Conference

Inter-Institutional Conference

By John Taylor; 2006 May 29

The Badi' List has been inactive for three days because of a change in the weather which knocked me down for Friday morning (day one) and an inter-institutional conference that I attended at the Toronto Baha'i Center (days two and three).

Riding in Ron Speer's minivan to and from downtown Toronto I was impressed with how much worse the smog is in the whole Golden Horseshoe region since I last lived in what I now think of as the big city, Hamilton, almost ten years ago; the whole area is permanently fog bound. Even on what would have been a clear day, you can see the sky above you but very little is visible horizontally.

This was my first chance to hear the rookie Continental Counselor Dan Scott speak in his new capacity; at the same time the former counselor, David Smith, spoke on the last day to us in his new capacity as National Spiritual Assembly Member. Dan Scott's area of expertise is the Ruhi Institute, and clearly that skill is in high demand right now. And what he had to say really does need saying. His big message, and of the other speakers, was that everything we know about Ruhi is wrong. For example, I have taken Book One several times and not once has the tutor come close to suggesting that we actually do the prayer-sharing "action component" with a real, flesh and blood non-Baha'i. He emphasized that if you do not do that, or if you shirk the home visits suggested in Book Two, or any of the service projects in the other books, you have reduced Ruhi to a mere cycle of sterile deepenings. You have not begun to do Ruhi. This came as a shock to me and on the whole I find it surprisingly encouraging. The Ruhi I have seen is an utter failure, has no hope of working and it hardly justifies the confidence that the House clearly has in it. I am anxious to try out the real Ruhi and see if I can make it work. I taped part of his initial talk on Friday night and will transcribe some of his comments for you.

"It is a joy to be here... The purpose of this meeting is to reflect upon the expansion and consolidation of the community of the Most Great Name and to look ahead to the next steps ahead... Transformation is too often used too casually... think of examples of change in the physical world ... the first example that comes to mind is the profound change of the moth and butterfly... Our purpose is secure the welfare of the entire human race and contribute to the advancement of civilization... There is a twofold process that is (made up of parts that are) fundamentally inseparable. The standard of behavior of the individual shapes the environment by which he or she lives, and he or she in turn is molded by the processes and structures of his or her environment... We have to continually focus our efforts on improving our character and our environment. If we do not, the potential of the age in which we live will not be fulfilled.

"I really cannot overemphasize the reciprocal relationship between spiritual and moral growth ... it is impossible for an individual to grow morally or spiritually in isolation from others. We can only continue through effort and activity for the benefit of others... (this is true of any virtue, think of generosity, soul learns by giving to others) the soul learns forgiveness by struggling to forgive others..."

He continued saying that if you develop your virtues too much and in isolation alone in your room you are at risk of becoming self-righteous. Or you can feel guilt, I do not have all these things and am not good enough. Or I can fall into self satisfaction. Both are forms of ego. Conversely if we become too social oriented we can lose perspective and our work to build a new world will become too fragile. "It is all too easy to lose respect and compassion for others... unspeakable acts have been committed by well meaning people who believed they were performing social good."

Mr. Scott has a strange physical resemblance to his predecessor, David Smith. Maybe the physiognomy is burned into the job description after all these years. But unlike Smith, he is not personable, a hail-fellow-well-met personality. He is no "people person," as one believer who has worked with and been fired by him put it to me; fine with me since I am not one either. At the same time from what I know about the Ruhi cycle, I wonder how to make Ruhi work if you are not a skilled and even bold salesperson. A craven fellow like myself who quails at picking up the phone to call friends, much less cold call strangers or distant acquaintances is not going to make Ruhi work. That became clear. In view of my handicap, I have been pounding my head coming up alternative ways to serve the program, perhaps by means of video or a website. I do not want to be completely out of the teaching loop. I also noticed that those using Ruhi spectacularly well who spoke up there were by and large young people, youth and even children. It seems what the Bible predicted, that a "child shall lead them."

In this maiden speech Mr. Scott reached some intellectual heights, and to me justified Ruhi and himself. He cleared up why Ruhi attempts bizarre things, like posing unanswerable questions, stumpers that would stymie a trained philosopher, to untrained laypersons. The reason is to allow the tutor to provoke discussion and resolve the clash of differing opinions by showing the power of the word and unity in the word. I think. Much else that had been confused in my mind is clearer now too. The program, which seemed replete with errors was, I am told, actually devised over fifteen years of experience in the field; it is crazy like a fox.

He actually gave me reason to imagine for a moment or two that I understood what the Ruhi thing was trying to do with all that talk about being and doing; I have never understood it, nor do I understand why it is given such emphasis throughout the books, especially when the Writings pay it no mind. But then I lost what he said. I forgot and it became a jumble again. The only explanation that sticks in my mind was a comment of Peter Smith, the chair for the weekend, that somebody had given him a button saying, "Neitzche says, `To do is to be;' Kant says, `To be is to do,' but Frank Sanatra says, `Dobe dobedo.'" Toss me into the Sanatrist school of thought; nonsense words are all I get out of Ruhi's convoluted attempts to break down imagined barriers between being and doing.

Scott made some of the mistakes one would expect of a novice speaker. During the entire time he grabbed the podium tight and tilted it forward as far as it would go; for the first twenty minutes I was in suspense, wondering if and when he was going to let it fall forward and crush the feet of the poor fellows sitting in the front row. Then it became clear that this was not going to happen, it was just one of those annoying nervous habits they warn you about in Public Speaking 101 that distract from what the speaker is trying to convey. Much worse, about every minute or so he would pause and look around the room with his mouth gaping in a toad-like expression that seemed to say, "Duh?" or, "What-ever!" When my daughter utters either of those sarcastic words I dock her one reward point, for that is her own substitute for swearing. I was glad she was not there, because Scott gave a lesson in how appear to say something sardonic (albeit unintentionally) without uttering a sound, using facial expression alone. This unconscious mannerism would be a good thing to lose. His voice rose and fell in volume, he sped up and slowed down, making much of what he said unintelligible from the back of the room where I and my voice recorder were. Mr. Scott continued,

"Let us imagine a man ... without prejudice against women... what good would that be if he lives in a society that systematically discriminates against women in everything from opportunity to the timing of examinations? ... It is not enough to have a lack of discrimination; that man must go a step further and try to change the structures of society... This is painful and requires sacrifice. But if he does that, things around him will change and from these changes he will gain a far more profound understanding of what equality means. The relation is reciprocal..."

"Ultimately it is teaching the Cause of God that transforms both individual and society together, reciprocally, that gives the vision of where they are being directed, (towards) the Order of Baha'u'llah... We need to connect volition and action to knowledge. There are lots of people with knowledge, there are all kinds of purposeful people in the world who are destroying it... (With Ruhi we get all three, and we learn to orient all to the Writings, both memorized in our heads and reflected in the environment around us. We learn to take ourselves into account and ask if our knowledge, will, actions and virtues are having an effect. We can criticize self, remove ego and adapt as the situation changes.)

To my relief he then turned from theorizing to his own personal experiences last fall when the Counselors just before they were to read the new plan letter from the UHJ were prepared for the experience with a whirlwind three day pilgrimage, nine days squeezed into three. This caused one of their number to cry out in anguish, "Is this an indication of the intensity which the House is expecting us to act in carrying out this plan?"

"We read the message on the morning of the first day and it came as a great challenge and relief. We had time then to reflect and consult. Two or three comments in, a counselor from Africa stood up to the mike and said that he would like to thank the Universal House of Justice for providing us with such an easy plan. (A few of us looked around in confusion. Did we all have the same plan? A different letter? Then we realized he was right. We all felt a great sense of joy.) The first paragraph of this message summarizes the whole message, and the plan."

I will not give more from this talk. His best talk took place on Saturday morning when he gave many new details about how to apply Ruhi so that it will actually work. This is what he knows, and this was his finest hour. Now LSA members across Ontario are spreading out and bringing to the whole community what he taught us about how to bring about growth.

Let me jump to the last talk he gave on Sunday morning, meant to be his rousing piece de resistance. I had sat alone in the only empty section of the room. I must say that I missed most of what he said, I admit it. It was a more concise address than I expected and I had just got my thoughts in order when it was over. Then he came over and sat down in the next seat but one from me. I felt very uncomfortable. No words were exchanged between us, only body language, a wordless conversation of two non-people persons. I tried not to seem unfriendly, though I had to lean forward in my chair and cut off eye contact; as you can guess from what I have said above, my feelings for him and Ruhi are not entirely unmixed. He removed some obstacles but others remain. I still think it is a grave error for Ruhi obstinately to ignore technical means, video, computers, the Internet, the high technology that is the power and glory of developed countries. Anyway, his body language showed that I did not exist in his mind; it bespoke only immense relief and an almost palpable nervous exhaustion. In spite of myself, I could not help but feel a pang of compassion for the man. Clearly this service of public speaking is tough, a real sacrifice for him, not the enjoyable, laid back experience it was for his predecessor. He is not as funny as David Smith, he is in fact deadly serious. He is working for badly needed change at a crucial time and he wants to see that happen, entry by troops, desperately. I did not doubt that the whole Ruhi thing is be as hard a sacrifice and as against the grain for him as it is for the likes of me. For that he earned my respect, if not as yet my warm affection, and I pray that God will confirm him and us in attaining this high aim of mass entry, or indeed any kind of entry at all.

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John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com