Readings

Pronunciation Guide for Baha'is

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Category: Readings
Created: Wednesday, 19 November 2008 03:54
Published: Wednesday, 19 November 2008 03:49
Written by martinrosskerr / Tara Rout, YouTube
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{josquote}First, it's annals, not anals...{/josquote}

As we have no clergy in the Baha'i Community, any one of us can be called on to speak in public, to read aloud Baha'i Prayers and Writings. There are certain words that many of us are unfamiliar with how to pronounce. We hope you find this little guide helpful in becoming more confident and effective readers. Please add more words that come up and expand this guide.

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Intone My Servant -- The City of Immortality

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Category: Readings
Created: Sunday, 04 May 2008 19:21
Published: Sunday, 04 May 2008 19:00
Written by Karen Bacquet, Unenrolled Baha'i
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I have spent the last month reading Gems of the Mysteries, and am close to the end. This morning's reading was from "The City of Immortality": In this instance, I actually prefer the official translation:

Having, in this journey, immersed himself in the ocean of immortality, rid his heart from attachment to aught save Him, and attained unro the loftiest heights of everlasting life, the seeker will see no annihilation either for himself or for any other soul. He will quaff from the cup of immortality, tread in its land, soar in its atmosphere, consort with them that are its embodiments, partake of the imperishable and incorruptible fruits of the tree of eternity, and be forever accounted, in the lofty heights of immortality, amongst the deniszens of the everlasting realm.

Now, I am intimately familiar with the Valley(or Garden) of Search, acquainted with the Valley(or City) of Love, and have gotten a few scattered glimpses of the Valley of Knowledge (which doesn't appear in "Gems"), but when you get towards these upper stations, Baha'u'llah is talking beyond my experience -- and, I suspect, beyond the experience of virtually everyone else who reads these passages. 'Abdu'l-Baha' says somewhere that those who recognize the Manifestation have already traversed all seven valleys, but the slightest trace of self brings us back to the beginning -- and which of us is free from "the slightest trace of self"?

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Intone My Servant - Gems of the Mysteries

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Category: Readings
Created: Thursday, 27 March 2008 20:11
Published: Thursday, 27 March 2008 20:01
Written by Karen Bacquet, Unenrolled Baha'i
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I've been meaning to do some looking at the Baha'i Writings here on Unenrolled Baha'i -- this is, after all, a religious blog, and a look at scripture now and then seems appropriate.

But I know myself well enough to know that if I have to pick a topic, and several quotes from different tablets, and put it all together in a logical essay, I'll never get around to it. Oh, I can do it alright -- it's just that my online writing tends to be spontaneous, and my disk drive is littered with would-be projects like that.

So, what I decided to do, in keeping with that spontaneous spirit, is about once a month or so, take whatever passage I read during my morning or evening devotions and talk about it a little bit. And, I'd call it "Intone My Servant", as kind of a column within the blog, because it comes straight from my devotional reading, rather than any intellectual point I'm trying to make.

I was planning on doing this around the first of the month, but as it happened, I was reading this today, from the Gems of the Mysteries, speaking on the Garden of Search:

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