Monday, June 9, 2025

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Alison Elizabeth Marshall blog

No one is actually worthy of the grace of God

No one is actually worthy of the grace of God. In The Seven Valleys, Baha'u'llah quotes Qur'an 16:61: "If God should chastise men for their perverse doings, He would not leave upon the earth a moving thing!" He also makes a related point that a person who carries out all religious duties is not necessarily going to impress him. For example, in Kitab-i-Aqdas para. 36, he warns people not to use religious practices like a trap set to capture the goal. In another tablet, he says that a person can study all their life and observe all the laws, and yet not benefit from that effort. These passages suggest that tying oneself up in knots trying to be perfect will not necessarily attract divine blessings.

In Tablet of the Son (where “the Son” refers to Jesus), Baha'u'llah makes a remarkable point that bears on this issue. In one passage, while discussing the power of Jesus to heal and purify, he explains that when Jesus sacrificed his life, he infused into the world a fresh divine radiance (the Word of God). Baha'u'llah's point is that a prophet’s influence is not just about bringing new knowledge and laws, it also involves infusing into humankind new powers and capabilities (para. 13). Accordingly, Baha'u'llah interpreted the healing verses in terms of Jesus releasing a divine radiance that healed people of the blindness that stopped them seeing Jesus’s divinity.

In paragraph 19, Baha’u’llah announces that he is Jesus come again. Consequently, the thing that happened last time has happened again—that is, the grace of God has spread over the world and perfumed everything. But this time, there is a crucial difference. This time, God’s favor was so great that Baha’u’llah did not even need to ask God to heal the people. Rather, Baha'u'llah's appearance in the world alone automatically healed every person of every illness.

But today, the leper has been cleansed even before the words “Be cleansed!” are pronounced. For by virtue of his appearance the world and its people have been cured of every malady and illness. Exalted be this grace, which no other grace has surpassed, and this mercy, which has encompassed the world. (Tablet of the Son, para. 19)

What does this mean? No one is actually worthy of the grace of God. However, Baha'u'llah's appearance on earth has rendered everyone worthy of all divine favors. This is the greatest gift given to humankind. Therefore, no need to turn oneself into knots trying to attract divine favors because, in these modern times, all humankind is immersed in a sea of divine favor.

Baha’u’llah makes a similar point in Suratu'l-Nus'h (Surah of Admonition), pages 12-13, where he says "No grace was bestowed due to the merit of any soul." I understand this to mean that no one is worthy of the grace Baha'u'llah has infused into the world. Instead, God has taken the initiative. God has lifted the veil that blinds people from seeing God's beauty, rained on them the showers of divine mercy, poured out the streams of divine knowledge, provided fruits from the tree of generosity, guided people to God's grace, lit up hearts and eyes with divine splendors, enabled people to hear divine melodies, and favored them with everlasting life.

What should we do? Open our hearts to the ecstasy that already surrounds us. Divine favor is not a transactional thing: "If you do this, then I will do that" or "If I am good, then you will give me that." The days of negotiating are over. God is not a narcissist who revels in holding power over you. Everything you need and want has already been granted to you. You are not a pauper in need of a handout. Instead, God has granted you an inheritance that renders you free of need.

Child of existence, my lamp is you and my light is in you, so shine by means of it. Explore no further than me, for I have made you free from need and have been extravagant in bestowing favor on you. (Arabic Hidden Word 11, my translation)

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RIGHT VIEW
Understanding the Noble Truth of Suffering

When people have met with suffering and become victims of suffering, they come to me and ask me about the noble truth of suffering. Being asked, I explain to them the noble truth of suffering. (MN 77) What is suffering? (MN 9)

Despair is suffering. The trouble and despair, the tribulation and desperation of one who has encountered some misfortune or is affected by some painful state. (MN 9)

Reflection

We don't need to look deeply to understand what this text is pointing to. The human condition is laced with despair, as people regularly encounter misfortune and are constantly affected by painful states. The goal of these teachings and practices is not to avoid the difficult aspects of life but to see them clearly, understand them thoroughly, and pass through them (rather than around them) to the peace lying on the other side.

Daily Practice

When you encounter despair, do not be afraid of it and do not try to push it away or hide from it. It is just a mental state, just a passing condition of the mind and of the emotional life. It is okay to turn toward it and examine it, because that is just what is happening right now. Take heart in the knowledge that the Buddha is only pointing us toward suffering because he will go on to show how it can be brought to an end.

Tomorrow: Cultivating Lovingkindness
One week from today: Understanding the Noble Truth of the Origin of Suffering

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Loving-kindness in Anxious Times

The practice of metta, loving-kindness, tenderizes the heart, soothes the body, and opens the mind. It is not a cop-out or denial by pretending to feel a certain way but rather a commitment to unconditional positive regard no matter the circumstances—a radical and heart-opening way to meet this moment of harshness.

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This Day in Gay History

June 09

Died

1954 -

ALAIN LEROY LOCKE died on this date (b: 1885); Locke was an American, writer, educator, and patron of the arts, distinguished as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar in 1907. Locke is widely cited as the philosophical architect —the acknowledged "Dean"— of the Harlem Renaissance. On March 19, 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed: "We're going to let our children know that the only philosophers that lived were not Plato and Aristotle, but W.E.B. DuBois and Alain Locke came through the universe."

Alain Locke was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 13, 1885 to Pliny Ishmael Locke and Mary Hawkins Locke. He was the only child of a well-to-do family with significant pedigree. His mother Mary, who was a teacher, and with whom he lived until her death, incited in him his passion for education and literature. In 1902, he graduated from Central High School in Philadelphia, second in his class. He also attended Philadelphia School of Pedagogy.

Locke returned to Harvard in 1916 to work on his doctoral dissertation, The Problem of Classification in the Theory of Value. In his thesis, he discusses the causes of opinions and social biases, and that these are not objectively true or false, and therefore not universal. Locke received his PhD in philosophy in 1918.

Locke returned to Howard University as the chair of the department of philosophy. During this period, he began teaching the first classes on race relations, leading to his dismissal in 1925. After being reinstated in 1928, Locke remained at Howard until his retirement in 1953. Locke Hall, on the Howard campus, is named after him.

In 1907, Locke graduated from Harvard University with degrees in English and philosophy, and was honored as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and recipient of the prestigious Bowdoin Prize. After graduation, he was the first African-American selected as a Rhodes Scholar (and the last to be selected until 1960). At that time, Rhodes selectors did not meet candidates in person, but there is evidence that at least some selectors knew he was African-American.

On arriving at Oxford, Locke was denied admission to several colleges, and several Rhodes Scholars from the American South refused to live in the same college or attend events with Locke. He was finally admitted to Hertford College, where he studied literature, philosophy, Greek, and Latin, from 1907–1910. In 1910, he attended the University of Berlin, where he studied philosophy.

Locke promoted African-American artists, writers, and musicians, encouraging them to look to Africa as an inspiration for their works. He encouraged them to depict African and African-American subjects, and to draw on their history for subject material.

He was the guest editor of the March 1925 issue of the periodical Survey Graphic titled "Harlem, Mecca of the New Negro", a special on Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance, which helped educate white readers about its flourishing culture. In December of that year, he expanded the issue into The New Negro, a collection of writings by African Americans, which would become one of his best known works. A landmark in black literature (later acclaimed as the "first national book" of African America), it was an instant success. Locke contributed five essays: the "Foreword", "The New Negro", "Negro Youth Speaks", "The Negro Spirituals", and "The Legacy of Ancestral Arts".

Locke was Gay, and encouraged and supported other Gay African-Americans who were part of the Harlem Renaissance. However, he was not fully public in his orientation and referred to it as his point of "vulnerable/invulnerability", taken to mean an area of risk and strength in his view.

Locke died at Mount Sinai Hospital, of heart disease. Howard University officials initially considered having Locke's ashes buried in a niche at Locke Hall on the Howard campus, similar to the way that Langston Hughes' ashes were interred at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City in 1991. But Kurt Schmoke, the university's legal counsel, was concerned about setting a precedent that might lead to other burials at the university. After an investigation revealed no legal problems to the plan, university officials decided the remains should be buried off-site. At first, thought was given to burying Locke beside his mother, Mary Hawkins Locke. But Howard officials quickly discovered a problem: She had been interred at Columbian Harmony Cemetery in Washington, D.C., but that cemetery closed in 1959 and her remains transferred to National Harmony Memorial Park—which failed to keep track of them. (She was buried in a mass grave along with 37,000 other unclaimed remains from Columbian Harmony.)

Howard University eventually decided to bury Alain Locke's remains at historic Congressional Cemetery, and African American Rhodes Scholars raised $8,000 to purchase a burial plot there. Locke was interred at Congressional Cemetery on September 13, 2014. His tombstone reads:

1885–1954 - Harlem Renaissance - Exponent of Cultural Pluralism

On the back of the headstone is a nine-pointed Baha'i star (representing Locke's religious beliefs); a Zimbabwe Bird, emblem of the nation Locke adopted as a Rhodes Scholar; a lambda, symbol of the Gay Rights movement; and the logo of Phi Beta Sigma, the fraternity Locke joined. In the center of these four symbols is an Art Deco representation of an African woman's face set against the rays of the sun. This image is a simplified version of the bookplate that Harlem Renaissance painter Aaron Douglas designed for Locke. Below the bookplate image are the words "Teneo te, Africa" ("I hold you, my Africa")

A new biography of Locke by Jeffrey Stewart "The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke," was released in February 2018.


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