Sadhana opens Feast:
Let us begin this welcome and officially open the
Feast by taking a moment of silence, closing our
eyes, and becoming One, not by trying to become one
with each other, but all becoming One with the
Spirit, and so we are made One. Let us bring all our
focus on the center of The Greatest Sign,
He who Is and Is All. [Silence]
Let us make a joyful week in His Service.
Sal-Om all. Welcome to the 26th Feast of
Tabernacles as celebrated by the Mission of
Maitreya. The first one took place in
1989, and we are now in 2014 and we are still the
fourth round of celebrating, because we celebrate
one Seal each Feast and we are now on the fourth
round of this, the Fifth Seal in the fourth round.
Welcome to the Feast, symbolizing the coming of
the Lord (the time of year when God's Spirit is
Greatest on earth)! It is the most Holy Feast
of God, and represents gathering, usually the autumn harvest.
The Feast will be broadcast online and we hope
that all of you will be celebrating it in your own
areas by joining us during the services that we will
be doing as well. We have a schedule available
for anyone to take a look and follow the events for
this year's Feast that should hopefully bring
everyone together and help us increase the Spirit of
God in us and let the ego decrease. This year
we will mostly learn about Universalism and
hopefully this will help us to expand our minds, hearts,
and Souls to the Revelation and others that may
enjoy the benefits of Maitreya's
Message, which is for all of humanity.
To open the Feast, we should begin by remembering
why we celebrate it and what it is. What is
the Feast of Tabernacles? Why do we celebrate
it?
The answers to these questions can be found in
THOTH, as
everything else, which explains to us that in
chapter 23 of Leviticus in the
Bible, God commands
the Holy Days and Feasts which He expects humans to
follow over the course of the year. There are
seven of them, and they are the only Holy Days and
the only holidays commanded by God. There
should be none other.
There is always a great and beneficent reason for
God’s commands. A Commandment with no
reasoning would not be logical and, as many dogmatic
approaches would have it, this is not an angry God
that just tells you to do things and you should do
them without understanding why. All man-made
holidays are focused on glorifying the self, or the
individual, or the humanity, and increasing the
false ego, whereas all of God's Holy Days are
created in a way that focuses the self on God.
At this time of age, it is very important to
understand this reason, as God always wants the best
for His creation.
All of human suffering and the entire
reason the universe needed to be created was because
the false ego exists (that illusion that we are
separate from God). Anything that focuses on the
false ego will lead to destruction and ignorance.
Anything that focuses on God and brings the
focus away from the self and that false ego, leads to
salvation.
The Holy Days are created to help us -
Sabbath is for man. They should be followed
because they will accelerate our spiritual progress
and as a sign of obedience to the Lord, as we are
His people.
There are seven Holy Days that were commanded to
be celebrated in Leviticus, and the Feast of
Tabernacles is the seventh. As is explained in
THOTH, I will
read from
Feasts and Holy Days of the Lord, which is in
Essays 1, Tablet 14
in THOTH, it
says:
10 - The fifteenth day of the seventh month shall
be the Feast of Tabernacles and for seven days there will be a
feast. On the first day a
holy convocation, and
no servile work.
11 - After seven days of feasting, a
Sabbath on the
eighth day, a
holy convocation. It
is a solemn assembly, with no servile work.
The Holy Days that are commanded in Leviticus 23 are
asked to be solemn. On the Passover we focus
on the Lord passing us over. It is a time of
self-examination and control, and a sort of
discipline, and the same with the other Holy Days.
But the Feast of Tabernacles is a time of feasting,
celebration, a joyful time.
So do not be solemn but be happy, be joyful.
Let that Joy and Spirit come through. It is a
time to have fun in the Spirit of God, in a Godly
Way, and feel that side of God also.
God clearly wants those who are the Children of
Light, the Children of Israel, to follow these
Feasts and Holy Days, this most Holy Day or Holy
Week of the Lord, and let it be a sign that we are
truly the Children of Light. The
Mission of Maitreya is the fulfillment of
many prayers and expectations. Through the
truth that has been revealed to us, we will return
to God's Ways.
God's Ways expand our minds. The New Man of
the Golden Age, with a lucid mind, has broken
through anything that stands in front of them to be
a Universalist. The only "ism" is
Universalism. Any other "ism" is from
narrowness. Only by accepting the universe as
the only home, nation, and country, can a man
overcome being narrow-minded by relating the self to
a specific group or land. Only then can he
destroy the very disease of the mind, which is a
feeling of belonging to one part rather than feeling
that the only home is the entire universe.
We focus the Feast on one Seal of the Seven Seals
in the Eternal Divine Path and
The Greatest Sign. And this
year we focus on the Fifth Seal.
What is the Fifth Seal? The Fifth Seal is
the Seal of Expansion, Universalism, representing
the understanding that we are One, that we should
come together and become united. We should
create one world government, one country, one
language, and if possible, one race, and live
together happily. Only in such unity might we
expand to encompass the whole universe as our home.
Universalism is not really a spiritual achievement
but it is a spiritual understanding.
For more information on Universalism and the
Fifth Seal we recommend the transcript of the
lecture on the Fifth Seal, given by
Maitreya Himself, which everyone is
encouraged to read on their own. The lecture
is scheduled for the first day of the Feast of
Tabernacles. We would encourage everyone to
read this material about the Fifth Seal and then
join in on daily readings of various letters or
frequently asked questions on the Baha'i Faith. Of
course, you can attend the several events that are
scheduled for God's Feast, the schedule for this
year's Feast of Tabernacles is available online so
that everyone has the opportunity to follow the
activities. Finally, welcome to those who are
interested in learning more, we kindly invite all to
discuss what they might learn in these days during
and after the Feast.
To understand Universalism and the Fifth Seal in
The Greatest Sign and in the
Eternal Divine Path, what it
represents, as with any Seal, it is necessary to
understand previous and following Seals so that you
might benefit from any knowledge acquired in the context
of the whole Teaching of Maitreya
and what the Mission is about.
There are many truths awaiting to be discovered,
something that goes for the whole of the Mission
of Maitreya, and with the message of the
Fifth Seal, expansion is inevitable!
Let's begin by taking a look to the Fifth Seal in
The Greatest Sign and see what it
is: The Star with nine arms, a symbol of
Universalism. The nine-armed star is the
symbol of the Baha'i Faith, emphasizing the
spiritual unity of all humankind. As we can
read in THOTH,
many Saints of this religion were slain for the word
of God (their belief which came by their Prophet),
"and for the testimony which they held." As of
now, humanity was not ready to expand on their
previous understandings, and what had happened to
a great many Baha'is was prophesied and should have
been fulfilled, as the Revelation 6:11 informs us.
Baha'i came in the 1800's and the idea of
progressive revelation was introduced into
the consciousnesses of many who believed the Fourth Seal
was the Last Seal and Prophet Muhammad the last
prophet. The Baha'i Faith and the symbol with two
five-pointed stars often used as a ringstone symbol
testifies of this main feature, representing Bab and
Baha'u'llah, the twin Prophets.
The Bab as the Prophet was in fact Christ
incarnated. He was the true founder of the
Baha'i Faith. The Bab was a Major
Manifestation, while Baha'u'llah can be compared to
Paul in Christianity: His principal mission was to
spread the teachings and bring the Baha'i Faith to the
western part of the world. In the course of
this process a great deal of the teachings of the Baha'i Faith had to be
watered down and even altered. We will, of
course, hear much more about this and learn about
how the Mission of Maitreya
clarifies the confusion in regards to this as well.
After the birth of Bab (Baha'u'llah), the world
started to progress toward a more international
feeling. This especially shows the greatness
of this Prophet and His Mission.
The nearly simultaneous appearance of two
Manifestations of God, Baha'u'llah Himself states,
"is a mystery such as no mind can fathom." For
instance, it is interesting to know that Bab was
from the lineage of Prophet Muhammad; Baha'u'llah
was not. For Baha'is, it is both an
affirmation that the establishment of universal
peace - the "Kingdom of God" - is not too far
distant, and a testimony to the greatness of
Baha'u'llah's Revelation, symbolized by what is also
known as the Day-Star (the nine-armed star, the
Fifth Seal of The Greatest Sign).
It should be mentioned and I am going to, in the
next passage, read something briefly from
THOTH,
THE HOLIEST,
Revelation of The Revelation, Tablet Seven.
The very message of Universalism has been its very
test, as Baha'is have truly experienced. How
expanded are we exactly? In addition, why is
this religion, if it is ever-expanding, not perfect?
We will see, the Mission teaches,
there are two more Seals after the Fifth that
complete God's Message to Humanity:
<9>What remained and the main purpose of the coming
of the
Baha'i Faith is its universal view which should be accepted and
preserved, "Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain,
that are ready to die."
(THOTH,
Revelation of The
Revelation,
Tablet Seven)
As with any stage in spiritual progress, the
Fifth stage, level or chakra has a pitfall. In
THOTH it is stated:
"He who overcomes the
pitfalls of this stage will overcome all
attractions of Maya. He will overcome the
material world (the five elements, the five koshas
- sheaths)." These mysteries, with the
meanings of the Seals, are revealed in The
Greatest Sign and make up the Eternal Divine
Path, revealed to us by Maitreya (GIWH):
<1>The fifth church is
represented by the symbol of the nine-armed
star of the
Baha'i Faith (
).
<2>The name
Baha'u'llah means "The Beauty of God."
"That thou hast a name" refers to this name
which the followers of the
Baha'i Faith should bring to the world.
They should glorify the Lord. "That thou
livest, and art dead": but this name is
dead. They are not glorifying the Lord --
Formless, Invisible, Nameless, and Eternal (FINE).
They are glorifying their Prophet (Baha'u'llah).
(THOTH,
Revelation of The
Revelation,
Tablet Seven)
Many Bahai's have difficulties expanding their
minds to the other two Seals and Prophets after their
Prophet, as many others have. Symbolically also,
the
fifth chakra is not the final stage. So, we
might ask: "Who can give up all the colors of the
rainbow and be dressed in pure white?" The rainbow can be
beautiful indeed, like the Baha’i teachings are, very
beautiful, and this is also an important part of God’s
Plan. But like a prism would refract light into
many colors, if we are interested in the whole
picture, we have to search for the source of pure
white light, if we want to have a clear vision, unobscured by many or any prisms. As a final point
that supports this notion, Maitreya-Ji has also
mentioned that a lot of the Baha'i teachings are not
Scriptural and so have no basis in God's Words.
Last year we celebrated the Fourth Seal,
surrendering and submission, which leads to the
realization that: You no longer exist. God
alone exists.
In this Feast of Tabernacles we celebrate this part of
God's Plan, the Fifth Seal, and try to understand
how Universalism, God's Plan to bring unity to
humanity, is accomplished.
We are here to celebrate this and understand it, in
the context of the rest of Maitreya's teachings, of
course. Awakening of the Spiritual Forces, the First
Seal, the Communities of Light, the Second Seal,
will only work if we sacrifice, the Third Seal, if we surrender and
submit to the Will of God, the
Fourth Seal, and if we become a Universalist and
shatter all narrowness of the mind, then we might
create one world, one humanity, and all work
together, etc. In this Feast, this week, we
focus on understanding and celebrating the Fifth Seal.
So welcome, welcome to the Fifth Seal Feast. If
there are any questions we will be able to pose
these during lectures or otherwise during the Feast.
We will now turn to the schedule for this year's Feast in
celebrating this Fifth Seal, in celebrating this
Holy Day, this Holy Week. We have developed a
schedule here locally that we are going to broadcast
the majority of events online, so everyone who would like
to is welcome to join us. We will go through it
briefly to make sure everyone is informed of the
upcoming events, activities, resting times,
services, etc.
During the Feast we celebrate one Seal each day in a
way that the Seventh Seal is always on Sabbath,
Saturday - in the larger scheme we focus on the
Fifth Seal, and for each day we also focus on these
individual Seals, understanding them, and glorifying
them.
Let us take a look at Day 1 from the
Index. I think
I will provide the link for the Paltalk listeners
here so they can see the schedule for this year's
Feast of Tabernacles. The schedule has regular
Services each day and then following that, there are
some interesting Reader's Choice and volunteer
readings that will relate to the Fifth Seal, so
tuning in is a great way to learn more about this
Seal. On the first day of the Feast we have a
full
moon and the Holy Convocation (no servile work), so
assembling with like-minded believers is a huge
blessing, and this year it is on the first day of
the Feast, which makes it a great symbolic
alignment. Thanks God for that.
This is all in Mountain Standard Time (MST) or
actually Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) since we are
currently in Daylight Savings Time, so you will have
to transfer that to whatever local time you are in
to be able to join us. But starting in the morning
at 5:30 AM on Paltalk we will be broadcasting a
Service, similar to the Service we had this evening.
Then at 6:30 AM we will be having a
THOTH reading. We
have selected the THOTH readings to be based on the
Fifth Seal so we will be starting with Reader's
Choice. The readings are assigned, so please check
and see if you are assigned to any of these readings
if you volunteered.
Next we have an hour of innercise. Innercise
are
those activities that relate to the chakras, the
flow of energy in the body, the glands, and
awakening the inner body, the ethereal body,
strengthening the spiritual, the inner spiritual
awareness in the body. The main example is yoga, and
indeed we have a
guided class for men and a
guided
class for women that are provided on the website and
anyone can use them if they would like more help in
this section. That can be accessed by clicking the
link on the schedule, "(see our guided classes)," if
you click that you can go to it. In the afternoon,
we have Pilates, a combination of exercise and innercise,
and are also available as a
guided class.
Other examples, if you would like to do those, are
Tai Chi or similar martial arts practices, and many
other things related to the Mystical Paths all over
the world. Any of these would be fine.
Then we will hear a two-part lecture by Maitreya-Ji, read
individually and/or on Paltalk, before and after dinner.
In the midday, 11:50 AM MDT, we do The Reminder.
Then we have Service again, and in the evenings we
have freeform readings from the teachings. Everyone
is welcome to come on Paltalk and read whatever he
or she would like for however long they would like
and just enjoy the teachings.
That is the basic schedule for each of the days. It
follows that general idea. All of this is broadcast
on Paltalk. You can join us for every single one of
these on Paltalk. If you would like more information
about these events, there is a link again in the schedule,
"Broadcast on Paltalk." If you click that, you
will learn more.
On the second day we will have Maitreya's (GIWH)
first
Question and Answer session, where
He will be
available for questions if questions are sent
beforehand and
have not been posed before, as most of questions
have been previously answered. Maitreya will be
available for two times this Feast to answer
questions. It is the only time of the year that
He
does this, that He is available to the public for
answering questions, so it is a very rare and great
honor. If you would like to ask a question,
you should email it to us now, beforehand. If you email it to
Him, He will be able to provide a better answer as
He will have time to meditate on it. He would prefer
it that way. Therefore, if you have a question for
Him for these sessions, the one on Day 4 or the one
on Day 6, email them to us now. You can email them
to us at any of our email addresses.
On Day 3 we will perform the Mission Rosary, so
the
Rosary Session will be helpful to those who want to
learn about how this is done while we also continue
with part two lecture on meditation. On this day our
Sabbath fast begins after the Service is performed.
On Sabbath, transmission meditation is done and this
is two times a day, 6:00 AM to 6:30 AM and 6:00 PM
to
6:30 PM. After the Sabbath Community Unity Meeting,
there is a breaking of the fast dinner and a
Mission-related movie.
The fifth day we have on schedule a lecture on
the spiritual practices of the Mission that
the Divine Sisters have prepared for this year's
Feast.
We will also be able to tune in to a lecture on
meditation given by Unus. There will be a question and
answer session by Unus following up on this on the
next day, Day 6.
On Day 6 we usually do community service, a selfless
service that should be done from knowledge and
offered as a service in your local area. We
encourage everyone, in their own area, to find
something that they can do, this is a great part of
spiritual practice, and also getting out there and
helping the community is good for all. On this day
Maitreya (GIWH) will be available for new questions
sent to the Mission beforehand. It should be
mentioned that one must come to these sessions to
have your questions answered. They will not be
answered if you are not there.
On the seventh day of the Feast we have a trip to
the local mountains, this can be done in your local
area as well; a picnic in nature and fresh air in
combination with the Rosary, contemplation, vision
quest, etc. can make this a beautiful and Godly day. To have a vision quest would be to go to a quiet
place and meditate in your area and have a quest for
vision, for true understanding. It is a Native
American idea that when the child wanted to become a
man, they would have to go off and be alone until
they had a vision. Then they would come back as an
adult. We find this to be a very beautiful idea, and
we encourage all... in fact, there is a Satsang by
Maitreya where it is requested that everyone
should have a vision quest, to truly go and have a quest
for Vision: To let God give you the Vision of this
Mission. Go on a vision quest during this day and
see what God will reveal to you!
In the evening, there is a talent/sharing night with
spiritual stories, songs and performances. So for
this night we encourage everyone to find something,
some stories, some jokes, etc., that teach beautiful
spiritual lessons, and share them with the rest. This year we
will have a
puppet theater play prepared by
two Mission members.
Day 8 is the closing of the Feast of Tabernacles.
On the last
day of the Feast we will be having the rounding as a
repeated service over and over again constantly
throughout the day of chanting, constant chanting,
people meditating while others are chanting, and it
will be an amazing time. Since we are so small at
this time, what will happen is, we will have a
regular Service in the morning as the other days. After that, chanting, straight chanting, will start
playing in the room for the whole day. So any time
any of you feel inspired to chant that day, do the HOSH Mantra, the Kirtan, just join the room and
there will be chanting. And that will occur until
the evening Service.
The Feast officially ends at 6:00 PM.
Finally, after the evening Service we will be having
the candle ceremony, which is a time in which we
take unlit candles and light them from a lit candle
at the foot of Maitreya's chair. It is symbolic of
receiving the Light Maitreya has given to us, and
then having that Light to spread to the world, as
Christ instructed, when you have a Light you put it
somewhere that all can see it, such as the top of a hill. It is a
very powerful, symbolic ceremony, and we welcome
everyone to do something similar in their own areas,
or at least feel that symbolism there.
That is how we conduct the Feast. As our
numbers increase, we are hoping to increase these
activities and to make them more elaborate and
inclusive.
So, we welcome you all to the Feast. May you all
enjoy - may we all enjoy. May God be with us, if it
is His Will.
As has been in previous Feasts, we will now open up
the room to testimonials to be given, if one would like to
give a testimonial of how they received the Mission
and came to the Mission. Or, if you are just filled
with the Spirit and just want to say something
devotional, please go ahead.
Thanks God, and Sal-Om everyone. Welcome!
Welcome Message Index
