The Ruhi Institute is an educational system that was originally developed under the guidance of the Baha’i community of Colombia in the 1970s, and is now being used all over the world. Based on the Writings of the Baha’i Faith, the material aims at giving its participants an understanding of the presented topics, not only on a level that generates reflection and analysis, but, more crucially, on a level that facilitates action and change:

O SON OF DUST!

Verily I say unto thee; Of all men the most negligent is he that disputeth idly and seeketh to advance himself over his brother. Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning.

(Baha’u'llah, The Persian Hidden Words)

The main sequence of the institute consists of seven books, each with a specific theme and an act of service tied to it. The books are studied in study circles consisting of one tutor and 3-10 participants. Some of the themes of the main sequence are “Reflections on the Life of the Spirit” and “Teaching Children’s Classes”. The last book of the sequence is a tutor training, after which the participant herself/himself can serve as a tutor.

The Ruhi Institute has come to spread all over the world, being used by Baha’is and their friends from the Kiribati Islands in the South Pacific Ocean to the Faeroe Islands and Iceland in Northern Europe. Of course, culture, weather and tradition influences the shape and expression of the study circles in different corners of the world, but they all have in common the purpose of educating and training their participants to be of service to their fellow beings and to mankind.

The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.

(Baha’u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 259)

The education of children and youth is held to be a sacred task in the Baha’i Faith. Our responsibilities to the next generation are clearly defined. In their annual Ridvan message to the Baha’is of the world in 2000, the Universal House of Justice says the following:

Children are the most precious treasure a community can possess, for in them are the promise and guarantee of the future. They bear the seeds of the character of future society which is largely shaped by what the adults constituting the community do or fail to do with respect to children. They are a trust no community can neglect with impunity.

The moral education of children is the focus of Book Three in the sequence of Ruhi books. In Book Five (Releasing the Powers of Junior Youth), the focus shifts to the “junior youth”, those who have outgrown children’s classes, but are still too young to be considered youth. The 2000 Ridvan Message provides this explanation:

Among the young ones in the community are those known as junior youth, who fall between the ages of, say, 12 and 15. They represent a special group with special needs as they are somewhat in between childhood and youth when many changes are occurring within them. Creative attention must be devoted to involving them in programmes of activity that will engage their interests, mold their capacities for teaching and service, and involve them in social interaction with older youth.

All over the world, Baha’i communities are starting to place greater and greater emphasis and attention on the “junior youth”. The characteristics of the youth are described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as follows:

After a time he enters the period of youth in which his former conditions and needs are superseded by new requirements applicable to the advance in his degree. His faculties of observation are broadened and deepened, his intelligent capacities are trained and awakened, the limitations and environment of childhood no longer restrict his energies and accomplishments.

The Ruhi Book Five course aims for its participants to become “animators” of the junior youth. The text book explanation of an animator is of “an older person who is a true friend to the youth and can assist them in the development of their capacities”, in a peer group setting. The spiritual explanation is given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “one who traineth them to love“.

It is important to note that the first of the three units in Book Five focuses on the potentialities of the human soul. This helps to underscore for the participants the potentialities, the latent perfections, in each and every child and youth they come into contact with. Some of the quotations used in the book include the following two from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:

First of all, be ready to sacrifice your lives for one another, to prefer the general well-being to your personal well-being. Create relationships that nothing can shake; form an assembly that nothing can break up; have a mind that never ceases acquiring riches that nothing can destroy. If love did not exist, what of reality would remain? It is the fire of the love of God which renders man superior to the animal. Strengthen this superior force through which is attained all the progress in the world.

And the honor and distinction of the individual consist in this, that he among all the world’s multitudes should become a source of social good. Is any larger bounty conceivable than this, that an individual, looking within himself, should find that by the confirming grace of God he has become the cause of peace and well-being, of happiness and advantage to his fellow men? No, by the one true God, there is no greater bliss, no more complete delight.

Me: Why do you think Book 5 is an important class? Is it different from the other Ruhi books?

Well, truth is I only did the book initially for the sake of doing it. I was a bit curious to see what it was like but never thought I would want to do it myself. By the time the book finished, I was dying to have my own experiences. I think the book gives you a taste of what it could be like but you know that the real exciting part would be to get out and do it. By doing my class, I think I learnt a lot about encouragement it helped me in a lot of aspects of my life to take an individual and be a part of their growth. Here you are helping build a generation that will be better than ours was, one which will have a whole new focus. It is a privilege, I think.

Book 5 is a very specific training manual with a concrete practical component, the formation of junior youth animator groups; a peer group that meets regularly, serves as an environment of mutual support for its members, where youth are systematically guided to listen, speak, reflect, analyze, make decisions and act on their decisions in an atmosphere free from fear of censure or ridicule, and encouraged to enhance those qualities and attitudes that a life of service to humanity requires.

What is important for me is the focus on a previously neglected age group. The series of material that has been developed to accompany Book 5 is great for animators, and provides a consistent and systematic methodology.

Me: Are you a fan of the Ruhi process? Do you think it is successful?

A true fan! It is the core to a systematic sustainable growth and development pattern that the international Baha’i community has embarked on. It is globally recognizable and yet locally adaptable and sensitive. It has been successful in deepening the knowledge of the Baha’i community, growing human resources internally, focusing on a specific plan of action, and mobilizing the global community around this. It is clearly a process that is equipping every community with the next level of building blocks required to support the spiritual needs of the entire human race.

Me: Why do you think it is important to focus on this particular age group?

It is a period of transition. Prior to this, their choices are made for them, their morals are imposed on them rather than being their choice. This is the first time they start to question and be critical and really find out why things are done rather than blindly following what they are told to do. They also often shift their focus of guidance, which makes this a very critical time, because a wrong choice here could have disastrous consequences for the future. But if they choose to adopt a positive world outlook and a sense of spirituality, this will remain with them.

Junior Youth require firm mentoring but with open debate, so that they can develop their own thought processes and opinions but based on important spiritual values that will stay with them their entire life. Youth have often already formed this, and it is challenging to steer their pattern of development towards a positive direction.

Junior youth are in the shadows of the age of maturity and the animator youth group casts a light to guide them in the right direction. Abdu’l-Bahá says of the age of maturity (15 years): “Having arrived at this stage it acquireth the capacity to manifest spiritual and intellectual perfections. The lights of comprehension, intelligence and knowledge become perceptible in it and the POWERS OF ITS SOUL UNFOLD“.

One discussion in particular surfaces in my mind every so often.

There we were, the three of us — myself, and two other female interns. One, an American-born Indian, who lamented the dearth of eligible Jain young men, as cultural norms insisted she marry someone of her own faith. She was serious, intellectual, and self-conscious all at the same time. The other, an Albanian who turned heads, was a self-proclaimed party girl who drank like a fish until the wee hours, but somehow managed to arrive at work fresh-faced and perfumed every morning.

We sat there in the cafeteria, eating cold turkey-and-mustard sandwiches and feeling very grown-up in our black blazers and heels. And suddenly, we stumbled upon a topic that, at the juncture of our academic and professional lives, seemed at once distant and imminent: motherhood, and career.

The details of the conversation aren’t important, though truthfully I can’t remember them, but it seemed that we went about it circles and lamented mostly. But once that seed was planted, I found myself unconsciously trying to pick up clues as to how to solve one of the pre-eminent questions of the modern age. I wanted to work, to be sure. But I also knew I wanted three children (though the biological clock hadn’t begun ticking), and if I wanted to stay at home with them until they went off to school at age five, and if I waited until the third was five, and I waited a year between each child, well… the math was dizzying, but I knew it would be a lot of years.

“Oh well,” I thought. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there.”

***

Fast-forward three years. I’m sitting ensconced on a sturdy blue couch, a pita-feta-tomato sandwich in one hand, pencil in the other, scribbling my thoughts in my weathered workbook, titled “Releasing the Powers of Junior Youth.” The course is one in a series developed by the Ruhi Institute in Colombia and directed at raising the capacity of its participants to conduct community development work inspired by the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith.

The book with which my study circle and I were deeply engrossed that evening was training us to facilitate junior youth groups, for individuals ages eleven to fifteen, also known as the Junior Youth Empowerment Program. Though the material addresses the spiritual and intellectual potential of junior youth, and the societal forces that engulf adolescents today, I noticed with wonderment that it seemed to speak directly to my young adult self, with all its confusion surrounding the seemingly Big Life Decisions thrust before me.

Take the section on dichotomies, and our tendency as humans to compartmentalize the world:

Reality — physical, social, or spiritual — is too vast to be understood in its entirety. It is not unreasonable, then, to break it up in order to understand it in parts. However, whenever this is done without taking into account the wholeness of reality, difficulties arise. Conflicts among people of different races, colors, nationalities, and religions are examples of some of the many problems that can emerge from a fragmented conception of existence. For, the oneness of humanity is real, and its division along racial, ethnic, and national lines a product of the human mind and the result of historical circumstances.

So, conflict, prejudice, and barriers are an aspect of this compartmentalization on a global scale. This is nothing too new, of course; some have been hinting at the idea of race as an artificial social construct, for example, for a little while.

But what if I suggested that, as much as the seemingly pronounced differences among individuals and groups are dichotomies created by humans, so too is the way that many, especially in the industrialized world, look at our overly-committed lives?

If we are not careful and adopt such a fragmented approach to our lives, we can create all kinds of dichotomies that are largely imaginary. Work, leisure, family life, spiritual life, physical health, intellectual pursuits, individual development, collective progress, and so on become pieces that together make up our existence. When we accept such divisions as real, we feel pulled in many directions, trying to respond to what we consider to be the demands of these different facets of life. We are bewildered by apparently conflicting aims…

***
What implications does this have for motherhood and career?  Some humble thoughts to come, in Part II.

I brought up the concept of a fragmented mindset, and found the following quotation, selected from the fifth book of the Ruhi Institute series, to be enlightening:

If we are not careful and adopt such a fragmented approach to our lives, we can create all kinds of dichotomies that are largely imaginary. Work, leisure, family life, spiritual life, physical health, intellectual pursuits, individual development, collective progress, and so on become pieces that together make up our existence. When we accept such divisions as real, we feel pulled in many directions, trying to respond to what we consider to be the demands of these different facets of life. We are bewildered by apparently conflicting aims…

It seems, in twenty-first century Western society, that balancing motherhood (rather than parenthood, but that’s another discussion) and career seems to have this awful, groaning, weighty, “How in the world do we solve this awful problem” label attached to it.  I did a simple Google search, and the images I saw more or less fell into two categories: The angelic pregnant woman cradling her blossoming belly, one the one hand; on the other were frantic messages about “surrendering to motherhood” and the like.  But the more I think about living life in an integrated fashion, the less I look at it as achieving a balance, and more as a means by which I might embrace my (future) children and my career as part of one whole.

I admit, it’s difficult for me to assess this charged issue from the perspective of an unmarried young woman whose career has barely sprouted. What I have realized, however, is that an integrated framework of thinking, while far more difficult, is what we as humans must strive for. And as I look at who I want to be, I begin to question why motherhood and career seem to be so mutually exclusive. I question society’s definition of success — wealth, power, prestige — and have started to redefine what success means for me.

As a product of the college-race generation, ever seeking the brand-name university and the impressive degree, it’s difficult for me to un-do years of such socialization. But I wonder if there might be a balance between, on the hand, society’s perception of the mother — an indefatigable chocolate-chip cookie machine who lives to shuttle her children from soccer practice to violin lessons (an exaggeration, but it exists) — and, on the other, the stereotypical absent working mother, who arrives home just in time to tuck her children into bed. Perhaps if we really began to look at parenthood as raising up inherently noble individuals committed to earnestly working toward the betterment of society, and vigilant of their own spiritual growth, these decisions might become a bit less stressful. A future-orientated vision, mindful of creating a just society, might make us — men and women alike — consider parenthood to be less a sacrifice, and more a privilege.

Abdu’l-Baha states:

The purport is this, that to train the character of humankind is one of the weightiest commandments of God, and the influence of such training is the same as that which the sun exerteth over tree and fruit. Children must be most carefully watched over, protected and trained; in such consisteth true parenthood and parental mercy.

***

To be frank, I still don’t have the motherhood-and-career thing fully figured out, and I haven’t even begun to address the imbalanced way with which most societies view women in the context of parenthood.  I have, however, been inspired by the women I’ve known who have done it, with creativity and ingenuity. To be sure, they sacrificed some of those impressive titles, positions, and opportunities.  But it seems that with every sacrifice they made while raising children, greater rewards emerged in their career.

There’s no fixed formula or recipe for being a parent with a career. All I can discern is that sacrifice, a little creativity, and a healthy sense of purpose and perspective are the best we can do to raise up a generation of spiritually-minded children, in a world where a framework for parenthood is still in its infancy.

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.