... or a sphere?
a friend of mine brought it up a while ago, how we see the world with very two-dimensional eyes, whereas we perhaps should look at it a bit differently. consider for example the following excerpt from a prayer by 'Abdu'l-Bahá:
"Thou seest me, O my God, bowed down in lowliness, humbling myself before Thy commandments, submitting to Thy sovereignty, trembling at the might of Thy dominion, fleeing from Thy wrath, entreating Thy grace, relying upon Thy forgiveness, shaking with awe at Thy fury."
there's a constant shift between one side and the other, between love (bowed down, humbling, entreating) and fear (trembling, fleeing, shaking). these are obviously very closely connected, and we perhaps should not only look at the coin as two separate sides, but more as a coherent whole. if you spin the coin, you get a sphere, where the two sides are connected and make sense when they are together.
this connectedness can also be seen in one's personal life, when it comes to how our life evolves. we are usually exerted to some sort of difficulty, and to get through this we try hard and develop until we are eventually able to overcome it. the end result is a stronger character, which has taken another step on the infinite path of development.
here's a rather long section from God Passes By, but it really clarifies this self-reinforcing circle of crisis and victory:
"Despite the blows leveled at its nascent strength, whether by the wielders of temporal and spiritual authority from without, or by black-hearted foes from within, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh had, far from breaking or bending, gone from strength to strength, from victory to victory. Indeed its history, if read aright, may be said to resolve itself into a series of pulsations, of alternating crises and triumphs, leading it ever nearer to its divinely appointed destiny. The outburst of savage fanaticism that greeted the birth of the Revelation proclaimed by the Báb, His subsequent arrest and captivity, had been followed by the formulation of the laws of His Dispensation, by the institution of His Covenant, by the inauguration of that Dispensation in Badasht, and by the public assertion of His station in Tabriz. Widespread and still more violent uprisings in the provinces, His own execution, the blood bath which followed it and Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment in the Siyah-Chal had been succeeded by the breaking of the dawn of the Bahá'í Revelation in that dungeon. Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to Iraq, His withdrawal to Kurdistan and the confusion and distress that afflicted His fellow-disciples in Baghdad had, in turn, been followed by the resurgence of the Bábí community, culminating in the Declaration of His Mission in the Najibiyyih Garden. Sultan Abdu'l-'Aziz's decree summoning Him to Constantinople and the crisis precipitated by Mirza Yahya had been succeeded by the proclamation of that Mission to the crowned heads of the world and its ecclesiastical leaders. Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to the penal colony of 'Akká, with all its attendant troubles and miseries, had, in its turn, led to the promulgation of the laws and ordinances of His Revelation and to the institution of His Covenant, the last act of His life. The fiery tests engendered by the rebellion of Mirza Muhammad-'Ali and his associates had been succeeded by the introduction of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the West and the transfer of the Báb's remains to the Holy Land. The renewal of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's incarceration and the perils and anxieties consequent upon it had resulted in the downfall of Abdu'l-Hamid, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's release from His confinement, in the entombment of the Báb's remains on Mt. Carmel, and in the triumphal journeys undertaken by the Center of the Covenant Himself 410 in Europe and America. The outbreak of a devastating world war and the deepening of the dangers to which Jamal Pasha and the Covenant-breakers had exposed Him had led to the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, to the flight of that overbearing Commander, to the liberation of the Holy Land, to the enhancement of the prestige of the Faith at its world center, and to a marked expansion of its activities in East and West. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing and the agitation which His removal had provoked had been followed by the promulgation of His Will and Testament, by the inauguration of the Formative Age of the Bahá'í era and by the laying of the foundations of a world-embracing Administrative Order. And finally, the seizure of the keys of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh by the Covenant-breakers, the forcible occupation of His House in Baghdad by the Shí'ah community, the outbreak of persecution in Russia and the expulsion of the Bahá'í community from Islam in Egypt had been succeeded by the public assertion of the independent religious status of the Faith by its followers in East and West, by the recognition of that status at its world center, by the pronouncement of the Council of the League of Nations testifying to the justice of its claims, by a remarkable expansion of its international teaching activities and its literature, by the testimonials of royalty to its Divine origin, and by the completion of the exterior ornamentation of its first House of Worship in the western world.
The tribulations attending the progressive unfoldment of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh have indeed been such as to exceed in gravity those from which the religions of the past have suffered. Unlike those religions, however, these tribulations have failed utterly to impair its unity, or to create, even temporarily, a breach in the ranks of its adherents. It has not only survived these ordeals, but has emerged, purified and inviolate, endowed with greater capacity to face and surmount any crisis which its resistless march may engender in the future."
I don't have much more to say about this right now. I think it's important to expand our vision, be able to "see the end in the beginning", and not be depressed as soon as some difficulty comes in to our life.
a friend of mine brought it up a while ago, how we see the world with very two-dimensional eyes, whereas we perhaps should look at it a bit differently. consider for example the following excerpt from a prayer by 'Abdu'l-Bahá:
"Thou seest me, O my God, bowed down in lowliness, humbling myself before Thy commandments, submitting to Thy sovereignty, trembling at the might of Thy dominion, fleeing from Thy wrath, entreating Thy grace, relying upon Thy forgiveness, shaking with awe at Thy fury."
there's a constant shift between one side and the other, between love (bowed down, humbling, entreating) and fear (trembling, fleeing, shaking). these are obviously very closely connected, and we perhaps should not only look at the coin as two separate sides, but more as a coherent whole. if you spin the coin, you get a sphere, where the two sides are connected and make sense when they are together.
this connectedness can also be seen in one's personal life, when it comes to how our life evolves. we are usually exerted to some sort of difficulty, and to get through this we try hard and develop until we are eventually able to overcome it. the end result is a stronger character, which has taken another step on the infinite path of development.
here's a rather long section from God Passes By, but it really clarifies this self-reinforcing circle of crisis and victory:
"Despite the blows leveled at its nascent strength, whether by the wielders of temporal and spiritual authority from without, or by black-hearted foes from within, the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh had, far from breaking or bending, gone from strength to strength, from victory to victory. Indeed its history, if read aright, may be said to resolve itself into a series of pulsations, of alternating crises and triumphs, leading it ever nearer to its divinely appointed destiny. The outburst of savage fanaticism that greeted the birth of the Revelation proclaimed by the Báb, His subsequent arrest and captivity, had been followed by the formulation of the laws of His Dispensation, by the institution of His Covenant, by the inauguration of that Dispensation in Badasht, and by the public assertion of His station in Tabriz. Widespread and still more violent uprisings in the provinces, His own execution, the blood bath which followed it and Bahá'u'lláh's imprisonment in the Siyah-Chal had been succeeded by the breaking of the dawn of the Bahá'í Revelation in that dungeon. Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to Iraq, His withdrawal to Kurdistan and the confusion and distress that afflicted His fellow-disciples in Baghdad had, in turn, been followed by the resurgence of the Bábí community, culminating in the Declaration of His Mission in the Najibiyyih Garden. Sultan Abdu'l-'Aziz's decree summoning Him to Constantinople and the crisis precipitated by Mirza Yahya had been succeeded by the proclamation of that Mission to the crowned heads of the world and its ecclesiastical leaders. Bahá'u'lláh's banishment to the penal colony of 'Akká, with all its attendant troubles and miseries, had, in its turn, led to the promulgation of the laws and ordinances of His Revelation and to the institution of His Covenant, the last act of His life. The fiery tests engendered by the rebellion of Mirza Muhammad-'Ali and his associates had been succeeded by the introduction of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the West and the transfer of the Báb's remains to the Holy Land. The renewal of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's incarceration and the perils and anxieties consequent upon it had resulted in the downfall of Abdu'l-Hamid, in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's release from His confinement, in the entombment of the Báb's remains on Mt. Carmel, and in the triumphal journeys undertaken by the Center of the Covenant Himself 410 in Europe and America. The outbreak of a devastating world war and the deepening of the dangers to which Jamal Pasha and the Covenant-breakers had exposed Him had led to the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, to the flight of that overbearing Commander, to the liberation of the Holy Land, to the enhancement of the prestige of the Faith at its world center, and to a marked expansion of its activities in East and West. 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing and the agitation which His removal had provoked had been followed by the promulgation of His Will and Testament, by the inauguration of the Formative Age of the Bahá'í era and by the laying of the foundations of a world-embracing Administrative Order. And finally, the seizure of the keys of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh by the Covenant-breakers, the forcible occupation of His House in Baghdad by the Shí'ah community, the outbreak of persecution in Russia and the expulsion of the Bahá'í community from Islam in Egypt had been succeeded by the public assertion of the independent religious status of the Faith by its followers in East and West, by the recognition of that status at its world center, by the pronouncement of the Council of the League of Nations testifying to the justice of its claims, by a remarkable expansion of its international teaching activities and its literature, by the testimonials of royalty to its Divine origin, and by the completion of the exterior ornamentation of its first House of Worship in the western world.
The tribulations attending the progressive unfoldment of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh have indeed been such as to exceed in gravity those from which the religions of the past have suffered. Unlike those religions, however, these tribulations have failed utterly to impair its unity, or to create, even temporarily, a breach in the ranks of its adherents. It has not only survived these ordeals, but has emerged, purified and inviolate, endowed with greater capacity to face and surmount any crisis which its resistless march may engender in the future."
I don't have much more to say about this right now. I think it's important to expand our vision, be able to "see the end in the beginning", and not be depressed as soon as some difficulty comes in to our life.
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