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.

Single Heart, Single Soul

Ending Loneliness Forever

We are in truth, a single heart and a single soul.  The fact of our singleness turns out to be our salvation as we learn to forgive, truly. When forgiveness dissolves the boundaries that keep us distant and apathetic, we will find that loneliness, disenchantment with life, sorrow and boredom are forgotten. Instead of a stream of special relationships that end in frustration and letdown, we find a deep satisfaction with the delightful beings we find surrounding us.  Depression, restlessness and the need for endless distractions are replaced with a constant fascination with life and its joyful unending surprises.

“So intensely hath the glory of Divine Unity penetrated souls and hearts that all are now bound one to another with heavenly ties, and all are even as a single heart, a single soul. Wherefore reflections of the spirit and impressions of the Divine are now mirrored clear and sharp in the deep heart’s core. I beg of God to strengthen these spiritual bonds as day followeth day, and make this mystic oneness to shine ever more brightly, until at last all shall be as troops marshalled together beneath the banner of the Covenant within the sheltering shade of the Word of God; that they may strive with all their might until universal fellowship, close and warm, and unalloyed love, and spiritual relationships, will connect all the hearts in the world. Then will all humankind, because of this fresh and dazzling bounty, be gathered in a single homeland. Then will conflict and dissension vanish from the face of the earth, then will mankind be cradled in love for the beauty of the All-Glorious. Discord will change to accord, dissension to unison. The roots of malevolence will be torn out, the basis of aggression destroyed.”  (Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 19)

What a world this can be!  Why wait?  This can happen now…in fact, it must be now.  The shortening of the time that it will take to realize the end of dissension and strife, loneliness and estrangement, can occur every time you choose love.

Forgiveness is an exquisite Art.   We must pay exquisite attention to our relationships because it is there that we will find the gemstones, the precious metal that are treasured in the mine of the heart…our heart, my heart, all hearts.  Once you get the hang of this art form, loneliness will seem impossible, absurd even.  You will learn to give love, real love.  This Love emanates from the Source of all Hearts and Souls: the Source of Love itself.  As you love, you will be loved. And when you heal one heart through the miracle of your love, you will heal all hearts.

The root of banishing loneliness forever is  in our inherent Singleness.  There is not one among us who is not a whole, integral part of this Oneness and thus a part of Our Very Self.  At the core  of exquisite forgiveness is that we can give but to ourselves, because we are a Single Heart, a Single Soul.  

“The bright rays of union will obliterate the darkness of limitations, and the splendours of heaven will make the human heart to be even as a mine veined richly with the love of God.” (ibid)

 When the inner light of the individual is released through forgiveness,  it will join the greater light and the “Bright rays of Union” will produce undreamed of results.  The human heart can then become “richly veined with the Love of God”  as the light of our union opens us to the “Splendors of Heaven”.

Let us focus our attentions on training the mind in the exquisite Art of Forgiveness.  This will catalyze the release of the inner light of the soul. Then the Splendors of Heaven, the Light itself,  will do the rest.

Your heart is part of the Single Heart, your soul part of the Single Soul.  As such it is part of my heart and soul.  Here is my blessing for you: May the mine of your heart yield up the gems and precious ore that are treasured therein and become more manifest as day follows day. May you find yourself discovering that you have so much love to give that it will be impossible for you to be lonely ever again.

~ D. Oraea Varis

Note: The ideas expressed herein are based solely upon the author’s experiences and do not seek to represent any official  Baha’i viewpoint.

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

The Polished Mirror

Your heart can be likened to a mirror. When it is clouded up with the dust of self-centered desires, it is like turning your mirror towards a landfill…the county dump. You will reflect worthless trash. Your thoughts will be filled with meaningless distractions and you will attract unworthy elements to yourself because like attracts like. On the other hand, the more you turn your mirror towards the light, towards heavenly attributes and qualities, the more you will begin to attract happiness, joy and find real and lasting fulfillment in your life.

“One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Baha’u’llah.” – Shoghi Effendi, Baha’i Administration, p 66)

These eternal principles are the same as those put forth by all the great saints and masters. They are the same principles that Jesus taught in his Sermon on the Mount. These Divinely charged principles, faithfully practiced, change the very fabric of existence because of their power.

We can greatly accelerate our mirror polishing by focusing on one, key Divine principle. The Principle of loving our enemies as friends. Really. Sounds nice in theory, but how does loving one’s enemy polish the mirror any faster than say, regular prayer, giving to the poor or being a person of high morals?

The principle of “turning the other cheek” when your first response would be to “hit back”, is what all the other principles lead you towards. It is an exquisite art to forgive your enemy.

“”…ye must show forth tenderness and love to every human being, even to your enemies, and welcome them all with unalloyed friendship, good cheer, and loving-kindness. When ye meet with cruelty and persecution at another’s hands, keep faith with him; when malevolence is directed your way, respond with a friendly heart. To the spears and arrows rained upon you, expose your breasts for a target mirror-bright; and in return for curses, taunts and wounding words, show forth abounding love.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 20)

The act of returning kindness for cruelty is at the heart of all successful revolutions. You can revolutionize your life, polish the mirror of your heart and step into the ministry that only you can perform and must perform by practicing this radical and exquisite art: the art of forgiveness.

“Thus will all peoples witness the power of the Most Great Name, and every nation acknowledge the might of the Ancient Beauty, and see how He hath toppled down the walls of discord, and how surely He hath guided all the peoples of the earth to oneness; how He hath lit man’s world, and made this earth of dust to send forth streams of light.” (Abdu’l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha, p. 20)

When an unexpected miracle of forgiveness occurs, a spot of dust is erased from your mirror. A light is uncovered. Do this enough and soon you’re nice and shiny. Then will your Polished Mirror reflect the Sun of the Divine…and not a garbage dump.

~ D.Oraea Varis

Note: The ideas expressed herein are based solely upon the author’s experiences and do not seek to represent any official Baha’i viewpoint.