Truth vs. Superstition

As I approached the Sacred Garden this morning, thinking to offer my usual mantra, my Lord appeared with a look that said, “Please don’t offer a meaningless repetition.” My spirit drank in the Holy Presence in a wordless meditation. The mind eventually began composing a summary of the experience.

You must root out superstition from your belief system. It is easy to see it in others and difficult to see in yourself. Prayers and mantras prescribed by spiritual leaders are one thing. Sometimes they seem to connect you to pure Spirit and produce a big blessing. But not always. They can be over-relied on. The truly spiritual don’t need them.

Behavioral dogma is another thing. Sometimes there is a time to do the forbidden. It took years for my husband to obtain his divorce, and yet I knew he and I were married. After 5 years we finally had our public wedding. I don’t drink alcoholic beverages but I do eat kimchee, sour kraut, miso and drink rejuvelac, knowing anything fermented has a trace of alcohol.

Prayers and exhortations of my Faith are in Its Holy Texts. I have a phone app called, “Baha’i Daily Quotes,” which I enjoy. Reading the words penned by the Lord of your Faith is a kind of food. Still sometimes I don’t read them. Sometimes when I meet Baha’u’llah in the Sacred Garden, He asks me why I haven’t been reading His Words, then the next Passage I read is particularly meaningful.