Thank you

We don't use prayer beads? Well, perhaps in your experience, but I used them this morning to say my daily meditation on the word Alláh-u-Abhá, which we say 95 times a day. I suppose we can always find fault with others to justify our viewpoint. However, Bahá'u'lláh actually forbids this. Oh well, I guess you're not under His authority anymore, so go for it. 😇

@@wendyscott8425 Yes, I used to use them too. From the first week of signing the card. But no other Baha'is around me did. There are a lot of tacit taboos among Baha'is, and that was one. Similarly, and speaking of the Baha'i mantra, I always heard from established Baha'is _"No, we don't do mantras"_ -- which is rather absurd since the "Allah-u-Abha 95" times specified in the Kitab-i-Aqdas is quite obviously a mantra. Baha'is don't even take the word "meditation" seriously, though it's the central thing in Hinduism and Buddhism, Sikhism, and somewhat also in Sufism (from which Baha'i derives.) I expect Baha'is have evolved in various ways since the 1970s. But when I was a Baha'i you were an obtuse oddity if you used mala beads or talked about "meditation" as if it was any sort of technical thing beyond "musing" about a text or whatever. I was present when a young Steven Birkland, then an Auxiliary Board Member, made a pointed protest by walking out in the middle of a Baha'i musician's presentation, because the musician was teaching Baha'is to use the Baha'i mantra. Other young people at that time registered his protest and walked out of the event along with him. It was utterly ridiculous. The people doing it were getting clearly blissed-out. But this is the anti-mystical trend in the Baha'i Faith. As to Baha'u'llah, he has no authority so I couldn't be "under" it.

@@DivineFellowship The Bahá'í Faith is a rather new religion, just 130 years old when you were involved, with lots of new young members who, especially back in the 70s, didn't have the resources we have now. We didn't even have the Kitáb-i-Aqdás, Bahá'u'lláh's Most Holy Book, translated and available until 1992. Let me just suggest that to base your opinions about the Faith on the actions of some youth and their limited understanding of the Faith and its teachings is, let me suggest, premature. Bahá'u'lláh is God's latest Manifestation. He unites people of all religions, races, nations, and genders. Take it or leave it. He never forced anyone to believe in Him. As He said, "Whosoever desireth, let him turn aside from this counsel and whosoever desireth let him choose the path to his Lord." You've chosen yours. Perhaps someday you'll understand why I'm so very happy I chose mine. And btw, let me recommend a book in case you decide to look into this more: _The Divine Art of Meditation_ by Farnaz Masumian. I think you might be surprised by this Bahá'í author's delving into the subject.

@@wendyscott8425 _"We didn't even have the Kitáb-i-Aqdás, Bahá'u'lláh's Most Holy Book, translated and available until 1992."_ The Baha'is had the *Synopsis & Codification Of The Kitab-i-Aqdas* by the 1970s. The admonition to "chant the greatest name 95 times each day" was easily readable there. (The book was so Holy the Baha'i admin suppressed the full translation until 1992, which is funny.) _"Let me just suggest that to base your opinions about the Faith on the actions of some youth and their limited understanding..."_ You're saying that for Baha'is to use mala beads shows "limited understanding"? That makes no sense. It was the Baha'is who did NOT do the Baha'i mantra (the .vast bulk of them) who had limited understanding. _"Bahá'u'lláh is God's latest Manifestation."_ I don't see God manifested in the visage or persona of Baha'u'llah, or in his words and attitude. His teachings are primitive, Islamic in nature, only relevant to a place and age long-passed. The Hindu saint Nityananda of Ganeshpuri was a manifestation-of-God for real, undoubtedly. He died in August 1961. So he is a much more recent than your Glorious Glare. But I know you Baha'is live in a VERY limited religious universe,. in fact and in truth. _"He unites people of all religions, races, nations, and genders."_ I do not know what "uniting" all these even means. When Baha'is speak of "unity" and "uniting" they are always speaking of transitory pleasant social experiences or transitory, piece-meal instances of agreement. I do know that the divorce rate among Bahais is very high, probably higher than the general population. And if you can't "unite" your own family then I think all the "unity" talk of Baha'is is a bad joke. _"Take it or leave it."_ I left it. _"...let him choose the path to his Lord.""_ You you can regard such an angry, fulminating, scowling imp as your "Lord" you're a pretty strange duck. _"you'll understand why I'm so very happy I chose mine."_ For now. I found that the Baha'i Faith is like a way-station for seekers. Many people pass through. It is a stage. Many grow out of it. Especially if they continue to "independently investigate." _"The Divine Art of Meditation by Farnaz Masumian. I think you might be surprised by this Bahá'í author's delving into the subject."_ I will stick with the Yoga-Sutras and the Bhagavad-Gita. After 35 years I have not even begun to really plumb their depths. Does your Iranian author address things like Kumbhaka (The Breathless State) which occurs finally with successful meditation? I doubt it. And if meditation were really important in the Baha'i Faith why wouldn't the founders have addressed it in some detail (as we see in The Bhagavad Gita) rather than some rando much later on? So one of the verses on meditation in the Gita is 4:29: *_"Still others offer as sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming breath, while some offer the incoming breath into the outgoing breath. Some arduously practice prāṇāyām and restrain the incoming and outgoing breaths, purely absorbed in the regulation of the life-energy."_* I only listed it as just one of numerous technical references to meditation in the Gita. It is five-thousand years old. Why would glory-man's "new revelation" have nothing to say about it, and neither does your Iranian pundit? By and large, a Baha'i will not even know what "pranayama" even means. Typically they will minimize it to an absurd degree, saying "That's for that bygone time."

@@DivineFellowship Feel free to believe anything you like about us and our motivations. If you want to have ill feelings towards the Bahá'í community, you definitely won't be the first. 20,000 believers have died for their Faith at the hands of those who hate and distort our beliefs. I think this is probably enough for this discussion.

And the victors in this case were not the Covenant-breakers.

It's fine on my computer. You might check your equipment.

Dear Ian, Allah'u'Abha! What a pleasure to hear from you. I often think of your dear mother, Moira, Don and you. Where has life taken you? Recently I came across one of your letters from 40 years ago. I probably already told you but I celebrated your influence on my becoming a Baha'i in a memoir I wrote. Did I send that chapter to you? Please send me your email so I can forward it if you wish. With warmest memories of Adelaide.... Tom

Thank you so much for your kind words. If you are referring to the prayer I recited, it is included in the video description, and it is an authorized translation. If I misunderstand your request, please clarify, Thanks again.

see video desc. attached (Mr. Taherzadeh himself reveals it verbally in "Revelation of Baha'u'llah")

@@tomlysaght4283 Thank you for the reference.

I was thinking precisely the same thing

You are so welcome