I speak often, openly, about the qualities and powers of the spirit, along with my musings on history, philosophy, sociology, anthropology, and the rest. Never, however, before now have I sought to share with listeners how I, myself, experience the spirit. In this episode I do my best to explain how, early in the morning, often I feel the chill of a dawn breeze and, with it, a spirit that awakens and regenerates my soul. How do I understand this phenomenon? What allows me to experience the spirit? And, perhaps most important, what I am I to do with these powers of the spirit, one received, during my day, my days, indeed, over the duration of my life? In this time of year, when so many honor the Holy Spirit, I offer you this, my own spiritual experience…
Here are the Baha'i Writings recited in this podcast episode:
"like unto April winds, blow freshness through those human trees, and bring them to their blossoming."
"O ye beloved of the Merciful! It is early morning, and the reviving winds of the Abha [Most Glorious] Paradise are blowing all over creation, but they can stir up only the pure in heart, and only the pure sense can detect their fragrance. Only the perceiving eye beholds the rays of the sun.... Today the soft and holy breathings of the Abha Realm are passing over every land, but only the pure in heart draw nigh and derive a benefit therefrom. It is the hope of this wronged one that from the grace of the Self-Subsistent One and by the manifest power of the Word of God, the heads of the unmindful may be cleared, that they may perceive these sweet savors which blow from the secret rosebuds of the spirit."
"[I]n the day of the manifestation of the Lord of Hosts, and at the epoch of the divine cycle of the Omnipotent which is promised and mentioned in all the books and writings of the Prophets -- in that day of God, the Spiritual and Divine Kingdom will be breathed into the body of creation; the season of divine spring will come; the clouds of mercy will rain; the sun of reality will shine; the life-giving breeze will blow; the world of humanity will wear a new garment; the surface of the earth will be a sublime paradise; mankind will be educated; wards, disputes, quarrels and malignity will disappear; and truthfulness, righteousness, peace and the worship of God will appear; union, love, brotherhood and will surround the world; and God will rule for evermore -- meaning that the Spiritual and Everlasting Kingdom will be established. Such is the day of God...."
"Be unrestrained as the wind, while carrying the Message of Him Who hath caused the Dawn of Divine Guidance to break. Consider, how the wind, faithful to that which God hath ordained, blows upon all the regions of the earth, be they inhabited or desolate. Neither the sight of desolation, nor the evidences of prosperity, can either pain or please it. It blows in every direction, as bidden by its Creator. So should be every one that claimed to be a lover of the one true God. It behooveth him to fix his gaze upon the fundamentals of His Faith, and to labor diligently for its propagation. Wholly for the sake of God he should proclaim His Message, and with that same spirit accept whatever response his words may evoke in his hearer. He who shall accept and believe, shall receive his reward...."
"The gentle breezes wafted from the garden of their hearts shall perfume and revive the souls of men, and the revelations of their minds, even as showers, will reinvigorate the peoples and nations of the world."