Archive for December, 2020

Baha’i Month: Sharaf/Honor 1, 177 B.E. (12/31/2020)

Wednesday, December 30th, 2020

“Study the Tablet of the Holy Mariner that ye may know the truth and consider that the Blessed Beauty hath fully foretold future events. Let them who perceive take warning. Verily in this is a bounty for the sincere!”

‘Abdu’l-Baha, Selections #233.

The Establisher of The Baha’i Faith, Dr. Leland Jensen, reading the Tablet of The Holy Mariner

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Commentary on The Tablet of the Holy Mariner

Preface to the Commentary

   A commentary on Baha’u’llah’s Tablet of the Holy Mariner, read privily to Dr. Leland Jensen, Establisher of the Baha’i Faith, Knight of Baha’u’llah and the Seventh Angel of Revelation 11:15, in the Spring of 1996, revised according to his behest, and submitted humbly at his request, to the people of Baha, the companions of the Crimson Ark, by a fellow servant of God the all Glorious in His Cause and under His Everlasting Covenant, in this 100th year after the passing of the center of His Covenant, Abdu’l-Baha’.

   This is one servant’s limited understanding of only an infinitesimally minute portion of the radiant gems of wisdom which abound in each and every word of this Glorious Tablet as set down by Baha’u’llah. It is in no way intended as, nor could it ever be considered, definitive by any measure.

Introduction to the Commentary

   The Tablet of the Holy Mariner is an extremely complex prophecy, which spans the reaches of time and space, and takes flight throughout the realms of both physical and spiritual understanding all at once. During the nights of the 9th and 10thdays of Ridvan of 1996, while being allowed to peer ever so briefly into the depths of its ocean, this servant was transported to a realm wherein perception was felt to be coming from many points in the same instant. So overwhelming was this experience that the hand could not keep pace with the stream of consciousness and the writer lapsed into a state in which the pen began to write far more rapidly than the mind could organize the thoughts. This commentary represents a portion of what this servant had the capacity to commit to paper in the fleeting hours during which the gift of insight was bestowed, and the subsequent revisions and expansions thereof requested of this servant by Dr. Jensen, the prophesied Establisher of the Baha’i Faith. Pray God, may it assist others in carrying out the admonition of  ‘Abdu’l-Baha as quoted above.

 

The Tablet of the Holy Mariner with Commentary

 

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Baha’i Sabbath: Masa’il 14, 177 B.E. (12/25/2020)

Friday, December 25th, 2020

Great Pyramid Date: 12/25/0001- The Birth of Jesus, Messiah ben David, the First of the two Prophesied Christs

Then he said, “These are the two anointed[Messiahs, Christs] who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”**

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Bethlehem is astir with the Breeze of God. We hear her voice saying: ‘O most generous Lord! Where is Thy great glory established? The sweet savours of Thy presence have quickened me, after I had melted in my separation from Thee. Praised be Thou in that Thou hast raised the veils, and come with power in evident glory.’ We called unto her from behind the Tabernacle of Majesty and Grandeur: ‘O Bethlehem! This Light hath risen in the orient, and travelled towards the occident, until it reached thee in the evening of its life. Tell Me then: Do the sons recognize the Father, and acknowledge Him, or do they deny Him, even as the people aforetime denied Him (Jesus)?’ Whereupon she cried out saying: ‘Thou art, in truth, the All-Knowing, the Best-Informed.’ Verily, We behold all created things moved to bear witness unto Us. Some know Us and bear witness, while the majority bear witness, yet know Us not.

Baha’u’llah–Tablet To The Christians

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…when the hour of the Revelation of Jesus drew nigh, a few of the Magi, aware that the star of Jesus had appeared in heaven, sought and followed it, till they came unto the city which was the seat of the Kingdom of Herod. The sway of his sovereignty in those days embraced the whole of that land.

These Magi said: “Where is He that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen His star in the east and are come to worship Him!” 1 When they had searched, they found out that in Bethlehem, in the land of Judea, the Child had been born. This was the sign that was manifested in the visible heaven. As to the sign in the invisible heaven—the heaven of divine knowledge and understanding—it was Yaḥyá, son of Zachariah, who gave unto the people the tidings of the Manifestation of Jesus. Even as He hath revealed: “God announceth Yaḥyá to thee, who shall bear witness unto the Word from God, and a great one and chaste.” 2 By the term “Word” is meant Jesus, Whose coming Yaḥyá foretold. Moreover, in the heavenly Scriptures it is written: “John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 3 By John is meant Yaḥyá.

1 Matthew 2:2

2 Qur’án 3:39

3 Matthew 3:1–2

Baha’u’llah–Kitab-i-Iqan/Book of Certitude

**Zechariah 4:14

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Baha’i Sabbath: Masa’il 7, 177 B.E. (12/18/2020)

Friday, December 18th, 2020

IN THE NAME OF THE PEERLESS AND EVER-LOVING LORD!

OShams! Hearken with all thy heart unto the nightingale song of the Beloved, that perchance thou mayest abandon the habitation of self and desire and step into the placeless realm of eternal glory, forsake thine own life, and commune with Him Who is the life of thy life. Wert thou to traverse the limitless reaches of the spirit, thou wouldst of a certainty rend asunder the garment of patience and forbearance, hasten to offer up thy soul, renounce the dross of this fleeting world, and find repose upon the throne of ancient glory.

Each thing must needs have an effect and each sign reveal a secret. Not until the world-illuming sun hath shone can the east be distinguished from the west, nor the blooming garden discerned from the barren waste. Heavenly strains compare not with earthly clamours, and the croaking of the raven can in no wise be confounded with the song of the nightingale. For the latter bespeaketh the land of the Beloved and increaseth life, whereas the former telleth only of the city of the blind and causeth faith to wither.

One must step forth and raise aloft the banner of earnest striving. By God! Wert thou to hearken unto the heavenly words of this evanescent Servant that have been raised in this mystic Tablet, thou wouldst assuredly take to the desert of self-surrender, turn aside from thine own heart and soul, and cast thy head at the feet of the Friend. How high is the soaring flight of the phoenix of love, and how low the requisite measure of our yearning! Strive but a little to soar, that, by the grace of Him Who is the eternal King, thou mayest ascend from the dust-heap of utter non-existence unto the loftiest heights of ancient glory. Give wings to thy celestial spirit and lend strength to thy mystic soul, that haply it may take flight in the atmosphere of divine nearness and attain the ultimate and invisible goal.

This profitless world produceth naught save deadly poison, and its ephemeral dregs can never yield the everlasting cup. Were the Jesus of the spirit to give ear to the call of holiness from the Falcon of the realm above, He would assuredly cry out from His inmost being and be seized with fervid longing even as the lover’s soul. It is through that call that the Moses of eternity was dumbfounded; it is by its virtue that the Abraham of faithfulness shattered the idol of the mortal body. Shatter then, in turn, this idol, that thou mayest take up thine abode in the land of the Beloved; and forsake all desire, that thou mayest take flight unto the Egypt of imperishable glory. Sanctify the city of thine heart, that thou mayest behold the beauty of the Divine Essence and be quickened to a new life through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

No melody remaineth that was not intoned upon this branch; no song remaineth that this Nightingale hath not warbled. A thousand Arabian ears are powerless to fathom this Persian lament—nay, none but an embodiment of divine virtues can grasp this subtle mystery. Well it is, then, with the one who attaineth this ocean and drinketh therefrom the draught of life!

Baha’u’llah – The Call of The Divine Beloved – Selected Mystical Works of Baha’u’llah

 

Baha’i Month: Masa’il/Questions 1, 177 B.E. (12/12/2020)

Friday, December 11th, 2020

From the Letter Bá’ to the Letter Há’

IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD, THE MOST EXALTED, THE MOST HIGH!

 

I addressed unto thee aforetime an Epistle in the lucid Arabian tongue, and I now reveal for thee this Tablet in wondrous Persian prose, that thou mayest hear, in the glorious accents of the Nightingale of ‘Iráq, the sweet melodies of the nearness of the heavenly Paradise that had, ere this, been intoned in the language of Ḥijáz. Perchance thou mayest become pure spirit; attain, without taking a single step, the loftiest stations of mystic ascent; and explore, without leaving thine outward habitation, the furthermost reaches of the worlds of inner significance. Thereupon wouldst thou, with a divine rapture, experience true spiritual attraction, lay down thy life in the path of the Friend, and sacrifice thy soul in the wilderness of His love. This indeed is the meaning of stillness in flight and flight in stillness, of fluidity in solidity and solidity in fluidity.

To continue: It is clear that the wayfarers in the wilderness of search and longing, of attainment and reunion, have numerous degrees and countless stations. Some, after spiritual struggle and physical toil, ascend from the lower reaches of “no God is there” to the lofty bowers of “but God”, flee from the shadow of negation to abide in the limitless realm of affirmation, and abandon the privation of a transient existence for the bountiful assemblage of reunion. This is the uttermost limit of the realm of effort and striving.

Others, without receiving the least intimation of “no God is there”, pass beyond the highest horizon of “but God”; without even tasting a dewdrop of the degrees of self-surrender ascend unto the kingdom of life everlasting; and without partaking from the wellspring of utter abnegation quaff the wine of the Ancient of Days. These souls, as they traverse the stages of wayfaring and ascend unto the stations of reunion, walk a different path and occupy a different rank.

Still others, without having perused a single letter of the kingdom of names or acquired the faintest intimation from the realm of attributes, which pertaineth to this world, dawn above the invisible horizon of eternity and return again thereunto. A hundred thousand seas of glory surge in their luminous hearts, and yet to outward seeming their lips are parched; a myriad rivers of holiness stream within their breasts, and yet no trace thereof is to be seen; the books of God’s consummate wisdom are recorded upon the tablets of their hearts, and yet they breathe not a word thereof in the world of appearances. They dwell in the Egypt of certitude and journey in the lands of resignation. They are intoxicated with the beauty, and entranced by the glory, of Him Who is the All-Glorious. Heart to heart they whisper hidden secrets; soul to soul they unfold abstruse matters. The mysteries of the Divine Essence glow upon their brows, and the lights of Divine Unity shine from their peerless faces. They clothe themselves in the robe of concealment and cast their sleeves over both this world and the world to come. Without wings they soar, without feet they walk, without hands they grasp and hold. They speak an unknown tongue and observe an unseen grammar, of which all the world’s inhabitants know not a single letter, save those whom thy Lord hath willed. Unto each hath a share been vouchsafed in His Book, and they shall all attain unto that which hath been destined for them.

It is clear and evident that, in this Dispensation wherein the banner of utterance hath been raised aloft and the candle of discernment hath been lit, there is no Lord but the Exalted One. He it is Who is one in His essence and one in His attributes, single in the kingdom of names and peerless in the realm of actions. It is by virtue of His blessed name that the seas of Divine Unity have been made to surge; it is through the power of His resistless command that the immutable decrees of destiny have been enforced; it is through the potency of His sovereign might that the dictates of fate have been fixed. Who hath the power to soar in that exalted atmosphere or to cherish another beloved than Him? We all abide beneath His shadow and seek our portion from the ocean of His grace. However far the gnat may fly, it can never traverse the length and breadth of heaven, and however high the sparrow may soar, it can never attain the tree of immortality.

But since all do not possess the same degree of spiritual understanding, certain statements will inevitably be made, and there shall arise, as a consequence, as many differing opinions as there are human minds, and as many divergent beliefs as there are created things. This is certain and settled, and can in no wise be averted. Now, it is clear that some are virtuous, others are sinful, and still others are rebellious. One must call the people to love and faithfulness, to zeal and contentment, that the sinful may be admonished and the ranks of the virtuous may swell. Nor is it possible that there be no sinners: So long as the name “the Ever-Forgiving” shineth resplendent above the horizon of existence, there will be sinners in the world of creation, for the latter cannot appear without the former and the former cannot exist without the latter.

Our aim is that thou shouldst urge all the believers to show forth kindness and mercy and to overlook certain shortcomings among them, that differences may be dispelled; true harmony be established; and the censure and reproach, the hatred and dissension, seen among the peoples of former times may not arise anew. Perchance they may be educated and, in the latter Resurrection, inflict not upon that cherished Spirit and Essence of existence, that exalted and subtle Reality, the least of that which the Point of the Bayán was made to suffer.

Moreover, a reply to thine enquiries was sent aforetime. It is evident that whatever question is asked will be answered through the ocean of eternal grace, but such questions also add to the burden of duties imposed upon the servants. That which hath been recorded at God’s behest in the Persian Bayán is indeed sufficient unto all, and none will be held to account for what it hath not commanded. Consider how numerous were those in the early days of the Revelation who obeyed, without the slightest deviation, every least one of its injunctions and yet reaped no benefit therefrom. The beginning of religion is love for God and for His Chosen Ones, and its end is to manifest that love to His servants.

I swear by God! Whoso faileth to obey the commandments of God can in no wise be numbered among His loved ones, for among the conditions of His love is to follow His commandments and observe His prohibitions. But since these are the days of concealment, and the Sun of eternity remaineth hidden beneath the horizon of being, one must gather together everyone with love and protect them. The time for the completion of the commandments and the perfection of deeds will assuredly come.

Baha’u’llah

From: The Call of The Divine Beloved – Selected Mystical Works of Baha’u’llah

Baha’i Sabbath: Qawl 19, 177 B.E. (12/11/2020)

Friday, December 11th, 2020

Rashḥ-i-‘Amá

(The Clouds of the Realms Above)

 

’Tis from Our rapture that the clouds of realms above are raining down; ’Tis from Our anthem that the mysteries of faith are raining down.

Upon the Eastern wind Cathay’s entrancing musk doth waft; This sweetly scented breeze from Our curling locks is raining down.

The day-star of adornment hath dawned forth above the face of God; Behold that mystic truth which from His Countenance is raining down.

The sea of purity hath from the wave of true reunion surged; This precious, rare bestowal from Our rapture is raining down.

The treasuries of love lay hid within the very heart of Fárs; From out this treasure trove the pearls of faithfulness are raining down.

The splendour of the rose doth bring the ecstasy of choicest wine; This subtle music from the ringing tones of Lordship is raining down.

The trumpet-blast of Judgement Day, the joyful bliss of heaven’s call— Both at a single breath are from the firmament now raining down.

The Day of “I am He” is made to shine resplendent from Our face; The Age of “He is He” from out Our flowing cup is raining down.

From out the fountain of Our heart hath God’s celestial river flowed; This cup of honeyed nectar from Our ruby lips is raining down.

The Day of God hath been fulfilled, for lo, the Lord hath been unveiled; This wondrous message from the melody of Ṭá’ is raining down.

Behold Bahá’s outpouring grace, the bounty of the clouds above, Which, merged into a single song, in God’s own voice is raining down.

Behold the Lord’s leviathan, behold His sacred countenance; Behold the blessings of the heart that from His throne are raining down.

Behold the Palm of Paradise, behold the warbling of the Dove; Behold the glorious hymns that in the purest light are raining down.

Behold the soul-entrancing song, behold the beating of the drum, Behold the sacred rhythms that from Our hand are raining down.

Behold the Countenance Divine! Behold the Maid of Paradise! Behold the grace upon the world from Our own presence raining down.

Behold the everlasting Face! Behold the chalice-bearer’s charm! Behold the crystal draught that from Our brimming cup is raining down.

Behold the fire of Moses, see His hand that shineth white; Behold the heart of Sinai—from Our hand all raining down.

Hear ye the sotted lovers’ sighs, behold the garden blooming fair; Behold the bliss that from His presence in your midst is raining down.

Behold the radiant face of Há’, behold the beauteous robe of Bá’; Behold the Lordly grace that from Our Pen is raining down.

The vessel of the Advent this, the clouds of limpid waters these; The trill of songbirds this, from Our fleeting Wellspring raining down.

Baha’u’llah

From: The Call of The Divine Beloved – Selected Mystical Works of Baha’u’llah

Qawl 16, 177 B.E. Little Horn Prophecy

Tuesday, December 8th, 2020

The Little Horn Prophecy

Baha’i Sabbath: Qawl 12, 177 B.E. (12/4/2020)

Friday, December 4th, 2020

“OUR TESTIMONY”

–Jesus Christ–

“Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. It will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one: For Thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was made of the seed [sperma] of David according to the flesh; And only declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness†, and by his resurrection of other dead persons: By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to The Faith among all nations, for his Name: Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, a Nazarene, separated unto the gospel (good news of the Kingdom) of God, the Kingdom which He had promised aforetime by His holy prophets in the sacred scriptures:

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, and yet you people do not accept Our Testimony: (And Our Testimony is this):

“If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man who is in heaven even now. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have life eternal.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world (on both his first and second comings) to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the Judgment: Baha’u’llah has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light [Baha’i] because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come into the Light [Baha’i] for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever practices the truth comes into the Light [Baha’i], so that it may be seen clearly that what they have done has been wrought in God.”

O Thou kind Lord! These are Thy servants who have gathered in this meeting, have turned unto Thy kingdom and are in need of Thy bestowal and blessing. O Thou God! Manifest and make evident the signs of Thy oneness which have been deposited in all the realities of life. Reveal and unfold the virtues which Thou hast made latent and concealed in these human realities.

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. We are deprived; make us the intimates of Thy mysteries. We are needy; enrich and bless us from Thy boundless treasury. O God! Resuscitate us; give us sight; give us hearing; familiarize us with the mysteries of life, so that the secrets of Thy kingdom may become revealed to us in this world of existence and we may confess Thy oneness. Every bestowal emanates from Thee; every benediction is Thine.

Thou art mighty. Thou art powerful. Thou art the Giver, and Thou art the Ever-Bounteous.

† ruach ha-qodesh: the holy spirit. (Also passages from: Matt. 6:9 KJV; Rom. 1:1-4; Jn. 3:19, etc.).

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