Resurrection

Participating in Resurrection

 

By John Taylor; 2006 May 25

 

I observe a shift in opinion of influential movers and shakers heavily onto the side of environmentalism, seemingly even during the past few days. In both the latest edition of Scientific American and in an opinion piece in the New York Times, two prominent skeptics announced their conversions in the face of incontrovertible evidence that the planet is warming up. Major changes must be made, radical reforms, fast and right away. One of these born-again environmentalists compared our present political situation to the boiling or freezing point of a liquid, if water heats up one degree over 100C, it vaporizes, or if it slips a degree from one to zero, it freezes. Now, like the warming planet itself, the evidence has taken scientists beyond a critical point and their opinions have shifted to near unanimity.

One savant asked, "Why are nationalist politicians jostling with one another for ephemeral advantages over one another when the fate of the human race is in the balance?" As the Bard's Brutus put it, using an almost too appropriate analogy considering ominous rising sea levels that may drown vast populated coastal regions,

 

"...our cause is ripe:
The enemy increaseth every day;
We, at the height, are ready to decline.
There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures."

 

An environmental tide of opinion that leads on to collective salvation will require a full spectrum of consultation skills, abilities born not only of training but of spiritual sensibility born of faith and devotion. Verbal tact and timing, followed by sacrifice and innovative action, are of the essence if we are to adapt quickly to a worsening climatic shift. Lester B. Pearson once said that if during the Suez Crisis he had introduced the idea of peacekeeping troops to the UN a day earlier or later than he had, he certainly would have been laughed out of the conference hall. Today we have this as a permanent benefit, national soldiers routinely are cooling off hot spots, acting as world policemen in Afghanistan and other war zones; all because of Pearson's fine diplomatic sense at one crucial moment in making that proposal just when those around him recognized the need.

Right now our future rests upon the timing and tact of a thousand Pearsons in a thousand places around the world. Reducing greenhouse emissions to near zero while at the same time reducing smog, jet contrails and other airborne effluents that cause global dimming will require a complete turnaround at all levels, from world leaders to corporations to factory workers and shopkeepers. A Herculean act of sacrifice in response to rapid-fire consultation on a scale never before heard of in the course of human history. How can we do that? The answer lies in the counsel of Baha'u'llah, as we observed a few days ago in this pregnant passage.

"The Great Being saith: Human utterance is an essence which aspireth to exert its influence and needeth moderation. As to its influence, this is conditional upon refinement which in turn is dependent upon hearts which are detached and pure. As to its moderation, this hath to be combined with tact and wisdom as prescribed in the Holy Scriptures and Tablets." (Tablets, 172)

Verbal refinement is the precondition for consultation. Imagine such a high and holy attitude to speech becoming the norm. How different dialog would be on every level! We have been conditioned by centuries of broken Golden Rules, of forced central planning and slavish swings from one anarchic extreme to the other. Behind it all are profane, undisciplined, gossipy speech habits. Living, creative consultation would have to begin with reforming the speech of the average person, the result of valuing the "refinement" of which Baha'u'llah speaks. We cannot hope to purify the air of the planet physically if our inner world is filthy, if mind and tongue spew pollutants worse than any smokestack or jet contrail, if, in His words, our "hearts" are not "detached and pure."

Refinement begins in accepting the Oneness of God, in willingly accepting His wisdom and learning what He has to teach us.

"And they shall teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least unto the greatest." (Heb 8:11)

Refinement ends in accepting a plan, "from the least unto the greatest." God's plan for our collective salvation, from the least to the greatest, from macro to micro, personal to collective.

Philosophically speaking, refinement requires the reintroduction of agrarianism into every locus of human life, for ultimately we are all soil, our food and energy is all derived from the sun. I have observed at least three people close to me this spring emerge from the funk of a winter depression simply by tending to a small garden. No matter where we are, city or country, all of us need parks, greenery and gardens in our life in order to gain sustenance, physical, psychological and spiritual.

The reason that we cannot plan on a broad level is that we have lost touch with planning, with the discipline of laying out and tending to a garden. Millions people are dumb masses, mere consumers, helpless pawns in the hands of whoever wants to enter the power vacuum because they abdicate their human right actively to plan their own destiny. This is not a matter of lack of education -- we have more schooling now than at any time in history. No, it is the decline of the training and discipline derived by having the vast majority of the population involved in food production, as they were, by the way, in Ancient Athens. A farmer or gardener starts with nothing, bare ground, and ends up with beautiful flowers or a nutritious harvest. In doing that, if she avoids too much plowing and chemical fertilizer, she gets rid of some greenhouse gasses as a bonus.

I call this a fundamental philosophical change because, as we saw yesterday, philosophy begins in our physical robustness, as Socrates taught. A sound mind in a sound body. Socrates understood that we have a basic moral duty to maximize our fitness, of keeping our body in peak physical condition. The implication is a set of tough limits to personal freedom, for example, obeying the consensus of opinion of dieticians as to what we should eat. It means accepting medical advice preemptively. Imagine an annual physical where your doctor had influence not only over you but the wise support of society, of all concerned with your life success,

"I am moving your dwelling to an uphill location to give you more exercise. Also, in view of these test results I am switching you over to such and such a diet. Just swipe this smart card when you go into the kitchen or a restaurant and all will be calculated and portioned out for you. Your meal will be served in the correct weights and proportions. You will still have a wide variety of dishes to choose from, though not what you are used to consuming."

Imagine an equivalent annual intellectual checkup with a teacher or tutor. Whether that person was trained as a psychiatrist, psychologist, philosopher or career counselor would vary according to your needs at this point in your life. What would be invariant is that this tutor would the pull of a wise doctor. Imagine getting this diagnosis:

"I am changing your job because it is not offering you stimulation commensurate with your goals and talents. I will meet with your new boss and talk over what I want from your next position. I judge your skills in such and such an area to be obsolete, so I am sending you on a three week refresher, and here is a new list of books and films to go over during the next year. Plus, I want you to attend this discussion group for three months to discuss this information in detail. This should fill in what I think your education needs at this point. Come back to me in six months and let me know how you are progressing."

When both medicinal and teaching consultants fail to tip the scale toward happiness, wisdom would dictate seeking out an answer in spiritual counsel. Non-Baha'is might consult a priest or other spiritual advisor, who would make adjustments to the believer's devotional life. For a Baha'i it is not as clear and easy, since Baha'u'llah removed the kind of power we are talking about from the hands of professionals.

I took a dip in Ocean to investigate this apparent problem and the answer jumped out at me in the form of a talk the Master gave at His Hotel in Chicago on May 2nd, 1912 (Promulgation, 72-73). By His own testimony, `Abdu'l-Baha was least happy in Chicago because it was a nest of vipers. There was widespread disaffection, contention and rebellion fermenting among believers and certain antinomian Baha'is who were infiltrating and agitating them at the time. His answer to this trial and testing was, you guessed it, spiritual consultation, as laid out unforgettably in this crucial talk.

You can read His Plaza Hotel address yourself, but to me the definition He gives is, in one word, resurrection. His interpretation of resurrection is not superstition, rising from the dead, but a reasoned but nonetheless monumental event. Spiritual consultation, as happened soon after Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross, is a golden path to healing any trial or breakdown in consultation, no matter how grave. What could be worse than the crucifixion? It utterly flummoxed and paralyzed the male Christians, and only the intervention of the spiritually more acute females saved the situation. In the resurrection they all learned together to participate in what `Abdu'l-Baha calls the "most memorable instance of spiritual consultation" in history. Even the dullard men disciples finally understood the teaching of Jesus and the implications of His sacrifice to their lives. After that all, like Peter, became fishers of men.

After going sedulously over that penetrating, refined address in Chicago, I came to understand that `Abdu'l-Baha's answer to the question as to who should be a Baha'i's spiritual advisor is something like Roosevelt's "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." The best spiritual advisor for a Baha'i is spiritual consultation itself. No single individual has the power to plan the garden of our service, but spiritual consultation does. The very act of coming together in loving company with one person or a group, be it formal or informal, gives an increasingly authoritative answer as to how to make the necessary devotional adjustments in our lives, be it more prayer, more meditation or more action.

It is not hard to imagine the spirit of consultation and the living entity called unity becoming universal, spreading -- as did the resurrection of Jesus -- to many billions of souls. We can easily see this happening if only most people were to observe that God is One, and saw everything in terms of that vision. "The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor." (Proverbs 22:12) This creative insight would cradle innovation and the means of change like plants in a nursery garden. When the seedlings are ready we take them out of the nursery and subject them to the stress and strain of open weather, in changing weather. As long as we keep the big goal of God in mind we would soon regard halting global climate change as a necessary but relatively small step on a long journey towards human oneness and happiness.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com