{"id":902,"date":"2006-07-13T11:11:35","date_gmt":"2006-07-13T09:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/word\/archives\/902"},"modified":"2009-02-26T04:09:29","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T10:09:29","slug":"searching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/archives\/902","title":{"rendered":"Searching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night at the Junior Youth Animator<\/a> training we read the following quotation from the Baha’i Writings<\/a>:<\/p>\n

“The more we search for ourselves, the less likely we are to find ourselves; and the more we search for God, and to serve our fellow-men, the more profoundly will we become acquainted with ourselves, and the more inwardly assured. This is one of the great spiritual laws of life.”<\/strong>
\n(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, February 18, 1954)<\/em><\/p>\n

It made me think a lot about how we go about the process of searching for ourselves. When we say we are “lost” or need to go find ourselves, and often “disappear” from the world in order to facilitate that process. But the Guardian (Shoghi Effendi) is clear as to how the process of spiritual growth and transformation is to occur: through worship of God and service to others!<\/p>\n

I’m still figuring out how I want to present myself to the world, of course. Last night, out of several conversations, I started thinking about why I do certain things in different situations. This is not to over-analyze myself, but rather to understand my own motives and actions in order to learn and grow. How we choose to act outwardly reflects our inner selves.<\/p>\n

“Man’s evolution is both individual and collective, because of his twofold relationship to himself and to the society in which he lives. Individual evolution starts with the early stages of one’s existence. Consciousness too grows with this evolution.”<\/strong>
\n(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, January 14, 1938)<\/em><\/p>\n

We can’t separate ourselves from society. Monasticism<\/a> and similar activities are discouraged. We are to grow spiritually by being a part of the community around us. Sometimes our communities can test us, our fellow Baha’is can be a trial. The state of the world is crumbling and it is easy to feel hopeless. The link below has a wonderful quote.
\n
\n“The believers, as we all know, should endeavour to set such an
\nexample in their personal lives and conduct that others will feel
\nimpelled to embrace a Faith which reforms human character.
\nHowever, unfortunately, not everyone achieves easily and rapidly
\nthe victory over self. What every believer, new or old, should
\nrealize is that the Cause has the spiritual power to re-create us
\nif we make the effort to let that power influence us, and the
\ngreatest help in this respect is prayer. We must supplicate
\nBaha’u’llah to assist us to overcome the failings in our own
\ncharacters, and also exert our own will power in mastering
\nourselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“He will certainly pray for the work of the beloved Cause there and
\nespecially that new souls may be attracted and embrace the Faith.
\nHe will also pray that the believers may, for the sake of God, draw
\nclose to each other and not permit each other’s short-comings to
\nbe a source of disunity and consequently a means of depriving
\nthirsty souls of this life-giving Message! The world is full of
\nevil and dark forces and the friends must not permit these forces
\nto get hold of them by thinking and feeling negatively towards each
\nother.”<\/strong>
\n(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an
\nindividual believer, January 27, 1945)<\/em><\/p>\n

Thanks to my webmaster and spiritual brother, Paul, for help finding some of these quotes. You’re awesome!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night at the Junior Youth Animator training we read the following quotation from the Baha’i Writings: “The more we search for ourselves, the less likely we are to find ourselves; and the more we search for God, and to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bahai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1540,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions\/1540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sholeh.calmstorm.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}