What Thoughts May Come

Human reality

johnw — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:31:57 +0000

If human reality is a mirror, then it only shines because of the sun appearing within it. A painting’s beauty is only revealed because of light within the room. The quality of anything derives from a Source other than that thing itself. If we look to ourselves, what we find worthy of attention is Him; [...]

Religious truth and the Covenant

johnw — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 12:22:21 +0000

Religious truth can at times seem obscure and difficult to fathom: Can detachment co-exist with caring about someone? Does the Unity of God mean transcending the world’s variety, or relishing in it? Would a perfected man savor life, or remain unmoved by its changes and chances? If I’m human, and told to consider the needs [...]

Examining religion

johnw — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 11:13:59 +0000

Can religion really satisfy human needs? Hasn’t it been the product of disorder and strife more often than not? Religious organizations are run by human beings. Not everything they do should be described in the same terms as religion itself. One concerns the efforts of this world; the other, the teachings of an Ideal Realm. [...]

Remembering Ashley

johnw — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:57:19 +0000

I first met Ashley Alvis, I don’t know how — in that way things happen which are meant to happen. We spoke briefly over a few e-mails, and I recognized right away a soul who knew things by knowing them intimately. It was not enough for Ashley to ponder the depths of religious truth; his [...]

Love, change, community

johnw — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:14:28 +0000

Even though things are not as they could be, things at the present are as they should or must be. It doesn’t mean they will stay that way tomorrow, or even hours from now, but in the moment itself there is never any defect: The wayfarer in this Valley seeth in the fashionings of the [...]

More on spiritual poverty

johnw — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:59:26 +0000

An individual has two parts, his spiritual, or divine nature, and his self, or lower nature. His spirit is manifested by the soul, and his self, within the material body. The aim of religious is to perfect the individual, but this means the whole person: where self becomes wholly subordinate to the spirit. If spirit [...]

The effect of religion

johnw — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:36:23 +0000

I think the spiritual world is real, but it is like a seeing man looking for the sun in a cave. Until he leaves the cave, no report, however accurate, will convince him that the sun is anything more than a description. If it weren’t real, how to explain the dramatic changes in society that [...]

Turn thereunto

johnw — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:08:01 +0000

Today’s entry is about a word that appears in the Bahá’í Writings: tawajjuh, or “attention”. This word is still in common use, and means “attention”, “focus” or “turning toward”. The root it stems from is wajh: “face” or “countenance”. The form tawajjuh is a verbal noun with the literal meaning of “facing”. Thus, the meaning [...]

The Kingdom of God

johnw — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:11:12 +0000

One of the things religion aims to teach people is how to appreciate God’s creation. In the Seven Valleys, Bahá’u'lláh says the purpose is “…that every man may thereby win his way to the summit of realities, until none shall contemplate anything whatsoever but that he shall see God therein.” Since God is the best [...]

The Four Valleys again

johnw — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 11:28:05 +0000

At the end of the Seven Valleys, Bahá’u’lláh makes a statement about the furthering journeys of the spiritual wayfarer: They who soar in the heaven of singleness and reach to the sea of the Absolute, reckon this city — which is the station of life in God — as the furthermost state of mystic knowers, [...]