Four kinds of proofs

  Month, Day: 177, Questions, Grandeur (Perfection)

Tying together two mentions of an affair. 

• Proofs are of Four Kinds 
• Green Acre, 1912   

Note that the photo in the first bullet is from Panels #2 and #3 of the second bullet.  

Remarks: 12/14/2020 

12/14/2020 -- 

July 6, 1912

 Month, Day: 177, Speech, Beauty (Grace)

It's coming upon 110 years. 

Microcosm Macrocosm: Therefore the realities of all phenomena are immutable. Extinction or mortality is nothing but the transformation of pictures and images, so to speak - the reality back of these images is eternal. And every reality of the realities is one of the bounties of God.

Remarks: 11/23/2020 

11/23/2020 -- 

Swami Agnivesh

 Month, Day: 177, Knowledge, Beauty (Glory)

This is a reflection on a prayer sent by the Master to AE Lunt: Crush the mind, Up and down. 

Swami Agnivesh is an example of many things. One is that there are loads of people in dire straits everywhere. 

Remarks: 10/17/2020 

10/17/2020 --

Will, Honour 177

Month, Day: 177, Will, Honour (Beauty)

THE ETERNITY OF THY MAJESTY

How marvelous, then, are the manifold tokens of Thy might and how great are the diverse evidences of Thy power! The learned have, without exception, admitted their ignorance when confronted with the radiance of the Luminary of Thy knowledge; and the mighty have all confessed their impotence in the face of the billowing Ocean of Thy power; and the rich have one and all acknowledged their poverty before the effusions of the Treasuries of Thy wealth; and the worldly wise have each recognized their nothingness beside the splendors of the Light of Thy beauty; and the exalted have all witnessed unto their abasement when face to face with the effulgence of the Day Star of Thy glory; and they who are in authority have borne witness to their own evanescence and to the evanescence of others, and discovered the eternity of Thy majesty, and of Thy sovereignty, and of Thy sublimity, and of Thy power.

BWF, Chapter Two. 

Remarks: 10/12/2020 

10/12/2020 --

Quenching of thirst

Month, Day: 177, Will, Light (Justice)

Remarks: 10/17/2020 

10/17/2020 -- Earlier post.  

Family of Imran

Month, Day: 177, Names, Dominion (Glory)

Earlier, I did a pointer to Surah of Hud with an earlier reference to the Sisters of Hud.  

So, today: Family of Imran.

Both of these are Rodwell's translation. At the site, they offer about 70 translations, including Sale.

Remarks: 09/05/2020

09/05/2020 --

Spinoza's mind

Month, Day: 177, Names, Speech (Grace)

Interesting article: Did Einstein Believe in a Creator? From April 2019. Fifty years ago, I was into Spinoza, big time, and found him again a few weeks ago. Namely, through his Ethics.

The article was a nice read. I'm going through Ethics and trying to lay out how Spinoza (400 years ago) was a computational mind. One of the first? And, given his thinking, we can apply the insights to help get a balance back into the colonialism spirit that is the current computing vogue (with the muddy cloud and all). Spinoza's 'pantheistic' mode seems to be apparent to some and appealing to others.

I see that Spinoza's uses 'God' in a type of rebellion to his past. Were he here today, he would, no doubt, have a more nuanced usage. Yet, he grasped the ring then, more than any other that I have read. When I say, computational, it alludes to the Euclid'like mode. Yet, it is more. Spinoza was very methodical with references between the Parts. The Parts, themselves, are of a categorical nature that is astoundingly in touch; albeit, one might consider some union of Spinoza and Descartes' thoughts which would be wanting due to various reasons. Such as, his time, which, in terms of symmetry is fairly close to now. Something to explain.

Insights? Spinoza's exposition is loaded. Take his ways of knowing. He uses imaginary, reason, and intuition, in that order. The Master talked several times of a cognitive look that uses imagination, thought, and comprehension. The main approach taken by science has been to throw out that latter (how intuition and comprehension relate is a topic to discuss); replacing this facility with mathematics has been troublesome; it's time to reassess just how much there is no basis to the model built thus, despite all of the glorious side-effects that we have seen; many times, one might add, accumulative poison to which we inure ourselves.

---

The article was a Part I. Here are II (Yes, I Believe in Science -- and in God) and III (Defining Eternity: Scientifically & Spiritually).

Remarks: 09/01/2020

09/01/2020 --

Baha'iTeachings org

Month, Day: 177, Names, Words (Grace)

Interesting website: BahaiTeachings.org.

Looks like a nice balance using modern methods.

Remarks: 08/25/2020

08/25/2020 --

Spring of the cow

Month, Day: 177, Names, Beauty (Independence)

By a circuitous route, got to reading about Akka's references in the Writings, mostly the Quran and related material.

Find this little bit of wisdom: Khidr.

How does it relate to us? Think technology. And, AI. One point of interest is ethics and using the example of dilemmas about whom to allow to die. The approaches ignore some old lessons. How do we recover these?

Anthropological view on ethics.

 Remarks: 08/21/2020

08/21/2020 --

Surah of Hud

Month, Day: 177, Perfection, Might (Beauty)

Over the years, have read this Surah and wanted to learn of Those (PBUH) named Who were not familiar to the usual viewpoint of western Christianity. So, it's time.

The motive (my emphasis): 
In like manner, those words that have streamed forth from the source of power and descended from the heaven of glory are innumerable and beyond the ordinary comprehension of man. To them that are possessed of true understanding and insight the Súrah of Húd surely sufficeth. Ponder a while those holy words in your heart, and, with utter detachment, strive to grasp their meaning…. (“Kitáb-i-Íqán”, p. 5)

And, Rodwell's translation, of course. We'll use the 'Remarks' section for our notes, serially.

Remarks: 08/09/2020

08/09/2020 --Did not have far to go. Thanks to Wikipedia editors: Hud_(surah). 
 

Reduced to five

Month, Day: 177, Perfection, Glory (Glory)

At times over the years, we have mentioned reading the Koran, several translations. Then, we ran into scholarly works related to Islam, some of them out of Oxford. That was an eye opener (say, Bahira) in many ways.

Today, we will just put out an image, from a book. The URL is embedded in the image. Basically, the context deals with the Night Journey. Have seen many references to this; finally, I have paid more attention. Which gets me to thinking about the 7V and 4V.

The author is a cuz of sorts, so worth quoting.

Remarks: 08/01/2020

08/01/2020 --

Bahira

Month, Day: 177, Grandeur, Power  (Majesty)

Having been born and raised a Christian, I never heard of this story: Bahira. I got to this revelation in a circuitous manner. First, though, events over the past five decades bring forward a concept related to technology's child and its worldview, namely computationalism. That concept is a couple of decades old and can be called truth engineering. At its core is that psychether is part of the regular set of energies with which we can feel comfortable and use for the purposes of advancing civilization. It's about time, actually.

Having read three translations of the Quran over these same decades (now, keeping with Rodwell due to its use in several publications, including the Iqan), knowing that the Guardian noted that we ought to know Islam to its core (which would include culture), having read that psychology ought to be studied (in ways yet to be seen, to me, that implies computational modes abetted with a better understanding of our natures), being aware that some of the teachings of Islam appeal to a scientific view even if such a suggestion is shouted down by the progressive mind, and more, I finally realized that the Orientalists of the little isle that gave us the Brits (and we gave them the Guardian) are more than the few mentioned by Baha'is, and, actually, started to read some of these.

The first thing of interest was the pre-history, before the Year of the Elephant. That can be juxtaposed with my northern European ancestry which has some of the southern mixed in, from a deep viewpoint of the genes actually telling us something when coupled with psythether. Too, the seven heavens of the Night Journey have so many more meanings that we see discussed.

That Orientalists are writing is of no concern to the intuition, as the dissonance is no more than looking at the notes of Rodwell who ventures off the proper path many times. The Guardian didn't barf at that.

As a side note, that the Islamic culture was in Spain for so many centuries is a factor, to boot, in terms of the upcoming discourse. And, in the US, where was there this for the most part represented? The Southwest, and the left coast, of course. Ah, the US? Of course, these dynamics through time have elements related to locale, to boot. Yes, the flitting around can push those nuances to the background.

Let's go back, for the moment, to the Letter to AELunt. For  the few who bop around in the upper realms, there are myriads whose sole existence is as backbone (or structure of sorts). Civilization would not continue without this. Envy the boppers with their jet setting? No. I know what goes into the planes and how easily they can fall from the sky (to wit, the past couple of years). On the other hand, aware of the failings that are so visible to those who look? You bet. From the ground up.

That's what can be considered a view that needs a little more elaboration: Johnny Appleseed (cuz) was real.

Remarks: 08/01/2020

06/08/2020 -- For more on AE Lunt, see Hierarchy, bahaipedia, Green Acre, New Englanders, and more.

Thirst quenching

Month, Day: 177, Beauty, Power  (Glory)

Every soul, not just those currently favored. 

This is from about page 42 of the Iqan.

Remarks: 10/17/2020

10/17/2020 -- Further. 

Angels, many sorts

Month, Day: 177, Beauty, Might  (Justice)

All attention seems to be on a virus that has spread itself around the globe.

On Wikipedia, there has been discussion of angels (what are they?), especially in the material related to Science and Religion. I gave my Iqan to a person in a nursing home several years ago. Thankfully, it's on-line.

Context. Some are commanded to work: Crush the mind. As we have seen of late, angels and heroes work when others cower and escape.

Remarks: 05/06/2020

05/06/2020 --

Might and Will

Month, Day: 176, Loftiness, Will  (Justice)

With Will, we start the 2nd Nine. The 1st Nine were Splendour through Names. Might is the Pivot. Then, we have Will through Loftiness.

Reflection in the spirit of the 'Group' mode.  Or, one might say, pick your pattern.

• Transcendent, Teleological, Operational, Motivational, Ascendant

St. Patrick's Day is Loftiness, this year.

Remarks: 03/11/2020

03/11/2020 --

Hierarchy

Month, Day: 176, Third Intercalary Day  (Independence)

This one matches up with the 29th of Feb, that rare bird. 

The Guardian is quoted in one of the Pilgrim Notes as saying that there is an hierarchy in the Faith as there is in life. The Writings, elsewhere, mention the highers knowing more than those below. We see other references like this. The Master praised the physicians who got it right. None have, that I can see (long story of patient advocacy going back decades). We would trust our lives to such. Which we do, by caveat. Some get better due to treatment. But, there are plenty of horror stories, too.

 I go by the ending of the Aqdas. No one in their right mind would want to be King. That is easy to describe. Jung touched upon the subject. Oh yes, the Guardian pointed to Psychology in at least one instance. That can be as medical as the other disciplines. Except, pharma intervenes.

Speaking of which, an early post (Crush the mind) included a counsel for prayer from the Master to Alfred E. Lunt (in-law). To me, it has lots of significance. Anyone who thinks that those born lowly can rise on their own need to reexamine their thinking. Some are of the mud, from birth. 'mud' here is of a lots of meanings. The Guardian stressed the materialism of the west (northern type). After all, Africa is west of Asia. Northern type? Lots to discuss there.

Eons and Manifestations have resulted in locale issues. Sure, there can be action at a distance, when the  metric is manipulated. However, locality and its power bear attention. Hence, adages of removing oneself like we see with the big pocket'd thinking of launching away from the earth (God's footstool) since they see the messes that we've created.

The point? Those lowly can still rise in their minds and hearts. Some point to the after-life's importance to some belief systems in this regard and cough into their hands (scoff). However, as that prayer says, and the Tablet of the True seeker suggests, and as we see with the Valley of Search, there ought to be no limit to striving. What to strive for is another topic to be on the table.

Back to hierarchy, many at the top live by the means of oodles beneath them. That has always been a problem. And, for the most part, those invisibles never get attention, that is, until something goes wrong. Then blame flames. So that might be the game's structure. The adage of not coming down on the sinner (not talking the issues of reward and punishment, rather of individual judgment of others - which is a trap that the well-honed mind likes to fall into) since one knows not one's own end (see the Koran, too) is an very important one.

At the same time, doormats never thrive. But, the earth never complains. Oh yes, it does. Lots of upheavals (and not just in the crust) come about.

Remarks: 06/08/2020

06/08/2020 --For more on AE Lunt, see Hierarchy, bahaipedia, Green Acre, New Englanders, and more.

Hearts and minds

Month, Day: 176, Sovereignty, Power  (Independence)

BWF, page 210: It is hoped that the people of Baha will observe the sacred verse: "Say, all are created by God." This lofty utterance is like unto water for quenching the fire of hate and hostility which is hidden and stored in men's hearts and minds. This single utterance will cause the various sects and creeds to attain the light of true unity. 

Remarks: 01/31/2020

01/31/2020 --

Crush the mind

Month, Day: 176, Honour, Honour  (Justice)

This counsel, to me, depicts the hierarchy that we see the Guardian referring to in one of the Pilgrim Notes. Those who labor, without proper remuneration and absent of any type of respect? They can still think of 'worship' and the value of their efforts. 

Along that line, while so involved with the mundane, one can think. This we can teach. It is not only those enclosed in the higher world of the academic garden who can conceptualize and benefit from 'creative design' related to imaginative metaphysics.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/ahsai2.htm

Audience of one? Autodidacts have that, anyway. I'll be back on this theme, regularly. 

Remarks: 10/17/2020

06/08/2020 -- For more on AE Lunt, see Hierarchy, bahaipedia, Green Acre, New Englanders, and more.

06/10/2020 -- In the IX volume of the Star of the West, No 13, you can see the full excerpt sent by Alfred to Star of the West. He had received it from Ahmad Sohrab. The times? 1918. In the middle of the pandemic of the Spanish Flu.

 Star of the West

10/17/2020 -- This is a reflection on a prayer sent by the Master to AE Lunt: Crush the mind, Up and down. Example: Swami Agnivesh.