thy good pleasure, utter only Thy praise, follow only the pathway of truth, that we may become rich enough to dispense with all save Thee, and receive our gifts from the sea of Thy beneficence, that we may ever strive to exalt Thy Cause and to spread Thy sweet savors far and wide, that we may become oblivious of self and occupied only with Thee, and disown all else and be caught up in Thee. …

The Prayer for the Dead is the only prayer said in congregation… that is one person reciting the prayer.

 

[arthra]

Addendum to my earlier post above on prayers and chorus:

and see:

youtube.com/watch?v=1QJpQ0qgyiY

 

[Jerusha]

Thank you for the prayer and the music. Both are very pleasant distractions. :heaven:

 

[DavidHouse]

Planten,

Sorry for being delayed in responding. I’ve been very busy. Indeed I may soon have to forgo the privilege of posting hereon due to lack of time.

I wanted, however, to respond to at least two points you made.

Perhaps you know that Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified, meaning, died on the cross. Crucified means dying on the cross. If you do not know what is the belief of the Muslims about the trial and trouble of Jesus on the cross and after coming down from the cross. Please find out.

Well, as you have said or indicated before, what is central is not so much what is believed, but more rather what the Book says. After all, if a dozen people read the same passage and each disagrees with every one of the others about its meaning, that simply indicates a lack of unity between several people.

By contrast, if there is no way to reconcile properly translated scripture passages either from one faith, or from more than one, then a rather more fundamental problem exists.

This is a very important distinction to make: between what someone believes and what her or his Book says. The Holy Qur’an is very clear in many places about this, saying in one instance that “…no one knows its hidden meanings except Allah.” And who among the Muslims will proclaim that he knows which meanings are obvious and which are hidden? Who will have given him that authority?

Thus, when asserting her or his belief, surely any Muslim would, in humility, clearly state that the Book may have a meaning which is not known to them. Humility quenches conflict.

Now, you say that Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified. As far as I know-- and please correct me if I have made a mistake-- this is based on a passage in Surah Nisa (v 157), which says about His Holiness Christ that, “…they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them…”

To me, the meaning is clear, which is that Christ was not killed, but rather chose to sacrifice Himself. He was the Word of God, and as such, in fact, He could not be killed by any human intention. No weapon could harm Him, no power on earth or in heaven could cause Him any alarm or trouble-- unless He allowed it. But those who pursued Him, and who wished His death, thought that they were the cause of His passing; **so it **(falsely) appeared to them.

His power in this regard is clear from John [18:3-6, 10-12]. I have put emphasis on several portions:

Judas then, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons.

Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them.

As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. …]

Then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. …]

Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Then the band and the captain and officers of the Jews took Jesus, and bound him…

Clearly (again, at least as I read it), Christ was in control of this situation. He chooses sacrifice, for the salvation of those who followed Him.

The point is clear: His life was not taken, it was given. He was therefore not killed. He made a sacrifice. No merely human agency can choose for the Lord of all things. He chooses, and whatever he chooses, it will be. If we think He is subject to anything in earth or heaven, we are mistaken.

What truth when there is a complication of the words. You people say that Bahaullah and Jesus were God and were not God too. There is a clear contradiction in that statement. The christians amde only one God. That was Jesus. You people have made every prophet into God and then denied the same. I cannot understand what you are teaching.

I’m sorry that it is not clear to you. DavidMark has been over this ground with you. Since many of the meanings of the Book are, by clear statement of the Qu’ran, evident only to God, I would suggest that understanding this point may require you to let go of the fixed idea that what is being said to you makes no sense.

It is in fact, quite sensible, and I would hope that any humble heart could understand it.

The Manifestation or Messenger of God, from one point of view, is merely a man, like you or me. Thus He may say, and thus it is true.

But He is also more, since He has been endowed with the authority to reveal a Book. From another point of view, therefore, He is a Messenger; more than a man. Thus He may say, and thus it is true.

As well, at times, He may choose to so completely erase Himself that what shines forth from Him is the very light and heat of the Holy Spirit. When we gaze thereon, when we hear that Word, we approach a mystery which we have no human capacity to penetrate. We cannot tell the difference between the sanctified Mirror on the one hand, and on the other that blazing Image of the Creator which is, with absolute and complete perfection, radiating therefrom.

Christ said that those who saw Him saw the Father. That does not mean that God came to dwell in Christ’s body, which would be impossible. It means rather that even with a perfected human soul, we could never understand or perceive the difference between Christ and God. We only know there is a difference because the Messenger tells us it is so. Because His word is truth, we know that there is a difference between the identity of Christ and that of the Godhead, but we cannot see with any capacity of heart, mind or soul any difference in power, authority, or virtue between the one and the other.

So it is that any Messenger can affirm that He is merely a man, or the Prophet endowed with authority, or He may, impelled by the One Who is above all, say “I am God”, and in any of those instances we cannot object unless we also disbelieve.

Thus He may say, and thus it is true.

d.

 

[Madaglan]

Madaglan,

You mean the one in Wilmette Illinois?

By the way there are revealed prayers for meetings and groups…

A few samples:

O God! We are as plants, and Thy bounty is as the rain; refresh and cause these plants to grow through Thy bestowal. We are Thy servants; free us from the fetters of material existence. We are ignorant; make us wise. We are dead; make us alive. We are material; endow us with spirit. …O Thou kind Lord! We are servants of Thy Threshold, taking shelter at Thy holy Door. We seek no refuge save only this strong pillar, turn nowhere for a haven but unto Thy safekeeping. Protect us, bless us, support us, make us such that we shall love but Thy good pleasure, utter only Thy praise, follow only the pathway of truth, that we may become rich enough to dispense with all save Thee, and receive our gifts from the sea of Thy beneficence, that we may ever strive to exalt Thy Cause and to spread Thy sweet savors far and wide, that we may become oblivious of self and occupied only with Thee, and disown all else and be caught up in Thee. …

The Prayer for the Dead is the only prayer said in congregation… that is one person reciting the prayer.

In Sterling, Virginia.

 

[Siddhartha]

Now, you say that Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified. As far as I know-- and please correct me if I have made a mistake-- this is based on a passage in Surah Nisa (v 157), which says about His Holiness Christ that, “…they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them…”

To me, the meaning is clear, which is that Christ was not killed, but rather chose to sacrifice Himself. He was the Word of God, and as such, in fact, He could not be killed by any human intention. No weapon could harm Him, no power on earth or in heaven could cause Him any alarm or trouble-- unless He allowed it. But those who pursued Him, and who wished His death, thought that they were the cause of His passing; **so it **(falsely) appeared to them.

Interesting interpretation of that verse.

 

[Sen_McGlinn]

By the way, I am Episcopalian, closer to Rome than your average Baptist but not Catholic.

One reason I felt spiritually hungry as a Baha’i is the near total lack of corporate worship. Baha’i prayers, in the main, are written for the first person singular. They are lonely, or perhaps alone with God. And since Baha’is are not supposed to develop set worship patterns, corporate worship is hampered. And there is that thing in the Aqdas that forbids “congregational prayer” except in the Prayer for the Dead. Since the manner of prayer for the dead involves repetition of verses by the whole congregation, that sort of repetition seems to be out of bounds generally. Oddly, the Tablet of the Holy Mariner reads like a litany (look one up in the Book of Common Prayer to see what I mean). But because of the prohibition of congregational prayer, Baha’is often do not use it that way. The antiphonal reading you Taherzadeh describes sounds very lovely. Too bad these strictures exist.
…

A piscopalian? Also good Drag any Bahais you may meet along to Vespers on winter afternoons, when the light is fading but still sufficient to use candles alone. In a large stone church with good acoustics, and all of a small congregation chanting. It worked for me, when I was just starting to explore the devotional resources in Bahai scripture. The church (Reformed) was in Maastricht, near the Dutch/German/French language borders, and we chanted in French: ‘in our darkness, illumine us, with the fire which is never quenched.’ It would send shivers up and down your spine.

I also suffer from a devotional hunger in the Bahai community. We have a wafer-thin devotional culture. It’s not for lack of scriptural resources, and it’s not because of any authoritative strictures on forms of collective worship (those are misunderstandings, due to lack of knowledge), rather it’s because of misunderstandings that inhibit creativity, and because the community is barely a century old, and because we have not learned to learn from our Catholic, Episcopalian and Orthodox sister-communities. Bahai-christian interractions in the west have largely been with Protestants, and focused (on both sides) on biblical proofs and differing doctrines - on what divides us, which is quite fruitless.

There has even been an anti-devotional culture in the Bahai community. A few years ago some (presumably well-meaning) twerp submitted an item to the Guiness Book of Records: ‘largest religion with no ritual: the Bahai Faith.’ And Bahais were then waving this ‘objective recognition’ around as a point of pride. It’s not true of course, the Faith has rituals, but quite a few Bahais of the ultra-protestant kind think that ritual is somehow ‘a Bad Thing.’

This all makes it something of a challenge to develop a devotional life in a Bahai community. Bahai cannot be recommended as a “home” for someone looking for a spiritual home – more as a real challenge for someone prepared to start from virtually nothing on the stoniest soil and build something new that - all going well - will be enriching lives centuries later.

On my blog at
senmcglinn.wordpress.com/articles-online/
I have links to

• an article on ‘exploring the Mashriqu’l-adhkar’ ,
• a translation of Baha’u’llah’s Tablet “Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah O Glad Tidings” (written to be chanted: it needs someone to make a setting)
• The meanings of the Mashriqu’l-adhkar
• Compilation on the Baha’i temple, the Mashriqu’l-Adhkar

as well as a lot of more theological stuff.
Thanks for chatting: I’m motivated to do more.
~ Sen

 

[DavidMark]

Sen, Thanks for explaining things so well.
I became a Baha’i from Methodist background, at age 17. after I had already explored the Bhagavad Gita, Upanishads, Compasssionate Buddha, and Lao Tsu’s Tao te Ching, with the immortal first verse:
"The name that can be named is not the constant name."

I know this refers to names God has for Himself in the Unseen Realm; but in this realm, the Greatest Name rules. After becoming a Baha’i, I began a retroactive study of Islam which still continues. For much of the last forty years, including the last eleven, I have been isolated in a small town with no other Baha’is, as a “homefront pioneer”. I can go to the 19 Day Feasts in Muncie, 20 miles away, but sometimes I can’t make it. I’m 4 hours from Wilmette.
I have had to build my devotionals brick by brick, and discovered that I am of the mystical wing, or element. I meditate specifically in several ways, sometimes focussing on a candle, with verses about candles.
**O BEFRIENDED STRANGER! The candle of thine heart is lighted by the hand of My power, quench it not with the contrary winds of self and passion. The healer of all thine ills is remembrance of Me, forget it not. Make My love thy treasure and cherish it even as thy very sight and life. **(Baha’u’llah, The Persian Hidden Words, #32)

I am grateful for the 95 repititions of Alláh-u-Abhá which is done for “lillah” (for the sake of God). This is usually in the morning, before the Long Prayer.
When I am driving alone, I often chant "Bahá’u’lláh! Ya Bahá’ul-Abhá! Alláh-u-Abhá Alláh-u-Abhá!, or “Haleh Haleh Ya Bisharat” “Hallelu-yahweh”, “Ya 'Alí’yy’ul-Alá” and other things of that nature.
I fully realize that a century is not enough time to develop a global culture, but this will come from the efforts of those who kept the faith when it wasn’t easy.
When the victory arriveth, every man shall profess himself as believer and shall hasten to the shelter of God’s Faith. Happy are they who in the days of world-encompassing trials have stood fast in the Cause and refused to swerve from its truth.(Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p. 319)