Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Ayyam-i-Ha

3 Ayyam-i-Ha 163 B.E. - Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Rejoice,
the Lord has come with twenty thousand angels
scattering the forces of darkness
transforming doubt into certainty
hate into love
and death into life,
so raise your voices in praise.

Rejoice,
for these are the days of fulfillment,
the days of thanksgiving and exaltation,
of visiting the downtrodden and the ill,
of proclaiming the Glory of God
and spreading abroad the good news of unity.

Rejoice,
raise your voices,
intone prayers of thanksgiving and praise,
chant the words of God,
shout God’s new name from everyone to hear.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Learning a Prayer or Scripture Verse by Heart

12 Mulk 163 B.E. - Sunday, February 18, 2007

The phrase “learn it by heart” always fascinated me. Some people use the word memorizes, but when you’re learning a prayer I think “by heart” is more appropriate. I remember when I was a child I memorized two prayers and a scripture verse. One of the prayers was the Lord ’s Prayer from the New Testament and the other was “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep”. The Scripture was the 23rd Psalms from the Old Testament.

As I get older learning prayer by heart is a bit more difficult and takes longer, but the reward is the same. When I became a Baha’I I begin using the prayers revealed by the central figures. As a result I’ve learned the prayer I say most often by heart. However, learning a prayer “by heart” is more than just repeating it over and over again. Another aspect of memorizing a prayer is feeling the Holy Spirit when you say the prayer.

I can remember repeating the Lord’s Prayer and the 23rd Psalms as I was growing up. Every time I said either of those verses, I felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. The same it true when I repeat a prayer of the Bab, Baha’u’llah, or ‘Abdu’l-Baha. The presence of God’s Spirit is especially strong when I recite the Table of Ahmad. No matter what my problem or mood at the time I recite the Table, it changes. If I’m sad or depressed I became happy. If I have a problem than I get the feeling that the problem is solved and all I have to do is open my eyes and see the solution or wait for the solution to present itself.

I’m not sure how long it took me to memorize the Tablet of Ahmad. I just remember waking up one morning and repeat the Tablet all the way through without looking at my prayer book. The interesting thing about memorization is that you have to review what you’ve memorized daily. There was a while, when life was going smoothly that I didn’t say the Table every day. As a result I forgot it. However, when I went to learn the Table again it was easier, so maybe I didn’t completely forget the prayer or maybe memorizing something a second time is just easier than it is the first time, no matter how old you are.

It’s interesting about learning scripture verses. I find it easier to learn them if I repeat the verse several times before I go to sleep. Of course, some verses are easier to learn than others, but no matter how difficult or easy the verse is to learn you have to review them either daily or, at least, every other day. The soul may remember the verse, but the human brain and mind have a tenancy to forget unless one reviews the memorized verses on a regular basis. Although, I have found that verses I thought I’d forgotten come to mind at the times I need them the most.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Brain Storming the Rest of My Life

8 Mulk 163 B.E. - Wednesday, February 14, 2007

I’ve graduated with my master’s in Instructional Technology. The question asked, “What am I going to do with it?”, which is an interesting and appropriate question. The problem is that I can’t seem to think about what I’m going to do now. The obvious answer is use it to get a job. Most of the jobs in Las Vegas, with this type of degree, are teaching jobs. It’s not that I don’t want to teach. I think I’d like to teach in college, but high school I’m not too sure about.

I supposed I could go into business for myself, I’m contemplating this. The question comes to mind, How will this degree help me? I’m also not sure about how to go about starting a business. You know, before getting the degree these things didn’t come up. Actually, as much stress and problems I had during the classes, I could focus only on getting the work done and nothing else. Now I can focus on other things and nothing comes to mind.

Right now, a wall of fog lay between any decision I need to make and myself. The things I can see close to me are all limitations and things I need fixed. I need to see a dentist, I need to pay bills (which having a job would help), but I have such a problem with my teeth. I have several missing and should get false teeth. In addition, … I could put a lot of “in additions” here, but I’m not. I don’t see that complaining or listing the negatives are going to help.

The truth is that focusing on the negatives appears to increase them. I’ve thought about this a lot lately. I haven’t always been this way, normally I’m more positive. Perhaps not “Pollyanna”, but I’ve had a positive outlook. The best thing to do, is just take a deep breath, say some prayers for protection and push into the fog bank.

This degree does give me the ability to create online learning and instructional modules. I had to create one for the class. The module I created is the equivalent of a Master’s Thesis. The instructor gave me some suggestions for improvement and there is a lot I would have like to put in the module, but they weren’t called for and would have taken more time than I had for the class. Therefore, I guess the first thing to do is make the changes the instructor suggestion. The next is to create another module with everything in it I want. I will say that I feel more positive this morning than I have in a long time about getting a job or starting a business.

‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote a prayer about placing everything in God’s hands. I thought I memorized the prayer once, but I’ve found, memorized prayers must be said every day or so to remain in you mind. The positive thing about memorizing a prayer a second time is that it’s easier. I think I’ll review that prayer again and see if I have forgotten it or not. It could be that I haven’t been focusing on the prayer itself when I’ve tried to repeat it from memory.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

What am I doing right?

5 Mulk 163 B.E. - Sunday, February 11, 2007

We ask question all the time:
How, who, what, when, where, and why.
Answers come in various form,
Though they are often not what we want.

Are the questions we ask God and ourselves
Meant to elicit the answers we want or the answers we need.

I find myself asking, “What am I doing wrong?”

Doesn’t this suggest that I expect to take an incorrect action?
On the other hand, if I rephrase the question
It becomes “What am I doing right?”
Now I’m preparing my eyes to see reality.
God put within me, within everyone, a spark of divine light.

Rephrasing a question refocuses either on the positive or the negative.
It lets us see both what needs fixing and what is well done.
God loves the individual and humanity,
Has a plan for each person and for civilization in general:
There is always something the individual is doing right.

Monday, February 05, 2007

Update

18 Sultan 163 B.E. - Monday, February 05, 2007

I’ve finished my masters’ classes in Instructional Technology at AIU. So this week I’m doing a little catching up on stuff I had to put on the back burner while I was working on the course. There were a few things I didn’t put off, one of those was the Ruhi Course. I’ve completed almost all of the books. I will complete Book 4 this coming Saturday. I have to make up some sections of Book 3 and review book 7. I’m assisting tutoring Book 1 on Sunday evening and will be doing that for the next several weeks.

Now I can get back to going to poetry open mics in Las Vegas. Although, I’m not sure at this point if the reason I stopped going to the poetry readings was because of the masters’ classes or lack of gas. Any way, there is an open mic on the third Friday of every month that I’m going to attend. The is also one every Thursday night. I’ll see about going to the Thursday night one, but I’m not sure when right now.

At this moment there are e-mails I need to read and answer. Yesterday (Sunday, February 04) I didn’t get any e-mails read. I went to the Baha’I center and spend the day there at Ruhi classes, we (my mom and I) finished book 6 that day. After we finish that book we stayed at the center until the Book 1 session started. The only thing I completed at home yesterday was updating the spy detection software.

Now that I’ve completed the masters’ program I have a bit more time. What this means is doing some house keeping in my e-mail accounts and blogs. I’m in a fairly good mood today, which usually means I’ll get a lot completed. I have to go out of the house tomorrow and possible this evening or this afternoon. Otherwise, I’ve got some revisions, chapters to complete and submission to send. I know it will take a while to catch up on everything, but if I do a little each day, the important stuff will get done.