How is one to define contentment? I recall a time in my life in which the words I used to describe my state of being were “intrinsically discontent”, and now I am left wondering, almost three years later, how precise such terminology actually was in narrating my mind’s eye at the time.
I suppose the existential question this brings to mind is, how does one accurately qualify his or her level of contentment/discontent at any given moment. I am left with one persistent thought, spiritual certitude.
The time referred to above, during which I named myself intrinsically discontent, I was on a spiritual search, thus that time in my life was neither void of passion nor sense of self, it was my own perception/definition of God, whom I knew to exist, which was lacking. This was a time in my life full of vigor and excitement, but simultaneously a sense of loss as I had shed one religious identity in search of another.
Now, at a time in my life when my personal identity is fundamentally rooted and intertwined with my spirituality, deeply embedded in the Baha’i definition of God, there are many factors within my life which I feel have room for improvement, which perhaps even cause me discontent, and yet there is a sense of confirmation that this is much more than simply a path I am plodding along, merely one of millions I can choose from. I possess an innate knowledge, an a priori sense that it is the path and this is because each step I take, each bend in the road I venture down, is motivated by the Divine Alliance of my own free will and God’s Omnipotent plan, for none other than myself. Thus the phrase intrinsically discontent has no place here, its words bear no meaning in my present, and what I hope to be eternal state of being, for God is near, and I am listening.
And since I noted thy mention of thy death in God, and thy life through Him, and thy love for the beloved of God and the Manifestations of His Names and the Dawning-Points of His Attributes — I therefore reveal unto thee sacred and resplendent tokens from the planes of glory, to attract thee into the court of holiness and nearness and beauty, and draw thee to a station wherein thou shalt see nothing in creation save the Face of thy Beloved One, the Honored, and behold all created things only as in the day wherein none hath a mention.
(Baha’u'llah, The Seven Valleys, p. 2)
