Two Stories

Two New Stories told by the Master

Review: Stories Told by Abdu’l-Baha, Compiled by Amir Badiei, George Ronald, Oxford, 2007

 

 

Our daily Baha’i class has been enlivened over the past few months by “Stories Told by 'Abdu’l-Baha,” by Amir Badiei. I borrowed this book from the Hamilton Baha’i library in hopes of getting something interesting for the kids, but to my surprise this book contained many stories that I had never heard before. It seems that Badiei has gone over the entire works of the Master and translated many stories for the first time. I’d say that between a third and a half of these stories and anecdotes are making their premier in English.

 

What an unexpected bounty!

 

Some stories are shocking, some puzzling, and one even talks about what Mary Magdalene did after the resurrection was over and the early Christians were being persecuted. This is a story I have never heard anywhere! Other stories, like the following, were clearly taken from the Master’s own direct observations of nature.

 

“One day I was standing by a creek and observed that swarm of small locusts whose wings had not yet developed wanted to go to the other side of the creek to find food. To make this possible for them, some of the adult locusts rushed forward, each one trying to get ahead of the other. They threw themselves into the water to establish a bridge, from one side of the creek to the other. Then the small on crossed the creek by walking on this bridge.  All the locusts that formed this bridge lost their own lives in this process."' (Stories Told by 'Abdu’l-Baha, p. 110)

 

 

To each story, the compiler adds a title, in this case, “Cooperation is Practiced Even among the Insects,” and at the start an apposite short quote from the Writings. I give eleven-year-old Thomas the job of reading this part to us. For this story, it is something the Master said in New Jersey to the congregation of the “Brotherhood Church”:

 

“There is brotherhood natal in mankind because all are elements of one human society subject to the necessity of agreement and cooperation. There is brotherhood intended in humanity because all are waves of one sea, leaves and fruit of one tree. This is physical fellowship which ensures material happiness in the human world. The stronger it becomes, the more will mankind advance and the circle of materiality be enlarged.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Promulgation of Universal Peace, 129)

 

Badiei also offers an explanation at the end of the context in which the story was told, which is very often greatly needed. Here is the background for this story, which is not as helpful as it might have been.

 

“Abdu'l-Baha was talking about the necessity of cooperation among all peoples of the world. He told this story to show that cooperation is practiced, even among the animals.”

 

Here is another new-to-me story based on something that happened to a German inhabitant of Haifa. It is kind of a strange story, as true stories often are. But it proves one thing, our Exemplar was not above repeating juicy stories told to Him by others. So strike that off your definition of gossip! On the other hand, there is the given moral of the story, “This story illustrates that some people who believe the chatter of flatterers eventually come to a sad end.”

 

He Was Inflated with Pride and Got a Broken Leg

 

“As to him who turneth aside, and swelleth with pride, after that the tokens have come unto him, from the Revealer of signs, his work shall God bring to naught.” (ESW 60)

 

In Haifa there was at one time a German Consul who became [my] friend. He used to call on [me] often, and I returned his visits. At one time, he disappeared for a whole month. Suddenly, one day he entered [my] room. He had a stick in his hand and was lame. 'Oh, sir, how is it that you have not inquired about my health during the past month?' `Why, friend, what has happened to thee?' 'Yes,' he pitifully answered,

'I am the victim of "Bravo".

Let me tell you how it happened. The German Colony had prepared a ball, to which I was bidden. The governor, the judges and the officials of Haifa were likewise invited. When the dancing was over, they had a jumping contest. One by one they started to jump, but in a clumsy manner. I saw that none of them had learned the art of jumping a long distance, but I had learned it in boyhood, going to a gymnasium in Germany. When the last one failed to reach the mark, I volunteered as a candidate.

 

 

All eyes were on me now.

 

My first attempt was so successful that it elicited the hearty "Bravo" of the governor. In my heart I was pleased and thought I would try again, and go beyond the first limit. I went back and back, then jumped forward, and when I landed on the other side, a tumultuous applause was raised from the governor and the officials. "Bravo, bravo" rang in my ears. By this time I was puffed up with pride and became blind to my own limitations.

 

"Now I will show them," I said to myself, "what real, jumping is," and with this determination I started the third time. I wanted to go further, much further than the first and second time, and so, when I came down upon the earth with it great crash, I felt a most excruciating pain in my right foot. My leg was broken. I became unconscious, and when I opened my eyes, I found myself in bed. For the last thirty days I have suffered much. Thus you see now, how I became the victim of the "Bravos" of the governor."

 

(Stories Told by 'Abdu’l-Baha, 110-112)

Increase As Meter of Obedience

Increase

On Being Fruitful and Increasing

By John Taylor; 2010 May 13, Jamal 15, 167 BE

My ten-year-old son requested that I read the Book of Genesis as part of our daily study session. I had read the book before of course, silently, but never aloud to an audience unfamiliar with the text. I was quite surprised at their reaction to that obscure passage between Eden and the advent of Noah with that seemingly endless list of prodigiously long-lived and long-named patriarchs, each living for an age and then dropping out with the formula, "...and then he died." My small audience reacted with increasing puzzlement followed by hilarity at the glum quietus each suffered. Humour is not something I expected to find in Genesis; it sounds like material for somebody's Ph.D. thesis. The kids demanded to know what this string of patriarchs was all about but I said to wait until we read the Iqan and Some Answered Questions.

Another surprise on this reading was that the formula, "be fruitful and multiply" is not confined to one passage, it is repeated throughout Genesis. God says it at the first creation, Eden, and at the second creation, after Noah. It goes out at the start of every revelation. It surely led to the principle that Baha'is call "universal education."

Some Biblical translations say, "Be fruitful and increase in number," since the mathematical idea of multiplication is a recent development. But even if it somehow did mean "multiply," God was pointing to nature in general, not to exploding the human population until ecosystems collapse and all die together. That would hardly be increase, would it? Surely what is meant is the reverse of our cancerous increase at all costs. If so, Genesis is talking about what biology now calls "species diversity," as well as what is called "biomass," the total weight of living creatures.

I just listened to a distressing new TED speech about the harm that we are doing to the world's oceans through neglect, overfishing and pollution. The talk took place before the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, so it is worse now. It struck me even harder how unjust it is for some to place the blame for all this frenetic destruction on the divine dictum. God is pointing right at nature, He is telling us to take it upon ourselves to see that nature prospers.

The implication is that the number of plants and animals acts as an indicator of whether we are corrupt or pure in our obedience to God. God ended the first creation with a flood because, God asserts, men had become "corrupt." As this oceanographer points out in his speech, we have dredged the sea bottom to the point where over huge areas the beautiful coral now literally looks brown, like some desolate farmer's plowed field. If the land under the seas were visible as the land is to us, we would be very afraid. We have done all we could to destroy the oceans, in disobedience of divine decree.

High Surface Area Natural Spaces

On the other hand, let us be optimistic. To reverse our disobedience of God's first command would not be too difficult. After we form a world government we could reverse the depredation of the oceans. And I do not mean just by stopping those crazy subsidies that Spain and other small countries give to their fishermen to go about plowing the sea bottom. Corrupt subsidies of several kinds underwrote this disastrous sea floor dredging operation, as well as other maritime disasters, such as dead zones, caused by agricultural runoff. Nor would it just mean stopping offshore drilling for oil that nobody but a few rich people really needs. I am talking about positive measures that we could do to obey God by really increasing biomass and species diversity.

It is well known how to increase species diversity under the sea. Divers have long observed that sunken ships vastly increase the number of plants and fish just by increasing the available surface area. Wrecks and uneven ground provide hiding places for many plants, herbivores and carnivores. As a result, it has been proposed that we make artificial reefs by dumping old ships and just about any other large object into coastal areas. In places where this was tried, both species diversity and the harvest from coastal fisheries increased dramatically. I have been thinking about how to do this on a much larger scale.

One idea is to use sand structures. Researchers recently bred a new kind of bacteria that rapidly change sand into sandstone. Amazingly, a computer with CAD/CAM software can direct these bacteria to build any shape they please. With this, we could sculpt the sea floor in whatever ways scientists deem most beneficial. So, instead of subsidizing fishermen to destroy the oceans, why not hire the same people to drive along every coast in supertankers full of sand, dumping huge artificial sandstone reefs onto the sea floor. After plying the coasts for a few years, who knows how much more biomass the oceans could support?

And why confine ourselves to the seas?

We could enlist these sandstone manufacturing bacteria to create natural places with a maximal surface area. We could turn boring prairies into hilly, sculped land surfaces of whatever form ecologists deem desirable. With research and experience, we could replenish the diversity that existed before humans came along. We could have a maximal amount of biomass.

By supercharging the number and diversity of species of land creatures, our forests would become healthier than ever before, especially if we take into account the recently discovered importance of fungi to forest ecosystems. We could sculpt the forest floor specifically for the support of mushrooms and other fungi. That way we would fulfill the first divine command to the human race, to multiply the fruits of nature. But why restrict ourselves to that? With the parable of the talents, Jesus intensified the first commandment, and shifted it to the human world. The parable states that God is less than pleased when we fail to develop human talent as well as that of nature.

In order to do that, we could mix cities with these supercharged rural and natural areas. Done wisely, this would increase both the fruitfulness of the human and the natural world, both at once. Studies recently found that a five minute walk in a forest path while using one's mind to converse or solve a puzzle has a more powerful effect on our well-being than a full dose of antidepressant. By mixing nature with artificial landscapes we would probably increase human happiness to heights it has never before attained.

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Wireless power

Crashing Signs of God's Dominion

A Prayer for Meltdowns

By John Taylor; 2009 Feb 10, 04 Mulk, 165 BE

"Dominion is God's, the Lord of the seen and the unseen, the Lord of creation," (Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 172)

This is the Prayer of the Signs, a prayer "to be said in times of natural events, like earthquakes, eclipses, and other such phenomena, which may cause fear and are taken to be signs or acts of God." A prayer of the signs is an obligatory prayer for Muslims, but for Baha'is saying it is optional.

Looking at the prayer, I noticed that it starts with that word "dominion." In the Badi' Calendar this month is named Mulk, Dominion. So this is surely an appropriate prayer to say and think about as the fast approaches, the old Badi' year is all but ended, and the creative renewal of spring approaches. Such events, rising and falling, cooling and melting, help us fathom the significance of the divine virtue of dominion.

I felt moved to research the Long Obligatory prayer this morning, and going through the Aqdas I ran across this prayer of the signs. Immediately, I wondered if it might be appropriate to say this prayer for the present financial crash. It is true that a financial meltdown is not as outwardly violent and scary as a volcano, say, but in terms of human misery and loss of employment, it will probably turn out to be far worse than most volcanoes.

When I watch the business news, the excruciatingly slow and ominous approach of the dreaded Second Great Depression reminds me of the early days of our planet, about four billion years ago. No, I was not there, but modern graphics technology, television productions like "The Earth" and "The Universe" give viewers a persuasive look at the defining cataclysmic event in pre-history. A huge meteor smashed into our planet, tearing off a huge chunk, which became the moon, and, among other things, melting the whole sphere so that the heavy iron sunk to the core, thus making it into a giant magnet whose protective field allows for both an atmosphere and life to form.

These films re-enact this defining crisis unforgettably.

It all started with a massive body seemingly hanging there in the sky, dominating it from horizon to horizon. From the standpoint of a doomed creature standing on the surface it would have seemed to just hang there tranquil and quiet, still and static. Although it was millions of miles away and plummeting at unimaginable speed, it just sits there, until, that is, everything around you starts to melt. A good time to say,

"Dominion is God's, the Lord of the seen and the unseen, the Lord of creation."

And now that we are entering into a money meltdown, a meltdown that will almost certainly soon be followed upon by an even worse climate meltdown, it is good to remember this prayer of the signs, to recall that if it were not for that moon-creating crash so long ago we would not have air to breathe, much less a life to live. Surely, out of these crashes will come creative benefits both "seen and unseen."

The artist has a right, when necessary, to wipe the slate clean and start again. It is part of the creative purpose.

Golden Age, anyone?

--
John Taylor

email: badijet@gmail.com
blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

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Animal odd couple

the seasons of reform

"When, through the Divine bestowals, three things appear on earth, this world of dust will come alive, and stand forth wondrously adorned and full of grace. These are first, the fruitful winds of spring; second, the welling plenty of spring clouds; and third, the heat of the bright sun. When, out of the endless bounty of God, these three have been vouchsafed, then slowly, by His leave, dry trees and branches turn fresh and green again, and array themselves with many kinds of blossoms and fruits. It is the same when the pure intentions and the justice of the ruler, the wisdom and consummate skill and statecraft of the governing authorities, and the determination and unstinted efforts of the people, are all combined; then day by day the effects of the advancement, of the far-reaching reforms, of the pride and prosperity of government and people alike, will become clearly manifest." (Abdu'l-Baha, The Secret of Divine Civilization, p. 107)

p16 Nature, gods and men

Men Like Gods, or God-like Men?

By John Taylor; 2008 Aug 18, 18 Kamal, 165 BE



I am almost finished H.G. Wells' utopian novel, "Men Like Gods," but I cannot resist commenting on it again. The story is set in 1921, the year the Master ascended, and is about an ordinary guy, a frustrated magazine editor, an optimist whose boss forces him to write dreary, pessimistic material. He comes down with "neurasthenia," the current rubric for exhaustion, and decides to take a driving holiday. Going nowhere in particular he passes through what we now would call an inter-dimensional wormhole. He meets a far more advanced civilization where women and men are like, well, gods. he calls them Utopians. For them, war is a thing of the past, as are diseases and even vermin and noxious insects. I like Wells' summary of the mental illnesses that had been prevalent in their ancient, primitive history,


"In the past of Utopia, in the Age of Confusion ... everyone had grown up with a crippled or a thwarted will, hampered by vain restrictions or misled by plausible delusions. Utopia still bore it in mind that human nature was fundamentally animal and savage and had to be adapted to social needs, but Utopia had learnt the better methods of adaptation -- after endless failures of compulsion, cruelty and deception.

"On earth we tame our animals with hot irons and our fellow men by violence and fraud," said Mr. Barnstaple, and described the schools and books, newspapers and public discussions of the early twentieth century to his incredulous companion. "You cannot imagine how beaten and fearful even decent people are upon earth. You learn of the Age of Confusion in your histories but you do not know what the realities of a bad mental atmosphere, an atmosphere of feeble laws, hates and superstitions, are. As night goes round the earth always there are hundreds of thousands of people who should be sleeping, lying awake, fearing a bully, fearing a cruel competition, dreading lest they cannot make good, ill of some illness they cannot comprehend, distressed by some irrational quarrel, maddened by some thwarted instinct or some suppressed and perverted desire."... (H.G. Wells, Men Like Gods (1923) http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200221.txt)


This is a parlous time, truly an age of confusion. Secret, inner fear, real and imagined, predominates while at the same time in external relationships, violence and abuse justifies the prophesy of fear. It is almost a century since Wells wrote this novel and we are no better off now, no closer to Utopia than then. The invention of computers and the internet has only drawn us further apart, given us as it were more mental space in which to roam. When we do come together, when it comes to making hard decisions or distributing wealth equitably, we are every bit as primitive, greedy and aggressive as the earth characters in Men Like Gods.


While it is clear that Wells was heavily influenced by Comenius -- for example he clearly agrees with Comenius that education has to be the predominating preoccupation of any future utopia -- Wells lacks the faith in God that has to be the basis of even worldly progress, much less eternal advancement through all the worlds of God. H.G. Wells' vision of our future is wholly secular, like the more recent world of Star Trek or Lennon's song "Imagine," where he asks us to imagine the people living as one and "there is no religion too (sic)." This is an insidious, ubiquitous presupposition of our age that once we progress beyond a certain point we will reach an upland where there will no longer be any need of faith and piety. We will outgrow such childishness of our youth and will simply not need to know and worship the Almighty. Nor will we need to treat sex and marriage as anything more than what our bodies are, a temporary union doomed sooner or later to disintegrate...


"Much of the every-day misery of earth was now inconceivable. Very slowly Utopia had evolved its present harmony of law and custom and education. Man was no longer crippled and compelled; it was recognized that he was fundamentally an animal and that his daily life must follow the round of appetites satisfied and instincts released. The daily texture of Utopian life was woven of various and interesting foods and drinks, of free and entertaining exercise and work, of sweet sleep and of the interest and happiness of fearless and spiteless love-making. Inhibition was at a minimum. But where the power of Utopian education began was after the animal had been satisfied and disposed of. The jewel on the reptile's head that had brought Utopia out of the confusions of human life, was curiosity, the play impulse, prolonged and expanded in adult life into an insatiable appetite for knowledge and an habitual creative urgency. All Utopians had become as little children, learners and makers.”


Here is why I find Comenius such a breath of fresh air. He refuses to believe that the sailboat of human progress will get anywhere without the wind of divine confirmation. And what a contrast Wells' future is with Abdu'l-Baha's teaching! He held that we progress only through the teachings of God and His holy Manifestations. We could no more thrive without God than the earth would if the sun were somehow switched off. Without a sun there would not only be no utopia, there would be no life at all.


The proposal that humans depend on God in the same way that the earth depends on the sun grates against one of our most basic instincts. I have been noticing this even in our children's class. This summer, in preparation for the upcoming commemorations of His Canadian visit in early September, we have been slowly going through the Master's talks given in Montreal. How strongly the kids resist this fundamental presupposition of the Master! They consider it an insult to their beloved animals to say that they are incomplete, imperfect, or lacking in anything. Anything we can do, they can do too. So, when I read the opening sentences of the Master's third recorded talk at the Maxwell residence, I got an instant and violent reaction.


"Nature is the material world. When we look upon it, we see that it is dark and imperfect. For instance, if we allow a piece of land to remain in its natural condition, we will find it covered with thorns and thistles; useless weeds and wild vegetation will flourish upon it, and it will become like a jungle. The trees will be fruitless, lacking beauty and symmetry; wild animals, noxious insects and reptiles will abound in its dark recesses. This is the incompleteness and imperfection of the world of nature. To change these conditions, we must clear the ground and cultivate it so that flowers may grow instead of thorns and weeds -- that is to say, we must illumine the dark world of nature. In their primal natural state, the forests are dim, gloomy, and impenetrable. Man opens them to the light, clears away the tangled underbrush and plants fruitful trees. Soon the wild woodlands and jungle are changed into productive orchards and beautiful gardens; order has replaced chaos; the dark realm of nature has become illumined and brightened by cultivation."


It does not matter that with the strongest admonitions and threats fail to persuade Silvie to stick her nose outside the house for fear of stinging bees and biting mosquitoes, nature is perfect and humankind is the bad guy. Now that I think of it, this is the overwhelming message of environmentalism. It will take a better teacher than me to persuade them of this point. I can only keep ploughing through the book and hope that the words of the Master will do what I failed at. Maybe my readers can suggest a better approach.