Lost Talk Found

Thorn and the Fourteenth Printalk

By John Taylor; 2007 May 05

Thorn
New Talk By the Master

Thorn

I have felt driven over the past few months to study to become a public speaker, but in a small town like this there is not a lot of opportunity. Since Silvie is fascinated with the stage, I figured, why not try out for our local little theater? Acting is talking in front of an audience, and Silvie could get involved too, perhaps as an extra. She would be thrilled. The location could not be more convenient, performances all seem to take place at the Optimist Hall just around the corner from our home.

Not that I have any ambitions to be an actor. I played the role of Marley in our Middle School production of A Christmas Carol, and though I did not do badly, I found the experience highly unpleasant. Now I know that the problem was a nervous spiral caused by stress and weather-induced migraine attacks, which now after so many decades I seem to have under control. Whether I can master my nerves without that on my back is another question. According to the handout distributed at their last performance, the next play to be put on by Dunnville Community Theater will be in November, "Thorn," a drama by Kent Mick, directed by Mike Maloney. I checked the play out on the Net and sure enough, the entire script is available at:

<http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/FullLengthPlays/Thorn.htm>

I read it over last night and gave it an "A" for topicality, since it is about the current conflict in Iraq. The playwright is no Shakespeare, however; he did not even bother to run the text through a spell checker. As for theatricality, I cannot judge. I have never tried to imagine what a script would look like on stage based just on reading it. In any case, the play is strangely coincident with a current of my thinking lately; it even mentions my hero and bugbear, Noam Chomsky, plus a historian by the name of Zinn, author of "A People's History of the United States." I had just ordered two of his books, this one and a sequel, from the Hamilton Library; they are currently waiting to be picked up. You will probably be hearing much more about Zinn in coming essays.

In sum, Thorn is an anti-war play. It is about a high school teacher who bounces from a pro-war position to its knee-jerk opposite, a resistor's stance. I was disappointed that we are putting this play on here in Canada, because though an indoctrinated American audience may find its contents shocking, I am sure that a Canadian one would give a resounding, "Duh! Of course!"

I remember when I was a teen in the early Seventies going to an anti-war protest rally at McMaster University. The hippies were all sitting around with their long hair, smoking pot and seething in anger at the Vietnam War, and my response was anger at them. Anger at their pretensions to non-conformism. They believed that breaking a few conventions and laws and spewing anger at the war made them radicals. That is not radical, it is petulant, knee-jerk reaction. Worse, I thought, it is way too easy for us Canadians to protest an American injustice. As I found out later, our plutocrats were making money hand-over-fist from that conflict; that is what we as Canadians should have been protesting, if anything. Or rather, we should have been doing something really radical, pushing for a an end to all war by means of a world government.

A truly radical play would be about Socrates. He was the real radical, the original "thorn," about which this play is supposed to be concerned. He was a gadfly bugging the horse, but he did not do it by threatening to burn a flag (the modus operandi of this play) but by destroying something far more fundamental, the flimsy pretensions and presuppositions of all of us, yes, even democrats, who think we know when we most definitely do not.

New Talk By the Master

My younger readers will recall being thrilled by Pirate Pete's frenzied search for Spongebob Squarepant's lost episode. You will understand my own anxiety and frantic seeking when I realized that a talk of the Master was missing, the one given at the Lake Mohonk Peace Conference in New York. Last year I sent out an appeal on the Badi' List for help with this quest and unbeknownst to me, somebody answered. Here is what Christine and Brian wrote:

"There is more information on Abdu'l-Baha's visit to Lake Mohonk in Mahmud's Diary. Also, this web page has one of the two talks given by Abdu'l-Baha at the Peace and Arbitration Conference in 1912:

It appears the text of the 2nd talk is still unaccounted for.

<http://www.nybahai.org/newpaltz/history.html>

I had seen this website before but when I looked at the talk I was confused. The first phrase of the first sentence were the same, word for word, of a talk the Master gave a few days before in NY City. I assumed that they had just copied that talk. But thanks to these alert readers I saw that they were perfectly correct, this is a new, unpublished, unknown talk of the Master. Better still, this is what I call a "printalk," a talk that runs through the Baha'i principles in short summary form. There are only thirteen others in Promulgation. What a find! I will reproduce it all here, since this website has an annoying background color that makes it hard to read.

From the New Paltz Website

Many people are surprised to learn that New Paltz figures very prominently in the history of the Baha'i faith and the connection between them is over 80 years old!

Before Baha'u'llah (the founder of the Baha'i Faith) passed away in 1892, he appointed his son 'Abdu'l-Baha (whose name means "Servant of Baha") as his successor and the interpreter of his teachings. This appointment is significant in religious history for it marks the first time that the founder of a major religion has appointed a successor in his own lifetime. This act has protected the Baha'i faith from splintering into dozens of sects as has occurred to every other religion.

'Abdu'l-Baha had been imprisoned by the Ottoman Empire for his adherence to the liberal teachings of Baha'u'llah. In 1908, the Young Turk revolution released 'Abdu'l-Baha who had spent over 50 years of his life imprisoned and exiled.

Back in New Paltz, Albert Smiley, the owner of Mohonk Mountain House, had been holding a series of Conferences at the Mountain House in New Paltz on International Peace and Arbitration since the late 1890's. Mr. Smiley heard of the teachings of Baha'u'llah and their great stress on world peace and invited 'Abdu'l-Baha to attend the conference in 1912. 'Abdu'l-Baha agreed and in order to attend the conference he traveled from Haifa, Israel (which was then Palestine) to New Paltz in the Spring of 1912.

Abdu'l-Baha arrived at the New Paltz train station (across from the Water Street Market) and spent the next three days as a guest at the Mountain House. While there he gave two talks at the International Peace and Arbitration Conference.

Before leaving the conference, 'Abdu'l-Baha presented to Albert Smiley a Persian rug as a gift for his efforts to bring about world peace. 'Abdu'l-Baha also remarked that the contributions which Albert Smiley made to peace would be remembered throughout history. The rug is displayed at the Mountain House as is a photograph of 'Abdu'l-Baha.

Here is the text of one of the talks which 'Abdu'l-Baha gave at Mohonk Mountain House in 1912:

The Oneness of the Reality of Humankind (or, The Lost Printalk)

Wednesday Evening, May 15, 1912

When we consider history, we find that civilization is progressing, but in this century its progress cannot be compared with that of past centuries. This is the century of light and of bounty. In the past, the unity of patriotism, the unity of nations and religions was established; hence this century is greater than the past.

Sixty years ago, Asia was in great turmoil of wars; England, Russia, Turkey and France went to war. There were wars in Persia, wars among the religions and wars between nations especially in Persia on account of the existence of the different nationalities, such as Turks, Persians, Arabs and Kurds, and the various religions, namely Mohammedan, Jewish, Christian and Zoroastrian. Among these different religions the greatest enmity and rancor were extant.

At such a time as this, His Holiness, Baha'u'llah appeared. He proclaimed the oneness of the world of humanity and the greatest peace (Most Great Peace). He wrote to all the kings and addressed epistles to all the religionists of Persia, and all the souls who accepted His platform and emulated and followed His teachings--whether Christians, Mohammedans, Jews or Zoroastrians--were united and attained the greatest amity and unity. Through those teachings, the Kurd, the Arab, the Persian and Turk freed themselves from the prejudice of race and were people agreed to an extent which is indescribable, indeed, in such a manner, that were you to enter their meeting you could not distinguish between the Persian, the Christian, the Arab or the Turk, and you would not observe any differences of religious opinion. Among those people the utmost of love and oneness of peace now obtain, for the great teachings of Baha'u'llah make for the oneness of the world and for humanity, universal peace and arbitration. The following are a few of the principles of Baha'u'llah.

First, that all must investigate reality. It is incumbent on all nations to investigate the truth. For Baha'u'llah declares that the foundations of the divine religions are one and that one is reality and reality is not multiple but indivisible. But the imitations which have come in, being different in character, have caused divisions and separations. If we forsake the imitations and revert to the original foundations of the divine religion, we shall find that the foundations are that reality which is one and not multiple.

The second principle of Baha'u'llah is the oneness of humankind. All humanity belongs to one family, inhabiting the same globe; all are beneath the providence of God; God has created all and has nurtured all and provideth for all and preserveth all. This is the policy of God. God is kind to all and why should we be unkind? Is there any policy wiser and better than God's policy? No matter how keen the human mind may be, it cannot surpass the policy of God. The policy of God is perfect and we must follow it and not our own self-interest.

The third teaching of Baha'u'llah is that religion and science are twins. If a religious question be not in accordance with science, it is imagination. All religious matter must correspond with science, every question which meets the criterion of science shall be acceptable, and those questions which do not come to the standard of science are not to be given credence.

The fourth teaching of Baha'u'llah is that religion should be the one bond which shall unite society, which shall cement together the various peoples, which shall cause a unity among all the creeds. If religion should be productive of strife and division, if it should cause bloodshed and war and rapine, irreligion is preferable to religion. Religion was meant to be a bond of love among mankind.

The fifth principle is that racial bias, religious prejudice, patriotic prejudice, political prejudice, are the destroyers of the very foundations of the body politic. All humanity is one in kind, the surface of the earth one home, and the foundations of the divine religions one. All the wars which have taken place since the inception of human history have emanated either from religious prejudice, racial prejudice, patriotic bias or political greed and interest. As long as these prejudices last, so long will the foundations of humanity tremble. When such prejudices pass away the world will at last find peace.

The sixth principle of Baha'u'llah is equality between mankind and womankind. Woman and man are both human and both the manifestations of God's grace. God has created man and has endowed him with knowledge and intelligence. The difference which now exists between man and woman is only a difference of education, and when woman shall receive the same education no doubt her equality with man shall become a reality. The world of humanity is composed of two organizations--the male and the female. If one organ be defective, that defect will affect the other. Until perfect strength shall obtain in both, and woman shall attain equality with man, the happiness of humanity will not be insured.

The seventh principle concerns the readjustment of the economic questions in the social body. The rich now enjoy the greatest luxury, whereas the poor are in abject misery. Certain laws must be made whereby the rich cannot become over-rich and the poor shall not starve, both rich and poor enjoying the comforts according to their respective deserts.

The eighth principle of Baha'u'llah is that philosophy sufficeth not and is not conducive to the absolute happiness of mankind. Great philosophers have been capable of educating themselves, or a few who followed them, but generally education, ethical education, they could not endow. Therefore, the world of humanity is evermore in need of the breath of the Holy Spirit. The greatest peace (Most Great Peace) will not be realized without the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit of God which insures the safety of humanity, for human thoughts differ, human susceptibilities differ. You cannot make the susceptibilities of all humanity one except through the common channel of the Holy Spirit.