I am working in the garden and a hummingbird whizzes past only to see my empty feeder. Her presence reminds me that I need to fill it with the clear, sugary liquid she enjoys. The little bird with her continual coming and going from dawn until dusk (and even when it is practically black outside!) is my metaphor for the soul in need of nourishment.聽
As a teenager growing up in the 70's, I enjoyed the music of Seals and Crofts. The lyrics of many of their songs, some drawn from Bah谩鈥櫭� sacred scriptures, gave me an understanding into things mystical. 听鈥�Hummingbird鈥� was one that stuck in my head: "Lift us up to the heaven of holiness. Oh Source of our being. Oh hummingbird!"
That there would be life beyond this mortal world makes sense to me. We live, we do our best to acquire divine virtues, and when we die our soul lives eternally. I am indeed an optimist. I believe that this material life isn't all there is.
Sacred scriptures assure us that our soul does not belong to the material world.聽 It is similar to a light reflected in a mirror. The light which appears in the mirror is not inside it; it comes from an external source. There is a special relationship between our soul and our body, and a special relationship between our soul and our Creator. The progress and development of the soul is independent of the physical body, just as the light is independent of the mirror.
Such metaphors abound in the Bah谩鈥櫭� Writings. Very often, the beauty of nature is used to illustrate the beauty of the spiritual world, the one mirrored in the other.
Bah谩'u'll谩h, the Prophet-Founder of the Bah谩鈥櫭� Faith, wrote of our true nature: "Ye are even as the bird which soareth, with the full force of its mighty wings and with complete and joyous confidence, through the immensity of the heavens..."
Abdu鈥檒-Bah谩, the son of Bah谩'u'll谩h, described the soul: "When you break a glass on which the sun shines, the glass is broken, but the sun still shines! If a cage containing a bird is destroyed, the bird is unharmed.聽 If a glass lamp is broken ~ the flame can still burn bright!聽 The same thing applies to the spirit of man. Though death destroy his body, it has no power over his spirit...this is eternal, everlasting."
One of the聽 Bah谩鈥櫭� prayers for those who have departed from this world, asks that God "鈥�dispel their sorrows, change their darkness into light. Cause them to enter the garden of happiness鈥�", and asks that they,"behold Thy splendors from the loftiest mount".听
From my vantage point that's going to be an awesome view.聽聽
Gail Owens is a member of the Baha'i Faith and volunteers in the Spiritual Care Department of Victoria General Hospital. She is looking forward to having her book "Making Dying Joyful" published this year.
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