Wanderings

While on a trip to New York City I was invited to a new type of event. Two hours before the usual 11:00am devotions, bagels topped with curiously-flavored cream cheeses, tea, coffee and friends (new and old) all converged in the basement of the NYC Bahá’í Center in historic Greenwich Village.

After we had finished nourishing our bodies, we moved to an intimate corner in order to nourish our souls. Moving around the circle, most everyone contributed a prayer, or read from the sacred writings. Much of what was read dealt with uniting mankind and the advancement of humanity. This set the mood for what was to follow…

In an effort to find more ways to strengthen the community, an open meeting was held to discuss ways in which to make the community more social and gregarious. Movie nights, a café, music concerts, and book clubs focusing on non-Baha’i books were all discussed. Furthermore, action was made that day by agreeing on principal contacts for a variety of approaches, and giving them the go-ahead to start making plans and even holding their first events. Although primarily designed to increase socializing amongst the Bahá’ís, people from outside of the community would always be welcome.

I really liked this approach to meeting, and then to addressing a need within the community. Although at any Bahá’í gathering, everyone attendance is entitled and encouraged to speak and to provide opinions, what made this special was that an action was decided upon that very day. There was no need to take the discussion to another authority, or to decide on how the building could be used. The proper authorizations had already been made and each group was able to plan, schedule and carry out their event as they saw best.

The meeting finished just in time to attend the usual devotions with the announcement that the meetings would continue every two weeks to help refine this initiative. Those not attending the devotions had the opportunity to begin cleaning the building. With more than three whole floors of meeting rooms, auditoriums, classrooms, libraries, etc., there was plenty to do to make the entire building a more orderly, inviting and comfortable place to socialize and, was the first community building event for the participants.

I have always enjoyed being a part of this community (although I am now just an occasional visitor), because of their interest not just growing the group, but making it stronger, by making it closer. Their initiative to make new events, and to try new approaches is an inspiration and I am always interested to hear what is happening and to be a part of it when I can.

TeacherJay Reflections community, friends, unity

This week’s Monday Night Devotions was on the concept of silence and silent meditation. I had considered having all of my attendees remain silent, but I had reservations… I am not sure they would have enjoyed, even if they had been able to do it, and pretty sure they would not have come back. Perhaps some feared that I really would do this because attendance was lower than usual.

We began with everyone mentioning what they thought of as silence, whether it be positive or negative and the different ways that silence is used, i.e. the “silent treatment” of punishment, and also the positive quality regarded by teachers of young children. following this introspection we went into our own silent phase and all remained silent (not just refraining from talking, but without making any noise at all), as we read quotes projected onto the wall. following the quotes, we spent 10 minutes in silent meditation with only some soothing instrumental music to accompany us.

Afterwards, we launched into a discussion of the quotes, and the experience of having to be silent. From de Gaulle’s comment that “silence is the ultimate weapon of power” with Lao-Tzu saying that “silence is a source of great strength”. we moved into Wiesel’s refusal to ever remain silent when people are suffering because “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Mother Teresa told us that “we need silence to be able to touch souls.” Naturally there was Depeche Mode and Simon & Garfunkel thrown in for good measure.

Personally, I find those times of silence to be the most introspective. I recall times that the silence was deafening because it was so real, so crisp, and so alive. The difference between silence being considered the absence of sound and considering it to be the presence of something else entirely, something which we cannot comprehend was also brought up. Gandhi, Buddha and Baha’u'llah told us of the importance of being silent in order to meditate, and contemplate the mysteries of this world. I hope that we were able to do some of that this week.

In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in an clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness.

~ Ghandi

From meditation springs wisdom. From lack of meditation, loss of wisdom.

~ Buddha

Bahá’u'lláh says there is a sign (from God) in every phenomenon: the sign of the intellect is contemplation and the sign of contemplation is silence, because it is impossible for a man to do two things at one time — he cannot both speak and meditate.

~ Baha’u'llah

TeacherJay Buddhism, Monday Night Devotions Monday Night Devotions, silence

A friend let me know about this wonderful video from Fiji of 10 year old Vilisi delivering Anna’s Presentation. For those of you who have not encountered it, Anna’s Presentation is a model of way to tell someone about the Baha’i Faith. It covers not only the main principles of the Faith, but also the manifestation of Baha’u'llah. It was wonderful to see such a young child so knowledgeable about the Faith, and also so interested in sharing this knowledge. She does a wonderful job of delivering the presentation and the video is interspersed with images of the Baha’i community on the Fijian islands. As a former dweller of the topics, I loved to hear the rooster in the background and to see the beautiful colors of the vegetation, but also the reminder that Baha’is all over the world share the same stories, and a common Faith that unites them in their diversity.

After viewing this video with them, I had an 8 year girl, a 11 year old boy and their mother ask me about Anna’s Presentation and wanted me to give more details. It was Vilisi’s presentation that opened the door to the conversation and she is truly “a brilliant lamp and a shining star.” Thank you Vilisi (and thank you Elham for sending me the link).

TeacherJay Prayers, Reflections children, teaching, unity

Another Monday Night Devotions finished and this time we explored the word ‘innocence’. I chose the topic because of the date December 28 being a commemoration of when King Herod killed all of the baby boys in Bethlehem so that the new King, whom he had heard to have born there, could not grow up to challenge his power.

We started with the three questions:

1. What is innocence?, What is it not?
2. Are we born innocent?
3. Can we become/stay innocent?, How?

This progressed nicely, and the discussion centered around how we define innocence and what it is that takes it away from us. We eventually moved on to the concept of ‘Original Sin‘ and the idea that we are all born not only with the desire to do things that would be an affront to God, but that we carry with us the burden of all of the sin that was committed before we were alive. That would hardly make us innocent. However, Christians believe that Jesus dies for our sins, which does raise the concern over whether or not we need to be careful about not sinning, or if it is okay because we will be forgiven anyway.

In the end, we came around to look at how we have allowed our differences such as whether or not a baby is born carrying the sins of his ancestors all the way back to Adam & Eve, who a piece of land belongs to, or who has the right to wear a scarf on her head and where she is allowed to do so. These are all differences created by man and may represent the true lack of innocence. However, all we truly need to do to receive God’s love is to love Him back.

The earth has one surface. God has not divided this surface by boundaries and barriers to separate races and peoples. Man has set up and established these imaginary lines, giving to each restricted area a name and the limitation of a native land or nationhood. By this division and separation into groups and branches of mankind, prejudice is engendered which becomes a fruitful source of war and strife. Impelled by this prejudice, races and nations declare war against each other; the blood of the innocent is poured out, and the earth torn by violence. Therefore, it has been decreed by God in this day that these prejudices and differences shall be laid aside.

Abdu’l-Baha : The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 316

Love Me, that I may love thee. If thou lovest Me not, My love can in no wise reach thee. Know this, O servant.

Baha’u'llah : The Persian Hidden Words #5

TeacherJay Hidden Words, The, Promulgation of Universal Peace, The, Reflections innocence, Jesus, Monday Night Devotions

I have a been a long-time user of Ocean, but was occasionally frustrated with its slow search capabilities.  Friends had told me about Interfaith Explorer, but it was not until today that I finally tried it out.  I do prefer this application because it has about twice the number of documents and allows the user to search in only certain sections.  For example, instead of searching ALL Baha’i documents, I can search through only documents by `Abdu’l-Bahá.  The search does seem a little sluggish, but it allows for the full reading of documents and is available in many more languages.  Unfortunately, there is no Linux version, but the inline option is a suitable alternative.

This program is recommended for anyone wanting to do interfaith research and or just wanting to explore the sacred (and many additional) texts from some of the world’s major religions.

Interfaith Explorer is available at: http://www.bahairesearch.com/

TeacherJay World Religions independent investigation of truth, teaching

I was at a mid-IPG reflection meeting this morning discussing the importance of first interactions a person may have with the Baha’i Faith, because first impressions last forever. Even though a person may not want to learn more about the Faith, or even have a favorable opinion of it in those early moments, as long as the Baha’i is respectful, courteous, knowledgeable, etc., than the person can gain a positive impression of the Baha’is are what they stand for. This may begin a long chain of events and a person may ask questions internally about her/his own beliefs.

I related my first encounter with the Faith, which happened to be Haifa, Israel at the Shrine of the Báb. I liked what I learned about the Faith that day, but I was not ready to become a Baha’i yet. Likewise, I recall telling someone in Guatemala about the Faith once. She was not interested in becoming a Baha’i, but appreciated knowing that the Faith existed and that there were Baha’is in her country.

As we move into teaching opportunities, although we have been advised to work towards the direct teaching of the Faith, it is also important to remember that sometimes all we need to do is be good examples of the teachings of Baha’u'llah and let people know what we believe.

TeacherJay Reflections teaching

I recently hosted a devotional meeting on the concept of “Spiritual Warriors: in my usual, nonconventional manner.  We explored the concept of going out into battle every day that we face injustice in the world.  Of course, we do not fight with weapons designed to injure and kill, but rather we arms ourselves with spiritual qualities, we protect ourselves with our prayers, and we must decide what it is we fight for and we do that fighting.  To help us to illustrate this point, we decorated a warrior and recorded what we use as a sword, a shield, our battlecry and our opponents.  Below is mine:

I got this idea from listening to the song, Spiritual Warriors by Dawnbreaker Collective.

TeacherJay Reflections Monday Night Devotions, music, society, spiritual journey

Last night, I hosted a devotional meeting dedicated to looking at the term ‘New World’ and especially the charge to Baha’is to create a New World Order.  Naturally, we started with Columbus Day, and discussed how a New World can simply be a matter of perspective and interpretation.  Additionally, there are concerns that celebrating only this one point of view can foster prejudice against another, as the people in the video below discuss:

TeacherJay Reflections discrimination, Monday Night Devotions, New World Order, prejudice, world peace

I see stories about groups such as the Westboro Baptist Church picketing Jewish Synagogues, public high school students, and even the funerals of American soldiers for supposedly going against their ideology.  I am concerned by their actions, but even moreso about the message they send about themselves.  I am sure groups that spread hate think they are doing right by their own misguided beliefs, but even if they do, nobody will be “converted” to their way of thin king by seeing protest rallies, or slogans shouted at them.

I was very glad to see that Donna Lieberman of the NYCLU reminded us that although Westboro’s right to protest is protected under the First Amendment, they do not have the right to intimidate, threaten and harass and schoolchildren.  Even better, though, was the response from those schoolchildren who turned out in droves to peacefully, confront the group with signs of love.  By protesting the hate that was being spread, they won.

The Baha’i Faith teaches us to respect each other and to love each other whether we have differences or not, and whether we believe the same things or not.  We are forbidden from proselytizing the Faith and understand that people form their own judgments about people, about other religions, about homosexuality, and anything else in life through observation and direct interaction.  No amount of protesting, or slogans will convince someone and only serves to convolute the message.  We, as Baha’is, protest hate, and promote love and unity.

Consort with all the peoples, kindreds and religions of the world with the utmost truthfulness, uprightness, faithfulness, kindliness, good-will and friendliness, that all the world of being may be filled with the holy ecstasy of the grace of Baha, that ignorance, enmity, hate and rancor may vanish from the world and the darkness of estrangement amidst the peoples and kindreds of the world may give way to the Light of Unity.

~ Abdu’l-Baha, The Will and Testament, p. 14

Links

• http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/32/38/32_38_gk_beth_elohim_protest.html
• http://fort-greene.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/students-turn-out-and-westboro-leaves/?scp=3&sq=westboro%20baptist&st=cse

TeacherJay Reflections teaching, tolerance, unity

O SON OF BEING!
Busy not thyself with this world, for with fire We test the gold, and with gold We test Our servants.

~ Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words #55

I recently used this quote in some devotions that I hosted focused on the topic of fire.  In particular with this quote, we contemplated using fire to test the purity of gold and in turn using gold as a temptation to test the loyalty and honesty of servants.  Upon further viewing of this passage I noticed something I missed the first time around though – the way that ‘We’ begins with a capital letter signifying that perhaps it is referring to God and and us alike.  Could humanity be like the gold that God is referring to being tested by the fires of hard experiences in our lives, while also being the servants of God and tested by the trappings of materialism?  Detachment is often associated with this quote and can be seen in the beginning words where we urged not to pay too much attention to the mundane things of this world, but to focus on the spiritual world.

Photo credit: Baha’i Media Bank: Award-winning fire dancer, Hogan Toomalatai, performing at the Baha’i jubilee festivities in Samoa.

TeacherJay Hidden Words, The detachment, devotions, human capacity, materialism, temptation, tests

Today is the Feast of ‘Izzat, which means Might.  Every 19 days Baha’is gather for a spiritual, administrative and social gathering.

In every age and cycle He hath, through the splendorous light shed by the Manifestations of His wondrous Essence, recreated all things, so that whatsoever reflecteth in the heavens and on the earth the signs of His glory may not be deprived of the outpourings of His mercy, nor despair of the showers of His favors. How all-encompassing are the wonders of His boundless grace! Behold how they have pervaded the whole of creation. Such is their virtue that not a single atom in the entire universe can be found which doth not declare the evidences of His might, which doth not glorify His holy Name, or is not expressive of the effulgent light of His unity.

~ Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 61

TeacherJay Gleanings Feast, glory, virtues

The principles of the Teachings of Bahá’u'lláh should be carefully studied, one by one, until they are realized and understood by mind and heart

~ Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 22

I LOVE this quote.  There is something very special to me about the way that we are encouraged to slow down and focus on the meaning of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings—not to rush through, but to reflect.  However, there is encouragement that we can actually understood them by mind and heart by doing so.

TeacherJay Paris Talks reflection, spiritual journey

I have been thinking a lot about having a balance of service and all the other things that I must do in my life.  If I take the viewpoint that work is worship and that the work that I am doing is serving the Cause of Baha’u’llah, then I am actually serving God through my work.  My work is actually as a full-time student researching ways to improve education for immigrant students.  Still though, it is difficult to have to turn down teaching opportunities and other activities that would help me and others to grow spiritually because I have these other obligations.  Finding that balance is difficult.

TeacherJay Reflections education, responsibility, service

I just returned from teaching 9-11 year olds at the 50th Annual Green Lake Baha’i Conference.  I previously posted about this and a friend who, when asked if she would join me in teaching, responded with the comment, “thank you for this opportunity to serve.”  Part of my lesson was based on the idea of responsibilities that we have in life, to ourselves and to each other.  I used the following quotes:

"Each human creature has individual endowment, power and responsibility in the creative plan of God."

~ Abdu’l-Baha, Foundations of World Unity, p. 76

and

Thus every individual must bear his own responsibility, rather than someone else bearing it for him."

~ The Báb, Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p. 90

Through the process, I was reminded of the way that just as God is responsible to us, we are responsible to Him.  I had been slacking on my daily posting to this blog, but I am hoping to renew my fervor for that activity now.  Through many of the activities that I do, whether teaching classes, writing a blog, or coming up with new and interesting ways to have devotions, I feel they are all part of the creative plan that God has for me, and it is my responsibility to carry out that portion of His plan, because nobody else will do it for me.

TeacherJay Reflections children, creativity, education, God's plan, opportunity, responsibility

Rivers of Light

Even though we are a few days past the Martyrdom of the Bab, I still wanted to share this video of beautiful images of the Holy Land.  Behind them is a beautiful song by Grant HIndin MIller who sings about some of the leadership of the Baha’i Faith.

TeacherJay Reflections music, video

O SON OF SPIRIT!
Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created.

~ Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words #22

We spend so much time and energy doing things that degrade our position in this world.  Instead, we should funnel those efforts into the service of God—the purpose for which we were created.

TeacherJay Hidden Words, The mankind, service

Nonviolence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute.

The spirit lies dormant in the brute, and he knows no law but that of physical might.

The dignity of man requires obedience to a higher law—to the strength of the spirit.

~ Mahatma Ghandi

Are we not more evolved with brutes that we can stop our violent ways?  Most of us live our lives in a quite sophisticated manner, yet it is during some unfortunate times of anger, frustration, and vengefulness that we lash out with some of our most primitive behaviors and attack one another.  I am not speaking so much of the wars between nations, but the simple act of violence against one another to defend one’s honor or as a form of punishment.  In order to be truly dignified though and claim ourselves to be of a higher order of creature that we must be strong in our spirit and understand that violence will do nothing but perpetuate more violence.

TeacherJay Hindu violence, world peace

I wanted to devote today’s post to simply a link to a post on Elika Mahony’s blog.  She has included a free download of her song ‘Persecution’ along with a video regarding the persecution that Baha’is have faced in Iran for more than 150 years.  This is most poignant during recent events with 7 Baha’i leaders who are currently imprisoned and whose trial has repeatedly been delayed despite urgings from nations all over the world to free them.

http://www.elikamahony.com/2009/07/11/persecution-video-for-bahai-human-rights-day/

TeacherJay Reflections faith, music

 This is a picture taken in 1992 of leaders representing nine of the world’s major religions at a gathering in London.  They founded the Alliance of Religion and Conservation as a show of harmony and cooperation amongst world religions.  These leaders have since gone on to work with the World Bank to work towards an end to poverty.

TeacherJay Reflections, World Religions globalism, poverty, relationships, unity