Tablet of the Bell (final installment)

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Category: Alison Marshall's Column

Created: Friday, 30 December 2005 11:25

Published: Friday, 30 December 2005 11:25

Written by Alison Marshall

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Here is the final installment of the Tablet of the Bell. It's a good way to finish off the year 2005. Maybe 2006 will see us all drawing close in our hearts to Baha'u'llah and telling everyone that he has come to show us the way home. Much of the world's tribulations are self-inflicted and unnecessary (and that goes for the Baha'i community too). If the people knew the peace and contentment that knowledge of Baha'u'llah brings, they'd give up disputing with, and controlling, others and just concentrate on being extremely happy.

And Praised be Thou, O God, my God. Since this is how matters stand, send down from the clouds of Thy compassion that which shall cleanse the hearts of Thy lovers and sanctify the breasts of them that adore Thee. Raise them up, then, through Thy exaltation and cause them to be victorious over all that dwell on earth. This is that which Thou didst promise Thy friends by Thy unerring words: "We desire to show Our grace unto them that have been made wretched on the earth and to make them leaders and to make them Our heirs."

Praised be Thou, O He; He that is He; O He that there is none other than He.

Baha'u'llah: Tablet of the Bell

Dreams and visions

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Category: Alison Marshall's Column

Created: Tuesday, 27 December 2005 14:33

Published: Tuesday, 27 December 2005 14:33

Written by Alison Marshall

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I said in my last podcast, Worlds Within, that we can access the spiritual worlds in dreams and visions. Baha'u'llah talks about dreams in the Valley of Wonderment. In the following passage, he points out that we can be in a far-off land while our body is fast asleep in bed. This is a proof that there are worlds within this world and within us.

"One of the created phenomena is the dream. Behold how many secrets are deposited therein, how many wisdoms treasured up, how many worlds concealed. Observe, how thou art asleep in a dwelling, and its doors are barred; on a sudden thou findest thyself in a far-off city, which thou enterest without moving thy feet or wearying thy body; without using thine eyes, thou seest; without taxing thine ears, thou hearest; without a tongue, thou speakest. And perchance when ten years are gone, thou wilt witness in the outer world the very things thou hast dreamed tonight." Baha'u'llah: Seven Valleys and Four Valleys, p 32

What is the difference between a dream and a vision? In the late 1990s, when I was very interested in this subject, I looked this up on the Internet. I found a very interesting web site, which had been put up by a man studying dreams and visions for psychology. He defined a vision as a dream that we have when we are awake. I remember wondering how that would work because I had never experienced anything like that before.

Read more: Dreams and visions

The three blinding hidden words

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Category: Alison Marshall's Column

Created: Sunday, 25 December 2005 12:18

Published: Sunday, 25 December 2005 12:18

Written by Alison Marshall

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In my last podcast, Worlds Within, I discuss hidden words in which Baha'u'llah asks us to blind our eyes to the world and open them to the Eternal Beauty. When I was putting the quotes up, I realised that there were in fact three hidden words on that theme. Throughout the Hidden Words, Baha'u'llah tends, in some cases, to group hidden words by theme. And I realised that he'd done that with this idea of blinding our eyes to the world. I've dubbed them, "The three blinding hidden words."

Here they are, Persian hidden words 10 to 12:

10. O son of desire! Give ear unto this: Never shall mortal eye recognize the everlasting beauty, nor the lifeless heart delight in aught but in the withered bloom. For like seeketh like, and taketh pleasure in the company of its kind.

11. O son of dust! Blind thine eyes, that thou mayest behold My beauty; stop thine ears, that thou mayest hearken unto the sweet melody of My voice; empty thyself of all learning, that thou mayest partake of My knowledge; and sanctify thyself from riches, that thou mayest obtain a lasting share from the ocean of My eternal wealth. Blind thine eyes, that is, to all save My beauty; stop thine ears to all save My word; empty thyself of all learning save the knowledge of Me; that with a clear vision, a pure heart and an attentive ear thou mayest enter the court of My holiness.

12. O man of two visions! Close one eye and open the other. Close one to the world and all that is therein, and open the other to the hallowed beauty of the Beloved.

Well, alright, the first doesn't talk about blinding our eyes to the world, but it does say that we will never see the everlasting beauty with our physical eyes. Another aspect of the same thing.

Worlds within

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Category: Alison Marshall's Column

Created: Friday, 23 December 2005 20:52

Published: Friday, 23 December 2005 20:52

Written by Alison Marshall

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In this podcast, I discuss what Baha'u'llah says in the first paragraph of the Tablet of the Vision about the worlds of light that lie within this world of gloom and discuss what this means for our spiritual journey.

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Passages from the writings quoted in the audio:

"O My Name! Listen to My call from the precincts of My throne, that it might transport thee to a shoreless sea, the depths of which no diver ever plumbed. Verily, thy Lord is knowing and generous. We desired to favor thee with the mention of what We saw, that thou mightest perceive the world of light that lieth within this realm of gloom, mightest be convinced that We have worlds within this world, and mightest thank thy Lord, the All-Perceiving."
Baha'u'llah: Tablet of the Vision

"... until, like Jacob, thou forsake thine outward eyes, thou shalt never open the eye of thine inward being..."
Baha'u'llah: Seven Valleys and Four Valleys, p 9

"Give ear unto this: Never shall mortal eye recognize the everlasting beauty..."
Baha'u'llah: Persian Hidden Words, no 10

"Blind thine eyes, that thou mayest behold My beauty; stop thine ears, that thou mayest hearken unto the sweet melody of My voice..."
Baha'u'llah: Persian Hidden Words, no 11

"The first call of the Beloved is this: O mystic nightingale! Abide not but in the rose-garden of the spirit."
Baha'u'llah: Persian Hidden Words, no 1

"Praise be to thee, O My God. Bless Thy friends, then send down upon them from the heaven of Thy magnanimity what will render them detached from all save Thee and cause them to set their faces toward the horizon from which hath risen the sun of Thy grace."
Baha'u'llah: Tablet of the Vision

More on Breath of Spirit

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Category: Alison Marshall's Column

Created: Tuesday, 20 December 2005 16:00

Published: Tuesday, 20 December 2005 16:00

Written by Alison Marshall

Hits: 4335

If you haven't yet had a chance to listen to the audio, Breath of Spirit, then I recommend that you do. There is an important relationship between the things that Baha'u'llah is saying in that tablet and the things I was saying in my audio, The Main Game. I am referring in particular to the last paragraph of the tablet. It reads:

"Then, O birds of the sacred skies, do not deprive yourselves, by virtue of your concentration upon this ephemeral world, of this immortal fountain. Possibly you will receive permission to enter the eternal chamber of audience with the glorious beauty. Thus do we make mention to you of the mysteries, insofar as what was referred to in all the tablets as the water of life was hidden from your intellects and your hearts. Perhaps you will attain to the water in that spring after severing yourselves from all who are in the heavens and on earth, and will return to the wonders of his overflowing grace."

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