Justice the Line

Our Haldimand Baha’i community mourns the passing yesterday of its Oldest Member, Barbara Phillips. The funeral will be Saturday, the funeral home thing Friday night. In 1911 the Master started off a letter to the organizer of the Mohonk Arbitration Conferences (which He later was to attend personally) – who also was named Phillips -- in these words: “He is God! O Thou Perfect Man!” To my mind, the reason the Master called this peace worker Phillips perfect was not that he had a shiny personality or any of the other things we mark as signs of perfection, it was because he devoted all of his efforts every day over many decades to the single minded goal of establishing peace and justice in the world. Now we have a world criminal court to show for it, one denied and opposed, traitorously, by the very nation that bred that perfect man. To my mind the Phillips I knew, Barbara Phillips, was perfect too. Her hands were not pretty, not what we would call perfect, but they were living signs of the perfection only utter dedication can attain. Wracked and twisted with arthritis caused by decades of meticulous work framing the photos and pictures at the World Centre, she showed those hands to all, like a general would a chest full of medals, proudly. And well she might; now generations of pilgrims visiting those spots will see only beauty in those framed images, not the blood and pain that made them possible. I am proud to say that I knew one of the perfect beings adorned with the medals of perfection, whom God raised up and who suffered to make the holiest place on earth as beautiful as possible.

 

I Will Make Justice the Line

By John Taylor; 2006 November 15

Yesterday we looked over Baha'u'llah's brief discussion of justice in Tabernacle, a justice which centers in and arises from unity. Justice is not a theory but rather the most concrete reality possible, an individual who arises on behalf of God, works only for Him, whose integrity remains there to the end. The forces of injustice seek to atomize this resolution. They exert external power by denying that rising above selfish, base ends is possible. Their goal is denial of God. Our passage culminates in a beatitude portraying the highest reward of justice, the good pleasure of God:

"Blessed are they that have arisen to serve God, who speak forth wholly for His sake, and who return unto Him." (Tabernacle 2.37)

A just person talks and consults for the sake of God, for no lesser purpose. Justice, then, is not only action and service, it is also verbal expression. Those "who speak forth wholly for His sake" are blessed because the object is not just self-expression, nor is it knee-jerk support of a group. The speech of the just mirrors the divine, the Unity above all unities that loves justice best, that in a deep sense *is* justice, "Yahweh, our justice." (Jer 23:6) So here we view a God of consultation bent upon doing right to every soul. A just person sets up the ways and means by which this can be accomplished, as Baha'u'llah states at the beginning of our passage:

"Justice, which consisteth in rendering each his due, dependeth upon and is conditioned by two words: reward and punishment. From the standpoint of justice, every soul should receive the reward of his actions, inasmuch as the peace and prosperity of the world depend thereon..."

Peace and prosperity do not depend upon blindly worshipping at the alter of the god of greed, as materialists and capitalists would have us believe. Peace and prosperity are the after-effects of justice, of the ever-expanding and improving incentives and sanctions that just people erect. Does that mean a counter-swing to the socialist left, back to more government rules and regulations? Not necessarily. The statist way of imposing justice is purely negative, it forces and imposes punishments. By and large, it ignores and excludes the more pervasive human motivator, the hope of rewards and incentives.

So God seems to be advocating here something wholly new, the application of reward and punishment together, in a single process. This has always been understood to be the ideal. Shakespeare's Portia put it in terms of spices in cooking, "earthly power doth show likest God's when mercy seasons justice." Thus just redistribution must come of the entire body politic, not just legislation. It must be a combination of legal measures establishing structural equity and increased concern and benevolence among many, diverse world citizens. This was understood as long ago as Aristotle, who talked about the strengthening of the social fabric when the rich voluntarily give of their wealth to the poor. Only then do the underprivileged feel gratitude and offer loyalty for the aid. Sharing forced by taxation and regulation is mere entitlement. Only free donation given out of love are worthy of being called a gift.

Let there be no mistake, the hope of reward is potent and easily underestimated. One of the bad things that has come out of the spread of the Internet is a rapidly accelerating spread of gambling among young people. In Canada, when there was a hockey strike a couple of years ago televised poker unexpectedly leaped into the void and now an estimated thirty to forty percent of our young men are avid gamblers. This is a frighteningly high percentage that will probably take at least a generation to recover from. Meanwhile, the intelligent, planned application of rewards in behalf of justice continues to be ignored. The only innovation that comes to mind that positively takes advantage of our love of rewards is the so-called pollution stock market. This is a complex but creative application of incentives where companies can trade restrictions on air pollution as credits among themselves.

Much more than this can and must be done soon if we are to survive, must less live up to the justice that is the "best beloved of all things" in the sight of God. But it was prophesied of old that we would make it, in the time of the end. But we can only do so by renewing our covenant with our Creator.

"Why, hear the word of Yahweh, you scoffers, that rule this people that is in Jerusalem: Because you have said, `We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:' therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, `Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner -[stone] of sure foundation: he who believes shall not be in haste. I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place.'" (Isa 28:14-17, WEB)

Justice to Unity of Man

Doing Justice to the Unity of Man

By John Taylor; 2006 November 14

Last time we looked at the citation that gives the book we are reviewing its name, "The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch." (2.37) Today we are going to look at the paragraph that comes next, which is concerned with justice, especially distributive justice. We noted yesterday that Baha'u'llah leads up to His discussion of justice by establishing three preconditions of justice, free agency, wisdom and vision. All of these spring from the one source, the oneness of humanity, the fact that we are all leaves of one branch. As for oneness, consider the following utterance of the Master, as indirectly reported in a talk by Louis Gregory.

"A distinguished Southern educator who heard the Servant of God, His Holiness 'Abdu'l-Baha, address the Lake Mohonk Peace Conference in 1912, quotes Him as opening His luminous address by saying: "From time immemorial we have been taught the Unity of God, the Unity of God, the Unity of God! But in this day the divine lesson is the unity of man, the unity of man, the unity of man!" (Star of the West, Vol. 20, p. 9)

Close readers of this list will recall my surprising discovery that this talk given by the Master at the Lake Mohonk Peace conference is missing; it is not to be found in any published Baha'i sources, although Shoghi Effendi listed it first among the Master's accomplishments in America. So for the moment, this tantalizing second hand quote is our only known record of a no-doubt great event in the history of peace. And what a comment this is on the principle, Oneness of God, that we studied throughout this year! Truly, you cannot talk about the Oneness of God today without starting at the Oneness of humanity and finishing there. The same is true of justice, it begins and ends in unity, the unity of God, the unity of humanity. Injustice uses some variant of the opposite stratagem, divide and conquer. Once atomized, it is easy for the power monger to mop up.

Here is a recent example of divide and rule strategy, perhaps the most egregious and influential example in recent times. A relatively obscure academic movement in the 1970's called "public choice theorists" upheld a truly diabolical proposition, that all of us are inherently greedy and untrustworthy. Although many teachers and philosophers have recognized that everything we can shake a stick at has a tinge of self interest, teachers as spiritual as Jesus and Bishop Berkley, public choice theorists carried the hypothesis to where it had never been.

"By defining greed as the only natural impulse -- the one that lies at the root of all human behaviour -- they have dismissed everything else as unnatural and artificial, ultimately an illusion or simply wishful thinking. Greed, the public-choice theorists declare, is all there really is." (Linda McQuaig, All You Can Eat, Greed, Lust and the New Capitalism, Penguin, Toronto, 2001, p. 38)

If greed is the blood in our veins, even our highest hopes and ideals must be selfish, mere will to power. Whenever people enter a group they inevitably seek that group's interests over all others. Government officials, no matter how public spirited they think they are, always seek to fatten their own coffers at the expense of every other part of society. Corruption is the norm and we just have to deal with it by making government as tiny and helpless as possible.

Although their writings were dubious and jargon ridden, the ideas were avidly taken up by wealthy elites and their political minions. The UHJ's peace message was written, in part, to refute their insidious take on human nature. They adopted clever, chameleon-like deceptions. In appealing to democracies, the public-choice vision masqueraded as the healthy skepticism that every independent minded citizen has for governments. It is true that leaders often slip into tyranny, but now it was believed that they must do so because that is human nature. They spread total suspicion and even hatred of anything to do with government; thus a clever few bamboozled the best educated, most sophisticated and empowered public in history. A godless, divisive, cynical theory provided intellectual justification for the huge swing to the right that only now is starting to slow. In the late 90's they even figured out how to enlist extreme Christians to their cause. The result has been that what few, inadequate regulations we already had to protect the environment and the general public interest were severely truncated and perhaps fatally compromised. We shall return to public choice theory and its reductionistic insults to human nature presently.

Here is the paragraph that will preoccupy us for this and no doubt many future essays to come. It offers a definition of justice that I do not think I have seen before in one place in the Baha'i Writings. Anyway, without further ado:

"Justice, which consisteth in rendering each his due, dependeth upon and is conditioned by two words: reward and punishment. From the standpoint of justice, every soul should receive the reward of his actions, inasmuch as the peace and prosperity of the world depend thereon, even as He saith, exalted be His glory: The structure of world stability and order hath been reared upon, and will continue to be sustained by, the twin pillars of reward and punishment. In brief, every circumstance requireth a different utterance and every occasion calleth for a different course of action. Blessed are they that have arisen to serve God, who speak forth wholly for His sake, and who return unto Him." (Tabernacle 2.37)

Literally at the center of this citation is a quote from the Great Being statement on justice in the Lawh-i-Maqsud that we examined here recently, "The Great Being saith: The structure of world stability and order hath been reared upon, and will continue to be sustained by, the twin pillars of reward and punishment." (Tablets, 163) Taken in context, both here and in the Maqsud, the Great Being is saying that our world will be inherently unstable, insecure and retarded as long as the poor majority of the human race are excluded. Living in indigence, they have neither hope nor fear, and reward and punishment have nothing to say to them. This is an injustice of monumental proportions. Therefore, anything less than complete resource sharing would insult our humanity and compromise all of our rights.

This is even more explicit when we look at how the Master expounded upon Baha'u'llah's teachings for world stability and order:

"This readjustment of the social economy is of the greatest importance inasmuch as it ensures the stability of the world of humanity; and until it is effected, happiness and prosperity are impossible." (Promulgation, 181-2)

"At that time He wrote Epistles to the kings and rulers of the world, calling upon them to arise and cooperate with Him in spreading these principles, saying that the stability and advancement of humanity could only be realized through the unity of the nations." (Promulgation, 388)

`Abdu'l-Baha's masterpiece on development, The Secret of Divine Civilization, is especially firm on this point. He asserts here that our one an only hope for advancement is that a number of enlightened individuals will arise on behalf of all the highest interests of all humanity. In other words, everything depends not upon a formula or institution, a trick or a technique, but upon right minded, active individuals, moved by faith, who will look at the situation and do the right thing. Once they arise on our behalf, they erect the ways and means by which our interests are assured. They practice justice by using their minds for what they were made, then enlightening the public in what is good for them. That good is constantly changing and only your man on the spot is going to know what to do. This may be why Baha'u'llah follows the Great Being statement on justice in Tabernacle by saying that,

"every circumstance requireth a different utterance and every occasion calleth for a different course of action."

So behind this understanding of justice is a firm conviction that humans are capable of selfless, disinterested investigation, and that the public is capable of understanding and responding to their initiative. I am reminded of an anecdote of when Tommy Douglas, voted our greatest Canadian, came to Hamilton to give an abstruse talk to steel workers about economics and foreign policy. So clear was his exposition of what most people regard as a boring and inaccessible topic that at one point a young girl in the audience stood up and shouted, "I understand! I understand!" That is what justice assumes and demands of both teachers and the taught. Justice is leadership of teachers and doctors who have faith in us, who know in their bones that it is worth the effort to try to change human nature, and that our nature can be changed and made into something new and admirable. Anything less lets viruses and demons into the public sphere, as Linda McQuaig eloquently points out:

"In debates in the social sciences, there is always a tension over the issue of what should be defined as natural and what should be defined as the mere product of human conditioning. If something can be defined as natural or innate, we are less inclined to try to change it or modify it, believing that we are dealing with part of the apparatus of nature. How astonishing, then, to think that the greed impulse in humans -- long the object of constraints in one form or another in the interests of social harmony -- has now been reclassified as natural, indeed as the only natural human impulse! Stretton and Orchard note that the public-choice theorists have attempted "to persuade people that material greed is, and will inescapably remain, the single, natural, dominant motive of their political, economic and social behaviour." Such thinking clearly gives a green light to every greedy impulse that is coursing through our veins." (Id.)

Tomorrow we will continue attempting the impossible, to do justice to justice.

 

Insanity and Justice

Insanity and Justice

By John Taylor; 2006 November 13

In Which I Sink Into Mental Illness

The latest two "Introducing" books in my favorite illustrated non-fiction series published by Icon Books that I got my hands on are "Introducing Psychology," and "Introducing Psychiatry." They got me thinking about things mental. Then I listened to a CBC radio documentary last week that discussed a new trend in treating depressive disorders called "mood hygiene." It seems that investigators traced the long term effectiveness of all of the drugs used in treating mental illnesses. Discouragingly, they found that although medications are effective for a few months or years, the long-term effects are limited and temporary. Most patients are not protected from traumatic episodes down the line. Very few of the drugs so far discovered can be called a cure. As a result, many shrinks are starting to talk about supplementing drug therapy with lifestyle controls. Manics are being advised to avoid stimulating situations, depressives to seek out social activities that will tend to reverse their fall into extreme sadness. The radio program interviewed the members of a Vancouver musical group most of whose members are recovering from depressive mental illness.

The experts interviewed agreed that prevention is the best cure, and that if doctors were able to actively intervene with lifestyle adjustments as well as drugs within six months of the onset of symptoms, the worst mental illnesses might be avoided. They call this "mood hygiene," which is similar to the physical hygiene, cleaning, safely getting rid of sewage and waste, that broke that back of the epidemics that used to rack the population until the 20th Century. The same thing may be done with mental epidemics, and depression easily qualifies as an epidemic. It is now known that if a depression continues past six months the brain's neurons dig out a deep channel that is very easy to fall into and hard to get out of. One psychiatrist compared it to a rut in the road. Any wheel that steers near it is caught up and must follow that path whether it wants to or not. After that all known forms of therapy are expensive, labor intensive, and have limited results.

This made me realize that here too is an argument for the flexible form of modular housing that I am now calling Instauration Architecture. I had thought of IA in terms of curing obesity, but it might work just as well for preventing and curing mental illnesses. As soon as a person felt a twinge of depression their living unit would automatically be moved into a sunnier location, their exercise time would be increased; they would be warned, taught and given real incentives to increase their social contacts, and so on through all known contributors to unhappiness. All would be addressed at once, early on, before the big problems start to snowball.

Actually, maybe it would happen even before a person felt the twinge of sadness. The fact is that although drugs have been shown to be of limited long term effectiveness, in the past fifteen years brain scanning technology has undergone a revolution. Magnetic and other high tech detectors can actually look inside a living brain and watch it react real-time to stimuli. They can measure the results in every region of the brain from all types of interactions, good and bad. The mental damage caused by an abusive person on all around him is measured in excruciating detail. The little article I included last time about the mental benefits over as little as two weeks from playing table tennis (a combined mental and physical workout), is one example of what can be detected now. Similar benefits are being found from playing chess and even my least favorite activity, playing cards.

Therefore, with earlier detection of mental processes it may be that searching for new medications for mental illnesses will come to be seen as unnecessary. A sufficiently responsive environment might mean that the mental illnesses that are so common today (and I mean really common, something like four out of five people are hit by a mental illness sometime in their life) would never be allowed to happen. In the life I read lately of Dr. William Osler the biographer noted that Osler in the late 19 hundreds came across many grossly morbid medical conditions -- such as basketball-sized stomach cysts -- that are unknown today. No doctor, no matter how extensive his experience, would find them. This is simply because diseases are understood, detected and cured long before such freakish growths can take hold. The same thing will no doubt happen sooner or later with mental conditions such as schizophrenia, manic depression and paranoia. Psychiatrists today are closer to pharmacists than doctors, but in the future they will be more like computer programmers planning out people's locations and lifestyles in rapidly shifting apartment complexes.

In Which I Soar Up to Justice

We have been looking in detail at "Tabernacle of Unity," paragraphs 2.33 to 2.38, where Baha'u'llah addresses Manikchi Sahib's question about religious tolerance. Baha'u'llah cites for Manikchi a second passage revealed earlier on in His Mission:

"The people of Baha should soar high above the peoples of the world. In matters of religion every form of fanaticism, hatred, dissension and strife is strictly forbidden." (Tabernacle 2.35)

Soaring high means avoiding denial of God, avoiding problems before they can drag us down, just like the wise doctor who treats disease before it can grow. A person who squabbles has no choice but to regard his opponents as bad and contemptible. To do that is to deny the goodness of the One Who created those people. So just avoid it. Baha'u'llah then proceeds to cite another brief, memorable quote that explains how practicing "preventive faith" can avoid the problems of denial before they recrudesce.

"We have called you into being to show forth love and fidelity, not animosity and hatred." (Tabernacle 2.36)

So, to engage in religious disputes is not only to sow the tares of war, it is to deny and insult the very reason that God created us. Insanity is one effect of denial of our reason for being. Mental illness, the detection devices are starting to demonstrate, starts in small mental abuses and apparently innocuous forms of neglect. We neglect the love for which our brains are built to radiate. We neglect the needs of body and emotions. We lash back and abuse and betray in little ways, like what Jesus talked about, the lust in your eye that is the same as committing adultery. That is betrayal of what Baha'u'llah calls above the "fidelity" for which were created. Yet pandering by diffusing lust-inducing images is now regarded as a legitimate advertising ploy by respectable businesses. Abuses like hating our neighbor, arguing with our neighbor, even when disagreement is implied but not expressed, the damage comes when striving is regarded as a basic expression of human nature. And it is all made concrete when violence in word and deed dig ruts in our mental wheels. Soon nobody can get out of them, our whole language and vocabulary becomes a weapon. And the biggest rut is war and the rumors of war, when millions of young lives are fed into a thrasher for no good reason, when a whole society is paralyzed by fear of terrorist attack.

The next offering cited in Tabernacle as a cure for fanaticism is the eponymous one from which the title of the book is derived. Here, no doubt, is where Shoghi Effendi derived his justification for calling the oneness of humanity the "pivotal" Baha'i principle. Here it is:

"The path to freedom hath been outstretched; hasten ye there-unto. The wellspring of wisdom is overflowing; quaff ye therefrom. Say: O well-beloved ones! The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch." (2.37)

It would be impossible to plumb these depths but I can briefly note a few salient points. The oneness of humanity is the path to freedom -- no more ruts catching our wheels and leading us willy-nilly down into hell and insanity. Oneness is a well of wisdom, we need but drink. Oneness allows us to see others not as strangers or others but as aspects of ourselves, as brothers and sisters. All three of these, free agency, wisdom and vision, are preconditions for justice. That is what the next passage is all about, and we will deal with that next time.

Happy Birthday of Baha'u'llah!

Friends,

Happy Birthday of Baha'u'llah!

I cannot write anything because it is a holy day, but I will share this
article that I found interesting, from the Globe and Mail. One of the
advantages of being a Baha'i and an Esperantist is that you can travel
anywhere in the world, meet the locals intimately, have something in
common, and very often get free accommodation with them. Now you do not
even have to learn a language or change your religion to do that...

'Couchsurfing' travel takes off on Web

Associated Press

NEW YORK — Jim Stone, a 29-year-old from west Texas, has been traveling
non-stop since March of 2004.

Sometimes in a pickup truck and other times on a motorcycle, he's
trekked through much of the United States, Australia, New Zealand and
Europe. But he's slept in a hotel just one night over that stretch of
nearly 1,000.

That's because Stone is part of a growing network of people on-line
who've gone a step beyond hotels, hostels and even apartment swapping in
their travel planning: They sleep on each others' couches.

A number of Web sites have sprung up to help pair travelers searching
for a place to crash and hosts with a spare couch. Sites like
hospitalityclub.org, couchsurfing.com, globalfreeloaders.com and
place2stay.net are often free, serving only as middlemen and offering
tips on how to find successful matches.
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The sites aren't moneymakers. They're largely the creations of
20-somethings bitten with wanderlust and the hope to help bridge
together people from different cultures. They often depend on volunteer
administrators to help manage the Web operations.

Among the biggest is hospitalityclub.org, a site founded in 2000 by Veit
Kuehne, who was then a 22-year-old business student. Kuehne wanted to
use the Internet's reach to help foster the ideas of a group called
Servas, an international peace organization that encourages cultural
exchanges through travel.

The site grew to 1,300 members by 2002, 100,000 members by January 2006
and 200,000 by September.

From his home in Dusseldorf, Germany, Kuehne said hospitalityclub.org
funds itself through on-line advertisements, which pitch
student-exchange programs, Thailand volunteer opportunities or cheap
tickets to west Africa.

"We're not really soliciting donations yet," he said.

Kuehne said he doesn't get a salary from the site and has been depending
on volunteers to help develop and operate it. Living off savings
recently, he found a cheap, $200 plane ticket to India, where he plans
to spend the winter working on the site and benefiting from lower living
costs.

The west Texan Stone uses another site, couchsurfing.com, where
membership has catapulted to above 128,700 since launching in January 2004.

Its members, like hospitalityclub.org's, stretch across the globe:
Although the United States is the country with the largest number of
members, making up about 25 per cent of couchsurfing.com's total base,
Europe overall boasts 41 per cent. The average age is 25, though 43 per
cent of members are between 18 and 24.

Couchsurfing.com got its indirect start years ago, when New Hampshire
native Casey Fenton found a cheap airplane ticket to Iceland. In the few
days he had to find a place to stay, Fenton happened upon the student
directory of the University of Iceland.

Fenton sent e-mails to about 1,500 students, asking for a place to crash
and within 24 hours received dozens of responses. Through staying with a
local, Fenton said he was able to see their Iceland rather than merely
the tourist's view.

Couchsurfing.com depends largely on member donations to pay the
operating bills. When it falls short, administrators send requests to
members asking for more assistance. Recently, the site raised $8,000 it
needed after e-mailing 6,000 members.

Aside from asking if the services are really free, one of the top
questions on most of the sites' Frequently Asked Questions is some
variation of: "Is this safe?"

Eric "Rico" Lesage, a 35-year-old from Montreal remembers hearing that
question from his mom when he told her about couchsurfing.

"She was not all into it," said Lesage, who had his first couchsurfing
experience in 1990 when a couple of guys he met on a California beach
let him sleep on their couch. "But she's not a tut-tutter; I'm responsible."

Sites do offer some safeguards to help members: Members can vouch for
each other and leave references for someone they've stayed with or
hosted, similar to eBay's rating system.

But Web sites warn that they are not liable for any possible dangers
that could arise between host and traveler.

"We are not responsible for the outcome of host/surfer negotiations,"
couchsurfing.com's Fenton said. "We can't guarantee what will happen.
We'll do as much as we can to provide data (about the person), but
beyond that, that's all we can do."

Lesage, a photographer and a volunteer administrator for
couchsurfing.com, said the best way to stay safe is to read closely the
information available on members' profiles. He also sets a general
three-day limit for how long people can crash on his couch.

Noemie Cliche, a 21-year-old geography student from Montreal, said she
has had just one problem since joining couchsurfing.com in March.

"Once, I hosted a guy who was not nice and was a little weird," she
said. "I just asked him to leave, and yes, he did leave."

Otherwise, Cliche said she finds couchsurfing much more enjoyable than
the hostels she used to stay at while traveling.

Recently, she journeyed through California with the west Texan Stone,
who has not had a permanent address since he began his walkabout in 2004.

He acknowledges he's a hard-core couchsurfer, taking on the ethos of
meeting interesting people through their couches as a lifestyle. Among
the more interesting couches, Stone says he slept on one aboard a
39-foot sailboat moored outside Jacksonville, Fla.

"I haven't found another lifestyle that I enjoy this much," he said.

Tabernacle Series, II

Tabernacle of Unity Series

By John Taylor; 2006 November 07

 Let us continue sampling gems in the newly translated "Tabernacle of Unity." Before we leave the second Tablet in the book, which is addressed to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl and expands upon some specific questions by Manikchi Sahib, let us focus upon paragraphs 2.33 to 2.38. Here Baha'u'llah addresses Manikchi's question about religious tolerance.

 Some faiths, Manikchi had noted, such as Hinduism and Zoroastrianism, allow free association with members of other religions, while others persecute them and consider it a pious act to oppress and steal from them. Any guesses about which the latter faith group is? In view of the context, small wonder Baha'u'llah in His first, direct answer to Manikchi Sahib had framed it in general terms and circumspect language. Small wonder that Baha'u'llah often felt a sword of Damocles hanging over his head! On the one hand He could not compromise integrity by dissembling essential beliefs, but on the other hand the charged atmosphere of Persia meant that a single word might provoke more torture, robberies and killing of innocents.

 Nonetheless, Baha'u'llah does not avoid Manikchi's specific query: "Which approach is acceptable in the sight of God?" Baha'u'llah answers it in no uncertain terms. "The former statement hath ever been and will continue to be true. It is not permissible to contend with anyone, nor is it acceptable in the sight of God to ill-treat or oppress any soul." (Tabernacle 2.34, p. 38) He then cites a "Great Being" statement from the Lawh-i-Maqsud.

 "O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity."

 This concise statement of the Baha'i position on religious tolerance we treated in detail in its role as a "Great Being" statement in an essay of April 18th of this year, called "The Rehabilitation, Oneness of God and Religion." Baha'u'llah leads up to it saying He has repeated it in other places "time and again," and concludes by saying that it has been explicated in more detail in other Tablets. It is particularly relevant in view of the recent BIC and UHJ position papers taking shelter under the UN's declared but un-enforced declaration that not only religious conviction but also religious conversion are fundamental human rights. Surely this mention here of the quote to what Baha'is would call a "close seeker" or a "friend of the Faith" is hint enough that we his followers should memorize it and use it whenever we have the chance.

 Myself, I am like the smoker who brags that he can quit anytime he wants, and proves it over and over. I have tried and failed "time and again" to commit this passage to memory. When I came across it in Tabernacle of Unity last night I tried once more. I found that, glory be, it stuck in there a bit easier than last time. Like a wet spitball on the wall, it held onto my gray matter, though you never knew when it would drop off and fall into the river Nepenth, or whatever that body of water is called where you forget everything before floating into the underworld. For me, the point when I can really be sure that I have a passage down is when I can recite it during our family prayer and reading session just before the kids retire to sleep. This is a difficult proving ground. All the while the devotions are being devoted I must keep one eye open to be sure that eyes are closed, backs are straight and shenanigans are not being perpetrated. If I can recite something then it is etched it stone. But if I cannot, it falls like a spitball to the dirt and I am back to the old standby, "This earth is but one country..."

 Baha'u'llah then proceeds in paragraph 35 to how teaching and religious conversion are to be done by Baha'is. The Word is to be offered with "the utmost goodwill, kindness, and compassion." God will reward those who believe, but if the listener fail to accept the truth, it is not permitted to contend. Baha'u'llah then offers two more brief quotes,

 "In another connection He saith, `Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth.'"

 Who is "He"? Again, the Great Being. This is perhaps the best known Great Being statement, also found in the Lawh-i-Maqsud (Tablets, 167). It was originally included in "The Proclamation of Baha'u'llah," (page 115) a collection of Baha'u'llah's letters to the Kings, under the section called "The Great Announcement to Mankind." This implies that it was originally written around 1867 to 1868, though I do not know that for sure. In any case, Baha'u'llah's statement here has been backed up by a growing mountain of scientific evidence. Anybody who "arises to promote the best interests of the peoples" is much more likely to be "blessed and happy," according to firm health measures like heart health, life expectancy, and psychological well-being.

 I have been listening to novel after novel of John Grisham over past weeks. I find the southern drawl of the readers somehow comforting, even a little hypnotic. The latest book finished was "The Street Lawyer." Grisham is a master of suspense but as I have complained here before, sometimes the moral center of his characters tilts off keel. The Street Lawyer makes up for it all. This is the story of an antitrust lawyer in a big firm who sees the light when a desperate homeless person holds his firm hostage and is shot by police right before him. He is forced by the man's arguments to see how greedy he is, how immoral it is to chase after the almighty dollar when there are people all around you who have nothing. As the Master once said, if there is somebody in your town without food or a bed it is a moral imperative not to eat or sleep yourself until they are fed and bedded down safely. The filthy rich lawyer realizes that he and his firm have done no Pro Bono work for years, and that what little they give to charity goes to trivial "good causes" and not to those in desperate need. He decides to become a street lawyer, to join a little legal clinic trying desperately on almost no funds to see that homeless people get a fair shake from officials who hold them in open contempt. As I listened to this story I was inspired and reminded of the love `Abdu'l-Baha had for the dirt poor. As He said, where you see people starving it is a sure sign of oppression. In the location where this novel takes place, the oppression is democratic, popular, the blood is on many hands, and that surely is a greater affront to humanity than if it happened under the boot of a dictator or party ideology. I wished that I were a lawyer, a doctor or anybody with a skill or money or anything to give to help those in need. Truly, listening to this story there wafted over me gentle waves of what Baha'u'llah says in the Proclamation,

"That one indeed is a man who, today, dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. The Great Being saith: Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth."

Surely this implies that oppressors and the complacent rich who by their apathy implicate themselves in injustice are not worthy of the appellation "man,” they are rather some sort of mindless animal, maybe a leach or tapeworm. We will continue from there tomorrow.

 

Cosmopolitan Introduction

Kant's Cosmopolitan History, Introduction

By John Taylor; 2006 November 06

The question that Kant is edging towards in this introduction is one that remains unresolved and is too often shirked and left unarticulated: to what extent can we plan our future? Should we plan our future? Is planning possible?

In the Cosmopolitan History, Kant begins by discussing the "quantum" unpredictability of human will. As long as we are free agents, the decisions of individuals by definition cannot be examined, predicted or controlled from outside. This is what modern physics has found about the physical world. It is highly predictable statistically, but it does not operate according to absolute Fatwas. When we put a pot on the stove and turn up the heat, there is a tiny but real chance that the water will freeze instead of boil. Of course, this almost never happens. But the closer we get to the atomic level the more statistics and uncertainty apply, until in the realm of quantum physics things operate with a weird logic that utterly defies common sense.

The same is true of individual human beings. We are utterly idiosyncratic. Nonetheless, as we pull back to the sphere of collective human behavior averages average out and universal norms become discernible.

"... what seems complex and chaotic in the single individual may be seen from the standpoint of the human race as a whole to be a steady and progressive, though slow, evolution of its original endowment." (Kant, Cosmopolitan History, p. 249)

Free will is free, and even the free agent himself may not be able to explain or understand what he is doing and why he does it. How much harder, then, for others to say anything for sure about who a given person will marry or where they will die. Even statistical regularities change according to the flow of information that shapes our decision making. For example, when I was young statistics reliably stated that the chances were that I and my siblings would marry someone within a twenty city block radius of where we lived. But the information revolution intervened and I married a central European and my brother married an American. But still, regularity and uncertainty dance to music that may be fast at one time and slow at another, and there is always regularity to the unpredictability of their movement. Kant continues,

"Yet the annual tables of them in the major countries prove that they occur according to laws as stable as [those of] the unstable weather, which we likewise cannot determine in advance, but which, in the large, maintain the growth of plants the flow of rivers, and other natural events in an unbroken uniform course. Individuals and even whole peoples think little on this." (250)

The products of the will are like the weather, then, they can be relied upon in the main, though on the macro level they are utterly unpredictable. Both ignorance and knowledge run deep into the human reality, as deep as our essence. As long as there are a great many wills working in concert dependable behavior emerges, just as it does from quantum phenomena. We can put the pot on the burner, turn on the heat and be fairly certain that the water will boil rather than freeze.

Kant saw, then, that sociology, political science and other social studies are real possibilities, though in his time they were hardly worthy of the name "science" (in my opinion they still have a long way to go). Only when our initial question, "is planning possible?" is answered in the positive and a large consensus of society is willing to act upon that belief, only then will the social sciences be truly scientific.

Kant then proceeds to the crux of both science and religion, faith. We do not know many essentials. We cannot know many essentials. But that is not the same as saying we know nothing about anything important. We can play out our destiny if we have faith. We can come to know and worship God, we come to understand and control nature if and only if we first belief it is possible. Thus we start with faith in providence, in the order and comprehensibility of the universe.

"Each, according to his own inclination, follows his own purpose, often in opposition to others; yet each individual and people, as if following some guiding thread, go toward a natural but to each of them unknown goal; all work toward furthering it, even if they would set little store by it if they did know it." (250)

Long before the bloody struggles of 20th Century ideology, the battles among communism, Nazism and capitalism, we see the same arguments. Adam Smith had suggested an "invisible hand" that works out the complex interactions of free markets, that orders basically selfish efforts of individuals and companies for the common good. Kant prefers the term "guiding thread," but the logic is the same. Human decisions, tastes, dreams and ambitions all lead toward goals that may not be foreseeable but which are still very real and to some extent predictable, at least in the long view of history.

"Since men in their endeavors behave, on the whole, not just instinctively, like the brutes, nor yet like rational citizens of the world according to some agreed-on plan, no history of man conceived according to a plan seems to be possible, as it might be possible to have such a history of bees or beavers. One cannot suppress a certain indignation when one sees men's actions on the great world-stage and finds, beside the wisdom that appears here and there among individuals, everything in the large woven together from folly, childish vanity, even from childish malice and destructiveness. In the end, one does not know what to think of the human race, so conceited in its gifts. Since the philosopher cannot presuppose any [conscious] individual purpose among men in their great drama, there is no other expedient for him except to try to see if he can discover a natural purpose in this idiotic course of things human. In keeping with this purpose, it might be possible to have a history with a definite natural plan for creatures who have no plan of their own." (Cosmopolitan History, 250)

So this is Kant's definition of what he calls "cosmopolitan history," an enquiry into whether it is possible to come up with a history "with a definite natural plan for creatures who have no plan of their own." Is a cosmopolitan history possible? Can the planless be planned?

Physics in Kant's time saw the world according to its latest high tech device, the clock. Since then modern physics has found that the stuff of nature is essentially formulae and equations. And now, the latest trend is to see it as not so much formulae and equations as algorithms. Everything you can name, from quarks to atoms, galaxies, and living organisms, all act like computer chips calculating and networking with one another. A paper by Richard M. Karp, "The Algorithmic Nature of Scientific Theories, as reported in the New York Times, is a good example. In a recent scientific conference he,

"presented a fundamental explanation for why computing has had such a major impact on other sciences, and Dr. Karp himself personifies the trend. His research has moved beyond computer science to microbiology in recent years. An algorithm, put simply, is a step-by-step recipe for calculation, and it is a central concept in both mathematics and computer science. Algorithms are small but beautiful, Dr. Karp observed. And algorithms are good at describing dynamic processes, while scientific formulas or equations are more suited to static phenomena. Increasingly, scientific research seeks to understand dynamic processes, and computer science, he said, is the systematic study of algorithms. Biology, Dr. Karp said, is now understood as an information science. And scientists seek to describe biological processes, like protein production, as algorithms. In other words, nature is computing, he said." (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/science/31essa.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin)

An algorithm is a step by step procedure, in other words, a plan. To my mind this realization of every science that everything important is computable, a recipe, an algorithm, is totally revolutionary. It changes religion. We knew that "in the beginning was the Word, Logos," meant something about what God has to say, but now it means "In the beginning was the Algorithm." Faith is a plan, a struggle, a Jihad, following Kant's "guiding thread." It changes science. The paradigm of science is now algorithms, plans. That is why Kant's Cosmopolitan History should be on everybody's lips. For Kant deals in it with the extent to which human affairs are capable of being planned and the extent to which civilization is survivable without planning. He concludes the introduction like this:

"We wish to see if we can succeed in finding a clue to such a history; we leave it to Nature to produce the man capable of composing it. Thus Nature produced Kepler, who subjected, in an unexpected way, the eccentric paths of the planets to definite laws; and she produced Newton, who explained these laws by a universal natural cause."

Kant then goes on to lay out nine theses by which a cosmopolitan history -- and as far as I can see he means not so much a history as a set of agreed points upon which a world media or propaganda machine may support any future world government. We will dive into the first thesis tomorrow.

 

Open Source Religion

Open Source Religion
By John Taylor; 2006 November 09
Three years ago, right around the time that I too was caught up in the
same Zeitgeist; architect Kent Larson coined the term "open source
building." Larson heads MIT's Open Source Building Alliance (OSBA), and
his mission is to bridge the gap between house design and computer
science. His idea is for the housing industry to agree upon standard
interfaces that would resemble the USB port for personal computer
components. The USB port allows any printer or mouse to connect to any
personal computer. This home standard would allow custom design of every
part of a new home using mass produced, standard interchangeable
components. That way a home buyer would be able to do what a purchaser
of, say, a Dell computer can do, custom design every part of the
computer they purchase, and then later on upgrade it for relatively
little expense. This approach differs from modular homes, which are
shipped complete from the factory and do not have the flexibility or
expandability of the OSBA standard.
This cooperative initiative by MIT and building companies is reported on
in "Building Blocks, The House of the Future," by Dawn Stover, in the
November 2006 issue of Popular Science. Larson points out here that most
houses today are knocked together inefficiently not by architects but by
land speculators, and their product is overpriced, poorly built and
custom built by unskilled labor. Larson says,
"Every board cut and every hammer strike is custom -- even if the house
is not an expensive custom home. There is a way to democratize
architecture, to capture the knowledge of good architects and good
engineers in a computational design engine. There are no technical
barriers to doing it. It is just a matter of inertia in the industry."
(p. 81)
My instauration proposals are right down this alley and I wish Larson
well. May he bring housing out of the fossilized muck of the Precambrian
era into the 21st Century. Having read this fascinating article I think
that the big difference between open source housing and my proposals is
that I envision something much broader, what you might call open source
philosophy or open source religion. Think of it like this:
We all have a limited amount of leisure. Some have more free time on
their hands and others less, but it is always finite. Let us say that a
person of stable habits has X number of elective hours in which to relax
and recharge her batteries. To me, the choice of how she spends this
fixed period, the question of how well any given choice will maintain
balance and moderation for that individual, well, that is what religion
and philosophy are there to sift and evaluate.
A thousand interests furiously compete for a place in line, for a
precious chance to occupy a person's disposable leisure time.
Entertainers, advertisers, educators, yes, even philosophers and
religions are all falling over one another, each convinced that theirs
is the best choice. Television and business executives would be happy if
we spent every spare moment on a couch in front of the idiot box.
Religious advocates would have us reading scripture and praying the
whole time.
What I am suggesting as the basis of the instauration is a sort of
standardized USB port to our free time, a system that would mediate
among all of these competing interests. Better, it would allow their
competition to serve the needs of people, not the limited, corrupting
interests of the advocates themselves. Having a standard leisure time
interface would allow people to switch among many alternatives until
they find the most productive stasis holding their lives in balance.
Every aspect of every faith and philosophy would be "modular,"
interchangeable and easily incorporated into a person's daily life.
Here is an example. Let us say that I am a Baha'i with an interest in
Eastern meditation methods. I would punch in my request and each day I
would be served up with a different Buddhist or Hindu devotion to
perform during my X amount of prayer and reflection time. When I hit
upon one I like, one that works, I would save it and continue using it
until something better came along. I am permanently a Baha'i, of course,
but those less committed would be able to do the same shopping around
with what I would consider core beliefs. They might choose to be a
Buddhist on Monday, a Hindu on Tuesday, and so forth, until they either
hit upon a faith they feel ready to commit to first, or they may decide
that they want to be permanent seekers. Call them "Roaming Syncretists."
In any case, what is the measure of "X," the amount of free time in
daily life? There is not even a word for it, but in my study of the
Baha'i Faith I have concluded that for us X is regulated and balanced by
the Badi' calendar. That is our X Box, as it were. We use the Gregorian
calendar in daily life but the Badi' calendar acts as an overlay to
measure the Spirit into our lives as Baha'is. Now, if you look carefully
at the Ruhi' program, it is cleverly designed to offer aspects of the
Badi'-Baha'i system to the world as a kind of "open system" that
believers and non-believers alike can make use of. No pressure is made
to believe in it, we just offer it as a useful tool and let it go at that.
For example, Book One of Ruhi prescribes for "collaborators" that they
share a prayer with someone they have met. This introduces a prayer, one
part of the morning and evening Badi' devotions, to the world as an
"interchangeable component" like a USB compatible printer. The person
who studies the prayer may incorporate in their prayers, or not, as they
find it useful. Some may never have prayed before, and this would be
their first and only prayer to add into their free time devoted to
prayer. Others may be full of prayers from their own faith tradition and
have no room. It does not matter, at least not from an open systems
point of view. Anybody can join in with Ruhi study groups as they
please. That is probably why the House pointed out in their last Ridvan
message that Ruhi has more sustained results than any other institute
program.

Introductions and Talk by the Master

Introductions and Talk by the Master

By John Taylor; 2006 November 08

Today is a hard time to write anything new, as our seven year old son, Tomaso, is sick. He has not kept anything in his stomach for two days and all they have found from blood tests so far is that he is dehydrated, which is to be expected. The emerg resident yesterday looked at his pallor and was so worried she called a specialist at Mac Med Center. Pallor is to be expected when they are dehydrated, she was told. This upped our parental worry levels to the stratosphere, especially when he vomited everything up again before going to sleep last night. I fretted all night, but we let him sleep. At least the tests tell us what it is not. Still not ruled out are mono and strep.

In a long, endless night I frantically searched around for the long healing prayer to assuage my suspense but it seems that prayer books are the first things to get disappeared from my library by playing kids. I'd just go out and buy a new prayer book but the ones with what you might call the extreme or hard-core prayers, the Fire Tablet and the long healing prayer, are all forty or fifty bucks a pop. What kind of a sick publishing world are we living in when you have to be rich in order to pray? I just was dipping into MS Publisher to see if I could print out the LH prayer in brochure format for myself when I heard coming out of the living room the pops and clicks of his video game. He cannot be so bad if he is playing video games, I guess.

So today let us do something easy. I have prepared a talk by the Master and placed before it the two introductory talks that actually were given at the occasion. It is one thing to read a talk out of context in Promulgation, but I think it adds a lot if you glimpse some the words leading up to the talk. This is among the Master's more important peace statements, and it follows up perhaps His most important, the one at the Arbitration Conference at Lake Mohonk on May 14-16, 1912. The latter Mohonk talk Shoghi Effendi mentions first in his list of the most salient highlights of the Western travels (GPB, 289). As you see below, it greatly impressed one of the introductory speakers. Yet, strangely, it does not appear in Promulgation! Mahmud gives some intriguing details about the stay there, which he says was a four hour train ride from NY City. The first day, he says, the Master gave a twenty minute address, as scheduled in the program. A long ovation followed, for it seems the meeting had been preoccupied with your usual drab wrangling about petty material details and His perspective was a breath of fresh air. About the second day, Mahmud writes:

Wednesday, May 15, 1912

[Lake Mohonk]

The Master remained at Lake Mohonk. Many came into His presence and to each He taught the Cause of God, answering their questions in the way best suited to the understanding of the listener. Concerning the peace conference, He related a story:

Once I wrote to the Persian friends that if the workers of peace conferences do not apply in their own lives what they advocate, they are like those wine sellers who convene and make emphatic speeches regarding the harmfulness of wine and proposing its prohibition. But when they go out of the meeting, they begin again to sell wine and to do what they were doing in the past. Therefore it is necessary for the power of execution and effect to spiritually penetrate the body of the world.

(Mahmud's Diary, p. 102)

On the third day the Master was asked to produce something on spiritual themes to be published in the conference record, and Mahmud mentions that one talk was handled by the Baha'is and one by the organizers of the conference. I have been able to find none, not the one recorded by the Baha'is or by the non-Baha'is. Even a search for "Lake Mohonk" in the Encyclopedia Britannica turned up nada. Maybe it is a sort of conferential Brigadoon. Surely in the almost hundred years since this event somebody has done some research into this event. If I find anything, I will let you know.

But anyway, that is not why I am including this Lake Mohonk follow-up talk now. What I want to do as soon as possible is to read it aloud, along with many other talks of the Master, and listen to a recording of one talk daily as a sort of medicine, you know, the consolation of philosophy and all that. Perhaps more to the point, his talks are consolation of the news, or perhaps antidote to the news. Reason being, I have become increasingly disgusted with the flood of news that bursts on me every day. We need, I need, edification, not more depression and worry; we do not need information indiscriminately dumped on our heads. If I listen to the master's consoling words each morning, maybe I will get my head straight for the rest of the day. I would also like to make the text and a spoken recording available in one place on a website. I will do that Real Soon Now.

Address at Metropolitan Temple Reception,

SEVENTH AVENUE AND 14TH STREET NEW

YORK CITY, MAY 28, 1912.

(from Star of the West, Vol. 3, No. 7, pp. 14-15)

Stenographic Notes by E. Foster

INTRODUCTION BY REV. J. WESLEY HILL, PRESIDENT

INTERNATIONAL PEACE FORUM.

This is a great occasion. It is graced and honored by distinguished guests, representatives of the great International Peace Movement, who have acquired fame at home and abroad.

We are living in a wonderful period; time and distance are well nigh annihilated. Science has out-generaled the forces of nature.

The spirit of Nationalism has been overtaken by the larger spirit of Internationalism. The nations of the earth are strung on one telegraph wire. We are living everywhere at once, international visitations constituting one of the glowing hopes of International Peace. When we become better acquainted there is less of prejudice and of traditional hostility, more of charity brotherliness, mutual good will and fraternity; and this makes for peace.

Messages of peace are moving all through the world. A few months ago it was my privilege to visit the Orient. I found Japan on tiptoe of expectation; all eyes were turned toward Washington. The uppermost question in Japan was this: "Will your Senate ratify the peace treaties? And I was assured by the representatives of the present government that with the ratification of that treaty Japan was ready to become a party and to enter into this plan to arbitrate all international differences.

In China I found the same spirit: the representatives of the new republic interested in international amity. All the world is interested in it. We have had enough of warfare, enough of bloodshed, enough of national humiliation and abasement. We are ready for a new era, an era of peace and universal good will, an era in which universal brotherhood shall be recognized, and in which the misunderstanding of the countries will be settled in court rather than on the field of bloodshed and war.

I am not here to speak; I was invited to preside.

I am glad to be here, not only as the former pastor of the Metropolitan Temple, but as one who, in his humble way, ha contributed all in his power toward the advancement of industrial and international peace.

ADDRESS BY REV. FREDERICK LYNCH.

I do not intend to discuss any phases of the Peace question. I don't want to stand here and take your time when I know you want to listen to one who comes from the East. As in ancient times, wisdom comes to us from the East again.

I have been exceedingly interested in the visit of `Abdu'l-Baha to this country. I have had the pleasure of hearing him and meeting him several times. It may interest you to know where I first saw him. It was at Charles Grant Kennedy's play, the "Terrible Meek,' a play to show us that we are not in this world to kill but to love each other, and that we are not to go about in this world with the smell of blood upon us, but we are in this world to carry blessing to mankind. I was interested to see that this Leader, this Prophet, should have been at this great play. I had the pleasure next of seeing him at Lake Mohonk and hearing the most remarkable address I have ever listened to. The address of the evening was full of this one thing, the unity of mankind. We are in this world, -- one. When you get beneath the different languages, different nationalities, different races, different colors, different temperaments, after all, we are one. The minds may vary but the human heart is one.

It seems to me that the great note of the twentieth century is its universality; we have gotten away from provincialism; we have gotten away from boundaries; we are getting away from nationalism; it is universality which is the great note of this century. It is true in politics. The last century, the nineteenth century, was the time of upbuilding. Our own nation during this century built its States into one compact whole. We established a parliament at Washington where all the States' representatives make laws for the nation, and we established a court at Washington where disputes may be settled. That was the great task of the nineteenth century, the task of nationalism. It is internationalism -- world politics -- that we are entering upon in this century. Now we are going to put a world parliament at the head where the nations shall take their disputes to be settled as the States have taken theirs.

We are signing arbitration treaties. In the last century hardly any treaties were signed at all. In the first twelve years of this century (twentieth century) one hundred and one arbitration treaties have been signed.

I don't want to continue this theme, but to throw this out to show how the great things pertaining to national universality is the twentieth century note. The same thing is true in religions. The last century was the century of denominations. The last century was the century of nationalism of religion, but this twentieth century is the century of universality of religion. All our great religions are beginning to spread throughout the world, and we are beginning to find that which is good in them all. All that is good in the religions of the world, take it and use it, and out of it will arise one great universal religion which will be made up of all that is good and truest and best in all the others.

Now I welcome this great man today because he stands for all these things. He has come to this country modestly. His modesty has impressed the country greatly. He has taught that one lesson of the oneness of mankind that we are all children of the one Father.

He comes here only in the cause of religion and has raised up a great following, a following which stands for these great truths: the universal love of God, brotherhood and good will to man. I am glad to say `Abdu'l-Baha will speak.

Talk at Reception at Metropolitan Temple

from Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 152

28 May 1912

Seventh Avenue and Fourteenth Street, New York

Notes by Esther Foster

The Fatherhood of God, His loving-kindness and beneficence are apparent to all. In His mercy He provides fully and amply for His creatures, and if any soul sins, He does not suspend His bounty. All created things are visible manifestations of His Fatherhood, mercy and heavenly bestowals. Human brotherhood is, likewise, as clear and evident as the sun, for all are servants of one God, belong to one humankind, inhabit the same globe, are sheltered beneath the overshadowing dome of heaven and submerged in the sea of divine mercy. Human brotherhood and dependence exist because mutual helpfulness and cooperation are the two necessary principles underlying human welfare. This is the physical relationship of mankind. There is another brotherhood -- the spiritual -- which is higher, holier and superior to all others. It is heavenly; it emanates from the breaths of the Holy Spirit and the effulgence of merciful attributes; it is founded upon spiritual susceptibilities. This brotherhood is established by the Manifestations of the Holy One.

The divine Manifestations since the day of Adam have striven to unite humanity so that all may be accounted as one soul. The function and purpose of a shepherd is to gather and not disperse his flock. The Prophets of God have been divine Shepherds of humanity. They have established a bond of love and unity among mankind, made scattered peoples one nation and wandering tribes a mighty kingdom. They have laid the foundation of the oneness of God and summoned all to universal peace. All these holy, divine Manifestations are one. They have served one God, promulgated the same truth, founded the same institutions and reflected the same light. Their appearances have been successive and correlated; each One has announced and extolled the One Who was to follow, and all laid the foundation of reality. They summoned and invited the people to love and made the human world a mirror of the Word of God. Therefore, the divine religions They established have one foundation; Their teachings, proofs and evidences are one; in name and form They differ, but in reality They agree and are the same. These holy Manifestations have been as the coming of springtime in the world. Although the springtime of this year is designated by another name according to the changing calendar, yet as regards its life and quickening it is the same as the springtime of last year. For each spring is the time of a new creation, the effects, bestowals, perfections and life-giving forces of which are the same as those of the former vernal seasons, although the names are many and various. This is 1912, last year was 1911 and so on, but in fundamental reality no difference is apparent. The sun is one, but the dawning points of the sun are numerous and changing. The ocean is one body of water, but different parts of it have particular designations -- Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean, Antarctic, etc. If we consider the names, there is differentiation; but the water, the ocean itself, is one reality.

Likewise, the divine religions of the holy Manifestations of God are in reality one, though in name and nomenclature they differ. Man must be a lover of the light, no matter from what dayspring it may appear. He must be a lover of the rose, no matter in what soil it may be growing. He must be a seeker of the truth, no matter from what source it come. Attachment to the lantern is not loving the light. Attachment to the earth is not befitting, but enjoyment of the rose which develops from the soil is worthy. Devotion to the tree is profitless, but partaking of the fruit is beneficial. Luscious fruits, no matter upon what tree they grow or where they may be found, must be enjoyed. The word of truth, no matter which tongue utters it, must be sanctioned. Absolute verities, no matter in what book they be recorded, must be accepted. If we harbor prejudice, it will be the cause of deprivation and ignorance. The strife between religions, nations and races arises from misunderstanding. If we investigate the religions to discover the principles underlying their foundations, we will find they agree; for the fundamental reality of them is one and not multiple. By this means the religionists of the world will reach their point of unity and reconciliation. They will ascertain the truth that the purpose of religion is the acquisition of praiseworthy virtues, the betterment of morals, the spiritual development of mankind, the real life and divine bestowals. All the Prophets have been the promoters of these principles; none of Them has been the promoter of corruption, vice or evil. They have summoned mankind to all good. They have united people in the love of God, invited them to the religions of the unity of mankind and exhorted them to amity and agreement. For example, we mention Abraham and Moses. By this mention we do not mean the limitation implied in the mere names but intend the virtues which these names embody. When we say Abraham, we mean thereby a manifestation of divine guidance, a center of human virtues, a source of heavenly bestowals to mankind, a dawning point of divine inspiration and perfections. These perfections and graces are not limited to names and boundaries. When we find these virtues, qualities and attributes in any personality, we recognize the same reality shining from within and bow in acknowledgment of the Abrahamic perfections. Similarly, we acknowledge and adore the beauty of Moses. Some souls were lovers of the name Abraham, loving the lantern instead of the light, and when they saw this same light shining from another lantern, they were so attached to the former lantern that they did not recognize its later appearance and illumination. Therefore, those who were attached and held tenaciously to the name Abraham were deprived when the Abrahamic virtues reappeared in Moses. Similarly, the Jews were believers in Moses, awaiting the coming of the Messiah. The virtues and perfections of Moses became apparent in Jesus Christ most effulgently, but the Jews held to the name Moses, not adoring the virtues and perfections manifest in Him. Had they been adoring these virtues and seeking these perfections, they would assuredly have believed in Jesus Christ when the same virtues and perfections shone in Him. If we are lovers of the light, we adore it in whatever lamp it may become manifest, but if we love the lamp itself and the light is transferred to another lamp, we will neither accept nor sanction it. Therefore, we must follow and adore the virtues revealed in the Messengers of God -- whether in Abraham, Moses,  153  Jesus or other Prophets -- but we must not adhere to and adore the lamp. We must recognize the sun, no matter from what dawning point it may shine forth, be it Mosaic, Abrahamic or any personal point of orientation whatever, for we are lovers of sunlight and not of orientation. We are lovers of illumination and not of lamps and candles. We are seekers for water, no matter from what rock it may gush forth. We are in need of fruit in whatsoever orchard it may be ripened. We long for rain; it matters not which cloud pours it down. We must not be fettered. If we renounce these fetters, we shall agree, for all are seekers of reality. The counterfeit or imitation of true religion has adulterated human belief, and the foundations have been lost sight of. The variance of these imitations has produced enmity and strife, war and bloodshed. Now the glorious and brilliant twentieth century has dawned, and the divine bounty is radiating universally. The Sun of Truth is shining forth in intense enkindlement. This is, verily, the century when these imitations must be forsaken, superstitions abandoned and God alone worshiped. We must look at the reality of the Prophets and Their teachings in order that we may agree.

Praise be to God! The springtime of God is at hand. This century is, verily, the spring season. The world of mind and kingdom of soul have become fresh and verdant by its bestowals. It has resuscitated the whole realm of existence. On one hand, the lights of reality are shining; on the other, the clouds of divine mercy are pouring down the fullness of heavenly bounty. Wonderful material progress is evident, and great spiritual discoveries are being made. Truly, this can be called the miracle of centuries, for it is replete with manifestations of the miraculous. The time has come when all mankind shall be united, when all races shall be loyal to one fatherland, all religions become one religion, and racial and religious bias pass away. It is a day in which the oneness of humankind shall uplift its standard and international peace, like the true morning, flood the world with its light. Therefore, we offer supplications to God, asking Him to dispel these gloomy clouds and uproot these imitations in order that the East and West may become radiant with love and unity, that the nations of the world shall embrace each other and the ideal spiritual brotherhood illumine the world like the glorious sun of the high heavens. This is our hope, our wish and desire. We pray that through the bounty and grace of God we may attain thereto. I am very happy to be present at this meeting which has innate radiance, intelligence, perception and longing to investigate reality. Such meetings are the glory of the world of mankind. I ask the blessing of God in your behalf.

Silvie on the Badi List

November 5, 2006 By: Silvie Taylor

 

Hello, my name is Silvie and I am taking over this space today because my Dad is too busy fill it. First I want to tell the story of my dream.

 

Dream

 

The girls in my class thought I was not cool then I did something to make them let me into their group. Then Goth had this fire stick and he dropped it like right on top of the Silverwing colony. And it landed on Marina and then the bats fell and crashed into each other.

 

 

But Chinook saved most of them and then the fire on Marina’s wings got put out somehow. Then I and two or three of the girls were walking in a dandelion seed field. But then the wind blew and it became a dandelion storm. We could not make it to the park and so we went into the bathroom with the other girls. Then I got this riddle to solve. At first I guessed, “Was it a church?” A cathedral, it was a cathedral! Then the cathedral had this round thing where the sun shone through. The bats flew around the sun happy to be able to fly in the light of day again.

 

Story of Silverwing (from the cartoon, not the book)

 

I want to tell the story of Silverwing. A long time ago the birds and the beasts had a great war and banished the bats to the night because they did not join in the war. They adapted to the night. Some bats were sad that they would never see the sun again but others did not care.

 

 

 

 

But for the ones who cared, Nocturna promised that one day they would get the sun back and the war would be over. Shade Silverwing wanted the promise to come true. And so he looked at the sun. The owls got angry and they wanted to sacrifice Shade for his crime.

 

But Frieda the head elder liked Shade and refused to hand him over. And so Shade and the other bats sat and watched their ancestral home burn down.

His mother Ariel sang him a sound map which made sure that he would find his way to Hibernaculum where they would hibernate for the winter. While hibernating, an unexpected lightning bolt made Shade fly off course. Mercury tried to save him, but Shade was falling too fast. He landed on an island, where he met a lone Brightwing named Marina. She had a band, which made her colony banish her.

 

 

She didn’t trust Shade, but when an orca swallowed her, Shade came to her rescue. That is what made her have faith in him. The first landmark on Shade’s sound map was a cathedral spire. They heard bonging coming from a tower, like in Shade’s sound map. But it was the wrong one and they got kidnapped by pigeons because they thought Shade and Marina were the bats who killed a pigeon and injured another. The pigeons wanted to torture them, but the bats escaped and killed the lights so that the pigeons couldn’t see them. Then they met Zephyr who was a blind Albino bat.

 

Meanwhile, back at the colony (This happens a lot): The owls were on guard, so the colony must rest somewhere else. This story is way too long! Even as a summary. Okay, after Zephyr took care of Shade’s wounds and taught him some things about remedies and echo-projection he said goodbye. Then an owl grabbed Shade.

But Goth, a giant bat fought the owl and won.

 

Of course, Goth only killed the owl because he was hungry, but Shade thought that he had rescued him on purpose! Marina did not trust Goth or his brother-in-law Throbb. So soon Shade found out they’re evil and he told Marina. Of course, she already knew.

 

 

So this story goes on and tells of the adventures of Shade, Marina, their allies and how they kept trying to stop Goth and Throbb. Also the adventures of the colony, like when Bathsheba became head elder and tried to kill Frieda.

Peace and One God

Peace and One God

By John Taylor; 2006 November 02

Yesterday we discussed two principles of protection and tolerance, first that of exclusion, "those not gathering with us are scattering," and then the inclusion principle, "those not against are for us." Every group, if it is to perpetuate itself, must sometime make a decision just where to draw the line between these balanced principles. In religious affairs, the first sign that a faith group has turned wholly to God is quite simple, peace. If they radiate peace they have answered God's purpose for them. "God hath called us to peace." (I Cor 7:15) No doubt in the majority of cases tolerance, "those who do not oppose are for us," is the wise tack to take. But sometimes doctrines act virally, they threaten to destroy the inner serenity and vision of the group's members. At such times the exclusion principle applies. Peace is a circle that cannot be broken. As Karen Armstrong points out,

"A sense of peace, serenity, and loving-kindness are the hallmarks of all true religious insight." (Armstrong, History of God, 279)

The peace of every past religion was systematically broken early on. Unlike the quotes from Bible and Qu'ran that we looked at yesterday, Baha'u'llah does not use the word hypocrisy to describe this, though it is implied. For example, in the following selection from Gems of Divine Mysteries He favors the expression "turning wholly unto God." Those who rejected Muhammad in his time leaned in the direction of God, but did not turn wholly:

"Had these souls but clung steadfastly to the Handle of God manifested in the Person of Muhammad, had they turned wholly unto God and cast aside all that they had learned from their divines, He would assuredly have guided them ..." (Javahir, para 55, p. 40)

The Qu'ran asserts that Muhammad's people, the desert Arabs, in spite of outer allegiance, never believed in God. Less than wholehearted acceptance meant this festering corruption entered into the innards of Islam, as it had earlier faiths.

"But as these people failed to turn wholly unto God, and to hold fast to the hem of His all-pervading mercy at the appearance of the Daystar of Truth, they passed out from under the shadow of guidance and entered the city of error. Thus did they become corrupt and corrupt the people. Thus did they err and lead the people into error. And thus were they recorded among the oppressors in the books of heaven." (Javahir, para 55, p. 41)

Thus oppression arises from corruption, and corruption from less-than-complete adherence to God, not to say hypocrisy. As recent events in Iraq testify, even when a tyrant is cut away the problem of underlying corruption does not automatically go away. Indeed it would seem that this whole process of hypocrisy, corruption and oppression is part of the plan, a natural and inevitable stage in human development. Consider the more complete definition of oppression in the Kitab-i-Iqan.

"What "oppression" is more grievous than that a soul seeking the truth, and wishing to attain unto the knowledge of God, should know not where to go for it and from whom to seek it? For opinions have sorely differed, and the ways unto the attainment of God have multiplied. This "oppression" is the essential feature of every Revelation. Unless it cometh to pass, the Sun of Truth will not be made manifest." (Iqan, 31)

Corruption's can of worms is cooked in the pressure cooker of oppression until, well, the process is ended. The peace of the principle of Oneness of God is a historical learning process that matures as soon as the spectators of events can see clearly what to tolerate and what can safely come inside the circle of trust. For ultimately, if there is one God there is only one religion and all of His children deserve a place within His circle.

"Are they seeking a religion other than God's, when every soul in heaven and earth has submitted to Him, willingly or by compulsion? To Him they shall all return." (Qu'ran 3:83)

Inclusion and Exclusion

The Principles of Inclusion and Exclusion

By John Taylor; 2006 November 01

 
One of my all-time great heroes is Francis Bacon, who along with Rene Descartes is credited with turning Europe towards science in its modern form (Muslim historians of science ungenerously accuse all of them of plagiarism, from Newton on down, in view of the persistent denial of Europeans of the essential contribution of Islamic civilization to modern science). Anyway, I recently read of another honor given Bacon by perhaps his most distinguished intellectual heir, Immanuel Kant. Kant dedicated his masterwork, The Critique of Pure Reason, to Bacon.

 Ever since I first read Bacon's Advancement of Learning and his other works, I have lamented the fact that nobody has ever tried very hard to carry out his "nursery gardens of the mind" plan. The nursery gardens would regularize the acquisition of knowledge while at the same time systematically expunging falsity, superstitions and misconceptions in the popular mind. Bacon was surely among the first to recognize the value of an informed public opinion as both a support and an object of scientific study.

 In the decades since I read the Advancement, the Internet has become ubiquitous and a tool for all, most notably for commerce and advertising. However even with this miracle of information interchange we have hardly begun to exploit the potential benefit. The disadvantages of floods of bad information accumulate unchecked simply because we do not use the Net for systematic sorting out of the wheat from the chaff, as Bacon advocated. Anyway, a few days ago I was looking for something else in the Ocean text database and stumbled across this familiar old passage in the Advancement:

 "We see of the fundamental points, our Saviour penneth the league thus, HE THAT IS NOT WITH US, IS AGAINST US; but of points not fundamental, thus, HE THAT IS NOT AGAINST AS, IS WITH US."

 Several times through the years I have tried to bring together the two bits of scripture that Bacon is referring to and every time my search skills failed me. This morning I was either more experienced or just luckier, but I found them both. The "whoever is not against us is for us" quote goes like this:

 "And John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name; and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us. And Jesus said unto him, Forbid him not: for he that is not against us is for us." (Luke 9:49-50, KJV)

 This we can call the principle of inclusion. The obverse of this principle comes a couple of books later in Luke and we can call it the principle of exclusion. It is phrased like this: "He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth." (Luke 11:23, KJV) It crowns a rather abstruse argument against those among his followers who in spite of outward allegiance, inwardly doubted and even denied Jesus. He has just discussed the need to pray, "ask and it shall be given unto you." Some deniers decry His miracle of casting out a demon in a mute that kept him from speaking. Using the logic of "it takes one to know one," they claimed that this was a product of Beelzebul, ruler of the demons (a title of the Canaanite storm and fertility god, Baal; anathema to all Jews). Other hypocrites (actors) from the same dissembling group covered up their antipathy and in a seemingly pious manner continue to pester him for a sign from heaven (as if curing a mute were not sign enough). Here is the context, from Luke 11, 16-23, in the Revised Standard Version,

 "He knew what they were thinking and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? -- for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you."

 Pre-existing belief is the precondition even of miracles, outward proofs of faith. This is the first catch 22, truth must be proven first in order to prove anything. Jesus then tells a parable that we can call the parable of protection.

 "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters."

 Here He establishes faith as the criterion. The reverse, hypocrisy, worldliness dressed as inquiring piety, is the root of corruption in religious affairs. He then tells another parable, that of the seven unclean spirits.

 "When an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but not finding any, says, `I will return to my house from which I came.' When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first." (Luke 11:24-26)

 So, the reason hypocrisy is so dangerous and must be excluded is this: religion is an effective purifying agent. It brings about inner probity and widespread adherence to laudable virtues. But even though the seven evil spirits wander off into the waterless desert of unbelief from whence they came, their natural ecosystem, they now know what life is. They come back home, back to the place from which they had been cast. The faith is now clean, improved, empty, ripe for takeover. The evil spirits now have what today we would call a viral quality; without substance themselves, they can infect the genetic code of faith and kill it. They make the faith just as potent an instrument for harm as it had been of good.

 These seven spirits clearly symbolize the inner corruption of the soul that lead to disunity; this inner event leads to the outer horrors we witness every day on the six o'clock news. The seven valleys or cities of the soul are familiar to Baha'is, and they no doubt take the handoff more directly from the Qu'ran, which speaks of seven gates of heaven and hell.

 "And verily, Hell is the promise for them one and all. It hath seven Portals; at each Portal is a separate band of them; But 'mid gardens and fountains shall the pious dwell: `Enter ye therein in peace, secure.' And all rancour will We removed from their bosoms: they shall sit as brethren, face to face, on couches: Therein no weariness shall reach them, nor forth from it shall they be cast for ever. Announce to my servants that I am the Gracious, the Merciful." (Qur'an 15, Rodwell tr.)

 In another place, the Qu'ran holds up the ruins of a fallen civilization as a standing reminder of what happens without unity. Disease, as it were, attacks the roots of hollow palm trees, and the first wind blows them to the ground.

 "And the 'Ad -- they were destroyed by a furious wind, exceedingly violent; He made it rage against them seven nights and eight days in succession: So that thou couldst see the (whole) people lying prostrate in its (path), as if they had been roots of hollow palm trees tumbled down!" (Qu'ran 69:6-7, Yusuf Ali)

 Now this balancing of inclusion (tolerance) and exclusion (righteousness) is, or should be, obvious to everyone who has ever been exposed to the pure Teaching of God. But Bacon's insight was that this is not just a religious principle, it is the central task of science too. Science does not just collect information, sort through it and enter into disputes and controversy. It has a serious, much more difficult reason for dealing with knowledge new and old. Its mission is to balance and enact these two principles of exclusion and inclusion in every sphere of human experience. Every area of knowledge, every science and scientific discipline, works out its part of balancing them. Anything to keep the seven demons from coming home to roost.