Advice for the Spiritual Seeker
ByBaha’u’llah’s Description of the True Seeker
“. . . O my brother, when a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading to the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse and purify 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. He must purge his breast, which is the sanctuary of the abiding love of the Beloved, of every defilement, and sanctify his soul from all that pertaineth to water and clay, from all shadowy and ephemeral attachments. He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth. Even as thou dost witness in this day how most of the people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have strayed far from the Embodiments of the divine mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming through the wilderness of oblivion and error. That seeker must at all times put his trust in God, must renounce the peoples of the earth, detach himself from the world of dust, and cleave unto Him Who is the Lord of Lords. He must never seek to exalt himself above any one, must wash away from the tablet of his heart every trace of pride and vainglory, must cling unto patience and resignation, observe silence, and refrain from idle talk. For the tongue is a smouldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison. Material fire consumeth the body, whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul. The force of the former lasteth but for a time, whilst the effects of the latter endure a century.
That seeker should also regard backbiting as grievous error, and keep himself aloof from its dominion, inasmuch as backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul. He should be content with little, and be freed from all inordinate desire. He should treasure the companionship of those that have renounced the world, and regard avoidance of boastful and worldly people a precious benefit. At the dawn of every day he should commune with God, and with all his soul persevere in the quest of his Beloved. He should consume every wayward thought with the flame of His loving mention, and, with the swiftness of lightning, pass by all else save Him. He should succour the dispossessed, and never withhold his favour from the destitute. He should show kindness to animals, how much more unto his fellow-man, to him who is endowed with the power of utterance. He should not hesitate to offer up his life for his Beloved, nor allow the censure of the people to turn him away from the Truth. He should not wish for others that which he doth not wish for himself, nor promise that which he doth not fulfil. With all his heart should the seeker avoid fellowship with evil doers, and pray for the remission of their sins. He should forgive the sinful, and never despise his low estate, for none knoweth what his own end shall be. How often hath a sinner, at the hour of death, attained to the essence of faith, and, quaffing the immortal draught, hath taken his flight unto the celestial Concourse. And how often hath a devout believer, at the hour of his soul’s ascension, been so changed as to fall into the nethermost fire. Our purpose in revealing these convincing and weighty utterances is to impress upon the seeker that he should regard all else beside God as transient, and count all things save Him, Who is the Object of all adoration, as utter nothingness.
These are among the attributes of the exalted, and constitute the hall-mark of the spiritually-minded. They have already been mentioned in connection with the requirements of the wayfarers that tread the Path of Positive Knowledge. When the detached wayfarer and sincere seeker hath fulfilled these essential conditions, then and only then can he be called a true seeker. Whensoever he hath fulfilled the conditions implied in the verse: ‘Whoso maketh efforts for Us,’ he shall enjoy the blessing conferred by the words: ‘In Our ways shall We assuredly guide him.’
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 seeker’s 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. At that hour will the mystic Herald, bearing the joyful tidings of the Spirit, shine forth from the City of
Baha’u'llah (The Kitab-i-Iqan, pp. 192-196)
A couple of questions: We are told by Jesus and the traditions to have love in our hearts for God and our fellow humans. How does this reconcile with Baha’u'llah’s command to cleanse the heart of love and hate? Especially since further down in the quote it says that fervid love should be kindled in the seeker’s heart.
Also, we know that Jesus hung out with “sinners.” Why does Baha’u'llah say that we should stay away from “sinners”? Who is classified as a sinner? Hasn’t everyone sinner?
Thank you for your questions. They are certainly pertinent. In answer to the first:
The command to cleanse the heart of love and hate can be understood in light of the other admonitions surrounding it.
The passage in question is clearly describing a process, a spiritual journey as Baha’u’llah wrote: “ … when a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading to the knowledge of the Ancient of Days …”
That is, when at a certain point in life an individual consciously decides to seek after Truth the initial stages of this journey are of an intellectual nature and in order for the intellect to be free in this pursuit the heart must be sufficiently free of limiting attachments.
Thus, Baha’u’llah advises the seeker to cleanse and purify his heart from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy, to purge his breast of shadowy and ephemeral attachments and to detach himself from the world of dust.
From this we can understand that those who seek after Truth must be rather scientific, they must be objective and detached from preconceptions. If their love for a particular ideology, or a cultural icon or even another human is such that it would prevent them from seeking and recognizing the truth then either they would be better off without such “love” or else they can accept that their search for Truth will be extremely limited. Thus Baha’u’llah warns us “lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth”. The seeker after Truth is being warned that the process will call upon them to examine themselves . . .
But Baha’u’llah does not intend by this that the reader should understand this as meaning that a seeker should cease to care about anything at all. If the seeker didn’t have a desire for discovering the Truth they would lose all motivation for this endeavor.
If we examine the realm of human endeavor we find that those who accomplish great things are not those who are merely the most clever but rather those who have such dedication — such love — for their particular pursuit that they are 100% committed, letting nothing hold them back and never giving up, even in the face of repeated failure. The most renowned scientists and inventors were willing to suffer persecution in response to their efforts. Some, like Einstein, only initially in their career, others like Tesla, Reich and Rife increasingly throughout their lives until they were either imprisoned or died alone and in despair. The same is seen with some of the great artists such as in the case of Van Gogh. Great discoveries are not necessarily accepted by the masses during the lifetime of scientists, artists, or philosophers; they might not find acceptance even among their peers. It is rare for a radically new idea to gain immediate acceptance and yet without such ideas no progress will occur. Clearly lack of popular acceptance is not an accurate measure of the worthiness of a discovery.
The pursuit of spiritual Truth can be no different. The seeker’s desire for this Truth must be such that they are willing to turn their back on their previous loves and hates — their prejudices, in order to freely pursue their endeavor. This wouldn’t mean that they purge their heart of the love for Truth itself as an abstract value but that they purge their heart of preconceptions about what is true and what is false. Similarly it doesn’t mean that the seeker should cleanse their heart of Love for God and Love for humans as a value. However, perhaps if someone should love a “God” of their own imagining, could not such love prevent them from objectively examining the Truth? Or perhaps their attachment to acceptance from their loved ones would cause them to ignore or even reject the Truth. Throughout history conditions such as these have been the cause of humanity’s initial collective rejection of great spiritual truths and the messengers who taught them.
The first stage in the pursuit of Truth is that of “Whoso maketh efforts for Us.” The next stage is “In Our ways shall We assuredly guide him.”
Once the seeker finds Truth the journey is not over for they only yet grasp it intellectually, it is still in the realm of mere ideology. In order for the Truth to have a lasting and meaningful impact the journey must continue to the next level. This is characterized as when fervid love for this newly discovered Truth is kindled in the seeker’s heart — only then will the latent potential of Truth be fulfilled and “the darkness of error be dispelled, the mists of doubts and misgivings be dissipated, and the lights of knowledge and certitude envelop his being.” Prior to this the seeker, even though they have accepted Truth intellectually, is still mostly blind to the spiritual reality underlying and yet beyond this material world. Until the seeker begins to consciously participate in that reality not only will they will lack certitude, they will lack the experience necessary to learn about these realities such that they can understand for themselves rather than parroting what they have been taught.
Pursuit of certitude for its own sake leads to one of the most grievous errors made by people of religion — that of fundamentalism. In reaction to basic issues of insecurity the spiritually immature believer will cling to the most rudimentary, face-value understanding of the guidance found in Holy Scripture. This gives rise to a dogmatic stance toward the teachings that does not allow for evolution and advancement. The reason for it lies in the believer’s desire for a single, definite black and white meaning to serve as an easily understood guide for behavioral choices. This desire is a reaction to their inherent insecurity which drives them toward an abdication of responsibility. This is the practice of religion wherein the believers don’t have to think, all they have to do is obey and they will be “saved”. However, it is possible that through their endeavor the believer will slowly evolve and as they do so they will discover new understandings inherent in the text and eventually may even come to realize that security (salvation) cannot be found in worship of an ideology, for that is merely a head-trip.
Unlike a mere head-trip, the spiritual world is a universal Reality and the best way to learn about that reality is to experience it firsthand. Sooner or later what we read in scripture must become action in our lives otherwise the real meaning is lost.
In answer to the second question:
In one of his explanations from Some Answered Questions `Abdu’l-Baha said, “The good deeds of the righteous are the sins of the Near Ones.” In other words a higher standard is applied to those who have evolved further spiritually than to those who have not. Thus sin is relative, sin is imperfection and as we are never absolutely perfect we are all sinners.
As we are all “sinners” in this respect, if we interpret Baha’u’llah’s statement that “with all his heart should the seeker avoid fellowship with evil doers” overly simplistically and literally this would mean every person on the planet would have to avoid every other person on the planet. As this would clearly be nonsensical we know that (if we credit Baha’u’llah with having at least as much intelligence as we ourselves have) this was not the intended meaning.
Rather, fellowship implies a certain level of camaraderie and attachment. To use a fairly mundane example: In the case of the “sin” of alcoholism, until the alcoholic has truly overcome their disease its probably best that they stay out of bars and they probably cannot afford to associate with any alcoholic friends who are not trying to overcome their alcoholism as well.
In general, fulfillment of the admonition to avoid fellowship with evil-doers is not difficult for as one evolves spiritually one is not inclined to hang out with “evil doers” as personal friends. To use an extreme example: Charles Manson just isn’t that interesting. Nevertheless exceptionally advanced individuals such as Jesus may be able to personally afford the spiritual risk of conversing with such as these out of love for them and in order to extend whatever hope may be possible for their recovery.
So, we have a general rule of thumb but the individual has the freedom to make the call in each situation. The Spirit is available to guide us as needed but isn’t much interested in either overprotecting us or in beating us up about it. We make our choices and we get to learn from them. In doing so we evolve.
I am sure there is a great deal more spiritual knowledge around these subjects but I trust that what has been discussed is sufficient for now.
Blessings
Anyone who has been to AA group meetings and witnessed the prevalence of individuals coming to their knees in prayer to their Higher Power, mentions of “GOD” and Our Lords Prayer recognizes that AA is a religion set on spirituality – just like Christianity.