“O, friends! Be not careless of the virtues with which ye have been endowed; neither be neglectful of your high destiny.”
This is but another of the multitude of utterances from the pen of Baha’u’llah, Prophet/Founder of the Baha’i Faith, that is highly recommended for memorization– regardless of one’s religious affiliation and especially for those with no religious persuasion.
In the days of early education, emphasis was likewise placed on the memorization of literary works of such masters of the art as William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who wrote the incomparable Psalm of Life which I memorized as a youth and still quote verbatim including a verse which is left out of the one listed in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations of 1941 (that I’m not certain where now to insert). Then there is, of course, the literary genius of such African Americans as W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, the first Black writer to win a Pulitzer Prize (1950), and Dr. Benjamin Mays, one of my favorites, among many others.
Through the explosion of modern technology over recent years however, including television and the internet where anyone can instantly Google any information under the sun, the art of memorization has indeed become a lost one, depriving those who would otherwise memorize of the ability to instantly recall from memory some invaluable pearls of wisdom from past genius applicable to the situation.
The beginning quotation is one of many which have particularly struck me as I continue the dawn prayers which accompany each morning sunrise during the March 2-21 19-day Baha’i Fast period, which provides invaluable spiritual nourishment. Although one is not required to fast past age 70, I’m told, I continued to do so quite successfully for another couple of years beyond. Discovering at the end of this year that I eventually would not be able to continue the 12-hour fast, (without food or drink) between sunup and sundown, I decided to continue the daily dawn prayers instead.
Which has proven to be unimaginably strengthening in every way. Now I have the time (while still the capacity) to add more gems to the treasure chest of memorization, which especially through this New Revelation of Baha’u’llah, puts all things in better perspective–the good, the bad, and the ugly–while unfolding the inconceivable Day of God in which we are now living and the unparalleled role that each of us has been predestined, whether or not we ever realize or accept it.
“Arise, O people, and by the power of God’s might, resolve to gain the victory over your own selves, that haply the whole earth may be freed and sanctified from its servitude to the gods of its idle fancies.” ~Baha’u’llah
