tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657047121415401044.post1329137558172460292..comments2022-05-07T17:54:10.719-07:00Comments on Unenrolled Baha'i: A Fork in the PathKarenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15915968995957299554noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657047121415401044.post-64823262774292126292013-04-13T05:46:35.481-07:002013-04-13T05:46:35.481-07:00I really appreciate this post. I feel I'm on a...I really appreciate this post. I feel I'm on a similar journey, only a few steps behind. I, too, suffer from anxiety and depression about the Faith when I pray and meditate and several indicators have told me it's time to resign. I really appreciate your post as it is heartfelt, personal, and you are not trying to push an agenda. It's something I've found so hard on this journey. I can talk to no one as everyone has an agenda - Baha'is trying to make me reclaim "lost faith", atheists trying to convince me there is no God... I have a very supportive older sister (who is a devout Baha'i on an LSA, but who is wonderfully loving and understanding), but she is only one perspective, and I would have loved more support.<br /><br />So thank you for this personal account. You've not swayed me any way but I really needed to hear that someone was on a similar journey.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657047121415401044.post-1042662943780690032013-03-11T01:41:45.867-07:002013-03-11T01:41:45.867-07:00The comment that the Baha'is are discouraged f...The comment that the Baha'is are discouraged from meditation is just not accurate. Meditation is a feature of one class a month in our community. We often precede a prayerful session with a guided meditation that helps enliven and focus the mind. I see so many going for Buddhism and seeing that as 'the way' but Buddhists have lost sight of God on their journey, creating new ones for every eventuality and like so many religions have split into many sects. Why? Because so many times Man (and it usually is men) want to have control and not give it away to a greater good, so they manipulate and change the religion to fit what is easiest for them or fits a man-made philosophy on life. There are some edicts in the Baha'i faith I struggle with, just as i did as a Christian, but I can accept them for the greater teachings of the faith.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657047121415401044.post-62041994740605808512012-05-20T06:20:05.836-07:002012-05-20T06:20:05.836-07:00Thank you for stopping by. The Baha'i communi...Thank you for stopping by. The Baha'i community has a relentlessly external orientation, with its endless goals and plans. There is no reason why one could not be a Baha'i and practice Buddhist meditation -- except that you'd better not talk about it to other Baha'is! I myself found I had to let go of all things Baha'i, because it just get me bound up in my painful feelings about the Faith -- but that's just me. Since I wrote that last essay, the<a href="http://www.skycreekdharmacenter.org/index.html" rel="nofollow"> Dharma Center </a>-- particularly the sangha that practices vipassana meditation -- has become my spiritual home. Vipassana is simple meditation on the breath, and therefore can easily blend with any person who wanted to hang onto to another religious identity. It isn't about belief -- no one has asked me to believe or disbelieve anything -- it's about practice. There may come a time when I can go back to Baha'u'llah with a sense of peace and perspective -- I hope so. But not yet.Karenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15915968995957299554noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657047121415401044.post-75548458327651694182012-05-15T20:25:57.358-07:002012-05-15T20:25:57.358-07:00i am a Bahai but seriously planning on resigning. ...i am a Bahai but seriously planning on resigning. Almost 100% certain now but hard to give up my Bahai family. I like meditation on the Greatest Name in a mindful way. It is basically a concentration on the sound, then a gone then a rest before the next repetition of Mantra. I think I may be the onlly Bahai in the world doing this type of meditation. A Buddist Monk helped me to see the gone and rest between the sound and it is quite interesting. I wish there were others in the world who did meditations as Bahai's but the UHJ pretty much discouraged meditation among Bahai's, or set it back many decades anyway. It is such a hard thing to do even with support, that with the UHJ discouraging it it pretty much wiped it out of any community sharing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4657047121415401044.post-88633462377931566272011-08-26T18:43:25.096-07:002011-08-26T18:43:25.096-07:00Hi Karen,
I too am a "lost Baha'i"....Hi Karen,<br /><br />I too am a "lost Baha'i". I lost my voting rights and have wandered about for several years. I have returned to my Catholic roots to give a foundation to my child. <br /><br />But through my wanderings, I have come across the works of Thich Nhat Hanh. Much comfort and surprise. I don't know what box people my try to put me into, but I am finally finding peace.hunterleehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12082548568685182886noreply@blogger.com