What is Enlightenment?

“O SON OF MAN!

“The light hath shone on thee from the horizon of the sacred Mount and the spirit of enlightenment hath breathed in the Sinai of thy heart…” from the Hidden Words of Baha’u'llah

So what, exactly is enlightenment?  It is often spoken of as something to be sought.  But, if the above passage is true, then enlightenment must be with us always, never lost and therefore, no seeking is required.

Let’s hear the rest of this Hidden Word:

“Wherefore, free thyself from the veils of idle fancies and enter into My court, that thou mayest be fit for everlasting life and worthy to meet Me. Thus may death not come upon thee, neither weariness nor trouble.” (HW #63 from the Persian)

It must be that we are “veiled” somehow from our own enlightenment and, as the passage implies, from our eternal life–wherein we meet God and will no longer experience fatigue, trial or even death!

So the crucial task becomes one of freeing ourselves from these intervening veils.  How is this done?  Personally, I always jumped to the conclusion, that somehow I had to remake myself in God’s image, you know, fix myself so that I’d be worthy.  I never realized how arrogant this position was until I found the Course.  I began to realize, as I practiced the lessons and read the Text and the Teacher’s Manual the mind-training that is A Course in Miracles is the quickest route to the unveiling.

This, from A Course in Miracles:

“Why wait for Heaven?

Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. …The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source.   It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home….This light can not be lost.  Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already, or was never there? …

The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes it within himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his understanding.  He forgives because he recognized the truth in him.  The peace of God is shining in you now, and in all living things.  In quietness is it acknowledged universally.  For what your inward vision looks upon is your perception of the universe.

Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light within you is sufficient.  It alone has power to give the gift of sight to you.  Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. They know the way.  For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself.”

~  from lesson 188 of the Workbook of A Course in Miracles

This passage, this lesson takes my breath away!  The same way that reading from the Baha’i writings takes my breath away, only differently.  If Baha’u'llah said that we should free ourselves from the veils of idle fancies and vain imaginings and I’m having trouble with that, it makes sense to me that God would provide a means for helping me with this all-important task.

For me, the Course is providing this means. I certainly could not explain the idea of using the Mind to reach the Light any better than the above passage from Lesson 188 of ACIM.

It’s not that the Baha’i Faith is lacking anything, the problem is: I’m veiled from understanding it fully.  The Mind Training works; I may struggle sometimes, but it never fails, if I just give it a moment…and I say, “If it’s working, why try and re-invent the Wheel?”  A provision has been given to help me strip off the intervening veils that hide the Light in me and in every one of us!  Hallelujah!

~The Peace of God is Shining in You NOW!

Oraea

Note: the views expressed herein are based upon my own experiences and are not intended to express any official Baha’i standpoint.

A Trained Mind

Okay, I could have been more sensitive….or not.

This is not what matters.

I sit here, stewing in my own juices from my brother’s verbal attack upon me from just a moment ago.   I notice that my initial, knee-jerk reaction is to want to fixate somehow, out of the discomfort. I feel triggered: judged, unloved, and like I want to separate from everyone and everything…and I’m in trouble.  In the past, I would have used a substance: alcohol, drugs or food to self-medicate–but the itch would go unscratched, the core problem would remain. If I did use a substance to “treat” my problem, then, of course, when the fix had worn off, I’d be left with the mess that any form of addiction leaves in its wake.

I claim (probably too often) that, when conflict arises, my mind is trained to perform an action of forgiveness.  These times are where the rubber meets the road.  I’m in a bind.  If I validate my brother’s ego by trying to soft-pedal the situation and console him somehow, I’m buying into the reality that I’m at fault because of my inability to predict what he would have found as acceptable behavior and tailoring myself to, at best, an inauthentic expression of myself.   I now will be verifying insanity, both in him and in myself.  This I know I cannot do.  But, that still leaves me feeling unloved.

And there it is.  I feel unloved. An old wound in myself has surfaced in the form of an attack which only seems to be outside myself, coming from someone else.  I now can hear my own call for love, for healing and for atonement. And, since there is no sense in the wounded ego trying to figure out a way to fix itself (being unreal), I turn to the Source of Love.

Sitting silently, for a moment, I open myself to the Holy Instant.  It never fails. He never fails.  I need only trust my little willingness to be healed completely of this insanity and this ancient wound.  I call upon my brother’s spirit and the Holy Spirit simultaneously and await the imminent transmutation of fear and hurt to love and forgiveness.

“Lord, Thou who are merciful unto me, into Thy hands I place my whole Self, trusting in Thee and in Thine unfailing Love. Forgive me, Father, for attacking my brother and for all unloving thoughts and actions.   Glory be to God, the All-Merciful, the All-Loving, the Ever Forgiving.”

The Instantaneous Process of Healing

Sometimes the healing of the mind is experienced instantly, sometimes gradually, sometimes I feel like I’m having a mind-storm.  This is a mind-storm moment.  A flurry of related thoughts fly through my mind, mostly crazy and mean thoughts, in rapid fire.  As each one surfaces, I let it slip past with a quiet, “Not this.”  If I get stuck on one, I see if I need to feel something and let that happen–without indulging, and then flow past it until I am emptied out. This process, can be quick or it can go on for days.  But if I am, at least somewhat vigilant against trying to solve the problem by myself, i.e. without Help from above,  healing always happens.

And now I rest in God.  I have done my part and I trust my brother will do his.  I do not have to fix him, or try to correct his behavior or blame or figure anything out.  I don’t even have to talk to him about anything.  The fact of my singularity is what heals… for…

“When I am healed, I am not healed alone.”  ~A Course in Miracles

Peace,
Oraea

Work is Worship

These precious days fly by so quickly.
Ah, what is one to do when every waking hour
(it seems)
is filled with matters of survival,
doing, thinking, future planning,
all the business of the world?

Realizing the Kingdom- A Dawning of the Mind

“Then will… the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind.”

Realizing the Kingdom – A dawning of the mind
To experience the Kingdom of God is not an event at a future time or in another place. It is here, now. However, it requires some mental purification.

On Mind-Training:
“Empty thyself of all learning that thou mayest partake of my knowledge…..” (HW , 11P)

The importance of the mind is stressed over and over again in the Baha’i Writings. Yet it is a perplexing issue to confront the idea of emptying one’s self of all learning in order to partake of the Knowledge of God.

How would one go about this exceedingly important task?

” The True Seeker… must, before all else, cleanse and purify his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy.” (KIQ)

Again we see in the above, the idea of cleansing the heart of the “obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge” — this time accompanied by the “allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy.”

“…all the variations which the wayfarer in the stages of his journey beholdeth in the realms of being, proceed from his own vision.”( Baha’u'llah, Seven Valleys, p18)

This passage suggests that our experience of “reality” can change according to our state of mind. To REAL-ize the Kingdom may be more a process of removing what is no tin accord with the Kingdom than attempting to add to what is already perfect.

“….the mind is the power of the human spirit. Spirit is the lamp; mind is the light which shines from the lamp.” (SAQ 208-9)

If the mind shines like rays from the lamp of the spirit, then perhaps it is reasonable to conclude that it is the mind that “creates” both our experience of reality and influences the fabric of manifest form (the world) itself. This idea implies the importance of the content of the mind. If it be clouded with illusion (all acquired learning-or everything that has been taught by “the world”), then it cannot influence according to its innate potential.

“In like manner, when thou strippest the wrappings of illusion from off thine heart, the lights of oneness will be made manifest.” (Baha’u’llah, Seven Valleys, p. 24)

“Our mind is pure and simple. When emptied of thought, it enters the pure and simple light of God, and finds nothing but the light.” (Symeon the new theologian (949-1022)

There is an active participation involved in “stripping the illusions from off the heart”. Learning to artfully forgive entails learning to recognize when any grievance enters the mind. Stopping right there and asking for help. The One True God is the Alternative.

“Tear asunder, in My Name, the veils that have grievously blinded your vision, and through the power born of your belief in the unity of God, scatter the idols of vain imitation. Enter, then the holy paradise of the good-pleasure of the All-Merciful. Sanctify your souls from whatsoever is not of God, and taste ye the sweetness of rest within the pale of His vast and mighty Revelation…” (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, p 144)

Rest ye in God and be ye Blessed,’
~Oraea

*Note: this is the author’s personal rendering of her own experiences and is not intended to represent any official standpoint on the Baha’i Faith