But still…
The definition of a ‘religion demands that:
One must believe that there truly is an invisible god in the sky
that has nothing better to do than be concerned with every moment of everything,
including every thought, speech, and actions of… everything.
However,
The Baha’I Faith at least puts this personal God projection in
as reasonable light as one could and still be considered a “religion”.
Otherwise, it’d just be a club…
And it’s hard to get global attention if you’re just a club.
It seems only when an imaginary unprovable ineffable concept like ‘God’
is attributed to a particular group of worshipers…
can they find enough ‘faithful’ that desperately seek Divinity and purpose in their life
to make a reasonable effort towards membership.
Other religions rely heavily on the over use of myths, magic, and miracles…
That must be taken as the literal truths…
When It’s literally … all made up.
I find it a bit off the mark of a True Spiritual Path,
when the founder insists that others regard him as a reincarnation of ‘god’ Himself…
True spiritual sages, even fully Enlightened Masters
do not have a trace of egotism that spawns such self-centered grandiose.
For example:
When Siddhartha Gautama, later to become…the Buddha
when he first became Enlightened,
the last thing he wanted to do is teach and
even profoundly less interested in even becoming a religion…
he managed to avoid allowing it to become another blind faith religion,
it’s more of a personal philosophy with a balance of psychology, along with
a Noble Eight-Fold Path to Liberation.
but…
the roots of Buddhism was blooming.
And even with all those lofty ambitions of humbleness…
His teachings spawned numerous variations,
similar to the many conflicting Christian denominations…
These each were created to better relate to whatever indigenous views
from various global locations.
It also sparked lots of discourse on what’s the best ‘Way’…
~
For matters of such Spiritual importance…
It’s best for one to do as much research
and compile the teachings that ultimately do not contradict themselves,
nor have roots in the bloody atrocities of torturing to death over 5 million innocents
just to “save them from an imaginary invisible demon”…
Even better,
Study and practice a wide range of Spiritual Traditions…
in this ‘Way’…
You will find that all the reasonable traditions all point to
the same ineffable and indivisible Truths.
The other practice I find not so useful is the recommendation to
chant the founder’s name over 90 times a day along with some other prayers…
This to me is about a useful as thinking you can become a great golfer,
simply by chanting “Arnold Palmer” over and over…
instead of actually practicing golf.
This said,
Chants are used in many spiritual traditions…
I have studied a number of Tibetan chants…
I have found that there is no mystical magic by chanting any words,
especially foreign words that one does not even know the meaning of…
It’s as useful as repeating:
“Oh be a good boy”… over & over…
Well, at least while your chanting that,
You won’t be creating any sorrow,
unless you are in the library or some other inappropriate place.
Chanting on chakras…
Will at least enable you to train your mental focus of awareness…
But that in itself does not bring you any closer to Nirvana or ‘God’…
One peculiar aspect is that many of the founder’s writings are in the ‘old English’ fashion…
that haven’t been used since the good ‘ol ‘Dark ages’…
Seems sort of like a cheesy way to add a bit of ‘biblical’ flair,
just for the sake of unnecessary grandiose.
The one profoundly encouraging aspect of the Bahai Faith is that
they recommend practicing daily meditations.
As this is the corner stone and base of all other True Spiritual Traditions.
~
The Bahai Faith was created in Iran where the tradition of Sufism is practiced
as one of the few traditions allowed in this country
that has a ‘Theocracy’ for the ruling government…
Meditation is part of Sufism… so this must have had some influence.
The mediations that Sufis practice has it’s roots in the Hindu Yoga traditions,
so there is a thread of commonality… however,
the rest of the ‘god’ worship, dogmas, and doctrines go far and away from what most would consider
True non theology spirituality.
but, in that sense,
the Bahai’s meditation is recommended to speak to ‘god’ and or one’s Spiritual Soul.
To me, if that’s all the directions one gets…
It sounds like sitting still, intellectually contemplating
and just thinking about your issues, challenges, and plans…
this is not meditation… it’s just thinking and contemplating.
Although the founder gave no guidance in how to best do this meditation.
where as I have heaps of very detailed instructions on meditation, and yet,
I don’t even claim to be the reincarnation of ‘god’
nor desire to create any sort of religion… not even a club ;
-)
The concept of the Bahai’s meditation to speak to ‘god’ and or one’s Spiritual Soul
is somewhat similar to the advanced stages of
Hindu’s Advaita Vedanta, Buddhism, and Dzogchen in which, after much practice…
one establishes a ‘one-pointedness’ focus of concentration
that allows one to achieve the higher states of human consciousness.
In these higher states, called Jhāna,
one’s true nature is experienced,
and after the meditation is complete and one drifts back to normal consciousness…
the ineffably ‘wordless whispering of Wisdoms’
experienced in these deep states
can be accessed later thru contemplation and intellectual reflections.
~
One curious observation is,
he describes some mystic experiences while heavily chained up in prison,
apparently for the so called crime of blasphemously for his statements
and with creating a new religion…
dangerous ambitions in Iran,
a country brutally controlled by a theology government.
This experience he describes is similar to when an aspirant (of deep spirituality)
enters the deep end of a meditation practice…
These Jhāna states of higher consciousness can feel as though
one has inseparably connected with the ‘Divine’… or even
what could only be projected as “God”,
particularly if you already had a strong belief in a personal ‘god’ concept.
This is called: The Turiya State… referred to as “The God State”.
Once an aspirant reaches this stage, they feel they are ‘divinely inspired’…
and go off on a writing binge…
Perhaps I’ve touched this stage as I’ve somehow been inspired
to write over 175 articles posted here,
many are very long, in-depth and detailed… ooooooohhhhhh
😮
Bahá’u’lláh does make the profound and obvious conclusions about
the commonality of all religions – which are normally hidden in plane sight
on account that each religion wants the rest of the world to think that
only their religion is the “true” religion…
(which to me is hilarious since they are all made up from the imaginations of mortal misogynistic men.) but the good wholesome and useful commonalities can easily be sorted out…
Here’s just a few, with a closer look, you’ll find hundreds…
Morals, virtues, common good, they all have something like the Christian ‘Golden rule’ of
“Do onto others, as you would have them do on to you”…
Then they all go on with similar projections inspired by wild imaginations….
a belief in a personal ‘god’ that envelops the old world views of what a ‘god’ would be… Like:
anally retentively obsessed with everyone’s every thought, speech, and action…
along with have a very shallow egg shell fragile and highly over sensitive ego,
sets up the world with a self defeating conundrum that can never really happen
and then gets angry, upset, smiteful, vengeful and then down right evil…
but…
lets get back to the ‘good parts’ that are common with all religions
and even non-theological spiritual traditions…
at the very core, they all speak of Love, Joy, Harmony, Unity…
mostly with an almost ‘un-conditional’ aspect. but then, over time,
the power driven men in charge loose the ‘thread’ and re-write their objectives
so their church can gain even more power… so,
it stated off with a noble cause…
then deteriorated into
the most devastating challenge humanity has every been faced with.
~
Bahá’u’lláh strives to Unite all men and women, living on this Earth,
with the hope and promise of an ever increasing quality of life, also,
by uniting all religions by pointing out their commonalities…
Indeed a Noble cause…
One that was seemed worth dying for.
So this whole business of invoking the personal ‘God’ theme
seems like it just invokes a certain quality to the situation… to me,
it becomes a distraction from what otherwise seems
real good, common sense theme of …
Unity.
Unity of the entire human race.
The improvement of the human condition.
Taking advantage of the limitless strength that diversity offers.
World peace, ending once and for all, all wars.
Bahāʾī tenets are the essential unity of all religions and the unity of humanity.
Bahāʾīs believe that all the founders of the world’s great religions
have been manifestations of God and agents of
a progressive divine plan for the education of the human race.
Despite their apparent differences,
the world’s great religions, according to the Bahāʾīs,
teach an identical truth.
Bahāʾ Allāh’s peculiar function was to overcome the disunity of religions
and establish a universal faith.
Bahāʾīs believe in the oneness of humanity
and devote themselves to the abolition of
racial, class, and religious prejudices.
The great bulk of Bahāʾī teachings is concerned with social ethics.
~
One more of their profoundly useful tenets is:
They don’t allow their followers to be involved in partisan politics.
They also insist that they follow the rules of what ever nation they live in.
In the USA, voting is expected to help society shape a better mode of representation.
So,
The Bahai’s must do their due diligence,
and really find out what the politician is all about
to confirm the they have humanity’s best interests as their top priority.
Unlike most Christians that ‘collectively’ all band together
to vote for whomever is the conservative candidate,
even if it someone worse than the ‘anti-Christ’… like tRump.
That mode of ‘herd mentality’
is a self-defeating choice with absolutely devastating consequences.
The Bahai faith has no priesthood
and does not observe ritual forms in its worship.
If you absolutely, necessarily have to be in a religion
that is based on the assumption that …
There is a personal ‘God’ that despite allowing over 14,000 children
to die each day and countless millions starve to death or die horrible deaths…
That “He’ll” be there for you in your time of need…;-)
Or
At least be waiting for your just past the ‘pearly gates’
with your very own ‘heavenly body’ to enjoy the rest of forever at “His” feet.
Please note:
“Heavenly body” just might be the old worn out one you died a miserable death in…
So,
Perhaps you might want to reconsider your “Divine” right of…
Free Will.
If, after you do your due diligence and still require a personal sky god religion…
Go for the Bahai’ Faith 😉
