Enlightenment is one of the things we should strive after.

 

57. Enlightenment! One of the achievements one should hope to realize when studying the teachings of the various religions of God is to obtain enlightenment from the writings: Spiritual enlightenment is one of the main reasons we study religion; and if you are not receiving enlightenment, from God, from the verses you are reading, then you might question whether something you are doing is not quite right. Whether you are not seeing into the true spiritual nature of the words of God, or maybe the religion you are studying is manmade and not from the insight of God, something needs to change in the way you are doing things. Because true spiritual enlightenment or the insight into the spiritual nature of the word of God, should come to you after reading into God’s Holy Writings (or I should say), after you steadily read into the writings of God on a regular bases, with an open mind, to allow God’s special holy influence to work into your lives, because nothing worthwhile comes to you without effort on your part.  CHRISTIANITY: Thomas: “Peace & Enlightenment be yours!” (Other Apocrypha, The Gospel of Thomas) 1 Peter: 2:9 “Shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;” 2:10 “Which in time past were not a people, but are now the (enlightened) people of God:” 2 Corinthians: 4:6 “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Luke: 1:78 “Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us,” 1:79 “To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace,” and enlightenment. 2 Corinthians: 4:6 “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light (enlightenment, illumination) of the knowledge of the glory of God.” Revelation: 21:23 “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” 21:24 “And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, (the enlightenment thereof).” JUDAISM: Psalms: 18:28 “For thou wilt light my candle: The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness.” Job: 33:29 “Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man,” 33:30 “To bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.” Isaiah: 6019 “The LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.” Isaiah: 60:20 “Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light.”

 BABI RELIGION: “Verily then make your hearts the daysprings of His exalted Names as recorded in the Book, and ye shall, even as mirrors placed before the sun, be able to receive enlightenment.”

(The Bab, Selections from the Writings of the Bab, p. 131)

 ISLAM: 257. “Allah (God) is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depths of darkness He will lead them forth into light.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah   2)

 184. “Then if they reject thee, so were rejected Messengers before thee, who came with clear Signs, Books of dark prophecies, and the Book of enlightenment.”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah   3)

 22. “(This) is one whose heart Allah has opened to Islam, so that he has received enlightenment from Allah..…celebrating the praises of Allah!”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  39)

 7. “By the Soul, and the proportion and order Given to it; And its enlightenment as to its wrong and its right; — Truly he succeeds that purifies it, And he fails that corrupts it!”

(The Qur’an (Yusuf Ali tr), Surah  91)

 ZOROASTRIANISM: 6. I who am Ahura Mazda (God) (I will help him to pass over it, the Bridge of Chinvat) to Heaven (the best life), and to Righteousness the Best, and to the lights of heaven.

(The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 19)

 3. “And may these (Praises of the Offering) come forth, and appear for us with power and victorious assault, with health and healing, with progress, and with growth, with preparation and protection, with beneficence and sanctity, and abounding with gifts toward Him who can understand; yea, let them appear (with free liberality to the enlightened), let them appear as Mazda, the most beneficent, has produced them, He the one who is victorious.”

(The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 55)

 3. “Yea, we worship, O Ahura, one with the Zaothras of the good word and deed for the enlightenment of the thoughts, and words, and actions, for preparation for the soul, for the settlement’s advance, and to prepare the saints endowed with ritual merit.”

(The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 68)

 9. “Yea, those words and sayings, O Ahura Mazda! we would proclaim as Righteousness, and as of the better mind; and we would make Thee the one who both supports (us in our proclamation) of them, and who throws still further light upon them (as they are),” “And by reason of Thy Righteous Order, Thy Good Mind, and Thy Sovereign Power, and through the instrumentality of our praises of Thee, O Ahura Mazda! and for the purpose of (still further) praises, by Thy spoken words, and for (still further) spoken words, through Thy Yasna, and for (still further) Yasnas (would we thus proclaim them, and make Thee the bestower of our light).”

(The Zend-Avesta, Avesta – Yasna 35)

 HINDUISM: “He that, being self-contained, hath vanquished doubt, Despairing self from service, soul from works, Enlightened and emancipate, my Prince!” “Four sorts of mortals know Me: he who weeps, Arjuna! and the man who yearns to know; And he who toils to help; and he who sits Certain of Me, enlightened. Of these four, O Prince of India! Highest, nearest, best That last is, the devout soul, wise, intent Upon The One. Dear, above all, am I To him; and he is dearest unto Me!”

(Hindu, Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold tr) chapters 4 and 7)

 “He only knoweth- only he is free of sin, and wise, Who seeth Me, Lord of the Worlds, with faith-enlightened eyes, Unborn, undying, unbegun. Whatever Natures be To mortal men distributed, those natures spring from Me! Intellect, skill, enlightenment, endurance, self-control, Truthfulness, equability, and grief or joy of soul, And birth and death, and fearfulness, and fearlessness, and shame, And honour, and sweet harmlessness, and peace which is the same Whatever befalls, and mirth, and tears, and piety and thrift, And wish to give, and will to help,- all cometh of My gift!”

(Hindu, Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold tr) chapter 10)

 “Krishna. Hear farther yet, thou Long-Armed Lord! these latest words I say- Uttered to bring thee bliss and peace, who lovest Me always- Not the great company of gods nor kingly Rishis know My Nature Who have made the gods and Rishis long ago; He only knoweth- only he is free of sin, and wise, Who seeth Me, Lord of the Worlds, with faith-enlightened eyes, Unborn, undying, unbegun.”

(Hindu, Bhagavad Gita (Edwin Arnold tr) chapter 10)

 BUDDHISM: “This is the Middle Path which the Perfect One has discovered, which makes one both to see and to know, and which leads to peace, to discernment, to enlightenment, to Nirvana. And following upon this path, you will put an end to suffering.”

((The Eightfold Path), Buddha, the Word (The Eightfold Path))

 “Those (followers of the uncreated) whose minds are well grounded in the elements of enlightenment, who without clinging to anything find joy in freedom from attachment, whose appetites have been conquered, and who are full of light, they are free in this world.”

(Buddhist, Dhammapada – Sayings of the Buddha 2 (tr. J. Richards))

 “By attaining an inner perception of the true nature of Universal Mind they are steadily purifying their habit-energy. The Arhat has attained emancipation and enlightenment.” (Buddha Lankavatara Sutra)

 “Vows for the emancipation of all beings; to realize supreme enlightenment through the perfect self realization of Noble Wisdom, ascending the stages and entering Tathagatahood.” (Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra)

 SABEANISM: “Then Manda-d-Hiia (Haiyi/God) spoke and said to the elect righteous, The Enlightener whom I have sent to be with you in order to enlighten you, To uplift you and make you upright, And to bring you prayer and praise. hold him in great esteem.” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 113)

 “We have purified our hands in Kušta (truth) And our lips in faith We have uttered words of radiance And were absorbed in thoughts of light. Great is the strength of Life; Abounding the glory of the mighty (Life/God)!” (Sabeanism, Ginza Rba- chapter 115)

 BABI RELIGION: “O Shaykh! Things the like of which no eye hath seen have befallen this wronged one. Gladly and with the utmost resignation I have accepted to suffer, that thereby the souls of men may be enlightened and the Word of God be established. When we were imprisoned in the Land of Mim [Mazindaran], they one day delivered us into the hands of the ulama. That which ensued, thou canst well imagine!”

The Bab: (Shoghi Effendi, The Dawn-Breakers, p. 372)

BAHA’I FAITH: “Abdu’l-Bahá said: — ‘Luxuries cut off the freedom of communication. One who is imprisoned by desires is always unhappy; the children of the Kingdom have unchained themselves from their desires. Break all fetters and seek for spiritual joy and enlightenment; then, though you walk on this earth, you will perceive yourselves to be within the divine horizon.”’

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Abdu’l-Baha in London, p. 87)

“In the spiritual realm of intelligence and idealism there must be a center of illumination, and that center is the everlasting, ever-shining Sun, the Word of God. Its lights are the lights of reality which have shone upon humanity, illumining the realm of thought and morals, conferring the bounties of the divine world upon man. These lights are the cause of the education of souls and the source of the enlightenment of hearts, sending forth in effulgent radiance the message of the glad-tidings of the kingdom of God. In brief, the moral and ethical world and the world of spiritual regeneration are dependent for their progressive being upon that heavenly center of illumination. It gives forth the light of religion and bestows the life of the spirit, imbues humanity with archetypal virtues and confers eternal splendors. This Sun of Reality, this center of effulgences is the prophet or Manifestation of God. Just as the phenomenal sun shines upon the material world producing life and growth, likewise the spiritual or prophetic Sun confers illumination upon the human world of thought and intelligence, and unless it rose upon the horizon of human existence the kingdom of man would become dark and extinguished.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Abdu’l-Baha, Baha’i World Faith – Abdu’l-Baha Section, p. 254)

“Blessed the man who hath sought enlightenment from the Day-Star of My Word. Blessed he who hath attired his head with the diadem of My love. Blessed is he who hath heard of My grief and hath arisen to aid Me among My people. Blessed is he who hath laid down his life in My path and hath borne manifold hardships for the sake of My Name. Blessed the man who, assured of My Word, hath arisen from among the dead to celebrate My praise. Blessed is he that hath been enraptured by My wondrous melodies and hath rent the veils asunder through the potency of My might. Blessed is he who hath remained faithful to My Covenant, and whom the things of the world have not kept back from attaining My Court of holiness. Blessed is the man who hath detached himself from all else but Me, hath soared in the atmosphere of My love, hath gained admittance into My Kingdom, gazed upon My realms of glory, quaffed the living waters of My bounty, hath drunk his fill from the heavenly river of My loving providence, acquainted himself with My Cause, apprehended that which I concealed within the treasury of My Words, and hath shone forth from the horizon of divine knowledge engaged in My praise and glorification. Verily, he is of Me. Upon him rest My mercy, My loving-kindness, My bounty and My glory.”

(Bahá’í Faith, Baha’u’llah, Tablets of Baha’u’llah, p. 16)