Now I've found a good use for this. This is something I really want to remember.
Today I suspended my posting privileges on the Planet Baha'i boards, for three days, because I said something uncomplimentary about someone without at least one week of preparation.
Within a few hours, something wonderful happened. I had a complete paradigm shift. I realized that instead of trying to acclimate Baha'is to the ideas of all the people we're marginalizing, I need to work on reducing emotional abuse. I can build that around the Guidelines for Local Spiritual Assemblies on Domestic Violence, and on the Five Year Plan goal about awareness of social issues in the larger society.
Then I won't need to keep doing all these things that set off people's Covenant alarms.
Now I see rw's big mistake. Imagine trying to treat a domestic violence situation with mediation and conflict resolution.
Friday, April 16, 2004
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
In the previous post, below, is a message I sent, called "Message in a bottle," to every Baha'i in my address book, and posted on a Planet Baha'i discussion board.
One of the people I wrote to sent me this, in response:
The blessings of Bahá'u'lláh are a shoreless sea, and even life everlasting is only a dewdrop therefrom. The waves of that sea are continually lapping against the hearts of the friends, and from those waves there come intimations of the spirit and ardent pulsings of the soul, until the heart giveth way, and willing or not, turneth humbly in prayer unto the Kingdom of the Lord. Wherefore do all ye can to disengage your inner selves, that ye may at every moment reflect new splendours from the Sun of Truth.
Ye live, all of you, within the heart of Abdu'l-Bahá, and with every breath do I turn my face toward the Threshold of Oneness and call down blessings upon you, each and all.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 192)
One of the people I wrote to sent me this, in response:
The blessings of Bahá'u'lláh are a shoreless sea, and even life everlasting is only a dewdrop therefrom. The waves of that sea are continually lapping against the hearts of the friends, and from those waves there come intimations of the spirit and ardent pulsings of the soul, until the heart giveth way, and willing or not, turneth humbly in prayer unto the Kingdom of the Lord. Wherefore do all ye can to disengage your inner selves, that ye may at every moment reflect new splendours from the Sun of Truth.
Ye live, all of you, within the heart of Abdu'l-Bahá, and with every breath do I turn my face toward the Threshold of Oneness and call down blessings upon you, each and all.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 192)
"O friends! Be not careless of the virtues with which ye have been endowed, neither be neglectful of your high destiny. Suffer not your labors to be wasted through the vain imaginations which certain hearts have devised. Ye are the stars of the heaven of understanding, the breeze that stirreth at the break of day, the soft-flowing waters upon which must depend the very life of all men, the letters inscribed upon His sacred scroll. With the utmost unity, and in a spirit of perfect fellowship, exert yourselves, that ye may be enabled to achieve that which beseemeth this Day of God. Verily I say, strife and dissension, and whatsoever the mind of man abhorreth are entirely unworthy of his station. Center your energies in the propagation of the Faith of God. Whoso is worthy of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is unable, it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this Revelation, whose power hath caused the foundations of the mightiest structures to quake, every mountain to be crushed into dust, and every soul to be dumbfounded. Should the greatness of this Day be revealed in its fullness, every man would forsake a myriad lives in his longing to partake, though it be for one moment, of its great glory -- how much more this world and its corruptible treasures!"
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 196)
This morning, an intense longing and yearning came over me, to see more followers of Baha'u'llah awaken to our high calling.
In this world of chaos, confusion, fraud, delusion, glorified brutality, gift-wrapped emptiness, shameless self-gratification, polished heartlessness, and senseless sensuality, I see some people standing on the shores of a fathomless and surging ocean of healing waters, some feebly flickering lamps standing next to an inexhaustible reservoir of oil.
Is it only one more delusion?
"O wayfarer in the path of God! Take thou thy portion of the ocean of His grace, and deprive not thyself of the things that lie hidden in its depths. Be thou of them that have partaken of its treasures. A dewdrop out of this ocean would, if shed upon all that are in the heavens and on the earth, suffice to enrich them with the bounty of God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. With the hands of renunciation draw forth from its life-giving waters, and sprinkle therewith all created things, that they may be cleansed from all man-made limitations and may approach the mighty seat of God, this hallowed and resplendent Spot."
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 279)
"O My servants! Deprive not yourselves of the unfading and resplendent Light that shineth within the Lamp of Divine glory. Let the flame of the love of God burn brightly within your radiant hearts. Feed it with the oil of Divine guidance, and protect it within the shelter of your constancy. Guard it within the globe of trust and detachment from all else but God, so that the evil whisperings of the ungodly may not extinguish its light. O My servants! My holy, My divinely ordained Revelation may be likened unto an ocean in whose depths are concealed innumerable pearls of great price, of surpassing luster. It is the duty of every seeker to bestir himself and strive to attain the shores of this ocean, so that he may, in proportion to the eagerness of his search and the efforts he hath exerted, partake of such benefits as have been pre-ordained in God's irrevocable and hidden Tablets. If no one be willing to direct his steps towards its shores, if every one should fail to arise and find Him, can such a failure be said to have robbed this ocean of its power or to have lessened, to any degree, its treasures?"
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 325)
Are you there, O people of Baha, moth-like lovers of His light?
I've searched for you everywhere. I've been aching to walk with you and talk with you, to hear your tales and tell you mine, to sit around a campfire with you, and dream and plan with you.
Are you shunning me, O people of Baha? Am I unworthy of your company?
Maybe you are all around me, and I simply don't see you.
Yes, maybe so.
Maybe you are there, somehow, somewhere, in every person I know. Maybe you've been aching, like me, to find the others. If so, what veils are over my eyes, that I don't see you, or what labyrinth am I in, that it takes me so long to find you?
Can a message like this find its way to you?
I'll continue praying, and making efforts, to find you. I hope you'll be looking for me.
Jim
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 196)
This morning, an intense longing and yearning came over me, to see more followers of Baha'u'llah awaken to our high calling.
In this world of chaos, confusion, fraud, delusion, glorified brutality, gift-wrapped emptiness, shameless self-gratification, polished heartlessness, and senseless sensuality, I see some people standing on the shores of a fathomless and surging ocean of healing waters, some feebly flickering lamps standing next to an inexhaustible reservoir of oil.
Is it only one more delusion?
"O wayfarer in the path of God! Take thou thy portion of the ocean of His grace, and deprive not thyself of the things that lie hidden in its depths. Be thou of them that have partaken of its treasures. A dewdrop out of this ocean would, if shed upon all that are in the heavens and on the earth, suffice to enrich them with the bounty of God, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise. With the hands of renunciation draw forth from its life-giving waters, and sprinkle therewith all created things, that they may be cleansed from all man-made limitations and may approach the mighty seat of God, this hallowed and resplendent Spot."
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 279)
"O My servants! Deprive not yourselves of the unfading and resplendent Light that shineth within the Lamp of Divine glory. Let the flame of the love of God burn brightly within your radiant hearts. Feed it with the oil of Divine guidance, and protect it within the shelter of your constancy. Guard it within the globe of trust and detachment from all else but God, so that the evil whisperings of the ungodly may not extinguish its light. O My servants! My holy, My divinely ordained Revelation may be likened unto an ocean in whose depths are concealed innumerable pearls of great price, of surpassing luster. It is the duty of every seeker to bestir himself and strive to attain the shores of this ocean, so that he may, in proportion to the eagerness of his search and the efforts he hath exerted, partake of such benefits as have been pre-ordained in God's irrevocable and hidden Tablets. If no one be willing to direct his steps towards its shores, if every one should fail to arise and find Him, can such a failure be said to have robbed this ocean of its power or to have lessened, to any degree, its treasures?"
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p. 325)
Are you there, O people of Baha, moth-like lovers of His light?
I've searched for you everywhere. I've been aching to walk with you and talk with you, to hear your tales and tell you mine, to sit around a campfire with you, and dream and plan with you.
Are you shunning me, O people of Baha? Am I unworthy of your company?
Maybe you are all around me, and I simply don't see you.
Yes, maybe so.
Maybe you are there, somehow, somewhere, in every person I know. Maybe you've been aching, like me, to find the others. If so, what veils are over my eyes, that I don't see you, or what labyrinth am I in, that it takes me so long to find you?
Can a message like this find its way to you?
I'll continue praying, and making efforts, to find you. I hope you'll be looking for me.
Jim
Saturday, April 10, 2004
I've decided to:
1. Put up some Web pages to facilitate independent investigation of complaints against the Baha'i community and its institutions.
2. Choose some stories of former members, explaining why they left, to show people who want to join.
I'll explain later how that came about, and how I plan to go about it.
1. Put up some Web pages to facilitate independent investigation of complaints against the Baha'i community and its institutions.
2. Choose some stories of former members, explaining why they left, to show people who want to join.
I'll explain later how that came about, and how I plan to go about it.
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