Intro: A New Eye and a New Ear

The Path of Search

 The Chapters of a Book published as blog posts as they emerge through the Year of 176BE 

PREFACE 

This book started as my Bahái Blog which was inspired by the heat of the 2019 Bahái Fast during ʿAlāʾ the final month of 175BE, in the Bahá’i Calendar, which as of Naw-Rúz 2015 was officially implemented as the Badí' Calendar by the Universal House of Justice, on March 21 2015 as announced on the Bahá’i Library Online

…The implementation of the Badí' Calendar on the first day of the tenth Váhid of the first Kull-i-Shay’ of the Bahá’í Era. 

Throughout this book the official WORDS of Bahá’u’lláh, being recognised as the WORD OF GOD will be printed in crimson ink, and coloured red for the blood of all the beautiful martyrs from whose blood the Crimson Ark is built. Also, the Universal House of Justice is recognised as the Voice of God on Earth by Baháis so writings from the UHJ will also be coloured crimson, but the writings of Abdu’l-Bahá and the Blessed Guardian will remain in black ink. 

The first blog post was on 1^stRidvan my favourite Holy Day in the Bahái Faith, which I was thinking of in terms of the Gregorian date of 21^stApril, and the next post was on another Holy Day the 12^th and last day of Ridvan, as I was totally focused on the events of the Garden of Ridvan back in 1863CE. However then as I worked on the 3^rd blog, memorising another Paragraph of the Tablet of the True Seeker, I realised it would be a really good pattern to memorise each Paragraph in synchronisation with the Badí' Calendar months, especially as when I started memorising the Tablet I split it into 11 or 12 Paragraphs, which would hopefully have me reciting the whole tablet from the top by the Bab’s 200^th Birthday, celebrated this year on  14 ‘Ilm 176 BE Bahái Era, or 29 October 2019 CE Christian Era. 

Interestingly as of 2015 The Festivals of the Twin Birthday were officially unhooked from the Solar calendars, both the Badí' and Gregorian, and fixed to the lunar calendar, so will now be observed on the first and the second day following the occurrence of the eighth new moon after Naw-Rúz. This will result in the observance of the Twin Birthdays moving, year to year, within the months of Mashíyyat, ‘Ilm, and Qudrat of the Badí‘ calendar, or from mid-October to mid-November according to the Gregorian calendar. 

So as I got into the habit of memorising another paragraph each month in synchronisation with this year’s Badíʿ or Bahá’í calendar, I made a Google search and found a beautiful arrangement, with the 361 days arranged into a hexagram by New York Bahá’í friend Leland Wright, and available online as a pdf or hard copy decorative wall calendar…

INTRODUCTION

The first month of the Badí‘ calendar each year is Bahá, Splendour, and though the first blog post was published on the 1^st Day of Ridvan BE 176, 21^st April CE 2019, its contents were inspired by all the YouTube Videos I had continued to watch during the month of Bahá, after this year’s fast, when I injured myself at the gym so was more inclined to sit on the couch watching lots of Bahá’i talks and presentations  

Only when the Lamp of Search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture and ecstasy, is kindled within the Seekers heart, and the breeze of HIS loving kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being. Then will the Mystic Herald, bearing the joyful tidings of the Spirit, shine forth from the City of God, resplendent as the morn, and through the trumpet blast of knowledge will awaken the heart, the soul and the spirit from the slumbers of heedlessness. Then will the manifold favours and outpouring grace of the holy and everlasting Spirit confer such new life upon the seeker that he will find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. He will contemplate the manifest signs of the universe and will penetrate the hidden mysteries of the soul. Gazing with the eye of God, he will perceive within every atom a door that leadeth him to the stations of absolute certitude. He will discover in all things the mysteries of Divine Revelation, and the evidences of an Everlasting Manifestation. 

This Year of 176 BE 2019 CE marked my 13^th year as a member of the Bahá’i Faith, or as I liked to think of it, as one of the people of Bahá, from Bahá’u’lláh’s Words in His Tablet of Carmel, in which he told the beautiful mountain about the imminent coming of a new Day on earth - Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee, and will manifest the people of Bahá who have been mentioned in the Book of Names. Being a 13^th year this marked a major review of my life path; which path would I follow? where would I focus my energy in the future? The last few years I had followed my obsession in collecting and then collating and publishing Keshe foundation transcriptions detailing Knowledge of Plasma Science. This also led to several years of travelling and meeting Kf Knowledge seekers around the world, and eventually led to contact with the Bahá’í Universal House of Justice, and I then received a letter from the UHJ, from which I understood that after 5 years of focused work it was time to turn away from the Keshe foundation, and towards the Blessed Beauty. Understanding now that the major service every Bahá’i should be focusing upon is the work of teaching the Faith to all the lost and hurting brothers and sisters out there, and as my passion and excitement in life for many years has been to write books and stories, now I want to share my learning in writing my encounters and adventures on The Path of Search. 

As I took my first step of search in the path leading unto the  knowledge of the Ancient of Days, I decided that this would be my Bahá’í meditation, contemplation, and synchronicity, or Signs of the Universe journal, not only to keep it for my own personal record, as I had always found the best way of learning something was in writing it out, but also to share it with Friends, as it helps me while writing to focus on someone who might appreciate my words.

The annual fast this year was awesome; it seemed to be getting better every year, and this year I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos of inspiring Bahá’i speakers and immersing myself deeper and deeper into the Ocean. Hooper Dunbar with a focus on Death and the Afterlife and his humble but wise elucidations of his beautiful book Forces of our Time was an inspiring speaker, and I listened to at least 19 hours of his talks. I was delighted to discover 11 hours or so of Adib Taherzadeh talking to an Alaskan summer school back in the 80s – I was already in Love with AT’s set of Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh books, and now to find a recording of him speaking was an amazing gift. Then there were many other beautiful teachers such as Enoch Olinga, Nader Saiedi, Bill Seirs, Peter Khan, Mary Maxwell otherwise known as Amatu'l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum, and quite a few others, including several Hands of the Cause, to whom I listened almost constantly through the fast, and then continuing through the month of Bahá, bringing my attention on to what was important, I thought, and feeling the rewards in my heart and soul, and my dreams. 

One of the points I heard from several of the teachers was the importance of immersing one’s self into the Words of the Blessed Beauty morning and night – before sleep and after sleep – in fact this was an essential component of keeping the Covenant with Bahá'u'lláh, and I realised that I had actually not kept the Covenant properly in my 13 years as a Bahá’í, as most mornings and evenings I had not even read any of His words, let alone recited them. 

There was also the beautiful presence of synchronicity in the background though the fast, and I coincidentally deepened further into the knowledge of sleep during this time by reading on my iPad at work an awesome book of research on sleep – entitled Why We Sleep – The New Science of Sleep and Dreams, by Matthew Walker, and realising the importance of the focus of mind and heart before sleep on the content of REM-sleep, and the importance of getting some good levels of Deep and REM-sleep on maintaining the health of body and mind, and the importance of the focus first thing in the morning (when, if our sleep habits are healthy, we are emerging from some exciting adventures and episodes of REM-sleep) on the waking (shadow) dream in the day ahead! I was also coming more and more to realise that the reward of a hundred martyrs promised to Ahmad (and anyone else who learns it) if I chanted his tablet daily might be realised in the dream time first, and then as a natural consequence in the whole of my life on this very tough planet!  

During last year’s fast (CE 2018 BE 174) I memorised this blessed tablet – The Tablet of Ahmad – and as commanded by the Blessed Beauty chanted it almost daily ever since (in the privacy of my chamber) learning more and deepening into it all the time, and it dawned on me through this process that to really immerse oneself into the Ocean of His words it is better to learn them off by heart. So, this year, instead of reading the Words of the Blessed Beauty morning and night, I decided at the end of the fast to begin a process of memorising some of the words, starting with a paragraph from Gleaning CXXV, as this reading was very meaningful for me. This paragraph I had found in my own prayer book, the 7^thparagraph of the “Tablet of the True Seeker” although it is really an extract from the Book of Certitude– Kitáb-i-Íqán. 

My first encounter with this reading was back in 2011, on my 2^nd Iboga journey, about 15 months after my 1^st Iboga journey, which was such a powerful experience that it took that long to find the courage to go there again and dare to take some more of this potent African medicine. The first journey had been in July 2010, and it was totally amazing, with an internal light and sound show that went on for hours and hours in my inner vision and hearing, and it was such a powerful experience that it took me the whole 15 months till October 2011 to integrate the experience and, with a little fear and trembling, decide to take another dip into these waters. The 2^nd journey was more like what I eventually found from experience, through giving this medicine successfully to many drug and alcohol addicts and seekers of psycho-spiritual journeys at the Iboga Clinic I set up with my wife, was what some, if not most of the people get in an Iboga journey, which is about 6-8 hours of purging, while feeling acutely depressed and wondering why on earth anyone would EVER take this awful substance! The sound and light show came only for an instant, and then it felt like the voltage was too high; there was a disconnect and I was left lying nauseated and vomiting on the bed for hours on end. It was a very good process as well, as I had a life review experience running back to childhood; for hours and hours I lay half paralysed on the bed thinking and remembering many things, and many people I hadn’t thought about for decades, in a new light, and I felt I was healing some of the unintegrated experiences of the past though the 8+ hours of conscious REM-sleep that this amazing plant medicine brings (which is what daily REM-sleep is all about as it was being explained in Matthew Walker’s book I was perusing in the present time line). 

But back then in 2011 I had also wondered why I was not getting the powerful electrical sound and light show like on the 1^st  Journey, and at one point I made a random access in Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh to see if I could get some elucidation about this. I opened the book at a random page and what I read hit me right between the eyes; I instantly closed the book, understanding that to get the really important spiritual vision and inner hearing it would come at the right time and with the proper preparation, by focus on Bahá’u’lláh. After the journey I spent some time searching for the reading again, and eventually found it in CXXV, paragraph number 7, so this was the one I decided to memorise now – and it took about 3 weeks of focus morning and night to get to where I could repeat it confidently every time… 

Only when the Lamp of Search, of earnest striving, of longing desire, of passionate devotion, of fervid love, of rapture and ecstasy, is kindled within the Seekers heart, and the breeze of HIS loving kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being... etc…

It has never been easy for me to learn poems or songs; it seemed like a terribly difficult and almost impossible task at first, but then many years ago back in medical school I figured out how to learn long lists of pharmaceuticals and anatomical structures by writing them all out, and indeed this was the method I then used to memorise the Long Obligatory Prayer (which took about a year) and the Tablet of Visitation of `Abdu’l-Bahá, (a couple of months) and then during last year’s fast the Tablet of Ahmad (a few weeks).  So, I wrote the whole paragraph out several times and then separated the sentences writing each one in large letters on a separate A4 page, and then carrying the A4 pages wherever I went – to work, to sleep, back to NZ in my 10 days break, and even to the toilet at times. 

As I meditated with the words, they started coming alive, and showing several different meanings, and as this occurred each word took on a whole different feeling, and I was overcome and totally in amazement at the richness of the texture and depth of each Word, as it seemed to become another lustrous pearl in the Ocean. Several different levels of meaning came into focus, running back to where they were created in the Persian or Arabic letters from the Ocean of the Blessed Beauty, and then further into the process whereby the Blessed Guardian Shoghi Effendí Rabbání  was impeccably guided in His path to learn the beautiful cadences of King James English, so he could transfer these Persian or Arabic words and maintain to some extent the beauty and depth of meaning into English. 

Through this process I also recognised that there was lots of synchronicity linking up the Words I was learning with other activities I was instinctively led to pursue during this time. For example, one day I found it was time to unpack the rest of my books, which had been stored in boxes for a few years, I now had a temporary place to store them in book shelves, and in doing this process I discovered a book I had ordered some years before but only glanced at to date. This was Scripture and Revelation, Bahá'í Studies Volume III, edited by Dr. Moojan Momen, published in 1997 by George Ronald, Publisher, which now ‘called out’ to come with me on my journey, and which I started reading each morning after spending some time on the memorising process after waking. After a beautiful and interesting introduction about the life of Haj Mehdi Arjmand, an amazing Jewish-Persian Iranian Bahá’í scholar who lived in Iran from 1861 to 1941, to whom the book was dedicated, the first presentation was a densely learned and scholarly discourse from John S. Hatcher, entitled The Validity and Value of an Historical-Critical Approach to the Revealed Works of Bahá’u’lláh. On the second page of this essay there was a paragraph or two about this process of penetrating the Words to find all sorts of levels of meanings – worth, I thought, quoting some paragraphs verbatim, including a couple of exquisite Pearls from the Ocean of the Blessed Beauty… 

“For the student of Bahá’í scripture, it would seem that an objectivist approach with its emphasis on a close reading of text and its attempt to discern various metaphorical and symbolic levels of meaning would clearly be the appropriate critical approach to take with the revealed work of Bahá’u’lláh, or with the revealed statements of any Manifestation for that matter. Certainly the techniques of hermeneutics and exegesis, both of which imply perceiving levels of meaning beyond the literal, have a long standing validity in scriptural study, and Bahá’u’lláh Himself virtually assures the success of such approaches in the Kitáb-i-Iqan when he cites the tradition that says, ‘We speak one word, and by it we intend one and seventy meanings; each one of these meanings We can explain.’ Kitáb-i-Íqán p255. The implication here would seem to be that independent meditation on the verses will inspire the reader who will thereby begin to discover these various levels of meaning.

But there is another vindication of an objectivist approach. If we accept the Bahá’í assumption that Bahá’u’lláh is a divine emissary come to assist humankind in creating a global community, we might question the value of knowing the incidental circumstances surrounding the journey that His message took to reach us, especially since it is the essential truth of the words we are challenged to ponder, not the historical context in which they were revealed. 

Such an assumption might seem further confirmed by the fact that Bahá’u’lláh exhorts us to reflect independently on His words, a process of meditation and study which focuses on each individual’s personal and private relationship to the symbolic, allegorical, or ‘hidden’ meanings: ‘Immerse yourselves in the ocean of My words, that ye may unravel its secrets, and discover all the pearls of wisdom that lie hid in its depths.’ Kitáb-i-Aqdas Para 182.   

Still another confirmation of an objectivist critical approach to the revealed writings of Bahá’u’lláh would seem to be the extent to which Bahá’u’lláh safeguards the process of personal interpretation. He eliminates clergy and prohibits the creation of a learned class that has the power to issue authoritative interpretation of scripture. In effect, He commands that everyone become scholars of scripture when He affirms that all individuals are capable of understanding scripture on some level and when He ordains that all pursue this task on a daily basis. 

A footnote inserted by John S. Hatcher follows this paragraph as follows… In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá’u’lláh states,

 ‘Recite ye the verses of God every morn and eventide. Whoso faileth to recite them hath not been faithful to the Covenant of God and His Testament, and whoso turneth away from these verses in this Day is of those who throughout eternity have turned away from God. Fear ye God, O My servants, one and all. Pride not yourself on much reading of the verses or on a multitude of pious acts by night and day; for were a man to read a single verse with joy and radiance it would be better for him than to read with lassitude all the Holy Books of God, the Help in Peril, the Self Subsisting. Read ye the sacred verses in such measure that ye be not overcome by languor and despondency.’ Kitáb-i-Aqdas, para 149.  

 As John S Hatcher pointed out, everyone’s journey with the WORDs is a personal one and the depth of the Ocean is beyond our comprehension, but it seemed to me that maybe we could get a very small glimpse of this if we looked at Bahá’u’lláh’s words We speak one word, and by it we intend one and seventy meanings.How deep is that Ocean? Very deep indeed, but it seems we are being told that we are all drops in that Ocean, and according to these WORDS in it, after a lot of earnest striving etc, we might first of all find our new eye, and then by following the path of the true seeker we might eventually get to that state of gazing with the eye of God!  It seems everyone can find their own journey with the Words, but still I felt that by sharing my journey, it seemed to light up my own trail with ever more astonishment, so I decided to try and describe some of the synchronicity I had with the Words. 

The concept of Synchronicity had long been a fascination and passion for me, which I recorded in 3 books describing my trail of synchronicity. That was an AWESOME experience; feeling the power of Synchronicity crossing the time lines and wondering with amazement how that happened, and why it followed the excitement with such great power and unmistakeable recognition of astonishing coincidence time and time again. But this was a new level again, coming with the joyful tidings of the Spirit, and even a playful sense of humour… One example of this was at the beginning when I was trying to get the first sentence down in my memory, which took a few days of effort… Only when the Lamp of Search – and then I woke after a few hours of sleep and going through my head was the song and sequence of chords I was learning the last few days with Zana's ukulele – Only Women Bleed – words and song from Alice Cooper. From then on, I never had a problem starting into the WORDS – all I had to think of was the song and the tune! 

Another example of synchronicity was while trying to remember this sentence… the trumpet blast of knowledge will awaken the heart, the soul and the spirit from the slumbers of heedlessness, and wondering what was the deeper meaning and the difference between the soul and the spirit, about that time I received on my Amazon kindle the latest book from Graham Hancock – America Before, The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilisation –which I had pre-paid for some months before…  In this great book I found a huge and deep discussion of the ancient Egyptian knowledge of the different soul and spirit vehicles, this knowledge also preserved in thousands of sites in Ancient America; in the mounds of the Mississippi valley and many other places. I realised that this discussion was way too advanced and complex to go into at the moment, and would need some more elucidation down the track with more study of the Words of the Blessed Beauty and `Abdu’l-Bahá, but still I thought it was a window into a potentially awesome deepening into the knowledge of the soul and the spirit, and also an interesting taste of the depth of the mystical divine knowledge in the Words being remembered by science at this moment in the history of this world of dust. 

I also realised while learning to recite these words, that synchronicity was perhaps what was referred to in these Words as manifest signs of the universe. I  had always had the feeling that was what was being referred to as Signs of Thy Kingdom in one of the verses of the Long Obligatory Prayer, which verse I would often inadvertently bypass (not remember) in the early years, so it stood out as one that I now did remember – and coincidentally the bit I would often forget itself starts out with not remembering… Thou seest, O My God, how my tears prevent me from remembering Thee and from extolling Thy virtues, O Thou the Lord of the Throne on high, and of earth below. I implore Thee by the signs of Thy Kingdom, and the mysteries of Thy Dominion to do with Thy loved ones as becometh Thy bounty, O Lord of all being, and is worthy of Thy grace, O King of the seen and the unseen! 

The beautiful thing about this whole process, I was excited to discover, was that when I made the effort to light the lamp of search it seemed to become an inevitable and illuminating process of magic and synchronicity, just like the Greenpeace trail had back then 27 odd years ago. Therefore, it followed that if each and every one of us take the step of search, the manifold favours and outpouring grace of the Holy and Everlasting Spirit should directly confer their blessings and eventually and inevitably we should find ourselves endowed with the new high level sensory equipment, as well as a warm heart and a sharp mind, and will contemplate the manifest signs of the universe and will penetrate the hidden mysteries of the soul! This then, I decided, would be my chosen path ahead as I went back to the beginning of this beautiful “tablet of the true seeker” to try and learn it from the top, learning the lessons and following the manifest signs of the universeas they lit the path of search ahead… There was no hurry, I felt… the first thing was to write out the 1^st paragraph of the tablet on A4 pages and carry it with me, feeling with amazement and gratitude the excitement of stepping into the first stage of the journey… 

O My brother! When a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading unto the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy.