The Oneness of Humanity as a Baha'i Principle, Part I
By John Taylor; 2009 May 06, Jamal 09, 166 BE
It is not every day that I start off talking about a principle with a product placement, but today I must.
Last year I stumbled upon a Tinkertoy construction set in our local St. Vincent de Paul and picked it up for three dollars. Thomas had boxes and boxes full of similar toys and construction sets, all far newer and more expensive. I mostly bought it out of nostalgia for a toy that I remember playing in my youth. It is little more than sticks and joints that joint and come apart easily. But this Tinkertoy set had a huge effect. It has displaced all the others, even, most of the time, his Lego -- which has the advantage of a "free" monthly magazine that persuades him periodically to spend all his money on expensive Star Wars Lego sets. But mostly screens, computer and video games, take up his leisure hours. In my youth it was an affliction to have to stay inside, now I have to fight to get them to put their nose outside. The screen has this entire generation mesmerized -- a recent study found that a large majority of children are gamers displaying all the classic symptoms of addiction.
In view of all that, his Tinkertoy tube full of wooden pieces and bits of string has become his activity of choice during our daily children's class. The motto on the box says, "Build big fast!" and that about sums it up. Sometimes he will concentrate upon a single grand project during the class, which usually lasts about an hour just before bedtime. Other days he will build and dismantle his spaceship or whatever it is as many as three times. I am sure when he is big and he hears something from the Baha'i Writings, the Bible or some eastern religion, he will surely be reminded of Tinkertoys and whatever phantasmagorical machine it was he built while listening to me read that passage.
Last night was unusual in that we forbade screen media until they did their homework. So Thomas had already played the whole evening with his Tinkertoy set while he hurried up putting off solving his two pages of math exercises. So, as I read another chapter from God Loves Laughter aloud, he went back to the old activity of drawing. At the end of the class he proudly displayed a pencil drawing of an array of giant force field generators protecting some unknown planet.
I have been going over my writings and research on the oneness of humanity, a tangled mess that somehow got into a state of semi-chaos far worse than any other project I am working on. Is it me or the subject? This principle sometimes seems like the easiest and sometimes the hardest of all the principles of peace.
After banging my head against this brick wall for the longest time finally I became discouraged and looked down at the ground. There lay Thomas's Tinkertoy pieces spread all around, some still connected. I noticed that there are only two basic types of Tinkertoy pieces; they are either cylindrical sticks or disks with holes in them. Some female disks are long or flat, but all serve as connectors or joints. The male sticks come in several basic lengths and colors, but all serve as arms or rods.
I suddenly thought how similar this system is to the two basic Baha'i principles, search and oneness.
Like Tinkertoys, with the two "pivotal" Baha'i principles you can build big fast; all you add is imagination and a story of your own and there is no limit to what comes out. As long as you hold to the spirit of truth and oneness those two simple pieces fit coherently and constantly. Individuals seek truth and groups respond to human oneness, and the result has to be a principle or pillar of peace. One principle cannot contradict another, so there is never conflict or competition with other fields of human endeavour.
In Abdu'l-Baha's public talks we witness the principle construction process in action. Like Thomas, sometimes the Master would construct and dismantle several principle projects one after the other. These I call "printalks," talks about how several principles work together to solve a problem. At other times He would devote his entire disquisition to building one elaborate principle.
A good example of an occasion when Abdu'l-Baha presented a detailed picture of the oneness of mankind was when He visited Green Acre on the 16th of August, 1912. This was a new institution inspired by a popular proponent of Hinduism who had presented at the "parliament of religions" in Chicago. The received idea of oneness at this school was a tolerant but muddled syncretism. Most speakers were devotees of new thought, what is now known as "New Age." Although many were prominent leaders of thought, the place was riddled by the sort of cranks and mountebanks that Stephen Leacock satirized in his famous short story written that very year.
Abdu'l-Baha presented a concept of oneness that contrasted starkly with this.
He opened by saying that He hoped that Green Acre would stand for a oneness of mankind that would bind East and West together.
"This is one of the important subjects of the present period. If the oneness of the human world were established, all the differences which separate mankind would be eradicated. Strife and warfare would cease, and the world of humanity would find repose. Universal peace would be promoted... Native lands would become one; races and religions would be unified. The people of the world would live together in harmony, and their well-being would be assured."
Having established this practical but hugely ambitious goal, Abdu'l-Baha then contrasted it with the practice of the past, where religion was used as a tool for separation. The,
"various religions of the world have anathematized and accused each other of falsity. Each religion has considered the others bereft of the face of God, deprived of His mercy and in the direct line of divine wrath. Therefore, they have shunned each other most rigidly, exercising mutual animosity and rancor."
Religion was the motivator for many wars, the Master points out, and He goes into detail about the Crusades and the Reformation, both of which brought Europe to its knees in the Middle Ages. He notes that "most wars" have been caused by "religious prejudice, fanaticism and sectarian hatred." He mentions in particular the hatred that Muslims and Christians fomented against the Jews, a dislike that was mutual, "even to this day."
The cause of this aversion is the teaching that humankind was understood as being of two "trees" of us and them; there was a "merciful" tree of true believers and a satanic tree beyond the pale. It was good to love one tree and heap abuse upon all the others. This heinous situation was ended by the coming of Baha'u'llah.
"When the light of Baha'u'llah dawned from the East, He proclaimed the promise of the oneness of humanity. He addressed all mankind, saying, `Ye are all the fruits of one tree. There are not two trees: one a tree of divine mercy, the other the tree of Satan.' Again He said, `Ye are all the fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch.' This was His announcement; this was His promise of the oneness of the world of humanity. Anathema and execration were utterly abrogated."
Even swearing and cursing are forbidden under the Law of Baha'u'llah. All are God's servants and it does not serve God to put any servants down.
Religion before had held up love as an ideal and a value, but in practice its leaders felt threatened and repelled outsiders as dangerous competitors. Baha'u'llah made Oneness into an all-embracing Law. Bringing it back to today's Tinkertoy analogy, religious teaching had many connectors but no "rod of Jesse." Once there is a single imperative upholding the oneness of mankind, principle can be applied by all to build anything humanity needs for its betterment.
Abdu'l-Baha then introduces several of the most salient elements that make up the principle of the oneness of mankind. Next time let us look at how he connected them together.
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John Taylor
email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
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