Gathering Loose Ends
It would be remiss to let the news of the BIC's poverty statement go without mention on this blog. It is called "Eradicating Poverty: Moving Forward as One," and can be read in its entirety at:
<http://bic.org/statements-and-reports/bic-statements/08-0214.htm>
In researching this paper the UN Baha'i body consulted with Baha'i communities in several countries, taking advantage of the widespread nature of the Faith. I think this is the first time they have done that, and it is a good idea. As a result, they came up with an interesting definition of poverty.
"Poverty can be described as the absence of those ethical, social and material resources needed to develop the moral, intellectual and social capacities of individuals, communities and institutions. Moral reasoning, group decision-making and freedom from racism, for example, are all essential tools for poverty alleviation. Such capacities must shape individual thinking as well as institutional arrangements and policy-making. To be clear, the goal at hand is not only to remove the ills of poverty but to engage the masses of humanity in the construction of a just global order."
`Abdu'l-Baha might have added to this the need for an impulse from soul, a will, a plan, a habit of charity, and what He called the Power of the Holy Spirit, all of which are necessary to eradicate the extremes of poverty. The BIC adds that we need a spiritual turnaround,
"It is now increasingly acknowledged that such conditions as the marginalization of girls and women, poor governance, ethnic and religious antipathy, environmental degradation and unemployment constitute formidable obstacles to the progress and development of communities. These evidence a deeper crisis -- one rooted in the values and attitudes that shape relationships at all levels of society."
They say we have reason for hope for success when they write in the introduction that "a palpable optimism emerges from the attention and momentum generated by the search for solutions to this worldwide challenge." I plan to write more about this in due course.
It is difficult to grasp the deeply revolutionary nature of this Revelation. This will remain so for centuries to come. According to notes by one Bob Sylvester, Doug Martin stated in a talk that,
"the Bab was the only revolutionary in the last 100 years. Other so-called revolutionaries were only interested in their own particular part of the world. The Bab's vision was both revolutionary and universal. His Revolution focused on altering the consciousness of mankind. The Bab was the Receptacle of an entirely new Order. He broke Words open. He needed to use vocabulary in a way that expressed conceptions that were beyond the capacity of the "educated" of the time."
For example, as we saw here not too long ago, we owe the concept of "Manifestation," as opposed to "prophet," to the Bab. This is important to bear in mind now that a new book by Nader Saiedi on the Writings of the Bab is being put out by the ABS next month. It is called "Gate of the Heart: Understanding the Writings of the Bab," and can be found at:
http://www.bahai-studies.ca/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=A&Category_Code=LIT
The Bab was the main influence on Abdu'l-Baha in his formative years; in childhood, He was a Babi not a Baha'i, and memorized the Bab's Tablets, not those of Baha'u'llah, most of which were yet to be revealed. So when you feel the genius of the Master, the language He uses in formulating the Baha'i principles was born in the Bab's use of language. So, not to be wordy about this, I am looking forward with great anticipation to getting my hot little hands on Saidi's analysis, which I just ordered in advance.
For some years the Universal House of Justice has been encouraging Baha'is to make use of blogging in their teaching efforts. The original idea of a blog was a place where you share your links; posts are brief and to the point, and restrict themselves to URL's where the reader can follow your footsteps throught the tangled Web that the Internet is weaving. However, for an essayist like myself, blogging is the exclusive forum for all work and opinions. Either way, Writer's Magazine, always willing to hand out advice, offers the following "20 Tips for Good Blogging," at:
http://www.writersdigest.com/writersperspective/20+Tips+For+Good+Blogging.aspx
My wife Marie has become a blogger too, mostly in
<http://mariebernadetta.blogspot.com/>
Our two kids are both either planning or actively working on blogs of their own, and I will announce their URL's in due time. From my point of view, all this blogging in one house puts tremendous competitive strain on our computers. True, we have three computers available, plus one in parts in the garage, but still I find that whenever I get up for a snack or a drink of water I return to find my seat has been taken by one of our three other, rival writers. Whatever happened to diversity in hobbies? Why can't somebody take up needlecraft, or skydiving, or something?
Reader Lynnea writes: "I have been wondering if you have heard of, or are involved with FreeCycle (which in many places in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freecycledunnville/
For some years I have been an inactive member of the above freecycle group. Our junk is piling up, so I guess I had better become less active. I admire Lynnea's impressive efforts at recycling goods en masse, which dwarfs anything I have heard of around here. I have always thought that the products sold in used good stores, such as Goodwill, Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul, should be housed in large packing containers and trucked from town to town on a regular basis. By increasing exposure, their products would be more likely to be sold to a good owner.
Looking for something else, I stumbled across the following cautionary note from the secretariat of the UHJ, called "Taking Positions on Political Decisions of Governments." It is not clear to me if this is coming straight from the infallible institution or just its minions, but it is worth considering in either case:
"One of the greatest obstacles to progress is the tendency of Baha'is to be drawn into the general attitudes and disputes that surround them. The central importance of the principle of avoidance of politics and controversial matters is that Baha'is should not allow themselves to be involved in the disputes of the many conflicting elements of the society around them. The aim of the Baha'is is to reconcile viewpoints, to heal divisions, and to bring about tolerance and mutual respect among men, and this aim is undermined if we allow ourselves to be swept along by the ephemeral passions of others." (2003 Jan 12, Taking Positions on Political Decisions of Governments)
It seems to me that there is a fine line we have to tread here. On the one hand, it is unlikely anybody is ever going to pay us much mind if we restrict ourselves only to insipid, non-controversial issues. At some point, the principle of consultation kicks in. We only consult about what matters to us, what is of concern, and what will make a difference to our lives at the time that we consult. Nobody bothers to deliberate about matters passed in the past.
On the other hand, attitudes are such that if you respond to a controversial issue, you are playing right into the hands of rabble rousers who have defined the question in their own terms. Their goal is to divide and conquer, and usually if you say boo one way or the other, you only contribute to polarization that invisible puppet masters have set going. It is impossible to come away clean and pure from a mud wrestling match.
John Grayzel made an interesting comment in an interview in the latest World Order Magazine about this question. I had heard of "deep ecology," which takes environmentalism to a rather silly extreme, but I had never heard of "deep consultation." Deep consultation, done in a Baha'i way, seems to make a lot more sense than deep ecology.
"Another contribution to development of the Chair will be the concept of approaching problems through consultation. Even at the University of Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management, where people are dealing with conflict management, the reigning paradigm is negotiation, or perhaps sometimes arbitration, or maybe, occasionally, remediation.2 But all of these are binary models. It is always about somebody versus somebody else, and the object is to balance out interests so each party can walk away without beating the other up."
World Order Interviewer: "Or compromise?"
Grayzel: "That is right. The idea the Baha'i Chair would like to explore is this: `How do we all come out better by working together, perhaps through something that neither of us even imagined when we starred?' The nearest we get to this involves techniques called principle-based negotiation. But even when you analyze such techniques, you find that they are based on the presumption that people are fundamentally motivated only by their own interests. Rarely do they accept the idea that people can truly rise above their own interests and find a common, higher purpose.
"Deep consultation is another area that I hope the Chair will explore. Consultation is something that can be used in conflict resolution. It can also be useful in other arenas. For example, how can business work with civil society so that common goals, not differences, are stressed? It is not helpful to say: `Business is there to make a profit, and government is there to control it.' Why isn't there a way in which we can look at our common purposes and find common solutions? Hence the idea of using consultation as the basic approach to problem solving is another area on which the Chair will focus.
It seems to me that "deep consultation" is all about going beyond negative freedom (as described in yesterday's Badi' Blog essay) and looking at positive freedom, which is invisible but far more important. The Columbia Encyclopedia uses an excellent example explaining this distinction: a smoker takes several turns on the way to pick up a pack of fags. Outwardly he is free to turn wherever he wishes, but invisible enslavement of body and mind force him to go where he does. He has negative freedom but is heteronymous, he has no positive liberty, or autonomy, of his own.
As Jesus said, the truth shall set you free.
That is, truth has a force of its own to liberate us from the thin, diaphanous, insidious "veils" of slavery to our desires. As He said to Pilate, I do what I do that the truth may be perfected. That is what we all should be doing, perfecting the truth, no matter what our outer motions. The only truly, perfectly ordained motions that I know of are the genuflections of the Oblig.
I think of this as I go through these motions during my every other day saying of the Long Oblig.
I think then of my positive freedom, for only now are my bodily motions totally under divine command. These movements seem designed by God to collect together all those thin veils of superstition and negative freedom -- when I kneel with face to ground they settle around my sides, then I suddenly leap to the air, my hands spread out in the air, and that tears, rips them to shreds. Doing that leaves the solar panels of my soul with a direct interface to truth, and I have a little higher energy level for the next twenty-four or (in my case) 48 hour period without bodily expressed prayer. Only after such prayer-in-motion is one detached enough to indulge in what Grayzel calls "deep consultation." I think that this is what Baha'u'llah was talking about when he expressed the following value judgment about the Baha'is He met with personally,
"'The Blessed Beauty often remarked; "There are four qualities which I love to see manifested in people: first, enthusiasm and courage; second, a face wreathed in smiles and a radiant countenance; third, that they see all things with their own eyes and not through the eyes of others; fourth, the ability to carry a task once begun through to its end.'" (Stories of Baha'u'llah, Compiled by 'Ali-'Akbar Furutan, 51)
Baha'u'llah, I think, was looking for outer manifestations of positive liberty. It was clear whether we were doing our prayers, it was written on our faces. If the solar panels are free of veils, your batteries are fully energetic, your moral courage is strong, you smile, the soul is radiant, you look for yourself at the truth that you are perfecting, you focus, you carry things through to the proper end. And when you talk, your consultation skills are deep, and positive rather than negative in both truth and freedom.
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