Back to the Ruhi Future, Parts One and Two, with reader reaction

Back to the Ruhi Future


First of a Series written while studying Ruhi Book Six


John Taylor; 7 May, 2004



"The sciences of today are bridges to reality; if then they lead not to reality, naught remains but fruitless illusion. By the one true God! If learning be not a means of access to Him, the Most Manifest, it is nothing but evident loss." (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections, 110)


That is today's daily reading and it seems an appropriate thought to introduce a new running theme, Ruhi Book Six, which we believers of Dunnville began on Tuesday to study. This will a long digression I know but I assure you that it leads to Ruhi.

As the quote says, science is a bridge and if you fall off it you might as well not have one. But frail humans are attached, we always take means as ends and only death reminds us what the end is all about. Language itself is a bridge. It is how we share our understanding of reality. If words trip us up we are better off with just silent meditation. Take William Shakespeare, for instance.

By some estimates Shakespeare is the greatest artist of any medium, ever, and he almost single-handedly constructed the English language in its modern form. Yet the fact is that his blessing to us native speakers is a mixed one. Turning him into an icon kills him. Teachers sadistically pound youths with his strange oaths and they never forget it. Even supposedly free creative professionals are chained by pedagoguery and feel they must perform his plays in the exact language in which they were written, in spite of the fact that they are changed beyond recognition from what they were.

For that reason paradoxically Shakespeare is more popular in other languages and cultures than he is here, simply because his speech was translated completely, so that it is actually possible in these languages to read him with pleasure. The plays work on stage direct, like the above "bridges of reality," not filtered through weird, vaguely comprehensible jargon. The works actually sound as when first performed, modern and natural, earthy yet sublime. When speakers of these languages learn English they find that Shakespeare's plays are not nearly as well known by the average person as in their "foreign" culture. We speakers of the language of Shakespeare have no idea!

There is even a trend in education to forbid studying Shakespearean plays as written words. Students are allowed only to perform them on stage, they never study the text. Since Shakespeare never actually saw the text in print, why put emphasis on it? While most teaching fads dismay me, this is one that I applaud. Now if only we had the guts to perform modern language translations... I think the best adaptations of Shakespeare in English are well camouflaged.

An example is the light, coming-of-age youth film, "Ten Things I Hate About You." Only safely out of the cinema do you realize how the writers cleverly captured the spirit of Shakespeare's comedies and his sense of poetry without ever turning off the unsuspecting audience, either by strange diction or even different cultural sensibilities. The only problem is that the young viewers never know they have been enjoying Shakespeare.

Now the point I want to make is that Baha'i native English speakers have a similar problem in approaching the Ruhi texts. For us what we read is not what a non-native speaker encounters. The anonymous person or persons who made up this course of study, clearly not native English speakers, came across the long out of print "Tablets of `Abdu'l-Baha" either in translation (unlikely) or in partly understood English. I too will never forget when I first came across these three volumes; its distant portrayal of the words of the Master came as a revelation to me.

I was only 17 years old and had flown to Alaska for a youth teaching program; upon arrival I found that for some reason they put off the training institute I had come to attend for a week or two. So for those blissful weeks I rummaged through Marion Johnson's basement Baha'i library. There were books there that I knew I would never come across again and I read furiously. The rarest bird of all was Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha, TAB, a compilation of early letters of the Master very close to what they must have looked as first read by their recipients. It was hastily translated, often using sloppy and ungrammatical prose. But in spite of its flaws, or because of them, this was such a thrilling read. It was the next thing to being there and witnessing first hand the reactions. These are the first authoritative communications to Westerners about what it is to be a Baha'i!

Unfortunately for me I found quickly that this truly was the land of the midnight sun. I'd be studying furiously late at night trying to cram all this rare wisdom of the Master into my head while I could, and outside the sun was still up. It seemed like daytime. A few more hours of study cannot hurt, I thought, not knowing how way into the night it really was. So for that brief time I walked about a sleep-deprived zombie but of course it was small price to pay for these wonderful insights into the genius of Abdu'l-Baha.

Now the South American author of Ruhi may find the obscure diction of TAB to be poetic, as it no doubt is in the original Persian, but nothing will ever convince a native speaker that this is anything but slapdash gobbledygook. As with Shakespeare, we can imagine what the words might mean but it is mostly speculation. Mostly the impression reflects the reality, that this just ungrammatical English. Our Ruhi coordinator told an anecdote that describes it perfectly. In one of his classes a persnickety English Literature teacher read one of these notorious paragraphs with perfect enunciation, every "doeth" and "verily" correctly elocuted and at the end declared, "What the hell did I just read?"

Here is an example from Book Six, which we covered last Tuesday. It is from the second volume of TAB, and we are asked to memorize it.

"But I hope that this meeting became as the wick of the lamp and the fire -- that as soon as it was touched it became ignited. I am expecting the results of this meeting, that I may see thee lighted as a candle and burning thyself as a moth with the fire of the love of God, weeping like unto the cloud by the greatness of love and attraction, laughing like unto the meadow and stirred into cheerfulness like unto the young tree by the wafting of the breeze of the Paradise of Abha!" (Abdul-Baha, Tablets of Abdul-Baha, Vol. 2, p. 473)

Tests are good for the soul, I suppose the authors reason. The fact that a native English speaker at best has only a bare approximation of the meaning will only increase the spiritual benefit. It is tough enough to memorize correct sentences, so this must be very heaven.

My only worry is what if somebody actually quotes this to a non-Baha'i? People already think we are weird, what will happen if they hear us say this from memory? Errors? I'm not a grammarian, but let me try to count the ways it goes wrong. Sentence one, error of tense, ambiguity. Sentence two, superfluous article, run-on sentence, badly mixed metaphors. A tree "stirred into cheerfulness"? Clouds weeping? I am weeping, and it is not by the breeze of Abha but tears for the virtue of literary excellence. Look at the original letter (it is all in Ocean) and you will find that they left out the salutation, "O My Beloved friend!" that at least hints at the spirit of the original.

Man, I try very hard but every Ruhi I attend I cannot keep my mouth shut. I take my turn and read my passage and if I stumble over it like a semi-literate I know right away where they got it. Every time I trip up over the diction I look forward into the bibliography for the reference and sure enough: TAB. I know I sound like a prig, a nitpicker and a stickler before my fellows but I cannot help it. They inevitably come all over me with objections like this one on Tuesday: "If it is so bad why did the institutions of the Faith approve it?" I don't know the answer to that, I honestly don't know.

What is surprising is that the translator is listed as E. G. Browne. What does that say to you? A great and famous scholar, well qualified to translate it, I know. Well, for one thing he also translated the book of Baha'u'llah that we now know as "Summons of the Lord of Hosts." We tend to forget today but this was the first major work of Baha'u'llah that was translated into English. Getting a hold of a copy was the main fruit of Browne's arduous trip into the heart of darkness in Persia. It was a groundbreaking accomplishment and the translators of the new authoritative version praise without reservation his technical diligence. But why was it left aside for a century by the believers and forgotten?

Why? Because Browne was one of those learned persons who, in the words of the quote I started off with, was in evident loss. Having met Mirza Yahya and sucked in by his venom, he had ambivalent feelings for Baha'u'llah and at times ill-disguised antipathy for the Cause. I have no doubt in my mind that he intentionally pumped up the "thee's" and "thou's" in order to make the Central Figures sound more distant across the cultural gap and even -- dare I say it -- to make it sound slightly ridiculous. By the time TAB came out Browne was far from friendly towards the Faith, if only because so many blamed his involvement in what he called "Babism" for messing up his career as a scholar. If Browne was a little hasty in his translations that did not matter much to those who had no other access to the Master.

Now, a century later, it does matter. The fact that Browne was in all probability intentionally mocking the credulous followers of the Master I find more than a little offensive. And worst of all, Ruhi carries it on, to the point where we actually memorize his travesty. We have alternatives, we have used them for over a century, indeed a large part of the life's work of the Guardian was meant to liberate us from such sloppy translations of holy Writ. That is why I get so all-fired riled when we take a huge step backwards and fail to make use of the literary resources we have.



Here is a fuller selection of the letter from Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of Abdu'l-Baha v2, p. 473


O thou my beloved friend!

For a long time thou didst have the longing to visit the Blessed Spot and the yearning to meet this imprisoned one. Finally this gift became realized, but it was for one moment and as the dew to the rose-garden of the hearts. The destiny was such and the means were brought about in this way. I became sad and disappointed more than thyself. But I hope that this meeting became as the wick of the lamp and the firethat as soon as it was touched it became ignited. I am expecting the results of this meeting, that I may see thee lighted as a candle and burning thyself as a moth with the fire of the love of God, weeping like unto the cloud by the greatness of love and attraction, laughing like unto the meadow and stirred into cheerfulness like unto the young tree by the wafting of the breeze of the Paradise of ABHA!

All the believers in the East and in this Spot are expecting the receipt of letters from thee.



Feedback from Jimbo (with permission)



Hi John! In your article, Back to the Ruhi Future, I was not surprised that you don't enjoy the roller coaster ride of wild English, provided by the earlier translations of the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha. I do believe they are in the process of eventually re-translating all of the Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha at the World Center. Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha was a magnificent step forward and a superb remedy to many of those earlier translations. And yes, there is quite a difference!

As far as the Ruhi books go, surely they will evolve as we, the people, make thoughtful suggestions to how they may be improved. There is no such thing as a perfect course, however we have to keep in mind the finer qualities of Ruhi, for example, its flexibility. I recently finished the sequence of Ruhi books available and now humbly qualify to be a facilitator for Ruhi study circles.

So all the while as I was going through these powerfully stimulating books and these soul-transforming study circles, I am thinking how I would present the spirit of this or that exercise. I have observed from all of my dozen or so Ruhi teacher-facilitators that they all have their own creative way of presenting the material. One thing I would do for a quotation like the one you mentioned in your article, is to ask the participants of the study circle to find or choose a similar quotation from say Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha and memorize that one if they so felt inspired.

Ruhi, to me, is a means, not a goal, so the rest really is up to the deepened Baha'i facilitator to fill in, keeping in mind all the while our Baha'i reality's true spirit and rock-solid principles. I know you will be a good facilitator. Learning and sharing can be real fun and really uplifting when we want it to be. The mind will eventually catch up to the spirit, and the spirit also needs to be mindful, as you so well pointed out. Enjoy.

Jimbo





More Precessions in the Ruhi Process


By John Taylor; 20 May, 2004



Beloved friends,

Our Dunnville end of the Haldimand Community -- it takes about an hour and a half to drive across our LSA's jurisdiction -- is launching into the Sixth Chapter of the Book of Ruhi (not to be confused with the Book of Ruth in the Bible), which is on teaching. We have an excellent animator, Tim-i-Wellandi, who is guiding us through with a firm but gentle hand. My strong reactions are purely to the material this time, not to the way it is being presented.

The newly updated and revised Canadian NSA's official website proudly announces,


"Canadians are meeting in small groups, or "study circles," joining thousands of others in more than 180 countries, applying spiritual principles to their lives and communities. This remarkable programme in adult and youth education is perhaps the most widespread single educational programme in the world."


Yes, my friends, Ruhi to you and me. I leave it to your lurid imagination to picture my reaction to that statement. Most widespread, eh? A mixed reaction, to say the least. One thing I have to admire is the way our national community has gone whole hog into the program. All the warnings the Guardian gave in the first part of "World Order of Baha'u'llah" about the administration being a means and not an end in itself, well, verily, they are being fulfilled now even as it was said of old.

As if to demonstrate something to myself, last year I asked permission to launch a poster and lecture campaign on a local university campus, most of the work to be done by myself; the LSA's answer? "Sorry, we are too busy with Ruhi." All the laboriously erected machinery of the Administrative Order is temporarily being set aside in favor of these circles. One thing you cannot do is accuse our present administrators of being timid or attached to their own structures!

As my readers well know, whenever I go through another Ruhi course I trip over errors in the given material and roll about on the ground as if covered in scorpions. When calm, I release steam by sharing the most egregious on this forum. Then I feel better. People ask, why not report them to the Ruhi authorities? Well, having to deal with the errors is stressful enough. I don't need the further tension of contacting the perps.

And again, I would not be taking this course if I did not think that on the whole it is right, noble and effective. In our area there are two outstanding teachers of the Faith, H--and A--, both bold, brash, spiritually charged women, both born within a few days of one another in 1925. To me, the whole Ruhi program might be called, "How to be like H-- and A---, in seven easy steps." I stand in awe at how these two old women, barely mobile, armed with almost no degrees or education but bolstered by their love for Baha'u'llah boldly contact people and attract them to the Cause where tough, well spoken, qualified, but socially gutless men like me quail in terror even at bringing up the word "religion."

Sometimes I speculate that maybe the authors of this course are like H and A, bold, successful teachers without book larnin'. If so, they drafted someone to write the introductions with enough diplomas stuffed into his mouth to reduce his communication to garbled mumbling. If you want a perfect example of how turgid speech can trip up meaning, read the introduction to any of the Ruhi Books. If you want to really understand what the courses are all about, go to this URL,


http://www.ruhiresources.org/traininst/present/pres1.htm


Aside from scads of useful supplementary material for Ruhi, this site contains a clear, incisive essay by one Ann O'Sullivan of Ireland called, "Dynamics of Learning in the Ruhi Institute Courses." She explains what Ruhi is about better than anything I've seen in Ruhi. I wish I had read it before I took Ruhi Book One, I might have been more serious about what it asks you to do. After incisively explaining the Ruhi method, she gives this example,

" ... a mother studying Book 1 gets information which she understands about reading the Writings; through meditation she gains the spiritual insight that this would be a good thing for her to do, so she does it (action); through her daily action she develops the skill, and this she passes on to her children. In taking this action of teaching the skill to her children, she gets more information, develops more understanding, gains deeper spiritual insights which is expressed in increased skill, a skill which she then passes on once more, and so on in an ongoing process of learning."

This is an interesting epistemological truth, and the Writings, and Ruhi in particular, work it for all it is worth -- and it is worth a lot, I am not denying it. The idea is this: Knowledge is not coinage that you can hoard. It is like electricity, you cannot hold it in your hand, it has to move from one mind to another and back again. If you relax and try to close the circuit with your mind, well you are only shocked and the knowledge itself short circuits and dies out too.

This is something I noticed at the peak of my reading years, years now long gone. At the time I tested myself and learned that no matter how impressive the book, you forget everything in it. A little sticks for a little while, days, weeks, but by the time six months have rolled by it is not even history. I tested other readers, better ones, smarter ones, and it was always the same. If the book is a novel, the names, the plot, all are gone. You are little better off than if you had not read the book at all.

I must say, this made me think twice about reading. Not that movies and television last any longer, they tend to be much worse, far less memorable than books. Ditto for conversation. The point is that you can learn for its own sake, for the pleasure of learning, but unless you apply it you are contributing little, even to yourself. This phenomenon is even more embarrassingly true of essays that I have written. If you have written the material yourself it sticks a little longer, but it fades just the same. Take this essay you are reading now. A few days from now if you and I were tested on the details you would be the expert on what it says, not me. It would be fresh in your mind. Even though it is the product of my mind, that matters nothing, it would be gone and useless, even to me.

Not that it all flees. You always forget things unless, unless that is, you are constantly using and relearning the essentials of the information in the book. That means teaching it. Hence the little bit of the Writings that we are supposed to read at night and in the morning.

Oh, by the way, I read in the news of a recent study that found a similar thing with caffeine. If you take several little shots over a long period, it keeps you awake better than one big injection all at once. The traditional strong coffee in the morning to jolt you awake does not work. Maybe that is the hidden benefit of Ruhi. Its secret is that it gives you little hits of learning and teaching in a feedback loop over a long period in a small group, which like several weak teas over several hours has a cumulative effect far stronger than any sporadic act of will or enthusiasm you could ever summon up on your own.


Faithful reader of the Badi list, Jean, responded on the same day with:



Hi John,

Ah, another Ruhi-Ambivalence rant. Let me skip to the part I liked best, your point that a little bit of the Writings at a time, habitually, is more useful than a huge dose once. It put me in mind of that famous passage beginning "Intone, o my servant..." which talks about the gradual, progressive effects of the Writings on the human heart.

I can tell you from experience that it works the same with piano playing, speaking a foreign language, cooking, elder care or thermodynamics - a concentrated dose of knowledge or experience can give you a boost up the learning curve but expertise of any sort, even of the heart, has to be topped up regularly. Paradoxically, one adds in to the store of knowledge or expertise by giving it away, as of course you pointed out. There is some fascinating kind of knowledge physics going on here that operates at odds with any law of conservation or finance - whatever you give away is kept and earns interest - whatever you keep, you lose. The whole principle must be connected to entropy - but I'm not sure how. Maybe if I ponder it a bit at a time... now would that be keeping, or giving away?

By the way, you and I are completely in agreement on the prose style of NSA's. They are free to use whatever style they like to communicate with the friends. Why then, if they can follow Abdu'l-Baha's style, do the communications of these elected bodies persist, month after month and year after year, in stilted and painful emulation of the turgidity, complexity and outstanding ponderosity of the translations and essays of the esteemed and learned appointee of the Center of the Covenant, the beloved Guardian?

Er, you knew I was doing that on purpose, didn't you? (grin) And over the last couple of years, the US NSA has lightened up a lot - or I've learnt to understand them a heckuva lot better.

Whoops, gotta go - thermodynamics final exam coming up in 15 minutes.

Keep writing, I look forward to the essays.

Best wishes, Jean