The Universal Experience
The Universal Experience,
The Universal Manifestation
and the Glory of God
“Your glory is the light that saves the world.”-A Course in Miracles
The following are first-hand accounts of individual encounters with the Divine. These are extra-ordinary events that have no parallel in the world of “peak” experiences. They speak of a oneness beyond communion, a luminosity that defies description and are striking in their similarity. The details of each encounter differ, but the essential nature of each happening is what we call the Universal Experience.
“Suddenly with a roar like that of a waterfall, I felt a stream of liquid light entering my brain…the illumination grew brighter and brighter, the roaring louder, I experienced a rocking sensation and then felt myself slipping out of my body, entirely enveloped in a halo of light…the point of consciousness that was myself growing wider, surrounded by waves of light…I was now All Consciousness, immersed in a sea of light, simultaneously aware of every point, spread out, as it were, in all directions”. (Gopi Krishna)
“Hence it is that he forgets himself and the entire creation on account of this dazzling divine light. On account of this forgetfulness, all awareness of self is lost. There is no calling upon the name or observance of customs; awareness of whether one exists or not; explanation, allusion, or divine throne. In this world, all things pass away. There is no splendor except at this stage. Here, “everything perishes except His essence.” Here alone is God actually seen face to face. (Sufi Sharafuddin Maneri)
“For when the true lover and devoted friend reacheth to the presence of the Beloved, the sparkling beauty of the Loved One and the fire of the lover’s heart will kindle a blaze and burn away all veils and wrappings. Yea all he hath, from heart to skin, will be set aflame, so that nothing will remain save the Friend.” (Baha’u’llah, Seven Valleys, p. 36)
“Suddenly I was standing in an ocean of light. Everything -including my body -had blown to light. Waving lines of energy were emanating from the horizon in all directions and flowing towards me and through me finally rolling up behind me like waves on the shore. There were no separate objects, nothing had a name. My thoughts had ceased…I was pure experience, pure being. All was unified, connected in these waving flows of energy, ecstatic, alive. This experience was somehow, utterly familiar. I was profoundly quiet within. No matter which direction I turned my head these waves rolling up were always behind me. The “rolling up” seemed to correspond with the flow of eternity…As though time itself was rolling up behind me. There was no link of memory between each moment and the next; each was a total NOW.” (Oraea Varis)
“Losing the human form is like a spiral. It gives a warrior the freedom to remember himself as straight fields of energy and this in turn makes him even freer.” (from the works of Carlos Castaneda)
“Always has no direction. Time seems to go in one direction, but when you reach the end it will roll up like a long carpet spread along the past behind you, and will disappear.” ACIM T;13;I;3)
“Today physicists believe that sub-atomic phenomena should not be classified solely as either waves or particles but as a single category of somethings that are always somehow both. These somethings are called quanta and physicists believe they are the basic stuff from which the entire universe is made. Perhaps the most astonishing of all is that there is compelling evidence that the only time quanta ever manifest as particles is when we are looking at them.” (Talbot, The Holographic Universe, p.94)
“…we think that there is a world of objects out there only because of our awareness. But what’s really out there are the Eagle’s emanations, fluid, forever in motion, and yet unchanged, eternal.” (from the works of Castaneda)
“…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)
“…the kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you. If you know yourselves, then you will be known; and you will know that you are the sons of the living Father.” (The Gospel of Thomas)
On the Universal Manifestation:
“Briefly, we say a universal cycle in the world of existence signifies a long duration of time, and innumerable and incalculable periods and epochs. In such a cycle the Manifestations appear with splendour in the realm of the visible, until a great and universal Manifestation makes the world the centre of his radiance. His appearance causes the world to attain to maturity, and the extension of his cycle is very great. Afterwards other Manifestations will arise under his shadow, who according to the needs of the time will renew certain commandments relating to material questions and affairs, while remaining under his shadow. We are in the cycle which began with Adam, and its universal Manifestation is Baha’u’llah.” (Abdul-Baha’, SAQ, p.184)
Glory- n., Great honor, praise or distinction accorded by common consent; renown. – Adoration, praise and thanksgiving offered in worship. Majestic beauty and splendor; resplendence. The splendor and bliss of heaven; perfect happiness. A height of achievement, enjoyment or prosperity.
Baha’u’llah literally translated from the Arabic, means “the Glory of God”. His life, His person and His Revelation of Divine Scripture delineate the current “mold” that sculpts the soul of mankind. His imprint is the prevailing, ubiquitous myth that is being played out by every soul in this current cycle whose theme is Salvation, the Great Awakening– the Promised Day of God. Familiarization with the details of His life and with His Scripture are necessarily pertinent to every individual in order that understanding and ultimate enlightenment can take place.
“All terms are potentially controversial…Theological considerations as such are necessarily controversial, since they depend on belief and can therefore be accepted or rejected. A Universal Theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary.” (ACIM. TM, p.77)
Baha’u’llah, being the Universal Manifestation, when encountered beyond the farthest veils of limitation, is the Universal Experience that has now become available to Mankind.
“Christ takes many forms with different names until their oneness can be recognized.” (ACIM, Clarification of Terms, 5)
The Universal Experience spoken of here is an encounter with the Universal Manifestation, the Glory of God.
How better to actualize the salvation of the world than to understand that the world is contained within you and is under the auspices of your all-pervading consciousness.
When the Universal Manifestation becomes your experience, you will know that the Glory of God is the light in you that saves the world!
Salutations.
Oraea
Note: The ideas expressed in this article are based solely upon the author’s experiences and are not intended to represent any official Baha’i viewpoint.
How to Remember Only God
Forget all save God…and remember. True remembrance of God signifies that nothing else is in our awareness.
“I therefore reveal unto thee sacred and resplendent tokens from the planes of glory, to attract thee into the court of holiness and nearness and beauty, and draw thee to a station wherein thou shalt see nothing in creation save the Face of thy Beloved One, the Honored, and behold all created things only as in the day wherein none hath a mention.” (Baha’u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 2)
A Course in Miracles is a mind-training that works by sorting out all elements of perception that are out of accord with the perception of the Kingdom. The document’s author claims to be Jesus’ resurrected mind speaking from beyond this world (the Christ Consciousness). Whether this is accepted or not, it is my experience that the mind-training of A Course in Miracles works.
A Course in Miracles is comprised of a Text outlining the theory behind its practice, a Workbook of 365 Lessons (one for each day), and a Teacher’s Manual. Its basic premise is that through active forgiveness or the acceptance of Atonement, the illusion of separation from God is translated into the realization of oneness with Him.
In the mind which thinks itself separate from God (virtually all human minds), a conceptual construction of “reality” based on the minds’ frozen perceptions has been formed. Upon this concept is built the entirety of what we Baha’i's call “the Old World Order”. This is why a deconstruction of the blocks to the truth, or a mind-training, is necessary in order to perceive, and thus to bring about, the “New World Order”. Forgetting all save God or purification can be thought of this way: a freeing from the “veils of idle fancies and vain imaginings”.
“Know thou that the Kingdom is the real world, and this nether place is only its shadow stretching out. A shadow hath no life of its own; its existence is only a fantasy, and nothing more; it is but images reflected in water, and seeming as pictures to the eye.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 177)
Who is casting that shadow over the world? Let’s look at some facts. If the reality of man is thought, not body, and spirit the the lamp from which the rays of the mind extend (Abdul’-Baha’, Baha’i World Faith p. 317), then it must be that Mind is singular. To explain this idea of Singular Mind: examine for a moment, how there is nothing in your awareness now or that you can bring to your awareness that is outside of your mind. Can you see how all your ideas, opinions, emotions, physicality, occupations, time references, perceptions and relationships as the stuff of your mind are part of you? In this sense, nothing is outside of you. You are literally the Light of the World. This is the essence of singular reality: you are responsible for your mind in its entirety. The extension of your light affects all of creation; when you change your mind, the world changes also. This is how you bring the light of the Kingdom to the earth (or to material existence). The hindrances to the full radiance of your light extension are simply this: the obscuring dust of acquired illusions.
This begins to get at why your mind needs training. The mind has trained itself through the teaching of the world, to orient to a false reality and screen out the real world (i.e. the Kingdom). The training aims at undoing the blocks to the awareness of light, love, joy and the peace of God -the Kingdom.
“O Son of Light! Forget all save Me and commune with My spirit. This is the essence of My command, therefore turn unto it.” (Baha’u'llah, Hidden Words, 16 from the Arabic)
“And when thou hast attained this highest station and come to this mightiest plane, then shalt thou gaze on the Beloved, and forget all else.” (Baha’u'llahl, Seven Valleys, p. 38)
The idea of forgetting is the common thread in these two passages. To forget something presumes that one is holding something in mind that can be released. Clearly, there is an experience being alluded to here of forgetting all as both a prerequisite and an outcome of communion with and seeing God. Notice how the first idea is a command, which implies immediacy, but the second idea is associated with a future reference. Bringing the past, present and future into accord is simply the experience of now. Ultimately, the experience of now…now…now is actually the absence of time. Experiencing only now brings you into the flow of eternity.
Elsewhere in Baha’u'llah’s, The Seven Valleys, we are told that we can traverse these differing planes in a single breath! The ideas referenced in the two quotes above seem different only in this: One is now, one is later. But look at this: God, being eternal, is not limited by time, which is a construction of the mind. In the non-limited planes of Unity, there is timelessness and oneness. Therefore, you can only experience oneness with God now.
Can illusion free itself from its blindness? This is the function of the Holy Spirit. What then is your part? Forgiveness of the past…forgetting, in order to remember God.
“The Holy Spirit is a lesson in remembering. We said before that He teaches remembering and forgetting, but the forgetting aspect is only to make the remembering consistent. You forget in order to remember better.” (A Course in Miracles, Urtext VII, p. 107)
The obscuring dust of all acquired learning- all memories, ideas about everything and everyone -may seem impossible to eradicate. But it must be possible, if the Command has been issued that we do it.
This is why a training or unlearning is required. The mind must be trained to a continual release of its tendency to retain its memory associations. As outlined in A Course in Miracles, forgiveness is the means for remembering your True Identity as created by God. You are the Light of the world. Through your love, and specifically, your forgiveness extended to your brother, this Light is brought from Heaven to earth and the Kingdom established. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that the Light will be revealed and the Kingdom remembered.
“…the kingdom is inside you, and it is outside you. If you know yourselves, then you will be known; and you will know that you are the sons of the living Father.” (The Gospel of Thomas)
Check out A Course in Miracles. You might just find yourself forgetting everything else and remembering God, the Eternal Beloved.
Note: The ideas expressed herein are based solely upon the author’s experiences and are not intended to represent any official Baha’i viewpoint.
