Good job. This is one of my favorites by them. I used to be a Baha'i. Like Jim, I was attracted to the mysticism in the writings. In the song the father feared "windflowers." _"Said they carried him away....Take a warning son."_ The profoundest thing about the song is the idea that if one gets too close to the divine things, things happen, there are changes, and one often can't "go back" to the way he was before. When one uncovers the Divine Perceptions, one may not be able to cover them again; to make them stop. One becomes "tetched" (a little crazy, like Ramakrishna said), and as Seals says in the song: _"Now I cannot break away."_ The father seemed to sense this, or know about it. The song is very beautiful and also spooky. It talks about the real human risk in avidly pursuing God-knowledge. I think in Jim's mind it was just _"I'm really fascinated by all this rarefied talk in the Baha'i writings and I want to know these things"_ and he made a great song about it. The father represents the fear, perhaps the Christian fear, of these things. Now don't talk about "spiritual ecstasy" to modern Baha'is. They are averse to such talk, and averse to mysticism in general, even though their Sufi-esque religion was originally highly mystical, The Baha'i Faith is very materialistic today. With the Hidden Word saying: _"Forget all save me and commune with my spirit, this is the essence of my command"_ you would think Baha'is would be steeped in mysticism and spiritual ecstasy as a culture. But no, one is not to take these things too seriously when one is a Baha'i. One can't even point to the fact that the command to say "The Greatest Name" 95 times daily is, in fact, mantra meditation. (Also called Japa in Hinduism.) He said about it: _"Rejoice in the joy of my Greatest Name with which hearts are entranced..."_ (Miller-Elder Translation) So repetition of the Baha'i mantra was supposed to "entrance" one, and give joy. But Baha'is freak out at words like "mantra." I started doing the Baha'i mantra immediately upon becoming a Baha'i, though all the Baha'is were saying "Nah, we don't have to do that stuff yet." Strange things started happening right away. The anti-mystical attitude in modern Bahai's was one of the reasons I left The Baha'i Faith. In many ways Jim Seals, who was attracted to mysticism, was in the wrong religion. He would have made more mystical progress in one of the Hindu meditation lineages.
Interesting perspective. Baha'u'llah said that meditation was vastly more important than prayer, yet while there are standard obligatory prayers, there is no instruction in upaya or method for meditation, and it seems largely ignored. As for Jim Seals, I actually think he was a preacher at heart more than someone who would have been at home in the dharrnic religious tradition. From the very first S&C album his lyrics were often directed at telling people what and what not to do in an often very preachy way.
Good job. This is one of my favorites by them. I used to be a Baha'i. Like Jim, I was attracted to the mysticism in the writings. In the song the father feared "windflowers." _"Said they carried him away....Take a warning son."_ The profoundest thing about the song is the idea that if one gets too close to the divine things, things happen, there are changes, and one often can't "go back" to the way he was before. When one uncovers the Divine Perceptions, one may not be able to cover them again; to make them stop. One becomes "tetched" (a little crazy, like Ramakrishna said), and as Seals says in the song: _"Now I cannot break away."_ The father seemed to sense this, or know about it. The song is very beautiful and also spooky. It talks about the real human risk in avidly pursuing God-knowledge. I think in Jim's mind it was just _"I'm really fascinated by all this rarefied talk in the Baha'i writings and I want to know these things"_ and he made a great song about it. The father represents the fear, perhaps the Christian fear, of these things. Now don't talk about "spiritual ecstasy" to modern Baha'is. They are averse to such talk, and averse to mysticism in general, even though their Sufi-esque religion was originally highly mystical, The Baha'i Faith is very materialistic today. With the Hidden Word saying: _"Forget all save me and commune with my spirit, this is the essence of my command"_ you would think Baha'is would be steeped in mysticism and spiritual ecstasy as a culture. But no, one is not to take these things too seriously when one is a Baha'i. One can't even point to the fact that the command to say "The Greatest Name" 95 times daily is, in fact, mantra meditation. (Also called Japa in Hinduism.) He said about it: _"Rejoice in the joy of my Greatest Name with which hearts are entranced..."_ (Miller-Elder Translation) So repetition of the Baha'i mantra was supposed to "entrance" one, and give joy. But Baha'is freak out at words like "mantra." I started doing the Baha'i mantra immediately upon becoming a Baha'i, though all the Baha'is were saying "Nah, we don't have to do that stuff yet." Strange things started happening right away. The anti-mystical attitude in modern Bahai's was one of the reasons I left The Baha'i Faith. In many ways Jim Seals, who was attracted to mysticism, was in the wrong religion. He would have made more mystical progress in one of the Hindu meditation lineages.
Interesting perspective. Baha'u'llah said that meditation was vastly more important than prayer, yet while there are standard obligatory prayers, there is no instruction in upaya or method for meditation, and it seems largely ignored. As for Jim Seals, I actually think he was a preacher at heart more than someone who would have been at home in the dharrnic religious tradition. From the very first S&C album his lyrics were often directed at telling people what and what not to do in an often very preachy way.
@@c.a.t.732 Real good insight about Jim Seals!