Film:

The Blind Side, 2009

Starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Kathy Bates, and Quinton Aaron.

Synopsis:

The story of Michael Oher, an homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.

My Thoughts:

What makes this movie so amazing is that it is based on a true story.  It is a story of what happens when people actually choose to live out their religious beliefs, when they take action. So often we see news of religious conflict, but it is really comforting to see when religion can be a source of inspiration for people to commit amazing acts of kindness and love beyond expectations.

This story began when a Christian private school was counseled to live up to the name Christian and help the struggling, homeless Michael Oher to attend.

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead  ~ James 2:14-17

Leigh Ann Touhy and her family took it to the next level when they took Michael Oher in, fed him, clothed him, and helped him to succeed. And in doing so they learned to better appreciate the luxury they had taken for granted, as well as time with each other as a family, which prior to meeting Michael they had not.

O SON OF MY HANDMAID! Guidance hath ever been given by words, and now it is given by deeds. Every one must show forth deeds that are pure and holy, for words are the property of all alike, whereas such deeds as these belong only to Our loved ones. Strive then with heart and soul to distinguish yourselves by your deeds. In this wise We counsel you in this holy and resplendent tablet. ~ Bahá’u’lláh

What Michael went through many more people in society go through then we would care to admit.  But unlike Michael often these people do not receive a helping hand.  Instead those in healthy, wealthy communities isolate themselves.  How can we as a society work to eradicate poverty, to provide opportunities for all?  How can we overcome our fears?  Especially when they are legitimate, like living in a place of violence.

Michael had developed a coping mechanism for dealing with living in an unsavory situation, full of drugs, addiction, violence, and crime.  He closed his eyes.  He closed his eyes and waited for the problem to dissipate so that when he opened them again the world would be bearable.

O MAN OF TWO VISIONS! Close one eye and open the other. Close one to the world and all that is therein, and open the other to the hallowed beauty of the Beloved. ~ Bahá’u’lláh

I think this is something we can all learn from.  All the bad things in life can be overwhelming, especially if we focus on them.  If instead we close our eyes to them, and instead open our eyes to the beauty in the world we can move from that darkness to light.  I am not saying we just ignore the bad, but instead try to transcend it and not let it bring us down.  Michael was able to do that.  He could have been to proud to accept the help of the Touhys but he wasn’t.  He opened his eyes to their love and chose it over the path he could have taken.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. ~ 1 Corinthians 13

Teilhard had a unique perspective on evolution and spirituality. Unlike the contemporaries of his time, he saw religion, mysticism and evolution as part of one greater process of unfolding, groping towards some unity with the Godhead. A new kind of faith, which saw an attainable future “unity” with God, a glorious “Kingdom of Heaven” on Earth, in which humanity was here to continue to evolve, be challenged to grow and love, unite and build the world together. In a sense, his version of Christian mysticism has two important factors: That all matter is divine, and secondly, that we are not here to escape or transcend matter, so much as we are to discover the divinity that is already in the world. Humanity then has a unique destiny. The world is compelled towards greater unity, greater complexity, so that the inner Godhead may shine through. Human beings are the “pinnacle” of this, because we are capable of self-reflection and actively participating in “building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.”

Teilhard saw Eastern spirituality discovering the same underlying thing, but in a different way (which he thought made them deficient, compared to his version of Western/Christian mysticism). He believed Buddhism and Hinduism understood that there is an essentially divine nature behind physical reality, but they took a cynical view towards this world: don’t bother with it, it’s illusion, there is something far more real! He believed that because Eastern mysticism sought to simply realize what already is, instead of looking ahead to some ever-greater future, it could not be the total picture. To summarize, he believed Eastern spirituality to be too dismissive about the physical world and the story of its evolution. The world of matter was important too. Even though it was essentially divine, it had a direction and an unfoldment we were a part of. Teilhard dismissed his contemporaries for being so fascinated by Eastern religions, but I think he actually missed what Eastern mysticism was all about.

Even though Christianity had always looked to the future for Christ’s second coming, it had become very static. Evolution was not incorporated into the theological doctrine (and even today, the Catholic Church is only beginning to become open to faith as a process). The world just “was,” and eventually, Christ would return. The notion of process, evolution, etc was missing.

In the East, one could say it was similar on the surface level. Even though Buddhism taught of impermanence and flux, there wasn’t much focus on direction. After all, evolution is a form of impermanence.

The East has an equally beautiful vision for the world as a cycle with definite direction. Its mysticism shares Teilhard’s vision for Christianity: the notion that there are greater Ages to come and humanity will be a direct part of that unfolding.

There are the Yugas, in which we move from an age of bare subsistence and survival (Kali yuga), to the gradual return to God-consciousness (Satya Yuga). In Buddhism, there is the idea that Maitreya would return as a great Buddha for a future age. In Persia during 19th century, the Bahai Faith emerged, claiming that all religions were part of a great spiritual unfolding. Interestingly, this more recent faith has placed the “core” mystical teaching as the pinnacle and forefront of its teaching. Something that has not been done by other established world religions.

All in all, I’m saying that the story of process, direction, unfolding is not Western, nor is it Eastern. It’s a perennial mysticism that is shared by both hemispheres and spiritual traditions. If we bring this to focus with scientific understanding of evolution, spirituality itself has the potential to cultivate a new, worldly faith that isn’t limited by respective cultural contexts. Evolution has sent a shockwave through all facets of civilization, so what would happen if the world embraced it spiritually, in a common mystical vision that appears to have already been a part of human history for thousands of years? If anything, evolution hyper-charges spirituality with new context and a planetary meaning. The possibilities here are overflowing.

We asked photographers this month to select an indelible image –– one photograph they encountered early on as a photographer that still lingers with them today.  We’re especially pleased to include an indelible image from Darius Himes, one of the country’s foremost experts on the photo book, who is also a photographer, writer, and publisher.  And thanks to everyone who submitted an indelible image. Because we had so many responses to the column, we’ll run THE INDELIBLE IMAGE II next month. –– Alex and Rebecca

DARIUS HIMES ON HARRY CALLAHAN

Harry Callahan, Aix-en-Provence, 1958

One of the first photographers I was introduced to, as a young teenage boy, was Harry Callahan. The introduction came by way of the cover of Henry Horenstein’s Black and White Photography. My father had purchased the book at the suggestion of a colleague, and while the technical language was still far above me, I was deeply impressed by the work chosen. Callahan’s graceful black-and-white image of barren trees in winter not only spoke to me due to the subject matter—I grew up just across the Mississippi River in Iowa, a mere 3 hours from Chicago, where I presume Callahan made this photograph—but also because of the graphic power of the world rendered in shades of black, white, and gray.

But the photograph of Callahan’s that I most responded to, then and now, is his photograph of 1958, Aix-en-Provence, France. Actually, that statement is a bit of a falsehood. There are so many photographs of Callahan’s that I respond to, that to narrow it to one particular image is like asking for a favorite passage from Shakespeare! There are so many that are appropriate for so many situations. But nonetheless, what moves me about this image is the wildness of the underbrush and the seeming impenetrability of the scene. And yet, the more you look, the more things are revealed, by which I mean, the more deeply it impresses itself upon you, untethering your own inner eye along the way. Merely informational facts are not what I’m talking about; what I’m hinting at are the multitude of ways that the outer world has been transformed into a powerful two dimensional, abstracted image. I’m talking about the very transformative power of photography in the hands of an acutely sensitive artist.

There is a concept that is a clarifying one for me that relates to my attraction to this photograph. In both Eastern and Western cosmology is the notion of the mirror-connectedness of the Book of Revelation and the Book of Creation. Here is one exemplary, brief passage that speaks to this subject, from Persian-born Baha’u'llah. “Look at the world and ponder a while upon it. It unveileth the book of its own self before thine eyes and revealeth that which the Pen of thy Lord, the Fashioner, the All-Informed, hath inscribed therein”* John Ruskin, the 19th century British writer and social commentator expressed it this way.

There is religion in everything around us,

a calm and holy religion

in the unbreathing things of nature.

It is a meek and blessed influence,

stealing in as it were unaware upon the heart;

It comes quickly, and without excitement;

It has no terror, no gloom,

It does not rouse up the passions;

It is untrammeled by creeds….

There are a great many photographers and artists who have approached the world around them with awe and wonder. In this image, I see a precursor to photographers like Hiroshi Sugimoto and Thomas Joshua Cooper, as well as echoes of artists as varied as Nio Hokusai, Kandinsky, and the darker aspects of Whistler’s painting oeuvre. What Callahan seems to have mastered, to me at least, was the ability to gaze, with deep intent, at his “immediate” surroundings, without feeling the need to either exoticize nor degrade what he looked at and what he ultimately decided to photograph, allowing “the book of its own self” to reveal itself in all of its own inherent beauty. This is a powerful role that the arts can play in our society and in helping us advance our fledgling, world-embracing civilization.––Darius Himes

* (Baha’u'llah: Tablets of Baha’u'llah, pp. 141-142)

Darius’s websites:

http://www.dariushimes.com

http://www.radiusbooks.org

For more about Harry Callahan:

http://www.stephendaitergallery.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=25

To see Hiroshi Sugimoto’s work:

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/

To see some of Thomas Joshua Cooper’s work:

http://artnews.org/artist.php?i=735

ALEX WEBB ON HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Valencia, Spain, 1933

My father, when he was struggling with writer’s block––which, unfortunately, was all too often––turned to photography, and as a result had a fine collection of photographic books.  At about the age of fourteen, I started to sift through these books in his study.  As I pored through The Decisive Moment, I remember coming upon this Cartier-Bresson image from Valencia, Spain.  I’d never seen anything quite like it.     As I marveled at the echoing rings of the mismatched spectacle lenses and the half-target on the door, set against––in deep space––that slightly twisted, ambiguous figure in the doors behind, I remember thinking: How can someone see this way?  How can someone find such an enigmatic moment in the world and bring it back as a photograph? I began to sense something about perception, about the moment, about space, and about the unique possibilities of the photograph. I’ve never forgotten this image.––Alex Webb

To see more of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work:

http://www.magnumphotos.com

REBECCA NORRIS WEBB ON WRIGHT MORRIS

Wright Morris, Clothing on Hooks, 1947

Formerly a writer, I was attracted early on as a photographer to two books that combine text and images:  Walker Evans and James Agee’s Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and Wright Morris’s God’s Country and My People. Both bodies of work expanded my way of looking at the photo book, and eventually led to my intermingling the two in my own work.  Yet, there was something about the lesser-known, Nebraskan-born Morris’s photo-text book –– in which he interweaves his writing and his photographs –– that touched something deeper and more inexplicable in me. Morris’s work is aloof yet engaging, bare-bones yet mysterious, spacious yet intimate –– it is work that suggests the many paradoxes that make up the Great Plains itself, where, like Morris, I also grew up,

I’m not sure exactly how his work manages to evoke all of this in me.  Perhaps it’s because Wright Morris’s objects are often photographed so sparely, yet with such intensity, it creates a kind of space around them.   And this space creates a kind of suggestiveness, ripe for poetic reverie in the viewer, not unlike the experience of driving across the Nebraska or South Dakota prairie with few if any trees or houses to fetter the mind, the memory, the imagination.  So, for me, Morris’s spare objects suggest the Great Plains –- like this photograph of the tattered coats and hat –– as well as evoking a different kind of landscape, a kind of private and interior Nebraska, one that suggests what all that emptiness feels like to an insider, someone who grew up on the Great Plains, and the Great Plains “…grew up in you,” to quote Morris.

And, lastly, there are his accompanying texts that somehow speak to –- or perhaps I should say, speak for –– the photos, texts that are as spare and distilled and intense as the photographs themselves.  I find the text pieces as plainspoken and mesmerizing and mysterious as a Weldon Kees poem, a poet who also grew up in Nebraska.  Reading Morris creates a kind of expansiveness in me, a kind of ache and a kind of delight, which is often my response to the Great Plains.  And, I’m not sure why, but as soon as I finish reading one of his more luminous pieces  (like the one I’ve included below), I find myself starting the process all over again –– a sign, they say, of truly poetic writing.––Rebecca Norris Webb

The man who lives his own life, and wears it out, can dispense with the need of taking it with him. He dies his own death or he goes on living, and where the life has worn in the death will come out. Skin and bones, jacket and shoes, tools, sheds and machines wear out; even the land wears out and the seat wears off the cane- bottom chair. The palms wear off the gloves, the cuffs off the sleeves, the nickel off the doorknobs, the plate off the silver, the flowers off the plates, the shine off the stovepipe, the label off the flour sacks, the enamel off the dipper, the varnish off the checkers, and the gold off the Christmas jewelry, but every day the nap wears off the carpet the figure wears in. A pattern for living, the blueprint of it, can be seen in the white stitches of the denim, the timepiece stamped like a medallion in the bib of the overalls. Between wearing something in and wearing it out the line is as vague as the receding horizon, and as hard to account for as the missing hairs of a brush. The figure that began on the front of the carpet has moved around to the back.––Wright Morris

For more about Wright Morris:

http://monet.unk.edu/mona/first/morris/morris.html

For more about Weldon Kees (including my favorite poem of his “1926″):

http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/Ncw/kees.htm

Guernica

There were three of us working through what is the last book currently in the series of study books I wrote about in a previous post. The facilitator mentioned something completely new to me: a You Tube video he had seen of a very moving sand animation depicting how people had suffered during the German invasion of the Ukraine in World World II. Jeffrey Davis writes:

Kseniya Simonova is a Ukrainian artist who just won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and “sand painting” skills to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during WWII. Her technique and rapid fire impressionism are impressive, and you can see the emotional impact her art had on the audience members.

War time atrocities have often been the spur to great art. The art has taken many different forms: poetry, painting, music, and now even sand art.

It may seem a long way from Guernica to:

But without Guernica’s revolutionising impulse the moving experience of the Ukrainian sand animation might not have been possible.

And the impact is similar.

In the You Tube video you see members of the audience in tears.

When I went to Madrid two summers ago I stood in front of Guernica in the Reina Sofia National Museum of Art, as I had earlier stood in front of Goya’s masterpiece The Third of May in the nearby Prado, moved to the core of my being by the power with which they each conveyed in their different ways the enormity of the human suffering involved in each atrocity depicted.

Goya's 'The Third of May'

I had always loved the Goya, even in reproduction, but, until I saw its massive scale (it is 25.5 feet wide) and empathic detail ‘live’ as it were, in the gallery, I had totally underestimated the achievement of the Guernica canvas. It is so epic in scale yet so muted in colour as well as so intense in its mute archetypal imagery of pain, that its message cannot fail to penetrate the heart of anyone who stands before it attentively for even a few moments.

Picasso saw his art in moral terms:

Painting is not done to decorate apartments.  It is an instrument of war against brutality and darkness.

His outrage at the atrocity reputedly found an equally courageous expression in Paris when he was visited by the Gestapo.

During one visit a remark from an inquisitive Nazi officer brought a retort from Picasso which has become famous. Seeing a photo of Guernica lying on the table the German asked: ‘Did you do this?’ Answer: ‘No . . . you did.’

(Roland Penrose’s Picasso: page 333)

This remark may of course have been apocryphal, but it’s a good story none the less which illustrates the role of art and the artist at its most heroic and idealistic.

Sometimes when, as was said of Wilfred Owen, the ‘poetry is in the pity,’ it can be the extremity of the subject matter rather than the skill of the artist that creates the impact. I do not think this to be true of Picasso and Goya, or of Owen for that matter. That’s easier to say at this distance in time. It’s what makes the difference between art and propaganda. Art extends beyond the horror to evoke something in the human spirit that transcends it.

It’s harder to say where the impact of such art as recent more transient and fragile creations in sand might lie when they depict comparable atrocities. There is something about the very frailty of the medium that adds to the effect, even when it is not harnessed to the creation of a rapidly changing sequence of images.

By Sudarshan Pattnaik: September 2008

Here the sight of the sea in the background brings out the vulnerability of the protest. The words tend to limit its frame of reference and thereby reduce the power of its art.

Whatever the value of any particular creation, art, at its best and greatest, is a channel for the noblest impulses of the human spirit. It touches deeper levels of our being inaccessible to more ordinary means of communication. Why else would advertisers be so eager to co-opt it to commercial purposes or the power hungry demagogue to prostitute it for his own aggrandisement? That’s why it is so important for us to encourage it as well as protecting and nurturing those who produce it.

Who else is there to remind us as effectively as Owen does that we need to see beneath the romance of combat to those ‘who die like cattle’ under the ‘monstrous anger of the guns?’ Auden’s words also echo down the years to us with the same seemingly futile but necessary warning:

Far off, no matter what good they intended,
Two armies waited for a verbal error
With well-made implements for causing pain,

And on the issue of their charm depended
A land laid waste with all its young men slain,
Its women weeping, and its towns in terror.

(Sonnets from China: XV)

Bahá’u'lláh’s words to Professor Edward Browne still have the same haunting potency now as they did when He first uttered them:

Yet so it shall be; these fruitless strifes, these ruinous wars shall pass away, and the ‘Most Great Peace’ shall come.

It needs the concerted action of the vast majority of humanity to bring that about. God willing, we will all rise as best we can before it is too late to play our part in that process with all the courage and creativity at our command. We can’t just sit back and leave it to even the most divinely inspired artists and mystics. This is our job to do.

Humourists know that the best jokes are mined from the most serious topics. Morality is no exception.

Moses trudges down from Mt. Sinai, tablets in hand, and announces to the assembled multitudes: “I’ve got some good news and I’ve got bad news. The good news is I got Him down to ten. The bad news is ‘adultery’ is still in.”

(From Plato and a Platypus walk into a bar: page 78)

Nobody likes taking tablets at the best of times so who’s going to take kindly to swallowing tablets of stone, especially when they taste so bitter to so many palates? After all, when was the last time a great religion told us to covet our neighbour’s wife?

The humour lies partly in drawing our attention to the conflict between ‘ought’ and ‘is’ that Susan Neiman discusses so perceptively.  What we should do is so often in conflict with what we would like to do yet we know we ought to like doing what we should: we just can’t seem to get to that point somehow. Commandments are forever over-riding instincts that refuse to go away.

Part of the reason for this is that we have evolved to think in the short term and be unduly influenced by concrete specifics in the here and now, including the stories people tell us as well as what we experience ourselves. We’re particularly poor with probabilities (Dan Gardner’s book, Risk, deals with this brilliantly so I won’t go into that here).

Let’s focus on consequences and time scales. Smoking provides an easy way to illustrate this. The table gives a few pointers in each box just as examples. If I’m a smoker, the short-term costs are virtually invisible: I enjoy my addiction so it doesn’t feel like a cost and buying cigarettes looks like choosing to dispose of my income as I feel like.  The habit tastes sweet for the benefits it brings which I value greatly and are very obvious to me. The distant disasters my present pleasure could well bring seem very remote and unlikely to my primate brain. So I show a callous lack of empathy for my future self whose suffering I don’t trouble myself to imagine. After all, things like that don’t happen to me.

And if that wasn’t enough to make sure that I’ll carry on smoking (or indulging in any other ‘vice’ you care to mention) the same examination of what quitting would feel like stacks the odds even further against giving up. The present becomes soured with discomforts of all kinds while future benefits fade into invisibility in the mists of distance. The gain in disposable income will probably weigh little in my mind compared with the horrible unsatisfied cravings alone, never mind the weight gain and the social costs.

In short, the long-term costs of continuing to smoke and the long-term benefits of quitting have far less impact on behaviour than the short-term costs of stopping and the immediate pleasures of continuing the  habit. And this is true for almost any insistent pattern of behaviour you care to name including those which are morally loaded. Virtue goes against the grain of our animal nature in similar ways.

We are though animals with some very special powers, rational thought being one of the most obvious – well, perhaps not obvious all the time. So, we shouldn’t give up on the idea of giving up our bad habits, as Neiman explains:

You think that what failed in the past will fail in the future?  Kant reminds us of how many sheer technological advances have disproved this old saw. . . . . If we don’t abandon efforts where science hopes we may create technology, how dare we abandon them where morality demands we create justice? . . . Of course ideas of reason conflict with the claims of experience. That’s what ideas are meant to do. Ideals are not measured by whether they confirm reality: reality is judged by whether it lives up to ideals. (Her emphasis.)

(Moral Clarity: page 153)

However, she does not underestimate the difficulty of acting on this realisation.

If you tell yourself that a world without injustice is a childish wish-fantasy, you have no obligation to work toward it. . . . Keeping ideals alive is much harder than dismissing them, for it guarantees a lifetime of dissatisfaction. Ideas are like horizons – goals toward which you can move but never actually attain. . . . . The abyss that separates is from ought is too deep to bridge entirely; the most we can hope to do is narrow it.

(pages 159-162)

And that can seem like a bad bargain — too much immediate discomfort for too little immediate gain once more. However, reason may not be as feeble and error prone as we sometimes think and there may be more at work in the world to push towards virtue than is immediately  obvious. Even if we are not convinced there is a God or that we have a soul that survives death, the way the world works should give us pause for thought.

Philo of Alexandria

Robert Wright’s perceptive analysis, of how morality is essential (and perhaps inevitable) if civilisation is to progress and chaos to be avoided, deserves close attention from both the materially and the spiritually minded, as Neiman’s does also in its different way. It begins to tip the balance against the inertia of bad habits and hints that there is more to life than matter.

The same thread of thinking runs through the whole of his book, The Evolution of God, so a small sample of his argument will have to suffice. One of the most charming facets of this argument, that morality is a social cement that we ignore for long only at the risk of chaos, comes in his discussion of Philo of Alexandria.

The order at work [in the world] is the Logos, and it came originally from God. He set up the world so that mere self-interested learning – the study of cause and effect, and preference for happy effects  – would steer people towards virtue. So when Proverbs reports that ‘whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling,’ we can think of God not as pushing people into pits and pushing stones back on people, but as the one who designed the social ‘gravity’  that brings these effects.

(page 227)

Virtue seems painful, if you accept this line of reasoning, only to those who do not understand its value. The difficult task for education and parenting is to enable developing minds to defer immediate gratification long enough to secure the benefits of self-restraint — benefits that accrue both to the individual and to society. I will return to that issue in a future post, drawing amongst other things on some useful recent material, while recognising that this delay might not help any of us deal with present temptations.

A last thought for now.

Perhaps this perspective, if they would only pause to consider it carefully, would help those who kick against moral constraints, whatever their origin, to understand the words of Bahá’u'lláh when He explains:

3. O ye peoples of the world! Know assuredly that My commandments are the lamps of My loving providence among My servants, and the keys of My mercy for My creatures. Thus hath it been sent down from the heaven of the Will of your Lord, the Lord of Revelation. Were any man to taste the sweetness of the words which the lips of the All-Merciful have willed to utter, he would, though the treasures of the earth be in his possession, renounce them one and all, that he might vindicate the truth of even one of His commandments, shining above the Dayspring of His bountiful care and loving-kindness. . . .

5. Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power. To this beareth witness that which the Pen of Revelation hath revealed. Meditate upon this, O men of insight!

(Kitáb-i-Aqdas)

Hoy 26 de Noviembre los Bahá’ís de todo el mundo celebran lo que llamamos el “Dia de la Alianza”. Como tuve el placer de asistir a una de las reuniones en una comunidad Bahá’í, voy a tratar de escribir lo que recuerdo de la fabulosa presentación que hubo.

Dios ha existido por siempre y así seguirá existiendo infinitamente. El desde el comienzo de la creación envió a Sus Mensajeros o Profetas a Revelarse ante la humanidad para hacernos saber cual era Su Guía y Voluntad. Entre estos Mensajeros de Dios se encuentran Buda, Moisés, Jesucristo, Muhammad, El Báb y Bahá’u'lláh
(el mas reciente). Dios siempre ha cumplido con Su Promesa de enviarnos guía. Aunque los nombres de estas almas santas, estos Mensajeros de Dios es diferente, el Espíritu Santo, la Verdad es la misma. Ellos vienen de tiempo en tiempo para hacernos saber la guía necesaria para progresar como civilización de acuerdo a las necesidades de nuestra época y a nuestra capacidad de entendimiento. Por ejemplo, Ellos pueden compararse con los días de la semana, los cuales a pesar de poseer nombres diferentes (lunes, miércoles, sábado) son iniciados por la luz del MISMO sol.
Ahora, el ultimo de estos Mensajeros fue Bahá’u'lláh Quien aparte de Sus Enseñanzas y 100 volúmenes de Escritos ha urgido a Sus seguidores (los Bahá’ís) a que obedezcan a Su Alianza. Aquí es donde vamos a ver de que trata eso.

Una “alianza” es un convenio, un pacto entre dos o mas partes, verdad? Ahora, la Alianza, lo que celebramos los Bahá’ís todos los años en esta fecha es el acuerdo entre Dios y la humanidad que ha existido desde el comienzo de la creación. En esta Alianza Dios promete no dejar a la humanidad sin guía y a enviar a Sus Mensajeros para comunicarnos lo que El desee. Dios siempre ha cumplido con su parte en esta Alianza. Los que hemos fallado somos nosotros. Nuestra parte en este pacto es reconocer y obedecer a la Manifestación de Dios para nuestra época. Claramente en la historia de la humanidad hemos fallado en hacerlo.

Bahá’u'lláh nos urge a cumplir nuestra parte de esa Alianza y ha hecho -como signo de Su maravillosa Bondad- una Alianza menor con Sus seguidores. Esta Alianza implica que después del reconocimiento de Su Santidad Bahá’u'lláh, reconocemos a Su Hijo Mayor, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá como Su Sucesor. Asimismo, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá urgió al mundo Baha’i que después de Su muerte debíamos volvernos a su nieto Shoghi Effendi quien fue el único Guardián de la Fe Bahá’í. Después de Shoghi Effendi, los Baha’is nos volvemos a la Casa Universal de Justicia, quien es el cuerpo administrativo de la Fe Bahá’í a nivel mundial. A nivel nacional esta la Asamblea Espiritual Nacional Bahá’í y a nivel local están las Asambleas Espirituales Locales.

El propósito de la Alianza de Dios es la UNIDAD de la HUMANIDAD.
La Alianza de Bahá’u'lláh es la UNIDAD entre los Baha’is de todo el mundo.
Esto es tan claro como el agua, de modo que no queda espacio para la mal-interpretación o desviación.

Iran bans best-selling paper over Bahai temple

TEHRAN (AFP) – Iran on Monday shut down a best-selling newspaper, Hamshahri, for carrying a picture of a temple belonging to the outlawed Bahai sect, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The press watchdog “banned Hamshahri over carrying a picture of the Bahais’ temple and encouraging tourists to visit this place on its front page” on Sunday, IRNA said, without giving a timeframe for the ban.

Hamshahri, which attracts the highest number of advertisements among Iran’s newspapers, has been published by the Tehran municipality for nearly two decades.

Tehran’s high profile conservative mayor, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, is a fierce critic and rival of Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Bahais have a sprawling temple in Haifa, Israel, which is the Islamic republic’s arch-foe.

Followers of the Bahai faith, founded in Iran in 1863, are regarded as infidels and have suffered persecution both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Bahais consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, to be the last prophet sent by God. This is in direct conflict with Islam, the religion of the vast majority of Iranians, which considers Mohammed to be the last prophet.

Ahmadinejad’s government has shut down scores of publications — mainly from the reformist camp critical of his administration — since coming to power in 2005. Conservative media and entertainment periodicals have also been hit.

Quelle: AFP

From Hogarth's 'The Rake's Progress'

What is Freedom?

This is a topic on which Bahá’u’lláh challenges many of our (mostly Western) assumptions. One such challenge is particularly difficult and particularly important.

Say: True liberty consisteth in man’s submission unto My commandments, little as ye know it. . . . The liberty that profiteth you is to be found nowhere except in complete servitude unto God, the Eternal Truth. Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of earth and heaven.

(Bahá’u'lláh: Synopsis & Codification of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: 123-5)

From His perspective dignity depends upon curtailing our freedom in certain respects. Liberty, in the sense of licence, debases people and they lose their dignity: they need restraints to protect them from their own ignorance. From a spiritual point of view, the best restraints are God’s commandments and obedience to them is true liberty. Licence traps us in the coils of appetite: obedience to God frees us from debasing desires.

Of course, as Eric Reitan makes plain, we must take care that the God that we follow is ‘worthy of worship.’ Other posts on this blog have explored the relationship between our ideas of God and our ideas of good and the implications that relationship has for our conduct. I won’t rehearse them all again here.

Here is one of the paradoxes of spiritual growth. We are prone to licence and cannot transcend this tendency and achieve true freedom except through the power of Divine Assistance which will involve self-restraint.

For far too many of us in the West, for whom dignity has become more or less synonymous with virtually unbridled self-determination, this is an awkward pill to swallow. Depriving ourselves of its medicinal potency will however only make a bad situation worse.

I accept that a significant number of people would not agree that the pill of Divine Assistance, the afterlife and/or a specific religious faith needs  be swallowed at all. We are perfectly capable, many would argue, of improving ourselves and our society without it.

Robert Wright’s position on this is interesting. He writes:

Some people will take heart from the idea that to seek a personal salvation linked to social salvation is to align yourself with a cosmic purpose manifest in history, and some won’t (either because they don’t agree that the purpose is manifest or because they don’t care). But however you describe the linkage, whatever the nature of the incentive structure, the linkage will have to be made in a fair percentage of human beings around the world for it to work.

(The Evolution of God: page 441)

What should we use this kind of freedom for?

It is not only for our own benefit that we need to exercise restraint and cultivate virtues. We need to do this to improve society as a whole and build a better civilisation.

All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization. The Almighty beareth Me witness: To act like the beasts of the field is unworthy of man. Those virtues that befit his dignity are forbearance, mercy, compassion and loving-kindness towards all the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Say: O friends! Drink your fill from this crystal stream that floweth through the heavenly grace of Him Who is the Lord of Names.

(Proclamation of Bahá’u'lláh)

Unity underpins all the benefits that accrue including the dignity of all.

The Blessed Beauty said: “All are the fruits of one tree and the leaves of one branch.” He likened the world of existence to one tree and all the souls to leaves, blossoms and fruits.  . . . Thus the friends of God . . . must purify their sight, and look upon mankind as the leaves, blossoms and fruits of the tree of creation, and must always be thinking of doing good to someone, of love, consideration, affection and assistance to somebody.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Bahá’í World Faith)

This degree of unity, respect for the dignity of all human beings and perfect justice are interlinked.

When perfect justice reigns in every country of the Eastern and Western World, then will the earth become a place of beauty. The dignity and equality of every servant of God will be acknowledged; the ideal of the solidarity of the human race, the true brotherhood of man, will be realized; and the glorious light of the Sun of Truth will illumine the souls of all men.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Paris Talks: 7th Principle)

Such a state of affairs will not arise of its own accord:

It is . . .  clear that the emergence of this natural sense of human dignity and honour is the result of education.

(‘Abdu’l-Bahá: The Secret of Divine Civilisation)

Virtue and the effort it entails need to be taught. A sense of dignity, other people’s and one’s own, is an essential part of what needs to be taught and will not develop without teaching.

Will this take long?

What implications have contemporary Bahá’í thinkers derived from these ideas?

There are many social evils antithetical to human dignity. Racism is one of the most pernicious. Achieving its eradication will not be simple, quick and effortless.

For too much of history, the evil of racism has violated human dignity. Its influence has retarded the development of its victims, corrupted its perpetrators and blighted human progress. Overcoming its devastating effects will thus require conscious, deliberate and sustained effort. Indeed, nothing short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility and prayerful reflection will succeed in effacing its pernicious stain from human affairs. 

(BIC Document #01-0321, 2002, Page 2: Bahá’í International Community)

This statement could be applied unchanged with equal appropriateness and force to every corrupt attitude inimical to human dignity. It implies that solutions must be capable of crossing generational boundaries as well as those of class, gender and creed.

Education, then, emerges as an indispensable tool – a tool of active moral learning. To accomplish the broad objectives of ensuring the “full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity” and promoting “understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial, ethnic or religious groups,” education must strive to develop an integrated set of human capabilities-intellectual, artistic, social, moral and spiritual.  There is no other way to raise up positive social actors who are builders of amity and agents of service and probity.

(Bahá’í International Community: Belief and Tolerance)

There are also powerful interactions to consider, not least between the individual and the society of which (s)he is a part.

As a consequence of the deep connection between individual and social well-being, programmes of education need to instill in every child a two-fold moral purpose. The first relates to the process of personal transformation – of intellectual, material and spiritual growth. The second concerns the complex challenge of transforming the structures and processes of society itself.

(Ibid.)

The link between these concepts and the idea of World Citizenship is very clear.

Meeting the challenge to the education system to promote responsible global citizenship, the Bahá’í concept of World Citizenship begins with an acceptance of the oneness of the human family and the inter-connectedness of the nations of “the earth, our home.” While it encourages a sane and legitimate patriotism, it also insists upon a wider loyalty, a love of humanity as a whole. It does not, however, imply abandonment of legitimate loyalties, the suppression of cultural diversity, the abolition of national autonomy, or the imposition of uniformity. Its hallmark is “unity in diversity.”

(U.K. Bahá’í Community: Community Cohesion: a Bahá’í Perspective)

True freedom is not the same as individualism

The Prosperity of Human Kind explores these issues deeply and is worth quoting at length though selectively. It begins on this issue by saying:

Justice is the one power that can translate the dawning consciousness of humanity’s oneness into a collective will through which the necessary structures of global community life can be confidently erected.

And develops this further:

At the group level, a concern for justice is the indispensable compass in collective decision making, because it is the only means by which unity of thought and action can be achieved. Far from encouraging the punitive spirit that has often masqueraded under its name in past ages, justice is the practical expression of awareness that, in the achievement of human progress, the interests of the individual and those of society are inextricably linked. (My emphasis)

And culminates in an insight of astonishing reach and of great relevance to the nurturing and protection of human dignity:

At the heart of the discussion of a strategy of social and economic development, therefore, lies the issue of human rights. The shaping of such a strategy calls for the promotion of human rights to be freed from the grip of the false dichotomies that have for so long held it hostage. Concern that each human being should enjoy the freedom of thought and action conducive to his or her personal growth does not justify devotion to the cult of individualism that so deeply corrupts many areas of contemporary life. Nor does concern to ensure the welfare of society as a whole require a deification of the state as the supposed source of humanity’s well-being.

Goya's 'El Tres de Mayo'

In short, the enthronement of either individualism or state supremacy inevitably devalues human rights and thereby human dignity.

Its summarizing sentence at the end of this particular passage is masterly:

Only in a consultative framework made possible by the consciousness of the organic unity of humankind can all aspects of the concern for human rights find legitimate and creative expression.

In other words, the consciousness of the organic unity of humankind makes true consultation possible: such consultation allows us properly and effectively to express a concern for human rights (and dignity).

Trusteeship

The section ends by discussing a central concept in Bahá’í spiritual administration – trusteeship – and extends its necessary application to the world as a whole.

Since the body of humankind is one and indivisible, each member of the race is born into the world as a trust of the whole. This trusteeship constitutes the moral foundation of most of the other rights – principally economic and social – which the instruments of the United Nations are attempting similarly to define. The security of the family and the home, the ownership of property, and the right to privacy are all implied in such a trusteeship. The obligations on the part of the community extend to the provision of employment, mental and physical health care, social security, fair wages, rest and recreation, and a host of other reasonable expectations on the part of the individual members of society.

Humanity dignity would be guaranteed in such a context. It is all but explicit that without it human dignity would not exist.

In Bahá’í discourse certain key concepts are connected and interdependent. These crucially include: unity, justice, submission to the Will of God, trusteeship, education, the individual, society, civilization, love, patience, consultation, human rights and human dignity.

It will be crucial to the well-being of future generations that as many of us as possible start or continue unpacking their implications without further delay and translating them as rapidly as possible into concerted and focused action.

What do yah do when you’re faced with a little bit of adversity? You look at the sidewalk and hope that it tells you something. I found this to be particularly helpful a week or so ago while walking through Downtown Greenville. Here’s what I saw:

Cause Adversity Introduces a Man to Himself.

Pretty fitting, eh? Well, the past couple of weeks have given me some insight as to what I’m doing and why I’m here in Greenville County, South Carolina. I thought about my first two months working for Greer Relief and Resources Agency. I’ve thought a lot about how far I’ve come and how much further I have to go on this endless journey some call life. I see little tidbits of my old self in the mirror from time to time. A relevant example of this in my life would be whenever two people are engaged in a heated political discussion and I have the urge to jump in and interject my opinion. I remember that my Covenant with God takes precedent over my perceived political opinions about certain hot-button issues. I suppose I could say that my political views begin with the Word of God—although the Religious Right-Wing in this country has given that a negative connotation. What I really want to say is that they are “As Conservative as the Word of God, As Liberal as the Love of God.” That, and terms such as “World Citizen,” “Agent of Change,” “Proponent of World Peace,” “Lover of All Mankind,” all accurately describe where I stand politically.

I had an interesting discussion with a fellow VISTA serving in Charleston through the Noisette Foundation, working with the School District, while up in Camp Greenville. We talked in depth about hot-button political issues such as education and health care, and realized that we had very similar views on those issues. He told me about his work with the South Carolina Democratic Party (they do exist in South Carolina, believe it or not), and the discussion was quite lively. There was something he said that really struck me: the biggest problem with society these days is the spread of misinformation. And not just political misinformation, but misinformation of all kinds, because it is the sole cause of so many problems that the world currently faces. The spread of misinformation about education, health care, religion, people, cultures, countries, life all stand in the way of achieving world peace (believe it or not, an idea that is more than just a cliché answer given at many a beauty pageant).

I can assure you that this all was music to my ears when this discussion was taking place, because I feel the exact same way. And you have no idea how badly I wanted to talk about the Revelation at this moment. But, perhaps for the better or worse, depending on the context one wants to view it in, I held back and firmly agreed with his talking points, and decided that I would strive to always be on the quest (even subconsciously) to fight misinformation in this world. For a little while after, I was kicking myself for not talking about the Revelation and bringing the discussion to an articulation of just as intelligent, if not more intelligent, ideas in the quest to fight misinformation. Would it not have been relevant, considering the context of what we’ve witnessed in the past day, week, month, year? We had the Fort Hood shootings just occur in Texas. There exists a large crowd of people who want to point the finger at the perpetrator, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, for being a Palestinian Arab Muslim in instigating the crimes. But, alas, there exists the endless quest to fight misinformation, and we must politely and respectfully say, “I’m pretty sure the Word of the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad (pbuh) had very little to do with the atrocities he created. I’m also equally sure that his Palestinian Arab heritage had no bearings as to why the crimes were committed either. It could very well have been Major Billy Joe-Bob, a Tennessee White Southern Baptist who could have committed these crimes. Would his Tennessee heritage and his Southern Baptist faith have been the reasons for committing these crimes?” By doing this, we avoid the awful “us versus them” mentality, and hopefully, circumvent grievous injustices from taking place.

Remember, horrific events in history take place when people remain subdued and misinformed about issues of great moral clarity. We, in this day and age, cannot remain silent about the spread of misinformation. We must not remain silent about the spread of misinformation.

My parents' wedding

My visit to the gravesides in Stockport, described in a previous post, triggered a lot of memories. It also reminded me of the sayings that almost always spring to my mind when I am working towards some particular outcome. ‘Don’t count your chickens before they are hatched’ and ‘There’s many a slip twixt cup and lip’ are the two main ones. I have had to learn to enjoy the process of getting there without becoming too anxious about the destination, but even so these two stress-inducing sentences can come bursting through at times of high arousal. Being so concerned about an outcome adversely affects my ability to achieve anything. Understanding better the possible nature of the over-concern helps me to control it.

The life courses of my relatives on my mother’s side gives me some clues as to why the disconcerting mind-tapes might be there. Their unlucky stories were being drip fed into my consciousness as far back as I can remember.

Aunts and Uncles and Such

Uncle Harold, who was 11 in 1901 at the time of the census I looked at, married an Irish girl called Nell. They called their son Richard after Harold’s father. He had some kind of learning problem. By the time I knew anything about him the son was called Dick, and was a very big man, probably in his forties.  Harold’s wife died young and he had to bring his son up alone. His end was very much in character. When he was in his eighties I heard that he had tried to carry two one-hundredweight sacks of coal, one under each arm, back to his house one winter. He succeeded, only to find his legs swelling up soon afterwards. He was diagnosed as having a heart condition. A year or so later he died.

Aunt Ann, who was eight at the time of the census, was the elder daughter and the second eldest child. Like Uncle Harold, she failed to complete her education: she had to leave school and earn some money to help the family out. I cannot remember what work she did but think it was secretarial. She was a great walker, like Uncle Harold, and played a lot of tennis, I believe. She married my Uncle Joe who was a tailor. He fought in the First World War  and was wounded in the arm (his left, I think). He damaged a nerve which never mended properly and caused him a lot of pain throughout the rest of his life.

They had no children of their own. Aunt Ann had more than one miscarriage. They treated my older sister Mary very much as their own. She used to visit them often and stayed at their house for long periods. Mary died on 11^th January 1939, four years before I was born. Aunt Ann was almost as distressed as my parents were. The exact sequence of events at the time of Mary’s death is hard to disentangle because Aunt Ann’s account and my mother’s differ somewhat.

They both agree that Mary died of something they refer to as septic pneumonia. She was twelve years old and died in great discomfort, with foul fluid issuing from her lungs. (Incidentally, watching a programme called The 1940s House, in which a family lived through a re-enactment of the war years for several weeks, made me realise just how traumatic this whole period would have been for everyone including my parents and my older brother, Bill, even if they hadn’t had to cope with Mary’s death near the beginning of it.) In my childhood I received a highly idealised view of Mary from a portrait tinged with almost intolerable sadness that my mother painted in bits and pieces over a long period of years. My father never spoke of her at all, though I know from everything my mother said her death affected him very badly. I tried to capture what I sensed in him in a poem:

I’d creak my way upstairs sometimes and dare
the backroom where my sister, Mary, died
before I was born. ‘Her lungs were putrid
at the end,’ my mother said. ‘I couldn’t bear
to see.’ I’d stand there questioning the air
for traces of some meaning it might hide.
On the wall above the iron bedstead,
fading in his photograph, my father,
his broad shoulders stretching his jacket tight,
held a huge bullcalf by a rope, half-stern,
half-smiling, proud: younger than the grim grey
man I knew – and straighter. Then the thought:
a man that to trench-fire did not bow, the burn
of one small child’s loss bent easily.

To return to my grandparents’ family, the next oldest was Tom, who was five at the time of the census.  I know very little about him and rarely met him. He lived in Stoke by the time I was born and visited us only once that I can remember for Uncle Frank’s funeral. Tom was some kind of engineer or boiler maker. The only things I can remember about him are that his wife had Parkinson’s disease and he nursed her for many long years. By the time I met him she had died and he had remarried.

Uncle Frank’s story is probably the saddest in the whole family. He was the youngest – two at the time of the census. He fought in WW1 as did most of that generation. (When I think of the difficult lives of my uncles and my aunt, it’s tempting to think that the luck of the menfolk at least was all used up in surviving the First World War.)

He survived, returned home and married. He had two or three children. At some point later, he developed a tumour on the brain, which affected his behaviour. His wife attempted to get him permanently hospitalised. My father apparently thwarted this plan by refusing to leave Frank alone at the crucial moment. Frank’s wife then disappeared with the children and he never saw any of them again. He had an operation which cut away part of his skull to remove the tumour. They inserted a plastic flap in the temple area to protect his brain from the pressure of the skin. As time went on the plastic wore away and he knew that when it wore out he would die. I am not quite clear why surgical practice was not able by the time of his death in 1960 to renew the plastic “skull”. When, as a child, I visited him or met him in the street, it was hard to tear my eyes away from the deepening pothole clearly visible on his right temple. It made my interactions with him tense and awkward and I’m sure he sensed this. I was 17 when he died.

The Impact on my Life

Mirzá Mihdí

I have often reflected upon the combination of factors which blighted the lives of so many of that family.

Their histories explain the keen sense, with me since childhood, that this life is transitory and our hold upon it weak in the extreme. That feeling has not left me even though modern medicine and the quality of life we enjoy in the developed world has strengthened our ability to postpone death and prolong health.

It has given me a strong sense of fellowship with the bulk of humanity that do not share my good fortune, though I don’t act on that feeling as often or as vigorously as I should. I now regard that inheritance as a gift not a curse, though this wasn’t always my attitude towards it, and perhaps it goes some way towards explaining why I was so drawn to the Faith when I found it and moved by the suffering of its Founding Figures. Having seen at close hand my parent’s suffering over the death of their daughter gave me a porthole to a deeper understanding of Bahá’u'lláh’s pain at the death of His youngest son in the prison city of Acre than I would otherwise have had, I think. It helped me resonate, at the least to some degree, to the magnitude of the sacrifices He made to spread the Word of God with such wisdom, compassion and persistency and spurred me to a pale imitation of it.

I started this post by considering the way in which the suffering of my ancestors might have contributed to my special form of performance anxiety, and have ended with a greater awareness of how much it has probably contributed to my choosing the spiritual path I am striving to tread. A good example of how working towards one goal often brings another quite different one into reality – not so much a slip between cup and lip, then, as an inexplicable transformation, en route, from tea to coffee.

“It is evident and manifest unto every discerning observer that even as the light of the star fadeth before the effulgent splendour of the sun, so doth the luminary of earthly knowledge, of wisdom, and understanding vanish into nothingness when brought face to face with the resplendent glories of the Sun of Truth, the Day-star of divine enlightenment.” -Baha’u'llah

Sounds very Zen! Thought I’d share this on the birthday of Baha’u'llah, founder and prophet of the Bahai Faith.

On 12 November, Luton Baha’i community met to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Baha’u'llah, the founder of the Baha’i Faith. Baha’u'llah was born in 1817 into a noble family in Tehran, the capital of Persia. In 1853, He was exiled from His native land to Baghdad, where in 1863 He announced that He was the bearer of a new revelation from God that would bring unity to the peoples of the world. He was later exiled to Acre, in present-day Israel, where He passed away in 1892.

In recognition and celebration of the diversity of human spirituality, the Monks Without Borders Newsletter provides regular information on the special days of the world’s religions as they arrive throughout the year. The following information was provided by Common Tables in the form of an interfaith eLert. More information about this service and the work of Common Tables can be obtained at http://www.commontables.org

Birth of Baha’u'llah – Baha’i

For Bahá’ís, the Birth of Baha’u'llah is a Holy Day celebrating the birth of the prophet founder of the Baha’i Faith and the rebirth of the world through the love of God. In many respects, it is a day similar to the Christian observance of Christmas.

Baha’u'llah (ba-haw-oo-LAW), was born on 12 November 1817 in Teheran, Persia (Iran). His given name was Husayn-’Ali and He later became known to the world as Baha’u’llah, an Arabic word meaning “The Glory of God”. He taught that Manifestations of God – including Moses, Abraham, Christ, Muhammad, Krishna and Buddha – have appeared at intervals throughout history; that these Manifestations of God have been sent by a loving Creator to help us know and worship Him and to bring human civilization to ever-higher levels of achievement.

Baha’u’’lah’s central message is one of unity and justice:

“Love ye all religions and all races with a love that is true and sincere and show that love through deeds”

‘Abdul-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdul-Bahá, p. 69 

The day of the Birth of Baha’u'llah and the day of His Ascension (May 29) are two of nine Holy Days in the Baha’i calendar during which Baha’is should suspend work and school.

Because days in the Bahá’í calendar start at sunset, the celebration of the Birth of Baha’u’llah starts on the evening of November 11 and proceeds until sunset on November 12.

As is true of Baha’i holy days generally, there are no prescribed rituals for the celebration/observance of the Birth of Baha’u'llah. The day is usually observed by abstaining from work and with community gatherings where prayers, devotional readings, music and food are shared. The celebration of the Birth of Baha’u’llah is seen by Baha’is as a time for rejoicing together; for increasing the unity of their community.

The folks at Adherents.com tell us that there are well over 7 million people of Baha’i Faith globally. During the time between sunset on November 11th and sundown on November 12th, we suggest that we each pause for a few moments and, in manners appropriate in our personal faith traditions and/or belief systems, send thoughts of love and good will to all of our Baha’i brothers and sisters as they celebrate the Birth of Baha’u'llah.

1- يا ابن الانسان لا تنفّس بخطأ احد ما دمت خاطئًا وان تفعل بغير ذلك ملعون انت وانا شاهد بذلك.

2- يا حبّذا لمُحسن لن يستهزء بمن عصى ويستر ما شهد منه، ليستر الله عليه جريراته وانه هو خير الساترين. كونوا يا قوم ستارًا في الأرض وغفارًا في البلاد، ليغفركم الله بفضله ثم اصفحوا ليصفح الله عنكم ويلبسكم برد الجميل .

3- ان اطلعتم على خطيئة ان استروها ليستر الله عنكم، انه لهو الستار ذو الفضل العظيم.

4– يا أحبائي في البلاد تمسكوا بحبل المودة والمحبة، إنا نريد أن نراكم مطالع أخلاقي بين عبادي ومشارق رحمتي التي سبقت العالمين. ينبغي أن يظهر منكم ما يهتز به الامكان ويستفرح قلوب السامعين. لا تكونوا كالذين كانوا أن يسبّ بعضهم بعضا تفكروا في عنايتي ورأفتي وفضلي الذي أحاط من في السموات والارضين. طوبى لمن غضّ النظر عن أخيه وعاشر معه بالروح والريحان خالصًا لوجه الرحمن، لعمري إنه من الفائزين. كونوا على سُرُر الاتحاد ثم استبقوا في المعروف هذا ما أمرتم به من لدن عليم خبير.

5- عاشروا بينكم بالمحبة والمودة ولا تكونوا من الذين يفتشون في أعمال الناس ليعترضوا عليهم، لعمري انهم من الغافلين.

6- اسلكوا مع بعض بكل رحمة ومحبة ورأفة، وإن ظهرت خطيئة من شخص فاعفوا عنه ولكن ذكّروه بكل محبة، ولاتكونوا شديدين في المعاملة ولا تتكبروا على بعض.

7- إن ظهر ظلمٌ من ظالم دعوه للحق تبارك وتعالى . إن العدل الإلهي هو المهيمن والمسيطر.

8- طوبى للذين تمسكوا بحبل الشفقة والرأفة، وخلت نفوسهم وتحرّرت من الضغينة والبغضاء. إن هذا المظلوم يوصي أهل العالم بالتسامح والعمل الطيب، وهذان هما السراجان لظلمة العالم والمعلمان لتهذيب الأمم، طوبى لمن فاز وويل للغافلين.

9- إن الحق تبارك وتعالى يستر العيوب، لدرجة إن صدر خطأ من شخص مائة الف مرة سوف لن يذكره القلم الاعلى وإنما يعفو عنه، ولكن الحق لن يعفو عن النفوس التي اعترضت عليه.

10- هناك أناس ارتكبوا ما نهى الله عنه ومع ذلك شملهم ظاهريًا عناية وفضل الحق جلّ فضله، واعتقدوا ان ذلك راجع إلى عدم العلم والاحاطة، ولكنهم غفلوا. ان اسمي الستار لم يكن راغبًا في هتك الاستار ولم تخرق الرحمة السابقة حجبات الخلق. يا علي إن اسمي الغفار كان سببًا في تأخير العقاب واسمي الوهاب كان سببًا في تأخير العذاب.

As you will have noticed, I have not been posting lately. That lull is a result of several factors, most prominently my impending move to the other side of the planet, my increasing (paid) work load, and several local and international trips. Unfortunately, I do not see my time getting any more free in the immediately future, what with the aforementioned international move, starting a new job, and the arrival in January of our first child. So, with great reluctance, I’m going to call a halt to posts for now. There may be a few scenarios under which I could begin posting again in 2010, but I’m not willing to bank on it at this point.

I will leave all the posts here as a record. Of course, feel free to refer to them as you’d like.

I appreciate all the readers I’ve had, and especially those who found the material worthy of comment. I should especially thank Jesse, who contributed the most comments throughout the life of this blog. I hope you all have enjoyed and been stimulated by my thoughts. It has been my great pleasure to write them.

I’l end with a quotation from the Hidden Words of Baha’u'llah, which I think will be the theme of my life in the next year:

O SON OF MAN! If thou lovest Me, turn away from thyself; and if thou seekest My pleasure, regard not thine own; that thou mayest die in Me and I may eternally live in thee.

In September I sent a letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States requesting guidance on the use and study of talks by individuals at the 19 Day Feast. I had heard that some Local Assemblies may have requested the believers study a transcript of a very enlightening talk by Dr. Peter Khan at Feast and I was a bit concerned that that went against the spirit of Feast and Bahá’u'lláh’s teachings. I have been learning that despite my personal distaste for sermons (not to say I don’t have a preachy side :p ), like anything else there is a place for preaching in the Baha’i community, and it is not so much preaching but a particular improper use of it which the Baha’i teachings are against.

My letter to the National Spiritual Assembly and the reply I received on their behalf are below. Despite the apologies contained within, their reply was very prompt, and my first real experience of communication with the Institutions was fruitful. I share the correspondence here in the hopes it can be useful to others.

God Bless,
Gerald

— — —

My Letter of September 29, 2009:

Alláh-u-abhá!

Recently a transcript of a talk by Dr. Peter Khan has been distributed amongst the friends, largely on the internet and also offline. It deals with the Ridvan letter of the Universal House of Justice for 2009, and addresses themes like the nature of civilization and religion, and the Five Year Plan in context of the larger goals of the Faith. It is of a very high quality and very useful to the community.

I just recently studied it myself – after hearing about it for a few weeks – and I thought it very accurately addresses some misconceptions about the Five Year Plan I have experienced in my local community and elsewhere. However, I then learned that some Local Spiritual Assemblies may have asked that it be studied by the believers at Feast. I have only heard this on hearsay, but it concerned me a lot for a few reasons:

1. It doesn’t appear to be authenticated. It most likely is from Dr. Khan, but it did not come through channels of official publication/communication, nor did it come from the World Center in any other way. As far as I can tell it seems to have first entered the community from a blog at http://reflectionsonteachingbahaifaith.blogspot.com/2009/08/reflections-on-ridvan-2009-message-talk.html which claims to have received it through an email list. While there is no reason to doubt the honesty of the distributers, this definitely doesn’t meet the high standards of authentication set for us by the Beloved Guardian and the Universal House of Justice.
2. Bahá’u’láh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá both discouraged the giving of sermons, and the Guardian emphasized that only the Holy Writings of the Bahá’í Faith and guidance from the Institutions should be read at Feast. Encouraging the friends to use the 19 Day Feast as a venue to study a talk by an individual (however edifying) seems inappropriate as it elevates it to a level like a sermon, and sets it alongside authoritative guidance and sacred scripture.

While I loved the talk, and I think it would be useful for the friends to study, I don’t feel like Feast is the appropriate time, especially not for an LSA to formally ask that it be read. Is the National Assembly aware of the source of this transcript? Did it come through more official channels than I am aware of, or can it be authenticated? Is there any guidance from the Institutions of the Faith on the issue of talks/articles by individuals being studied during feast? I know Hands of the Cause used to send out letter/talks for Feasts, but that was in their role as an Institution, a talk by a House member has no similar role, nor does it seem that Dr. Khan intended it be used that way.

I would appreciate any guidance, advice or elucidation than can be provided.

God Bless,
Gerald Fernandez-Mayfield

— — —

The Reply of November 3, 2009:

Dear Baháʹí Friend,

The National Spiritual Assembly has asked us to respond on its behalf to your email of September 29, 2009, requesting guidance on whether it is appropriate to read talks by Universal House of Justice members and others at the Nineteen Day Feast, and whether such talks have been, and should be, authenticated. Please accept our apologies for the delay you have experienced. This office must handle a large volume of correspondence on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly, and, regrettably, it is not always possible to reply to each letter and email as promptly as we would like.

The talk which you refer to in your email is indeed by Dr. Peter Khan, and it is an example of many similar addresses, the content of which the friends are free to distribute in the variety of ways that are available to them. Although it is not possible or desirable to authenticate every such address, the friends are trusted to ensure that their accounts are accurate and presented in a dignified manner, much in the way of Pilgrim’s Notes in the early days of the Faith in North America.

While it is true that only “prayers and readings from the Holy Texts” may be read during the devotional portion of the Feast, `Abduʹl‐Bahá encouraged the Baháʹís to “deliver eloquent speeches” during the administrative and social portions. To this end, a Local Assembly may decide to include talks such as the one by Dr. Khan as part of the Nineteen Day Feast. This issue is addressed in a number of references, one of which is included below for your convenience, in Chapter 8, pages 4‐5, of Guidelines for Local Spiritual Assemblies, which can be accessed online on the Baháʹí administrative website at www.usbnc.org.

Even though the observance of the Feast requires strict adherence to the threefold aspects in the sequence in which they have been defined, there is much room for variety in the total experience. For example, music may be introduced at various stages, including the devotional portion; `Abduʹl‐Bahá recommends that eloquent, uplifting talks be given (emphasis added); originality and variety in expressions of hospitality are possible; the quality and range of the consultation are critical to the spirit of the occasion. (Letter from the Universal House of Justice, dated August 27, 1989, to the followers of Baháʹuʹlláh, in Stirring of the Spirit, Celebrating the Institution of the Nineteen Day Feast, p. 2)

We appreciate your questions as well as the spirit which prompted them. If you have other questions, please do not hesitate to contact our office.

With warm Baháʹí regards,
Office of Community Administration

Hello friends, it has been a while. Attendance for Sunday school dwindled down for a few weeks, but now we are back into full swing with a lot of ideas to share.

With illnesses such as the Swine Flu spreading through classrooms in the United States, cleanliness is a virtue all teachers can appreciate.  But in the Baha’i Faith, cleanliness has held an even greater power than preventing the spread of germs.

“And although bodily cleanliness is a physical thing, it hath, nevertheless, a powerful influence on the life of the spirit.” – Abdul’Baha

New research shows that clean smells unconsciously promote moral behavior.

“Basically, our study shows that morality and cleanliness can go hand-in-hand,” said Galinsky of the Kellogg School. “Researchers have known for years that scents play an active role in reviving positive or negative experiences. Now, our research can offer more insight into the links between people’s charitable actions and their surroundings.”

Above and beyond ensuring that our students wash their hands, this study could have drastic effects on classrooms everywhere. Better go buy some citrus-scented Windex, as the study cites!

How do you think this could be implemented in your classroom?
I have had my eye on the Febreze Luminary’s for a while now. They are similar to scented candles, minus the flame.

Reading this article about US Senate majority leader Harry Reid today, I was reminded of Glenn Greenwald’s analysis of how politics currently operates in Washington, D.C.

In the face of such a political culture, perhaps Mr. Reid will listen, as he drafts his bill, to the exhortation of Baha’u'llah, Whose choice of metaphor is remarkably apt in the current crisis.

O YE the elected representatives of the people in every land! Take ye counsel together, and let your concern be only for that which profiteth mankind, and bettereth the condition thereof, if ye be of them that scan heedfully. Regard the world as the human body which, though at its creation whole and perfect, hath been afflicted, through various causes, with grave disorders and maladies. Not for one day did it gain ease, nay its sickness waxed more severe, as it fell under the treatment of ignorant physicians, who gave full rein to their personal desires, and have erred grievously. And if, at one time, through the care of an able physician, a member of that body was healed, the rest remained afflicted as before. Thus informeth you the All-Knowing, the All-Wise.

We behold it, in this day, at the mercy of rulers so drunk with pride that they cannot discern clearly their own best advantage, much less recognize a Revelation so bewildering and challenging as this. And whenever any one of them hath striven to improve its condition, his motive hath been his own gain, whether confessedly so or not; and the unworthiness of this motive hath limited his power to heal or cure.

That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world is the union of all its peoples in one universal Cause, one common Faith. This can in no wise be achieved except through the power of a skilled, an all-powerful and inspired Physician. This, verily, is the truth, and all else naught but error…

I was supposed to write this a few days ago when we celebrated His birth date. Although late, I think it is important to write about who The Bab was and what He did for humanity.

The Bab, as mentioned above, was born in the city of Shiraz in what is today called Iran. He was born into a working class family and while He was a child, after the passing of His father He was raised by His maternal uncle. From the beginning of His Blessed life He showed signs that He was indeed a special and enlightened being. At school he was often challenged when asked to behave like the rest of His peers due to His bright mind and innate knowledge. Once His school teacher said that he felt unfit to teach that child.

The Bab followed the family trade and became a well-known merchant in the city for his honesty, love and compassion. When He was a very young man, He received the Revelation of God where God announced to Him what His mission on this earth was.

The Bab was only twenty-five years of age when He proclaimed that He had come as a Manifestation or Prophet of God and He was preparing the hearts of them who recognize Him to recognize the coming of the “Promised One of All Ages” that was quickly approaching. He declared to Mulla Husayn on May 23rd 1844. The Ministry of The Bab only lasted a period of six years after which He was martyred in the city of Tabriz in 1850.

The Babi era – later evolving into what we know as the Baha’i era- is best described in the book God Passes By:

May 23, 1844, signalizes the commencement of the most turbulent period of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Era, an age which marks the opening of the most glorious epoch in the greatest cycle which the spiritual history of mankind has yet witnessed. No more than a span of nine short years marks the duration of this most spectacular, this most tragic, this most eventful period of the first Bahá’í century.

Clearly, at the time of The Bab’s revelation, His believers were heavily persecuted and martyred in all corners of the Persian region. Thousands of souls gave their lives for their Beloved and their beliefs without hesitation.

The manifestation of The Bab fulfilled many prophecies of the coming of the “Twin Manifestations” (Himself and Baha’u'llah) and He came to the world as a Thief in the Night. This is said because He did not openly proclaim His Station but eighteen souls by themselves and unaided found Him and recognized Him while many others we asleep as we do in the middle of the night.

In the same book as above, written by Shoghi Effendi, is written:

We behold, as we survey the episodes of this first act of a sublime drama, the figure of its Master Hero, the Báb, arise meteor-like above the horizon of Shíráz, traverse the sombre sky of Persia from south to north, decline with tragic swiftness, and perish in a blaze of glory. We see His satellites, a galaxy of God-intoxicated heroes, mount above that same horizon, irradiate that same incandescent light, burn themselves out with that self-same swiftness, and impart in their turn an added impetus to the steadily gathering momentum of God’s nascent Faith.

The Bab was the Herald of a New Era in the history of humankind.

( طوبى لنفس أتكأ على فراشه وقلبه منور بنور محبة أهل العالم ) من الآثار البهائية

( المحبة نور يضىء في كل منزل والعداوة ظلمة تأوى إلى كل كهف ) من الآثار البهائية

(حذار حذار أن تؤذوا نفس نفسا وتكسروا قلبا وتجرحوا خاطرا وتخمدوا روحا وتكونوا سببا لحزن أحد ولو كان متعديا وعدوا للروح ) من الآثار البهائية

فيا حسرة على الإنسان من حرمان نفسه عن هذه العطيّة اللّطيفة، ومنعها عن هذه النّعمة الباقية، والحياة الدّائمة. فاعرف إذن قدر هذه المائدة المعنويّة، لعلَّ تحيا الأجساد الهامدة بحياةٍ جديدة من الألطاف البديعة من شمس الحقيقة، وتفوز الأرواح الخامدة بروحٍ غير محدود. فاجهد نفسك يا أخي، واغتنم الفرصة لتشرب من الأكواب الدّائمة الباقية ما دامت في الحياة بقيّة، لأنّ نسيم الرّوح الهابّ من مصر المحبوب، لا يستمرّ على الدّوامِ في هبوب. وأنهار التِّبيان، لا تظلّ إلى الأبد في جريان، وأبواب الرّضوان لا تبقى مفتّحة على الدّوام. سوف يأتي يوم فيه يطير عندليب الفردوس من روضة القدس الى الأوكار الإلهيّة. وحينئذٍ لا تعود تسمع نغمة البلبل ولا ترى جمال الورد. أمّا ما دامت الحمامة الأزليّة في وله وتغريد، والرّبيع الإلهيّ في جلوة وزينة، فيجب اغتنام الفرصة حتّى لا تحرم أذن قلبك من الاستماع لألحانها. هذه نصيحة هذا العبد لجنابك ولأحباء الله، فمن شاء فليقبل، ومن شاء فليعرض، إنّ الله كان غنيًّا عنه وعمّا يشاهد ويرى.

Our hope is that the world’s religious leaders and the rulers thereof will unitedly arise for the reformation of this age and the rehabilitation of its fortunes. Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth.

The Great Being saith: The heaven of divine wisdom is illumined with the two luminaries of consultation and compassion. Take ye counsel together in all matters, inasmuch as consultation is the lamp of guidance which leadeth the way, and is the bestower of understanding.

Those words of Baha’u'llah were on my mind today as I read the news of and some reaction to the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision to award this year’s Peace Prize to President Obama. Baha’u'llah sets a lofty standard: “Let them, after meditating on its needs, take counsel together and, through anxious and full deliberation, administer to a diseased and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth.”

In its press release, the committee focused only on Obama’s ability to get world leaders to “take counsel together,” commending him for the change he has wrought in the tone of international politics:

Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations.

The committee made no mention of any movement among world leaders, sparked by Obama or not, to “administer to a diseased and sorely-afflicted world the remedy it requireth.” Many of the reactions I have been reading seem to have a similar bent.

Keeping that caveat in mind, I want to note that the Nobel Committee also focused specifically on the values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population:

Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world’s attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world’s population.

I know of no better expression of those shared values and attitudes than that found in the Writings of Baha’u'llah. Shoghi Effendi, cataloguing in God Passes By the prophecies for which Baha’u'llah is the fulfillment, writes, “To Him Isaiah, the greatest of the Jewish prophets, had alluded as the ‘Glory of the Lord,’ the ‘Everlasting Father,’ the ‘Prince of Peace,’…”.

I will end with quotations from that Prince of Peace, all of which are taken from a compilation on peace, which I heartily recommend to you, with the hope and the prayer that Baha’u'llah’s vision may be made real, through the efforts of all of us, whether we be President, Nobel Peace Prize winner, or otherwise.

O ye that dwell on earth! The distinguishing feature that marketh the preeminent character of this Supreme Revelation consisteth in that We have … laid down the essential prerequisites of concord, of understanding, of complete and enduring unity. Well is it with them that keep My statutes.

The purpose of religion as revealed from the heaven of God’s holy Will is to establish unity and concord amongst the peoples of the world; make it not the cause of dissension and strife. The religion of God and His divine law are the most potent instruments and the surest of all means for the dawning of the light of unity amongst men. The progress of the world, the development of nations, the tranquillity of peoples, and the peace of all who dwell on earth are among the principles and ordinances of God. Religion bestoweth upon man the most precious of all gifts, offereth the cup of prosperity, imparteth eternal life, and showereth imperishable benefits upon mankind. It behoveth the chiefs and rulers of the world, and in particular the Trustees of God’s House of Justice, to endeavour to the utmost of their power to safeguard its position, promote its interests and exalt its station in the eyes of the world. In like manner it is incumbent upon them to enquire into the conditions of their subjects and to acquaint themselves with the affairs and activities of the divers communities in their dominions. We call upon the manifestations of the power of God—the sovereigns and rulers on earth—to bestir themselves and do all in their power that haply they may banish discord from this world and illumine it with the light of concord.

The Great Being, wishing to reveal the prerequisites of the peace and tranquillity of the world and the advancement of its peoples, hath written: The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all-embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the world’s Great Peace amongst men. Such a peace demandeth that the Great Powers should resolve, for the sake of the tranquillity of the peoples of the earth, to be fully reconciled among themselves. Should any king take up arms against another, all should unitedly arise and prevent him. If this be done, the nations of the world will no longer require any armaments, except for the purpose of preserving the security of their realms and of maintaining internal order within their territories. This will ensure the peace and composure of every people, government and nation. We fain would hope that the kings and rulers of the earth, the mirrors of the gracious and almighty name of God, may attain unto this station, and shield mankind from the onslaught of tyranny. …The day is approaching when all the peoples of the world will have adopted one universal language and one common script. When this is achieved, to whatsoever city a man may journey, it shall be as if he were entering his own home. These things are obligatory and absolutely essential. It is incumbent upon every man of insight and understanding to strive to translate that which hath been written into reality and action…. That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. In another passage He hath proclaimed: It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.