Paradise of Presence:
Conversations in the Mindscape of Eternity
by Alison Elizabeth Marshall
Due out in 2024
Paradise of Presence: Conversations in the Mindscape of Eternity focuses on the fundamental task each person is asked to carry out in life, which is to undergo a spiritual journey into the inner self in order to connect to the Divine. The starting point is the physical world; the destination is Paradise in the realm of mysteries. The vehicle for the journey is the soul, spirit, heart, mind and imagination.
Broadly speaking, the journey can be broken down into three stages: the passage out of the physical world, the passage through the world of one’s ego-self, and the passage into the world of mysteries. This set-up of interconnecting worlds hints at the astonishing idea that a person’s inner world is seamlessly connected to the timeless, eternal worlds.
The control centre of the journey is the person’s soul, which is a tiny spark of the divine light of existence. If a person climbs up into the driver seat of the soul, they can enjoy a panoramic view over the three worlds within them. The viewer can shift perspective between all three worlds at will or take in all three worlds at once.
From this vantage point, it becomes clear that the physical world is just a stepping stone to other marvellous things in the eternal realm. The struggle for a person in the physical world is to accept that the primary journey of life is not the one taking place around them, but the one taking place in the eternal worlds. People are defined by their experiences in the physical world. Coming to see all of that as a temporary identity story, is a struggle over realities.
The way to get past limited perspectives and make progress on life’s important journey is to rely on the transformational powers hidden in Baha’u’llah’s words. The magical way that Baha’u’llah writes is designed to help people see themselves from the perspective of the soul, so that a vision of who they really are can gradually come into view and they can identify with their eternal destination and purpose.
Below is the table of contents and opening quote for Paradise of Presence: Conversations in the Mindscape of Eternity:
Introduction
Chapter 1: Opening up the conversation
Chapter 2: A commanding panoramic view
Chapter 3: The story of the divine Houri
Chapter 4: Eavesdropping on cosmic conversations
Chapter 5: The mirror of divine love
Chapter 6: An infinity-mirrored creation
Chapter 7: Creation as a human drama
Chapter 8: The tragedy of the human drama
Chapter 9: Living in the Day of God
Chapter 10: Modernising biblical narratives
Chapter 11: The concept of meeting God
Chapter 12: Human connectivity to spiritual realms
Chapter 13: The heart’s scrying eye of insight
Chapter 14: Achieving spiritual autonomy
Chapter 15: Awakening to intimacy
Chapter 16: Conversations in imagery
Chapter 17: Tablet of the Vision (reading)
References
Appendices
“She uncovered her hair and the curls hung down on her breast,
Praise to the one who created and arranged.
The strain of God issued from the strands of her hair,
in remembrance of her Lord, the Lofty, the Most Exalted,
Praise to my Lord, the Most High.
The miracle of night appeared from the darkness of her hair,
and the miracle of day from the brightness of her brow,
Praise to the one who created and arranged.
She raised the sacred call in the paradise of presence,
Praise to my Lord, the Most High.”
Baha’u’llah*
*From Baha’u’llah’s poem Praised be my Lord, the Most High, translated by Alison Elizabeth Marshall.
(A complete translation of the poem, by Juan Cole, can be found here.)