*
Daheshism in a Bird’s Eye View
Adapted and reviewed from the French original version
By Joseph H. Chakkour
Daheshism was born in Lebanon, the very land that gave the world Gibran Khalil Gebrane, the author of
“The Prophet,” who had to flee his country to be recognized for the lofty poet
that he was, and thereon be vested with the fame he rightly deserved.
Daheshism was predestined to take wings from the
biblical majesty of Lebanon’s staunch cedars:
The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the
excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the
excellency of our God. [Isaiah 35:2]
Yet Lebanon failed to recognize Dahesh to his truth!
That, too, shouldn’t surprise the world, for a prophet is not without honor
except in his own country and his own home.
In a bird’s eye view, the
Daheshist teaching is simple; it is even at the core of all the monotheist
religions.
Nothing new!
Nothing of
today—absolutely nothing!
And yet … everything is new!
The Daheshist message upholds and reinforces all the
divine messages relayed to Man since Genesis. One wonders then, and rightly so,
wherefore the virulent animosity against Dahesh in the ’40s in Lebanon, which
was spearheaded by the Clergy, the Catholic one in particular?!
What laws—human or divine—has Dahesh broken to deserve
such an outright condemnation and ruthless cruelty?
Is calling for the unity of religions a crime?
Is calling Man back to his Lord and Creator a crime?
Is reminding Man of his sacred duties toward self, his
family, his neighbor, and his society a crime?
Dahesh’s only “crime” was to have been truthful to his
call!
All he did—be it in his life or his writs—was to
render unto the so far neglected verities, the disregarded ones as well as the
discarded, an unprecedented strength of present-day vision nonpareil of nature.
He did it following a divine revelation backed up by a spiritual power. Most of
all, he did it as no one else has done before him since Jesus Christ.
… For Dahesh is—first and most—a
prophet!
And like all the prophets before him, Dahesh had to
confront the bigotry plaguing our society and denounce the transgressions
against the divine messages, especially the transgressions of the men of
religion (the Christian faith in particular),
those supposed to guide humanity spiritually. And when it came to giving them a
piece of his mind, Dahesh didn’t mince his words. What’s more, whenever those
men of the cloth killed the very principal of the Christian faith with their
scandalous mode de vie (An “Ex cathedra
infallibility” masking an insatiable thirst of will to power, the very source
of religious intolerance, fanaticism, and what have you of harmful tendencies)
Dahesh brought it back to life, by breathing in it a new messianic breath, but
to restore it to its original purport.
Such an ebullient free spirit stirring inside such a
phenomenal personality was bound to draw the attention of the people at large,
if not pique their interest; and it did, to a great extent.
People in Lebanon started to lend Dahesh an ear. His
far-reaching vision, perspicuous thoughts, forthright arguments,
high-mindedness, natural charisma, and, most of
all, his miracles, which he started to perform while still young (in Beirut and other Arab capitals, namely: Cairo and
Baghdad) had struck a receptive chord in their minds and hearts. That’s why the High Clergy of the Mountain was leery of
him, if not afraid: he was encroaching on a taboo territory they
considered duly theirs by “divine” right! And contrary to what they had hoped,
he was making headway, and fast, in uniting the people around one common belief. He was even becoming a role
model figure, something the Clergy—and by extension the Government—could
neither stand nor tolerate. This is the crux of Dahesh’s Sensational Affair,
the history—or rather, the drama of Daheshism in Lebanon, this country so often
mentioned by the Hebrew Prophets.
What Dahesh did in reality was to awaken Lazarus anew—to
use a biblical metaphor, by retrieving him from our anxiety, fear, and doubt,
if not oblivion.
The great druids of the Land of the Cedars were not
about to let Dahesh—that heaven’s gate crasher in excelsis!—spoil
things for them, so they raised Cain. Not only were they mad at him for raising
this “condemned to the tomb” from the dead, but they were also determined to
put him to death—him and his Lazarus.
First, they tried to squelch his voice, but to no
avail: somehow he always found ways to exercise his God-given-right of
freedom of speech. Next they unleashed at him a campaign of slander and
calumny; but he countered it with a relentless campaign of verity by exposing
their every ignominy. And when everything within their conniving means failed,
as a last resort, they imprisoned him iniquitously, persecuted him horribly,
and then banished him from the country. Little did they know that his fate was
not in their hands but in the hands of God!
Yes indeed, Dahesh wasn’t about to turn the other
cheek; but while his persecutors used all kinds of treacherous weapons within
their means, he used just one: the Word! I must admit, though: they were
fighting a lost battle, for as he said it himself:
A Man of right never runs out of protectors;
If he is destitute, God will make him victorious.
And oh how his destiny will be glorious!
For the nation of iniquity and viciousness,
Perpetrates naught but matters most villainous!
And God made him victorious. One
man against a whole country, with its President, its Parliament, its
Clergy, and its people! Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? His victory was so potent
as to shake the cornerstone of the twice millenary authoritative power of the
clerics in the region, the birthplace of the three major monotheist religions.
Yet, to those who put to him the question:
“But what new religion do you bring forth?”
Dahesh surprised them with his straightforward answer:
“None that you haven’t already received yet failed to
heed: for in verity, religion is not what you lack most but faith in God and
His Prophets, source of every conceivable progress [ 1 ].”
And Dahesh to expound:
“The role of the spiritual manifestations is to draw
attention to the question of all times: the absolute
existence of the soul and her immortality. Those signs, which go beyond
the immovable laws of Nature, are the indubitable
proof of Divine Existence; they are meant to bring faith back to this
century, because this century is so inebriated with
technology that it believes no more. The witness who touches with his
finger one of those miracles: if he is Christian, he will be more attached to
the spirit of the Gospels; Muslim, to the spirit of the Koran. The same goes
for the Jew, the Buddhist, and so on!”
The spiritual goal of every divine message is to
instill in Man the love for Truth, Beauty, and Justice; its virtue lies in its
well-defined and unflinching will to fulfill that sacred goal. These words never stopped reverberating in my mind
ever since I heard them for the first time, more than twenty years ago. I was
still in my tender age, a candid phase wherein poetry sufficed my heart, to the
point that it became my whole concern and joy.
Along the road, I came to realize that one does not
live of poetry alone. Time and the vicissitudes of life showed me how much I
was in need of a spiritual certainty that I be able to walk the valley of this
life with firm steps—if only I could find it.
And I found it in Dahesh.
Does this mean I am better prepared and
equipped today to delineate the broad outline of the Daheshist message
and discuss my faith with total objectivity? Probably not! For how can I speak impartially of my religion without
being affected and influenced by my great veneration for the man—my Son of Man—outside whom every religion would have been a hell of
boredom to me? Love explains but cannot be explained. The same is true
of faith, since it emanates from the simple and tender joy of loving.
I believe and love Dahesh because he gives me a thousand and one reasons to
believe and love him. It is as simple as that, and as complex too! Dahesh is
all love, but his love is of another dimension,
and it goes beyond the love of a father, a brother, or a friend. Most of all, it is
timeless! To be capable of such love is a miracle in itself; and to be
the recipient of such love is a blessing of no equal.
Dahesh’s persona, love, and miracles engendered in me an inexhaustible source of sublime admiration and veneration
I keep immersing myself into, so as to fathom what really had drawn me to him the moment I laid eyes on him. No man has impressed and captivated me the way Dahesh did! If Jesus opened my heart to the supernal world,
Dahesh proved its existence; and if Jesus made me
dream about divine love, Dahesh made it come
true!
We all have—or create—our own ideal which we follow
like a guiding star all our life through. Dahesh is mine! But what is this ideal per se? Well, even after twenty
years, and counting, I still have difficulty defining it accurately, let
alone conducting a synthesis or a metaphysical treatise in due and proper form.
That’s why I avoid—as much as I can get away with it—venturing along that road:
for in truth it wasn’t the form that brought me to Dahesh—nor him to me—but the spirit. Indeed, it was more the spirit of
longing than the need to find an ideal that drew me to him, a spirit so hard to define albeit I am forever beholden
to it. How strange of a feeling: to be attracted to an entity we care
not to dissect! We are just glad to have known it ... embraced it! But allow me
to reiterate that, since the nisus of every religion is to restore man to an
ethical awareness of the moral and social values that define him, suffice it
for me to have had Dahesh as my inspiration and revelation! For he who sows in us the love of the divine beautiful is
himself divine and beautiful!
Dahesh was an autodidact,
and contrary to what people may think, he
taught little in public, if any at all. He left that task to his disciples,
for “a worker must be worthy of his spiritual food,” to
paraphrase Jesus words when He sent His “few laborers into the plentiful
harvest of the Lord.” He was by choice and nature not
prolific in theoretical or theological teachings. To my knowledge, he never embarked on any study, synthesis, or critical
analysis concerning spiritual questions. Which brings me to wonder: How
come those (and by “those” I mean the prophets who really
have the answers to the mysteries that enfold us) are not so …
talkative? Is it because we are not ready to receive their plenty (which should explain the call to reason of Jesus to the
“Teacher of Israel,” Nicodemus, His secret admirer, who came to see Him by night to avoid being seen by his Jewish congregation:
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you
believe if I tell you heavenly things? [John 3: 12]) Or is it simply
because we are not worthy of their heavenly bounty?
Another salient trait in Dahesh: he was a man of few words
and, if anything, he wasn’t in the habit of telling people what to do. He left
it to every individual—separately—to figure out what was best for him or her. I never heard him preach or moralize, neither to his
guests nor to us, his disciples, when we were in his company. Yet his whole life was an epitome of what man should seek
through knowledge. That’s why he was—and shall always remain—my everyday
school. I say this because every instant I spent by his side was not only a
joy, but a source of invaluable learning
to me (I who came to consider school—any
school!—an imposed hell).
Still, what is
in my opinion the core, the heart, the sum and substance of his thought? And what is it that distinguishes him—at least in my
eyes—from the rest of the prophets? That’s what I would like to talk
about, hoping not to confuse myself in the process, or my reader for that
matter. To start with, allow me to draw attention to the following words of Jesus (words
that have enchanted my youth!) concerning
the Paraclete:
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot
bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide
you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He
hears He will speak, and He will tell you things to come. [John 16: 7-13]
Daheshism is a philosophical thought that has yet to
grow and reach the four corners of the world. It is a religion—in the broad
sense of the term—still in the cradle. Her voice reaches out to the finest
confine of our hearts to confront our most obdurate doubts. Her cardinal goals
are: bring back people to faith, in God and all His Prophets; prove the existence of the soul and her immortality—meaning
“our own immortality.” And most of all: show us a way to reform which is
conform to the present-time spirit, a reform upon which our salvation depends!
The Daheshist message is based on the divine messages
that preceded her. She reaffirms, confirms, and extends the unity of those messages—in
their original form—through her own message.
It is a religion of good sense and reason, of
fraternal love and universal tolerance, of equality of races and cults, of the
absolute liberty of opinion within the respect of others’… the very traits we
ought to find in a genuine religion meant to encompass Humanity in its
entirety.
It is a religion most humane, built on the respect of
the social laws, the intellectual and artistic values (“Art,
in its multiform, is God’s breath in Man’s alluvium,” used to say Dahesh, when in front of
a painting he liked in particular), and the espousal of a social life
invested with equitable laws applied to all without distinction. In other words: it upholds and reinforces
the very principles of democracy and virtue in their purest form.
Daheshism personifies and edifies in all its coherence
and probity the fundamental unity of Man and what is most sacred in him.
Daheshism is a religion in the full sense of the word—whatever this term has
come to symbolize in our world. It is a state of mind and heart based on
spiritual revelations! For while the spiritual revelations are divine, being
that they emanate from one source—God, Creator and Master of the
Universe—religions are manmade. Indeed, once a divine message is put in the
hands of the people it gives inevitably birth to a religion daubed with
all their characteristics, traditions, fears, and needs [ 2 ]. Since each
era has its own characteristics and idiosyncrasies, differences in beliefs are
bound to arise between one era and another, but they are purely circumstantial.
That is, there might be differences in the historical and materialistic
context—or rites and rituals, but never in the essence—or fundamental values.
Daheshism tells us that, if there seems to be patent differences between one
religion and another, it is only due to the fact that each religion took into
consideration, and responded to, the ethos of the era in which it was revealed,
meaning that, if on the surface there are differences or contradictions between
one religion and another, it is because each religion is the carbon copy, or
social mirror of the morals of its time.
The goal of a divine message is to bring about the moral
welfare of the people it came to enlighten. Its role is to cure the ills of a
definite era, for prophets are also the “doctors of the soul” of that era!
Therefore, it is necessary to look at the message in light of the pertinent
ills of a given era, since each era resorted to its own remedies. It is also important to see how each message went about to
cure the ills of its time and the intellectual level of the people it was
addressing. When it’s the heart
that suffered, the message takes a
cordial approach. When it’s the lungs,
the sight, the hearing … the remedy always
answers the need at hand. But the object is always
one: bring man back to God.
Religion is not, and should not be considered, a
shield. Yes, it shows us the right path to a better world, but it won’t protect
us should we deviate from that path … That’s why Dahesh reaffirms, in the very manner
of Jesus, that it is not the Jew, nor
the Christian, nor the Muslim, nor the Buddhist—nor the Daheshist for that matter—who will be saved … but those who would
have fulfilled the Will of God as it is clearly highlighted in the Holy
Scriptures (the Pentateuch, the Gospels, the
Koran, etc). A pagan or an atheist who does good deeds and
comports himself decently is more likely
to evolve toward a better world than a believer who confines his religious
fervency to saying: “Lord, I believe in You,” but does not fulfill His will.
*
The moral
welfare of mankind rests upon a spiritual science, rich and diversified, shaped
by its own laws, ramifications, and divisions.
Its
field of interest is man and society; its essence, the divine
revelations received across the ages.
Truth being
one and absolute, all religions should be one and unique. And if, to our eyes, the
precepts and teachings of the prophets seem
to contradict one another in certain points, it is because each prophet
taught at a level which was at par with the intellectual level of the people he
was addressing. Meaning: each prophet
spoke the language of the people he came to enlighten, and help them
improve themselves in all fields. Moses
spoke to his people in the desert with plain, explicit words. Jesus spoke to his people in parables
and proverbs … Same God, same Truth, same idealism,
same love for peace and perfection, but different approach. Dahesh did the same: he spoke to the
world with the urgency and frankness
it was so much in need. Indeed, we live
in modern times where Science, Spatial discoveries and Social Life have reached
a level of knowledge never reached before; but so did hatred, disorder, fanaticism and distrust reach a level and power
of destruction never equaled before! We might have
improved socially, but morally … we are at cross purposes like never before,
though we don’t want to admit it. Time is running out: we must unite our beliefs and values,
at the scale of individual States or
internationally, otherwise, we are doomed to annihilate
ourselves through a social cataclysm at a global scale!
*
The message of the prophets moves around two interrelated entities, or poles of
reform: the individual and society—the
two “souls’ of man, if you will: the soul of each man within a Collective
Soul. Individuals, being the “bricks” of society, when they are shaky, there
can be no durable social stability. And inversely, the best elements are
stripped of their virtuous qualities when present in a perverse body. This is a
fact of life—our life. The direct relation between the individual and society
cannot be circumvented: they are the two states of man. The whole depends on the elements, the elements rest on the
harmony of the whole. If they are strong, they strengthen each other; if they
are weak, they weaken each other. That’s why every prophet incarnates,
each in his own time, way and place, the role model of a given society.
Accordingly, the great social question becomes, first
of all, a question of morals—bearing in mind, of course, that our moral values
are derived from the spiritual revelations we’ve been entrusted with.
“The big social question,” reminds us
Daheshism, “is first of all a moral question.”
All the spiritual revelations, Daheshism in
particular, have drawn attention to the question of the Soul as the only
meaningful element at the base of faith. This belief in the existence of a
responsible and immortal Soul has shaped and guided all our dogmas: it is
the ethical salt at the core of each doctrine. It is
upon this verity—or more exactly, upon our awareness of this verity—that the
perpetual evolution of Man rests. For should the Soul really exist and
be immortal, then death would be death no more and life would cease to be an
ephemeral transition between two nonentities! Our corporeal journey would then
be but a wing stroke away from two no less conscious and vital shores, connected
in a cause-to-effect affinity within the ambit of the divine laws that
regulates their spiritual causality.
Like a ship sailing between two continents!
We [as a soul] are
on that ship [our body] sailing the sea [lapse of a lifetime] from one continent [one form of existence] to another continent [another form of existence]. And I believe it is
safe to say that not all the established philosophies dealt on life and death
in light of this verity, with some of them refuting it categorically!
And here comes the importance of the Daheshist message
in respect to those questions that seem to have become more than ever a prey to
doubt and the contemporary denials, which we are already aware of. Daheshism
re-establishes, as a certainty and as never before, faith in the beyond: a
faith that science has dismissed as a romantic absurdity because it
can’t explain it and assimilate it scientifically. And this is precisely where the miracles of Doctor Dahesh
come into the picture.
Like the miracles of Jesus Christ, the miracles of
Doctor Dahesh are the palpable proof of the existence of God, the Soul, the
Spirit, the plurality of the inhabited Worlds, life before birth, life after
death¾in a word: Immortality!
By immortality I mean an actual and perpetual
existence—whether in this world or in another—according to the immutable
omnipotent laws and the just system of retribution that God has established for
every form of existence.
This verity is not far-fetched to a modern man, be he
a Jew, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or a Hindu … a believer or an atheist.
However rigid he might be in his beliefs, a jot of good sense and judgment
would as soon convince him in a positive way, even if he were the most
confirmed nihilist. This belief in the immortality of the soul (our immortality), together with the innumerable
consequences it implicates, is primordial to his discernment, in the very
manner his senses are crucial to his living body. Seal this window opened to
the immaterial world, and everything becomes darkness! Remove from the heart of Man the idea and the certainty of
his immortality, and all the logic behind the need of a moral and social duty
would crumble: he would be lost in his reasoning like a blind man in his
movements, who is compelled to grope his way out in broad daylight.
This is, in my view, the most important window opened
to the Beyond by Daheshism. True, it
is not a novelty: all religions have mentioned it in one way or another. The
real novelty is in the advent of the certainty, a certainty meant for our
times. The miracles of Doctor Dahesh are that certainty in our modern times!
Take them away, and the message would be the same, not to mention that the
uncertainty would remain, for then we would be only repeating the same old
things but in different turns of phrase adapted astutely to our
modern-time fancies.
With the advent of Dahesh, the existence and
immortality of the soul ceases to be a hypothesis but to become a certainty,
a rule of life and the foundation of a philosophical school, so vast and
cosmic in concept. You cannot separate Dahesh from his miracles: they
are our certainty! It is a new dimension which extends the metaphysical
reflection of man beyond death, a reflection intrinsic to him before birth!
… For man is a spiritual entity at first and
last!
Another
fundamental question to take into consideration: the individual and collective
accountability of the Spiritual entity as a Human entity during her passage on
Earth.
A recondite subject!
Would
it surprise us to know, for example, that in the Universe everything relies
on and is responsible for everything? The ship
makes the waves that keel her over. She’s the one to chart her route through
the stars that guide her to safety … or her doom. She is in the lighthouse as
well as in the storm. That there exist in the Universe an infinite
number of living Worlds, superior or inferior to ours, to which we are
linked directly through the beings living there, who have reached those
Worlds in consequence of our own deeds and thoughts in the past. And vice-versa, we are in this World as a punishment¾or reward, depending on the World in
question¾for their deeds and thoughts.
A reciprocal universal responsibility ties all beings:
the responsibility of the human being, first, vis-à-vis self—meaning, his
individual soul; second, vis-à-vis the collective soul from which he emanates.
And so on, to the infinite: from world to world, existence to existence, my
responsibility vis-à-vis self and the society to which I belong, then to
humanity, then the planet Earth, finally the Galaxy. And vice-versa: every
being in relation to self, at a scale always growing larger, more divine and absolute.
“That they all may be one, as You, Father, are in me, and I in You”: the
very words of Jesus Christ, as they came in the following verses (The Gospel of John 17: 20-23), words that ought
to make us ponder:
“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who
will believe in Me through their word; that they All may be ONE, as You,
Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be ONE in Us, that the
world may believe that You sent me. And the glory which You gave Me I have
given them, that THEY MAY BE ONE JUST AS WE ARE ONE: I
in Them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in One, and that
the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved Them as You have
loved Me.”
All the souls of a definite World form a homogenous
whole. As such, the Universe contains at its core material and immaterial
worlds that fuse into one another in a space-time relation. These material
and immaterial worlds, with their present, their past and their future, form an inseparable and magnificent entity which
is universal, cosmic, and absolute. It is as though they are One Cosmic
Being that has the planets for atoms, the galaxies for cells, and is vibrant
with unknown— unknown to us—civilizations that exist in a space-time
relation, forming an Infinite Body!
To this subject in particular, the fantastic work of
Doctor Dahesh on the extraterrestrial inhabited worlds is a pleasure to read
for those who are fond of science fiction; for this (life on millions and
millions of other planets,) is not only scientifically possible but also
divinely true!
Here come to mind the words Jesus Christ have said to
his disciples about the inhabited worlds:
“Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe
also in Me. In My Father’s
house there are many mansions;
if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you
close to Me; so that were I am, there you may also be.” [John14: 1-3]
“That
were
I am,” meaning a definite form of existence proper to the world wherein He is
and wherein his disciples will be after leaving this Earth!
Furthermore, Daheshism highlights the often
forgotten laws of Spiritual Causality, those wise and complex laws that
regulate our destinies in accordance with our deeds and thoughts:
“You have
heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But
I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already
committed adultery with her in his heart.” [Matthew
5: 27-28]
Whether they are laudable or blamable before God and
our own conscience (“itself our judge,” tells us Doctor Dahesh in that
regard), these deeds and thoughts keep us in a perpetual motion within the
life-and-death wheel, with a set time allocated to each lapse, giving thus rise
to an effervescence of destinies born one from the other ad infinitum. In a
word: Reincarnation!
Reincarnation is one of the pillars of the Daheshist
belief. Actually, every concept of
existence that deals on the immortality of the soul entails this dogma.
Reincarnation is the premise of Creation, though most of us don’t recognize it
as such.
All religions have acknowledged Reincarnation in one way or another, whether implicitly or
explicitly. We need only to refer to the many verses in the Holy Scriptures to
prove the veracity of this dogma. Even Islam, at the onset, taught it; so
did Christianity, although the Church today refuses to acknowledge
it as such. As to Buddhism: the whole concept of its religion is based
on reincarnation.
To cite some examples from the Koran—which, by
the way Doctor Dahesh himself has brought to our attention, when he explained
his point of view concerning Reincarnation:
“How do you deny God, and you were dead and He
brought you back to life; then He wil cause you to die and again will
bring you back to life; and in the end shall gather you unto Himself.” [Surah The Cow: 28]
“O man! What has beguiled you from your Lord, the
Gracious one, who created you, then made you complete, then made you
symmetrical? Into whatever form He pleased He constituted you.” [Surah The Cleaving Asunder: 6-8]
“Say: shall I inform you of (him who is) worse than
this in retribution from God? (Worse is he) whom God has cursed and brought His
wrath upon, and of whom He made apes and swine, and he who served Satan; these
are worse in place and more erring from the straight path.” [Surah The Food: 60]
“They shall say: Our Lord, twice didst Thou make us
subject to death, and twice hast Thou given us life, so we do confess our
faults; is there then a way to get out?” [Surah
The Believer: 11]
Or
these two separate instances in the New Testament where Jesus tells clearly
His disciples that John the Baptist is none other than Elijah the Prophet:
“For all the prophets and the law prophesied until
John.
“And if you are willing to accept it, he (John the
Baptist) is Elijah who is to come.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” [Matthew 11: 3-14]
And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the
scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
Then Jesus answered and said to them, “Elijah truly is
coming first and will restore all things.
“But I say to you that Elijah has come already,
and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son
of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.”
Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of
John the Baptist.” [Matthew 17: 10-13]
(This last remark must have been jotted down to leave no equivoque as to what
Jesus really meant to say.)
Or the following verse where it is clear that the
reincarnation of beings can have every form of existence possible:
“In truth I say to you that God is able to raise up
children to Abraham from these stones.” [Matthew
3: 9]
Accordingly, all human beings, plants, and inanimate
bodies evolve from state to state, kingdom to kingdom, sphere to sphere, galaxy
to galaxy … until they reach the absolute ideal in the bosom of felicity and wholesomeness:
God!
How else can we explain, if not by the spiritual
Causality, the differences in the qualities and defects we inherit by birth,
whereby our reincarnations are the reflection of the condign verdict pronounced
in our favor or against it? If we don’t believe in Reincarnation, how can we
reconcile the fact that all men are not allotted the same share at “birth” when
they are expected to be “judged equally” by the Divine Tribunal at “death”? Why
this favoritism—at best, and injustice—at worst? There is nothing ambiguous
or abstract about this subject. At the time of Moses—or Jesus, for that
matter—the idea of Reincarnation was common belief and deeply rooted in the
Hebraic credence; otherwise, Jesus’ disciples would not have asked Him,
saying: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
It concerned a man who was blind from birth. But let us meditate this
instance, as it came in Gospel of John (9: 1-3):
Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind
from birth.
And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Rabbi, who
sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents
sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.”
How could a blind man be responsible for the state he
was born into if he did not exist before coming to Earth? The disciples’ question to Jesus would have been totally
absurd if the incarnation of a pre-existing spirit (from
a previous life) in a new body wasn’t common knowledge at the time. Both
the Old and New Testaments are rife with examples [ 3 ] of the
kind, so explicit is the message they meant to convey. To find them, all we need
is to keep an open mind … and we’ll be royally served!
In itself, the chapter of Reincarnation
constitutes a fascinating world of infinite adventures. Reincarnation gives sense and reason to this
life; and hope, too! Life would surely have a different meaning if we look at
it through the binoculars of reincarnation. It is a wonderful world, and, most
of all, “it is a world of love and clemency” tells us Doctor Dahesh. To hear
his praises about reincarnation and life beyond life, one starts to long for
death in that to reach the afterlife. It is like being living a thrilling
novel! Barely had we read the first pages than we are in a hurry to reach
the all-explaining end, that part where the intrigue finally unravels and the
mystery is solved. But no sooner had we put that novel down, than we reach for
another, so eager we are at the prospect of “living” yet another mystery
through a new sequel! It is the same with our perpetual existence through
time—this ever-renewed adventure, with one difference, though: we are the ones
to write and edit each novel, and in one exemplary. And regardless of it being
a wonderful or miserable adventure, we are the ones to influence the Destiny of
its “hero” in the many sequels we put him through. It is the novel of the “anima,”
if you will, unique to our characteristics and merits, and present in our
genes: one that contains a fascinating encyclopedia of our lives and deaths
through the many reincarnations we have gone by.
In light of Reincarnation many things cease to be
obscure. To Doctor Dahesh Reincarnation is a certainty,
and it is at the base of Creation.
In the foreword of his book, “Strange Stories and
Incredible Legends” (Tom II), he explains,
in very simple terms, the reasoning behind this certainty:
“If we deduct from man’s life (a
span of 70, 80, or 90 years) his years of childhood and adolescence
wherein he is unaccountable for his deeds (about 15
years), the time he spends in unconscious sleep (about
35 years), and in sickness (about 4 years)…
what is there left but a few conscious years whereby we expect God to pass
judgment upon him for eternity?! We all know how difficult it is for man to
live a model life, in view of the enticements that ensnare him everywhere he
goes. As such, were we to be judged according to our deeds and thoughts, hardly
any one of us would be saved. If, as our religions want
us to believe, the verdict of hell or heaven must be rendered at the end of so
short a period, wouldn’t this only indicate how little we know about Divine
Love? For, it is illogical—if not preposterous—to think that God would
punish human beings to an Eternal State century after century, eternity after
eternity, without granting them first at least one chance to atone for their
sins, and more likely, more than one chance if not thousands of chances,
because in His Love God wants the good of Man, and not his punishment! Even in His punishment, God remains Love.
"That’s why He granted us the celestial gift of
reincarnation, to enable us to correct and purify our soul gradually,
stage after stage, life after life. During these reincarnations, each person is
capable of purifying his soul, that he may enjoy His celestial Paradises. But if
after exhausting all his chances he still has not improved himself, then he
deserves to remain eternally in the flames of Gehenna, so eternal with its
fire. And this would be just and equitable!
“Otherwise, Man, a poor creature, born weak
and frail, subjected to the temptations of the flesh and enticements of the
pleasures that seep inside his molecules through a giddiness of misdeeds, held
hostage by an infinite number of passions and seductions, would be, before
those temptations, like a feeble bird whose wings have been weighed down
with lead and left to face predatory birds. It is like impeding his soul,
then telling him: free yourself from the servitude you have been burdened with,
or else crawl forever! This is impossible!”
This is impossible indeed, as Doctor Dahesh perorates,
for if we deem it otherwise, we would only be making of our Creator a
merciless Monster … in our very image!
Apart from reincarnation Doctor Dahesh dealt on many
other subjects. He spoke, for example, of the social questions and put on trial
their truthfulness:
“You excel in the art of setting constitutions of
equality, liberty, and fraternity, but in verity I say to you, your
legislations are but a comedy and a shameful masquerade. (To be continued soon …)
READ MORE from JOSEPH H. CHAKKOUR
Dahesh
through his own words
Dahesh
sings America
Daheshism in a Bird’s Eye view
Letter from Dahesh to his
Attorney Noon
Open letter to Jesus
Sections >> 1 2 3 4
5
[ 1 ] “It is faith that we are mostly in need of
and not religions …” This answer of Dahesh brings to mind Rabelais’ famous
adage, which became quite popular in time: “Science sans conscience n’est
que perte de temps et ruine de l’âme [Science sans conscience is naught but
loss of time and ruin of the soul].” This is, in succinct, Daheshism and
its precepts: re-instill in each one faith in God and His Prophets. How so? by
his words of crystal clear reasoning, his deeds and miracles, and the testimony
of a whole life.
[ 2 ] Divine revelation is pure only
at the source, that’s why it is essential that we retrace each religion back to
its origin. The further we go in time, the more likely we are to see it
muddled. Christianity (just to take an example I am
familiar with) is the very proof of that degradation; for after the
advent of Christ every century produced its own share of beguilement,
laissez-faire, and concessions, adding them to the original spirit of
the revealed truth, in that to serve our whims and wants. Such a par for the
course tendency not only weakened our belief in the “spiritual,” but it also
had a nefarious effect on our morals and ethics. And this adverse effect gave
rise to a certain doubt in the existence of the soul and her immortality
through the years, a legitimate doubt, nonetheless, which ended up being the
Achilles’ heel of modern-day thinking. Our
religion is what we have become, not what we ought to be!
[ 3 ] Metempsychosis
was such a current fundamental dogma at the time that, to discuss it today is akin
to talking about the “roundness” of the Earth in a contemporary novel.
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