Baha'i Perspectives

nadim April 11th, 2010

Of Americans under the age of 30:

• 33% prefer socialism over capitalism
• 37% prefer capitalism
• 30% are undecided

These statistics, from a 2009 Rasmussen telephone survey, were cited in Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story“.

At a glance these figures are surprising, coming as they do from the country that has historically prided itself in being the champion of free market capitalism. They reflect just how badly the financial crises of the last 2 years has shaken young people’s confidence in the once impregnable fortresses symbolised by New York’s Wall Street and the Square Mile in London. With jobs in short supply and a startlingly high ratio of unemployed university graduates, the sense of disillusionment is palpable.  And it hasn’t just been the youth. World leaders have been forced to sit up and scrutinise elements of a system that has lead to senseless exploitation of the masses, gross disparities between the rich and poor and blatantly unjust practices by individuals and corporations alike.

Just last week, President Sarkozy of France reiterated the plea in front of students at Columbia University:

The world economic regulations cannot go on as they are. We can’t accept a capitalist system without rules any more… Lack of rules will be the death of capitalism.

“Capitalism: A Love Story” begins with a sequence of flashing images, juxtaposing elements that precipitated the fall of the Ancient Roman Empire with correlating scenes from modern-day society. This impactful intro calls to mind the words of Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Baha’i Faith, who once asked rhetorically:

Are we, the privileged custodians of a priceless Faith, called upon to witness a cataclysmical change, politically as fundamental and spiritually as beneficent as that which precipitated the fall of the Roman Empire in the West?

Dr. Peter Khan, in his reflections on the 2009 Ridvan Message, examines the phrase in the message that calls on the Baha’i community to be conscious participants in “rebuilding a broken world”. Again, the metaphor of Ancient Rome is used. Civilizations don’t just come and go he reminds us — they exhibit cracks over time, often hundreds of years in the making, until eventually they crumble and collapse. Much has been written by various authors in an attempt to identify the fissures in the Roman Empire, some of which have been represented by Moore’s sequence of images…

• The disparity between rich and poor
• Too few jobs
• Games and spectacles “to keep idle citizens entertained”
• Rule by decree
• Irresponsible behaviour of public officials

Critics of Moore’s documentary-making style state that it is too black-and-white — everything is categorised as either right or wrong, focus is placed on extreme cases and subjects are often treated superficially. Some have taken issue with the subject matter directly, challenging his premise that the capitalist system is the main cause of the problems. One critic concludes with the following statement:

What he doesn’t tackle are the individual Americans who have made their own avaricious or unwise economic decisions… Perhaps what Moore should have condemned are greed and corruption. They are the human vices at the root of the issue and unfortunately, they can surface in any economic system.

Fair point. But one might then contend with this critic that, actually, many people were duped into the unwise decisions by unscrupulous bankers or mortgage lenders — that these individuals were merely naive — and the finger-pointing debate would cycle round again.

The Baha’i position accepts elements of both viewpoints. Neither should the capitalist system and the associated practices of corporations and big business be accepted as the hallmark of planetary organization — far from it — nor should the root causes of greedy and short-sighted behaviour be left unexamined. Pure capitalism, like socialism and other man-made systems preceding it, is a flawed system based on certain false assumptions about human nature and well-being (nevermind total disregard of the environment based on an antiquated assumption of inexhaustible natural resources), and is slowly unravelling before our eyes. Individuals too, while affected by the system in place, are certainly culpable for the unwise and harmful actions carried out under the pretext of personal rights and “getting ahead of the pack”.  Ultimately, the relationship between society and the individual is so intertwined and mutually affective that ignoring one at the expense of the other has to be viewed as simplistic.

With all of this as the backdrop, how are Baha’is, as re-builders of a broken world, as individuals ”anxiously concerned with the needs of the age”, going about their task? How is unity of focus and effort achieved in an environment where opinions on where to begin are so varied that one could quite easily spend a life fighting cause after endless cause… and still end up worse off? Do we tackle societal problems first and then look at individual behaviours next, or vice versa? Or do we take the visionary step of replacing the damaged shell of our present civilization with the foundations of an entirely new one?

Peter Khan neatly breaks down the immediate requirements…

How do you make a civilization?

A civilization involves a foundation of behavioral change through spiritual transformation. We can agree on that. A civilization depends upon certain moral and ethical, spiritual characteristics, but what else? What is the framework of the new civilization we are conceptualizing in this hypothetical example of given a blank sheet of paper and asked “please, set out a framework for a civilization”?

We would want to have certain things:

- We’d want an institutionalized practice of individual and community worship, for a variety of reasons

- We would want individuals comprising that civilization to engage in an exploration and application of divine teachings to daily life, so that we can build up a civilization in a reasonable and productive manner

- We would want civilized society to be imbued with a sense of altruism to the service of humanity. We don’t want selfish greedy people, but people who are altruistic, who think of the larger good.

- And essentially we would want them to transmit civilized values to the new generation of children and youth.

If you were to agree that those are the elements of the framework of a civilization then I must tell you, you have fallen into my trap, because what I have described are the elements of the core activities of the Five Year Plan. What I have referred to are things such as the devotional meetings, the institute process, study of the Ruhi Books, the focus on service to humanity, children’s classes, youth classes, the junior youth activities.

The point I make is that we are engaged, obviously in the spread of the Faith, in pursuit of the endeavors of the Five Year Plan and beyond, but far more than that we are establishing the roots of new civilization in our day-to-day activities of the present plan. This doesn’t mean that civilization will magically spring into being like the goddess Athena, rather it will come gradually, slowly, generation upon generation, decade upon decade, and century upon century, to realize its fruit in the Golden Age, but its roots are to be found in the activities of the present day at this time in history.

Tags: Baha'i core activities, capitalism, civilization, economics

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geoffrey November 3rd, 2009

Photograph by Nathan Wolfe

There is a softness that often times creeps in when sitting silently. The despondent and yet comforting rain falling outside lends itself to a certain mood. OK. Take a breath. Close your eyes.

The peal of the lightning and thunder somewhere up above me keeps playing on my mind. It settles in. Happiness settles in. And yet this quiet but incessant voice speaks to me – “what do you know of hardship, of persecution, of oppression?” And then a chain reaction is set off and I ask myself — how do I even suppose to know empathy? How do we communicate happiness as an actual remedy for the harshness and brutality that we see in the world? Does a focus on happiness and contentment simply distract us from seeking and attaining justice?

Here are two ideas which help shape my next series of thoughts:

- Baha’is work for the betterment of the world, and
– The pivotal belief in the oneness of all mankind directs our efforts.

The Baha’i Faith is not simply concerned with survival, as any emerging consciousness or force in the world often has to come to terms with. Its purpose is not to generate an enclosed community composed of a core of devoted adherents. It seeks to be in constant motion, ever inviting all to participate in building the unity of the world. This sense of purpose necessarily directs a certain mindset that must not be divided.

I met a Hindu man recently who spoke of how seemingly in the West there exists this dichotomy between the heart and the mind; and that success in this plane of reality is bent upon one thing — the integration of being and doing. Then, perhaps to be content or happy does not negate striving for justice. We are not so limited in our emotional and spiritual capacity to only exist in one state at a time. The challenge is to bring a sense of unity to our efforts that spans across and enfolds all manifestations of the human experience. We must seek a mindset built upon coherence. When the fundamental ideas that act on or shape our identity presuppose each other, so that in isolation they would be meaningless, that is coherence.

When reflecting on the interaction between happiness and justice, understanding that they are interrelated and quite deeply connected is integral to their application. There are, of course, many types of happiness or things that bring us joy in this world. Our appreciation of those things is often related to our present state of orientation, and there is much in this world that makes itself available for personal pleasure. At this point, I think we have to review in what way we are defining happiness. True joy and true happiness (as described in the Baha’i Writings) is what comes from a deep and abiding sense of purpose. In fact, Baha’u’llah has defined true well being in the world as this: “Human life was created for happiness and not for sorrow”.

Happiness is in fact a spiritual concept. Abdu’l-Baha has affirmed this when he wrote that “spiritual happiness is the true basis of the life of man”. It is related to the spiritual transformation of both the individual and the collective society. It acts as a force for attraction. It is a super-sensuous phenomenon, ultimately transcending this physical reality, but nevertheless manifests itself, in its true form, as unity.

Its true aim, by serving as a foundation for a collective consciousness built upon the purpose of individual and collective spiritual development, is for the unification of mankind. Thus, it is an inherent quality in the construction and attainment of human relationships of all kinds, be they interpersonal or institutional.

When considering how one works for the betterment of the world, justice is a fixed component of that effort. Rather than seeking a utilitarian view that happiness, on a grander scale, should only be sought for the greatest number of people, we should understand justice as that which is the strongest foundation for the securing of happiness of all. Baha’u’llah has written that perhaps the primary purpose of government is that, through justice, contentment must be secured for all its citizens. He has also written that “justice is the appearance of unity amongst men.”

In this we can surmise that perhaps through the attainment of spiritual happiness, unity is born. Justice, which in one sense can be described as the application of reward and punishment and also as the power of discernment, is the indomitable tool with which we both continue our spiritual search but also safeguard our unity and happiness.

There is much that clouds our ability to attain happiness in this world — but working to cut through all that, to focus on principle, value, and the spiritual qualities inherent in everything, we can access a force and power which will help direct the rehabilitation of our surroundings.

Tags: coherence, happiness, justice, unity

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nooshin July 12th, 2009

The world is a mess. Decades of greedy, short-sighted, self-centred behaviour have finally caught up with us, and now we have to try and fix it.  So it would be reasonable to assume that the world’s leaders would focus their every effort on finding a solution.  That the recently-concluded G8 summit would have produced a pragmatic and practical road-map towards rectifying at least some of the world’s challenges.  But no.  From all reports, the summit did little more than provide public photo-opportunities, and backroom squabbles.

I don’t know about you, but I feel let down.  What a waste of an opportunity for leaders of some of the world’s most powerful nations to meet together as peers, and bend their minds and hearts to alleviating the global challenges we all face.  But perhaps, when they sit around the table together at their high-profile gatherings, they are no more successful at holding efficient and effective deliberations than my colleagues and I are in our more humble offices in Johannesburg.  It’s a familiar scenario: a group of like-minded individuals, with a shared vision and goal, who nevertheless mostly talk in circles for hours, repeating arguments and issues without reaching consensus. It’s not a lack of will that hampers us, I think, but rather of us not giving enough importance to the correct process, and spiritual significance, of consultation.

In a 1995  statement released by the Baha’i International Community (entitled The Prosperity of Humankind, and written after a series of global conferences including the Rio Earth Summit), the vital role of correct consultation is outlined:

Central to the task of reconceptualizing the system of human relationships is the process that Bahá’u’lláh refers to as consultation. “In all things it is necessary to consult,” is His advice. “The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.”

Next, the statement spells out the problems in the way most deliberations and discussions are held today:

The standard of truth seeking this process demands is far beyond the patterns of negotiation and compromise that tend to characterize the present-day discussion of human affairs. It cannot be achieved—indeed, its attainment is severely handicapped—by the culture of protest that is another widely prevailing feature of contemporary society.  Debate, propaganda, the adversarial method, the entire apparatus of partisanship that have long been such familiar features of collective action are all fundamentally harmful to its purpose: that is, arriving at a consensus about the truth of a given situation and the wisest choice of action among the options open at any given moment.

So, what are the prerequisites in this “standard of truth seeking”?

What Bahá’u’lláh is calling for is a consultative process in which the individual participants strive to transcend their respective points of view, in order to function as members of a body with its own interests and goals. In such an atmosphere, characterized by both candor and courtesy, ideas belong not to the individual to whom they occur during the discussion but to the group as a whole, to take up, discard, or revise as seems to best serve the goal pursued. Consultation succeeds to the extent that all participants support the decisions arrived at, regardless of the individual opinions with which they entered the discussion. Under such circumstances an earlier decision can be readily reconsidered if experience exposes any shortcomings.

Once we “transcend” our point of view, and learn to hold discussions in an atmosphere of “candor and courtesy”, and ensure that we remain detached from our ideas, able to evaluate each idea objectively and on its merits, what results can we expect?

Viewed in such a light, consultation is the operating expression of justice in human affairs. So vital is it to the success of collective endeavor that it must constitute a basic feature of a viable strategy of social and economic development. Indeed, the participation of the people on whose commitment and efforts the success of such a strategy depends becomes effective only as consultation is made the organizing principle of every project. “No man can attain his true station”, is Bahá’u’lláh’s counsel, “except through his justice. No power can exist except through unity. No welfare and no well-being can be attained except through consultation.”

So vital is the spiritual skill of consultation that it is considered to be a fundamental principle of the Baha’i Faith, with Bahá’u’lláh exhorting mankind to “take counsel together in all matters”. He describes consultation as “the lamp of guidance which leadeth the way” and as “the bestower of understanding”.

Tags: consultation, politics

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nooshin June 14th, 2009

I’ve always thought that a good barometer of a person is how they treat those of a “lower” standing, those they don’t have to impress or feel are equal to them.  Ever notice how some people walk past the same security guard day after day, and don’t ever bother to learn his name, or even to acknowledge him?  Or the obsequious middle-manager, who does her best to impress her superiors with her charm and friendliness, but in private will make life hell for the assistant who reports to her?

It’s almost as if our behaviour is governed by the worry of what “other people will think”, and by compliance to social norms.  So, we do things differently when we think no one is watching.  How is it that a queue in a post-office is normally well-behaved and no one would dare to push in, but when we are in our cars we become so bad mannered and aggressive? My theory is that we feel protected by anonymity in our cars, but would have to look people in the eye in the post-office queue.

It was the recent scandal in British politics that has had me thinking a lot about personal accountability and responsibility.  Most of those implicated in the expenses-claim uproar did not contravene the rules per se, and seem to mostly justify their actions by saying that they where only doing what all the rest were too.  Here in South Africa, we have had a similar debate, about gifts given to those in government.  The public discussion was not about whether it was illegal for the minister to accept an expensive car as a gift, but whether it was ethical to do so.

Kitáb-i-Aqdas

In a thesis discussing a variety of subjects relating to society and governance, called “The Secrets of Divine Civilisation”, `Abdu’l-Bahá gives a description of “justice and impartiality”:

This means to have no regard for one’s own personal benefits and selfish advantages, and to carry out the laws of God without the slightest concern for anything else.

So our daily actions, our personal choices, must be made with reference, not to social norms or selfish inclinations, but to the laws of God. This becomes easier when we change our perception and mindset about God’s injunctions: they are not there to restrict or hamper us, but to provide us with loving guidance and ultimate freedom. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Most Holy Book of the Bahá’í Faith, Bahá’u’lláh describes the laws and codifications of God as “sweet-smelling” and a “choice Wine”.

Say: From My laws the sweet-smelling savour of My garment can be smelled, and by their aid the standards of Victory will be planted upon the highest peaks. The Tongue of My power hath, from the heaven of My omnipotent glory, addressed to My creation these words: “Observe My commandments, for the love of My beauty.”…Think not that We have revealed unto you a mere code of laws. Nay, rather, We have unsealed the choice Wine with the fingers of might and power.

Having been given the guidance, and the personal autonomy to choose for ourselve, we become accountable for our actions and our choices, not to those that can see but to God, and not for material gains, but towards our own personal spiritual path to perfection.

Tags: freedom, justice, laws

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nooshin April 14th, 2009

You will have to forgive me if this is against proper netiquette, but I am going to blog about one of my own articles.  It’s one I wrote about after a trip to flood-affected areas of northern Namibia, telling the story of Helvy, a 84-year old great grandmother.  I met her in a relocation camp, where her village had moved after their homes were submerged when the nearby river burst its banks.

Almost six hundred people are living in the camp, five or six families in each tent. They have to sleep on the hard ground, and at night when it gets colder, only a few have blankets to cover them.  There are two taps in the whole camp, and the Red Cross has built three temporary toilets on the outskirts.  They have lost not only their homes, but also their fields of maize and sorghum.  So, not only is this year’s harvest gone, but next year’s one is lost too, because the seeds for next year come from this year.

I met Helvy during our brief visit to the camp, a little bit after midday.  She was dressed in what I suspect is her best dress, accessorised with a beautiful long handmade bead necklace.  There had been a state visit earlier in the day, and the whole camp was spick and span.  Helvy was sitting outside her tent, cradling a sleeping child in her arms.  I don’t know if it was one of her own great-grandchildren, but from the number of children clustered around her tent, I think she must be a child-magnet.

Through an interpreter, she told me about the night they had to abandon their home and escape to the camp.  She told me that they had lost most of their possessions and their food and about how scared she had been.  Then she gave me a blinding smile, and said “But I am blessed.  My family is safe, I am safe, and we are together.  I am very thankful to God”.

I was taken aback.  After all this hardship, shouldn’t she be bitter and miserable? Shouldn’t she be bemoaning her fate, instead of being thankful?  I kept thinking about her all day, humbled by her radiant acquiescence, her detachment from material things, and her love for her family. She seemed to epitomise what the Baha’i Writings tell us about tests and difficulties:

For what can dark doubts do with the light of guidance, or clouds with the shining moon? Tests and trials only cause agitation to weak hearts. But the pure souls, a hundred thousand tests are but to them like mirage, imagination and shadow.

Praise be to God that thou hast kept steadfast with all firmness under the millstone of tests like unto a grain of diamond. Be not grieved; tests lead to the development of holy souls and the ardor of the flame of fire causeth the pure gold to shine and the violence of winds is conducive to the growth and thriving of a firm and well rooted tree.

So the next time there is a blip in my ordered life, and things do not go as planned and I begin to feel sorry for myself, I hope I will remember Helvy and her blinding smile.

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nadim January 9th, 2009

Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

Among the big Internet breakthroughs of 2007/08 (although in truth signs appeared well before this) was the emergence of a new breed of websites which utilized crowdsourcing, defined above, to generate new knowledge across a variety of disciplines. Here’s an interesting video by Jeff Howe describing this phenomenon:

We’ve all used these sites before — the most well-known of which is probably Wikipedia — and are certainly grateful for having them around (particularly the night before an essay deadline)! With the glut of encyclopedic knowledge literally a click away on sites such as Wikipedia, it seems unthinkable that just a few years ago we relied so heavily on that set of dusty old books tucked away in grandpa’s wooden book cabinet. Trouble was, even if the encyclopedia had the entry we were looking for, the date of publication could still have rendered the information useless, which meant forking out a chunk of money to get the latest set of “certified” knowledge. Sounds a little ridiculous doesn’t it?

The early attempts at digitizing encyclopedias, in products such as Microsoft Encarta, still followed this centralized model. “Here’s a CD with this year’s knowledge, and the good news is that we are working on next year’s version. Just $xx.99 for the upgrade!” Thankfully, the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies, which allow formerly passive consumers of information to become active contributors, broke this trend. And the result is as we see it today. A huge spiderweb of information, built up strand by strand, in which the tiny data banks once locked in our heads have been woven into a seamless whole: free, accessible to all and always up-to-date.

This same “Wisdom of Crowds” idea that resulted in Wikipedia has found more specialized applications too. One that I find exciting due to its potential contribution to curing diseases is called FoldIt (www.fold.it). Without going into too much detail, the makers of this site have turned a daunting scientific problem into a computer game that can be enjoyed by anyone! To quote the site:

The number of different ways even a small protein can fold is astronomical because there are so many degrees of freedom. Figuring out which of the many, many possible structures is the best one is regarded as one of the hardest problems in biology today and current methods take a lot of money and time, even for computers. Foldit attempts to predict the structure of a protein by taking advantage of humans’ puzzle-solving intuitions and having people play competitively to fold the best proteins… The more we know about how certain proteins fold, the better new proteins we can design to combat the disease-related proteins and cure the diseases.

Who would have thought? Play an online game, fold some proteins, and just maybe, cure cancer in the meantime.

Back in the 19th century, Baha’u'llah, the great spiritual Educator of this age, undertook a mission to revolutionize the outdated structures of religion (which, much like our dusty encyclopedias, had worn out with age). Faced with an entrenched religious orthodoxy that had become absorbed with greed and lust for power, and had long-ceased to satisfy the spiritual needs of an advancing human race, He swept away the influence they had enjoyed for so long. No longer would they control empires and hold sway over the masses. He called on them to reform their ways, rebuked them for the arrogance of their response and warned them of their imminent demise.

But that’s just one part of the story, for in its place Baha’u'llah planted the seeds of a totally new system. This new system, He said, would be participatory instead of passive. Each and every follower, far from being content with listening to a weekly sermon while simultaneously watching society spiral towards seeming doom, would be an active builder of a new spiritually-founded civilization. Knowledge discovery and decision-making would no longer be the domain of a privileged few, but would instead be “crowdsourced” to the masses.

Baha’i administrative institutions (usually comprising of nine adults) would reach their decisions through a process of open consultation, where each individual’s ideas would be given expression and discussed in an honest, frank way by the group. Once a thought is expressed, it would no longer belong to the individual but to the entire group (similar to a Wikipedia entry you might say). In so doing, the harm caused by individual egos would be negated and ideas would always be subject to the scrutiny of peers. Membership on these institutions would be characterized by a spirit of humility and service, entirely far removed from the power games so pervasive in every sphere of society. No attention would paid to the level of formal education of the members – “Not infrequently, nay oftentimes, the most lowly, untutored, and inexperienced among the Friends will, by the sheer inspiring force of selfless and ardent devotion, contribute a distinct and memorable share to a highly involved discussion in any given Assembly.” The inspired consultations during the current series of 41 conferences, held by Baha’is across the globe, have borne testament to this spirit of inclusivity. People of all backgrounds – whether rich or poor, young or old, light-skinned or dark-skinned, educated or uneducated – have been directly engaged in charting the course of their activities over the next few years. Unlike in the past, now every single individual has a voice.

The parallels between the online crowdsourcing phenomenon and elements of the Baha’i administrative order are certainly worthy of note. No one doubts that Wikipedia/FoldIt-style applications will continue to develop organically into the future, at the expense of centralized, proprietary data sources. So too it seems, as Baha’i institutions continue to advance towards the ideals described in the Baha’i Writings, will humanity become more keenly aware of a breakthrough model of social organization, sitting in its midst, that caters for the realities of this day and age.

Tags: 41 conferences, administration, crowdsourcing, Internet

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leila December 26th, 2008

In my last post, I introduced a topic that had been gnawing at me for some time: those distractions and turmoil that lie within us, namely, feelings of inadequacy.

In my quest to understand the nature of feeling inadequate, I derived some inspiration from a talk given a couple of weeks ago at the Regional Conference held for the Southeastern United States in Atlanta, Georgia.  What I learned shifted my perspective considerably:

There can be a wisdom in feeling inadequate.  But it can also potentially be destructive.  From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, dated 13 October 1947, to an individual Bahá’í, we see why:

Each one of us, if we look into our failures, is sure to feel unworthy and despondent, and this feeling only frustrates our constructive efforts and wastes time. The thing for us to focus on is the glory of the Cause and the Power of Bahá’u'lláh which can make of a mere drop a surging sea!

We should also bear in mind that a few titles attributed to our Creator by Bahá’u'lláh, in some of the many prayers He has revealed, are: “the All-Merciful,” “the Most Compassionate,” and “the Ever-Forgiving.”  If that’s the case, then it follows that all we need to do is to call upon Him for assistance.  It’s a comforting thought: we can’t do it by ourselves!

Feelings of inadequacy and inner turmoil that stem from the demands and distractions of an increasingly busy, overly-committed lives, seem very 21st century.  But it is an emotion that has transcended time and place.  A story of a young man in 19th century Iran exemplifies this.

The young man’s name was Hájí Muhammad-Sádiq Khán, and he embraced the Faith of Bahá’u'lláh after attending gatherings held by his friend, a young poet who would recite his works at these meetings.  One evening, the young poet recited a poem depicting the cruel martyrdom of an early believer named Vahíd.  As the poem progressed, Hájí Muhammad-Sádiq realized with horror that the commander of regiment that killed Vahíd was his own father.  Filled with shame and remorse, he began to withdraw from the Bahá’í community.  Concerned for their friend, the young poet wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, explaining the situation.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wrote a Tablet to Hájí Muhammad-Sádiq in response, in which He wrote:

The true morn dawneth from the depths of a darksome night, and the world-illuminating light of day poureth forth from the canopy of a night of gloom. The enchanting flower bloometh on a branch of thorns, and multitudinous plants grow out of the sad, sodden earth. The delightful fruit sprouteth upon a piece of wood…. be not saddened.

He continued:

Pray thou and supplicate at the threshold of the One True God, begging forgiveness for thine earthly father. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá will also, with utmost lowliness, implore at the threshold of God that perchance the musk-laden breeze of His forgiveness may waft over [him] and from the billowing sea of His grace a wave may pass over him and cleanse him of the defilement of sin and transgression. This is not far removed from the ocean of the grace of Bahá, His mercy, and His pardon.

(H.M. Balyuzi, Eminent Baha’is in the Time of Baha’u'llah, p. 27)

What I gathered from these thoughts is this: we can oftentimes be harder on ourselves than our own Creator is.  But this shouldn’t lull us into complacency.  We should act, of course, and reflect upon our actions.  We learn from our successes and shortcomings, and we make changes accordingly. And crucially, there is a spiritual component: study, prayer, and meditation upon the Divine Word, which in this day, is reflected in the Writings of Bahá’u'lláh.  A letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi sums this up succinctly:

Study of the Word, Meditation on its divine import, prayer, and then action are necessary. And then, perseverance in action. If these steps are followed, one will develop spiritually, and be victorious in service to the Cause of God.

Tags: 41 conferences, inadequacy, turmoil

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