Fishy Work

How Fishy is Work As Worship?

By John Taylor; 2006 October 14

Last Tuesday Ron Speer gave a presentation called "A New Way to Look At Work," based upon holy writings and a high priced seminar he attended recently in his capacity as a volunteer for the March of Dimes based upon the "Fish Method" of motivating work groups. It seems that there was a fish market near Seattle that was in deep trouble. The workers and employers got together to try to solve the many problems they were having. Some naive youth suggested, "Let us become world famous!" And they did just that; the workers worked out a method that infuses fun into their workday. Some fishmongers found that it was more fun to throw the fish to one another. Their antics have become a tourist attraction as they catch the fish from one another and then give an observer a chance to catch one. Of course they drop it every time. This fun method was expanded into a four or five point program, which includes a "make somebody's day" goal, has been adopted with great success in several various corporate workplaces. Here is the blurb that Ron had me put on the Haldimand monthly fireside poster:

"Work, whether paid or volunteer, is the key to our happiness, success and well-being, but as we all know it presents tough challenges too. Ron Speer recently attended a leadership conference at Geneva Park. Using materials from that as well as  personal life experience and the spiritual teachings of the Baha'i Faith and other religions, he will lead us in exploring a whole new way to look at work."

Ron told of his own experience as principal of Central Public School, the place where Silvie and Thomas are currently studying. He had great success using this method, along with the Baha'i principles, such as avoiding gossip and backbiting, consultation and, though he had never heard of the Fish program, infusing fun into the routine of daily teaching. For example, he would occasionally make a crazy announcement through the public address system, an in joke that would have the teachers cracking up and the children saying, "What?"

My interest was piqued in this Baha'i teaching of Work as Worship. One quote that Ron cited in his material was a statement by the Master that work is the "highest form of worship." This borders on an extreme statement, as it seems to put more direct forms of worship into second place. Upon further investigation it turned out to be from "Abdu'l-Baha and Divine Philosophy," a not-entirely-reliable, if not totally unauthentic source. The earliest and heaviest pronouncement on this theme that I found is the big one in the Aqdas, which raises work to the level of worship -- but not above.

"O people of Baha! It is incumbent upon each one of you to engage in some occupation -- such as a craft, a trade or the like. We have exalted your engagement in such work to the rank of worship of the one true God. Reflect, O people, on the grace and blessings of your Lord, and yield Him thanks at eventide and dawn. Waste not your hours in idleness and sloth, but occupy yourselves with what will profit you and others. Thus hath it been decreed in this Tablet from whose horizon hath shone the day-star of wisdom and utterance. The most despised of men in the sight of God are they who sit and beg. Hold ye fast unto the cord of means and place your trust in God, the Provider of all means." (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 30)

A year after the revelation of the Aqdas, which is thought to have been in 1873, Baha'u'llah was asked about the means of livelihood. He replied that "the benefit thereof will be gained by yourself as well as other servants of God, both outwardly and inwardly." (Tablets, 267) Judging by the following, later on in this same letter to an unnamed recipient, He applied this law to His followers at this time, one year after writing the Aqdas, simultaneously with the rest of the laws in the Most Holy Book:

"A year ago the Most Holy Book was sent down from the heaven of the bounty of the Lord of Names. God willing, thou mayest be graciously enabled to fulfil that which hath been revealed therein."

"Concerning the means of livelihood, thou shouldst, while placing thy whole trust in God, engage in some occupation. He will assuredly send down upon thee from the heaven of His favour that which is destined for thee. He is in truth the God of might and power." (Tablets, 268)

In His Tablet of Bisharat the twelfth of fifteen Glad Tidings reiterates this law in the Aqdas almost word for word, except that this time he repeats twice the fact that this activity has been elevated to the station of worship, and gives greater emphasis on our need to appreciate this bounty and thank God for it:

"It is enjoined upon every one of you to engage in some form of occupation, such as crafts, trades and the like. We have graciously exalted your engagement in such work to the rank of worship unto God, the True One. Ponder ye in your hearts the grace and the blessings of God and render thanks unto Him at eventide and at dawn. Waste not your time in idleness and sloth. Occupy yourselves with that which profiteth yourselves and others. Thus hath it been decreed in this Tablet from whose horizon the day-star of wisdom and utterance shineth resplendent."

"The most despised of men in the sight of God are those who sit idly and beg. Hold ye fast unto the cord of material means, placing your whole trust in God, the Provider of all means. When anyone occupieth himself in a craft or trade, such occupation itself is regarded in the estimation of God as an act of worship; and this is naught but a token of His infinite and all-pervasive bounty." (Tablets, 26)

Now I ask you, is it not in the spirit of one who has been given this great bounty from God to be exuberant and, once in a while, maybe throw a fish around the room? Or the equivalent, should there be no fish at hand, play some other harmless little prank? I would think so, as long as the nature of the work is boring and repetitive enough for workers to need such an outlet. At the same time, we probably do not realize today how this teaching will burst through the divide between the sacred and the profane. Consider this "permission" to be holy that the Master gave to a typically overworked worker in an age when menial workers slaved from sun to sun, six days a week.

"A workman who had left his bag of tools in the hall was welcomed with smiling kindness by 'Abdu'l-Baha. With a look of sadness the man said: "I don't know much about religious things, as I have no time for anything but my work." "That is well. Very well. A day's work done in the spirit of service is in itself an act of worship. Such work is a prayer unto God." "The man's face cleared from its shadow of doubt and hesitation, and he went out from the Master's presence happy and strengthened, as though a weighty burden had been taken away. (Lady Blomfield, The Chosen Highway, p. 152)

In a Baha'i world a "workaholic" will be a rarer phenomenon, but he or she will be given more respect, perhaps not unlike the reverence formerly given the village idiot. In another Tablet, Baha'u'llah seems to offer a further stipulation for work to qualify as worship. It must be done as a means of instituting a virtue, not unlike the Fish goal of trying to get over your own tests and difficulties by aiming to make somebody's day.

"We have enjoined upon all to become engaged in some trade or profession, and have accounted such occupation to be an act of worship. Before all else, however, thou shouldst receive, as a sign of God's acceptance, the mantle of trustworthiness from the hands of divine favour; for trustworthiness is the chief means of attracting confirmation and prosperity. We entreat God to make of it a radiant and mercifully showering rain-cloud that shall bring success and blessings to thy affairs. He of a truth is the All-Bountiful, the Gracious." (Tablet of Baha'u'llah, in Compilation of Compilations vol II, #2045, p. 335-336)

Today the world of business is regarded as inherently cut-throat, as the reverse of the Golden Rule. But there is nothing in the nature of things saying that this has to be so. In fact, Baha'u'llah states that, from a spiritual point of view, it must be the reverse of that.

"Commerce is as a heaven, whose sun is trustworthiness and whose moon is truthfulness. The most precious of all things in the estimation of Him Who is the Sovereign Truth is trustworthiness: thus hath it been recorded in the sacred Scroll of God. Entreat ye the one true God to enable all mankind to attain to this most noble and lofty station." (Baha'u'llah, in Compilation of Compilations vol. II, #2046, p. 335-336)

The law that everybody works is a big step towards an answer to this prayer for trustworthiness to become universal. Really, the law of God is the answer to all of our prayers, it is the ideal that makes high aspirations real. The BIC, our UN NGO, puts this nicely, "The work done by the individual in trade, craft, art or profession is the core of his life and not merely the source of his living." In fact the Fish philosophy says this too, they say that most of your waking lifetime is going to be spent at work, so why not enjoy it? Why not make it into a fulfilling, expansive experience? That is the key to happiness. From a personal point of view, that is spot on. But that is still not enough, as the Baha'i Declaration of Human Rights and Obligations points out, we still need a world of justice, one that will erase unfair distribution, cheating, in sum everything that makes the workplace unfair and unworshipful.

"Wealth results from the co-ordination of a variety of efforts directed upon the equipment and material. A sound economy deals with the whole process in its variety of human relationships and does not seek to center the process around the point of any group advantage, whether ownership, direction, technical knowledge, manual skill or consumption. Wealth in part is the right of the individual and in part the right of the community. Under conditions of international competition desperate social emergencies arise when no just distinction between private and public wealth can be made. True justice and social philosophy await the formation of world institutions and the predominance of the world view." (Baha'i International Community, 1947 Feb, A Baha'i Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights)

This hints at the fact that there is still a notwithstanding clause to the principle of work as worship. Work is a form of worship but it does not take the place of other forms of worship. Great institutions are being raised at great cost by Baha'is called Mashriqs, which embody the pure form of worship. As the following citation shows, the Mashriq is intended as a morning institution to supplement and condition our all day long workship, a session of communion with the creative word designed to set us into a new perspective that will make the day that follows a different, far more productive endeavor than workplaces of the past.

"Teach your children that which hath been sent down from the heaven of majesty and power that they may recite the Tablets of the Merciful in the halls of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkars in most melodious tones. Verily, he who hath been drawn by the magnet of the love of My Name, the Merciful, will recite the verses of God in such wise as to enrapture the hearts of those who are fast asleep. Well is it with him who hath quaffed the choice wine of immortal life from the utterances of his Lord, the Lord of Mercy, through the power of this exalted Name whereby every high and lofty mountain hath been reduced to dust." (quoted in Adib Taherzadeh, The Revelation of Baha'u'llah v 3, p. 344)