Desde nuestra ventana se ve esta cupula y era otro de los sitios que queriamos visitar. Solo esta a unos 4 kilometros, asi que aprovechando que el dia no era excesivamente frio, hemos ido andando hasta alli, haciendo algunas paradas en el camino para hacer fotos de sitios que tambien queriamos ver.
Hi friends! today I'm writing really a lot! I finally have some time to do it so I can tell you about many things we have done these days.
When I was still in Ciudad Real I watched a program called "Spanish people in Chicago" and one of the Spanish persons in this program talked about a temple dedicated to the "Baha'i" religion.
We can see the dome of this temple from our house and of course, it was one of the things we wanted to visit. It is only 2.2 miles far, so we took our cameras and walk there. The day was not too cold today and during our way there, we stopped to take pictures of other nice places.
Durante nuestro paseo hemos hecho fotos a algunas de las iglesias que hay en el campus y tambien hemos visto las casas de varias fraternidades, a la gente espanola esto les sonara a las peliculas que vemos en television :), pero hay que ver que casitas!!
During our walk to the Baha'i temple we took some pictures of some of the churches around campus and we have also seen some of the fraternity houses. I know Spanish people will see this as taken from a tv movie :), but you have to see what kind of houses are these!!
Hemos continuado andando despues de pasar por la zona del campus y hemos llegado hasta el faro Grosse. Es un faro pequenito que hay en la playa del lago Michigan y ademas, por ahi, se puede acceder a la parte publica del lago. Hacia mucho frio aqui, pero el paisaje era muy bonito.
After the campus area we stopped at the "Grosse lighthouse". It is very small and there is also a collection of flowers there. In this place there is also a path to go to the public area of the beach in lake Michigan. It was very cold there, but the landscape was really beautiful.
Poco a poco nos ibamos acercando mas y mas hacia el templo, hasta que por fin lo hemos visualizado en las distancia.We were approaching the temple little by little. Finally, we could visualize it in the distance.
La religion Baha'i es una religion muy nueva, cuyos primeros feligreses empezaron a practicar a finales del siglo XIX. Tiene sus origenes en Iran y su profeta es Baha'u'llah (1817-1892). Su verdadero nombre es Mirza Husayn-Ali y se le conoce como Baha'u'llah, que significa "La Gloria de Dios". Esta religion es practicada por solo 5 millones de personas en todo el mundo y la mision de este profeta era luchar por la paz mundial. Baha'u'llah paso 25 agnos de su vida en prision debido a sus creencias religiosas, que en todo momento, fueron pacificas. Tambien vivio en el exilio y finalmente murio en Akka (Palestina) en 1892, aunque hoy esta zona pertenece a Israel.
The Baha'i religion is a pretty novel religion, which first followers started practicing its principles at the end of XIX century. It has its origins in Iran and its messenger is Baha'u'llah (1817-1892). His real name is Mirza Husayn-Ali and he is known as Baha'u'llah which means "The Glory of God". There are only 5 million people following this religion in the entire world and the mission of it is achieving peace in the world. Baha'u'llaha spent 25 years of his life in prison because of his religious ideas, even though they were peaceful. He was also exiliated and finally he died in Akka (Palestina), a place that belongs to Israel nowadays.
Esta religion cree que todos formamos una sola raza, el mundo es un solo pais y nosotros sus ciudadanos. Todos juntos, con todas las religiones compartimos los mismos propositos:- Eliminacion de todos los prejuicios.
- Igualdad entre el hombre y la mujer
- Armonia entre ciencia y religion.
- Paz mundial mantenida por una mancomunidad global de naciones.
- Soluciones espirituales a problemas economicos.
- Educacion universal.
Esta religion reune a todos los profetas de las religiones que casi todos conocemos: Jesucristo, Buda, Mahoma, Abraham, Moises, Krishna, Zoroastro...segun la fe Baha'i, Baha'u'llah es el mas reciente de estos mensajeros.
Este religion no tiene clero y en sus templos no se dan sermones, ni hay sacramentos.
Hay siete templos en todo el mundo, el de America del norte esta aqui en Wilmette, justo al lado de Evanston. En Europa esta en Frankfurt, en Africa en Uganda, en America del sur en Panama, en Asia hay uno en Samoa, otro en Australia y finalmente uno en la India.
Por supuesto, hay que seguir los libros sagrados de todas las religiones y por ejemplo, en la decoracion de los templos esto se puede ver en sus columnas donde hay cruces representando al cristianismo, las cruces del budismo e hinduismo, el simbolo del coran, la estrella de David, etc.
This religion believes in the existence of an only raze. The world has an only country and we all are the citizens. All together, joining all the religions can fight together to achieve the next goals:
- Eliminating all kind of prejudices.
- Equality of men and women.
- Harmony between religion and science.
- Peace in the world achieved by a global community of nations.
- Spiritual solutions for economical problems.
- Universal education.
This religion believes in all the messengers of all religions: Jesuschrist, Mahoma, Buddah, Abraham, Moses, Zoroastro, Krishna...and Baha'u'llah is the most recent of these messengers.
If you visit the temple, there won't be anyone preaching and no sacraments will be found in their sacred books.
There are seven temples in the whole world. The North American one is here in Wilmette, IL, next to Evanston. In South America is in Panama, the temple of Europe is in Frankfoort, there is another one in Australia, India and another in Samoa. The African one is in Uganda.
Of course, they follow the sacred books of all the religions: the bible, coran, torah, etc and you can see this in the decoration of the columns of the temple where symbols of every religion can be seen (the cross, the hooked cross, the David's star...).
Columna con todos los simbolos religiosos. Column with all the religious symbols.At the top of the dome a symbol can be observed. It represents the Arabic words "Ya Baha'u'l-Abha", which means "Glory of the All Mighty".
El templo se comenzo a construir en 1921 y se completo en 1953, aunque aun hay partes de los jardines que estan en construccion.Me ha parecido una experiencia cultural muy enriquecedora, el ambiente era muy espiritual, no habia simbolos religiosos ni ningun predicador. Habia numerosas actividades para todo tipo de gente, todas ellas buscando armonia entre todos nosotros.
Es uno de los sitios que mas me ha gustado visitar y me parece increible que este aqui tan cerca de casa, un simbolo religioso tan nuevo, tan escaso y tan pacifico.
The temple started being built in 1921 and it was done by 1953, even though there are some parts of the gardens that are still under construction.
I thought it was an incredible cultural experience, the environment was very spiritual, there were not religious symbols of this faith and no preachers. There were many activities for all kind of people, always looking for harmony among us.
It is one of the places I liked the most since we are here and I think it is really incredible, so close, here, such an important religious temple of this rare faith...what I liked the most is how peaceful it was.
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