Month: June 2021

In regard to his affairs, let him repeat nineteen times: “Thou seest me, O my God, detached from all save Thee and cleaving unto Thee. Guide me, then, in all mine affairs unto that which profiteth me for the glory of Thy Cause and the loftiness of the station of Thy loved ones.” Let him then reflect upon the matter and undertake whatever cometh to mind. This vehement opposition of the enemies will indeed give way to supreme prosperity.

This was revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for Shaykh Kázim Samandar, date unknown but in the latter part of the 19th cent., probably in tumultuous times.

There’s also a nice song with this text in one of my favorite albums, Radiant Heart (Shadi & Shidan Toloui-Wallace, bilingual)

Decisions can be hard — you look at what you’re leaving and you see an ending, with no assurance of anything positive to replace it. But not acting is an assurance of nothing positive to replace it either, and time runs out.

Praying is hard too; reading or saying the words is easy, but that’s only to call out the feelings and yearnings, which I still can hardly ever do, after decades. Then being still and “listening” neutrally, without prejudice, is even harder; never wholly attainable. Buddhist meditation might have the idea. You have to be empty.

Last week my wife attended a Bahá’í workshop on racism held at the Little Chapel of all Nations on the University of Arizona campus, and when the day ended, everyone said “Let’s go to the Abdu’l-Báhá garden”. We didn’t know of any such location on campus, but they went, and she took a picture which explains why they called it that:

Officially this is the Underwood Family Sonoran Landscape Laboratory at the UA College of Architecture, Planning, & Landscape Architecture.

Inscribed on the steps in the picture is this 1921 quote from ‘Abdu’l-Báhá:

At the gate of the garden some stand and look within, but do not care to enter. Others step inside, behold its beauty, but do not penetrate far. Still others encircle this garden, inhaling the fragrance of the flowers; and having enjoyed its full beauty, pass out again by the same gate. But there are always some who enter, and becoming intoxicated with the splendor of what they behold, remain for life to tend the garden.

To actually try to read the quote, view the fullsized 18mb image. Even then it’s a little hard to make out.

(the quote is what we call a pilgrim’s note, not authenticated, and the wording varies a little in some sources. But it’s essentially the parable of the sower and the seed.)