The Master's Strange Love
By John Taylor; 2008 Aug 02, 02 Kamal, 165 BE
Are you depressed? I know I am. Okay, not clinically depressed. Every time there is a change in the weather I go through a series of predictably swinging emotions, all the way from giddy elation to extreme despair. When the weather steadies down, the feelings steady down. Because I am in imminent danger of a migraine attack I have to pay careful attention to these swings, as well as to certain physical signs, or prodromes. Most people are affected emotionally by the weather more than they realize, I notice. The only difference with me is that I have no choice but to pay attention to it. But even so, it gets out of hand. A careful reader will often detect evidence of this cycle in the tone and content of these essays.
But at least I am not clinical. In order to be clinically depressed you apparently have to be down in the dumps for at least six months, not six hours. In any case, the natural reaction of a Baha'i going through hard times is to rail at others for rejecting what we know is the solution to the ills of the world. That is not the answer, needless to say. The Guardian gave a believer who was evidently depressed in just this way the following advice,
"There is, unfortunately, no way that one can force his own good upon a man. The element of free will is there and all we believers -- and even the Manifestation of God Himself -- can do is to offer the truth to mankind. If the people of the world persist, as they seem to be doing, in their blind materialism, they must bear the consequences in a prolongation of their present condition, and even a worsening of it. Our duty as Baha'is is to build up such a love and unity within our own ranks that the people will be attracted by this example to the Cause. We also must teach all we can and strengthen the Baha'i community in the Administration. But more we cannot do to avert the great sufferings which seemingly still lie ahead of the world in its present evil state." (Shoghi Effendi, The Unfolding Destiny of the British Baha'i Community, 13 October 1947, p. 446)
Lua Getsinger also had to go through terrible agony during the decade before the Master anointed her the "Herald of the Covenant." Not long after the turn of the century she fell ill (calling it a "nervous breakdown," perhaps what now would be termed a depressive interlude of some kind) and the Master wrote her the following rather famous words of consolation -- words from which we take the title of today's essay, "strangelove."
"The more difficulties one sees in the world the more perfect one becomes. The more you plough and dig the ground the more fertile it becomes. The more you cut the branches of a tree the higher and stronger it grows. The more you put the gold in the fire, the purer it becomes. The more you sharpen the steel by grinding the better it cuts. Therefore, the more sorrows one sees the more perfect one becomes. That is why, in all times, the Prophets of God have had tribulations and difficulties to withstand. The more often the captain of a ship is in the tempest and difficult sailing the more greater his knowledge becomes. Therefore I am happy that you have had great tribulations and difficulties . . . Strange it is that I love you and still I am happy that you have sorrows." ('Abdu'l-Baha, Star of the West, vol. XIV, no. 2, p. 41, quoted in, letter from the Universal House of Justice, 1985 Dec 02, Child Abuse, Psychology and Knowledge of Self)
I must say that sometimes I feel strange love for my kids. I see them taking the easy way, playing video games and reading nothing but comics and I think, if only life would deal them a tough card or two so they will not grow up into totally superficial, pleasure-loving beings. And yes, it does feel strange to think that way about these two that I love so much; I understand where the Master is coming from.
Anyway, Lua treasured this strangelove letter. Her biography contains the complete version -- this is only a selection. I have been meaning to scan the complete letter in for you, dear reader, but this is a hectic, rainy, depressing summer and the opportunity has not arisen. Another treasure in the biography is the complete version of the following prayer, of which so far a selection only has been published,
"Thou knowest, O God, and art my Witness that I have no desire in my heart save to attain Thy good pleasure, to be confirmed in servitude unto Thee, to consecrate myself in Thy service, to labour in Thy great vineyard and to sacrifice my all in Thy path. Thou art the All-Knowing and the All-Seeing. I have no wish save to turn my steps, in my love for Thee, towards the mountains and the deserts to loudly proclaim the advent of Thy kingdom, and to raise Thy call amidst all men. O God! Open Thou the way for this helpless one, grant Thou the remedy to this ailing one and bestow Thy healing upon this afflicted one. With burning heart and tearful eyes I supplicate Thee at Thy threshold.
"O God! Protect me from tests. Thou knowest full well that I have turned away from all things and freed myself of all thoughts. I have no occupation save mention of Thee and no aspiration save serving Thee." ('Abdu'l-Baha, a prayer revealed for Lua Getsinger, Quickeners of Mankind, #203, p. 88)
There are instructions on the Web for making your own book, using a handy little template of your own devising. Bookbinding is not a hobby I aspire to, but my dissatisfaction with prayer books has been mounting over the years and now I am tempted to take up the hobby just to make a prayer book that would answer my own spiritual needs. Not only are they overpriced, but they are incomplete and taken out of context as well. Take the above prayer. It is not in any prayer books, important as it is, and even if it were, the place in history of the prayer, its role in the development of the Covenant (as can be seen in the provenance of the above prayer) would not be evident. I want a prayer book with the obligatory prayer in Arabic as well as English. Muslims have no choice but learn their prayers in Arabic, but if a Baha'i wants to do that, well, fugitaboutit. The obstacles are all but insuperable, unless your community happens to have a cultured Arabic speaker willing to read the prayer into a recorder. Our community does not have a Persian speaker, much less an Arabic speaker, much less a cultured one. As a result I feel spiritually hobbled.
Before I close, here is a question for you. Our book representative tried to order the latest Baha'i World Annual Volume, but was informed that it is not being published in hard copy this year, that it will be made available online. My diligent surfing has not turned up any evidence that this has happened yet. Any news about this would be appreciated.
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Ant City
This starts out kind of hokey, but hang in there, it is amazing what ants do, and how the Qu'ran describes it all...
Friday, August 01, 2008
p33 Buckminster's Cathedral
Fuller and the Dome
By John Taylor; 2008 Jul 31, 19 Kalimat, 165 BE
This is a rewrite of a little series on my teen-hood hero, Buckminster Fuller, that I wrote just before I started the Badi' Blog several years ago.
The most interesting part of Buckminster Fuller's world thinking is his understanding that technology arises from morality, and vice versa. Fuller was a member of the Unitarian Church, the Christian denomination in whose churches Abdu'l-Baha spoke more often than any other (I have not confirmed that Unitarians were visited most often, but that is my gut feeling, especially about the talks in North America). I cannot help but wonder whether Fuller might have either seen the Master speak in a Unitarian church or read about His travels in a church publication; there was ample publicity of His visit just before Fuller entered his creative crisis.
My favorite example of Fuller's grasp of the dialectic between tools and morality is his position on the population explosion. He was one of the first to prove that the cause of runaway population growth is poverty, man's inhumanity to man, and nothing else. One of Fuller's biographers writes,
"Another telling point Bucky makes - and proves with statistics - is that in fully industrialized countries the birthrate automatically drops to about zero population growth. Therefore: he argues, if all the under-developed countries were fully industrialized, as they could be by intelligent use of the world's resources without taking anything away from the "have countries," the problem of overpopulation would simply disappear. Margaret Mead does not like his saying this; it undercuts her." (Buckminster Fuller: At Home in the Universe, Alden Hatch, Dell Publishing, New York, 1974, p. 227)
There are roots of this in scripture. For example, the Qu'ran, in forbidding infanticide offers similar assurance that parents need not worry about future economic disparity, that they can be assured that resources will not run out, that God will provide if we run things according to God's law. If we, as individuals and as a society adhere to spiritual principle prosperity will spread and there will be no need for harsh measures either to restrict or promote population growth. Baha'i morality similarly leans more to encouraging marriage and raising a family as a moral act, rather than the reverse, saving our resource base by not reproducing. The latter would be a valid moral position if and only if humans had an incorrigible tendency to grow beyond their resource base. Such does not seem to be the case -- only corrupt, selfish, materialist societies grow beyond their means.
Indeed it is materialism's presumption of shortage that fulfills its own prophesy, as Fuller points out in his last book, A Grunch of Giants, written in the early 1980's,
"The great communism vs. capitalism, politico-economic world stand-off assumes a fundamental inadequacy of life support to exist on our planet. So too do the four major religions assume that it must be you or us, never enough for both. Jointly the two political camps have spent $6.5 trillion in the last thirty-three years to buy the capability to kill all humanity in one hour." (http://reactor-core.org/grunch-of-giants.html)
A similar link between ethics and technical means is to be seen in Fuller's most famous innovation, the geodesic dome, though in this case it is not all to Fuller's credit. Embarrassingly, Buckminster Fuller did not invent the geodesic dome. A German architect and designer of planetariums discovered it, and Fuller came across his patents during his wartime job of reviewing enemy patent applications. However, although Fuller made no effort to publicize this, neither did he actively cover it up. And it is true that he did see the dome's potential beyond looking up at the heavens, sublime as that may be, when nobody else did. The full story of the dome's provenance is in the Wikipedia article on geodesic domes. It is understandable but not laudable that, owning patents on the structure himself, Fuller did not go out of his way to give this architect due credit.
For us, the most important aspect of the geodesic dome is its religious implications. This structure, found at many levels in nature, may be seen as a mathematical application of the spiritual principle of foundations laid out by Jesus Christ when He spoke of a man who,
"built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6:46-9)
Older structures were based on a pervasive misunderstanding of what foundations imply. Architects imagined that a building must made of rock, or appear to grow out of rock, in order to have a solid foundation. Construction used heavy, clumsy materials that, taken beyond a restricted scale, fell in upon themselves. But the parable teaches the reverse, the most solid foundation is invisible, it comes out of the Will of God and the ethereal realm of spirit.
Thus the strength of a geodesic dome comes not from the ground it sits on (indeed, it can fly or float just as well) but the theoretical realm of mathematics. This foundation Fuller called "tensegrity," that is, pulling (tension) and pushing (compression) both at once, all around the whole skeleton. This integrity is based on a holistic, universal, principles. The result is a super-lightweight structure as strong as rock but based on theoretical, mathematical abstractions that distribute the strength of rock around its entire outer surface without its ponderous weight.
The materialist mindset misunderstands spiritual foundations. Although "spirit" comes from the word for breath, that does not mean that it is insubstantial. Spirit, like the wind, "bloweth where it listeth." It is as free as the breeze. But this does not mean that those moved of the spirit are slapdash or overly spontaneous. This is a common misconception. Jesus taught that following him, "bearing his cross," was not casual or haphazard, it is like planning out the construction of a building, as the parable of the watchtower illustrates. "The Kingdom," Jesus also taught, "is within (or among) you." The true base of all that is solid and reliable in the universe lies not underneath but within, it is distributed all around. This principle Abdu'l-Baha called the Power of the Holy Spirit. And, as the parable of the true foundation teaches, it is all nullified if those who hear do not put spirit into action in every aspect of life and love.
The geodesic dome is a series of triangles arranged into a sphere according to great circles, or geodesics. The triangle is the strongest, most stable structure in nature. The dome or sphere encloses the most area for the least amount of surface area, which is why planets above a certain size and soap bubbles always form into that shape rather than squares or pyramids. Combine the strength of the triangle and the economy of the sphere, and you have a geodesic dome.
Similar to a triangle, there are three basic sides or aspects of spirit, as symbolized by the cross or trinity. This is in Isaiah's vision of God creating the sphere of the firmament in three motions,
"Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together." (Isaiah 48:13, KJV)
The three forces of Spirit form a trinity like a triangle, with three creative acts. In the first, God's left hand forms the earth. Second, His right hand spans the sky. Third, he calls ("be" and it is), and the three form an integrity, they "stand up together." Pressure, tension and integrity. Similarly, the two pillars of religion, prayer and fasting, stand together on the earth of the heart, like the force of compression in a wall.
The Manifestation of God, the architect of the great circle of spirit, models religious "geodesics." His teaching is strong and economical, like the geodesic dome. He lays on the individual a creative responsibility to build the structure of our lives on a firm foundation of love and spirit. Spirit, although unplanned itself (the spirit bloweth where it listeth) can only be built upon by planning, based on faith, to take invisible love into the visible realm of action.
Next time I will follow some other Fullerian lines into the unseen but essential realm of ethics and moral integrity.
By John Taylor; 2008 Jul 31, 19 Kalimat, 165 BE
This is a rewrite of a little series on my teen-hood hero, Buckminster Fuller, that I wrote just before I started the Badi' Blog several years ago.
The most interesting part of Buckminster Fuller's world thinking is his understanding that technology arises from morality, and vice versa. Fuller was a member of the Unitarian Church, the Christian denomination in whose churches Abdu'l-Baha spoke more often than any other (I have not confirmed that Unitarians were visited most often, but that is my gut feeling, especially about the talks in North America). I cannot help but wonder whether Fuller might have either seen the Master speak in a Unitarian church or read about His travels in a church publication; there was ample publicity of His visit just before Fuller entered his creative crisis.
My favorite example of Fuller's grasp of the dialectic between tools and morality is his position on the population explosion. He was one of the first to prove that the cause of runaway population growth is poverty, man's inhumanity to man, and nothing else. One of Fuller's biographers writes,
"Another telling point Bucky makes - and proves with statistics - is that in fully industrialized countries the birthrate automatically drops to about zero population growth. Therefore: he argues, if all the under-developed countries were fully industrialized, as they could be by intelligent use of the world's resources without taking anything away from the "have countries," the problem of overpopulation would simply disappear. Margaret Mead does not like his saying this; it undercuts her." (Buckminster Fuller: At Home in the Universe, Alden Hatch, Dell Publishing, New York, 1974, p. 227)
There are roots of this in scripture. For example, the Qu'ran, in forbidding infanticide offers similar assurance that parents need not worry about future economic disparity, that they can be assured that resources will not run out, that God will provide if we run things according to God's law. If we, as individuals and as a society adhere to spiritual principle prosperity will spread and there will be no need for harsh measures either to restrict or promote population growth. Baha'i morality similarly leans more to encouraging marriage and raising a family as a moral act, rather than the reverse, saving our resource base by not reproducing. The latter would be a valid moral position if and only if humans had an incorrigible tendency to grow beyond their resource base. Such does not seem to be the case -- only corrupt, selfish, materialist societies grow beyond their means.
Indeed it is materialism's presumption of shortage that fulfills its own prophesy, as Fuller points out in his last book, A Grunch of Giants, written in the early 1980's,
"The great communism vs. capitalism, politico-economic world stand-off assumes a fundamental inadequacy of life support to exist on our planet. So too do the four major religions assume that it must be you or us, never enough for both. Jointly the two political camps have spent $6.5 trillion in the last thirty-three years to buy the capability to kill all humanity in one hour." (http://reactor-core.org/grunch-of-giants.html)
A similar link between ethics and technical means is to be seen in Fuller's most famous innovation, the geodesic dome, though in this case it is not all to Fuller's credit. Embarrassingly, Buckminster Fuller did not invent the geodesic dome. A German architect and designer of planetariums discovered it, and Fuller came across his patents during his wartime job of reviewing enemy patent applications. However, although Fuller made no effort to publicize this, neither did he actively cover it up. And it is true that he did see the dome's potential beyond looking up at the heavens, sublime as that may be, when nobody else did. The full story of the dome's provenance is in the Wikipedia article on geodesic domes. It is understandable but not laudable that, owning patents on the structure himself, Fuller did not go out of his way to give this architect due credit.
For us, the most important aspect of the geodesic dome is its religious implications. This structure, found at many levels in nature, may be seen as a mathematical application of the spiritual principle of foundations laid out by Jesus Christ when He spoke of a man who,
"built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6:46-9)
Older structures were based on a pervasive misunderstanding of what foundations imply. Architects imagined that a building must made of rock, or appear to grow out of rock, in order to have a solid foundation. Construction used heavy, clumsy materials that, taken beyond a restricted scale, fell in upon themselves. But the parable teaches the reverse, the most solid foundation is invisible, it comes out of the Will of God and the ethereal realm of spirit.
Thus the strength of a geodesic dome comes not from the ground it sits on (indeed, it can fly or float just as well) but the theoretical realm of mathematics. This foundation Fuller called "tensegrity," that is, pulling (tension) and pushing (compression) both at once, all around the whole skeleton. This integrity is based on a holistic, universal, principles. The result is a super-lightweight structure as strong as rock but based on theoretical, mathematical abstractions that distribute the strength of rock around its entire outer surface without its ponderous weight.
The materialist mindset misunderstands spiritual foundations. Although "spirit" comes from the word for breath, that does not mean that it is insubstantial. Spirit, like the wind, "bloweth where it listeth." It is as free as the breeze. But this does not mean that those moved of the spirit are slapdash or overly spontaneous. This is a common misconception. Jesus taught that following him, "bearing his cross," was not casual or haphazard, it is like planning out the construction of a building, as the parable of the watchtower illustrates. "The Kingdom," Jesus also taught, "is within (or among) you." The true base of all that is solid and reliable in the universe lies not underneath but within, it is distributed all around. This principle Abdu'l-Baha called the Power of the Holy Spirit. And, as the parable of the true foundation teaches, it is all nullified if those who hear do not put spirit into action in every aspect of life and love.
The geodesic dome is a series of triangles arranged into a sphere according to great circles, or geodesics. The triangle is the strongest, most stable structure in nature. The dome or sphere encloses the most area for the least amount of surface area, which is why planets above a certain size and soap bubbles always form into that shape rather than squares or pyramids. Combine the strength of the triangle and the economy of the sphere, and you have a geodesic dome.
Similar to a triangle, there are three basic sides or aspects of spirit, as symbolized by the cross or trinity. This is in Isaiah's vision of God creating the sphere of the firmament in three motions,
"Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together." (Isaiah 48:13, KJV)
The three forces of Spirit form a trinity like a triangle, with three creative acts. In the first, God's left hand forms the earth. Second, His right hand spans the sky. Third, he calls ("be" and it is), and the three form an integrity, they "stand up together." Pressure, tension and integrity. Similarly, the two pillars of religion, prayer and fasting, stand together on the earth of the heart, like the force of compression in a wall.
The Manifestation of God, the architect of the great circle of spirit, models religious "geodesics." His teaching is strong and economical, like the geodesic dome. He lays on the individual a creative responsibility to build the structure of our lives on a firm foundation of love and spirit. Spirit, although unplanned itself (the spirit bloweth where it listeth) can only be built upon by planning, based on faith, to take invisible love into the visible realm of action.
Next time I will follow some other Fullerian lines into the unseen but essential realm of ethics and moral integrity.
Monday, July 28, 2008
p33 Our Real Need
Binding God's Influence through Universal Life Planners
By John Taylor; 2008 July 28, 16 Kalimat, 165 BE
The Master taught the early believers to pay attention to their dreams. So, here is this morning's dream. But first, what happened before the dream. The cat woke me early, tearing at the sliding door screen to get in. I got up and opened it for him. Then I fired up the computer and read some scattered news items, including a New York Times article about computer literacy. Then I got sleepy, plunked into bed and dropped off into a long, light nap.
I dreamed that my son Tomaso and I were going to visit an old school friend and fellow member of the chess team, D. In the dream D had separated from his wife and was living on his own (as far as I know, this is not true in real life). There was no answer when I knocked on the door, so I left 8 year old Tomaso at the door and climbed some narrow stairs around the outside of the apartment building into the attic, looking for him. There was a narrow staircase that crashed to the ground when I walked on it. Dusting myself off, I walked back to the front door, where Tomaso was waiting anxiously.
In the dream, D finally answered the door. He had no bookshelves or even more than a few scattered books in his possession, unlike his digs in real life. He was occupying all his time playing a role playing game similar to Dungeons and Dragons. In came a group of players, one of whom was a gamine dressed in peasant costume. I thought she might be his paramour, but they only showed any interest in throwing dice for the game. Tomaso was delighted and began playing the game along with them while I looked on in puzzlement. End of dream.
This change of lifestyle seemed completely out of character for D, who, I hear, is of such a literary bent that he has had some of his plays produced. After I got back to the computer, I was drawn back to where I was before, reading that article about computer literacy. The issue of reading covers pretty much this entire summer for us, I must say. I and the kids have a running battle over computers and screen time. If I were not here they would spend every waking moment hunched over the computer, Tomaso playing online puzzles and other internet games, Silvie reading fan fiction about Kenneth Oppel's television series about bats. Both of them also love "Club Penguin," a sort of combination MUD, game and social networking site for kids. I have a constant struggle to limit them, especially now that Mom has been sucked into blogging. Since that started the laundry goes undone, dishes pile up, meals go by the board, and on and on... This means more of my time goes into taking up the slack. Since they will not touch what I cook, the only way to see that they get a square meal is to take them out to a pizza or submarine joint, and that is expensive. Next step: teach the kids the meaning of the word "chore."
Anyway, I was so distressed by the screen's successful coup d'etat over this household that at the beginning of the summer I laid down a rule for the kids. Before they get access to a computer they must do a certain amount of reading from a reasonably high-quality book (meaning not a comic book) before they have access to the computer. This has worked reasonably well for this first half of the summer vacation. Thomas for a long time preferred to give up computers completely, which was fine with me. Finally he caved and started going through the Treehouse books, a series designed for his reading level. Silvie, reluctantly, has read about a dozen books. What I learned from the Times article is that ours is not the only family in this situation (though I may be the only one actively fighting it). It says,
"As teenagers' scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading - diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books. Some traditionalists warn that digital reading is the intellectual equivalent of empty calories. Often, they argue, writers on the Internet employ a cryptic argot that vexes teachers and parents. Zigzagging through a cornucopia of words, pictures, video and sounds, they say, distracts more than strengthens readers. And many youths spend most of their time on the Internet playing games or sending instant messages, activities that involve minimal reading at best." ("Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? Is the Internet the enemy of reading, or has it created a new kind of reading, one that society should not discount? By Motoko Rich,
The article includes a picture captioned, "The Simses of Old Greenwich, Conn., gather to read after dinner. Their means of text delivery is divided by generation." It shows Dad with a newspaper, Mom curled up with a novel, and the two point zero kids hunched over their own laptops. What a nightmare! I am sure that this was posed, since in my experience screens tend to separate even more than books; in real life, they would all be in different rooms, judging by our family -- which admittedly cannot afford notebooks.
I was writing the above when the kids came in, and I showed them a little test that is included in the supplemental links section to this article ("Web Extra: Further Reading on Reading, What does it mean to read in a digital age? Here are links to some studies, speeches, reading tests - old and new - and other resources." By Motoko Rich) at:
The test consists of a fake site advocating for a fictional animal, the Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus. Nine out of ten teens were fooled, took it seriously, and failed to get the joke. To my surprise, Silvie came closer than Tomaso to being duped, though my introduction to the problem was hardly strictly controlled. I reiterated a good lesson my father gave me when I was young,
"Do not believe everything you read."
After that they were interested and I read parts of the article. Silvie was dismayed to see her favorite thing, fanfiction, put down. Both agreed that Beyblades were garbage -- missing, I thought, the whole point about fanfiction. Then Tomaso said, "Let's watch the video." Typical older person, I had just been reading the material and had not noticed the video included there. It turned out to be a good summary of the main points of the article and probably reached them both on their own level better than my reading aloud was doing.
==========
I wrote the above yesterday, before I was rudely interrupted by a migraine attack. Windy, rainy days spell misery. Anyway, now that I have recovered I have to admit that there are arguments for both sides. I agree with the kids that often you do get more out of the time you spend, minute for minute, researching on the Web rather than reading books. Books often go into too much detail. Once you commit to a treatise of a certain length, the temptation is to fill that space with whatever data is at hand, whether needed or not. Most of the books and novels you see on the bookshelves could be cut to a third of their length and be better off for the cutting. And reading a book is at least as solitary and isolating an activity as "computering."
What is more, books are far less interactive and participatory than Internet news sites and blogs, not to mention chat groups, MUDs and fanfiction sites. Because the media and education are dominated by old folks like me, and because reading is under threat, we tend to defend books and reading too uncritically. Most books, just as most television and Internet material, is useless pap that we would all be better off without.
In support of that, I just came across this, from my new hero Comenius's book on reform,
"By turning to comparatively worthless books we are simply throwing stones, sand, and other obstructions into this Alpheus of God's, and accumulating a pile of error and confusion in our minds, homes, schools, church, and politics. The tiny streamlets which trickle through our obstructions are all too feeble to remove our sordidness." (Comenius, Panorthosia, Ch. 3, para 42, p. 81)
The Peneus and
The greatness of Comenius's contribution to reform is that he bases everything upon universal, as opposed to piecemeal, changes. With the possible exceptions of Frances Bacon (whose ideas inspired Comenius) and Abdu'l-Baha, I have never seen anything like Comenius's vision of what can be done for reform. Comenius's biographer, Matthew Spinka, fit Comenius into the category of what he called a "cosmopolitan universalist," because he "worked out the first completely articulated irenic plan." Irenic means something "conducive to peace, moderation and conciliation." In his Panegersia (Universal Awakening, written over a century and a half before atheist Philosophes started arrogantly calling their age "The Enlightenment") Comenius asks the crucial question:
"Why cannot men form one, all-inclusive world society, by reason of common knowledge, common law and common religion?"
This question is as challenging, fresh and new now as when he formed it back 17th Century. Like the river that performed Hercules' labor of cleaning out the masses of crude in those huge stables for him without any more effort his part, a universal unification of the world would solve such personal problems as what to read, how to read it, where to read it.
How?
By instituting personal plans and life management programs that would be integral to and made up right along with the plans of a world government. I think Comenius grasps the secret of universal reform in the three divisions mentioned above, knowledge (science), law (politics) and religion. This tripartite structure runs throughout the Panorthosia, which I am studying right now with all the resources at my command.
The ongoing invention of interactive public-private plans would assure that the good aspects of the "new reading" done on computers and the Internet are instituted without disrupting the best of what information gathering methods are already there. A human individual by definition cannot see far enough to institute such universal plans. This was clear as long ago as the Pre-Socratics. Empedocles believed rightly that neither involvement nor detached reflection, in themselves, are enough to overcome our inherent limits:
"For narrow are the means spread throughout the limbs and many are the miseries that burst in and blunt the thoughts. And having seen only a small part of life during their lives, and doomed to early death, they are lifted up and carried off like smoke, and believing only that which each one meets with as he is driven every way, they boast of having found the whole. But things are not thus seen or heard by men or grasped by their minds. You, however, since you have withdrawn to here, shall not learn more than mortal wisdom can attain." (Empedocles, DK 2)
Only universal world reform, inspired originally by God's wisdom (Comenius calls this Panorthosia) can see far enough beyond one lifetime to institute the sort of wise change required to direct our lives in a time of fundamental change in how we relate with information.
A life planner written by open systems programmers, integrated into our lives and overseen by teachers and doctors, would unite the generations in controlling the crucial information feed that sustains our search for truth. This life planning program would be part of an overall goal of de-privatizing the human mind. It would turn culture over to whatever leads to what the word means: healthful, planned growth. Things that are essential would no longer be for sale, they would be integrated into the program and made into the common heritage of the human race. Everything from the fairy tales told to children to the news we read and watch would be publicized in the truest sense of the word, that is, made into a public thing, with public oversight, designed for the public good.
Comenius held that the key to this is wisdom, specifically what he called Pansophia, Universal Wisdom. This is what diverts the many tributaries of private data processing into a single, purifying flood of reform. Again, referring to the labor of Hercules in purifying the filth filled stables of the king, Comenius writes,
"I think that it is clear from my Universal Wisdom that it is possible for these fountains of God to combine into one torrent like the Alpheus, thus integrating everything that the world possesses and the mind of man dictates and the word of God expresses, in such a way that any seeker after knowledge may find it in full, anyone searching for forms and standards of self-government may find them ready-made, and anyone desiring God may see His presence everywhere, and hear, taste and touch Him and feel His binding influence." (Comenius, Panorthosia, Ch. 3, para 38, p. 80)
Saturday, July 26, 2008
p15 A Very Public Death
On the death of Randy Pausch and of childhood dreams
Blogger "Trixie," evidently a close friend of the Faith, offers the following comments on death, after the bucket-kicking by pancreatic cancer of the speaker who gave the famous inspirational speech "the last lecture." She makes ample use of the inspirational words of Baha'u'llah.
http://livefully.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/what-does-the-death-of-randy-pausch-teaches.html
As she points out, he made his death a public event. For those few who have not seen the "last lecture," it is available on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Or, here:
Here is a recent bit where the last lecturer speaks to a graduating class:
And here I had thought that gadgets and material possessions were what mattered in life. That is what the thousands of advertisements a day I am unwillingly exposed to are telling me. Could it be that they are lying?
Like everybody else in the world, I found the lectures inspiring. Like almost everybody else in the world, I never even came close to fulfilling my childhood dreams, so by that standard, Pausch lived a fuller and better life. What kind of a whacked out child would aspire to what I have achieved in life? One migraine attack after the next...
Worse, believe it or not, my childhood dream was to become a lawyer. So even if I got what I wanted, I was doomed to disappointment. A lawyer? What was I thinking? Indeed, so many dreams go by the board in my life that I am like the proverbial bull in the china shop. After a while you start to enjoy the tinkling sound as your dreams, hopes and aspirations are smashed to smitherines. So spectacular is their destruction that you might as well enjoy the show.
On the other hand, Pausch is right in the second video, there are things more important than personal success, such as the happiness of those around you. What is more, I got something far beyond what I dreamed as a child.
I got Baha'u'llah.
I did not get to be a lawyer, but I got, between my bouts of migraine, a chance to advocate and defend Him in my writings, albeit read by only a few... Today's daily reading from the Writings of Baha'u'llah says it all:
"Praise be unto Thee, O my God, that we have wakened to the splendors of the light of Thy knowledge. Send down, then, upon us, O my Lord, what will enable us to dispense with anyone but Thee, and will rid us of all attachment to aught except Thyself. Write down, moreover, for me, and for such as are dear to me, and for my kindred, man and woman alike, the good of this world and the world to come. Keep us safe, then, through Thine unfailing protection, O Thou the Beloved of the entire creation and the Desire of the whole universe, from them whom Thou hast made to be the manifestations of the Evil Whisperer, who whisper in men’s breasts. Potent art Thou to do Thy pleasure. Thou art, verily, the Almighty, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting."
There is a certain plausibility to Pausch's naive faith in childhood dreams. Why else would the lecture strike such a chord in millions of lives? Why else do we follow the Roman belief that we have a guardian angel that is assigned to us at birth, as symbolized by the birthday cake and the candle blowing out ceremony? Of course, if the angel really cared for us, it would surely be commemorated by something more healthful than cake...
What was your childhood dream? Do you have any that were not smashed to bits by the bitter realities of life? Is there anything you would like to do before you die? Share it here in the comments section of this post.
Blogger "Trixie," evidently a close friend of the Faith, offers the following comments on death, after the bucket-kicking by pancreatic cancer of the speaker who gave the famous inspirational speech "the last lecture." She makes ample use of the inspirational words of Baha'u'llah.
http://livefully.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/07/what-does-the-death-of-randy-pausch-teaches.html
As she points out, he made his death a public event. For those few who have not seen the "last lecture," it is available on YouTube at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
Or, here:
Here is a recent bit where the last lecturer speaks to a graduating class:
And here I had thought that gadgets and material possessions were what mattered in life. That is what the thousands of advertisements a day I am unwillingly exposed to are telling me. Could it be that they are lying?
Like everybody else in the world, I found the lectures inspiring. Like almost everybody else in the world, I never even came close to fulfilling my childhood dreams, so by that standard, Pausch lived a fuller and better life. What kind of a whacked out child would aspire to what I have achieved in life? One migraine attack after the next...
Worse, believe it or not, my childhood dream was to become a lawyer. So even if I got what I wanted, I was doomed to disappointment. A lawyer? What was I thinking? Indeed, so many dreams go by the board in my life that I am like the proverbial bull in the china shop. After a while you start to enjoy the tinkling sound as your dreams, hopes and aspirations are smashed to smitherines. So spectacular is their destruction that you might as well enjoy the show.
On the other hand, Pausch is right in the second video, there are things more important than personal success, such as the happiness of those around you. What is more, I got something far beyond what I dreamed as a child.
I got Baha'u'llah.
I did not get to be a lawyer, but I got, between my bouts of migraine, a chance to advocate and defend Him in my writings, albeit read by only a few... Today's daily reading from the Writings of Baha'u'llah says it all:
"Praise be unto Thee, O my God, that we have wakened to the splendors of the light of Thy knowledge. Send down, then, upon us, O my Lord, what will enable us to dispense with anyone but Thee, and will rid us of all attachment to aught except Thyself. Write down, moreover, for me, and for such as are dear to me, and for my kindred, man and woman alike, the good of this world and the world to come. Keep us safe, then, through Thine unfailing protection, O Thou the Beloved of the entire creation and the Desire of the whole universe, from them whom Thou hast made to be the manifestations of the Evil Whisperer, who whisper in men’s breasts. Potent art Thou to do Thy pleasure. Thou art, verily, the Almighty, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting."
There is a certain plausibility to Pausch's naive faith in childhood dreams. Why else would the lecture strike such a chord in millions of lives? Why else do we follow the Roman belief that we have a guardian angel that is assigned to us at birth, as symbolized by the birthday cake and the candle blowing out ceremony? Of course, if the angel really cared for us, it would surely be commemorated by something more healthful than cake...
What was your childhood dream? Do you have any that were not smashed to bits by the bitter realities of life? Is there anything you would like to do before you die? Share it here in the comments section of this post.
Friday, July 25, 2008
P13 Abdu'l-Baha's Proof of Deity
Heraclitus and the Secret Doctrine
By John Taylor; 2008 July 24
I have been reworking a reading of a talk of the Master that I want to put onto YouTube. It is the proofs of deity laid out in Some Answered Questions, the second talk in the book. I started this back in January but gave up in frustration because this computer hanged incessantly. A RAM upgrade has solved most of these problems. I have been relearning the video-editing programs on this iMac, delaying what I thought would be a quick and easy project. Every time I think it is finished, a new problem crops up and I end up at square one. Writing is a thousand times easier than video editing, at least for me. At one point I even posted my YouTube Proofs of Deity video. However when I tested it the sound was screwy and I had to start again. I hope to have it available on Youtube and the Badi' Blog, soon.
Today, let us look at how this proof of deity presented in this table talk of the Master fits into the history of ideas. Unless indicated otherwise, the quotations from Heraclitus in this essay are drawn from the Wikipedia article "Heraclitus."
Though most of his writing is lost, Heraclitus clearly was the first to work out some of the concepts that `Abdu'l-Baha in this early talk in Some Answered Questions makes into a proof of deity. Heraclitus is a surprisingly important thinker; he should be better known than he is. He had several ideas that were later confirmed as of central importance to divine philosophy.
For example, the Gospel of John borrowed the Heraclitean idea that Logos, rather than earth, water, fire or air, is the real basis of reality. When Abdu'l-Baha defines religion as "the teachings of the Lord God," He is using an aspect of Heraclitus's "logo-centric" worldview. Logos in Greek has no fewer than six meanings, word, plan, formula, reckoning, formula and proportion. All six are strained to the limit, but they do describe fittingly how the Manifestation of God mediates reality and vivifies the sum of human capacity. As Heraclitus puts it,
"One man is ten thousand to me if he be the best." (DK 49)
As well, the Qu'ran uses the same "wealth curse" that Heraclitus is reported to have used on his townsfolk -- he desired wealth upon the Ephesians as a punishment for their wicked ways. The Qu'ran often describes wealth as a divine sanction because it so effectively distracts from what matters in life, the love of God. And of course Jesus also upheld this idea when He said that it is easier for a camel to walk through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Heraclitus was also the first known thinker to use the word "kosmos" for world order. It was not the elder
The most salient contribution of Heraclitus was the realization that the universe is in such quick, vibrating interplay that it is impossible to touch the same object twice. No matter how solid it may seem, every thing is in a chaotic motion that he termed flux. Every split second objects fade out of existence, are renewed and dissolve again. Solidity is being tearing down and rebuilding again in equilibrium.
"We must know that war (polemos) is common to all and strife is justice, and that all things come into being through strife necessarily."
This opposition Heraclitus called eris, strife, and justice, dike, was its temporary stability. Logos is the only dependable ground of existence, and only when it is dynamic, living, moving.
Heraclitus got this insight when he saw a bard playing a melody on a stringed instrument known as a lyre. The lyre is a stringed bow, like the kind of military bow that pushes an arrow into flight. Indeed, the Sythian bow had its horns pointing forward until it was strung, in which case its horns then pointed backwards. The music of the lyre took advantage of the same sort of deforming tension, what we might now call potential energy, between the opposing ends of a flexed rod. Although its strings vibrate wildly and chaotically, its sound is sweet to the ear. Listening to its sound he must have thought, "That is just like a life crisis. One half of you wants to go one way and the other half strains to go the other." Indeed, Heraclitus is said to have educated himself by asking questions of himself in solitude. What he actually wrote was,
"There is a harmony in the bending back (palintropos) as in the case of the bow and the lyre."
"Dike eris," for Heraclitus meant that "strife is justice." This is identical to the Arabic word for justice, Adl, meaning a balance or fulcrum point. The fairest universe, Heraclitus said, is but a pile of rubbish piled up by chance. This foreshadows modern discoveries about randomness, quantum mechanics and chaos theory. Palintropos or bending back could be called "unity in adversity," which is close to the unity in diversity that is a major theme in the Writings of Baha'u'llah. Heraclitus saw that whatever actually happens in the world is an effect of Palintropos, the vibrating tension between being and non-being, the play of strife and harmony, the random and the planned, between contingency and Logos.
"All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of things (ta hola, "the whole") flows like a stream."
Fate, then, would be what happens when you get caught up in the opposing tension or Polemikos.
"Justice turns the scale, bringing to some learning through suffering." (Aeschylus)
The suffering of a Job, Jesus or the Bab opens new realms of human discovery by involving the Logos, the divine plan or law in human sensibilities in a more direct, intimate way. Baha'u'llah confirms this,
"Know verily that the essence of justice and the source thereof are both embodied in the ordinances prescribed by Him Who is the Manifestation of the Self of God amongst men, if ye be of them that recognize this truth. He doth verily incarnate the highest, the infallible standard of justice unto all creation. (Gleanings, #88, p. 175)
Heraclitus wrote that "all things come to pass in accordance with this word" and, "the word is common," and "(it is) the account which governs the universe (ta hola, the whole)." Justice is balance or harmony coming out of struggling opposition. Heraclitus understood justice as an imperative to "follow the common." Nor can there be harmony without wisdom, which he called an appreciation of how "all things" work,
"Wisdom is one thing. It is to understand the mind by which all things are steered through all things." (Heraclitus, DK 41)
In another translation, wisdom is "to know the thought by which all things are steered through all things." The wise, then, is one who enquires into all things, and takes what she learns into consideration. A wise person is the opposite, then, of a fanatic or fundamentalist.
"It is wise, listening not to me but to reason, to agree that all men who love wisdom must inquire into very many things." (Heraclitus, DK 35)
Of course it would be impossible to enquire in depth into all things; a certain economy and efficiency is required. As a result, we finite mortals cannot be wise in any absolute sense, since, "Only Zeus is wise." This concept of wisdom is woven into Baha'u'llah's Tablet, "Words of Wisdom," whose title can be literally translated as the "Principles of All-Things." Of course this is basic to the Judaic tradition too, as witnessed by this verse from the Book of Proverbs,
"And all such things as are hid, and not foreseen, I have learned: for wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me." (Prov 7:21, Douay-Rheims)
This includes another idea important for Heraclitus; nature is hidden, its essence is concealed and our job is to uncover the unseen. Since Heraclitus's hometown of Ephesis is in
Unfortunately, Heraclitus is an also-ran in the history of philosophy. Good ideas, but no idea how to sell them. In fact, as an elitist he did not even want to sell them. An early Rousseau, he held the crowd in contempt and tried to escape into nature. Nor did he consider royalty as part of the elite. When the Persian king Darius called Heraclitus to his court for a discussion he is reported as answering that he had a horror of splendor.
Later on, the agnostic Protagoras knew what to do with the same idea, hide it. It is a law of human psychology that anything labeled "secret" gains an irresistible cachet. Protagoras made the compresence of opposites the basis of his relativism. Plato in the Theaetetus called this Protagoras's "secret doctrine," or the doctrine of opposites; from this Plato built a theory of perception based upon contrasting opposition. For example, the fact that the wind seems cold proves the existence of warmth, of heat, and of the wind itself. The eye sees dark, and that lack proves that there is light.
As far as I know, this remained strictly a theory of perception until `Abdu'l-Baha made the "secret doctrine" into a proof of deity. Unfortunately, I have not enquired into "all things" yet, and it is possible I have overlooked another antecedent.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Al Gore's Energy Challenge
Here is an historic speech that everybody should watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCKoD0bXX94
"Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans -- in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen." For the full text, go to wecansolveit.org/
The popularity of real "bold energy solutions" is truly unbelievable, even in my humble experience.
My sister-in-law gave me her electric bike, which is in need of repairs. I briefly took it out for a few minutes and was actually bothered by the cheers and gratuitous positive comments of people on the street as soon as they saw that I was riding an electric vehicle. Yesterday I was in the more sophisticated surroundings of the big city, walking at a big university campus, and I saw the same thing happen; the school had bought electric utility vehicles and a car stopped and shouted at the worker driving it, "Nice vehicle!" "Thanks," he replied. Everybody wants an electric economy, and this video is the first sign that the will of the world's people might soon be put into action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCKoD0bXX94
"Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans -- in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen." For the full text, go to wecansolveit.org/
The popularity of real "bold energy solutions" is truly unbelievable, even in my humble experience.
My sister-in-law gave me her electric bike, which is in need of repairs. I briefly took it out for a few minutes and was actually bothered by the cheers and gratuitous positive comments of people on the street as soon as they saw that I was riding an electric vehicle. Yesterday I was in the more sophisticated surroundings of the big city, walking at a big university campus, and I saw the same thing happen; the school had bought electric utility vehicles and a car stopped and shouted at the worker driving it, "Nice vehicle!" "Thanks," he replied. Everybody wants an electric economy, and this video is the first sign that the will of the world's people might soon be put into action.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Baha'i's Comic Book to be made into film
"Throughout the series Nelson has linked many religions together with Grail Mythology, and “Rex Mundi” is indeed a statement about the writer’s own beliefs. “I grew up Episcopalian, actually,” Nelson said. “In college, I converted to a religion called Baha’i. ‘Rex Mundi’ is, at it deepest level, a meditation on the prophecies surrounding the advent of the Baha’i era.” One of the more auspicious developments in the world of “Rex Mundi is the announcement of a film adaptation produced by and starring Johnny Depp."
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17297
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17297
Friday, July 18, 2008
tpm, p27 Two Prayers for World Reform
2008 July 18, 06 Kalimat, 165 BE
The first of these two prayers was written by Jan Amos Comenius, the second revealed by Abdu'l-Baha in
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Prayer of Jan Amos Comenius, from Panorthosia, Ch. 3, para 45, pp. 81-82
"O Lord, who hast made heaven and earth and sea and the fountains of waters (Rev 14:7), and who hast promised in the last days to pour out Thy spirit like waters (Isa 44:3) and the issuing of waters from under the threshold of Thy house (Ez 47:1,2) to be increased beyond measure (v. 5) for the purpose of healing all the waters of the earth (v. 8) and giving life to every soul that liveth (v. 9) and bringing forth trees, with fruit and leaves that shall be for meat and medicine (v. 12), fulfil now Thy holy promises, O holy God!
"Open the floodgates of heaven, break up the fountains of the great deep, (Gen
"Be unto us Thyself, O Lord, as the river, and let Thine hand, Thy word, and Thy spirit within us be as broad streams (Isa 33:21), that our iniquities may be cleansed, and our ruined places rebuilded, and our land that is desolate may become like the Garden of Eden (Ez 36:33-35). May the zeal of the Lord of Hosts perform this (Isa 9:7). Amen"
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Master Prayer, from Promulgation, 452-453
I pray that the nations of the East and West shall become one flock under the care and guidance of the divine Shepherd. Verily, this is the bestowal of God and the greatest honor of man. This is the glory of humanity. This is the good pleasure of God. I ask God for this with a contrite heart.
O my Lord! Thou Who art ever-forgiving! Verily, this assembly hath turned its face toward Thy Kingdom. Verily, they are all of Thy flock, and Thou art the one Shepherd of all. O Thou real Shepherd! Educate and train Thy sheep in Thy green and verdant pastures. Suffer these birds of Thine to build their nests in Thy rose garden. Adorn Thine orchard with these fresh plants and flowers. Refresh these human trees by Thy shower of beneficence and favor.
O God! Verily, we are all Thy servants--all Thine--and Thou art the One Lord. We all adore Thee, and Thou art the beneficent Master. O Lord! Render the eyes perceptive that they may witness the lights of Thy Kingdom. Render the ears attentive that they may hear the heavenly summons. Resuscitate the spirits that they may be exhilarated through the breath of the Holy Spirit. O Lord! Verily, we are weak, but Thou art almighty. We are poor, but Thou art rich. Have mercy upon us. Apportion unto us a goodly share of Thy realities, and lead us into the arena of Thine attainments.
Thou art the Powerful. Thou art the Able. Thou art the kind Lord.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Steven Leacock's Apparent Parody
Here is a summary of what one academic thinks is a parody of the Master, though it seems evident that the humorist did nothing more than glance at a headline and use the name to satirize a form of religious hucksterism that the Master Himself deplored and openly denounced, especially in Green Acre.
LEACOCK'S PARODY ON 'ABDU'L-BAHA
http://www.bahai-library.org/fiction/leacock.parody.html
here is the actual newspaper headline he glanced over, probably.
http://www.ca.bahai.org/images/history4.jpg
which you can read more about at:
History of the Bahá'í Community of Canada
http://www.ca.bahai.org/main.cfm?sid=41
LEACOCK'S PARODY ON 'ABDU'L-BAHA
http://www.bahai-library.org/fiction/leacock.parody.html
here is the actual newspaper headline he glanced over, probably.
http://www.ca.bahai.org/images/history4.jpg
which you can read more about at:
History of the Bahá'í Community of Canada
http://www.ca.bahai.org/main.cfm?sid=41
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Camera-free music video
In Radiohead's new video for "House of Cards", no cameras or lights were used. Instead, 3D plotting technologies collected information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. -- note to eight year olds: this was made with lasers!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Badi Blog posting is ongoing
2008 July 11, 19 Rahmat, 165 BE
Over the past week I have been fooling around with broken-down computers, repairs, upgrades and generally catching up on a todo list as long as your arm.
The Youth Impact Centre has switched to a summer schedule and has a couple of youth workers helping its new pastor, Ray. My usual co-coordinator, Stu, is taking the summer off, so Gord and I have been handling the Friday night chess club alone. Silvie was involved in the pastor's Martial Arts classes for a few months, but then her interest flagged. She stays home on the night I volunteer, Fridays, while Thomas still comes along.
Our main computer failed after I upgraded its RAM, in preparation for putting MS Flight Simulator onto it. I also purchased a video card from the new local computer store, Computer Troubleshooters. They stood by what they sold me, and now the machine seems to be working. In the meantime I have been trying to make the switch from a windows machine to the Imac, which we have owned for six months but were using mostly as a television and DVD player, rather than a computer.
I have had no choice but to post directly to the badi blog. You can go to the blog to read the recent posts all together quite conveniently; they are short and to the point, usually with a link to something I found interesting. Here is a list of the posts in the order of the principle system I use, along with their location on the web:
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p07 (Education) Creativity Expert
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/creativity-expert.html
p14 (Virtues and Calendar) Round format of the Badi' Calendar
2008 July 12, 19 Rahmat, 165 BE
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/round-format-of-badi-calendar.html
p15dea (Mind, Soul and Body; Death) Five things to do before you die
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/5-things-to-do-before-you-die.html
p17 (Love) Some Kind of Wonderful
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/some-kind-of-wonderful.html
p22cor (Politics, Corruption) Medical corruption?
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/medical-corruption.html
p33 (Travel, Transportation) Where's Mat?
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/wheres-mat.html
p33 (Travel) Worst Plane Crash
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/worst-plane-crash.html
tfam (Family and Sex) My Favorite Movie Kiss
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/my-favorite-movie-kiss.html
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2008 July 14,
Converting to a mac is a huge job for an old timer like me. Very set in my ways, I am. I have been up to my neck in networking protocols, a thumb modem that turned out to be defective, and on and on. This DOSBOX program for using DOS on a Mac works, but it is a pain to set up. It looks like I might have to buy a notebook computer if only to be able to use my ancient DOS writing program, Maxthink, in native mode, with all keystroke shortcuts intact. Meanwhile, I have been making short posts periodically, direct to the blog. One of them is:
http://badiblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/baha.html
Criticism in the Cause
The Covenant Study Website that I discussed yesterday has a new post on criticism at:
http://covenantstudy.org/questions/questioning-and-criticism/
I just went over the quotes from the Guardian and the House included here, and basically what a Baha'i has to do us be her own lawyer. We can offer criticisms, but only in such a way that they will not bring about disunity or negative views of the institutions. That means being very guarded, in view that some are more sensitive than others. The feast is the main forum for positive criticism, but the larger the group is, the more likely it is that more unprepared souls will be there who will take it the wrong way. I have observed that when there is a high level of love, trust and goodwill between friends, the friend can offer frank feedback that would be insulting from anybody else. That is why the Master advises us not "take offense" and Baha'u'llah admonishes us to see one another as family members. In a united family you can be very outspoken without danger of ill feeling. So there is a formula, the higher the love, the sharper the knives of criticism can be plunged into the heart of the situation without pain.
My favorite part from this selection is this, from the UHJ:
"The responsibility resting on the individual to conduct himself in such a way as to ensure the stability of society takes on elemental importance in this context. For vital as it is to the progress of society, criticism is a two-edged sword: it is all too often the harbinger of conflict and contention. The balanced processes of the Administrative Order are meant to prevent this essential activity from degenerating to any form of dissent that breeds opposition and its dreadful schismatic consequences. How incalculable have been the negative results of ill-directed criticism: in the catastrophic divergences it has created in religion, in the equally contentious factions it has spawned in political systems, which have dignified conflict by institutionalizing such concepts as the “loyal opposition” which attach to one or another of the various categories of political opinion — conservative, liberal, progressive, reactionary, and so forth.
"If Bahá’í individuals deliberately ignore the principles imbedded in the Order which Bahá’u’lláh Himself has established to remedy divisiveness in the human family, the Cause for which so much has been sacrificed will surely be set back in its mission to rescue world society from complete disintegration. May not the existence of the Covenant be invoked again and again, so that such repetition may preserve the needed perspective? For, in this age, the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh has been protected against the baneful effects of the misuse of the process of criticism; this has been done by the institution of the Covenant and by the provision of a universal administrative system which incorporates within itself the mechanisms for drawing out the constructive ideas of individuals and using them for the benefit of the entire system. Admonishing the people to uphold the unifying purpose of the Cause, Bahá’u’lláh, in the Book of His Covenant, addresses these poignant words to them: “Let not the means of order be made the cause of confusion and the instrument of union an occasion for discord.” Such assertions emphasize a crucial point; it is this: In terms of the Covenant, dissidence is a moral and intellectual contradiction of the main objective animating the Bahá’í community, namely, the establishment of the unity of mankind." (Universal House of Justice, Individual Rights and Freedoms, paragraph 31-36)
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Iranians for peace
Iranians for peace message.
http://www.voicesforpeace.net/
Now who would ever want to attack Iran?
http://www.voicesforpeace.net/
Now who would ever want to attack Iran?
Baha'i Covenant Website
Here is an interesting website on the Baha'i Covenant,
http://covenantstudy.org
I reviewed the website and had some concerns, so I wrote to the author the following comment,
John Taylor (badiblog.blogspot.com) wrote:
Here is a suggestion: Since there is so much material on the web written by covenant breakers, a loyal believer needs to be cautious about the source. Often something looks
legit and turns out on further reading to come from an enemy.
That is why it is surprising and -- no offense -- suspicious, that, although this site seems to be from an official source, you leave no hint as to who wrote it, no links to Baha'i institutions or anything. Part of firmness in the covenant is paying due attention to sources. For that reason I hesitate to
recommend what looks like a good resource on my blog until this is rectified.
The (still anonymous) author of the website replied promptly, saying:
==========
Thank you for expressing your concerns about the site. In an effort to clarify things a bit more I have added an "About" page
http://covenantstudy.org/about
I've also made sure that the links to the official Baha'i sites appear on all pages (not just the homepage).
BTW, I have done a number of other efforts on the web and prefer to do them anonymously -- but at the same time I certainly don't want to raise doubts about my intentions. So this "About" page tries to be the most clear and unambiguous statement on any blog or Web site out there :-)
I also share your discomfort with the sites on the web -- both by covenant-breakers and those who claim to be "Baha'is in good standing" -- that make attacks on the Institutions of the Faith. This site was created in response to their efforts and I hope it will provide a place where people can deepen their understanding on the aspects of the Covenant -- and enable us to see them for what they truly are.
Warmest thanks and regards!
==========
This is a good response, so yes I recommend the site, though if any readers finds anything of concern I hope they will let me know.
Just a note about anonymity. Before I "moved" my writing onto the Web, I edited and wrote for a newsletter for a fairly large Baha'i community. I too wanted to be anonymous with what I wrote, in view of the Teachings on humility, self-effacement, etc. But after a couple of years I found that it is just not practical. Humility is one thing, justice is another, and it trumps humility in many cases. Not saying who wrote something causes endless confusion about who who said what and why.
That is why, you will notice, on almost every blog entry, especially every essay, I start right off with "by John Taylor."
http://covenantstudy.org
I reviewed the website and had some concerns, so I wrote to the author the following comment,
John Taylor (badiblog.blogspot.com) wrote:
Here is a suggestion: Since there is so much material on the web written by covenant breakers, a loyal believer needs to be cautious about the source. Often something looks
legit and turns out on further reading to come from an enemy.
That is why it is surprising and -- no offense -- suspicious, that, although this site seems to be from an official source, you leave no hint as to who wrote it, no links to Baha'i institutions or anything. Part of firmness in the covenant is paying due attention to sources. For that reason I hesitate to
recommend what looks like a good resource on my blog until this is rectified.
The (still anonymous) author of the website replied promptly, saying:
==========
Thank you for expressing your concerns about the site. In an effort to clarify things a bit more I have added an "About" page
http://covenantstudy.org/about
I've also made sure that the links to the official Baha'i sites appear on all pages (not just the homepage).
BTW, I have done a number of other efforts on the web and prefer to do them anonymously -- but at the same time I certainly don't want to raise doubts about my intentions. So this "About" page tries to be the most clear and unambiguous statement on any blog or Web site out there :-)
I also share your discomfort with the sites on the web -- both by covenant-breakers and those who claim to be "Baha'is in good standing" -- that make attacks on the Institutions of the Faith. This site was created in response to their efforts and I hope it will provide a place where people can deepen their understanding on the aspects of the Covenant -- and enable us to see them for what they truly are.
Warmest thanks and regards!
==========
This is a good response, so yes I recommend the site, though if any readers finds anything of concern I hope they will let me know.
Just a note about anonymity. Before I "moved" my writing onto the Web, I edited and wrote for a newsletter for a fairly large Baha'i community. I too wanted to be anonymous with what I wrote, in view of the Teachings on humility, self-effacement, etc. But after a couple of years I found that it is just not practical. Humility is one thing, justice is another, and it trumps humility in many cases. Not saying who wrote something causes endless confusion about who who said what and why.
That is why, you will notice, on almost every blog entry, especially every essay, I start right off with "by John Taylor."
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Round format of the Badi' Calendar
I have found a round, clock-like format of the Badi' Calendar very useful in orienting myself, and especially in familiarizing the kids with the English and Arabic names of the months. I glued a printout of this pretty layout of our calendar on a metal file cabinet, on which a magnet can be used to mark our place in the cycle of the years and seasons. I just noticed that this layout is available in color at the American NSA's site:
http://www.bahai.us/bahai-calendar
If you can get a hold of printable magnet sheets, you could maybe print this calendar on that material in order to make your markers stick better. Let me know what you find useful.
(I really mean it, give me your comments; my daughter is checking my blog and comparing the number of comments with her mother's blog, and Mom has been winning hands down she tells me.)
http://www.bahai.us/bahai-calendar
If you can get a hold of printable magnet sheets, you could maybe print this calendar on that material in order to make your markers stick better. Let me know what you find useful.
(I really mean it, give me your comments; my daughter is checking my blog and comparing the number of comments with her mother's blog, and Mom has been winning hands down she tells me.)
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Medical corruption?
Hey, check out this article on statins for kids:
Editorial:Cholesterol Drugs for 8-Year-Olds
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/opinion/10thu2.html?th&emc=th
Now check out the Lawh-i-Tibb, Baha'u'llah's advice to doctors,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawh-i-Tibb
and a provisional translation at:
http://bahai-library.com/index.php5?file=bahaullah_lawh_tibb.html
In the second paragraph Baha'u'llah says,
"Treat disease first of all through the diet and refrain from medicines. If you find what you need (for healing) in a single herb, do not use compound medicines. Leave off medicine when the health is good and use it in case of necessity."
As the Times editorial points out, there is no evidence that statins for kids will help with potential heart problems, and you can bet that taking a drug of any kind over decades will turn up any number of unexpected complications. Since the American Pediatric Association stands to profit from the massive profits drug companies stand to make on this advice, you can bet they are not too worried about lawsuits coming at them decades from now.
This is why we need the wisdom of a Manifestation of God. We have been eating foods for millions of years. Drugs are novelties, though how new medical corruption is is another question.
Check out this bit of satire on political corruption from Onion:
In The Know: Are Politicians Failing Our Lobbyists?
Onion should get onto this story and satirize statins for kids.
Editorial:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/10/opinion/10thu2.html?th&emc=th
Now check out the Lawh-i-Tibb, Baha'u'llah's advice to doctors,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawh-i-Tibb
and a provisional translation at:
http://bahai-library.com/index.php5?file=bahaullah_lawh_tibb.html
In the second paragraph Baha'u'llah says,
"Treat disease first of all through the diet and refrain from medicines. If you find what you need (for healing) in a single herb, do not use compound medicines. Leave off medicine when the health is good and use it in case of necessity."
As the Times editorial points out, there is no evidence that statins for kids will help with potential heart problems, and you can bet that taking a drug of any kind over decades will turn up any number of unexpected complications. Since the American Pediatric Association stands to profit from the massive profits drug companies stand to make on this advice, you can bet they are not too worried about lawsuits coming at them decades from now.
This is why we need the wisdom of a Manifestation of God. We have been eating foods for millions of years. Drugs are novelties, though how new medical corruption is is another question.
Check out this bit of satire on political corruption from Onion:
In The Know: Are Politicians Failing Our Lobbyists?
Onion should get onto this story and satirize statins for kids.
Monday, July 07, 2008
My Favorite Movie Kiss
For the whole film from which this scene was taken, see "Some Kind of Wonderful." Watched it lately with Silvie, my daughter, to prove her wrong when she says I am not romantic enough.
For the Baha'i position on kissing see:
In my opinion, the above scene demonstrates graphically the wisdom of treating extramarital kissing just the same as other kinds of extramarital intercourse. Studies found that a kiss sets off pheromones that inhabit the brain for at least two years afterwards. The body is never the same afterwards. For the love lorn, there are good physical reasons that it hurts. The body forms a bond that is meant to be permanent.
Does that make me a non-romantic? In my opinion, anybody who takes this law seriously is not only wise and non-masochistic, they are far more of a romantic than otherwise...
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