Transformation

Such is the potency of the Divine Elixir, which, swift as the twinkling of an eye, transmuteth the souls of men!

...consider the substance of copper...

...the (divine) elixir will, in one instant, cause the substance of copper to attain the state of gold... Could this gold be called copper? Could it be claimed that it hath not attained the state of gold, whilst the touchstone is at hand to assay it and distinguish it from copper?

            Baha'u'llah - Kitab-i-Iqan, paragraphs 164 - 166

 

As some of you may know, a friend and I have been studying the Kitab-i-Iqan for a little while. Well, "a little while" means something like 24 years and counting.

    Aside - Wow. It's been ages since I've had an aside like this. So, back in the day, my friend Samuel and I were sharing an apartment. He was a relatively new Baha'i at the time and asked if, as long as we were living together, we could study the Writings. Naturally I said, "Of course. What would you like to study?" I presumed he would say something like the Hidden Words, or some other short excerpt from the Writings. Nope. "How about the Kitab-i-Iqan?" And so we did. Minimum 2 hours a week, plus any extra time we had in the apartment together. After a few months I ended up getting married, he moved out, and we put our study on hold. When we began again, we realized we had no idea where Baha'u'llah was in His argument in the book, and so we began again. My son was born, so we put it on hold again, and had to start all over again as we, once again, failed to understand where He was in His argument. But this time we decided to keep a record of our study, which you can find here. Anyways, long story short, 24 years later we are still at it, hoping to finish at some point before we are called to the great yonder beyond.

Over the past week, we have been looking at those paragraphs dealing with copper turning into gold. As you can imagine, these paragraphs have been raising a lot of questions, especially as we (humanity) has learned more about what constitutes the various elements. As it smacks of alchemy, many people have outright dismissed it as mere fable, but we've been diving deeper into it.

As you can see from the parts I have chosen to excerpt above, we believe that He is primarily referring to the transformation of the human heart, going from being like base copper to noble gold. You can read more about our thoughts on that in the blog on the Iqan. I am not going to go into it here.

Instead, I want to talk about a thought that occurred to me this morning.

My dear friend Azin made a comment, and asked a question, about the melting points of the two metals, and could this also, somehow, explain what He was referring to. I suspect not, I replied, as heating up the elements to their melting points merely affects the outer electron layers, not the nucleus itself, which is where the transmutation of elements would need to occur.

The nucleus.

The heart.

Hmmm.

    Aside number 2 - As long as I'm putting asides in here, let me just tell a little story about Azin. We were both living in Winnipeg at the time and were standing in the front hall of the local Baha'i Centre, a building chock filled with great memories for me. Anyways, as we were chatting, one of the dear Persian elderly ladies came up to us and, beaming, said how wonderful it was to see "two lions of Faith" talking together. We were both a bit embarrassed as being called such a thing, so I replied, "Yes. Azin is a lion because of his spirit. I'm only a lion because of my hair."

Once again the metaphors Baha'u'llah uses seem to become even more profound the more we dive into them.

It is very easy to make copper look like gold, for a short time. All you need to do is polish it, heat it, or even alloy it. All of these techniques can help. But it will still tarnish. To truly get copper to become gold, you need to add an additional 50 protons and 83 neutrons to the nucleus. Good luck. I mean, we know it's possible, and have even done it in nuclear reactors, but it's difficult. Really difficult. And not worth it, financially.

In other words, superficial changes are easy, but not all that effective or long-lasting.

To really make it change, you need to transform the heart.

And that, dear Reader, is the same for people.

But once the heart has really changed, then it is done. The individual has moved from being like copper, and easily tarnished, to being like pure gold, and ever-shining.

Now I'm also thinking about the tests involved in this, and how a simple chemical reaction is like the everyday tests we all face in our life. But a nuclear reaction is so much more severe, more profound, and I can't even imagine what those tests would be like.

Ah well, that's enough for me to meditate on the rest of this beautiful day, and probably for many more days to come.

I was hoping to end with something witty this morning, but nothing is coming to mind. Sorry. Just pretend I did, smile, perhaps even chuckle a bit, and enjoy the rest of your day.

Oh, and if you have any thoughts of passages for me to consider in this blog, please comment with them. Thanks. :)

The Right Stuff

I woke up this morning about an hour earlier than usual, thinking about the arts and the Right of God.

Strange, eh?

Well, not too strange. I was talking with a friend of mine a few days ago, an artist I'm collaborating with, and she was telling me how the Board of Trustees for Huququ'llah were meeting and talking about integrating the arts. She told them about our collaboration, and how we are basing it on a phrase from the Writings, and that got them thinking. And she wanted to share that with me.

It got me thinking, too, I guess.

It also got me realizing that I've been wanting to get back to writing on this blog on a regular basis, and no time like the present, so I figured this extra hour this morning is a gift, which is a present, right? Let's get to it.

Too often in various communities, the integration of the arts means having a song during prayers. But that isn't integration. It's more like an application, as in how you would apply a bandage to a cut.

Back on 27 December 2005, the House of Justice talked about how a "graceful integration of the arts into diverse activities enhances the surge of energy that mobilizes the believers". Sounds good, right? But what is a "graceful integration"? For that matter, what is integration?

To integrate something means to blend it in so that it becomes part of the whole. In other words, when we add in a song during devotions, we are not integrating the arts. We are just using the arts in one portion. To integrate them, we would need to have our presentation done artfully. We would need to learn to have the room organized in an artful and beautiful way. We would need to offer our contributions in a similarly artful and beautiful manner.

For clarification, art is defined in the Oxford dictionary as "the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination... producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power". When presenting something for the Faith, don't we want it to have "beauty and emotional power"?

In addition to this, Baha'u'llah also tells us in Epistle to the Son of the Wolf that the arts should be "productive of good results, and bring forth their fruit, and (be) conducive to the well-being and tranquility of" all people.

Ok. This all sounds great. But what does it look like?

Great question. Thanks.

For me, if I were being asked to talk about the Right of God, how would I do it?

I guess I would begin with the compilation, and look at the Writings.

When I do this, the first thing I notice is the second quote (don't ask), which tells us "the first duty is to recognize the one true God—magnified be His glory—the second is to show forth constancy in His Cause and, after these, one’s duty is to purify one’s riches and earthly possessions according to that which is prescribed by God."

Recognition first? That sounds familiar. And then constancy, which can be seen as a form of obedience. Recognition and obedience. First paragraph of the Kitab-i-Aqdas. Oh, incidentally, it can also be seen as the part 1 (recognition) and part 2 (obedience) of the Kitab-i-Iqan. Hmmm.

But then, the very next thing after these two is to purify our stuff. So, I guess it can be seen as purify yourself and then purify your stuff.

Now I'm reminded of the Bab's quote about how everything in creation "hath its own heaven".

When I get to the third quote, what strikes out to me is the various Names of God. The Fashioner (the arts?). The Omniscient, the All-Informed (the sciences?). The Beneficent, the Gracious, the Bountiful (how we are to spread these two wings of knowledge?). And then the last set in that paragraph are the Gracious, the Bestower, the Generous, the Ancient of Days.

I also note that these titles are mathematical. First there is 1, then 2, then 3, and then 4. Hmmm.

Ok. From here I continued to read, looking for phrases that jumped out that I could use to create a work of art. But I got all the way to number 9 and nothing really stood out to me. So I went back to number 3 and found "after this fleeting life, your souls soar heavenwards and the trappings of your earthly joys are folded up" and thought yeah, I could work with that.

But then in number 10, I found "the Springtime of benevolent deeds".

Look at these two phrases. Can't you just see the beauty and promise latent within them? How would a dancer portray this? What about a painter? What imagery would she paint?

A farmer could talk about how it reminds her of sowing in the spring. Cast the seeds of this fleeting life in the spring and watch the harvest unfold. Oh, I just love the image.

And I have to tell you, I would find this sort of a presentation far more inspiring than a mathematical one where we learn to calculate 19%.

Beauty. Emotional power. Good results. Bringing forth its fruit.

By looking for an artistic handle to grab onto, the theme of springtime has really leapt out of all this for me. And I have to say, I had never likened the Right of God to the sowing of the seeds in the spring, but I like it.

Yeah, when we truly learn to have a "graceful integration of the arts", I think we will see many more profound and beautiful connections in the Writings.

But graceful, though? I haven't thought of myself as graceful. Especially this early in the morning, and before coffee at that. Maybe I'll leave this here and gracefully head off into my day.

Greetings on this fine and beautiful morning from just north of Quebec City.

Pronoun Troubles

Contrary to what you may think, this is not an article about Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Instead, it's about the concept of social capital.

"What is social capital?" I hear you, dear Reader. Social capital is the wealth that is generated from the relationships between people, those networks that enable society to work better, more fluidly.

A recent study looked at the relationship between the common use of pronouns and the social capital in a community. Its findings were intriguing enough for me to write a bit about it, and share how it might relate to the Baha'i writings.

The use of pronouns can tell us a lot about social perspectives. When the first person singular, "I", is used a lot more than the average, it shows a focus on the individual. When the first person plural, "we", becomes dominant in use, it shows a greater tendency towards awareness of the group, or the society.

Seems basic, right?

Well, this remarkable study I mentioned scoured the recent plethora of archives that have been put on the internet and studied just that issue. What they found really surprised me. (I'm sure it surprised others, too, but I can only speak for myself.)

What they noticed was that the use of "we" was prevalent in the US up until the late 1800s, when the use of "I" began to take over. The reasons and implications of this are numerous. For starters, this was the time of the so-called robber barons, who amassed tremendous wealth at the expense of the workers. There was also a general belief in social Darwinism, which held that we shouldn't help the poor, as that would just stave off the natural development of humanity. By letting the poor starve, they believed we were helping advance humanity. Crazy, right? "Let the poor starve and the average wealth goes up." "Let the sick die, and the stronger, healthier genes will win out." It totally overlooks that many advantages of diversity and interconnectedness. But hey, this was the US in the late 1800s. What do you expect?

As you can imagine, though, there were other reasonable people who saw the world differently. They understood that we need to arise to help others. They saw the value of community. And they began to write articles that focused more on the "we".

This is when social clubs, libraries, charities, and all sorts of other community groups really began to take off in great numbers. (Before you go there, yes, we had them before this, but the sheer numbers began to skyrocket at this point.) And you know what? They held out until the mid-1950s. This was when the number of people involved in these activities began to decline. By the 50s, in the US, joining Elks or Rotary, or hanging out at your local community centre began to be seen as uncool. Only nerd went to the library, or so the thinking went.

Interestingly enough, this is also the time when more and more companies began to look at ever-increasing profits. It was only the beginning, mind you, but it was starting.

As we move forward, we can see the number of references to the first person singular begin to jump at an alarming pace.

Oh, one more example. When they were advertising the polio vaccine in the 1950s, that heyday of communal social settings (racism within those settings aside), the ads all talked about helping "protect your neighbours" or "the children in your community". Contrast that to the many ads regarding Covid-19 vaccines, which mostly spoke about the dangers to yourself. You see the problem, right? "Help others" versus "you might get hurt". My, how things have changed.

Today, as you may have guessed, the use of "I" is significantly higher than it was even in the late 1800s. At this point I can just imagine the robot from Lost in Space swinging his arms wildly shouting out "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson." (The old series, not the new one.)

Anyways, more and more of us are becoming aware of the implications of this study, and doing what we can to shift the conversational style back to the "we".

Back around 1900 there was an awareness of the dangers of amassing this great wealth at the expense of others, thinking only about yourself and neglecting the community. More and more people wrote about the importance of community, began studying the benefits of a strong community, focused on the true meaning of social Darwinism that helps the whole community grow, instead of just a few select. After all, Darwinism is not, as commonly believed, survival of the fittest. It is the survival of the species best able to adapt, and community connection helps the whole society adapt more easily.

Today, we are seeing this shift once again.

While there is a significant portion of the population that rabidly believes in the supreme importance of the individual, even at the expense of others, there is a growing awareness of how dangerous this view is. More and more people are beginning to realize that social growth comes from a healthy balance between the rights of the individual, the rights of the society, and the rights of the institutions. And they see that the greatest challenge before us is to find that healthy balance.

There is a reason that the focus of the Baha'i community has moved from individual teaching to the  teaching of communities. As the entire community becomes aware of these teachings, overall conditions improve. As we learn how to work with and encourage each other, to help us all through our many problems and difficulties, the entire society will be on the rise.

But when we live in fear, and focus only on ourselves, then we weaken the bonds of society.

All of this to say that the statement reported by Howard Colby Ives (Portals to Freedom, page 71), now makes far more sense to me

"Any reference to the ego, ('Abdu'l-Baha) once remarked to a small group of the New York friends, any use of "I," "Me," "Mine," will in the future be considered as profanity.

Now I feel like I need to watch some Bug and Daffy cartoons just to lighten the mood a bit.

A Look at the Ridvan 2024 Message

Before reading this post, I would suggest that you read the 2024 Ridvan Message from the Universal House of Justice, found here. I mean, I'm sure you have by now, otherwise why would you be here, looking at this post?

Also, this is not one of those "study guides", with emphasis on the quotation marks, that just asks questions ensuring you know how to read. After all, you wouldn't be here, on-line, searching study guides for this message if you weren't fairly literate. So, no, I don't have any of those "answer with a line from the text" type of questions. Sorry, if that's what you were hoping for.

No, this is a more of a "how does this message directly apply to your life, not the life of your cousin-in-law's brother's boss's niece's life, but yours" type of look. Of course, mostly what you'll really get is my own thoughts, which are nothing official, but it never hurts to remind people of that.

Might as well dive straight into it, then, now that the disclaimers have been disclaimed, and you've already read the message itself a few times, probably with friends and family.

Oh, and before we begin, let's number the paragraphs for ease of reference. There are..... 8 of them. That was the math section of this study. Congratulations. You passed.

 

 * * *

So, paragraph 1:

"Two years... have sped by." - I love this reminder of how quickly time passes, and just how urgent the need is for the work we are doing. But there's also that adjective, "formidable", which I didn't quote, since you have the message in front of you, and if I quote every single piece of it, it'll just take too long and take up too much space, so I may as well trust that you can follow along.

Where was I? Oh yes, "formidable". Time is rushing. We cannot deny, nor ignore, the urgency of the work we are doing, but it ain't easy. (My English teachers are probably rolling over in their collective graves, but I'm a believer in the living mutability of language, and besides, you know what I mean, so communication has occurred, which means the language has served its purpose.) What we are doing is extremely impressive, and demonstrative of great strength, but there is also the fear aspect of the word. We'll get to that in a bit, though. Let's move on.

We have "taken" the "objectives" of this plan "firmly to heart". That's a good thing, isn't it? But what are the objectives of this plan? Can we state them, simply and succinctly? (Pause and answer for yourself, please.)

(Got it? Ok. Let's check our answers.)

First, note that the objectives are plural, not singular.

If you're like me, you may have answered from the 30 December 2021 message which states that, for the next 25 years, we will be "focused on a single aim: the release of the society-building power of the Faith in ever-greater measures." That's our aim. Singular.

But you're probably a sharper tack than I am, and are far more familiar with the objectives than I am. The aim provides the long-term, overall direction, while the objectives are our short-term, more easily obtainable goals. They're like the steps on the path. Oh, and they're measurable. That's important. We can measure them. They will also differ from community to community, from cluster to cluster. So you really can answer the question far better than I can. I'm brand new to my community, only here a few months, and I don't speak the language yet.

All this to say that I am sure you know the objectives in your community, those goals that we are striving for over the next few cycles of activity, because, after all, we have an "increased depth of understanding". We have been doing this long enough that we can see the importance of the core activities, we know them by heart, and we have a better understanding of how they actually work in our own neighbourhood.

Finally, there is the other end of the spectrum, those last two sentences in that first paragraph. And this is where I believe in the importance of making this personal. How are these divisions and tensions in the world affecting your community? How is the desperate plight of the planet impacting the children and youth, not to mention adults, in your neighbourhood?

If you're like me, the war in Ukraine is not in your backyard. The abuses and violence between Israel and Palastine are not in your community. The rising sea levels are not hitting the foundations of your home. Of course, you and your neighbours may be experiencing trauma from the housing crisis, or the effects of global warming through more dramatic weather events. I don't know.

But it is a question we need to ask ourselves, and talk about in our communities.

* * *

Paragraph 2 -

The answer to that last question "demands from every conscientious soul a response." After all, these trials affect us all.

But this is where it gets interesting to me: It doesn't say what kind of response.

You see, dear Reader, we are all responding to the events of the world. Many are responding with anger, or confusion, or despair, or any number of other valid responses. The question, though, is which responses will help alleviate the sufferings, and which will make them worse? Choosing a side in an ideological battle when both sides are clearly wrong does not help us at all. It merely increases the divisions.

Like a few friends of mine, you may wonder why the House of Justice says we are "not confused by" these travails. After all, maybe you do feel confused. I don't know. But I know that there is a lot of confusion out there. The difference, though, is that Shoghi Effendi, not to mention 'Abdu'l-Baha and even Baha'u'llah Himself, clearly outlined what was going to happen, and why. Just review books like The World Order of Baha'u'llah and you will see. We may not have known exactly which crises would hit us, nor how, but we knew they were coming. And we can easily see why all these catastrophes are hitting us. It's not mystery. And even though we can see the causes and effects of, say, gun violence in the US, it doesn't paralyze us: It saddens us. And it this sadness that prompts us to action. We strive to offer "hope in place of despair, unity in place of conflict."

And all of this leads us to some more very real questions:

Where can we find hope in the despair around us? What points of unity can we highlight in the conflicts that surround us?

Our responses to that last question in the first section directly impact our answers here.

Honestly, if you can't answer these questions yourself, or in your community, post them in the comments. You are probably not alone in this. And we can all work together to share our experiences and insights. Find those on-line communities that are talking about these issues in constructive ways and ask your questions there, too. These questions are just starting points for action, and find clarity in the next paragraph.

* * *

Paragraph 3 -

First, note the references to Shoghi Effendi's vision of integration and disintegration. We must be very familiar with it, and fluent in talking about it, if we want to truly impart hope to others. I rarely speak this categorically, but feel it's important to do so here. His vision of these twin processes really is that important.

Also note how they use the phrase "true practitioners of peace". I've been to many so-called peace rallies which were actually rallies fighting against war, or some other injustice. These rallies do not help spread peace in the world, for that is not their stance, nor at their heart. The organizers are usually angry about something and want to get others angry, too. They feel that this is the best way to make a difference. And while they may be helping increase those necessary forces of disintegration, we are more concerned with the process of integration. That is, and will be, more long-lasting.

Then they give us a list of ways in which this integrative process happens. It is not exhaustive, but it is comprehensive. It begins with a single "heart being enkindled with the love of God", and moves to an entire "family opening up its home". It grows from there to a group of collaborators addressing a social problem, which blossoms to "a community strengthening a culture of mutual support". This further grows and expands into the neighbourhood, or even the whole village learning to nurture their "own spiritual and material progress", and culminates in the "emergence of a new Spiritual Assembly".

But, of course, we know that this isn't the end. It is just the beginning. For every community with an Assembly is working towards the further development of this exact process.

It all begins, though, with hope and unity. After looking at the nuances in this paragraph, the source of hope is much more easily and clearly discernible.

And again, remember that first sentence? The fact that this endeavour is formidable implies that we are actually doing it. Through the increased fear and despair that is surrounding us, we are making tangible, real strides.

* * *

Paragraph 4 -

It is truly worth noting that this Plan allows "every soul to contribute a share of what humanity needs in this day." Unlike the Funds, or service on Baha'i institutions, it does not require us to be Baha'i. Everyone can contribute. Even that grumpy neighbour down the street. Even the gay couple a few doors down. Even the atheist and the fundamentalist. Every soul means every soul.

But although the Plan allows for everyone to contribute, that doesn't mean everyone will want to. That's ok. Remember, this Plan will last another 7 years, and is part of a series of Plans that will last another 23, all of which is part of a greater endeavour that will take generations. Not everyone will want to wait that long. Many want to see an immediate solution to an immediate problem, a "temporary salve" for a temporary problem. This, too, is needed. But it's far easier to get people to work on these things than it is to convince them to work on the greater issues. So we are working on the more important, longer lasting things.

* * *

Paragraph 5 - 

Here we have a series of questions that are worth answering. Although they may be written as rhetorical questions, we can look at them in a deeper way. For example, the first one can be answered by asking "How can Baha'u'llah's principle of the oneness of humankind help unite these specific diverse elements?" Or we may ask "What is this new way of life that leads to enduring peace? And how can we help people discover it?" The answer lies in that last sentence. Extend the hand of friendship to everyone. Yes, everyone. Even that grumpy neighbour down the street, and that gay couple a few doors down, and the atheist and the fundamentalist, and everyone else. Find a common endeavour on which you can work, one that has real significance in your community. Work with them, serve together, learn together, and advance together.

* * *

Paragraph 6 - 

And then there are the youth.

Nothing of significance can occur without the youth, for they are the ones that are picking up the torch and carrying it forward.

To do this more effectively, the House of Justice reminds us of the importance of "kindliness, courage, and complete reliance on God". Oh, and they don't have to do it alone. They need to reach out to their peers and get their help, too.

In fact, when I read this to a few people this morning, when we talked briefly about service in the previous paragraph, my wife said that she wanted to go to a friend's farm to help her family out this summer. That was when I suggested that we talk to some of the youth groups here and see if we can make it a weekend event, camping out and all. This led to a great discussion about the feasibility of it, and actual plans to contact the youth, the institutions of the Faith in the area, and the family. Since the daughter-in-law was here in this discussion, she chose the latter task, while I volunteered to do the former. Study leading to discussion leading to action. And then the very next paragraph: the youth.

* * *

Paragraphs 7 and 8 - 

While I could go into a lot of thought about paragraph 7, I will just encourage you to read it again. Immerse yourself in the hope it conveys, the joy it offers, and the beauty it imparts. Look at how the vision it offers builds from sentence to sentence, and the phrases they use to describe each step.

And paragraph 8? Well, let me conclude this little article by saying that it reminded me strongly of a talk from 'Abdu'l-Baha, one He gave in New York on 16 November 1912. In it, He begins by mentioning the ordeals and calamities, bringing to mind the opening of this very letter. And then He finishes with a vision of hope, and grand endeavour. I'll leave you with it here, and see you next time.

 

The Blessed Perfection suffered innumerable ordeals and calamities, but during His lifetime He trained in all regions many souls who were peerless. The purpose of the appearance of the Manifestations of God is the training of the people. That is the only result of Their mission, the real outcome. The outcome of the whole life of Jesus was the training of eleven disciples and two women. Why did He suffer troubles, ordeals and calamities? For the training of these few followers. That was the result of His life. The product of the life of Christ was not the churches but the illumined souls of those who believed in Him. Afterward, they spread His teachings.

 It is my hope that you all may become the product of the life of Bahá’u’lláh and the outcomes of His heavenly training. When the people ask you, “What has Bahá’u’lláh accomplished?” say to them, “He has created these; He has trained us.”

It's All One

A friend and I were talking the other day, and this is the sort of friend that teaches me a lot. Almost every time we speak we talk about the Writings, and he is so knowledgeable about them, has such a different perspective than I do. It's wonderful.

That day, though, I was reminded of a very important truth: What seems obvious to you is a wonder to someone else.

"I like the simple way the Iqan explains progressive revelation", he said to me, "but I really prefer the Seven Valleys."

There was something about the conversation that really made me want to go deeper, but I realized that we first needed to establish that the Writings are actually, and fundamentally, one body of work. And with the Kitab-i-Iqan, I am always surprised at how people think of it as being about "progressive revelation". To me, it is so much more. It is essentially how we can recognize a Messenger of God.

But back to my response.

First, I agreed. I agreed with him that it was, in a sense, a simple argument. But simple just means "few steps", and the arguments Baha'u'llah uses in the Kitab-i-Iqan are not all that numerous. So, yeah, it's simple, but profound.

Then I mentioned how I loved the statement from the Guardian about the Iqan, where he said that if we wanted to become effective teachers of the Cause, and please note that I am not quoting here but referring to my own memory of the quote, we needed to understand the methods and arguments Baha'u'llah uses in the Iqan. "So the arguments we essentially understand," I pointed out, "but what about His methods? What methods does He use to help the uncle of the Bab draw closer to becoming a sincere believer? That, to me, is the genius of this great Text."

He seemed intrigued by this, so I continued.

"I also find it interesting that the Seven Valleys does the same thing as the Iqan. It's essentially the same message, but for a different audience. The Iqan, to me, addresses the head more, while the Seven Valleys is speaking more to the heart. Of course, Gems of Divine Mysteries does the same thing, too, but sort of in the middle."

From his reaction, I guess he hadn't thought to include Gems in there.

"Yeah, and then there's the Four Valleys", he began.

"Oh, the Four Valleys, I love that one."

"I don't really get it, so I just stick to the Seven Valleys."

"The Four Valleys is a different beast altogether. It essentially tells us that there are four ways to approach truth, and how to recognize which approach is best for a particular individual."

He was definitely intrigued by this.

"And interestingly enough, the Iqan hits one type, the Seven Valleys another, and Gems the third." Yeah, I know there's a fourth, but it doesn't really apply here.

As soon as I said that I could see that he saw exactly what I meant. And I could just watch as some of the pieces of this beautiful puzzle started to fall into place.

"Ok," he acceded, "but how is the Iqan like the Seven Valleys?"

"Great question. And one of my favorite questions to ask the friends is why they think the Iqan is in two parts."

I could just see the mental whiplash hit.

"Because it was written over two days?"

"Maybe. I mean I don't really know, but it seems to me that Part One helps firm up the uncle's belief in Muhammad, so that he would have recognized Him in His own lifetime. From there, He quickly turns this proof to the Bab, and at the end of Part One the uncle is essentially a Babi. Now, if I were to attempt to write such a book, which I could never do, I would have stopped there, but Baha'u'llah adds one last paragraph. He basically says 'Now you're a Babi. So what? What are you going to do about it?' And that leads us to Part Two, which is what to do about it."

"Ok." He still wasn't convinced that it was the same message in a different format.

"So Part One begins with Search, leads us into Love, and then gives us concrete Knowledge. By the end of Part One we have learned to apply Unity to all the Messengers of God. Part Two continues with the other valleys from there."

It's kind of fun watching a little mental bomb go off in someone's mind. It seemed to clear away some of the dust and allowed him to get a far broader view of these texts and, more importantly, their interconnectedness. All of a sudden, I could see from his changing expression, he saw how these books offered the same beautiful message in different ways.

But if there is anything I learned from Baha'u'llah's methodology in the Iqan, it's to take that one extra little step beyond. But just the one. Allow time for these ideas to develop. Allow the time for processing. So there was one more little bit to add.

"What really gets me, though, is the Kitab-i-Aqdas."

"How does that fit in here?"

"The first paragraph. Recognition and Obedience. Parts One and Two of the Iqan. Part One is recognition. Part Two is obedience."

That was when I saw his breath leave him in a gasp.

There was nothing all that new that I offered here. It was just timely. He had never considered the Writings in that particular way before. He knew so much on so many levels about the Writings, but somehow had gotten complacent with the Iqan. All I did was help him fit it back into his overall study of the Faith. I truly cannot wait to talk with him again and see what treasures he has found, for I know him, and he really is quite knowledgeable about the Faith. This one little piece will surely help him uncover far more treasures in the ocean of the Writings. And I am certain that he will point out things to me that I never would have considered before.

It really is important to remember that what may seem obvious to us is a wonder to someone else.

The Blessing of God

When I was a child, I listened to the stories of the Tanakh, the Old Testament. As I listened, I had an image that always came to mind: I saw the blessing of God like a glowing ball.

That's it.

It was like a glowing ball in my mind, passed from one generation to the next.

As I listened to the story of Abraham, this ball had been given to Him, and He cared for it. Sometimes, though, it was difficult to keep this precious object. One mis-step and you could accidentally lose it, as the Jewish people did time and time again throughout he stories.

But back to Abraham. He had this great gift, and was told to sacrifice His son. As the story goes, He was stopped by the angel and told to sacrifice a ram, instead. Ok. No problem. I'm not going to get into the details of that particular story, nor my own reaction to it.

But then this precious gift, this blessing of God, was passed to His son, Isaac. At least, in the Tanakh it was, so that's what we'll go with here, since that's the version I heard as a child.

Anyways, Abraham got older, Isaac married Rebekah, and then Abraham left everything to Isaac. Presumably, the blessing of God was included in this. At least, it was in my mind.

Why? Because in the very next part of the story, Isaac passed on this blessing to Jacob. Of course, he intended to give it to Esau, but Rebekah knew that it should really go to Jacob.

Long story short, Jacob got the blessing of God, and although difficult, things went very well for him.

Finally, he passed the blessing on to his favourite son, Joseph.

This is where it got interesting to me. In every story up to this point, once the blessing was passed on we heard nothing more of the previous generation. Except here, in this story.

After the blessing was given by Jacob to Joseph, this favourite son was lost, presumed killed. Jacob's health began to fail. Famine hit the land. Everything seemed to do downhill.

For Joseph, on the other hand, everything went well. Ok, maybe not at first, but we can see the Hand of God at play here if we look. The story focuses on Joseph, but we still hear about his family. We hear about the famine. We know that things were difficult for them, so difficult that they had to seek out Joseph's favour, even though they didn't know it at the time. We, the audience, get a rare glimpse of what happens after the blessing of God passes on. We see it from both sides, the benefits that accrue to Joseph, and the trials faced by his family.

But I want to go back to Jacob for a moment.

I have to wonder what it must have been like for him. As I said, we get a rare glimpse of life after God has left us. He must have been used to having God very present in his life. And now, after this blessing passed to Joseph, things go horribly wrong. He has to search elsewhere for salvation. Whereas previously salvation was with him, easily within his reach, it was now beyond him. He had to go somewhere new, somewhere different, to a "foreign land": Egypt.

Only by recognizing that the blessing had left, and turning his attention elsewhere, could he find it again.

When I was growing up and going to all sorts of different communities, hopping churches as others hopped bars, I saw the beauty of the teachings of Jesus, but could see so clearly that the blessing of God did not reside within the churches I was visiting. They may have spoken of love and compassion, but I did not see it in their hearts. I saw condemnation for anyone that believed differently than they did. "We're right", they seemed to say, "and everyone else is going to hell."

I knew that this attitude was not of Jesus, could not be of God.

The concept that someone could lead a virtuous life, be compassionate to those around them, and help all who crossed their path, and yet still be condemned just because they happened to be born in place where Christianity was not the religion du jour, was just alien to me. It was an idea that did not speak of a loving and compassionate God. It did not speak of a God that was for the entire planet.

And so I long wondered where I would find a community that showed this love, this compassion; a community that demonstrated by their actions and effects that they were not only living the Law of God, but also blessed by Him.

There is a recent story of a group of people somewhere in the Middle East who read in the Quran that the people of Muhammad would always be blessed. When they looked around, all they saw were problems. When they compared what they read in the sacred Book with what they were witnessing in their own community, they began to recognize that somewhere along the way the blessing of God had left them. They knew that they needed to search somewhere else. It was then that they found the Kitab-i-Aqdas, and recognized that the supreme blessing now resided with Baha'u'llah and the Baha'i community. It had moved on and landed somewhere they were not expecting, a "foreign land": Persia.

Today, it seems so clear to me that this great blessing, this glowing orb of my childhood vision, not only resided with Baha'u'llah, but was also passed on to 'Abdu'l-Baha. When I see those around Him who tried to cause a schism, and both the effects they had as well as the fate they suffered, it is perfectly clear to me that this blessing was gifted to 'Abdu'l-Baha.

From Him, it obviously passed on to Shoghi Effendi, and then to the Universal House of Justice. This is so clear to me upon reading the history, and comparing it to the stories of the Tanakh that I read growing up. Baha'ullah says, in the Book of Certitude, "Consider the past..." By looking at the past, comparing the present to what I already know to be true from my own religious background, there is no question for me.

And this is also what I challenge so many of my friends to do. Read the stories of the Bible, the New Testament, if you will, and see if the church to which they belong lives up to that example. Are they being taught love or judgement? Compassion or just plain old passion?

From there, quite a few have given up on religion, deciding that if the church in which they grew was not living up to that high standard, then all religions must be a lie. But that doesn't seem reasonable to me. That's the old "throwing away the baby with the bathwater" problem.

To be fair, some decided that, yes, their church was living up to that standard, and for that I praise them.

And some, just some few, decided to look into a "foreign land". Some became Buddhist, finding peace and tranquility for themselves within those divine teachings. Others began to follow their more traditional spiritual teachings, returning to the ancient teachings of their own people, trying to discover a path to the future in the past.

But some expanded their horizons, and looked for something that would not only benefit them, but bring the world to their heart. They looked to expand their sense of community to all around them, not just those that looked like them or hailed from the same small area that their ancestors did, but to all who walk this earth. They decided that they wanted to be of service to all the world.

“Let your vision be world-embracing," were words that resonated within their very souls, "rather than confined to your own self.” They know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that "the object of every Revelation (is) to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself, both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions". And that is why these people became members of the Baha'i community.

Questions

My most recent article, the one the Virgin Birth,  raised an interesting point in my mind, at least the responses to it did. A number of people were not satisfied with the ambiguity. They wanted a definite answer, a yes or a no. A few people even went so far as to insist that their particular interpretation was the "correct" one, whether it was that it actually happened the way they said, or that it was a mis-interpretation of a particular word, or a metaphor, or whatever particular creed they believed. For many people, and it didn't seem to matter whether they believed in it or not; they just wanted a clear-cut answer.

Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don't think life works that way. I certainly don't think that religion works that way. Of course, there are some areas in which definitives are useful, but not here. I don't think a healthy religion is about the answers. I think it's about the questions. After all, we tend to learn a lot more by asking questions than we do from getting answers.

It seems to me that many of Baha'u'llah's writings are about helping people re-phrase their questions. For example, if we look at the Kitab-i-Iqan, some of the questions the uncle of the Bab asked can be summed up as asking why the Bab didn't fulfill the prophecies. Well, the question is based on a false premise. And this is what Baha'u'llah, in a sense, points out. He shows, in the first half of the book at least, that the Bab fulfilled the promises in the same manner as all the previous Messengers did. However, by asking the question the way he did, the uncle presupposed a negative. "Why didn't He?" Simply put, He did. As we learn to re-phrase the question "How did He...", then the answer becomes self-evident.

When we spend our time arguing over pointless questions, such as the infamous "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin", Baha'u'llah reminds us to exert ourselves in more productive endeavours. "Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in..." Of course, to be fair, the head of a pin does have a point, but that's beside the... point.

All this to say, it seems to me that learning to ask more meaningful questions is of greater importance than having an answer to a poorly worded one.

Aside - I was meditating on this issue the other day, struggling to put an order to my thoughts. Then, out of the blue, that wily member of the Concourse on High responsible for so many thoughts shared on this blog dropped a seemingly random thought in my head. I was suddenly reminded of the story of Jacob wrestling the angel.

Aside within the aside - A number of years ago I was invited to have lunch with the minister of a local church. As we went into the back room of the church to eat, he was visibly embarrassed at the table settings. They were all paper plates and napkins with the "WWF" logo. The World Wrestling Federation, complete with a violent image and all. Oh, was he embarrassed by this. I reassured him that it was ok. "After all", I said, "it is the only sport found in the Bible." It was because of this oblique reference to the story of Jacob that I was phoned a week later and asked to give a sermon. As you, dear Reader, know, this led to a monthly gig that lasted a few years, and even helped me meet my wife. So, yay for wrestling?

And now back to our regularly scheduled aside - Where was I? Oh yes, Jacob. So there he is, alone at night, with his thoughts. Suddenly, according to the story, he finds himself wrestling this angel. Of course, the angel is unable to beat him, so he wrenches Jacob's hip out of joint. Jacob still refuses to let go, and asks for the angel's blessing. To me, this is like our struggle with truth. It's not easy, and is often quite painful. But it is only through the struggle that we come to get truth's blessing.

No, I don't think religion is about the answers, for when we think we have the "answers" we stop looking, and the truth really is like an ocean. We can keep diving, over and over, and never come close to fathoming its depths. If we are satisfied with the first answer we get, we should not be content. We should keep looking for more answers.

While we are encouraged to seek our answers from God, and to not blindly imitate others, sometimes God gives us our guidance through others. It is this continual search that keeps us humble, and keeps us seeking guidance. And as we find the truths that are evident to others, we get a better and broader perspective of the world around us. This is why I continually talk to people who are not Baha'i about the Writings, not because I think I have anything to teach, but because I have so much to learn.

In the end, Baha'u'llah has told us to "be free to ask what you need to ask, but not such idle questions as those on which the men of former times were wont to dwell." And so I will continue to ask, and hope that the questions I ask may become better and better.