Baha'i texts online?

[smkolins]

More _The Hidden Words_...

3. O SON OF MAN!
Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee: therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

4. O SON OF MAN!
I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.

5. O SON OF BEING!
Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

6. O SON OF BEING!
Thy Paradise is My love; thy heavenly home, reunion with Me. Enter therein and tarry not. This is that which hath been destined for thee in Our kingdom above and Our exalted dominion.

here

[smkolins]

For those who've scanned the posts in this thread there have been quotes from the Kitab-i-Iqan and the Hidden Words, here's another Book:

".... The stages that mark the wayfarer's journey from the abode of dust to the heavenly homeland are said to be seven. Some have called these Seven Valleys, and others, Seven Cities. And they say that until the wayfarer taketh leave of self, and traverseth these stages, he shall never reach to the ocean of nearness and union, nor drink of the peerless wine. The first is The Valley of Search. The steed of this Valley is patience; without patience the wayfarer on this journey will reach nowhere and attain no goal. Nor should he ever be downhearted; if he strive for a hundred thousand years and yet fail to behold the beauty of the Friend, he should not falter. For those who seek the Ka'bih [The holy Sanctuary at Mecca. Here the word means "goal."] of "for Us" rejoice in the tidings:"In Our ways will We guide them." [Qur'án 29:69: "And whoso maketh efforts for Us, in Our ways will We guide them."] In their search, they have stoutly girded up the loins of service, and seek at every moment to journey from the plane of heedlessness into the realm of being. No bond shall hold them back, and no counsel shall deter them...."

http://bahai-library.com/writings/bahaullah/sv/700.html

The topic of search is also spoken of in the Kitab-i-Iqan..."But, O my brother, when a true seeker determineth to take the step of search in the path leading to the knowledge of the Ancient of Days, he must, before all else, cleanse and purify his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, from the obscuring dust of all acquired knowledge, and the allusions of the embodiments of satanic fancy. He must purge his breast, which is the sanctuary of the abiding love of the Beloved, of every defilement, and sanctify his soul from all that pertaineth to water and clay, from all shadowy and ephemeral attachments. He must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth."

http://www.ishwar.com/bahai/holy_kit...n/texts08.html

And in the Hidden Words as well ... "O YE THAT PRIDE YOURSELVES ON MORTAL RICHES!
Know ye in truth that wealth is a mighty barrier between the seeker and his desire, the lover and his beloved. The rich, but for a few, shall in no wise attain the court of His presence nor enter the city of content and resignation. Well is it then with him, who, being rich, is not hindered by his riches from the eternal kingdom, nor deprived by them of imperishable dominion. By the Most Great Name! The splendour of such a wealthy man shall illuminate the dwellers of heaven, even as the sun enlightens the people of the earth!"

http://bahai-library.com/writings/ba...den.words.html

[smkolins]

Continuing with The Seven Valleys

following the period of Search, the seeker Finds...

"... he shall straightway step into The Valley of Love and be dissolved in the fire of love. In this city the heaven of ecstasy is upraised and the world-illuming sun of yearning shineth, and the fire of love is ablaze; and when the fire of love is ablaze, it burneth to ashes the harvest of reason.
...
The steed of this Valley is pain; and if there be no pain this journey will never end. In this station the lover hath no thought save the Beloved, and seeketh no refuge save the Friend. At every moment he offereth a hundred lives in the path of the Loved One, at every step he throweth a thousand heads at the feet of the Beloved.
...
He hath bound a myriad victims in his fetters, wounded a myriad wise men with his arrow. Know that every redness in the world is from his anger, and every paleness in men's cheeks is from his poison. He yieldeth no remedy but death, he walketh not save in the valley of the shadow; yet sweeter than honey is his venom on the lover's lips, and fairer his destruction in the seeker's eyes than a hundred thousand lives...."

The seeker searching is all about questions and answers are really not quite the point - but worse, when the answer is found, the question is an obstical to the full appreciation of the truth. The problem is that seeing the truth isn't the same as being the truth. Saying thus and so is true doesn't preclude other truths and insisting on one side of truth, honestly and sincerely, will tend to raise the heat - that somehow it is one's failings which prevent the truth from coming out.... One undoes more and more bad habits seeking to be a purer vessel. But the point is really more to appreciate there are other angles on the truth... which gets us to the next Valley...