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

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

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

 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

A topic I have written about before, I have been thinking a lot lately about language and how it can be used for so many different things.  Of course the most visible and obvious use is for communication, but it can be so much more.  Language is not just for the transmission of our basic thoughts and and intentions to another, we also use it to transmit knowledge and to discriminate.  Although language could be used as a manner of creating relationships between people by sharing our thoughts, it all too often becomes the criteria by which people are excluded.  I have long been fascinated by the ways in which different languages have the ability to express different thoughts due to their unique vocabularies, grammatical structures, and common usages.  Unfortunately, introducing a new language into a culture can be the difference that causes on to be excluded, rather than as a benefit to the potential breadth of thought and reasoning that could occur.

TeacherJay Reflections discrimination, language, unity

With the utmost friendliness and in a spirit of perfect fellowship take ye counsel together, and dedicate the precious days of your lives to the betterment of the world and the promotion of the Cause of Him Who is the Ancient and Sovereign Lord of all. He, verily, enjoineth upon all men what is right, and forbiddeth whatsoever degradeth their station.

~ Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 183 (XCII para. 3)

Together, with dedication, we can make a difference in the world.  Imagine if we coordinated the efforts of humanitarian aid missions around the world—if they would share information, resources, and human energy—that dedication and fellowship could better the world and promote even more unity.

TeacherJay Gleanings friends, progress, society, unity

The best way of arriving at this global vision and achieving commonly-held values across the world is through education.  What is needed is a world programme of education that fosters in all the peoples of the world an understanding of the underlying unity and inter-dependence of the world and an appreciation of the rich diversity of its cultures.

~ Dr. Moojan Momen, Baha’i Focus on Development

Education is the answer to many of the world’s problems.  By learning not just academic skills, but also about the diversity that is us—humans, we can improve our whole society and learn from each other as we learn how much we rely on each other.  So many things we do affect each other, i.e. buying products made in a certain country, supporting a war in another country, the environmental effects of not recycling a product or of burning rain forest to clear it for farm land to raise the beef that will be made into hamburgers for consumption in another part of the world.  If we were able to realize how we are related, and that we are all one culture, with the same values, then maybe we could address these issues through a global vision, but the first step is to ensure education for all.

TeacherJay Secondary Sources diversity, education, globalism, unity

The real means of eliminating race prejudice, is to spread and establish the Faith; for in it, there is no prejudice whatsoever, as the Faith itself holds as its cardinal principle, the Oneness of Humanity.

~ Written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, in The Power of Unity: Beyond Prejudice and Racism, pp. 105

I was reminded of this quote when I ran across an article yesterday in the University of Wisconsin-Madison student newspaper (coincidentally enough) The Daily Cardinal, that there is no biological basis for racial distinctions. There is only one race, the human one, but unfortunately we seem to allow petty distinctions to classify us.

In 1998, Alan R. Templeton, a biology professor at Washington University, published a paper demonstrating that “race is a real cultural, political and economic concept in society, but it is not a biological concept, and that, unfortunately, is what many people wrongfully consider to be the essence of race in humans—genetic differences.”

Race is an invented concept that is used to define, to limit and to separate the “others.”  The Baha’is believe in the elimination of racial discriminations and prejudices of all kinds.  If the faith were to spread and more people to adopt this particular viewpoint, than humanity would have the opportunity to come together, to unite, and put it’s attention towards solving larger problems.

TeacherJay Shoghi Effendi progress, racism, unity

So-called "interracial marriage" is also encouraged in the Bahá’í teachings, which stress the essential oneness of the human race.

~ Baha’i International Community, 1992, Magazine – The Baha’is

It is very interesting to me that the Baha’i Faith promotes interracial marriage as a form of world unity, bringing the world one step closer.  I have found an additional effect, however.  Meeting so many interracial couples when I first entered into the Baha’i community challenged some of my own conceptions.  I would meet people of different races and make assumptions about their spouses, and/or not realize who was married to whom.  Although it was a bit embarrassing and sometimes frustrating, it also helped me to grow more accepting of something that I had thought I already accepted.  I did not object to such unions, but because I had such little previous experience with them, I was not accustomed to them.

TeacherJay Baha'i International Community prejudice, racism, reflection, unity

The historic breakthrough in information and communication technology, which represents so potent a means to promote social development and the deepening of people’s sense of their common humanity, can, with equal force, divert and coarsen impulses vital to the service of this very process.

~ Baha’i International Community, 1999 Feb, Who is Writing the Future

I believe this passage is referring to the rise of the internet, e-mail and other related communication methods.  There can be no doubt that these technologies have been able to transform our world by hastening the rate at which information can be exchanged.  However, it has also served to create more of a divide between the cosmopolitan elite who are able to do things such as read this blog, read news from other parts of the world and contact loved ones.  Just like humans themselves, modern technologies have the potential to do great works towards restoring a balance throughout the world and promoting the social development of humanity, but only when used to that end.  They also have the power to become destructive forces.

TeacherJay Baha'i International Community communication, globalism, poverty, technology, unity

The fact that we imagine ourselves to be right and everybody else wrong is the greatest of all obstacles in the path towards unity, and unity is necessary if we would reach truth, for truth is one.

~ Abdu’l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 136

Many of the greatest discoveries and advancements in history came from someone considering, even if just for a moment, if what we had always believed and accepted as fact were wrong.  Sometimes we must consider that there are alternatives to what we know to be right; that sometimes it is possible for multiple viewpoints to all be correct.  When we reach that point we may begin to understand not just the truth, but each other.

TeacherJay Paris Talks diversity, independent investigation of truth, prejudice, progress, unity

Yesterday I was reading a story book about Ruby Bridges while sitting in the park with some new friends.  Brother and sister they are of mixed race and had just finished 2nd and 4th grades.  They had not heard the story about the first African-American child to attend an all-white school in the South.  Although I tried to explain to them that there was a time in the history of the United States that children were segregated they told me they just couldn’t understand it… they quickly followed up to tell me it was not the story they didn’t understand, but the motivations.

When asked if their public school classrooms had children with different skin colors and different ethnicities they told they did and that they enjoyed seeing the mix.  In their suburb of a medium-sized Midwestern city, they had already encountered much diversity in race, culture and language.  What struck me the most was when the older of the two commented that he felt bad for the children who had to live through segregation—but it was not for the black children, who were not allowed to go to school with the white children, rather he felt sorry for the white children whose parents denied them the opportunity to have children of other races in their classroom.  I found this to be a very interesting and very mature stance to take from such a young man.  If only more people had such a responsible attitude towards segregation and prejudice today, perhaps we could be one step closer towards unity in this world.

TeacherJay Reflections children, education, prejudice, progress, unity

The sixth principle of Bahá’u'lláh regards the equality of men and women. The male and female of the human kingdom are equal before God. God is no respecter of gender. Whosoever practices more faith, whosoever practices more humanitarianism is nearer to God; but between the male and female there is no innate difference because they share in common all the faculties. The world of humanity has two wings, one the male; the other the female. When both wings are reinforced with the same impulse the bird will be enabled to wing its flight heavenward to the summit of progress. Woman must be given the same opportunities as man for perfecting herself in the attainments of learning, science and arts. God has created the man and the woman equal, why should she be deprived of exercising the fullest opportunities afforded by life? Why should we ever raise the question of superiority and inferiority? In the animal kingdom the male and female enjoy suffrage and in the vegetable kingdom the plants all enjoy equal suffrage. In the human kingdom, which claims to be the realm of brotherhood and solidarity, why should we raise this question?

~ Compilations, Baha’i Scriptures, p. 277

The equality of men and women is of paramount importance in the Baha’i Faith.  It is imperative that women be given the same opportunities to serve and to grow in the Faith.  At the same time, it is necessary for men to share in responsibilities that may have traditionally been reserved for women.  As an educator, I am always pleased to see expansions in the opportunities for young girls to go to school and receive an education.  As a society, there is a resource that we have let go to waste for so many generations.  Although we discuss the equality of the sexes, sometimes we go to far in our encouragement and ignore the differences.  It is those differences in the way that men and women think, react and respond based on our hormonal levels and conditioning that make the inclusion of both male and female so important.

TeacherJay Baha'i Writings discrimination, diversity, equality, gender, unity

O members of parliaments throughout the world!  Select ye a single language for the use of all on earth, and adopt ye likewise a common script.

~ Baha’u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, paragraph 189

One of the tenets of the Baha’i Faith is the establishment of what we refer to as a “universal auxiliary language” and in a post of that same title, I mentioned the propensity for Baha’is to be polyglots.  There is no direction as to which language should be adopted, but it is made clear that it should be a second language and used in business and education.  In this way, it does not have to take away from a person’s native language.

As a student of linguistics and how language affects a person’s culture and thoughts, I would never want to see the removal of languages from our society as they do so much to enhance diversity, but can unfortunately also lead to divisions amongst us as well.  Several people have made comments on previous posts regarding the use of Esperanto.  What I find to be the most promising aspect of this language came from one of their websites, and it is the idea that because nobody is a native speaker of Esperanto, everybody will be at the same disadvantage.  While traveling in India I noticed some elements of this.  English was the common language for many Indians who spoke different dialects of other languages.

While I do see the merits of having a second language that was common to all, I have reservations as well.  It seems like such an overwhelming task.  Some people will resist.  Those that begrudgingly accept a second language may only speak it minimally rendering its use to only the most basic functions.  If people do not make a whole-hearted attempt at it, they will become frustrated, and feel that it is not working.  However, I do wish the world would try.  In my experiences, and travels, the first step to forging a true relationship and understanding something about each other was to… understand each other.

TeacherJay Kitab-i-Aqdas globalism, language, unity, world citizen

If Christians of all denominations and divisions should investigate reality, the foundations of Christ will unite them. No enmity or hatred will remain, for they will all be under the one guidance of reality itself.

~ Abdu’l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 198

Having lived as a Christian for many years, I remember vividly the problems that arise between different denominations of the Church.  With so many different sects whose beliefs all come from the same message from Christ it always bothered me that they let petty differences that were the result of man’s intervention keep them apart.  During the time they were arguing over how to do communion, if people could marry outside the denomination or if baptism required a few drops of water or a full body immersion, they were bickering over thins that were irrelevant to God’s will and making a mockery of it.  I have always appreciated that the Baha’i Faith has not fractured into sects, though I fear that it may happen one day.  We are directed in the Kitab-i-Aqdas to not allow that to happen, but sometimes what is written does not come to pass.

TeacherJay Promulgation of Universal Peace, The independent investigation of truth, spiritual maturation, unity, world peace

O SON OF BEING!
How couldst thou forget thine own faults and busy thyself with the faults of others? Whoso doeth this is accursed of Me.

~ Baha’u'llah, The Arabic Hidden Words

I must admit that I am occasionally guilty of this myself.  All too often we spend our energies looking for the faults of others, or letting them define the relationships we will have another.  This problem is twofold—first, we begin to obsess on the negative aspects of life and not on the positives, and second we ignore the faults we have ourselves and thereby prevent ourselves from working on them, or even using them to our advantage to find common ground with others.

TeacherJay Hidden Words, The reflection, unity

The utterance of God is a lamp, whose light is these words: Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch.

~ Baha’u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 14

Today is the Feast of Núr, which means light.  Using the imagery of light as an analogy for goodness, for understanding, and for grace is common to many different religions, as is the allusion of the light coming from a lamp.  In this passage, we see Baha’u’llah using that light as something that casts out in all directions, to fall upon all in the same way, and reminding us that though we may have our differences, we all come from the same place.

TeacherJay Uncategorized Feast, unity

It was while Abdul Baha was in Paris that a group composed of different sects awaited an audience to argue their various faiths. Suddenly this divine teacher of men swept into the room and pointing out of the window, exclaimed: "The sun of truth rises in each season from a different point of the horizon — to-day it is here, yesterday it was there, and to-morrow it will appear from another direction. Why do you keep your eyes eternally fixed on the same point? Why do you call yourselves Christians, Buddhists, Mohammedans, Bahais? You must learn to distinguish the sun of truth from whichever point of the horizon it is shining! People think religion is confined in an edifice, to be worshipped at an altar. In reality it is an attitude toward divinity which is reflected through life.

"This movement eludes organization — it is the realization of a new spirit. The foundation of that spirit is the love of God; and its method, the love and service of mankind. Many who have never heard of this revelation teach its laws and spiritual truths.

~ Abdu’l-Baha, Divine Philosophy, p. 14

This description of Abdu’l-Baha is stunning.  A major reason that I became a Baha’i is that I had already come to believe in all of the principles of the Faith before ever learning the name of Baha’u’llah.  Accepting that he was the latest manifestation of God was easy for me at that point.  I have heard this similar story echoed from numerous others as well.  To me, the concepts of unity, world peace, harmony of science and religion, equality of men and women, the establishment of a universal auxiliary language, providing education for all, and that all religions are worshipping the same God were what made me a Baha’i.  Anyone who deigns to serve mankind and promote these truths is showing the love of God.

TeacherJay Divine Philosophy faith, independent investigation of truth, service, unity, world peace, worship

All we can reasonably venture to attempt is to strive to obtain a glimpse of the first streaks of the promised Dawn that must, in the fullness of time, chase away the gloom that has encircled humanity. All we can do is to point out, in their broadest outlines, what appear to us to be the guiding principles underlying the World Order of Bahá’u'lláh, as amplified and enunciated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of His Covenant with all mankind and the appointed Interpreter and Expounder of His Word.

~ Shoghi Effendi, The World Order of Baha’u'llah, p. 34

I was humbled, yet reassured when I read this.  Often when I explain to people that a tenet of the Baha’i Faith is unity and world peace, people scoff.  Although they may think it a lofty goal, they are also not willing to spend their time working on something that is unattainable as they see it.  This passage from Shoghi Effendi serves to remind me that what is important is striving towards the goal… even if we are not able to accomplish it ourselves.  We cannot be expected to achieve world peace in our lifetimes, but it is reasonable to expect us work hard towards that goal and to perhaps see some progress.

TeacherJay Shoghi Effendi politics, responsibility, unity, world peace