On Philosophy: We Are All Mariners

"...[W]e Bahá'ís are not pilgrims headed for a final destination be it Paradise, or Nirvana or Valhalla, but rather, we are all mariners and our lives are a journey that never ends. Days and nights, in different weathers, on different seas and through changing climates we sail ever onward discovering new lands and our prows are aimed at the horizon and the Great Attractor whose brightness draws us forever onward. Each moment is an arrival and departure; a 'Land-ho!' and 'Anchors aweigh!'; a parting sigh and a welcoming smile, a discovery and a recognition, a being-toward-death and a being-toward-birth, a self-transcendence and a self-disappointment, a 'Ready-aye-ready' and a 'Not-yet', a moment of knowledge and a moment of mystery, a falling into the troughs and a rising onto the crests. Like all mariners, we are 'in-between'. We live between waves and winds, between sea and sky, between being ourselves and never being ourselves, between anticipation and anxiety, between here and not-here, between peace with ourselves and internal conflict, between being true and being untruth. Yet, through this all, we try as best we can to see the light of the Great Attractor and to guide our ships by that light."

Ian Klug , "Call into Being: A Prolegomena to a Baha'i Existentialism"