How do you practice your Spirituality? A Bahá’í Perspective

Introduction by Cole Goodwin

Welcome to The Spiritual Roundtable, an interfaith roundtable featuring a diverse range of spiritual belief systems in the Gorge Community.

Each week, spiritual leaders and learners will share their take on some of humanity's biggest questions, starting with: What does your spirituality mean to you? And ramping up into discussions about the nature of existence, the soul, the divine, and of course…a question as old as time itself: why are we here? 

Roundtable writings will be published each Saturday and Sunday of the month. So look forward to new installments every Saturday and Sunday morning!

Take a deep breath… Meditate for a moment…And when you’re ready…keep reading to explore the diverse faiths, belief systems, and philosophies that exist in our communities.

This Month's Question: What is your belief systems basic belief structure? What are some of the major celebrations or rites of passage? What are some of the core beliefs and major practices?

Why this question was chosen: This question asks us to examine the basic principles and values that guide our Spirituality and expand our understanding of the many paths one can walk to live a Spiritual life.

Rene Weiler lives in Lyle, Washington where she raised her family with her husband Bill. She is a recently retired physical therapist, and loves building community in any way she can!

Learn more at: gorgebahais.org. We also have one public and one private Facebook group for Bahá’ís in the Gorge. 

The official website sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States is Bahai.us, and the official Website of the Worldwide Bahá’í Community is Bahai.org.

A Bahá’í Perspective

By Irene Weiler

I vividly recall the very first time I ever encountered the word Baha'i or the name Baha'u'llah. I was a young college student suddenly encountering a world of new ideas. On my way to class that day I passed a display which featured a large diagramatic planet earth, with the text from Baha'u'llah: "The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."

Despite the loving nature of this quotation, embracing all humanity as one family, I recall that in my youthful immaturity I scoffed with disdain at this idea, especially because it proffered the words of someone other than Jesus. But although my initial reaction was negative, I now remember that moment as THE watershed moment in my life; exposure to the sacred words of Baha'u'llah. I imagine many of you readers, just like my 18 year old self, may not have heard of the Baha'i Faith, as it had its origins only a little more than 150 years ago in a part of the world (Persia) obscure to many of us. But perhaps you have heard of Baha'i, as it is the second most geographically widespread religion (second only to Christianity) and chances are that in whatever village or city you reside on whatever continent, it is likely you have some Baha'i friends or neighbors. Yes even in little Lyle, where I live! In fact, all of us here in the Gorge have a surprising and historic connection with the Baha'i Faith, as the first royalty to fully align herself with this Revelation was Queen Marie of Romania to whom the Maryhill museum was dedicated by Sam Hill.

I look back on the decades since I first saw that world embracing display at Boston University, and I see with eyes of gratitude how the practices and core teachings of this Faith have completely shaped my life. I thank God that I grew past the hard shell of rigid thinking to embrace a faith that is for me living, real, growing. My little acorn self began to break open into a tender seedling and then into a tree that hopefully bears fruit not only for the transformation of my own inner being but also for the betterment of the world around me.

"Let your vision be world-embracing rather than confined to your own self." -Baha'u'llah

Baha'u'llah taught that all of the great world religions spring from one Divine Source. You can think of religion as a Sacred Book with many chapters, each with the purpose to advance humankind spiritually and materially. Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, Christ, Baha'u'llah and others from time immemorial into the the unknown future are bringers of great Educatting religions expressing the eternal love the Creator has for us in sending continual guidance for our well-being. Each chapter of this one Holy Book is suited to the time in which it appeared, each prophesied by the previous, each building and adding to the spiritual and social teachings of theTeacher who came before.

"This is the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future."

Just as I, and each of us, grew and developed from childhood to adolescence to adulthood, so do all living things, and religion too is a growing living thing. Baha'u'llah's central message for the time in which we live is that of unity. There is but one God, humanity is one family, and all the religions are one. It is now time to step into this inherent oneness, to recognize the eternal fact that we are one human family.

"Baha'u'llah has drawn the circle of unity. He has made a design for the uniting of all the peoples. and for the gathering of them all under the under the tent of universal unity. This is the work of the Divine Bounty and we must all strive with heart and soul until we have the reality of unity in our midst." Baha'i Writings.

Baha'u'llah wrote over 100 volumes of sacred text. Because His Revelation is so vast, I cannot even "scratch the surface" in what I am able to share here, but please permit me to offer just a simple list to give you a brief sampling of some of the core teachings and practices.

What do Baha'is strive to do in their daily lives?

1.Pray

2. Offer their work in a spirit of service.

3. Forgive

4. Be humble

5. Be generous.

6. See the good in each and all.

7. Root out all prejudice.

8. Be honest and trustworthy.

9. Live a life of service to others.

We have a calendar of 19 months of 19 days each and on the first day of each Baha'i month we gather as a community. There is no clergy, but there are elected bodies of nine that guide the affairs of the community at the local, national and international levels.

The life of a Baha'i and the Baha'i community is vibrant and service oriented, outward looking instead of congregational, embracing all neighbors, friends and protagonists who share the desire to work together for the betterment of the world through spiritual means. There is so much to learn and do and each person has something unique and powerful to bring to the table. Life on this earth is a special time to learn, grow closer to our Creator, and serve our fellowman. Lovely to be with you all today here on these pages. Thanks for reading these humble thoughts. If you would like to explore further, I encourage you to talk to a Baha'i neighbor, check out a book in the library, or go to www.bahai.org or bahai.us.

"Do not be satisfied until each one with whom you are concerned is to you as a member of your family. Regard each one either as a father, or as a brother, or as a sister, or as a mother, or as a child. If you can attain to this, your difficulties will vanish, you will know what to do." - Baha'i Writings

Want to contribute to the Spiritual Roundtable? Read this first. 

The Roundtable Mission and Vision

The goal of these roundtable writings is to:

1. Bring the spiritual community together.

2. Share ideas that elevate the human spirit.

3. Elevate the conversation around the spirit. 

4. Embrace what is universal to all, while honoring what is special about each spirituality.

5. Center inclusivity and equity.

6. Promote our collective enlightenment. 

7. Nurture civility and friendship between those with diverse belief systems in the Gorge.

8. Engage readers and spiritual seekers.

The Spiritual Roundtable IS NOT…

This is not a place for arguing about dogma.
This is not a place for ‘hating on’ or putting other belief systems down.
This is not a place for excluding, discriminating, or promoting fear or violence towards other people based on their race, color, ethnicity, beliefs, faith, gender, sexuality, ability.
This is not a place for hatred.
This is not a place for fear.

The Spiritual Roundtable IS..

This IS a place for hope.
This IS a place for joy.
This IS a place for comfort.
This IS a place for big questions.
This IS a place for learning.
This IS a place for sharing.
This IS a place for caring.
This IS a place for sharing what is special about your beliefs.

CCC News reserves the right to not publish any content that breaks with our mission, vision and values.

If you are interested in being included in the roundtable please email cole@columbiacommunityconnection.com

What Does Your Spirituality Mean To You? A Bahá’í Perspective

Introduction by Cole Goodwin

Welcome to The Spiritual Roundtable, an interfaith roundtable featuring a diverse range of spiritual belief systems in the Gorge Community.

Each week, spiritual leaders and learners will share their take on some of humanity's biggest questions, starting with: What does your spirituality mean to you? And ramping up into discussions about the nature of existence, the soul, the divine, and of course…a question as old as time itself: why are we here? 

Roundtable writings will be published each Saturday and Sunday of the month. So look forward to new installments every Saturday and Sunday morning!

Take a deep breath… Meditate for a moment…And when you’re ready…keep reading to explore the diverse faiths, belief systems, and philosophies that exist in our communities.

This Month's Question: What does your spirituality mean to you? 

Why this question was chosen: This question asks us to examine what purpose and function our  (faith, practice, belief system, philosophy) can serve in our lives. As well as how spirituality can guide our actions and way of walking in the world.

Jessica Waggoner Hoff is from White Salmon. She has been a member of the Bahá’í Faith for about twenty years, which is about the same amount of time that she has been a mother to her two grown sons.  She lives in Husum with her husband Gary Hoff and dog Hilda. Jessica and Gary are bilingual, language teachers (English and Spanish).

Learn more at: gorgebahais.org. We also have one public and one private Facebook group for Bahá’ís in the Gorge. 

The official website sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’í Faith in the United States is Bahai.us, and the official Website of the Worldwide Bahá’í Community is Bahai.org.

A Bahá’í Perspective

By Jessica Louise Waggoner Hoff

I have believed in God for as long as I can remember. 

Maybe that was the influence of relatives who lived next door.  They are Protestants and very loving people.  I am sure that all made quite a positive impression on me in my early childhood.  

I remember that after I had learned to write, I once composed a prayer on paper and then delivered it to God by putting it in the yard with some dirt on top.  I did this all on my own accord.

My parents had grown up attending Mass regularly as well as Catholic school. Before I was born, Mom prayed each day for Dad to return from his deployment to Vietnam.  Around the same time as his return, however, prayer disappeared from the family.  My older sisters had been baptized but I was not.  We had no affiliation with any religion as a family.

At age 15, I had an out-of-body experience in the course of a minor accident on a bicycle. I flew over the handlebars and just popped out of my body. Without my actual eyes, I peacefully watched myself falling. Then, I re-entered my body upon impact to the ground.  I was banged up but conscious and just lied on the ground for a while to reflect on what had occurred.

Like the rest of my immediate family members, I was not affiliated with a religion at the time.  When I later joined the Bahá’í Faith, I learned that 15 is the beginning of the age of spiritual maturity. I don’t think this is why I had the out-of-body experience; I think this could happen at any age. I do remember contemplating matters of the world more deeply at this age and onward though.  

I believe all young people wake up to the world and all of its issues at this age. They begin wanting to make a difference in meaningful ways. Like many youths, unfortunately, I did not feel very powerful to initiate change in the world.  

When I encountered the Bahá’í Faith in my late twenties, hope grew in me. I saw a Faith that was inclusive of all people and of other Faiths. Children and adults were actively working for positive changes in their own hearts and studying and teaching how to have good character.  I know this can be done in all religious traditions and even in secular settings but this is where I saw people most active in the process.

One of the simple ways that I do this is with the aid of technology. I have an app, which was created by The Virtues Project® and is available to anyone for free: virtuesmatter.org.  The material for all books, apps, and other programs created by The Virtues Project was mined from all the world’s religions, both from sacred texts and from oral traditions.  How ironic to use a modern mobile phone to access the teachings from all the ages.  It works though!  These teachings guide me each day.

For these two decades, I have appreciated reading and reciting the prayers written by three central figures of Faith: The Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. SHOULD BE: For these two decades, I have appreciated reading and reciting the prayers written by three central figures of the Faith: The Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

My spirituality also gives me a framework to come to terms with the deaths of my friends and family as well as with my own eventual death.  Both the out-of-body experience and my religion have helped me embrace a belief in the existence of an everlasting soul.

While I am still here, my Faith helps me live a better life. There are some vicious strains of anxiety running through my family lines. I was not able to dodge them in this life.  My Faith helps me cope as an individual living well in this world and accompanying my sons as they strive to do the same.

I humbly offer this article as an individual and as a Bahá’í.

For more information on this religion, I encourage people to explore the websites below as well as the works written by the central figures of the Faith mentioned above: The Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Also, I encourage you to contact the administrative body called the Local Spiritual Assembly (LSA) of the Bahá’ís of Klickitat County at this email address: bahaiklickitat@gmail.com. We are here to serve all people residing in this county regardless of religious affiliation.

Want to contribute to the Spiritual Roundtable? Read this first. 

The Roundtable Mission and Vision

The goal of these roundtable writings is to:

1. Bring the spiritual community together.

2. Share ideas that elevate the human spirit.

3. Elevate the conversation around the spirit. 

4. Embrace what is universal to all, while honoring what is special about each spirituality.

5. Center inclusivity and equity.

6. Promote our collective enlightenment. 

7. Nurture civility and friendship between those with diverse belief systems in the Gorge.

8. Engage readers and spiritual seekers.

The Spiritual Roundtable IS NOT…

This is not a place for arguing about dogma.
This is not a place for ‘hating on’ or putting other belief systems down.
This is not a place for excluding, discriminating, or promoting fear or violence towards other people based on their race, color, ethnicity, beliefs, faith, gender, sexuality, ability.
This is not a place for hatred.
This is not a place for fear.

The Spiritual Roundtable IS..

This IS a place for hope.
This IS a place for joy.
This IS a place for comfort.
This IS a place for big questions.
This IS a place for learning.
This IS a place for sharing.
This IS a place for caring.
This IS a place for sharing what is special about your beliefs.

CCC News reserves the right to not publish any content that breaks with our mission, vision and values.

If you are interested in being included in the roundtable please email cole@columbiacommunityconnection.com

What Does Your Spirituality Mean To You? A Meshing of Science and Spirit Perspective

Introduction by Cole Goodwin

Welcome to The Spiritual Roundtable, an interfaith roundtable featuring a diverse range of spiritual belief systems in the Gorge Community.

Each week, spiritual leaders and learners will share their take on some of humanity's biggest questions, starting with: What does your spirituality mean to you? And ramping up into discussions about the nature of existence, the soul, the divine, and of course…a question as old as time itself: why are we here? 

Look forward to new installments every Sunday morning!

Take a deep breath… Meditate for a moment…And when you’re ready…keep reading to explore the diverse faiths, belief systems, and philosophies that exist in our communities.

This Month's Question: What does your spirituality mean to you? 

Why this question was chosen: This question asks us to examine what purpose and function our  (faith, practice, belief system, philosophy) can serve in our lives. As well as how spirituality can guide our actions and way of walking in the world.

View fullsize

About the Author: Rhiannon Griffith has had a long and complicated life, but the current version of her lives in The Dalles and works at MCMC in the lab. She loves science and writing and her granddaughter, who lives in Portland.

“My spirituality is a patchwork quilt of different religions and beliefs threaded together by personal experiences and a belief in the power of truth and love,” said Griffith

A Meshing of Science and Spirit Perspective

by Rhiannon Griffith

​​According to the Pew Research Center, about 30% of Americans between 18 and 65 identify as "spiritual but not religious." I am one of them.

Although the words "not religious" are kind of deceiving.

I don't lack for religious experience.

I have worked with practices from a few different religions. I’ve read about and studied even more. I've also grown spiritually from some powerful experiences not usually considered religious: my work with healing from severe childhood abuse; some profound experiences using psychedelic drugs (in my hippie youth); a near-death experience in my early 50s; and a lifelong study of science and enthusiastic appreciation of the way it opens windows into Truth for me.

The immensity and complexity of the Universe fills me with awe and delight and wonder.

There is the observable, visible universe. The visible universe is all the stars and galaxies whose light has had time to reach us in the last 13 to 14 billion years or so, traveling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second. There are a lot of seconds in 14 billion years; I'll let you do the math, because that's too many decimal places for my comfort zone.

Then there is the size of the actual universe, which is a whole lot bigger, since the universe has been expanding that whole time and there is a lot out there that's moved so far away the light will never reach us (Earth is middle-aged after all, only has about another 5 billion years to go.) Author Timothy Ferris, says in The Whole Shebang, that the ratio of the size of the visible universe to the actual-now universe is about the same as the ratio of the size of a single atom to the size of our planet.

And yet, as big as all of that is, if you go down in scale--if you look into smaller and smaller sizes, the cells of your body, then the molecules that make up those cells, then the atoms that make up those molecules, then the subatomic particles, then the quarks and other bits that make up those particles--there is as much Universe inside us as there is above us.

In fact, as far as we can tell, the size we are (that is we, the life forms on this planet, and also the planet itself) looks to be about in the middle of the scale of the Universe, from its smallest bits to its largest expanses.

Is that not amazing? Doesn't that give you chills? This is what we are made of! This!

On the one hand, we are just funny little bags of molecules that take shape and die and take shape and die rapidly and repeatedly, evolving in form as we go; made from a very thin layer of minerals covering the surface of a small, pretty and wet but otherwise unremarkable planet; which is orbiting around a smallish star that lies about two-thirds out on one spiral arm of a galaxy containing about 100,000 million stars; and which is in turn part of a galaxy cluster that is one of about 100,000 million galaxy clusters, give or take, that we know of. That is to say-- we aren't very big and we are definitely not nearly as significant as we think we are.

On the other hand: whatever all of that is made of--that is what we are made of.

The molecules that are the Lego blocks of our little meat bodies were forged in the fires of dying suns far, far away. This little planet that is our home swirls through space driven by the same gravity that bends the light of galactic superclusters. The energy of distant supernovas pours through our bodies just as it floods the stars around us. We are the living, leaping flames of Reality, just as much as the atoms and the stars. We are the Universe expressing itself in an infinite number of forms. We are majesty, we are wonder, I would say that we are God; but I don't talk about God much, because the God that I hear most people talk about seems much, much too small to me.

And I find that comforting.

I had a particularly tough childhood. Life has been a struggle for me. Overall, humans haven't really made the best impression. I can't say that I find the idea of a Divine Being that is shaped like a human being, designed for humans by humans, to be particularly inspiring or appealing. I am very grateful that our universe is a whole lot bigger than our species. And I am profoundly grateful for the great luck of being born in a time when we have the tools and insight to get a glimpse into the massive, amazing, unimaginably beautiful Existence we are part of.

I believe that this immense universe is made, essentially, of consciousness. (It's science, honest. Google "panpsychism." There's a SciAm article.) When I contemplate the idea of All That Is, it's the only thing that makes sense. What could "All That Is" (i.e, the universe) possibly be made of, other than its own self? The stuff of the universe must, at its deepest base, be the stuff of Is-ness: pure, benign, joyous Being.

The popular Western notion that everything in the universe is dead and unconscious except for the minds of human beings is ludicrous in the extreme (not to mention mathematically impossible.) It also, as it happens, comes from the same roots in Western philosophy that give rise to the idea that certain men deserve to own and run the world and everyone else (of either gender and any species) exists to be used and be colonized. That's not a paradigm I want to reinforce or follow, and I think too many religions do both. So I probably am not going become religious. But I'm never going to not be spiritual.

My spirituality is what has gotten me through this challenging life. I've drawn on practices from Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Christianity. I've also gotten a ton of therapy and a lot of hugs, and listened to a lot of waterfalls, and conversed with a lot of trees. All of these practices have helped me hold onto a sense of meaning in life and to navigate through my days.

And what I've learned from science has helped me to see my time in history and my own suffering with a sense of proportion and excitement and wonder. I'm not just a scared and damaged child, not just another member of a species that seems determined to ruin its own home, not just another overworked cog in the capitalistic machine. I am very, very small, but also immense. I'm a vibrant strand in a massive, kinetic tapestry of Being.

And I find that magnificent.

CCC News reserves the right to not publish any content that breaks with our mission, vision and values.

If you are interested in being included in the roundtable please email cole@columbiacommunityconnection.com