tpm Moon

In Which I Discover the Moon

By John Taylor; 2008 Feb 01, 12 Sultan, 164 BE

Our almost-daily children's classes have been blessed by a new addition, a book on the obligatory prayers called "Discovering the Moon, by Jacqueline Mehrabi, just sent to us by the BDS. On the back cover it quotes Baha'u'llah,

"Verily, the religion of God is like unto heaven; fasting is its sun, and obligatory prayer is its moon."

The blurbs implied that it is a good book for pre-youth about to come of age at fifteen, when the "moon" becomes obligatory. I had thought of getting the book as a present for Silvie on her fifteenth birthday, but I am glad I ordered it now, a year and a half beforehand. Both Silvie and eight-year-old Tomaso are enjoying it. Silvie is becoming a skilled comic book artist, and draws several panels while I read the two chapters per session. Thomas tends to be more tangential in his vision. My favorite picture of his shows a massive electro-magnet (the world) and a Baha'i being drawn towards it by an inexorable magnetic force. Behind him is Abdu'l-Baha running another machine that is projecting a force field before the Baha'i, protecting him from being sucked in.

I plan to collect the illustrations they have made for the novel and make them available to you on the Web somehow. Anyway, I am learning a lot about the Long Obligatory prayer from this book; I had no idea of the power Baha'u'llah promised that it will unleash. It is an especially good time to read this now that I am in dialog with anti-theists, for I am coming to realize how necessary it is to demonstrate more than dry theory to these people. I feel that I must do the long obligatory prayer to make my arguments count for more than words on top of words.

Long ago I gained an aversion to saying the Long Obligatory Prayer, probably because holding your head down can provoke a migraine in those susceptible, when weather conditions are wrong. But reading Discovering the Moon encouraged me to try again. There was no question of my saying it every day, so I tried every other day.

I do not know what bounties and fresh release of spiritual power I was expecting, but I found that on the days when I did say it, things were tougher than the alternate days I did not. Little things conspired to make them especially hard, tough choices, unpleasant moral dilemmas, tiny goads that I cannot put a finger on or tell you about. I was taken aback, then thought, why not? I am praying for tests, tests are a healing medicine, so let me persist.

"The companions of all who adore Thee are the tears they shed, and the comforters of such as seek Thee are the groans they utter, and the food of them who haste to meet Thee is the fragments of their broken hearts." (Prayers and Meditations, 155)

 And besides, the Taylor motto is: "A Taylor never quits," so you are not going to see me quitting when things get unpleasant. Then, with yesterday's long oblig day, the release of spiritual power jacked itself up to a whole new level.

 The kids have been sick with some virus. Thomas has been normal, except that periodically he vomits. Silvie was dragged down by an enervating condition and has been able to attend school only one day this week. One result is that our sleep schedules are messed up. I woke very early and then at 6:30 AM I went back to bed and woke again an hour later with a vivid dream, almost a vision. I dreamed that I was working on two computers, one a normal one and the other a long, lathe-like machine that I had converted into a computer too.

 I looked over at the first computer and saw that its fan was knocking. Then it banged, and finally flew apart and exploded, with parts flying in every direction. I thought, "I hope the computer knows enough to shut down before it overheats." It did, but then out of the fan floated a sort of transparent orb.

 It seemed like a ghost, and not a nice one. It went over to the second computer, floated, and then sank into the guts of the machine. Then it turned it on and took it over, like a computer virus. Turning the on/off switch did not help, but there was a big black power switch and I hit it. This did shut it off and the orb immediately floated out and began floating in my general direction. I wondered what would happen if the ghost went inside me. I put my face up against it and it passed into me, down my gullet and into my innards. I woke up amazed.

 Then I remembered my long obligatory prayer. I said it and worked on scanning all morning, hoping to get something written in the afternoon. At exactly ten to one, the aching bones of a flu hit. I was worse every minute, miserable all day. Marie was working that evening, so I had the kids on my hands. Silvie was on her second week of a martial arts course (based on a system invented by the actor Bruce Lee) that she is taking Thursday evenings at the Youth Center -- to my surprise, Thomas was not interested. I got them there and back, and had to go to straight to bed. I turned on the DVD player and, long story short, had an awful night of fever and vomiting. No Baha'i class that evening.

I can hardly wait till tomorrow to find out how much further the bounties can be ramped up. God will find a way.