Trip to Remember

A Trip To Remember, Questions to Remember



By John Taylor; 11 August, 2004



I was pleased to read in a recent email that the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada is encouraging local groups to start
commemorating the Master's visit to this land, which took place in
September. They are hoping that these meetings will lead up to a major
celebration at the centenary of His visit in 2012. If I had the means,
this is what I'd like to do, go to Alexandria and then follow through to
every place in the West that He visited, reading the speeches that He
gave at the exact hundredth anniversary from when they were originally
given. I'd even dress up in an `aba, fez and long fake white beard as I
read them -- I know, I know, the dignity of the Faith would be affronted
by that. But I would not do it as a publicity stunt; I would do it just
for myself, to walk in His steps and get a feeling for what it must have
been like to be the Exemplary Baha'i in those early days.

Mostly, to say the words He said, I love doing that -- who needs a
costume when you can parrot the words of the Man? As the Master Himself
said, the reality of man is his thought. Maybe as a compromise I will
read the speeches aloud into a recorder and make them available on the
net in MP3 format. Even that would be tough to do, since many of the
speeches remain uncollected and are very hard to attain even today.

Silvie came to me as I was writing the above with a play she has in mind
about the voyage of the Master across the Atlantic. She held a green toy
boat in hand which will play the role of the boat He took, the Cedric,
which she wants to contrast with the sad fate of the Titanic. I had told
her the story long ago, how the Master had a bad feeling about it when
they asked Him to cross on that "safer" boat.

She wants to entitle the play, "Titanic, Almost Unsinkable." What made
this impression on her was an episode of the animated series,
"Futurama," called "A Flight to Remember," which satirically places the
Titanic's story far into the future and making the ill-fated vessel a
space ship. I taped (or rather tested out our equipment by putting it
into VCD format on a CD-ROM) the episode just before cutting off our
satellite television feed last spring. Silvie and Thomas watch the
CD-ROM over and over, the way that kids do. The film "Titanic," even the
animated version, did not make nearly the impression that this comic
travesty does.

At the start of the "Flight to Remember" episode their boss announces to
the characters that he has bought them tickets for a trip on the maiden
cruise of an uncrashable spaceship, "The Titanic," and whenever the word
"Titanic" is voiced it is followed by a loud, ominous, metallic clanking
sound effect, a sound of finality based no doubt on the sound of a
barred jail door closing. By a strange coincidence, Thomas had taken "A
Night To Remember," with its cover illustration of a sinking Titanic out
of my bookshelves and the book was kicking around, getting in our way.
As they watched once, I pointed out to them that this famous non-fiction
book, which I was required to read in High School, was the reason the
episode was called "A Flight to Remember." They were more interested in
how the spaceship's captain was promising to "fly her brains out," which
he subsequently does by ordering the crew to steer her over by "this
here blackish holish thing." Rather than an iceberg this Titanic ended
up sucked into a black hole.

In retelling the story of the Master's crossing to her last night I took
advantage of the familiar clanking sound effect, telling her that
probably the sound was only audible in the world of spirit. When people
suggested continuing on the Cedric the Master heard lovely music, but
when they held up a ticket for the Titanic and said its name, He heard
that deafening, "CLANK, CLANK." Hmm, He thought, the Cedric or the
Titanic CLANK CLANK? Which shall it be? "I don't know, maybe we had
better stick with the Cedric," He announced. Then I tried to show her
why the Titanic sank, how if they had crashed directly into the iceberg
they would have been safe, or if they had been cautious and turned
earlier, they would have been safe. But in their arrogance they waited
to turn and just scraped the side of the iceberg. I demonstrated with my
hand how it scraped the side of her stuffed wolf, whose paw was hidden
underwater, then the slow sinking of the Titanic. Silvie, with her hand
demonstrated how the little Cedric passed on by, safely crossing to the
other side of the Atlantic in a couple of hours. I explained that it was
days, not hours in a ship. And then this morning she awakes, inspired to
turn it into a play.

I have been somewhat distracted here, haven't I? What I wanted to come
to next was a challenge that the Master threw out to us all during His
travels. Here is what He said at Albert Hall's digs in Minneapolis,


"Material virtues have attained great development, but ideal virtues
have been left far behind. If you should ask a thousand persons, What
are the proofs of the reality of Divinity? perhaps not one would be able
to answer. If you should ask further, What proofs have you regarding the
essence of God? How do you explain inspiration and revelation? What are
the evidences of conscious intelligence beyond the material universe?
Can you suggest a plan and method for the betterment of human
moralities? Can you clearly define and differentiate the world of nature
and the world of Divinity? you would receive very little real knowledge
and enlightenment upon these questions.
"This is due to the fact that development of the ideal virtues has been
neglected. People speak of Divinity, but the ideas and beliefs they have
of Divinity are, in reality, superstition. Divinity is the effulgence of
the Sun of Reality, the manifestation of spiritual virtues and ideal
powers. The intellectual proofs of Divinity are based upon observation
and evidence which constitute decisive argument, logically proving the
reality of Divinity, the effulgence of mercy, the certainty of
inspiration and immortality of the spirit. This is, in reality, the
science of Divinity. Divinity is not what is set forth in dogmas and
sermons of the church. Ordinarily when the word Divinity is mentioned,
it is associated in the minds of the hearers with certain formulas and
doctrines, whereas it essentially means the wisdom and knowledge of God,
the effulgence of the Sun of Truth, the revelation of reality and divine
philosophy." (Abdu'l-Baha, Promulgation, 326)


What I'd like to do is set up a website with a survey to see if this
speculation is true, could one in a thousand answer these questions?
Could I, putative student of the Master, answer them adequately? Could
one in a million lay out the fundamentals of this philosophy without
reverting to "dogmas" or "formulas"? How many of us really understand
this "science of divinity" that he talks about?

On a site I'd also like to work out His suggested "plan and method for
the betterment of human moralities (sic)" What is He talking about? What
sort of plan might that be, a plan that everyone should have on the tip
of their tongue? Could it the "open system" ideas for rewarding success
in personal goals that I have been speculating about sporadically over
the last year?

I included a "sic" (evidently "morals" or "ethics" is meant) in the
above quote to demonstrate another problem I'd have reading aloud the
talks of the Master. Albert Windust and Howard McNutt, who compiled
Promulgation seem to have been better translators than grammarians. Some
but not all of the plethora of errors were cleared away in the revised
1982 edition of Promulgation. Even so, some talks are virtually
unreadable, especially those in Montreal.

In any case, though I may never be able to answer these questions myself
at the drop of a hat, it does seem to me to be the case that these are
questions that `Abdu'l-Baha Himself set out to answer for us during the
course of his Western teaching trips. In my imagined website I'd love to
compile those selections from where the Master does answer them. It
would be an important thing to do, since these questions He clearly
believed should become common knowledge one day. These truly, are points
to remember.



John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
 
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
 
Badi Web Site: TBA