Black Beans

Gabby, Bea and the Black Beans of Nicaragua

By John Taylor; 30 July, 2005

I worry constantly about the picky eating of our offspring. A horrible
diet, worsened by the fact that their mother is no lover of veggies
herself. My longtime, despairing joke to her is that if a Czech person
ever met a veggie in the street they would cross to the other side and
avert their eyes. When I harp long enough she reluctantly reaches into
the freezer, dumps a pile of bagged mixed veggies onto a plate, partly
warms it in the microwave and presents that repast to already
skeptical little ones. Secretly, all of them believe that I am
hopelessly harebrained.

In desperation of late I pulled out all the stops and openly told
scare stories to persuade Tomaso and Silvie at least to nibble on a
vegetable. I do not have to go far for story material; my sainted
mother prepared full, balanced meals for the family but never ate
herself, contenting herself with white bread downed while cooking in
the kitchen. I tell them the harrowing story of her wasting illness,
the slowest, most painful death imaginable. I would not wish such an
end on my worst enemy. It started as cancer of the breast and
eventually ended up as cancer of the body. When I retold this the
other day, dwelling for a long time on a sad time which I would rather
forget Silvie for once finished off her mother's batch of partly
unfrozen mixed veggies soaked in Campbell's mushroom soup sauce. Then,
when I cooked a mess of fresh vegetables in the new solar oven the
following day it was as always, they distained even a taste. I did not
even try. The first use of the solar oven was fairly successful, but
the second time they were more bleached than cooked. I think I need to
improve the seal to the upper glass somehow.

Today I came up with another ploy. Why not simply translate the
findings of nutritional science reported by the press directly into
Gabby and Bea stories? One spate of Internet based articles about
black beans last week furnished the material of the following story.

One day Gabby and Bea were asked to come to Nicaragua to help with
their dietary crisis, known to the world as the Black Bean Problem...

I refused to begin the tale until Silvie had sampled at least one
black bean, a can of which I added to this week's bean medley salad.
Mixed bean salad has become my dietary staple over the past months. I
stipulated: "You have to know what black beans taste like if you are
going to understand this story." She balked for a long time but such
is Silvie's love for Gabby and Bea that finally she picked out one
lonely black bean, lifting it gingerly on the tips of two fingers,
carefully wiping it over arms and table to remove all hint of my
horrible, poisonous olive oil and vinegar dressing, and rolled it over
lips and tongue. When it seemed certain that the bean would not
resurface, I finally started the story.

Managua is the capital of Nicaragua and here all rich people in
Nicaragua cluster. When they get bigger paychecks they go straight to
the big city and buy big houses and stick out their tongues in mockery
at the poor peasants in the countryside. "We are rich now, nya, nya,
nya, we live better, we eat better, we have better education, we are
better in every way. We never have to eat your horrible burritos made
with black beans." When they hear this poor people lowered their heads
in shame and feel sad. Whenever peasant children do well at school,
get "A"'s and finally attain better jobs, they do the same thing, they
too move to Managua, throw out all their black beans and get in their
big cars and drive to McDonalds for a hamburger. Then they go home and
mock parents, brothers and sisters, saying,

"Bla to you, I do not have to eat a single burrito. We do not even
have to go near a Taco Bell. On Monday we go to McDonald's, on Tuesday
to Wendy's, on Wednesday to Harvey's, and so forth. You have nothing
but your black beans."

Doctors meanwhile made scientific studies and found that the rich were
getting sicker and that the humble diet of the peasant was healthier,
thanks in large part to the black bean. But nothing could persuade the
rich that their fatty diet was killing them or indeed the poor that
their beans were any good. It was time to call in Gabby and Bea. The
fox and wolf went to Baha'i local assemblies with a plan. Every
Assembly called rich and poor together in a single meeting and
projected these words of the Master on the wall.

"At whatever time highly-skilled physicians shall have developed the
healing of illnesses by means of foods, and shall make provision for
simple foods, and shall prohibit humankind from living as slaves to
their lustful appetites, it is certain that the incidence of chronic
and diversified illnesses will abate, and the general health of all
mankind will be much improved. This is destined to come about. In the
same way, in the character, the conduct and the manners of men,
universal modifications will be made." (Abdu'l-Baha, Selections, 156)

Then Gabby and Bea presented the doctors' requirements and
descriptions of what a simple, natural diet would be, along with their
questions about how to get people to eat it. They also asked about
cutting back on the underlying problem, self-enslavement to lustful
appetites. Gabby and Bea asked:

"What suggestions do you have for `universal modifications' in conduct
and manners?"

To everybody's surprise, the rich were silent. They were flummoxed.
The poor had the most ideas, and being schooled in hardship, they
proved the most willing and morally capable of changing their
lifestyle. After visiting many villages and getting to know the
country mice and spending much time consulting with the city mice in
Managua, Gabby and Bea took the plan to stage two. Rich and poor got
together and made up a better diet, not a richer or poorer diet but a
better one. Everyone got together and agreed upon goals to aim for
over twenty years, over ten and over one year. They hired dieticians
and cooks and teachers; once everybody knew where they were going it
was simple, like the diet they were aiming for. They made things
happen according to a timetable.

It was the custom in Nicaragua to lift a conquering hero onto the
people's shoulders and throw her in the air. When they came back to
visit Nicaragua every year, Gabby and Bea were lifted on stronger,
healthier, happier shoulders. They were therefore thrown a little
higher each year. At the tenth year, Gabby and Bea hit the ceiling. It
was decided to hold the ceremony outdoors. The twentieth year of the
plan marked the time when all vices had been eliminated. People had
learned to love virtue, to cling always to the Golden Mean. Slavery to
lusts and desires was rare and highly disapproved of. The Nicaraguan
diet was ruled by the WHO to be at optimum for every citizen -- that
means that they ate the best diet for the genes of that body in that
economy. The black bean had become a staple not only here but, on its
own merits, included in the diets of all, around the world. Gabby and
Bea went to many places in the world, picking out the best parts of
the poor people's diets, and everywhere they were first to learn a
new, world diet. But the Nicaraguan country mice were the most famous
of all, hired to work around the world as dietary consultants, as food
plan executives and teachers of virtue. Gabby and Bea were so
acclaimed that they had to wear parachutes when thrown in the air. As
they floated to the ground they sang praises for the One who had got
them there, `Abdu'l-Baha, the Master, the perfect exemplar.

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com

Child Meets the Master

A Child Meets the Master; Anecdote in Ruhi, Book V

John Taylor; 28 July 2005

Friends, our community is studying Ruhi Book Five, which goes through
the plans and preparation for teaching a second year level of
children's classes to children of about 8 years old. In one of the
lessons we went through this week, Lesson 5 I think it was, the
children's class teacher is asked to retell an anecdote of Leroy Ioas
meeting the Master as a young child in Chicago. Although I already
sent most of the following out on the Badi' list about a year ago, I
am sending it out again now because it documents the original source
of this story, which is not attributed in the Ruhi book.

The authoritative version of this anecdote I have pointed out here by
adding "xxxx" before and after it, and I have included in the text
Piff's footnote documenting it. The Ruhi version of this story is
commendably accurate, unlike many others, though it does leave out
some details, notably the blood the Master spilt on the flower. If it
were up to me, I might pick out a different story of the Master to
tell to children, but the fact that it has been changed and twisted
around so much may indicate that it does have a certain appeal; it is
certainly one of only a few that I can think of that tell of a meeting
with the Master from a child's point of view.

Anecdotes about `Abdu'l-Baha

"... Abdu'l-Baha's visits to the West in 1911-13 greatly consolidated
and encouraged the nascent Bahai communities in Europe and North
America and his talks, and anecdotes about him provided an important
body of information the community could use to shape its beliefs,
attitudes and conduct. Official Baha'i doctrine identifies Abdul-Baha
as the perfect exemplar of Baha'u'llah's teachings; indeed, when
contemplating a course of action, Baha'is often ask themselves what
Abdul-Baha would have done. Thus knowing what Abdu'l-Baha did do in
various situations is important. Despite discouragement from Baha'i
leaders to attach importance to stories told about Abdul-Baha,
exemplary stories in which he is the central character are circulated
widely and frequently in the Baha'i community.

"Anecdotes about Abdu'l-Baha are too numerous to treat comprehensively
in the scope of the present study. Popular lore recounts episodes in
which Abdul-Baha defeated a hypnotist sent by enemies of Baha'i to
disrupt one of his talks; walked out of an unchaste movie or stage
performance; joked with Emily Pankhurst, a leading English
suffragette; met with industrialist Andrew Carnegie and afterwards
declared that in the next world Mr Carnegie would be a stone; rejected
a gift given by a devotee on behalf of her husband; and replied to
questions posed by Baha'i followers by answering them in their dreams.

"Often the stories convey a moral teaching as well as indicating the
mysterious, spiritual powers of Abdul-Baha. The following story
illustrates a number of important elements present in Baha'i community
discourse about Abdul-Baha and will perhaps serve as an example of an
entire class of anecdotes. It is useful for our purposes because it
exists in at least two variants, one American and one Iranian, and
also for the fact that its origin can be traced to an autobiographical
account, enabling some analysis of the shaping process the story has
undergone. The following is an American version:

"At one of Abdul-Baha's speaking engagements in the United States a
young boy sat in the audience, drinking in the Master's words. At the
end of the meeting the Master began to distribute flowers to the
guests. The boy thought to himself, If I am a good Baha'i, Abdul-Baha
will give me one of His red roses. But all the flowers were
distributed before Abdul-Baha reached the boy. The boy sadly left the
room and sat down on the stairs outside. Abdul-Baha appeared beside
the lad. He plucked a white rose from His robe, took out a pin and
gashed His finger so that the blood flowed freely. The Master
proceeded to paint the rose red with His own blood, then handed the
crimson flower to the boy, saying, `You are a good Baha'i.' The boy
later became a Hand of the Cause of God.

"Official Bahai history acknowledges that some of the incidents
associated with Abdul-Baha during his Western visits were marvellous
or strange. Popular lore attributes to him a miraculous insight into
the wishes and desires of his devotees; he was deemed capable of, in
effect, reading their minds (or at least of knowing the condition of
their hearts). For this reason, some Baha'is certainly consider the
above story plausible.

"The episode illustrates Abdul-Baha's supernatural gift as well as his
exemplary kindness. One of the Baha'is, a young boy, has made a secret
wish: If I am a good Baha'i, Abdul-Baha will give me one of his red
roses. Abdul-Baha's response is wonderful beyond expectation: he
removes a white rose from his own robe, cuts his finger with a pin,
paints the rose red with his blood, and hands it to the boy saying the
very words, `You are a good Baha'i.' The fact that the boy later grows
up to become a Hand of the Cause of God adds an additional prophetic
appropriateness to Abdul-Baha's act.

"The episode above is said to have occurred during Abdul-Baha's
sojourn among the Baha'is of North America in 1912. The original
source for the story appears to be an incident in the boyhood life of
the late Hand of the Cause Leroy Ioas; the following is Mr. Ioas'
account of the episode:

xxxx

"I recall another . . . visit to the Master in the Plaza Hotel [in
Chicago]. We were going there, and I decided. . . to buy Him some
flowers. . . I didn't have much money, but I bought Him a beautiful
bouquet of white carnations... After we approached the hotel and got
into the main floor, I said to my father, I am just not going to bring
the Master these flowers. He said, Why not? ... the Master loves
flowers. I said, I know He does, but... I come to the Master offering
Him my heart and I don't want Him to think that I am currying any
favours. He knows the condition of a person's heart, and that is all I
have to offer. My father took the flowers and went upstairs, and he
handed them to the Master, and the Master sat talking, feeling those
flowers, smelling them, putting His face into them.

"With this, He gave this beautiful talk after He finished, He stood up
shaking hands with everyone, and to everyone He gave one of these
white carnations. He shook hands with them and gave them a white
carnation, shook hands with the next one and gave him a white
carnation; shook hands with the next one and gave him a white
carnation. These white carnations were getting to be very few, and I
was standing behind Abdul-Baha, and He had three or four left, and I
thought, Gee, I wish He would turn around and shake hands with me
before those are all gone. Just as I thought that, He turned around
and looked at me, and He had a beautiful red rose. He pulled this red
rose off His coat and handed it to me. As He did so, some of the blood
of His finger was cut on the pin, so that I have that red rose with
the Masters blood on it.

[fn: This incident is recorded in an unpublished historical document
prepared by the Ioas family, "Part of the Baha'i History of the Family
of Charles and Maria Ioas", August, 1978, pp. 14-15. See also Chapman,
Leroy Ioas, p. 23]

xxxx

"Mr Ioas's written version of the narrative contains many of the same
points as the oral version. In both versions, Abdul-Baha is the
central character; in both he is able to read the condition of a
persons heart; in both there is a marvellous synchronicity: Mr Ioas
thought, Gee I wish He would turn around and Abdul-Baha did.

As in the oral version, Abdu'l-Baha presents the boy with a flower
from his own clothing; and in both versions the flower the boy
receives is different in colour from those received by the others. But
the most dramatic and wonderful element of the episode the deliberate
painting of the flower with blood has been inflated from Abdul-Bahas
having cut his finger on a pin as he removed the flower from his coat.
The character of the act has changed from an accident to an
intentional performance on the part of Abdul-Baha. The original
version does not mention the boy's silent wish, his dejection at not
receiving a flower or Abdul-Baha's reassuring pronouncement you are a
good Baha'i. Self- doubt and a need for reassurance are, of course,
universal human feelings. Baha'is, like others who strive to live up
to certain ideals of behaviour, are often acutely aware of their
personal shortcomings and the distance separating their individual
lives and attitudes from the Bahai standard.

"The Iranian variant, attributed by my informant to an Iranian Hand of
the Cause, differs in some details from the American version and has a
slightly different conclusion (and theme):

"The episode occurred in the West at a Baha'i meeting. Abdul-Baha had
spoken and was passing out roses. All of the roses were red but one,
which was white. The Baha'i who received the white rose felt singled
out -- was something wrong with him? Why had his rose been white and
all the others red? Abdu'l-Baha turned, took the rose, cut his flesh
so that blood flowed down his arm, reddened the petals in the blood
and handed it back saying,

"I love all of you, all of you the same."

The central act of the story is the same in this version: the white
rose is intentionally painted by Abdu'l-Baha with his own blood. The
Baha'i, however, is no longer identified as a young person nor as a
future Baha'i dignitary. The flower, again different in hue from the
others, has not come from Abdul-Baha's robe and the point Abdul-Baha
is making is not that the person receiving the rose is a good Baha'i
but that he is loved the same as all other members of the community.

"Again, however, Abdu'l-Baha seems to have read the mind (Or guessed
the secret doubt or question) of the Baha'i and, unasked, given a
wonderful answer. This version would seem to address a need on the
part of the Iranian Baha'is for reassurance that all of them were
loved, important members of the community. Perhaps issues of division
based on Bahai status, family connection or wealth troubled the
community and were addressed by the story.

"All versions of the anecdote, including the original, reinforce for
Baha'is their belief in the special powers and capacity for love
exhibited by `Abdul-Baha. However, in the oral versions, details have
been shaped to emphasize with more force the message that Abdul-Baha
was a unique figure with superhuman insight and the capability for
gestures of poetic kindness. The story illustrates Abdul-Baha's
sacrificial spirit; he is willing to shed his blood for the happiness
of the Baha'is. The story also illustrates the infusion of the
marvellous into Bahai community life.

-From David Piff, Baha'i Lore, George Ronald, Oxford, 2000, pp. 93-5

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com

Most Shameful Story

please note: from now on back essay of the Badi' list will be
available at the blog in the "message to:" line of this mailout.

The Most Shameful Story Ever Told; Why the Manifestation Must Suffer

By John Taylor; 26 July, 2005

Our theme for the day comes from our morning reading for today, a
passage from the Persian Bayan (VI, 11). The Bab writes,

"Everyone is eagerly awaiting His appearance, yet since their inner
eyes are not directed towards Him sorrow must needs befall Him." (The
Bab, Selections, 96)

The Bab puts it unambiguously and emphatically: "He must needs
suffer." Where is the justice? Why do the Manifestations have to
suffer when it is our fault? The shame of shutting our inner eyes is
ours, surely. The fault is in us. We overdeveloped our outer eyes and
left the inner eye blind. Why are the Holiest Beings in history forced
to take on our sorrow and regret? I guess in order to understand the
answer to these questions, I will have to open my inner eye myself.
But what does that mean, the inner and outer eye?

We have inner eyes as well as outer eyes, and the Bab earlier on in
this Bayan has established that inner sight is not a purely
intellectual faculty or a product of formal human learning, inasmuch
as every nation in every age has a cadre of learned and accomplished
thinkers. It is axiomatic: the only way truly to know something is
through the One who conceived of it and owns it, God, or rather
through the One He appoints to represent it to us. "True knowledge,"
He says, "... is the knowledge of God, and this is none other than the
recognition of His Manifestation in each Dispensation." (Selections,
89) Suffering, sincerity and reflection are prime requisites for the
inner sight, and here the poor and unknown tend to have a head start
over the advantaged and famous.

Privileged or not, all are equally responsible to turn their inner eye
to the Manifestation, to recognize what we see and to obey it. If we
do not, He suffers more. What? In our reading for this morning the Bab
expands his meaning further, using the historical precedent of the
life of Muhammad,

"In the case of the Apostle of God -- may the blessings of God rest
upon Him -- before the revelation of the Qur'an everyone bore witness
to His piety and noble virtues. Behold Him then after the revelation
of the Qur'an. What outrageous insults were levelled against Him, as
indeed the pen is ashamed to recount." (Id.)

The greatest story ever told, then, is also the most shameful ever
told. Why does the Bab single out Muhammad's story here? After all,
Christianity talks about the shame of Jesus' story too. Take Paul's
expression, to "crucify Christ again." Here is the context in which
Paul originated this strange sounding way of expressing the shame of
human blindness,

"For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy
Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the
world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh,
and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinketh in the rain
that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by
whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: but that which
beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose
end is to be burned." (Hebrews 6:4-7)

Believers are domesticated plants, expected to grow and bear fruit for
the gardener. If they grow as they please, if they do what comes
naturally they will be fit only for burning. From the gardener's point
of view, burning is the most shameful fate possible for one of his
plants. It must cause any gardener pain to dispose of what he planted
with his own hands, weeded and watered over many weeks. Thus a
superficial, lukewarm Christian is shameful because he causes not
himself but Jesus pain and shame, Whose name he wears and bears. Thus
he re-enacts the crucifixion in his own heart, in the same way that an
unfaithful Muslim shames Muhammad by siding with the idolatrous
Meccans who persecuted Him, and a worldly Jew shames Moses, the Great
Liberator, by going over to the makers of idols in the wilderness. In
every age the most shameful story ever told is retold, over and over.

Yet there is a crucial difference with the advent of Muhammad and now
with the Bab. These two revelations greatly intensify the shame. How
so? Consider how the Bab continues in the Bayan, telling His own
story,

"Likewise behold the Point of the Bayan. His behaviour prior to the
declaration of His mission is clearly evident unto those who knew Him.
Now, following His manifestation, although He hath, up to the present,
revealed no less than five hundred thousand verses on different
subjects, behold what calumnies are uttered, so unseemly that the pen
is stricken with shame at the mention of them." (Selections, 96-7)

Muhammad, then, was the first prophet to have His message written
down, and his frozen text, the Qu'ran or recitation, made him the Seal
of the Prophets, a stamp that gives authenticity and closure to the
verbal messages of the ages before. The fact that he provided written
testimony made the shame worse for His opponents, for they had no
valid excuses for attacking Him.

An enemy of a prophet with a book need only read it for himself if he
doubts to uncover undisputed evidence as to whether the words are of
God. The Gospels, on the other hand, existed only in the heads of the
Apostles for at least a generation after the crucifixion. Therefore
the pain and shame were quicker, more intense and unreasoned for
Muhammad than any Manifestations before Him. And now the Bab, with
even more unmistakable written proofs, arrives as the second
Manifestation with a Book written by Himself.

As the Bab says, His very pen shrinks in shame to tell of the violent
rejection. As mentioned, "Qu'ran" is an Arabic word meaning recitation
or dictation, inspired or memorized words dictated to a secretary;
from a literary point of view this text is challenging, extremely
condensed and abstruse. However "Bayan" the Universal House of Justice
(Messages 1963 to 1986, 735) defines as "exposition, explanation,
lucidity, eloquence, utterance." A Bayan is a turning point in our
collective evolution because it contains many verses "on different
subjects," which I take to mean that it covers a broader range of
human experience, that it not only pronounces but explains and
completes, that it is, in a word, beautiful. With a Bayan as well as a
Qu'ran we have fewer excuses than ever before.

But the final sentence of our selection for this morning is the
kicker. The Bab writes:

"But if all men were to observe the ordinances of God no sadness would
befall that heavenly Tree." (The Bab, Selections, 96-97)

This surely gives a good hint at why a more complete, authoritative,
written testimony increases sadness for its Revelator. The first
reason the Bab gave is because we do not use our inner eye, the second
is because we disobey God's law by rejecting the Manifestation. For as
the Aqdas states right off, it is first to know God and then to obey
Him. Even an authentically written set of laws is still a dead letter
if we do not put it into action.

So to love Him is to do our best to reduce His anguish, to make Him
happy not out of hope of reward or fear of punishment but out of love,
because we see Him whole and follow with total purity and sincerity.

"Believe ye then part of the Book, and deny part? And who committeth a
greater wrong than he who hindereth God's name from being remembered
in his temples, and who hasteth to ruin them? such men cannot enter
them but with fear. Their's is shame in this world, and a severe
torment in the next." (Qur'an 2:75-80, Rodwell, tr)

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com

Slots and Solar Oven

A Day At the Races and Slots, Solar Oven Experiment

By John Taylor; 24 July, 2005

Two days I have missed writing you, dear reader of the Badi list. On
day one of my break, Friday, I visited my non-Baha'i, philosopher's
cafe and chess friend Stu. In his new car he showed me the trailer he
owns in Sherkston Shores, a vacation beach resort near Fort Erie, then
we drove to Fort Erie and he showed me around its "Race Track and
Slots." Marie likes horses and wants to visit this establishment and
so I asked him to show me how to get there and get around. I had never
been to a race track or a gambling establishment, so it was a totally
new experience.

They were not racing that day and everything was as empty as it gets.
The stands were windswept and ghostly, but immaculate. Above were
sparsely peopled lounges with walls papered with television screens
depicting races going on in other parts of North America. If you must
bet, you can still put your money on these pari-mutuels, anytime,
anywhere. I walked in and a muscled young man came up to me and asked
how you place a bet. "You are definitely talking to the wrong person,"
I replied.

The "slots," it turned out, was a huge slot machine emporium next to
the stadium, about the size of an airplane hanger or football field.
It was nowhere near full but still there must have been two or three
hundred seniors betting away there, filling the one-armed bandits with
their chips and quarters, most smoking away contentedly. Smokers are
banished from most public places now but not here; one vice cancels
out another, I guess. The bright lights mesmerized but after a while
the sight went from sad to depressing. A great many older folk
inhabited the place, a mere handful of middle aged, the rest ranging
from their fifties to their eighties; the real losers in the long run,
I suppose, would be not themselves so much as their heirs and
families. I stopped to ask a security guard if I was allowed to take
photos -- I have learned to do that since I was accosted by a guard in
Toys-R-Us, of all places, for taking pictures on "private property."
No way, was the guard's reply, unless you win a jackpot, in which case
they take your picture for you.

Though a sign warned that the place was monitored by video cameras, I
was well aware that by crossing that threshold I was being
photographed, my image was being checked by facial recognition
software and that this data was being shared instantaneously with
every other casino across the province, and who knows what other
institutions, legal or otherwise. Yes, my curiosity eroded my privacy
rights that afternoon just a little bit more than before. If I had
pulled out Silvie's little digicam just them, which I carry in my
shirt pocket, I would have made myself instant persona non grata in
every gambling establishment across the nation. Not that that is a
concern.

The place was so big that Stu and I got lost and could not find the
exit for a time. Many slot machines, I noticed, were themed around
television shows of the Sixties and Seventies, like Bewitched, Hogan's
Heroes, and so forth. I really wished I could have taken photos of the
clientele, they looked so sad and pathetic. You hear the usual jokes
about gamblers, the quip came to mind that lotteries and gambling
amount to nothing less than voluntary taxes on the mathematically
challenged, but to see the victims in all their squalid glory there
before me was truly heart rending.

I am sure that on the face of it the casinos justify stomping on
people's privacy rights with their hidden cameras in order to prevent
cheating, but I felt certain that the underlying reason is that they
do not want it to be generally known how decrepit and exploited these
aged gamblers look. Is that all the wisdom these codgers have gained
over their lifetime, to spend their time in an utterly futile and
selfish quest of somehow beating the odds? No wonder they are so
determined that only the smiling winners are photographed and get into
the papers, that the hunched over majority remain as invisible as
possible. And since the government is the biggest gambling addict,
they see that the newspapers cooperate in this flow of information,
that headlines always read, "So and so wins," and, "So and so beats
the odds," and not, "Millions of losers lose out on their life
savings."

As we drove back to Port (as locals call Port Colbourne) we drove by a
battlefield museum devoted to an engagement during the war of 1812,
and I thought, here is a place I'd rather take the kids to see though
it probably does not have the horses that would satisfy the wife. That
kind of thing is much more edifying than a gambling hole, however
shiny and well equipped. Then after we loaded my old computer into my
car and I drove back home alone from Port to Dunnville, somebody on
the radio quoted this passage from the Bible:

"For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly,
saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." (Jer 8:11, KJV)

A cry of false peace is all you expect from an addicted government,
lies instead of truth, cynicism rather than plans or hope for a cure;
excuses and crippled rights rather than real justice; a semblance of
order, not law. Just keep things going enough to keep the organism
alive and the flow of exploitation continuing apace.

Then yesterday, Saturday, I cooked my first solar barbeque. Here is
how it happened. On Thursday I had to drive to Hamilton to return a
long overdue library book. When I entered the library I found that the
lights were out. It was a conservation measure; they were doing their
part to prevent the rolling blackouts that Ontario Hydro is
threatening if we do not cut back on power consumption. Since I had
forgotten my reading glasses that combined with the darkness prevented
my actually reading in this Glanbrook Library. Sitting in the dark
with a magazine on my knee, unable to read it, well that set me to
thinking. I should do my part too by getting a solar oven going. I was
on a "solar and independent living" Internet mailing group a few years
ago where most of the participants were sharing recipes for their
solar ovens. I collected plans for solar ovens but never did anything
about it. It was almost too easy for me; you can make such an oven out
of a cardboard box and a piece of glass.

On the way home I stopped off at "Triple M Demolition," a huge lot
near the one store town of Canfield (its general store is called,
simply, "The Store.") that is jammed with industrial castoffs stored
in old streetcars, buses and derelict truck containers. I had not
visited Triple M for several years. I took pictures as I walked
through (here is a moral dictum for me from now on, never go anywhere
that does not allow you to take photos freely), and if I have the
gumption I will include some shots in the finished version of this
letter. One object on a corner that fascinated me was a black, rounded
steel outhouse-like structure that the guy at the gate called a
"darkroom." Indeed, when you slide the curved door shut around you,
you find yourself in pitch darkness; I positively drooled at what a
perfect camera obscura this tiny out-building would make. Put it on
the roof of a building on a street corner, or on Hamilton's mountain
brow, and you would have a wonderful observation post.

Going through the grounds I picked up about five items that I thought
might be good for a solar oven, and when I went to inquire about
prices the gatekeeper upon seeing them said simply, "Ten bucks for all
of it." The pile included what looked like a microwave carousel
platter, made of glass, smooth on the outside and knobby on the
inside, except that it was dome-like, circular and concave. There was
a broken plastic lamp fixture that he said came out of a big box
store, perhaps a Wal-Mart or Canadian Tire. Combined with an old
lidless crock pot that I got from a free garage sale, I thought that
this might make an efficient solar oven that would, most important of
all, be very easy to put together. As for the ten bucks, I realized
that I needed to spend something in order to force a commitment to
actually completing this long delayed project; so after my usual
stewing and dawdling I shelled out for it on the spot.

Laziness still probably would have won out over initiative had I not
blabbed about my solar oven plan at the dinner table. This got the
curiosity of the children primed and the next day, even though it was
raining all morning, what I heard from them when I got back from Fort
Erie was not hello we missed you but,

"Why did you not do the solar barbeque today? We want to see what it is like!"

So the next day, Saturday, I was pushed into finally putting my dream
into action. I was still sitting here around 10 AM writing away when
Thomas rushed in and asked about the barbeque. I answered,

"Yes, now is the time I should put it out, thank you for reminding me."

I kissed my essay for that day goodbye and collected two beets, some
carrots, an onion and a yam, put them on tinfoil in the crock pot, and
covered it with one item in the ten buck solar oven kit, a round, flat
piece of glass that may well have been the porthole on a submarine for
all I know, and on top of that I placed the broken plastic light
fixture. This is shaped like a megaphone, a half-cone, and it directed
the light onto the top of the crock pot. It looked quite impressive;
turn it upside down and it would make the model for a pretty good
looking Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, certainly better than that horrible thing
going up in Santiago, Chile, I must say.

After about an hour, at noon, the oven was hot enough to have fogged
over on the inside, with many beads of water obscuring the view of the
veggies inside. Every once in a while Thomas would come running in
complaining about how long it was taking. I took pictures of the oven,
which inspired Silvie to include it in her daily drama, this one being
called, "Bea and Blakey." She took many pictures of her own (it is her
camera, after all), some with Thomas standing by the new oven with the
two stuffed animals in his arms.

The oven got direct radiation until about four in the afternoon, when
a neighbor's huge tree started to overshadow it. I figured all I had
to do was retain the heat that was already in there for the next hour,
so I added the dome shaped microwave platter onto the flat surface of
the submarine porthole, with the fanned out reflector on top of both.
With this added warm air layer insulating the oven, the lighting
fixture kept the underneath layers hot to the touch until 5 PM,
suppertime. With great drama and fanfare I carried the meal into the
dining room in a triumphal procession. To my surprise, the oven
actually worked. The yam was cooked through, as was the onion and even
one of the beets. The other beet and the carrots on the bottom needed
another minute in the microwave. That was cheating of course but on
the whole I was very pleased with this first meal direct from the star
Sol. Experienced solar cooks can do a large meal even on overcast
winter days. I still have the option of covering the outside of the
plastic fixture with aluminum foil, which should increase its
reflectivity to the point where I might manage as well as any of the
members of the Solar and Independent Living list.

If you want to see some gallows humor in reaction to the London
bombings, check out:

<http://youblewmeupyoubastard.com/>

This is almost as good an idea as my proposed "Warning Labels Dot
Com." Now that I am cut off from television the atmosphere of
widespread fear caused by terrorist acts seems strangely distant and
muted. When I first heard the news my father rushed up the stairs
saying breathlessly, "They blew up the underground in London." I
imagined that the whole subway system had been destroyed and the city
was near collapse. When I finally got to a newspaper a day later I was
relieved to read that it was not nearly as bad as I had feared. Fear
is the fruit and the fertilizer of the politics of terror. Jeremiah
had something to say about that, too.

"For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear,
and not of peace." (Jeremiah 30:5, KJV)

--
John Taylor

badijet@gmail.com

PRIVATE AND HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL

Chairat Khun & Associate Chambers
29 Chaeng Wattana,
Nonthaburi 11120, Thailand.
Email:barrcharatkhun@yahoo.com.hk

Dear Friend,

Firstly, I apologize for sending you this sensitive information via e-mail instead of a Certified mail/Post-mail. This is due to the urgency and importance of the information. This project is based on Trust, confidentiality and sincerity of purpose in order to have an acceptable meeting of the minds.I am Barrister kane chan, a Solicitor. I am the Personal Attorney to Mr. Edward Williams, who used to work with SIAMRAK Company Limited in Bangkok Thailand . On the 21st of April 2007, his wife and their three children were involved in a car accident along Sukhumvit Express Road.

Unfortunately, they all lost their lives in the event of the accident. Since then I have made several enquiries to your Embassy to locate any of my client's relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet to locate any member of his family but to no avail, hence, I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left behind by my client in a Finance Company. Particularly, the Finance House where the deceased deposited the US$10 Million (Ten Million United States Dollars only).

Consequently, this Finance House issued me a notice to provide the Next of Kin to claim the US$10 Million (Ten Million United States Dollars only) in their custody within the next ten official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 3 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased to claim the fund as the Next of Kin to him so that the fund will be transferred to your account by the Finance House.

Upon receipt of the fund, I will come over to your country to meet with you for the disbursement of the fund and then you and I will share the money in this order: 55% will be for me, 45% will be for you. I have all the necessary legal documents that can back our claim we will make with the Finance House.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law.

You are needed as a next of kin to inherit left fund.

Best regards .
Barrister Chairat Khun (Esq.)

I have moved

Friends,

Please note that John and Marie Taylor's new permanent email address is now:

badijet@gmail.com

The Titanic and the Telesurgeon

Friends,

Here is SilvieÂ’s play that she wrote this morning, plus yet another
article about Mehran Anvari, chair of the Spiritual Assembly of the
BahaÂ’is of Hamilton.




Titanic, Almost Unsinkable, A Play


By Silvie Taylor (9 years old)


Dramatis Personae (Cast)

The Narrator - Silvie Taylor
Titanic - big box
The Master - Ling Ling Doll and small ball
Iceberg - Owowow, the wolf
Titanic passengers - a few masks, held by Thomas
Cedric - a small green canoe
Water - Blankey



Narrator: The Master is looking for a ship to take Him across the ocean.

Titanic passengers: You should go on this "unsinkable" one. BOOM BOOM

The Master: I choose to go on the Cedric.

Narrator: He goes on the Cedric.

Passengers: Suit yourself, we will go on this "safer" one.

Narrator: Two hours later they saw a huge iceberg. But they turned too
late. It scraped the ship and it sank.

Passengers: Help, help!

Narrator: Just as the Titanic sank, the Cedric came along. The
passengers jumped onto the Cedric.

Passengers: Thank you!

Narrator: Five days later the Cedric reached the other side of the
ocean. The end!




Telesurgeons would stitch astronauts in space

Pioneering Hamilton doctor will lead remote NASA team testing robotic
operations


The Hamilton Spectator, Monday, August 9, 2004, A5


By Jacquie de Almeida

A Hamilton surgeon who performed the world's first remote surgery using
robots is pushing the technology's boundaries.

Today at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in Mount Hope, Dr. Mehran
Anvari will announce the crew of Neemo 7, an international underwater
10-day mission to take place in October on a station off the coast of
Key Largo, Florida.

Its goal is to test telesurgical developments that would allow a
non-surgeon to perform assisted tele-surgery in a contained and extreme
environment.

The crew is made up of two American astronauts, Canadian astronaut Dave
Williams, and a surgeon from McMaster University's Centre for Minimal
Access Surgery (CMAS).

Neemo 7 (NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations 7), is a joint
project of the CMAS, the Canadian Space Agency, and NASA.

The astronauts will perform selected surgeries for the kinds of
emergencies that could arise on an extended space mission like acute
appendicitis, gall bladder, kidney stones, suturing severed arteries or
nerves and draining an abscess.

Hamilton based surgeons will telerobotically guide the astronauts in
testing new medical applications for the technology in an underwater
station called Aquarius. They will also look at behavioural and
physiological changes astronauts may have when performing surgery.

Last year, Anvari performed the world's first telerobotic assisted
surgery from St. Joseph's Healthcare, on a patient 400 kilometres away
in North Bay. While Anvari moved the robotic arms in Hamilton, another
set in North Bay responded within 140 miliseconds, less time than it
takes to blink an eye.

Anvari said the biggest obstacle to advancing telerobotic-assisted
surgery is the ability to imagine its benefits.

"It's important for policy-makers and funding agencies to be able to
say, `This is something for the future,'" he said.

"When we did our first telesurgery, many people said this is never going
to be possible. We've proven that it can make a big difference to
patients in rural Canada. To some extent the biggest issue is attracting
people's imagination to this technology and where this work can go."

Anvari said he could not release many details about the robot itself
prior to today's announcement but said it would eventually have up to
six arms set up on an operating bed platform, each one of them able to
move independently. It also has multiple joints that allows (sic) it to
move freely and with a surgeon's dexterity, he said.

The current robot design has surgical instruments affixed to the arms
but Anvari said the next generation will be able to pick up instruments.
He said one of the more exiting prospects of telesurgery is its
extra-terrestrial applications.

The technology has attracted interest for use in extended missions,
particularly if humans set up a station on Mars. But with a delay of up
to 30 minutes for a signal to travel back, the project will be looking
at developing preprogrammed robots.

"The robotics of today and the robotics of 15 or 20 years from now are
going to be very different and much more sophisticated," he said.

He added a robotic surgeon may be preferable to a human because it is
not affected by zero gravity. A human surgeon would have to be anchored
down in zero gravity, causing muscles to tense and exert more force on
surgical instruments.

Anvari said project co-ordinators aim to put telesurgery to use on the
International Space Station, with a time delay of about 200 to 300
milliseconds if the signal is direct and up to 800 milliseconds if the
signal has to travel via satellite.

More Neemo missions will help refine and improve telesurgical robotic
technology.




John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
 
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
 
Badi Web Site: TBA

Trip to Remember

A Trip To Remember, Questions to Remember



By John Taylor; 11 August, 2004



I was pleased to read in a recent email that the National Spiritual
Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada is encouraging local groups to start
commemorating the Master's visit to this land, which took place in
September. They are hoping that these meetings will lead up to a major
celebration at the centenary of His visit in 2012. If I had the means,
this is what I'd like to do, go to Alexandria and then follow through to
every place in the West that He visited, reading the speeches that He
gave at the exact hundredth anniversary from when they were originally
given. I'd even dress up in an `aba, fez and long fake white beard as I
read them -- I know, I know, the dignity of the Faith would be affronted
by that. But I would not do it as a publicity stunt; I would do it just
for myself, to walk in His steps and get a feeling for what it must have
been like to be the Exemplary Baha'i in those early days.

Mostly, to say the words He said, I love doing that -- who needs a
costume when you can parrot the words of the Man? As the Master Himself
said, the reality of man is his thought. Maybe as a compromise I will
read the speeches aloud into a recorder and make them available on the
net in MP3 format. Even that would be tough to do, since many of the
speeches remain uncollected and are very hard to attain even today.

Silvie came to me as I was writing the above with a play she has in mind
about the voyage of the Master across the Atlantic. She held a green toy
boat in hand which will play the role of the boat He took, the Cedric,
which she wants to contrast with the sad fate of the Titanic. I had told
her the story long ago, how the Master had a bad feeling about it when
they asked Him to cross on that "safer" boat.

She wants to entitle the play, "Titanic, Almost Unsinkable." What made
this impression on her was an episode of the animated series,
"Futurama," called "A Flight to Remember," which satirically places the
Titanic's story far into the future and making the ill-fated vessel a
space ship. I taped (or rather tested out our equipment by putting it
into VCD format on a CD-ROM) the episode just before cutting off our
satellite television feed last spring. Silvie and Thomas watch the
CD-ROM over and over, the way that kids do. The film "Titanic," even the
animated version, did not make nearly the impression that this comic
travesty does.

At the start of the "Flight to Remember" episode their boss announces to
the characters that he has bought them tickets for a trip on the maiden
cruise of an uncrashable spaceship, "The Titanic," and whenever the word
"Titanic" is voiced it is followed by a loud, ominous, metallic clanking
sound effect, a sound of finality based no doubt on the sound of a
barred jail door closing. By a strange coincidence, Thomas had taken "A
Night To Remember," with its cover illustration of a sinking Titanic out
of my bookshelves and the book was kicking around, getting in our way.
As they watched once, I pointed out to them that this famous non-fiction
book, which I was required to read in High School, was the reason the
episode was called "A Flight to Remember." They were more interested in
how the spaceship's captain was promising to "fly her brains out," which
he subsequently does by ordering the crew to steer her over by "this
here blackish holish thing." Rather than an iceberg this Titanic ended
up sucked into a black hole.

In retelling the story of the Master's crossing to her last night I took
advantage of the familiar clanking sound effect, telling her that
probably the sound was only audible in the world of spirit. When people
suggested continuing on the Cedric the Master heard lovely music, but
when they held up a ticket for the Titanic and said its name, He heard
that deafening, "CLANK, CLANK." Hmm, He thought, the Cedric or the
Titanic CLANK CLANK? Which shall it be? "I don't know, maybe we had
better stick with the Cedric," He announced. Then I tried to show her
why the Titanic sank, how if they had crashed directly into the iceberg
they would have been safe, or if they had been cautious and turned
earlier, they would have been safe. But in their arrogance they waited
to turn and just scraped the side of the iceberg. I demonstrated with my
hand how it scraped the side of her stuffed wolf, whose paw was hidden
underwater, then the slow sinking of the Titanic. Silvie, with her hand
demonstrated how the little Cedric passed on by, safely crossing to the
other side of the Atlantic in a couple of hours. I explained that it was
days, not hours in a ship. And then this morning she awakes, inspired to
turn it into a play.

I have been somewhat distracted here, haven't I? What I wanted to come
to next was a challenge that the Master threw out to us all during His
travels. Here is what He said at Albert Hall's digs in Minneapolis,


"Material virtues have attained great development, but ideal virtues
have been left far behind. If you should ask a thousand persons, What
are the proofs of the reality of Divinity? perhaps not one would be able
to answer. If you should ask further, What proofs have you regarding the
essence of God? How do you explain inspiration and revelation? What are
the evidences of conscious intelligence beyond the material universe?
Can you suggest a plan and method for the betterment of human
moralities? Can you clearly define and differentiate the world of nature
and the world of Divinity? you would receive very little real knowledge
and enlightenment upon these questions.
"This is due to the fact that development of the ideal virtues has been
neglected. People speak of Divinity, but the ideas and beliefs they have
of Divinity are, in reality, superstition. Divinity is the effulgence of
the Sun of Reality, the manifestation of spiritual virtues and ideal
powers. The intellectual proofs of Divinity are based upon observation
and evidence which constitute decisive argument, logically proving the
reality of Divinity, the effulgence of mercy, the certainty of
inspiration and immortality of the spirit. This is, in reality, the
science of Divinity. Divinity is not what is set forth in dogmas and
sermons of the church. Ordinarily when the word Divinity is mentioned,
it is associated in the minds of the hearers with certain formulas and
doctrines, whereas it essentially means the wisdom and knowledge of God,
the effulgence of the Sun of Truth, the revelation of reality and divine
philosophy." (Abdu'l-Baha, Promulgation, 326)


What I'd like to do is set up a website with a survey to see if this
speculation is true, could one in a thousand answer these questions?
Could I, putative student of the Master, answer them adequately? Could
one in a million lay out the fundamentals of this philosophy without
reverting to "dogmas" or "formulas"? How many of us really understand
this "science of divinity" that he talks about?

On a site I'd also like to work out His suggested "plan and method for
the betterment of human moralities (sic)" What is He talking about? What
sort of plan might that be, a plan that everyone should have on the tip
of their tongue? Could it the "open system" ideas for rewarding success
in personal goals that I have been speculating about sporadically over
the last year?

I included a "sic" (evidently "morals" or "ethics" is meant) in the
above quote to demonstrate another problem I'd have reading aloud the
talks of the Master. Albert Windust and Howard McNutt, who compiled
Promulgation seem to have been better translators than grammarians. Some
but not all of the plethora of errors were cleared away in the revised
1982 edition of Promulgation. Even so, some talks are virtually
unreadable, especially those in Montreal.

In any case, though I may never be able to answer these questions myself
at the drop of a hat, it does seem to me to be the case that these are
questions that `Abdu'l-Baha Himself set out to answer for us during the
course of his Western teaching trips. In my imagined website I'd love to
compile those selections from where the Master does answer them. It
would be an important thing to do, since these questions He clearly
believed should become common knowledge one day. These truly, are points
to remember.



John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
 
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
 
Badi Web Site: TBA

Open Summation, II

Open Year Summation

Part II, The Bab


By John Taylor, 10 August, 2004



Ruhiyyih Khanum was outspoken in her dislike of the common expression,
"He signed his card," meaning that someone converted to the Baha'i
Faith. She often pointed out that the Guardian used dozens of synonyms
for the conversion experience but never this one. For one thing, there
is no particular necessity ever to sign a declaration card, either from
a spiritual or an administrative perspective. Signing my card for me was
a momentous experience, the result of a long argument that I lost
miserably, and I recall that my hand shook as I performed the act. But I
recognize that this is not a rite of passage that everybody must
undergo, if only because that would be opening the Faith up to ritual.

Yesterday I discovered while going over the Bab's use of the word "open"
that, if we relied upon His Writings alone this would probably be our
usual expression for conversion: "He opened his heart to the Faith."
Take this passage, for example, from the Kitab-i-Asma,


"Consider how at the time of the appearance of every Revelation, those
who open their hearts to the Author of that Revelation recognize the
Truth, while the hearts of those who fail to apprehend the Truth are
straitened by reason of their shutting themselves out from Him. However,
openness of heart is bestowed by God upon both parties alike. God
desireth not to straiten the heart of anyone, be it even an ant, how
much less the heart of a superior creature, except when he suffereth
himself to be wrapt in veils, for God is the Creator of all things."
(The Bab, Selections, 132)


As far as I can see, part of what the Bab is after here is correcting a
false impression from a literal reading the Qu'ran, which in several
places states that God "narrowed" the heart of Pharaoh -- Abdu'l-Baha
goes into detail on this misunderstood expression in "Some Answered
Questions." If God chained the heart unmediated by free will we would
not be responsible for any good or ill deeds. Hence what the Bab says,
that God makes all hearts open but we by sinning shut ourselves down. In
any case, the Bab clearly favors this expression and uses it in the next
paragraph in the conversion sense that Baha'is involved in teaching the
Faith find so useful. He says,


"... if thou dost open the heart of a person for His sake, better will
it be for thee than every virtuous deed; since deeds are secondary to
faith in Him and certitude in His reality." (Ib. 133)


There would be several advantages to saying that someone opened his
heart to the Faith rather than that he just "signed his card." For one
thing it seems to be the case -- spiritually if not literally -- that a
heart really is open or narrow insofar as it accepts the Manifestation
for one's age. Many hearts had to be narrowed and desensitized from love
and human feeling in order for outward events of mass carnage to take
place, for example the apocalyptic Great War. But the trail from
narrowed hearts to bloodshed in the trenches is easily discernable for
the spiritual eye.

Another advantage is that the expression has an opposite, you can close
your heart off from the Faith -- the other expression leaves no way to
"unsign your card" when goodwill and faith start to sour. Plus, it
implies a serious condition that is very hard to reverse. We may be able
to shut or open our eyes with no harmful effect, but a heart closure is
extremely serious and harmful, just as is a spiritual heart condition. A
cardiac infarction, what we call a "heart attack," is really a massive
failure where the vascular system cannot deliver blood to the heart;
deprived of nourishment, the muscle starves and shuts down. If the
failure continues even a short time massive tissue damage results and
the organism expires.

The material is the reflection of the spiritual. It is no coincidence
that cardio-vascular disease is the most common cause of premature death
in our time. But the Bab's assures us that God has no desire for this,
that He would not "straiten the heart of an ant" if it were up to Him.

In the following passage the Bab, addressing Baha'u'llah, seems to use
openness in the sense of accessibility or ease of entry into the Cause.


"O Qurratu'l-'Ayn! Stretch not Thy hands wide open in the Cause,
inasmuch as the people would find themselves in a state of stupor by
reason of the Mystery, and I swear by the true, Almighty God that there
is yet for Thee another turn after this Dispensation." (The Bab,
Selections, 53)


This seems to be the same Qu'ranic expression, stretching open one's
hands in a wide embrace, that we saw yesterday in the passage of the
Qu'ran advocating measured, moderate progress that was cited by the
Master in "Secret of Divine Civilization." The Bab is counseling
Baha'u'llah *not* to be too open, in view of the Mystery. Is the
"Mystery" that the Bab mentions here the high station of Baha'u'llah? Is
it the same "Secret" to be found in "Secret of Divine Civilization?" I
am not certain. It is certain, though, that spiritually the event of
revelation is exactly like the flinging open of the "gates of Paradise."


"They performed their acts of devotion for the sake of God, hoping that
He might enable them to join the righteous in Paradise. However, when
the gates of Paradise were flung open to their faces, they declined to
enter. They suffered themselves to enter into the fire, though they had
been seeking refuge therefrom in God." (The Báb, Selections, 143)


In other words, when the gates opened they were not quite pure enough.
They wanted paradise for their own good, not that of God and His
creation. When God opened up, they narrowed themselves down. Ironic,
isn't it? In spite of their selfish desire to avoid the fires of hell,
they narrowed their hearts and walked straight through its infernal
gates. This is why purity is so important. Pure deeds are like positive
health measures are to the body; if you don't make positive lifestyle
changes like eating heart-healthy foods, you put yourself in danger of a
heart condition. In another place the Bab repeats this image of His
opening up in the world of spirit the gates to heaven.


"Verily, on the First Day We flung open the gates of Paradise unto all
the peoples of the world, and exclaimed: 'O all ye created things!
Strive to gain admittance into Paradise, since ye have, during all your
lives, held fast unto virtuous deeds in order to attain unto it.' Surely
all men yearn to enter therein, but alas, they are unable to do so by
reason of that which their hands have wrought. Shouldst thou, however,
gain a true understanding of God in thine heart of hearts, ere He hath
manifested Himself, thou wouldst be able to recognize Him, visible and
resplendent, when He unveileth Himself before the eyes of all men." (The
Bab, Selections, 144, Kitab-i-Asma, XVII, 11)


As He says, if we "gain a true understanding of God in our hearts," then
we will open up the heart when we meet the Manifestation. But the
understanding has to be firmed up beforehand, in private moments of
meditation. The principle of search precedes the action principle of
oneness of humanity.

A major consequence of true understanding of God's oneness is a
willingness to give up what is ours for what is God's. This applies to
money and worldly goods, but also to the products of thought, what Plato
called our "mind children." This is why the principle of consultation
makes it a sacrament voluntarily to give up possession of one's ideas to
the group. We see this attitude of sharing in the open software
movement, where programmers offer the products of their labor for free
to the world. In view of that, consider the following assertion of the
Bab that the oneness of God is the only real possession.


"I seek no earthly goods from thee, be it as much as a mustard seed.
Indeed, to possess anything of this world or of the next would, in My
estimation, be tantamount to open blasphemy. For it ill beseemeth the
believer in the unity of God to turn his gaze to aught else, much less
to hold it in his possession. I know of a certainty that since I have
God, the Ever-Living, the Adored One, I am the possessor of all things,
visible and invisible..." (The Bab, Selections, 15)


The Bab seems to me to imply here that the reverse of spiritual openness
is open blasphemy, an affront, blatant or inferred, to the integrity of
God. Let us close with two prayers of the Bab that we will avoid the
wrong kind and attain to the good sort of openness.



"Bestow on me, O my Lord, Thy gracious bounty and benevolent gifts and
grant me that which beseemeth the sublimity of Thy glory. Aid me, O my
Lord, to achieve a singular victory. Open Thou the door of unfailing
success before me and grant that the things Thou hast promised may be
close at hand. Thou art in truth potent over all things." (The Bab,
Selections, 208)


"Grant that I may reap the benefit of my life in this world and in the
next. Open to my face the portals of Thy grace and graciously confer
upon me Thy tender mercy and bestowals." (The Bab, Selections, 213)



John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
 
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
 
Badi Web Site: TBA

Open Year Closed

At the Closure of My Open Year


By John Taylor; 9 August, 2004



It is almost exactly a year since I returned home after a week-long
summer vacation with an idea that had burst upon me with the force of a
revelation. I have spent a year working through this simple proposal to
apply more broadly the practical lessons of open systems in computer
programming.

Speaking generally, openness is at the heart of everything good about
enlightenment and civilized life. A century ago progress towards
openness was halting because of a series of revolutions, titanic
struggles between authoritarian, totalitarian rulers and open,
democratic governance. The intellectual roots of the conflict then were
laid out and encapsulated in Karl Popper's great work, "The Open Society
and Its Enemies."

Since "Fahrenheit 9-11" this debate has shifted and clarified. The real
clash now is no longer a simple struggle of good versus evil, of
knowledge versus ignorance. Rather now it revolves around a single
heated question: "To what extent can we have an open society and still
remain secure?"

The longer prejudice and structural injustices are allowed to persist,
the more contention and unrest there will be and the more difficult it
will be to find this balance. In the Baha'i Administrative Order the
members of the institution of the learned who specialize in protection
work harmoniously alongside their counterparts devoted to propagation.
Both aim at the same goal, the progress of the Cause of God. In the Old
Order, however, these two essential elements are engaged in a death
struggle that threatens to split democracy from within.

After working through many of the implications of universal open
systems, I realized a few months ago how close the central concepts of
openness are to the heart of the Master's own proposal for development,
the "Secret of Divine Civilization." For example, at one point
`Abdu'l-Baha cites the Qu'ran's graphic image that we will all confront,
the moment at death when our whole life, inner and outer, is laid out
before us as an open book.


"And every man's fate have We fastened about his neck: and on the Day of
Resurrection will We bring it forth to him a book which shall be
proffered to him wide open." (Qur'an 17:14) (Abdu'l-Baha, Secret, 102)


The Master understood as few in history have that progress depends upon
balancing privacy with openness, individualism with social
responsibility. Out of His Mind later evolved the twin pivotal Baha'i
principles: confidential, individual investigation of reality balanced
by an open, reciprocal, compassionate principle that He called oneness
of humanity. In Secret of Divine Civilization He states that this
dynamic balance comes of determined, selfless service by many
enlightened individuals, again citing the Qu'ran as His authority.


"If haste is harmful, inertness and indolence are a thousand times
worse. A middle course is best, as it is written: `It is incumbent upon
you to do good between the two evils,' this referring to the mean
between the two extremes. `And let not thy hand be tied up to thy neck;
nor yet open it with all openness ... but between these follow a middle
way.'" (Qur'an 17:31; 110) (Abdu'l-Baha, Secret, 108)


It is ironic and a little frightening to think that this was addressed
to correct a misconception about how to get ahead that had been insisted
upon in Persia by its Shi'ih Mullahs. This clerical cabal not only are
to this day the main persecutors of Baha'is, they are also now known to
be the perpetrators of most terrorism in the Middle East, including the
9-11 attacks, as the recent investigative commission discovered. Iran is
the axle of the axis of evil, the commission disclosed. For example,
most of the suicide attackers escaped out of Afghanistan through Iran,
and Iran's clerical government not only harbored them but helped train
and finance the project. Its symbolic act of terror on 9-11 was nothing
less than fanaticism reaching out its hand to the throat of moderate,
open government. And, as the passage above implies, such violent
extremism really attacks the heart of the Qu'ran itself.

The middle path that the Qu'ran points to is the real secret to
openness. Openness to God upholds all the visible, outer openness that
manifests itself in the social fact. Tomorrow I will explore how the
Bab, whose very title "gate" implies openness, that is, being opened in
order to go through, in His Writings laid a bridge between the Qu'ran's
idea of moderate openness and the Order of Baha'u'llah. In the meantime,
let us pray for the victory of moderate openness over its many insidious
enemies. Let us supplicate an end to the looming divorce between
progress and security. Such was the prayer of Baha'u'llah Himself.


"I beseech Thee, by Thy most excellent titles and Thy most exalted
attributes, to open to my face the portals of Thy bestowals. Aid me,
then, to do that which is good, O Thou Who art the Possessor of all
names and attributes!" (Baha'u'llah, Prayers and Meditations, 215)




John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
 
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
 
Badi Web Site: TBA

Wubs Again

Wubs, Again

By John Taylor; 7 August, 2004 Revised 2007 Aug 23

Science fiction author Phillip K. Dick suffered the fate that over half of North Americans can expect, death by heart disease. He was well aware of his high blood pressure and mentioned this parlous health problem at least once in the tiny amount of his writing that I have read. To me, his imagination of the wub, an intelligent race of pigs, is a perfect metaphor for our present human condition. We are all wubs, fat, lazy, afraid of pain and depression, loading ourselves with fatty food and other pleasures while others prepare to feast upon us. What we call corruption, be it political pork barreling or the more subtle, insidious form of religious power-mongering, is just another kind of "wub-ship," another symptom of self induced slavery to our own passions and desires. Lacking an overall plan, we leave ourselves utterly helpless before the assault of our own indulgence.
I viewed yesterday a DVD called "Overcoming Cardiovascular Disease Naturally," and I recommend it to everybody, whether you have heart problems or not. Not that it is compelling visually, little else but talking medical heads. But what they say is all the more impressive for being a dry report of what mainstream science has discovered about the body in the past couple of decades. This is not fringe stuff it is commonly agreed scientific medical knowledge that should be common knowledge and unfortunately is not. It makes liberal use of big medical buzzwords, and even acronyms like LDL's and HDL's. Why cannot we make this material more visually appealing?
We are all bombarded by headlines and get pretty jaded by constant health claims. However that does not mean that there have not been real advances and major cumulative discoveries about the body over the past two decades. And almost every one confirms what Baha'u'llah says in the Lawh-i-Tibb. This video presentation makes no attempt to be newsy but I found what these doctors say revolutionary and startlingly new. It is especially good because it suggests specific, common foods that have been found to fight cardio-vascular problems better and safer than drugs or aspirin, foods like onions, garlic, cayenne and ginger. Inspired by this list, I have in mind cooking up a batch of my own invention, a dish I will call "Jet's Heart Charger Chile."
Actually, in view of my family history, I do not have much to fear from heart disease; cancer is our killer of choice -- cancer is the other major cause of death, by the way, second only to heart disease. Statistically, one or the other will almost certainly be our demise, especially if we are obese. The most important thing I learned is that cancer and heart disease are in direct balance. The fulcrum is the amount of cholesterol in the blood. If you blood gets too greasy the body will become overly primed to defend itself. It then goes overboard with inflammation.
Inflammation is a result of animal fats in the system. An imbalance towards inflammation allows for protection against bacterial attack. But it also puts strain on the heart and veins. This puts you in imminent danger of heart, stroke or other vascular problems. But if you go too far the other way and get too little fat from your diet, especially if the fat is of the "bad cholesterol" type, then your body loses its ability to defend itself. In that case, your blood becomes like that of a wub, passive, lackadaisical; the motto is, "What, me worry? Why bother about infections? You are going to die anyway." That is when the long-term danger becomes cancer, depression, or both.
The depression part struck a chord with me. When I think back upon when I had a normal weight and the best diet I knew how to cook for myself -- that was in the late 70's and early 80's, when I was in my twenties -- I recall that I was depressed most of the time. Not just minor depression, I was in absolute agony all day every day. I swung from migraine to the dumps and back again; unbeknownst to me, each was feeding upon the other. Sure, I had other reasons to be depressed. But now that I know this I think a big factor was a lack of fat in my diet. I tried to follow the general consensus on nutrition but it was not generally known even among professionals then that there are good and bad fats, that there is cholesterol that helps (HDL's) and cholesterol that hinders (LDL's).
In other words, I did not eat enough nuts.
In response to a recent study in the news I have gone over to nuts. It reported findings that there are not nearly enough nuts in our diet, and that though nuts are fatty that is a good thing; they are full of good fats. They are a form of concentrated nutrition that protects more efficiently and balances out the bad effects of an otherwise relatively low-fat diet.
So, I am loading up on nuts. Along with dates and figs they have become my main snack food. I am finding so far that though my main meals have no meat, few milk products and are mostly low fat veggies and grains, I have yet to feel even a twinge of the sadness and discouragement that used to plague me. And of course, saying the Tablet of Ahmad first thing in the morning helps too.
I am writing about this today because ... well this topic is so important but we have so few resources defending the essentials. These are basic needs for everybody's body yet at best we see only dull talking heads spouting obscure terms and acronyms. That is our main defense when it comes to diet. How could that win out over multi-billion dollar advertising campaigns coaxing joe in the street to gobble down sugar and fat, which being cheaper is most profitable? There has got to be a way to save us helpless wubs.
That is why I was inspired by one speaker, a patient rather than a doctor, who at one point in the video talks about the progress of his heart problems. He recounts how he kept on going back to his doctors with worsening symptoms and they just kept saying, "Double the dose of your heart drug." At last he said to himself, "I have to take my health care into my own hands." That is the crucial turning point we all have to come to sooner or later.
As individuals we need a determined decision followed by organized, common development of everything essential and universal. If it is a health problem you do what this fellow did, you start improving diet, getting more exercise, etc. If it is a spiritual problem, you come to that point of taking control too, you gain your own life and truth through prayer, reflection, study, the search for truth. The program you come up with is the Baha'i principles, the Badi' Calendar, gates of entry into the Plan of God. Right now that Plan is the UHJ's 5 Year Plan.
If it is a problem with your car it is the same, you put it on a maintenance program similar to what manufacturers demand in a new car warrantee. Education is the same; all advanced countries long ago instituted compulsory public education for young children. Yet so important is education to a child's whole future that the wealthy are still willing to shell out for private schooling for their children. The essence cries out for system, for order.
Systematic planning and programming in every area solves the same basic problem, permitting growth and progress through freedom, allowing for creativity and individual initiative while assuring that essentials are kept up, that basic protection is established as far as necessary, but not too far. This fulcrum or point of balance mediates extremes of freedom and over-regulation, just like the fat levels in the blood.
All this brings me back to the wisdom of the Guardian that I cited yesterday. Here he offers what I'd call a "principle explanation" as to why we are not only allowed to vote for ourselves, we are positively obligated to do so, when conscience dictates. He says at one point,
"It is for every believer to carefully weigh his own merits and powers, and after a thorough examination of his self decide whether he is fit for such a position or not."
This calls for a superhuman level of detachment not only from one's own assessment of actual abilities but also potential powers, combined with a burning desire for sacrifice. Then Shoghi Effendi through his secretary offers a startling generalization.
"There is nothing more harmful to the individual - and also to society than false humility -- which is hypocritical, and hence unworthy of a true Baha'i."
In the case of our heart patient, false humility was when he turned over too much power to his cardiologist, the expert on heart problems. But the cure was not in the heart alone, it was in the whole of his life. Before, the patient was embroiled in hypocrisy because a responsible human being takes full control over body, mind and soul, all being aspects of one human spirit. Experts are consultants only, the ultimate holistic power over lifestyle is ours and ours alone. Shoghi Effendi rightly called this the "Age of Responsibility." The reason we bounce politically between license and dictatorship is that too many of us are resigned to being slobbish wubs of one sort or another. The Guardian continues,
"The true believer is one who is conscious of his strength as well as of his weakness, and who, fully availing himself of the manifold opportunities and blessings which God gives him, strives to overcome his defects and weaknesses..."
This is amazing. I'd like to meet a believer like that. I'd like to be a believer like that. But how does he or she do all that? He goes on,
"... and this by means of a scrupulous adherence to all the laws and commandments revealed by God through His Manifestation." (Shoghi Effendi, Light of Divine Guidance v I, p. 69)
Let us all pray to overcome the wub within and become true Baha'is.

John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/

Wubs

Beyond "Beyond Lies the Wub"


By John Taylor; 07 August, 2004



Like most of his work "Beyond Lies the Wub," a short story by Phillip K.
Dick, should be a movie. I am convinced that it already would be if it
were not for the far reaching tentacles of the meat industry and cattle
breeders' lobby. The story is about the wubs, a race of intelligent,
highly sophisticated creatures on a not too distant planet that look and
move just like hogs. Wubs are an "old race," indolent, pleasure loving
and sympathetic. In fact they are telepaths, able to read and write
directly into other minds. Many other intelligent races come and go on
their planet and their meat tasted very good. Being in no position to
hide, fight or flee, the wubs came up with a different strategy, one not
unlike that of fruit-bearing plants in spreading their seeds.

Dick's story of the wub has a bit of a twist to its tail. I didn't quite
understand what happens in the end and that confused my retelling to
Silvie. I had to draw out a long explanation of what a telepath is.
Fortunately she has a taste for homemade stories by now, in spite of the
large number of high quality, high budget movies she has seen (I was
probably thirty of forty years old before I had viewed as much of the
cinematic art as these kids have seen already). Still, I thought she
would like the story since she has lately firmed her resolution to
become a vegetarian. She didn't mind that my story about the wub was
fuzzy and confused, she liked the happy, ugly, fun loving slob that is a
wub, and as someone trying to lose weight, I had sympathy as well for
the creature.

Before too long Gabby and Bea had befriended the wub they had met and
were having all their adventures together. The strength of Gabby the
wolf and the smarts of Bea the fox was now allied with a wub's
telepathic, sympathetic abilities. My wub became a sort of consultative
super-creature, it could negotiate its way through the trickiest crises.
Like the writers of Star Trek TNG, I found it useful in the extempore
plotting of my Gabby and Bea stories to have a telepath on hand; it
saves a great deal of explanation and dialog to just be able to turn to
your resident telepath and find out exactly what the Others are
thinking. And when you can't be bothered coming up with a complicated
exchange of dialog, you just use the wub to distribute ideas directly
into various characters' heads.

Gabby and Bea's wub friend thus becomes a sort of intellectual card
dealer. No, our wub is more, he also deals out feelings and virtues of
God. Example? A toddler on a pirate ship wanders out onto the plank and
looks down; it begins to panic. The wub calms it by turning its fear
into fear of God, which chases out all other fears; meanwhile, the fox
holds the babe while the wolf carries them both back along the plank and
home to safety. That sort of thing.

My first major wub story came on demand last week when we visited the
last, dying hours of Port Colbourne's "Canal Days" festival. The sun
beat down on our heads, burning my naked shoulders which even now still
are hurting. Silvie and Thomas played in the wading pool and then in the
play structures, and I told the story intermittently between their play.

My constant thoughts about obesity affected my story of Bea, Gabby and
the wub. I told Silvie about how the wub could barely follow the fox and
wolf on their adventures, and how sad he felt about this. His stumbling
became worse, for Gabby and Bea traveled the world to find people in
danger to save.

In idle moments I have become rather like a medical student, constantly
assessing people according to their level of health. For years now I
habitually count up the number of obese versus non-obese in every group
of adults I enter into. Our Spiritual Assembly, for example, is about a
six three ratio of overweight to thins. Among the adult caregivers in
this wading pool it was about fifty percent, but among older caregivers
it was much worse, maybe three quarters obese. I use my own body as a
marker since I am into the borderline of the red part of the BMI chart.
If someone is fatter than me they are some variation of huge, gross,
obscene, or gargantuan obese. Sad to say, I am actually a thin obese,
fat by all standards except that of this Age of Obesity. I think of it
like this: I am carrying around more than the equivalent in fat of my
son Thomas, my almost five year old son, who weighs almost fifty pounds.
Better to have another child in the world than my sixty or seventy pound
burden of fat.

Finally Gabby and Bea decided to help the wub lose weight. They tried
and failed many times. Dieting did not work -- just like in the real
world. Finally they all decided to regulate their lifestyles together.
They all ate the same healthy meals, they covered themselves with
monitors, set up alarms for telling them when a health rule had been
broken, established a system of rewards for exercise, focused upon the
long term, and on and on.

I spewed out all sorts of ideas I have been thinking about for shedding
pounds myself. It was a sort of mental exercise, treating this fat and
lazy wub in the story. The three friends, Gabby, Bea and the wub, all
helped each other in their objective. I listed their gradual
improvements. The first year it lost a hundred pounds, the second,
eighty, the third, two hundred pounds. It was all pure, unadulterated
propaganda, mostly for myself but good things for a ten year old to
hear. There is too little health awareness in children's educations.

Fortunately, Silvie ate it all up, as it were. She did not care how
baldly tendentious my health tips disguised as a story were. With every
year that the wub improved his weight permanently she was suitably
impressed, letting out her characteristic "Wwooww!" of shock and awe. I
found her exclamations strangely encouraging, and still do. When I eat
something good rather than something bad, her cheer seems to ring in my
ears.


This morning I came across the Guardain's answer to a question you hear
a lot from new believers around Baha'i election time, one that does not
come up in a nomination system, "Should I vote for myself?" I must have
read this before but I don't remember it. I bring it up now rather than
saving it for next Ridvan because what Shoghi Effendi, or rather what
his secretary says in his behalf, goes way beyond the immediate topic.
He or she says,


"As to your last question whether the individual voter can
conscientiously vote for himself. The Guardian believes that not only
the Baha'i voter has the right, but is under the moral obligation to do
so, in case he finds himself worthy and capable of assuming the
responsibilities and duties imposed upon the members of every duly
elected Baha'i assembly. It is for every believer to carefully weigh his
own merits and powers, and after a thorough examination of his self
decide whether he is fit for such a position or not. There is nothing
more harmful to the individual - and also to society than false humility
which is hypocritical, and hence unworthy of a true Baha'i. The true
believer is one who is conscious of his strength as well as of his
weakness, and who, fully availing himself of the manifold opportunities
and blessings which God gives him, strives to overcome his defects and
weaknesses and this by means of a scrupulous adherence to all the laws
and commandments revealed by God through His Manifestation." (Shoghi
Effendi, Light of Divine Guidance v I, p. 69)


The Guardian's secretary probably should have rewritten this passage;
beyond the muddled diction there seems to be an important set of ideas.
In fact, this paragraph is a mini-course in self-assertiveness. I had
not thought of false humility as harmful. I had not even considered
voting for myself, assuming that the beam in my eye is bound to be worse
than any slivers in other people's eyes. And again, the idea of being
conscious of my strengths as well as my weaknesses, and that this is
part of the qualifications that make us believers, well that is new,
shocking, awesome.

Regards,


John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
 
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
 
Badi Web Site: TBA


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TheReporter.com - Vacaville,CA,United States
... El Alba, a Baha'i school, regularly recruits Baha'i youth from the
United States to assist the regular teachers. The Baha'i faith ...


SOCIAL services fair, service part of Mecca Celebration
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... The free event is being conducted by the Baha'i Assembly of Pembroke
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CHINESE lions set to make festival a roaring success
Belfast Telegraph (subscription) - Belfast,Nothern Ireland,UK
... A Baha'i celebration will be held during the festival, featuring
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Aphrodite

Oneness of Humanity (4)


Aphrodite, Rising


By John Taylor; 6 August, 2004




A Hadith says, "Whoever has no kindness has no faith." That sums up the
principle of oneness of humanity. Our oneness is in our humane qualities
and being kind makes us one. The principle could not be simpler, just be
kind to all, disregard all but loving thoughts, think only of our end,
God. God loved us and created us and that example is all that counts.
All else is piffle.

Let me say this. If there is anything I have learned on this trip
through the principles it is that even justice is a subcategory of
kindness. Not the other way around as the West tends to think. Kindness
is no extraneous appendage, it is the life force. Without it faith dies.
The first Arabic Hidden Word says to be kind and pure, only the second
sets up justice as God's favorite thing.

And before and above both, as the Hadith says, stands faith. These are
only the first two of a thousand things whose lack shows lack of faith.
But what shows faith? Virtues, I guess. I have been working on several
virtues, chastity, temperance, moderation, determination.

I wake each morning and see the obstacles before me and am daunted every
time. Obesity, enervation, migraine, faults of others, the list goes on
as long as the brain putt-putts along. I know, have faith. Each day is a
story of reaching for faith.

One thing that helps is to start the day reciting the Tablet of Ahmad.
I've been doing it the past few weeks and am amazed at my stupidity for
getting away from it so long. Trying to get by without it I was like
some dude pumping away to get electricity from a small bicycle generator
while a huge hydro-electric dam looms overhead. Saying this powerful
prayer has not dissipated my afflictions like a mirage, but the extra
oomph I get from it seems to allow for, condition my effort, to give
permission to strive. That has started to tilt the balance from a
downward slide to obese, indolent oblivion.

If it keeps swinging towards gradual self-improvement surely this will
be a greater bounty than just casting some quick and easy spell that
cannot be repeated. Every little step I make helps further steps. The
secret is to set up a new habit and then sit with my back against it and
push with my legs in order to break more bad habits. What helped is
partly what I have been reading.

I'm reading "The Wisdom of the Body," by Sherman B. Nuland. This is a
thoughtful account of his life's work by a surgeon. When I picked it up
I wondered why I had never read a surgeon's memoirs before. Chapter two
gave me the answer. Reading it in the bathtub, I was so disgusted and
weakened -- my usual reaction to kind of thing -- that I almost dropped
the volume into the bathwater. Allow me to parody this fellow's world
view.


"I cut out her spleen and held it up to the light. Blood was spurting
out into our eyes and we had to keep scooping out gobs of gore from our
ears, noses and hair. Blood in the operating room is like sand in the
desert, it gets into everything. Long ago we had stopped noticing it. It
gushed out of her stomach in such a torrent that the doors of the
operating theatre burst open and we were floating slowly down the
hallway. Someone said something about the elevator in the horror film,
"The Shining," and the general hilarity among the support workers
started to get out of hand. I wanted to keep their attention on the work
at hand. "Look here," I pointed to a part of the spleen that was
shimmering redder than the rest of the human offal that is the stock in
trade of a surgeon. You can see that this is a multiple (our term for a
mother who has given birth several times) and that the strain has caused
occlusions here and here and here. Everyone tried hard to keep a
straight face. That was when a diplomat burst in reporting that Red
China was lodging an official protest. It seems that so much blood had
rushed out of her belly that satellites were showing the United States
as red. Red China was definitely not amused at having another red one in
the community of nations. That was when I lost control of the levity and
even I had to smile at the naivety of the non-medicals and their silly
reaction to a little blood."


Anyway, this doctor's theory is that the only real healer is the will to
survive. He and his knife only help the body's will along in its desire
to continue existing. At one point he cites atheist philosopher Arthur
Schopenhauer, who held that the only God discernable in nature is the
will to live. Actually, I don't think this is too far off the mark, even
from my perspective as a Baha'i. Will, Mashiyyat, is an attribute of God
that has its own day and month in the Badi' calendar. If you want
examples of superhuman will, you just have to read the stories of the
Baha'i martyrs. How they got that tremendous will to go on in the Faith
when its victory was so far off into the future is beyond the mind's
ability to comprehend.

SchopenhauerÂ’s "will to live" was only the ghost of a god. But Albert
Schweitzer, coming from the opposite direction as a Christian
theologian, also based his philosophy upon what he called, "reverence
for life." Also a doctor, Schweitzer adds kindness and worship to will,
but it is basically the same idea. Schweitzer further held that modern
civilization is in decline because we lack not so much the will to live
as the will to love.

As a race we have renounced love, and that doomed us. Why? Because the
will to love and the need to survive collectively amount to the same
thing. The will to live is the driving physical force that keeps
organisms going physically; the will to be kind is that same desire in
the higher reason. And out of all this doctoring by reasoning beings
emerges the Baha'i principle of oneness of humanity, Aphrodite emerging
from a sea of blood.



John Taylor
helpmatejet@yahoo.com
 
Blog: http://badiblog.blogspot.com/
 
Badi Web Site: TBA