30 December 2021

 Well, it's that time of the... Plan?

Here we are, on the cusp of a new series of Plans, and the Universal House of Justice is, once again, giving us the guidance for where we are heading. It is so refreshing and encouraging. Now, if you have been reading my blog for a number of years, you know that I love to explore the new messages as soon as me out. I really enjoy diving deep into them and seeing what nuances we can find.

This time, however, I am doing something a little different. Instead of just diving right in, all on my own, I'm asking for your help, dear Reader. What I want to do is compile a series of questions, based on paragraph numbers, that will help us learn how to apply the lessons and guidance in this message to our daily life within our own community setting. In this post, I will not be posting answers we have found, but rather just questions that we can ask within our own communities.

And so, if you have questions that have arisen from this message that you think will help others, please leave it in the comments or message me, and I'll add them in. For now, what I have put below is just a cursory beginning.

Thanks.

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Part 1 - Introduction: Paragraphs 1 - 4

    Paragraph 1

        1. How do you see the relationship between learning, growing, and the capacity to serve humanity in your community?

    Paragraph 2

        1. What have we learned about what it means to be an "outward looking" community?

        2. What have we been learning about how to apply the teaching to our "social reality"?

        3. How do we help people feel welcome to "labour alongside" us in our work?

        4. How are we adjusting our style of discourse to more effectively "influence the direction" of change in our community?

    Paragraph 3

        1. What is the "single aim" of this current series of Plans? And what was the singular aim of the previous series? How are they related?

        2. We know that we need to further strengthen the "dynamic relationship" between the individual believer, the local community, and the institutions of the Faith. How can we more effectively do this?

        3. How can we further enhance "the qualities of cooperation and mutual assistance"?

        4. What does it mean that this principle "endows the body of the Cause with moral vigour and spiritual health"?

    Paragraph 4

        1. Why do you think the Universal House of Justice calls to our attention the qualities of "trustworthiness, cooperation, and forbearance" at this time?

        2. What can we do to help stabilize the social order in our community? And what does this look like?

        3. What does it mean to "champion rationality and science as essential for human progress"? And how does this inform our conversations with our friends?

        4. As we engage in sharing our beliefs, what does it look like to be "respectful of the freedom of conscience of every soul"?

        5. What do you feel we "still need to learn" in this process?

Part 2 - The Movement of Clusters: Paragraphs 5 - 10

    Paragraph 5

        1. What are some of the "measurable outcomes" of the work we are doing?

        2. How does the recognition of the spiritual nature of this undertaking effect the "measurable outcomes" of the work?

        3. Does your community, or neighbourhood, have an established intensive program of growth? If not, what elements can you help put into place to more effectively establish it?

    Paragraph 6

        1. What defines a "cluster"?

    Paragraph 7

        1. What are the first three milestones along the path of development for a cluster?

        2. Where is your cluster, or neighbourhood, on this path?

        3. What can be done to effectively help your cluster move to the next milestone?

    Paragraph 8

        1. Has your cluster passed the third milestone?

        2. If yes, how can you help assist other clusters near you to advance?

        3. If no, which cluster near you has? What assistance would be useful to help your cluster advance?

    Paragraph 9

        1. Which spiritual themes are of the most concern in your cluster?

        2. Are you comfortable raising these themes in conversations with your friends and acquaintances in your community? If not, what effective steps can be taken to help raise the comfort level?

        3. What does it mean to you that an individual's declaration of faith is but "a singular moment in a person's spiritual development"?

        4. Are you comfortable encouraging "those who stand at the threshold" to join the Baha'i community? If not, what is it that makes you feel uncomfortable? What would make you feel more comfortable in extending that invitation?

        5. Describe the mindset you feel is needed to allow "families, groups of friends, and even clusters of households" to feel comfortable embracing the Faith, as distinct from individuals declaring on their own. It is, of course, important to recognize that both are necessary, and both will occur in the future.

    Paragraph 10 

        1. What effective ways have you found to teach the Faith in your community?

        2. What methods or words and phrases have you found that are not effective? It is worth remembering that we can learn from negative examples, too.

        3. How is your community recording and sharing what is most effective in your community?

Four Kinds of Love

 I know I haven't been writing much here lately, dear Reader, and I do apologize.

I've been working on a full-length commentary on the Kitab-i-Iqan, and that has taken up most of my time. It's sure taken up most of my energy. It's been sent off to the publisher, so a prayer that it is good enough for them would be appreciated.

In the meantime, another project I've had the pleasure to work on is reading aloud the text for a recording on 'Abdu'l-Baha's "The Four Kinds of Love", which has just been released. It can be found here: https://bahaimusicstore.com/nancy-lee-harper-four-kinds-of-love

I hope you enjoy it. Perhaps someday soon I will write my thoughts about it. In the meantime, I would love to hear what you think.

The Road to Hell...

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

For years this adage bothered me. I had understood it to mean that if you begin something, you need to finish it. In other words, if you intend to do something, but do not follow through, that will pave the road to your own hell. It seemed like a massive guilt trip for procrastinators.

But the more I think about it, I believe there is another and more profound truth within it. I think it is a caution. After all, you don't pave a road unless you intend to use it.

What do I mean? I'm glad you asked, dear Reader. I don't know what I would do without you.

In recent days, or weeks (I kind of lose track of time these days), the question of intention, or motivation, has come up many times. Over and over again I hear or read of people presuming an intention behind another's actions. The truth, though, is that we can't really know anyone else's intentions. Most of us don't even know our own motivations, so how can we believe we understand anyone else's?

"Why did so-and-so do such-and-such?" I don't know. I can guess, but in the end, I'm not a mind-reader. I can presume, and further actions on their part may make the case more likely, but I really cannot be certain. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Baha'u'llah reminded us that we should "Let deeds, not words, be (our) adorning."

Personally, if I have to guess, I like to believe good intentions on the part of others. I have a hard time believing anybody would get up in the morning, look in the mirror and say, "I think I'll do something horrible today." No. I truly believe that people have good intentions. But this is not necessarily a good thing.

What brought this to mind is the on-going discussion about Residential Schools here in Canada. This was a time when First Nations' children were taken from their homes and put into so-called schools to try and make them more European.

First, let me state that I believe this was a horrible thing to do. It caused untold suffering. The suffering that has been shared is only a tiny part of the suffering that actually occurred. I truly believe this was a horrible practice, and am glad to see the government beginning to make reparations. It has a long way to go, but at least a beginning has been made.

That said, do I believe the motivation behind the original suggestion was good? Actually, I do. Now, please, bear with me for a moment. Hear me out. Forget, for a moment, the horrors that resulted from the abuse of this action, but let's look at the ideas that motivated it in the first place. The people of the day sadly believed that there was a hierarchy of civilizations, as well as a hierarchy of peoples. They truly believed that some people were inherently superior to others, and that some cultures were naturally better. Now, again please don't get me wrong. I think these beliefs are not only incorrect, but downright awful. I am in no way defending them, but just stating what was a mistaken belief at the time.

Given this tragic error, there were people out there who truly thought that it was in the best interest of the children to try and raise them to be more European. They honestly thought it was good for the children to be removed from the "evil" influence of their culture and given one that was "closer to the divine". As one person horrifically said, they wanted to "kill the Indian in the child".

One of the many problems was that they did not take into account the importance of diversity. They also didn't acknowledge the beauty and majesty of another culture. They never dreamed that another culture, especially one that they mistakenly thought of as primitive, could have anything of value to offer the global body of humanity. These lapses are indefensible, and rightly severely criticized.

Even though their motivation may have been good, the improvement in the life of the child, they were horribly mistaken in how to achieve that noble end. (It's amazing how often I am using the word horrible, but it says something about the nature of this topic.)

Even if the abuses, physical, emotional, sexual, cultural, and spiritual, did not occur as they did, this still would have been a great tragedy to all the people involved, the children as well as the families affected. All this other stuff just further compounded it and made it even worse.

Their intention may have been good, and the fact that they put so much time and energy into implementing it shows that they believed it was a good thing, but because of their mistaken beliefs, they walked far along that road to hell. And this resulted in the suffering of many generations of people.

You will notice, of course, that I'm not talking about the greed that was probably involved on the part of some who financially benefited from some of these things, for I believe that is a side issue. I am only focusing on what I perceive to be the good intentions of the majority of those involved. Because, really, it is these good intentions that get noticed and allow these movements to gain public support. No movement ever gained ground by someone saying, "Hey, I'm going to get rich out of it" or "I'm going to become so powerful and influential". No. They gain ground by saying, "We'll improve the economy and you will benefit from more jobs" or "The children will be grateful once they know better". The people get so caught up in what they think is a good thing that they often overlook the inherent problems.

So, to me, this phrase about the "road to hell" being "paved with good intentions" is a caution. It tells me to carefully examine my goals, and look at them from all angles. It warns me to consider the issue from a larger perspective than my just my own self-interest.

Whether we are talking about the movement of immigrants into the country, or the mandatory vaccination for those able to get inoculated, or even a global response to the changing climate, it is really easy to get people riled up in one direction or another. Unfortunately, in many cases political and social support goes to those who only look at a narrow cross section of humanity, without due consideration to the larger picture.

Do I believe the Residential Schools initially had a good goal? Well, educating children is a noble deed, but not without the respect that is due all people and cultures, nor at the expense of diversity.

Do I believe there was suffering from this action? Absolutely.

But more importantly, what have I learned from looking at this issue? That I better be certain that any goal I set my sights on is leading us towards a divine civilization, and not inadvertently leading us towards a hell. For it is through our deeds, not our words, that we shall be judged.

Prayer for the Fast, part 5

Ten years ago I wrote a a few articles on this prayer and only recently re-read them. And you know what I learned? It doesn't matter how often you read a particular prayer, it unfolds itself in new ways every time. I also learned that I cannot recall writing these articles at all. They read, to me, as if someone else is speaking in my voice. And so, dear Reader, I wondered what I would say today if I were to write these articles again.

Of course, as soon as I asked myself this, I opened my prayer book, said a short prayer in my heart, and then began to read.

Now, I feel I must interrupt the flow of this particular stream of thought to admit something to you before I begin. After all, I know I can trust you. We're friends, and you would never laugh at me, except when appropriate, right?

So, when I go to say a prayer, I always say a short personal prayer in my heart before turning to the Writings. Why? I don't know. It just feels right to prepare myself before approaching something so sacred, like we are told to do with the Feast. Today, I did that, as usual, and then began to re-read this wonderful prayer for the Fast. I started to feel the rhythm of the prayer, the flow of the spirit as it washed over my own soul, noted a passage that stuck out at me and gently flagged it. This, by the way, is something that my hand just does naturally without any specific conscious thought on my part. It's just a tiny dot of the pencil that touches the prayer book and later, when I'm done with the reading / praying part of the prayer, I go back and look at those dots.

Today, however, I was about halfway through the reading part of it when I realized I was reading the wrong prayer. I was reading the one that begins "Glory be to Thee, O Lord my God!" Oops. Oh well. It's still a good prayer, right? Oh, and that's a personal joke with me. Whenever a friend asks which prayer they should read, I almost always say, "Choose a good one." It's like when some friends and I were talking about the Hidden Words, and one of them was trying to remember a particular one that the other loved to chant. He couldn't recall which one they were referring to and asked, "How does it begin?" I said, "O Son of..." And there was a long pause before they both fell over laughing. Anyways, maybe I'll look at that other prayer later on during this Fast. Perhaps it was a hint from up top.

Back to today.

It is one hour after sunrise, 6 March 2021. And "I beseech Thee, O my God".

This morning there are a number of dots on the page, more than usual. Certainly more than I can write about in a single article here. Rather than try to write about the thoughts that traipse through my mind on each of them, I'll just do one at a time, in order, and maybe tackle the others tomorrow.

Of course, I should also point out that each and every word in the sacred Writings is holy and filled with layers upon layers of meaning. To focus on one is not to say that the others are any less meaningful, not at all. Instead, it is to see them as gems that catch my eye at a particular moment in my life. Focusing on an extract, a single piece of the Writings, is nothing new. After all, there are single lines taken from the verses and placed on the walls of the temple in Wilmette. We look at a single verse at a time in the first sections of the Ruhi books. Baha'u'llah, Himself, extracted a number of single lines in His great work, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf. So I feel there is nothing wrong with focusing on a single line, phrase, or word, within the context of the entire piece.

Today, the first phrase that caught my attention, that moved me enough to rock forward and place that dot on the page, was "the shadow of Thy mercy".

Why is mercy a shadow in this context? If God is the Light of the world, and Baha'u'llah is the Most Glorious, why would being in a shadow be a mercy? Wouldn't this block His light from reaching us? Isn't that what a shadow does, block the light?

Perhaps, and I don't really know for this is only my own opinion and nothing official, God's light is so intense that the shadow really is a mercy, allowing us to see the light without burning up underneath it. As I write this, I am thinking of how I wear sunglasses while driving on a bright day. It protects me, and allows me to see more clearly. Maybe this is what the shadow of His mercy does.

Many times Baha'u'llah said to the friends that if He were to reveal His true glory, they would all swoon away. By standing behind a veil, so to speak, they could begin to catch a glimpse of Him.

There is also the story that He told to one of the Pilgrims about the training of a parrot. When the trainer wishes to teach the parrot to speak, they hide behind a mirror. This way, the parrot sees another parrot but hears the voice of the speaker. The bird thinks that the voice is that of another bird, and thus they begin to speak, in imitation. This, Baha'u'llah is reported to have said, is how the Manifestation teaches humanity. If the parrot were to see the human speaking, they would be frightened away, but by seeing something familiar, they learn.

Now, in the context of the prayer, it seems to me that we are standing outside the gate of the city God, waiting to be allowed to enter. When I imagine myself in that context, standing outside a city of old, waiting for the guards to let me in, I see myself standing out in the sun. Heat stroke would be a distinct possibility at certain times of the year. The shadowing cloud protecting me from the hot rays of the sun would be a distinct mercy, for which I would ardently pray. Of course, if it were raining, then a canopy would be most welcome, which is, you will note, the very next phrase.

At this point, I would love to keep writing, exploring more of this wonderful prayer, but my cat is insisting I spend time with him. And my wife and I need to go to the farms to get more fresh veggies for juicing during this Fast.

Thank you for joining me this morning, and I truly look forward to hearing what phrases catch your attention in this prayer. Hopefully I'll be able to explore a bit more tomorrow.