How terribly sad it would be if this notion were actually true. That by 10 or 11 the best years of our lives have faded. Our innocence can exist no longer. And even worse is the thought that the best years of our lives are those marked by immaturity.

Think of the loss when a young man full of potential and intelligence wastes his day away sitting on a couch playing video games. A young man who was created to serve humanity, who was endowed with gifts and talents to do just this — to work for the edification of himself and his compatriots — and who instead never develops these talents — perhaps unaware himself that he is even in possession of them! What could he achieve if he weren’t too busy behaving like a child?

And what about the young woman who wastes her day away gossiping and keeping track of who’s wearing-what and how-tightly-it-fits and who’s-dating-who, and when will that-who-date-me? A young woman who was created noble, who was endowed with treasures and gems that through vigorous education can be unearthed to contribute to the well-being of us all. A young woman who will one day be the primary educator of her children — what will she teach them when her days have been occupied with mindless babble and mundane concerns?

It sounds terribly stereotypical and yet these scenarios, while pedestrian, are all-too-often real. A world full of people who may exist but hardly live.

Baha’is believe that the coming of Baha’u'llah, the most recent in a line of Messengers of God sent to draw people of all nations and races closer to God and reveal the laws and teachings appropriate for the age, marked a new stage in our collective maturity and capacity. So what happens when an entire society behaves like a child? When a people who’ve reached the age of their collective maturity and are enabled with new gifts and capabilities refuse to behave accordingly?

Shoghi Effendi explains that:

The recrudescence of religious intolerance, of racial animosity, and of patriotic arrogance; the increasing evidences of selfishness, of suspicion, of fear and of fraud; the spread of terrorism, of lawlessness, of drunkenness and of crime; the unquenchable thirst for, and the feverish pursuit after, earthly vanities, riches and pleasures; the weakening of family solidarity; the laxity in parental control; the lapse into luxurious indulgence; the irresponsible attitude towards marriage and the consequent rising tide of divorce; the degeneracy of art and music, the infection of literature, and the corruption of the press; the extension of the influence and activities of those “prophets of decadence” who advocate companionate marriage, who preach the philosophy of nudism, who call modesty an intellectual fiction, who refuse to regard the procreation of children as the sacred and primary purpose of marriage, who denounce religion as an opiate of the people, who would, if given free rein, lead back the human race to barbarism, chaos, and ultimate extinction — these appear as the outstanding characteristics of a decadent society, a society that must either be reborn or perish.

The Lost Boys of Peter Pan did eventually make their way out of Never Never Land, even settling down with jobs and family. Baha’is believe that through the teachings of Baha’u'llah, the lost boys and girls of our world can make their way out of the spiritual never-never land they sink deeper into each day; that through the spiritual reawakening of the entire world our society can be reborn before it perishes.   But we must act, and we must act swiftly.

(Part II will address some of the ways Baha’is the world over are working toward this reawakening.)

I believe it is the latter.  Yes, there is work to be done, and a lot of it.  But it can be done.  It will be done, and we will be reborn.  We will flourish.  We will arise.  So when do we start, and how do we start?

We start…today.  That much should be abundantly clear.  There is no time to waste, not a moment to lose. As our environmental woes amass, moral decadence prevails, depression and suicide rates are on the rise, and materialism infects the cells of society like a terminal cancer, how can we hesitate for even a moment to stand up and make a change?  How can we doubt for even one instant that things are not okay and will never be okay until we get out there and do something? But we can’t do it alone.  It would be foolish to think ourselves capable of transforming this mess we currently live into the promised Kingdom of God on earth on our own.

Fortunately, we have Baha’u'llah.  We have the Revelation of Baha’u'llah.  The teachings that are apropriate for the ills of today.  You see, God sends us Divine Teachers (what many refer to as Prophets, what Bahá’ís term Manifestations or Messengers of God) to guide humanity and draw us nearer to Him. These Manifestations of God do this by bringing us laws and teachings according to our collective capacity as a human race. These laws are both new and the same. They are appropriate for the day in which we live — as every new age has its own ill, and every new ill requires a different medicine, the social teachings change and address the specific “disease” of the time — and the spiritual laws which are eternal and unchanging are renewed rather than rewritten.

This accounts for the varying religions.  There are so many, not because one is right and all the rest are false, but because each authentic religion was right in its own historical context, was necessary for the age in which it was revealed, and is renewed, not lost, when the next Manifestation comes. So essentially, there is only one religion — “eternal in the past, eternal in the future” — though at different times it had different names and different laws. Even different teachers. Much like the child going through the same school, but at each new grade learning newer and more complex ideas, humanity is educated by God in the same progressive and gradual way.

Therefore, we believe that Baha’u'llah, the most recent in this series, has brought the teachings which are appropriate for today. He says:

The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.

Equipped with the teachings of Baha’u'llah, the very elixirs for the diseases of the age, Baha’is the world over are engaged in specific core activities aimed at addressing the root causes which result in the symptoms of these diseases plaguing humanity. Too many organizations and institutions address it the other way around — they address the symptoms, not the cause. This at best postpones further symptoms, but does nothing in the way of truly curing and preventing the problems from reocurring.

We believe in grassroots change. We believe in the power of the individual to arise and make a difference. To be an active agent of social transformation, rather than a passive bystander in the perishing of society, or someone who sits on his or her couch all day feeling depressed about the world but offering nothing more than complaints.

Our core activities include, as a vital component, children’s classes and junior youth classes. These classes aim at infusing these youngsters with morality, all-too lacking and underrated these days, so that they can use their lives for the betterment of society.  They are also expected to engage in service activities as a group so that the love of service, which may not be inherently there, can grow and together, they can gradually learn to be the kind of people who care about more than just their own existences.

We support, encourage, and are participating in social and economic development projects, especially those aimed at helping the under-served in our world have a voice, provide for themselves and their families.

We are working for change.

But, we can’t do it alone. We don’t want to do it alone. We want to work shoulder-to-shoulder with our neighbors, our coworkers, our friends, our friends’ friends — in taking responsibility for our planet and together, rebuilding the world in which we live. Transforming it into that long-awaited Kingdom of God on earth.

Boys and girls, men and women, let’s rise up off our couches.  Put away the video remote control.  Stop checking your Facebook updates.  Forget about who your ex-boyfriend is talking to today.  Let’s not be those lost boys and girls.  Let’s be the agents of change.  Let’s transform ourselves and our planet, and let’s do it today.

Good behaviour and high moral character must come first, for unless the character be trained, acquiring knowledge will only prove injurious. Knowledge is praiseworthy when it is coupled with ethical conduct  and virtuous character; otherwise it is a deadly poison, a frightful danger. A physician of evil character, and who betrayeth his trust, can bring on death, and become the source of numerous infirmities and diseases.

(Abdu’l-Baha, From a Tablet, translated from the Persian)

All over the world, Baha’is are taking this lesson to heart and establishing classes for children, open to all, that develop spiritual and moral habits. To do this effectively, however, they are training themselves first.

There are seven books that currently comprise what the Baha’i community calls the Ruhi Books. They form a sequence of courses used to train participants to become resources for their community’s development. Each book in the sequence offers training in a different line of action that builds on the lessons learned in the earlier books. Book 3 of this sequence trains people to become teachers of classes for children that develop spiritual and moral habits. As with the rest of the sequence, these classes are free of charge, and open to all who wish to make a difference in their local communities.

There are many places where these classes are having a profound impact on peoples’ lives.

If you would like to find out more about the Ruhi training sequence, contact the Baha’i community in your area.

Wakili McNeill from Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers group at the 31st Adams Morgan Day Festival. (Photo Credit: Barbara Krawcowicz)

Maybe it was the graying of the skies, summer impatient to morph into fall.  A lively street festival, Adams Morgan Day, had descended upon my neighborhood on a sunny Sunday in early September– the air thick with smoke from grills sizzling with Jamaican jerk chicken, throbbing with the sound of drums from a Ghanaian dance troupe, as thick crowds of young and old and black and brown and white weaved through stalls selling scarves and jewels, and where local artists displayed their work.  The last day of summer hadn’t yet arrived, but the next morning, shuffling past sleepy cafes on the two-mile trek to work, it wasn’t raining but somehow the air felt damp, and clouds quilted the sky, making all gray and quiet.

My neighborhood is colorful and diverse in every sense, an eyeful and a story on every corner of every block.  But the part of town in which I work lacks some soul, a claustrophobic cacophony of steel and glass.  Men in black suits and ties lunch over terms like How Do We Get Our Work Onto the Agenda, and women practical heels punch at a Blackberry in right hand, cigarette in left.  Exit the polite double doors of any given office building, and one is welcomed by blaring of taxis honking, the whooshing of FedEx trucks and words, words, words about work in a language that I used to try to understand, but now seems so foreign.  There is a certain worldly power associated with this part of town– the World Bank, the IMF, the White House, the many lobbying firms and think-tanks that crowd the few blocks of downtown Washington, D.C.  And yet, I see so many blank stares, pinched faces, stressed countenances.  And many times I’ve thought: So many of them don’t seem happy.

***

I’m on a housing hunt these days.  I was barely a week back home from a trip when my roommate informed me that she was moving to a different part of town, giving me thirty days to scramble to find a place to live.  So my evenings have been packed with open houses, putting on a smile and nodding through chore expectations, and the obligatory small talk that characterizes the interview process.  And while I’d throw myself, exhausted, onto the couch in my half-empty apartment at night, I reflected on what I’d seen in the city.  The hunt took me to all corners, and while the rent was the same, the neighborhoods varied.  Rowhouses on quaint, tree-lined streets in quiet neighborhoods morphed into what some called the “rough” part of town, a fact which I conveniently hid from my parents.  My heart raced a little faster as I raced through these streets, and I wondered why the city was so fragmented.

One such neighborhood where my housing hunt has taken is the one in which I teach a children’s class.  On Saturday afternoons, with my co-teachers, we wave to neighbors as we collect the children, some of whom last week were dragging themselves to class.  I stopped by on a Wednesday evening, after looking at several homes in the children’s neighborhood.  And while I was already late for a class, I couldn’t help but linger on their street, where some of my students were teasing each other on front stoops, and scampering about the playground.  I was greeted with hugs and squeezes and laughter, as the obligatory drunken loiterers lounging in the playground muttered incoherently.  It isn’t an easy neighborhood, one where the children see and experience things that I hadn’t at their age.  And sometimes I see the struggles of immigrant families, of double-unbelonging, of making ends meet, and of the materialism so prevalent in American society pressing its finger upon their new lives in this country.  But despite the rough edges that characterize the neighborhood, I left that evening, prying the children’s arms from my waist and blowing kisses as I said goodbye, with a joy surging in my heart that I hadn’t felt for weeks.

***

And all of this — the stress of moving, the juxtaposition of materially poor and rich, and moving seamlessly between worlds seemingly apart– has made me think about happiness, a topic that has been covered in this space before.  As I mulled over this topic, I remembered a quotation by ‘Abdu’l-Baha that I’d read in The Secret of Divine Civilization:

…human happiness consists only in drawing closer to the Threshold of Almighty God, and in securing the peace and well-being of every individual member, high and low alike, of the human race; and the supreme agencies for accomplishing these two objectives are the excellent qualities with which humanity has been endowed.

(‘Abdu’l-Baha, Secret of Divine Civilization, page 60)

***

To be continued in Part II.

Then I read the article. Even the fainstest glimmering of a Disney Channel plot line was completely annihilated.

A little girl in Russia raised by dogs…while her mother was there. The article is sparse in detail, but there is explicit reference to the fact that the girl was forced to live among the dogs inside the house, never to go outside. She, naturally, began to emulate the dogs’ behavior. She spoke no Russian, but instead mimicked the noises of the animals who were her [possibly sole] educators and jumped with fright anytime anyone approached the door, just as the dogs would do.

I cannot even begin to put into words the feelings of anger and almost rage that surged within me when I thought of the despicable actions of this “mother” who forced this kind of existence upon her own child. I immediately thought of one of  The Hidden Words of Baha’u'llah wherein He affirms that:

Out of the wastes of nothingness, with the clay of My command I made thee to appear, and have ordained for thy training every atom in existence and the essence of all created things. Thus, ere thou didst issue from thy mother’s womb, I destined for thee two founts of gleaming milk, eyes to watch over thee, and hearts to love thee…

God gave us parents, designed us in such a way, that at the very moment of our birth into this world we would be enveloped in love. Nurtured with love. Trained by love. Our parents have a responsibility not  just to provide for us materially, but to educate us and train us in such a way that we may develop a relationship with God.  Baha’u'llah says that the primary purpose of marriage is to bring forth children who will make mention of Him. We are here to know God and to love God. We are here to advance civilization.

And yet there exist human beings in this world who cannot even be bothered to speak to their children? Much less to give them a chance to develop an intimate relationship with their Creator. How unimaginably horrible. The sheer cruelty of it. The level of disconnect that this woman must have from her own humanity…one can only wonder what her own upbringing was like.

We know that if left to their own devices, without proper training and education, human beings can be given to cruelty more savage than that of the fiercest animal predator. ‘Abdu’l-Baha says “[w]ere there no educator, all souls would remain savage, and were it not for the teacher, the children would be ignorant creatures.”

On the overall importance of education, He goes onto say the following:

It is for this reason that, in this New Cycle, education and training are recorded in the Book of God as obligatory and not voluntary. That is, it is enjoined upon the father and mother, as a duty, to strive with all effort to train the daughter and the son, to nurse them from the breast of knowledge and to rear them in the bosom of sciences and arts. Should they neglect this matter, they shall be held responsible and worthy of reproach in the presence of the stern Lord.

This is a sin unpardonable, for they have made that poor babe a wanderer in the Sahara of ignorance, unfortunate and tormented; to remain during a lifetime a captive of ignorance and pride, negligent and without discernment. Verily, if that babe depart from this world at the age of infancy, it is sweeter and better. In this sense, death is better than life; deprivation than salvation; non-existence lovelier than existence; the grave better than the palace; and the narrow, dingy tomb better than the spacious, regal home…

Therefore, the beloved of God and the maid-servants of the Merciful must train their children with life and heart and teach them in the school of virtue and perfection. They must not be lax in this matter; they must not be inefficient. Truly, if a babe did not live at all it were better than to let it grow ignorant, for that innocent babe, in later life, would become afflicted with innumerable defects, responsible to and questioned by God, reproached and rejected by the people. What a sin this would be and what an omission!

Man is even as steel, the essence of which is hidden: through admonition and explanation, good counsel and education, the essence will be brought to light. If, however, he be allowed to remain in his original condition, the corrosion of lusts and appetites will effectively destroy him.

~ Baha’u'llah

The article which forms the background of this blog entry is from the UK’s Sunday Times. Entitled “Cure for the Facebook generation“, the article actually has little to do with Facebook itself (I imagine the reason was purely to capture the reader’s attention). Rather, it highlights a study conducted which examines the impact of greed culture and individualism on today’s children.

Britain’s cult of individualism, greed and selfishness has so blighted children’s lives that families and pupils need basic training in love and moral responsibility, according to a landmark report on the state of childhood.

More than 35,000 people contributed to the inquiry, which recommends measures including emotional report cards for children to give a snapshot of their mental and moral state at the ages of 5, 11 and 14.

Every now and again, we come across an article that strikes a chord within us, one that has us nodding thoughtfully as our eyes slide down the screen (or newspaper if you’re old-fashioned). Not only did this article have me nodding, but it actually evoked feelings of impatient anxiety.

Here’s one way to describe the feeling:

Imagine being back in high school and your science teacher asks the class a real brainteaser, which (to your surprise) you know the answer to. You wave your arm frantically trying to catch the teacher’s attention. only for your gestures to go unnoticed. You squirm so much that you almost fall off your chair, as you watch those around you fail in their responses, until at long last the skinny finger is extended in your direction.

Further extracts from the Times article:

A Good Childhood states emphatically that society has been damaged by rampant individualism… and that this ethos needs to be replaced by a greater sense of personal responsibility and the common good.

It calls for “a radical shift away from the excessively individualistic ethos which now prevails, to an ethos where the constant question is, ‘What would we do if our aim was a world based on love?’ “

It paints a stark picture of social breakdown. The report cites evidence that this country [Britain] has some of the worst rates of child unhappiness, poverty, family breakdown and child violence in the western world.

Two-thirds of respondents say the moral values of children have declined; other polls show people’s trust in one another has crumbled.

These results are hardly a surprise. We see the evidence all around us, yet to pinpoint exactly how it happened is far from easy. The cults of individualism and greed have certainly played a role. However one can also mention the declining influence of true religion as a positive guiding force, replaced by moral laxity, on the one hand, and fanaticism on the other. One can talk about the initiatives to remove religious instruction classes from school curricula, or the increased demands placed on parents to provide for their families. And then there’s the good old World Wide Web, which when taken to excess has it’s own pitfalls, like Facebook addiction, stunted social skills, etc.

You will probably have your own list of modern-day offenders, so enough on that topic.

Before examining the solution proposed in the article, a few words should be mentioned about the recent experience of the Baha’i community.

Baha’is have long recognized the plight faced by children the world over, children living in societies where the sense of close community has all but vanished and moral education neglected almost in it’s entirety. Aware of the dire need for a remedy, Baha’i communities worldwide have, in the past decade, put classes for the moral and spiritual development of all children — not just children of Baha’i parents — at the very top of their plans of action.

More will be said about this later on, in the meantime let’s read on…

The solution, according to the experts who wrote the report, is to emphasise love and mutual respect in education, public policy and personal life. The recommendations include “civil birth” ceremonies to foster a sense of commitment for atheist parents who do not want their children christened; more prenatal classes to educate parents about child-rearing responsibilities; promotion of team sports; and the development of a sense of wonder and inner peace.

Without delving into the points above, I would invite the reader to consider whether they fall into the realms of:

A) definite non-solution
B) partial solution
C) the only solution
D) too vague a suggestion

(For the record, my answers were mainly B and D, sprinkled with a bit of A).

Going further, it makes sense to then pose the question: is it worth making the effort to develop an educational curriculum that will encompass these partial solutions, or, as some might suggest (adopting the attitude that it’s impossible to please everyone) do we “leave it up to the parents”? But what of parents who have psychological and emotional problems of their own? Or those who feel that teaching their kids about moral virtue in the face of MTV-culture is simply an exercise in futility? Or, and this is the true story of someone I met recently, you are a mother who has to work 18 hours a day, 6 days a week, just to earn enough money for your family to survive?

The Baha’i community recognizes that these are very real problems which cannot be ignored. Moreover, it recognizes the diversity of thoughts, feelings and convictions that characterize each individual’s set of beliefs, differences which contribute to the richness of society, yet all too often become barriers to (or excuses against) a solution.

But should we accept this to be the case? Can we allow this to be the case?

Indeed, the Scriptures of the world’s major faiths share a wealth of common ground in terms of teaching us how to lead spiritual lives. More so, it seems, than leaders of religion will care to admit.

The Baha’i community places great emphasis on the moral and spiritual education of children and youth, with a focus on providing ongoing opportunities for developing a sense of world citizenship and a lifelong commitment to serve humanity.

Children are the most precious resource a community has. Like young trees, children grow and develop in whatever way they are trained and according to the influences they experience. Baha’i spiritual education for children is intended to nurture spiritually vibrant and healthy young people who will grow up without prejudice and with a positive, powerful sense that they are important to God and have a role to play in serving humanity.

 

(From www.covenantstudy.org)

A remarkable movement is taking shape and gaining in momentum across thousands of neighbourhoods. It is characterized by a curriculum that teaches eternal spiritual verities while addressing challenges that are unique to the modern age. This movement is still in its early stages. Its aim is to dispel the gloomy picture painted by the Times article. For now it remains under the radar, yet within it lies the solution which independent studies, like the one described here, are crying out for.