Happiness: It Gives You Wings
iman November 18th, 2008
We may know what brings about spiritual happiness but knowing isn’t enough. Our free will determines what we ultimately do. It is essential to continually put into practice ‘tools’ such as detachment, sacrifice, service and faith, as painful as it may seem at times. Modern society has pre-determined what “makes us happy”, this being largely materialistic in nature. It hasn’t worked. It’s up to us to tower over the society around us in search of true, spiritual contentment. This is especially difficult to do and is only a first step in a journey that requires continual effort and unwavering resolve.
In the search for spiritual contentment, everything that draws us closer to God will make up happier, and to find God in this day is to recognize and accept His Channel to us. Baha’u'llah, who Baha’is believe is the latest in the line of Manifestations from God says, in the first paragraph of His Most Holy Book, the Kitab-i-Aqdas:
The first duty prescribed by God for His servants is the recognition of Him Who is the Dayspring of His Revelation and the Fountain of His laws, Who representeth the Godhead in both the Kingdom of His Cause and the world of creation.
(Baha’u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 19)
We owe it to ourselves to conquer sadness with joy, and to actively seek it. We owe it to our latent capacities of intellect, comprehension and intelligence; in other words, to achieving our God-given potential. Consider this passage:
Joy gives us wings! In times of joy our strength is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded. We seem better able to cope with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness. But when sadness visits us we become weak, our strength leaves us, our comprehension is dim and our intelligence veiled. The actualities of life seem to elude our grasp, the eyes of our spirits fail to discover the sacred mysteries, and we become even as dead beings.
(Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 109)
The nature of life is such that it will always have it’s ups and downs. Nobody goes through life without experiencing some form of hardship, be it mental or physical. Yet, the degree to which external factors affect one’s internal well-being is a true indicator of spiritual strength.
“Anybody can be happy in the state of comfort, ease, health, success, pleasure and joy; but if one will be happy and contented in the time of trouble, hardship and prevailing disease, it is the proof of nobility.”
(Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha v2, p. 263)
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- Baha'i Concepts , Inspiration
- Comments(3)
We’ve come a long way from the “thou shalt not” approach to belief and practice.
What is so beautiful about Baha’u'llah’s advice and prescriptions for happiness is that scientists will come along a few decades later and “discover” proofs through evidence that these things are true.
So we have many opportunities to benefit from the knowledge of God- whether our approach is through belief and faith or science or the “school of hard knocks”.
He is indeed merciful and we are indeed hard-headed sometimes.
Here’s to being happy and noble!
Dear Iman:
Thank you for such an articulate summation of these spiritual truths which, as you say, we know, but must put the effort into bringing them into reality.
Thank you both.
“This is the time of happiness; it is the day of cheerfulness and exhilaration…But one must show forth perseverance and self-devotion and consecrate his thoughts, until the tree of hope may give fruit and produce consequences.”
(Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu’l-Baha v2, p. 320)