The Kitab-i-Iqan, Baha'u'llah's Book of Certitude, illuminates beautifully in many passages the dual station of the Manifestations of God, the Founders of the world's major religions.
To every discerning and illumined heart it is evident that God, the unknowable Essence, the divine Being, is immensely exalted beyond every human attribute, such as corporeal existence, ascent and descent, egress and regress. Far be it from His glory that human tongue should adequately recount His praise, or that human heart comprehend His fathomless mystery. He is and hath ever been veiled in the ancient eternity of His Essence, and will remain in His Reality everlastingly hidden from the sight of men.
The door of the knowledge of the Ancient of Days being thus closed in the face of all beings, the Source of infinite grace . . . hath caused those luminous Gems of Holiness to appear out of the realm of the spirit, in the noble form of the human temple, and be made manifest unto all men, that they may impart unto the world the mysteries of the unchangeable Being, and tell of the subtleties of His imperishable Essence. These sanctified Mirrors, these Day-springs of ancient glory are one and all Exponents on earth of Him Who is the central Orb of the universe, its Essence and ultimate Purpose. From Him proceed their knowledge and power; from Him is derived their sovereignty.
Baha'u'llah
The following sayings and writings are from some of these Gems of Holiness, speaking with the voice of God:
Say: I, verily, am the Path of God unto all who are in the heavens and all who are on the Earth; well is it with them that hasten thereunto!
I am, I am, I am the Promised One! I am the One Whose name you have for a thousand years invoked, at whose mention you have risen, whose advent you have longed to witness, and the hour of Whose Revelation you have prayed God to hasten. Verily, I say, it is incumbent upon the peoples of both the East and the West to obey My word and to pledge allegiance to My person.
I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
I am the Source of all spiritual and material worlds. Everything emanates from Me. The wise who perfectly know this engage in My devotional service and worship Me with all their hearts.
Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He hear, shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.
There is one God, and there is none other but He.
He who knows Me as the Unborn, as the Beginningless, as the Supreme Lord of all the Worlds--he only, undeluded among men, is freed from all sins.
I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Say: He is Allah, who is One, Allah, the eternal refuge. He neither begets nor is born, nor is there to Him any equivalent.
I am the generating seed of all existences. There is no being--moving or nonmoving-- that can exist without Me.
Naught is seen in My temple but the Temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the Truth, and in Myself naught could be seen but God.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Iqan: Key to Understanding All Scripture
The Kitab-i-Iqan, The Book of Certitude, revealed by Baha'u'llah over about 48 hours in the middle of the 19th Century, holds the very simple key to understanding scriptures of this and all past Revelations from God.
From the Iqan I have learned that everything has an inner meaning and an outer meaning. People who have difficulty recognizing Baha'u'llah and the truth of this Revelation have mental, emotional, spiritual veils in between them and their own hearts, which block their receptivity and perception of the truth. For Christians and Muslims, especially, the Iqan examines some of those veils and reveals the hidden inner meanings of prophecies regarding the return of the Messiah and the End Times.
I was able to apply some of my learning from this yesterday when my husband and I were strolling along the walk above the beach at Titlow Park. We encountered a very focused and energetic man I'll call Mark [because that was his name] who was looking for converts to the Jehovah's Witnesses. I allowed my husband to take the lead in listening to Mark, not because my husband is a man and therefore a superior being, but because he is miles ahead of me in the qualities of sociability and patience. So I stood and listened and prayed.
Eventually I was able to interrupt and put in two points: Christ said, "I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them yet. Howbeit when He who is the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you to all truth." [Roughly paraphrased.] I pointed out that Christ didn't say "I" will come, but "He" will come, indicating a different individual. Also, it is mentioned that Christ will come "with a new name." This also indicates a different actual individual from Jesus [the Personality] Christ [the Station.]
I'd love to say that Mark immediately stated he would study this with an open mind and an open heart. Actually he said he would look at the Baha'i Faith with a microscope, root, tree, and branch, to point out all the errors, as he has done with all other Faiths in the past.
The Iqan has helped me by seeing that all Religions really are part of the same Book of God, which makes it much easier to go to the heart of Scripture which illuminates the oneness of God and His Messengers. It has also helped me to realize the dual Station of God's Messengers: the human personality, and the selfless Station of the Manifestation of God, which is universal.
Say: naught is seen in My temple but the temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the truth, and in Myself, naught could be seen but God.
~Baha'u'llah
From the Iqan I have learned that everything has an inner meaning and an outer meaning. People who have difficulty recognizing Baha'u'llah and the truth of this Revelation have mental, emotional, spiritual veils in between them and their own hearts, which block their receptivity and perception of the truth. For Christians and Muslims, especially, the Iqan examines some of those veils and reveals the hidden inner meanings of prophecies regarding the return of the Messiah and the End Times.
I was able to apply some of my learning from this yesterday when my husband and I were strolling along the walk above the beach at Titlow Park. We encountered a very focused and energetic man I'll call Mark [because that was his name] who was looking for converts to the Jehovah's Witnesses. I allowed my husband to take the lead in listening to Mark, not because my husband is a man and therefore a superior being, but because he is miles ahead of me in the qualities of sociability and patience. So I stood and listened and prayed.
Eventually I was able to interrupt and put in two points: Christ said, "I have many things to tell you, but ye cannot bear them yet. Howbeit when He who is the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you to all truth." [Roughly paraphrased.] I pointed out that Christ didn't say "I" will come, but "He" will come, indicating a different individual. Also, it is mentioned that Christ will come "with a new name." This also indicates a different actual individual from Jesus [the Personality] Christ [the Station.]
I'd love to say that Mark immediately stated he would study this with an open mind and an open heart. Actually he said he would look at the Baha'i Faith with a microscope, root, tree, and branch, to point out all the errors, as he has done with all other Faiths in the past.
The Iqan has helped me by seeing that all Religions really are part of the same Book of God, which makes it much easier to go to the heart of Scripture which illuminates the oneness of God and His Messengers. It has also helped me to realize the dual Station of God's Messengers: the human personality, and the selfless Station of the Manifestation of God, which is universal.
Say: naught is seen in My temple but the temple of God, and in My beauty but His Beauty, and in My being but His Being, and in My self but His Self, and in My movement but His Movement, and in My acquiescence but His Acquiescence, and in My pen but His Pen, the Mighty, the All-Praised. There hath not been in My soul but the truth, and in Myself, naught could be seen but God.
~Baha'u'llah
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Vegetables!
Really craving vegetables today. Time is short, on my work schedule, for cooking.
This evening we were both craving vegetables so stopped at Cappy's Produce on the way home and bought lots of things, to the tune of some wonderful jazz.
Stir-Fried Vegetables
Slice &/or Dice:
1/2 eggplant
green pepper
red pepper
several mushrooms
onion
garlic cloves to taste
some ginger root
something else was in there but I can't remember what it was
fresh tomatoes sliced up
a little cilantro
squeeze in juice from half a lemon
stir-fry in grapeseed oil
Corn Tortilla Quesadillas
grate quite a bit of cheese [of choice]
open a can of pinto beans and drain
chop onions
slice tomatoes into wedges
peel and chop up an avocado
chop up some cilantro [yes, some of these ingredients overlap!]
for convenience, place all these ingredients into a bowl and use a soup spoon to ladle them out.
Heat up the skillet until the smoke detector goes off, then open some windows and cool down the skillet a little. Place corn tortilla on skillet for about 20 seconds, then flip. [Now it is finally flexible.] Add about 2 tablespoons grated cheese, a tablespoon of beans, some diced onions and avocado and a wedge of tomato, and a pinch of cilantro. Using flipper, fold tortilla over [if you tried to do this cold, it would just break.] Flip after 10 to 20 seconds. Rescue quesadilla and as many innards as you can scrape up from the skillet, before it blackens. Repeat as many times as you want &/or until ingredients are used up.
A terrible tragedy: too full for strawberries.
This evening we were both craving vegetables so stopped at Cappy's Produce on the way home and bought lots of things, to the tune of some wonderful jazz.
Stir-Fried Vegetables
Slice &/or Dice:
1/2 eggplant
green pepper
red pepper
several mushrooms
onion
garlic cloves to taste
some ginger root
something else was in there but I can't remember what it was
fresh tomatoes sliced up
a little cilantro
squeeze in juice from half a lemon
stir-fry in grapeseed oil
Corn Tortilla Quesadillas
grate quite a bit of cheese [of choice]
open a can of pinto beans and drain
chop onions
slice tomatoes into wedges
peel and chop up an avocado
chop up some cilantro [yes, some of these ingredients overlap!]
for convenience, place all these ingredients into a bowl and use a soup spoon to ladle them out.
Heat up the skillet until the smoke detector goes off, then open some windows and cool down the skillet a little. Place corn tortilla on skillet for about 20 seconds, then flip. [Now it is finally flexible.] Add about 2 tablespoons grated cheese, a tablespoon of beans, some diced onions and avocado and a wedge of tomato, and a pinch of cilantro. Using flipper, fold tortilla over [if you tried to do this cold, it would just break.] Flip after 10 to 20 seconds. Rescue quesadilla and as many innards as you can scrape up from the skillet, before it blackens. Repeat as many times as you want &/or until ingredients are used up.
A terrible tragedy: too full for strawberries.
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