The Journey of the Soul: Life, Death, and Immortality

The Journey of the Soul

LIFE

DEATH &

IMMORTALITY COMPILED BY Terrill G. Hayes Betty J. Fisher Richard A. Hill Terry J. Cassiday

INTRODUCTION BY John S. Hatcher

WILMETTE, ILLINOIS

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415 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091-2844 Copyright © 1994, 2006 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All rights reserved. New edition 2006.

Printed in the United States of America ∞ 09 08 07 06 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The journey of the soul : life, death, and immortality / compiled by Terrill G. Hayes . . .[et al.]. p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 1-931847-28-2 (alk. paper) 1. Spiritual life—Bahai Faith. 2. Future life—Bahai Faith. 3. Bahai Faith—Doctrines. I. Hayes, Terrill G., 1948– BP380.L54 2006 297.9’323—dc22 2005054576 Cover design by Robert A. Reddy Book design by Patrick J. Falso

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CONTENTS Note ................................................................................................ ix Introduction: Preparing the Soul for its Eternal Journey,

by John S. Hatcher ...................................................................... xi 1 / Death: A Transition to Life ......................................................... 1 2 / Earthbound: The Seduction of Human Pleasures, Opportunities for Attaining True Happiness .............................. 17 3 / The Daily Struggle: Freeing the Soul’s Potential ........................ 33 4 / Eternity: Life beyond This Life ................................................... 61 5 / This Life and the Next: Discoveries, Association, and Communication ................................................................. 77 6 / Prayers and Meditations for Spiritual Progress ........................... 87 Appendices 1 / Respect for the Dead ................................................................ 111 2 / The Potential for Eternal Union in Marriage ............................ 112 3 / Death, Fate, and Predestination................................................ 115 4 / Reincarnation ........................................................................... 121 5 / Our Spiritual and Material Connection with the Universe ....... 130 References ..................................................................................... 133 Index ............................................................................................ 145

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INTRODUCTION: PREPARING THE SOUL FOR ITS ETERNAL JOURNEY Whether we are aware of it or not, it is an abiding and inescapable fact that each of us is destined to pass from this earthly existence. We’re all going to die!

Of course, we would like to set aside such morbid concerns until the appropriate time—when we are ill, elderly, and close to that critical and inevitable point of nonexistence (if we don’t believe in an afterlife) or critical transition (if we do). But two things prevent us from easily conquering our fears about death. The ³rst is that the most mysterious and annoying attribute of this inevitable event we call death is that it may well intrude into our lives precisely at what we believe to be the “wrong” time—during our most blissful and secure moments, possibly this afternoon, perhaps just after we’ve had a nice lunch, a light dessert, and a cappuccino.

Besides the unpredictability of death, another frightening thing about this capricious transition is that we do not know where this journey will take us. Many belief systems o²er intricate panoramic portrayals of what will happen to us after we pass from our physical experience to whatever lies beyond, but most seem too far-fetched for the rational mind to accept, and very few are particularly comforting or even inviting. Given a choice, we might well want to respond, “Thanks all the same, but I would prefer an alternative.”

For example, according to major world religions like Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, we face two possibilities—heaven or hell—and none of these religions or their o²shoots seem particularly clear about whether xi

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INTRODUCTION

or not we can be sure we have made the cut. Furthermore, it is mentally challenging to accept the idea of hell as the creation of a just and loving Creator. Even worse, heaven as it is most often portrayed by these same religions—that is, as a place of eternal ease and delightful pastoral settings—would strike most people who enjoy life as a condition of eternal boredom, unless there is something more creative for us to do that these religions don’t discuss, something more invigorating than listening to the cows lowing and watching sheep graze while angels ·utter here and there or hover in choirs to intone hymns praising the Creator. If these images of the heavenly afterlife experience don’t invoke fear, then there is probably something wrong with us. Even the most benign of these images might seem calculated to induce doubt and concern rather than solace and comfort about what awaits us.

We can read in the morning paper about hundreds or thousands dying in a tsunami or in an earthquake a world away, and we may pass quickly to the news about the weather or a major appliance sale. But let the same sort of catastrophe occur in our own neighborhood, or even in our own country, and we are suddenly quite concerned—we may even contribute resources to assist those who have su²ered. But a catastrophe that happens to others, especially others far away, has the capacity to evoke in some part of us a sequence of thought we would not wish to confess, even to our best friends: “At least it didn’t happen to me! And most probably, such a catastrophic death won’t ever happen to me! My death will approach gradually by degrees with ample time for me to settle my a²airs and become emotionally reconciled to the idea.”

This is our social attitude about death, disease, and disaster—these events are aberrations, anomalies, accidents, “acts of God”—a term which clearly implies that God is uncaring or capricious. These tragedies are not meant to be a usual part of life, not at all the way life is supposed to proceed.

This very attitude has been noted in any number of works, but a relatively recent observation that seems to capture well our modern view on the subject of death and dying can be found in the foreword to Death: The Final Stage of Growth, a milestone study by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

In the foreword to that work, Joseph and Laurie Braga observe, “Death is

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a subject that is evaded, ignored, and denied by our youth-worshipping, progress-oriented society. It is almost as if we have taken on death as just another disease to be conquered.”

These words seem even more powerful and relevant today than they did when they were written, some thirty years ago, because our culture has descended ever further into its moribund obsession with youthfulness, appearance, and hedonism. Ever more steadfastly society seems bent on denying the obvious fact that no exercise regimen, however ingeniously devised, no amount of vitamins or potions or lotions can long deter the inevitable onset of our own aging and eventual death. Yes, however much we may wish to avoid discussing it, aging, dying, death, and whatever happens afterward are as much a part of our own lives as any other important periods or events—our wonderful teenage years, acquiring a driver’s license, achieving various levels of higher education, getting married, having children, and so forth.

Yet we ³nd it di¹cult and distasteful to acknowledge that death is not a matter of “if ” but “when.” In short, instead of accepting the fact that aging, dying, and death are really the climactic events of whatever we have done with our lives, our contemporary culture persists in either ignoring death or in viewing it as the antithesis of life. And if we think about it for a few minutes, this persistent refusal to discuss and accept death as an integral part of life is clearly pitiful and unnatural.

The end result of any survey of artistic, philosophical, or theological perspectives about death is that there seem to be no clear-cut or de³nitive answers, no convincing consolation that makes death any less mysterious or less worthy of our concern and consternation, whether we are contemplating our own demise or that of our loved ones. Indeed, we discover that even the minds of great artists and thinkers are just as bewildered and fearful as the rest of us about what fate awaits us.

This deep uncertainty causes Shakespeare’s memorable character Hamlet to refrain from slaying himself as he desperately seeks to end the perplexing anxiety and depression in which he ³nds himself. For what Hamlet fears is not the possibility of nonexistence. To him, ceasing to exist, ceasing to be entangled in the web of uncertainty about what course of action to take and about the inevitable guilt he will experience should

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1 DEATH: A TRANSITION TO LIFE

Returning to God 1

Ye, and all ye possess, shall pass away. Ye shall, most certainly, return to God, and shall be called to account for your doings in the presence of Him Who shall gather together the entire creation. . . .

2

This mortal life is sure to perish; its pleasures are bound to fade away and erelong ye shall return unto God, distressed with pangs of remorse, for presently ye shall be roused from your slumber, and ye shall soon Âłnd yourselves in the presence of God and will be asked of your doings.

3

All men have proceeded from God and unto Him shall all return. All shall appear before Him for judgment. He is the Lord of the Day of Resurrection, of Regeneration and of Reckoning, and His revealed Word is the Balance.

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2 EARTHBOUND: THE SEDUCTION OF HUMAN PLEASURES, OPPORTUNITIES FOR ATTAINING TRUE HAPPINESS

The Illusion of Earthly Life 1

The generations that have gone on before you—whither are they ·ed?

And those round whom in life circled the fairest and the loveliest of the land, where now are they? Pro³t by their example, O people, and be not of them that are gone astray.

Others erelong will lay hands on what ye possess, and enter into your habitations. Incline your ears to My words, and be not numbered among the foolish.

For every one of you his paramount duty is to choose for himself that on which no other may infringe and none usurp from him. Such a thing— and to this the Almighty is My witness—is the love of God, could ye but perceive it.

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Build ye for yourselves such houses as the rain and ·oods can never destroy, which shall protect you from the changes and chances of this life. This is the instruction of Him Whom the world hath wronged and forsaken.

2

Say, I swear by the righteousness of God! Erelong the pomp of the ministers of state and the ascendancy of the rulers shall pass away, the palaces of the potentates shall be laid waste and the imposing buildings of the emperors reduced to dust, but what shall endure is that which We have ordained for you in the Kingdom. It behooveth you, O people, to make the utmost endeavor that your names may be mentioned before the Throne and ye may bring forth that which will immortalize your memories throughout the eternity of God, the Lord of all being.

3

Exultest thou over the treasures thou dost possess, knowing they shall perish? Rejoicest thou in that thou rulest a span of earth, when the whole world . . . is worth as much as the black in the eye of a dead ant? Abandon it unto such as have set their a²ections upon it, and turn thou unto Him Who is the Desire of the world. Whither are gone the proud and their palaces? Gaze thou into their tombs, that thou mayest pro³t by this example, inasmuch as We made it a lesson unto every beholder. Were the breezes of Revelation to seize thee, thou wouldst ·ee the world, and turn unto the Kingdom, and wouldst expend all thou possessest, that thou mayest draw nigh unto this sublime Vision.

4

The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your a²ections upon it. Break not the bond that uniteth you with your Creator, and be not of those that have erred and strayed from His ways. Verily I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he ³ndeth it to be mere illusion.

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Know ye that by “the world” is meant your unawareness of Him Who is your Maker, and your absorption in aught else but Him. The “life to come,” on the other hand, signi³eth the things that give you a safe approach to God, the All-Glorious, the Incomparable. Whatsoever deterreth you, in this Day, from loving God is nothing but the world.

Flee it, that ye may be numbered with the blest. Should a man wish to adorn himself with the ornaments of the earth, to wear its apparels, or partake of the bene³ts it can bestow, no harm can befall him, if he alloweth nothing whatever to intervene between him and God, for God hath ordained every good thing, whether created in the heavens or in the earth, for such of His servants as truly believe in Him. 6

Seize ye, O loved ones of the All-Merciful, the chalice of eternal life pro²ered by the hand of the bountiful favors of your Lord, the Possessor of the entire creation, then drink ye deep therefrom. I swear by God, it will so enrapture you that ye shall arise to magnify His Name and proclaim His utterances amidst the peoples of the earth and shall conquer the cities of the hearts of men in the name of your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Praised.

Moreover, We announce unto everyone the joyful tidings concerning that which We have revealed in Our Most Holy Book*—a Book from above whose horizon the daystar of My commandments shineth upon every observer and every observed one. Hold ye fast unto it and ful³ll that which is revealed therein. Indeed better is this for you than whatsoever hath been created in the world, did ye but know it. Beware lest the transitory things of human life withhold you from turning unto God, the True One. Ponder ye in your hearts the world and its con·icts and changes, so that ye may discern its merit and the station of those who

* The Kitáb-i-Aqdas; revealed by Bahá’u’lláh in Acre, Israel, in 1873, it is the chief repository of His laws and is considered by Bahá’ís to be the charter of a future world civilization.

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have set their hearts upon it and have turned away from that which hath been sent down in Our Preserved Tablet.

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O ye loved ones of God! Know ye that the world is even as a mirage rising over the sands, that the thirsty mistaketh for water. The wine of this world is but a vapor in the desert, its pity and compassion but toil and trouble, the repose it pro²ereth only weariness and sorrow. Abandon it to those who belong to it, and turn your faces unto the Kingdom of your Lord the All-Merciful, that His grace and bounty may cast their dawning splendors over you, and a heavenly table may be sent down for you, and your Lord may bless you, and shower His riches upon you to gladden your bosoms and ³ll your hearts with bliss, to attract your minds, and cleanse your souls, and console your eyes.

The Life of the Spirit Versus Material Life 8

Wert thou to attain to but a dewdrop of the crystal waters of divine knowledge, thou wouldst readily realize that true life is not the life of the ·esh but the life of the spirit. For the life of the ·esh is common to both men and animals, whereas the life of the spirit is possessed only by the pure in heart who have qua²ed from the ocean of faith and partaken of the fruit of certitude. This life knoweth no death, and this existence is crowned by immortality. Even as it hath been said: “He who is a true believer liveth both in this world and in the world to come.” If by “life” be meant this earthly life, it is evident that death must needs overtake it.

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Life is of two kinds: that of the body and that of the spirit. The life of the body is material life, but the life of the spirit expresses the existence of the Kingdom, which consists in receiving the Spirit of God and becoming vivi³ed by the breath of the Holy Spirit. Although the material

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