Planet Baha'i: The Blog

Future Trials

2010-12-25T19:27:00.004-05:00

A little over a year ago, I wrote an article on the Planet Baha'i web site (as opposed to this blog) titled "Another Disaster Tries to Loom". It dealt with predictions of not one but two predicted "end of the world" events: a claim that Jesus will return in March, 2011 and the December 2012 hoopla connected with certain claims about the Mayan calendar.

A few days ago, I received an email commenting on that article. The author, a fellow named David from Wisconsin wanted to share his comments, so I'll post them here:

Excellent article!

One point I must add is the fact that Baha'u'llah, 'Abdu'l-Baha and Shoghi Effendi all have written about events in the near future which would be very difficult for humanity to take and which would shake mankind to its depths, impelling us into the new age. There is a great deal of evidence that two factors are coalescing: the degradation and depletion of our basic resources and the mounting array of harmful substances that pervade our life due to industry playing such an unfettered roll in our development.

There are many groups who are looking deeply into these conditions and pointing out that we are running out of options. So much topsoil flows out to sea from the Mississippi river that a years worth would fill a train that could wrap around the world seven times. The middle east was once a lush and verdant system of rivers, forests and prairies but is now largely desert for the same reasons that we are facing decreasing production all over the world now.

I would recommend to all Baha'is that the most fertile soil for teaching is among the many sustainability groups forming around the world. In particular are three: The Natural Step, Permaculture and The Transition Town Initiative. I seriously urge you to seek them out and look into their efforts and provide them with the spiritual underpinning that is still the missing element in what they are trying to achieve.

They are all aware of a concept called Peak Oil, which points out that we are on target to experience a decline in the cheep oil that has been underpinning our "growth economy" and all our material endeavors. This will be causing numerous difficulties all over the world - the implications are truly enormous since so little preparation has been made. The oil industry has denied this up till one month ago (Nov 2010) when the International Energy Agency announce in its yearly report that "by the way" conventional crude oil peaked in 2006.

In other words, that was the highest rate of production of normal, easily accessible crude oil, that will ever be achieved! We will be going downhill from now on, using more and more expensive, hard to find and process oil. It just barely preceded the bursting of the housing bubble and the resulting economic commotion that continues to spread.

Thanks for your comments, David!

Teaching and Reaching Online

2010-08-16T11:09:00.003-05:00

One of the goals I've always had for Planet Baha'i (the web site, the forum, and this blog) is that it be a way of reaching out beyond the Baha'i community to teach others about our religion and invite them to look at their own religion in a new light. Conversion is not really my main concern (although of course I'm always happy when I hear that someone has decided to become a Baha'i). There are, to my way of thinking, many reasons why people should have a chance to learn about the Baha'i Faith. Way back in 2001 (kind of scary that 2001 qualifies as "way back"!) I wrote an article listing ten such reasons: Why Learn About the Baha'i Faith? If you read it, you'll see that only the last two reference conversion at all, and one of them is simply along the lines of, "If you're actively looking for a religion, you ought to look here while you're at it."

But after 10+ years of experience, online discussion forums seem to me to be a somewhat clumsy way of going about it. Their strength is that they offer human interaction. Questions can be asked and answered, relationships (to a degree, at any rate) can be forged, and people can get at least a bit of a sense of what the Baha'i community is actually like. Their weakness is that they offer human interaction in a rather limited way. Much of human communication is nonverbal, but online all we get is the verbal, and sometimes people aren't incredibly good at expressing themselves in a way that conveys their real intent. It's so easy to get the wrong impression. Moreover, none of us posts in a vaccuum. If we're having a bad day (or a bad week, or a bad life), our posts are easily colored by our our anger, frustration, despondency, etc., over other things.

For awhile today I found myself sucked into a series of searches to find mentions of the Planet Baha'i forum elsewhere on the web. I ran across an interesting variety of references and links, ranging from our presence in link lists to positive recommendations (usually links to specific posts that might answer questions being asked) to complaints and sharp criticisms (one person was "raising an alarm" about a thread they felt was based on outrageous misinformation). In the course of this, I was been led back in time to threads that played themselves out seven or eight years ago and which read almost exactly like threads recently active. It's almost as though we've been stuck in a time loop, except some of the characters have changed.

Anyway, clearly we are getting noticed, at least from time to time. And if we are noticed, then we are teaching, even if only in subtle ways. But what are we teaching?

Without a doubt, sometimes we teach Baha'u'llah's Message. We use quotations extensively, and in the main I feel we do a pretty good job of exemplifying His teachings in terms of how we relate to each other and our guests. But also without a doubt, sometimes we don't. I have no delusions about this being avoidable. I'm not always happy with how I have conducted my own self, and I'm sure most of the rest of us have had moments when we wish we hadn't posted as we did. These things, unfortunately, happen. And I'm sure this extends to people of other faiths as well. If you happen to be a Christian reading this, for example, I'm sure you want to be a good ambassador for Jesus Christ. And I'm sure that often you are, but also that sometimes you feel you have not been.

So the question (and I open this up to everyone regardless of religion affiliation), is what if anything can be done to make a forum such as this a good and successful vehicle for teaching about a religion? Are we already as good as it gets, or can it get better, and if so how? If not, why not? And does it matter?

You can post comments on this blog if you like, but in the interests of having a conversation, I've also created a thread in our forum to ask the same question. I invite you to visit it and post your comments there.

E-Books and Baha'is

2010-07-29T11:52:00.005-05:00

Since we're working towards the launch of One Voice Press, I've been giving a fair bit of thought to e-books and how they might be transforming the publishing world. I happened across this post at a blog called Mobile Opportunity comparing the previous hype over e-books ten years ago with that of today. Author Michael Mace offers some thought-provoking observations here.

One thing that I keep wondering, however, is to what degree people really want to read books on a small blinking box. As Mace notes,

Paper books simply aren't broken, from the perspective of most users. S. David Mash had a good quote on this: "The reading device for the paperback is widely available for free (sunlight). This device can be used for other tasks as well."

There are undoubtedly some materials for which electronic readers make sense. I can see it for reference material, periodicals, textbooks, and materials that you might regularly want to be able to search quickly. But personally, I can't see curling up on the sofa with a cup of tea and a good e-book. (For one thing, being a klutz I'd probably spill the tea and that would be the end of the reading device!) I've talked to a number of other people who share this view, not all of whom are quite as old as I am. (So I have to believe it's not simply an age thing.)

Where Baha'i publishing is concerned, I can certainly see a prominent place for electronic versions of the Holy Writings, other authoritative materials (a lot of which is used for reference and regularly searched; I myself have used Ocean for that very purpose for about a decade), and for periodicals. There would be a lot of value in having teaching materials available in electronic form, too. But would people choose to read a biography that way, or an inspirational work, or a Baha'i-inspired work of fiction?

I'm not entirely sure. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts, however. Will the bound book still have a place in an electronic world?

Oh Yeah, the Name Is . . .

2010-07-23T11:50:00.003-05:00

One Voice Press. That's the name of the Baha'i press Kathy and I are working on starting. We got the trade name registration letter from the state yesterday, so that part is official, at least.

We have a friend working up a logo for us based on an idea I had and that my daughter Jocelyn elaborated into a great prototype.

If you want to write for us, we would love to hear from you. See the previous post for details...

A New Venture and Whatnot

2010-07-22T11:48:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I'm now down to one post per year. That might be a record of some sort.

Anyway, those of you who follow PB regularly know that Kathy and I stopped putting new material on the Planet Baha'i web site at the end of 2009. The discussion forum is still in full swing, but we have been slowly working towards a new venture: a small Baha'i publishing company. We still have a lot of work to do, but we are now looking for manuscripts and book proposals.

So here's the deal . We're accepting submissions of nonscholarly, non-introductory book length manuscripts and book proposals with a Baha'i theme. We are particularly interested in inspirational materials, fiction, memoirs, and general works showing faith in action. We'll be happy to provide submission guidelines. Just drop us an email.

Feel free to spread the word. Further news will be posted as it becomes available...

Oddly Enough, Almost a Pilgrim

2009-04-17T21:58:00.003-05:00

Bad blogger, Dale. One post a month or less?? Well . . . in my defense, all I can say is I have too many irons in the fire, and I keep finding new things to do on top of it all.

But that's not what I'm writing about today. (Not intentionally, anyway.) Last week while I was minding my own business at work, Kathy called me up and asked for my Baha'i ID number. For those of you who don't know what a Baha'i ID number is, it's just a number that Baha'is are given by their National Spiritual Assembly when they enroll as members of the Baha'i Faith. It's like an account number. The reason for having a Baha'i ID number is, basically, that computers like account numbers. Makes it easier to keep track of things like mailing lists.

So anyway, Kathy calls me at work and asks what mine is. I tell her. I don't ask why. I just tell her. She's my wife. I trust her. After a pause and sounds of typing on a computer keyboard, she says, "You're probably wondering why I asked."

No, actually I'm not. But I suggest that she may want to use it to log on to National's administrative web site to look up some information. She says no, but doesn't give an actual answer for a moment or two, then she announces, "There. We're signed up for pilgrimage!"

Cool.

If you've been paying attention here, you'll notice there was absolutely no consultation involved. She just decided it was a good time to sign up, so she did it. So sometime in the next two to three years or thereabouts, assuming our finances work out (which they never do exactly, but that's never stopped us before), we'll be headed for Haifa, Israel and the Baha'i World Center.

Okay, now pertaining to all this, there is this thing called Ning which is used to build social networking sites. Baha'is seem to have fallen in love with it over the past couple of years. There are all kinds of Baha'i sites based on Ning. Many of them are (as I understand it) invitation-only affairs, and some are used for administrative purposes. There is one created for Baha'is who have been on pilgrimage, are on the list to go on pilgrimage, or maybe are just thinking about going on pilgrimage. About the same time as Kathy signed us up for pilgrimage, a Planet Baha'i member named Cathy sent me an invitation to join the pilgrimage Ning site.

Two things about this. (1) Cathy didn't know we hadn't yet been on pilgrimage. She just thought the site would interest me. (2) Cathy has the same name as Kathy, only spelled differently.

What's up with that? Is there some otherworldly connection between women whose names are variants of Cathy/Kathy?

I dunno. All I know is, it is late and I am tired. ;-)

Trials, Questions, Reboots, and a Fast Fast

2009-03-16T11:47:00.002-05:00

I have to admit that I still haven't gotten the hang of this blogging stuff yet. Still, I guess it's time for a few more updates from Crooked Mile. (That's what Kathy and I have taken to calling our house.)

Those of you who are also members of the Planet Baha'i Forum will know that I spent a few weeks out of work from mid-January to early February. Fortunately that didn't last too long, but since I also spent a couple of months out of work at the end of 2007, our resources have been stretched pretty thin these days. Add to that a computer crash and various other tests and trials, and by now it's a miracle I know my own name.

Oh, well. At least the science and religion survey I mentioned in my last post is going well. Thus far I've had over 270 responses. I'd like a lot more, though, and I'd like to get considerably more participation from people who are not Baha'is, so I have a good basis for comparison. If you haven't taken the survey, please do, and please spread the word to friends, family, total strangers, etc. Please consider posting a link in your blog if you have one. There are 40 questions on the survey and you should be able to complete it in about 15 mintues, I hope. Thanks!

The new Planet Baha'i is behaving well so far (we haven't received any real complaints anyway), and we have restarted our regular publication schedule. We'll be putting new content online and emailing newsletters biweekly instead of weekly, but we hope that will be sufficient to keep everyone happy and keep us from going insane. If you haven't seen it yet, please check out Kathy's new article, "Fashion Unconsciousness" and my new book review on Legacy of Courage: The Life of Ola Pawlowska.

Also, make sure you are a Planet Baha'i member. (If you get the newsletter, you are, but you may not remember your user ID and password. If you aren't sure, you can either email me for help or just set up a new account.) The Member Center not only lets you subscribe to our newsletter, it also has a number of special features for you. For one thing, there is an email course titled "Introduction to the Baha'i Faith" which we think will be of interest to anyone not terribly familiar with the religion.

With all the foregoing excitement, it seems to me that the Fast has been going awfully . . . well, fast this year. Only four and a half days left as I write this.

Or maybe it's just that I'm getting older. ;-)

A Science and Religion Survey

2009-02-01T15:04:00.003-05:00

I'd like to invite you to participate in a small research project I've undertaken. As you may know, I have a keen interest in science and religion issues, and after many years of online discussions with Baha'is and others, I've come to realize that opinions within the Baha'i community on the relationship between science and religion are all over the place. We all accept the idea that science and religion are harmonious, of course, but the devil (if I can invoke such in this context) is in the details.

So I've constructed a survey to make a first stab at gauging exactly what "harmony of science and religion" means to Baha'is. But this is not a survey for Baha'is only. I would also like to have input from people of other faiths and of no faith to see how their opinions compare to those of Baha'is.

The survey is now online at http://www.my3q.com/go.php?url=lehket/59790. Please pay a visit and fill out the questions. It's not too terribly long. Please note that the site where I have hosted the survey limits me to 250 responses per month. If you attempt to fill in the survey but get an error indicating that I may be over that limit, please let me know. The survey will be online for some months, probably at least through June, 2009 if not July, but if necessary I may be able to set up a second copy of the survey to capture more responses.

Thank you for your help, and please spread the word. If you have a Baha'i blog or any other type of blog where this information might be appropriate, please do post it.

Art and Spirituality Worksop

2008-11-21T09:16:00.003-05:00

I got an email the other day from Annick Elziere announcing a 5-day "Art and Spirituality" workshop February 2 - 6, 2009 at the Desert Rose Baha'i Institute in Eloy, Arizona. The workshop will be presented by Hong Foo Tat and will explore the essence of spirituality through art using eastern and western techniques and philosophy.

Born in Penang, Malaysia, Hong Tatt Foo is an internationally known artist whose paintings are cherished in many public and private collections around the world. After receiving a Masters degree in Art Education at the University of Illinois, Mr. Foo taught art in New York, Malaysia, and Africa. In April 2003 he had a retrospective show of his paintings sponsored by the Penang Art Museum, Penang, Malaysia, followed by several major exhibits in China and Singapore. A second book of his works Poetic Impulse and Fragrance of Spirituality has been published. For more information, visit foogallery.com.

This workshop is for beginners as well as advanced students and artists. Please register early as attendance is limited. Registration fee is $150.00 plus lodging (dorm $15/night, private $40night) and meals ($35/day).

Students will be required to bring their own art materials, but it looks like they will also be available for purchase at the workshop for $50. Materials include:

1) Basic set of acrylic paints (primary colors plus black and white)
2) Set of water color and watercolor pad about 10"x14"
3) Chinese (Sumie) black ink
4) Different sizes bamboo brushes
5) Rice paper
6) Foam core board and poster board
7) Plastic container for water and a roll of paper towel.s
8) Painting mat or an old bath-size towel
9) 2-B Pencil and kneaded eraser
10) Spray water bottle

For further information, please visit drbi.org.

More on the New Planet Baha'i

2008-11-13T11:59:00.003-05:00

I've gotten a lot done on the new Planet Baha'i design since my last post. Coding is basically complete for all but two new features. One of the things we're pretty exicted about is the addition of some new features for PB members. In the past, all members could do was subscribe to the newsletter and vote on articles. Now as a member you'll be able to:

1. Vote on articles and book reviews. Voting builds both personal lists so you can easily find the articles and reviews you liked, plus builds "Most Popular" lists to help visitors find our best stuff.

2. Set up custom RSS feeds to be displayed in a margin. We'll provide a few standard feeds for everyone, but members will be able to add whatever feeds they want to their personal list.

3. Subscribe to an "Introduction to the Baha'i Faith" e-course and access supplementary materials. We hope this will entice people not familiar with the Baha'i Faith to sign up, learn, and stay connected.

4. Access some "extras". Right now we only have one, but we think it's a good one: a 19-day sunrise/sunset calculator that interfaces with Google Maps to make it easy to determine sunrise and sunset times for the Fast as well as for any other time of the year. (Trust me, I've looked around on the Web and this is a big step forward in this kind of tool.) We hope to add other extras as we think of them or as they are suggested to us. (Feel free to make suggestions!)

5. The last item that will be added, and owing to its potential complexity we may not have this fully implemented at first, will be a mechanism for members to connect with each other through the site. Although we aren't turning into a full-blown social networking site, we think it may be of some value for our members to be able to get together if they wish.

About the RSS feeds. We've been trying to identify which feeds would be good to have in our standard list. Obvioulsy the Baha'i World News Service feed will go there. Are there others that you regularly follow? If so, we'd like to hear about them.

I could say more, but I don't want to give too much away. ;-) So that's it for today.

A Flat Tire by the Will of God?

2008-10-27T12:58:00.003-05:00

It always amuses me when some misfortune turns out to have positive consequences that could be viewed in a negative light if one were so inclined.

I suppose that makes no sense. Let me illustrate.

This past Saturday, Kathy and I got up and headed out to do our usual round of boring shopping: Wal*Mart, Petsmart, and the local grocery store. (This is in no way meant as an endorsement for these establishments. They are just places we had to go. Just in case you were wondering.) After picking up what we needed at Wal*Mart, we returned to the car to discover that the rear passenger-side tire was flat.

I changed the tire and, inspecting it, found a largish screw embedded in the tread. "Let's go up to Sears," I suggested. "They should be able to repair this." So off we went to the mall, which was actually in the general direction of Petsmart and therefore not much out of the way. When we got there, they took a quick look, said yeah, they could repair that. About 45 mintues to an hour and it would be done.

Since we were there with some time to kill, Kathy wanted to look at washing machines and driers. Our drier broke earlier this year, but since she likes to dry clothes on the line during the summer months, it wasn't much of a problem. With the arrival of cooler weather, however, it was going to be. So we went to appliances, and she found a pair of machines she liked, and the salesman told us all about the sale that was just about to end and how they would take another 10% off if we opened a charge account, and how we could also get free delivery . . .

So, yeah, we bought a washer and drier. By this time, of course, the car should have been done, so we went back to the auto shop only to find that they'd been trying to call me on my cell phone, which had not been able to locate a signal while we were in appliances. Turns out my two front tires were in rather bad shape, too. We have a long trip coming up soon, so I decided I'd have to get them replaced. That would be another hour.

By this time, Kathy and I were getting thirsty, so we walked towards the food court. On the way, we passed Dress Barn, where Kathy noticed a sweater sale was in progress. "I was just looking at my sweaters yesterday," she said, "and thinking I needed some new ones."

So, yeah, we went in and she bought a couple of sweaters and a blouse to go under one of them, and then of course she saw a beautiful green dress for not too much money and decided to try it on. And of course she looked gorgeous in it, so while she hemmed and hawed about whether or not to spend the money I told her to go ahead.

At the checkout counter, I said to her, "We're certainly doing our part this morning to help the economy recover."

The clerk replied, "Thank you!!"

While Kathy had been trying on clothes, the auto shop called to say the car was ready, but we hadn't gotten our drinks yet, so we went to the food court first, stopped at Annie's Pretzels, and Kathy ordered two Cokes and, what the heck, two soft pretzels, which we took our time eating before going back to get the car.

Bear in mind that this trip was supposed to be Wal*Mart, Petsmart, grocery store. It was by now 1:00 PM and we had only crossed the first of those off the list. We were supposed to be meeting Andrea and Melissa's families at a local farm market to buy pumpkins at 2:00. So we buzzed Petsmart as quickly as possible, went home and dropped of such stuff as we had bought, and took off for the farm market. We bought pumpkins in the not-quite-pouring rain.

This could be viewed as a very annoying sort of day. We didn't get our groceries bought. We had to change a tire, fix a tire, and replace two more tires. We spent a ton of money we hadn't counted on spending.

On the other hand, if we hadn't gone through this, we would probably have been floundering around trying to figure out how to get a new drier, when we actually bought one it would have cost rather more (or we would have gotten one that didn't really meet Kathy's criteria), and somewhere between here and Chicago during Thanksgiving weekend we probably would have blown out a tire. So we end quite by accident taking care of a couple of big things that really needed to be taken care of.

And actually, because we realized it and were rather grateful for the chance to deal with these things before they became huge problems, we had a reasonably fun time doing it.

So was this a happy accident, or divine intervention? We think we know which. But that's just us.

Coming Soon: A New Planet Baha'i

2008-10-22T14:55:00.003-05:00

Those who follow Planet Baha'i regularly will know that Kathy and I decided late in August to take a break. We've been running the site for eight years (counting the About.com days) without taking more than a week off here and there. We were getting to the point finding something new and interesting to say was almost impossible. So we decided to stop for an undetermined amount of time.

For awhile, we really didn't do anything. But lately we've been (slowly) working on a few new articles, and I, being the family geek, have been working on a complete redesign of the web site. It was a bit slow going at first, but things are starting to pick up. I've made some significant progress in the past week, to the point that I can offer you a sneak preview. Well, at least a sneek preview graphic. Here it is:

The new site will be markedly different from the former incarnations, not only in look and feel but also in content. We've decided to eliminate a lot of stuff that is hard to maintain and which other sites offer in sufficient quantity. The main thing that will go away is our link library.

However, we are going to introduce some new things, too. As before, the core of our site will be our original articles, but we are upgrading the book review section to a core element as well. We hope to do many more reviews, and get some guest authors to contribute some as well.

Also, we will be introducing some new member features, including an ecourse introduction to the Baha'i Faith, 19-day-Fast-oriented sunrise/sunset calculator with an integrated Google Maps interface, and a few other tidbits.

A lot of this must still be designed, coded, and debugged, so the site won't be going live for a little while still. But progress has been good, and I figured it was worth spreading the word a bit, so you'll all be salivating to see it. ;-)

Comments and suggestions for the site are always welcome, of course, so please let us know if you have any ideas. Thanks!

Dawn Breakers International Film Festival

2008-10-10T10:26:00.002-05:00

I got an email yesterday about the Dawn Breakers International Film Festival. I've never heard of this before, but it sounds like it could be interesting, especially for those who work in the film industry or take a keen interest in how Baha'i principles and teachings can be expressed through the arts.

The DBIFF web site provides all the details, but let me give you the gist of it here. There will be two "takes" for the festival. Take 1 will be held in San Diego on November 29, 2008 at the Sheraton San Diego, 1380 Harbor Island Drive, San Diego, California 9210. Take 2 will be held in Phoenix, Arizona on December 27 - 28, 2008 at the Marriott Hotel, 5350 E. Marriott Drive, Phoenix, Arizona 85054.

Both events are free of charge, the former if you attend San Diego's Divine Art of Living Converence (sorry, I don't have information on that) and the latter if you attend the Grand Canyon Bahá'í Conference in Phoenix, which will be held December 26 - 28, 2008. Unfortunately, there is no plan at this time to provide tickets independent of the conferences.

Films can be entered into the festival free of charge. They must be by, for, or about Bahá'ís. Films by Bahá'ís should be written, directed and/or produced by a Bahá'í. Films about Bahá'ís must protray the Bahá'í Faith in a dignified manner. The festival accepts films from around the globe and in any language. English subtitles for non-English films are preferred, but not required. Categories include feature, documentary, short, animation and music video. The submission process is given on the DBIFF web site. The deadline is November 25, 2008.

This year an international audience of 3,500 is expected, so it's a great way for filmmakers to showcase and promote their work. If you have questions that are not answered on the aforementioned web sites, you can email dbiff@kdkfactory.com.

By the by, my apologies for not putting much online over the past year. If I have a chance, I'll talk more about that later. Meanwhile, I hope to be slightly more active here henceforth . . .

It's Been Awhile

2008-03-20T18:10:00.000-05:00

It's been rather a long while since my last post here. A lot has happened in the interim, but I haven't had much time for blogging, and probably haven't had much to say that I haven't said in my Planet Baha'i articles. Even they've been a bit of a struggle sometimes.

What happened was, I lost my job at the end of October (not entirely unexpectedly, given how things had been going, but we had all been hoping against hope that it wouldn't go that way). It took me a couple of months to land a new position, but it's a good one offering me a shorter commute, a chance to learn some new skills, and good people to work with.

You'd think that with two months off, I could have caught up on my sleep and gotten a few things done around the house, things I'd been putting off for awhile. No such luck. Although I didn't realize it at the time, I think the whole experience drained me considerably, and I haven't entirely recovered as yet.

A few people have been clamoring for me to get this blog going again, so I figured that while I had a moment tonight, I'd give it a shot. You can blame the clamorers for the result. ;-)

Clamorers. Is that a word?

Anyway, Naw-Ruz is only minutes away. Have a very happy one, and may the new year bring you many wonderful opportunities to serve God and humanity.

And maybe a dish of ice cream or two along the way.

Wedding Bells

2007-10-10T11:38:00.000-05:00

Our daughter Melissa is getting married this weekend. As you can imagine, things have been rather busy at our place, made more so by the motorcycle accident that her fiance TJ's father was in last month. I've been neglecting this blog due to all of that chaos, plus just not being able to find very much to say.

A brief update on TJ's father: He woke up yesterday for the first time since the accident and was looking around. I gather he didn't understand much of what people were saying to him, but at least it's a positive sign that he was able to get that far.

Back to the wedding for a moment, and what it has to do with Planet Baha'i. In the past, I've written several articles on the subject of marriage in honor. The first, "By the Will of God" was written when Andrea and Bill got married and was sparked by a question Bill, who was not then a Baha'i, asked about the Baha'i marriage vow: "We will all, verily, abide by the will of God." Based on our statistics, that article has proven to be one of the most popular on our site.

A second article, "Marriage as Spiritual Union", followed a couple of years later. It actually was written on the occasion of Melissa's first marriage. Somewhat ironically, given the theme of the article, that marriage didn't last. Nevertheless, life goes on and yet another article on marriage followed earlier this year, "How Do You Do It?", written the week Kathy and I celebrated our 30th anniversary in response that very question, asked by one of our Planet Baha'i forum members and the very next week by "Building the Fortress", a follow-up that Kathy and I co-authored.

Melissa and TJ's wedding gives me yet another opportunity to explore the subject of marriage, but having written so much about it I now have to go back and see what I wrote before so I don't repeat myself! I think I might explore the image of marriage as a "fortress for well-being" if I didn't already do that. I don't think I did, but these days the old memory unit isn't quite as reliable as it used to be...

Cups Sweet and Bitter

2007-09-17T10:39:00.000-05:00

Such is this mortal abode: a storehouse of afflictions and suffering. It is ignorance that binds man to it, for no comfort can be secured by any soul in this world, from monarch down to the most humble commoner. If once this life should offer a man a sweet cup, a hundred bitter ones will follow; such is the condition of this world. The wise man, therefore, doth not attach himself to this mortal life and doth not depend upon it...
('Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, #170, p. 200)

We just took our youngest daughter, Elizabeth, to college. We drove from Baltimore to Cincinnati and back under ideal weather and fairly light traffic. The college had the move-in process well organized, we got to visit with some of Kathy's relatives, and we brought home plenty of Skyline chili (seasoning packets for us, cans for a few friends). It was a wonderful trip and a welcome break from the routine.

And then we arrived home to the news that our son-in-law TJ's father had been in a motorcycle accident earlier that day. Although he was wearing a helmet, he hit the road face-first, sustaining multiple fractures. He developed several blood clots in his brain. He's now in a neurological intensive care unit at Johns Hopkins and is described as "unresponsive". Although he has moved a bit and seems to react to people talking, it's not clear whether he knows that people are with him or if he's just reacting to the noise.

All family and friends can do is pray and wait.

I've never bothered to count to see if the Master was literally right about the proportion of "sweet" and "bitter" cups handed me in the course of my life. It certainly is the common perception that the latter grossly outnumber the former, but maybe it's not always so. I doubt that it much matters. We can't really tally up good on one side and bad on the other to easily arrive at a final score. Life's moments come in a variety of colors and intensities. Sometimes (to borrow a phrase from the old nursery rhyme) the good is very, very good and sometimes the bad is horrid. But sometimes the good is just nice and sometimes the bad is just inconvenient. How do we score them?

One way is, perhaps, in what they teach us. Good things can teach us to be thankful, but they can also lead to attachment and greed. Bad things can teach us detachment, but they can also leave us bitter and disillusioned. The events themselves may be less important than our reaction to them. We've explored this theme time and again from different angles in articles such as these:

Given the nature of this life, odds are that we will end up writing many more.

Iranian Memo Proves Denial of Education to Baha'is

2007-08-29T11:24:00.000-05:00

To the left you see a copy of a confidential Iranian government memo from 2006 directing Iranian universities to expel Baha'i students. Iran has previously denied that Baha'i students are shut out from higher education, but in fact over half of the Baha'i students who enrolled in Iranian universities for the 2006-2007 academic year were expelled in the course of the year. This memo, which was recently received by the Baha'i International Community, proves that this is part of a pattern of activity aimed at undermining and if possible destroying the Baha'i community in Iran. (See this news story for complete details, including all relevant documents.)

The larger policy dates back to a February 25, 1991 letter drafted by Iran's Supreme Revolutionary Council. This letter sets forth the details of how Baha'is are to be treated in that country. The letter states that while Baha'is are not to be expelled from the country or imprisoned "without reason", the government will nevertheless deal with them "in such a way that their progress and development are blocked".

Among the specific provisions set forth in this policy is one that states, "They must be expelled from universities, either in the admission process or during the course of their studies, once it becomes known that they are Baha'is." Other provisions call for the denial of employment to Baha'is and preventing Baha'is from holding any positions of influence in Iran. (Ironically, the document also calls for Baha'is to be allowed "a modest livelihood". How this is to be done while denying them employment is not explained.)

Baha'is have been persecuted in Iran since their religion's origin in the mid-1800's. Try as they might, the leaders of that country have never been able to destroy the Baha'i community or the Baha'i Faith, and since today it has spread far beyond their borders to encompass all reigions of the Earth, they never will be able to. Yet sadly, they continue to try. Please make your family, friends, and colleagues aware of this situation. Maybe once Iran's reputation suffers enough its leaders will realize that their worst enemies are themselves, and not the Baha'is who wish only peace and honor for their homelands no matter where they reside.

Off to the ABS Conference!

2007-08-15T09:24:00.000-05:00

For those of you attending the Association for Baha'i Studies conference in Toronto later this week, here's what Kathy and I will be doing:

Arriving sometime Thursday afternoon/evening. Not sure exactly when
We will be doing a book signing on Friday from 5:30 PM to 6:15 PM in the conference bookstore (Britannia Room) along with several other authors. (Spiritual Telemetry will be available for purchase in the conference bookstore after we deliver the goods Thursday evening through the end of the conference on Sunday. It will be selling for an unfortunately inflated price, but the Canadian Baha'i Distribution Service has to get their cut, soooo... Anyway, the extra money goes to a good Cause, right?)
Our presentation, "Planet Baha'i: Reflections on an Online Community" will be on Saturday from 4:15 PM to 5:15 PM in the Credit Valley room (I'm not sure if I should be nervous about that room's name or not!)

Please stop by and introduce yourselves to us!

Balancing Act

2007-08-10T12:20:00.001-05:00

Life is a balancing act, and I spent a lot of time falling flat on my face. I don't suppose I'm the only one. This past week has been a case in point, but before I explain I need to go back in time, way back.

I was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1958. We lived just to the west of Toledo, in a town called Sylvania. I seem to recall that when I was very young most of the kids on my street, at least the ones of the right age to play with a pre-schooler, were girls. My brother and I had a very good friend named Calvin who lived behind us (my dad built a small ladder up one side of the wooden-rail fence and down the other so we could get from one yard to the other without snagging our clothing). A boy named Mike lived just across the street from us. Mike's family moved to Lansing, Michigan at some point. I'm not sure if my brother would even remember him. I barely remember him myself, except for his name. Once I was in school I of course acquired a few friends there. But for a few years at least I seem to have spent a bit more time with the girls than the boys.

When I was 8 years old, we moved to the Chicago suburbs, leaving behind the friends we had acquired. Probably the only one my brother and I really missed was Calvin, since we had been more or less constant companions. We made some new friends in our new location, but then three years later we moved again, this time to Sacramento, California. Again we made a few friends, and three years later we moved back to the Chicago suburbs and started over once more.

In hindsight, it appears that two things happened to me as a result of all this. First, I seem to have acquired a rather excessive nervousness about females. Part of this I believe had to do with something I can't quite remember from my very early childhood, possibly some teasing I took about having so many "girlfriends". Nothing specific comes to mind, but I do have this persistent sense that something like that may have happened.

Second, I learned not to form too many close attachments with other people. It was a lesson that in a sense served me well through the rest (so far) of my life. After returning to Chicago, I finished high school and in three years moved from home to a dorm at Northwestern University. There I met Kathy, we fell in love, and before we could turn around we were married and raising a family. We moved frequently as our family grew, inhabiting three apartments, one townhouse, one rented house, and one bought house in the first 18 years of our marriage. If you do the math, that averages out to three years in each place. Go figure. We never got to know our neighbors very well, but that was okay because we moved so frequently that it just wasn't worth becoming too attached to the people around us. If you have too many attachments, you aren't ready to pick up and go when the time comes to move on.

My professional life worked out much the same way. In those 18 years I worked for three different companies in four different locations among five different groups of coworkers. (That's 3.6 years, on average, among any one group of people.) After we moved to the Baltimore area in 1995, we have stayed put but I nevertheless have worked for five more companies in that time, an average of only 2.4 years in any one place.

The upshot of all this is that subconsciously I do not expect to know any given person for much more than 3 to 5 years, on average. I have known a few people longer than that, but because the expectation is there of moving on, I don't find it easy to get very close to people outside of my own family. And although there is emotional survival value in that when you're always on the move, it does make it tough to fully participate in the life around you.

In other words, it's not entirely a balanced approach.

When we speak of balance, of course, we have to consider both sides of the metaphorical balance beam. In my case, the other side is what happens when I do manage to get close to someone. I don't have too much experience in that. One obvious case is Kathy. The two of us nearly fused together into one person rather early in our relationship, or at least some of our friends so joked. After 31 years (30 of which we have been married), it's often hard for us to do things as individuals. Of course some things we have to do as individuals. She doesn't follow me to my office every day. But aside from that, being apart from each other is a trial. Our longest separation was in 1995 when I was in Baltimore for a month working at my new job and she and the kids were in Chicago trying to sell our old house. We had to call each other daily, sometimes a couple of times a day, to get by.

That's probably not exactly a balanced approach, either.

Which brings us to this past week. I presently work for a mortgage company. I've only been here for a bit over a year. A few weeks before I started, a woman named Michelle also was hired. We are both software engineers, both working on the same system. There had been a third member of our team, but she left to have a baby and after that her husband took a job in New Jersey, so she never returned. For most of a year, then, Michelle and I have been working closely together. Our personalities "clicked". We became good friends, although we never did much outside of work. (She came to devotions at our house once.) For me, a great deal of the joy of working at this place was because of my friendship with her. Aside from Kathy herself, I have never been such good friends with a woman. Ever.

Then last week the company experienced a sudden and unexpected financial downturn, and about three-quarters of the IT staff lost their jobs. We found out about it on Wednesday and the axe actually fell on Friday. It was a horrible three days for all of us. Now Michelle is gone, and I am left here staring at her empty desk.

I can write this today because I've mostly worked through the loss. Besides, I haven't totally lost her. We still are in contact and we will see each other from time to time. That helps. But the emotional trauma has taken a lot out of me. I got to thinking at one point that if this is how I react to not being able to see a dear friend on a daily basis, what kind of shape would I be in if I lost Kathy? I almost think I'd have to lay down and die. (Aside: It is not at all comforting that there's about a 50/50 chance that such will happen. If I don't die first, she will. It's not likely we'll both go at the same time. )

Does that imply a lack of balance?

I either hold people at arm's length or I draw them in very close. I don't seem to know how to go halfway. Then again, I'm not sure that I should worry about it. Consider these two passages from the Baha'i Writings:

Know thou of a truth that the seeker must, at the beginning of his quest for God, enter the Garden of Search. In this journey it behoveth the wayfarer to detach himself from all save God and to close his eyes to all that is in the heavens and on the earth. There must not linger in his heart either the hate or the love of any soul, to the extent that they would hinder him from attaining the habitation of the celestial Beauty. He must sanctify his soul from the veils of glory and refrain from boasting of such worldly vanities, outward knowledge, or other gifts as God may have bestowed upon him. He must search after the truth to the utmost of his ability and exertion, that God may guide him in the paths of His favour and the ways of His mercy. For He, verily, is the best of helpers unto His servants. He saith, and He verily speaketh the truth: "Whoso maketh efforts for Us, in Our ways shall We assuredly guide him." And furthermore: "Fear God and God will give you knowledge."
(Baha'u'llah, Gems of Divine Mysteries, para. 36, p. 25)

O children of men! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest. Such is My counsel to you, O concourse of light! Heed ye this counsel that ye may obtain the fruit of holiness from the tree of wondrous glory.
(Baha'u'llah, The Hidden Words, Arabic 68)

What do you think?

Bankyo Dokon

2007-07-09T07:37:00.000-05:00

At the April meeting of the Baltimore Bonsai Club I acquired an azalea in a raffle. There was a tag stuck in the soil, hand-labeled with the word "Bankyo." Thinking it was the cultivar name, I embarked on a quest to confirm my suspicion, but instead a web search led me to a Japanese religious movement called Oomoto. Among the tenets of this belief system is one called "bankyo dokon", which means "all religions spring from the same root".

For a Baha'i, this was a rather stunning discovery, made even more so by the fact that Oomoto began in 1892, the same year that Baha'u'llah passed from this life. Moreover, many of its teachings are strikingly similar to those of the Baha'i Faith and its development may even have been influenced by an encounter between one of its most prominent early figures and a Baha'i.

What's even stranger is that "bankyo" is not actually the name of an azalea cultivar. The correct name is apparently "banko". From what I've been told, it's very common for names of plant material coming into the U.S. from Japan to be rendered in all kinds of different ways, sort of like what used to happen with the names of immigrants coming into the country through Ellis Island. How odd that that particular misspelling should be on a plant destined to fall into the hands of a Baha'i!

In any event, I'm going to name my azalea Banko Dokon and will try to develop it to reflect this teaching. It seems fitting.

For a more detailed version of this story, see my article "Bankyo Dokon" on the Planet Baha'i web site.

Three Decades Together

2007-06-21T12:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday Kathy and I celebrated our 30th anniversary. It's amazing how 30 years can seem so long and so short at the same time. We never could have foreseen the twists and turns our lives would take, and we can't foresee what the next 30 years will bring, but we both agree that the trip so far has been worth it and that it will continue to be worth it.

We weren't Baha'is when we met at Northwestern University in 1976, although we could see the dome of the Baha'i House of Worship from one spot on the campus. The House of Worship, or rather a poster of it bought by my roommate Roy, did figure rather curiously in how I became a Baha'i, but that's another story. We were only at the university for a year before we married. We never finished our degrees, although I did make one attempt a couple of years later to go back to school. That didn't work out so well. Fortunately, I fell into a career as a software developer. There may have been some divine intervention there, too, for all I know. At the least, the old saying, "God looks after all fools," seems to have fit our life together!

Reaching our 30th anniversary prompted two Planet Baha'i articles, one published last week ("How Do You Do It?") and one that is due to appear tomorrow if all goes according to plan. Watch the PB home page for its appearance, or better yet subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss out on any of our new articles. We've also done articles on marriage in the past, which you can find by searching the site or using the "further reading" links in one of the aforementioned articles.

We hope that our insights, drawn from experience and our study of the Baha'i Writings, can offer a few insights and assistance to others desiring to create and preserve strong marriages. We may not be "experts" in the usual sense, but we have been around the block a time or two and with any luck know whereof we speak. In the modern world marriage often receives a bad rap, but it shouldn't be that way. Baha'u'llah calls marriage "a fortress for well-being and salvation". It can be, and it is. We know. We've seen it in action.

Bahaikipedia

2007-06-12T13:19:00.000-05:00

I received an email the other day pointing me to Bahaikipedia: The Baha'i Encyclopedia. Bahaikipedia is, as the name implies, an online Baha'i encyclopedia patterned after the well-known Wikipedia. It's new and doesn't yet have vast amounts of material online, but as a work in progress it holds great promise, I feel.

I gave it a test run today, setting up an account (which was very easy) and adding myself and Kathy to the "Authors" category and adding our book Spiritual Telemetry to the "Books" category. If you've edited material on a wiki site before, you'll be comfortable doing it at Bahaikipedia. If not, you may have to learn a few things, because special markup is required to achieve various effects, although there are editing buttons that make some of it fairly easy.

Even if you don't plan to add or edit material, however it's probably worth bookmarking this site and checking back with it from time to time. The only negative comment I have is that I really wish they'd thought up a more mellifluous name!

Birth and the Moon

2007-06-05T11:48:00.000-05:00

I tend to view nature as a huge metaphor for spiritual reality. This morning as I was leaving for work I looked up (as I always do) and saw the moon riding high in the southwest, a waning gibbous just a few days past full. It started a curious train of thought.

I don't know what other people think when they see the moon. Being an amateur astronomer, I often think of the amazing fact that it is another world, a quarter of a million miles away, or consider how it is one of the largest satellites in our solar system (how big would Ganymede, the largest, look if it were hanging there instead?), or that it is the largest in proportion to its parent planet. Since reading The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be, I frequently cast my mind back to the ancient past, when the Earth was newly formed and a huge object collided with it, spewing matter far and wide, some falling back to Earth, some rocketing into orbit, and some blasted entirely out of the local gravity well. The moon formed from a small fraction of the detritus of that collision.

Today astronomers use observations of protoplanetary disks surrounding very young stars and computer models to build theories about how solar systems form. Their models predict astonishing things. A not-quite-born solar system is a violent place, where collisions are commonplace, small objects are smashed to rubble even as large planets are assembled, and gravitational interactions between new planets can radically alter orbits, shuffling them around and even ejecting planets out of the system forever. Life could not exist in such a place, or at least not life in any way remotely as we know it.

The chaos and violence of solar system birth mirrors similar upheavals seen in other kinds of birth. Although we like to think of the birth of a human child as a wonderful and beautiful process (and it is, as is the birth of a solar system), it nevertheless is undeniably a time of upheaval for both mother and child, involving radical changes, pain, and even a certain degree of physical danger. Before the advent of modern medicine, women often died in childbirth or from complications following childbirth, and infants themselves faced a high mortality rate.

In the social arena it seem that the same thing prevails. How many social advances were born through or in the midst of chaos and violence? We need only think of the many fights for racial and ethnic equality that have taken place around the world to see this.

And that brings us to religion. The tales told of the births of most of the world's great religions speak of persecution and battles. The crucifixion of Jesus and the subsequent persecution of early Christians by the Romans may be the best-known to western readers. Muhammad and His early followers likewise suffered at the hands of their enemies before the Prophet was given the mantle of civil leadership and became responsible for the protection of the community.

The genesis of the Baha'i Faith offers perhaps the best documented and most vivid example of violent birth. Almost from the outset, the followers of the Bab suffered intense persecution, with some 20,000 of them going to their deaths before the Bab Himself was executed. The mission of Baha'u'llah was marked by continued persecution, which has continued to this day, although sometimes abated for a time.

So it seems this is a universal theme, one that applies in the physical, social, and spiritual realms alike. Coincidence? It seems unlikely!

Planet Baha'i at the ABS Conference

2007-05-30T11:03:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official. Kathy and I have been put on the agenda for the annual Association for Baha'i Studies Conference [August 16 - 19 in Toronto (actually Mississauga) Ontario]. We will be talking about online community-building using Planet Baha'i as an example. We have also received approval to sell our book, Spiritual Telemetry, at the conference bookstore.

Now all we have to do is figure out exactly what we're going to say. Oh, and how to pay for the hotel . . .

The Declaration of the Bab

2007-05-23T14:41:00.001-05:00

On may 23, Baha'is around the world celebrate the Declaration of the Bab, one of eleven holy days in the Baha'i calendar and one of nine on which work should be suspended. On May 22, 1844 at about two hours after sunset the Bab revealed His mission to His first disciple, Mulla Husayn.

The Bab is regarded as the "Herald" of the Baha'i Faith and one of its "central Figures". As such, His story is a key part of Baha'i history. At Planet Baha'i we've presented articles on the Birth of the Bab, the Declaration of the Bab, and the Martyrdom of the Bab (all three of which are Holy Days), as well as a more detailed article on the life of the Bab.

The Bab's followers were known as Babis. The term Baha'i only came into existence later, after Baha'u'llah publicly declared His mission in 1863. However, the Baha'i calendar marks 1844-1845 as its year 1, and so closely are the revelations of Bab and Baha'u'llah linked that we generally regard the Declaration of the Bab as the inception of the Baha'i Faith. We are now in the year 164 B.E. It's interesting and a bit sobering to consider how far the Baha'i Faith has spread in only 163 years. With the help of modern technology it has acquired a global reach faster than any other independent religion, yet it is still arguably still in its infancy and has a lot of growing to do.

Where will it be in another 163 years?

Wonders of the World

2007-05-14T11:42:00.000-05:00

People love to list superlatives. For some reason, they seem to come in sets of seven: the seven wonders of the ancient world, the seven wonders of the modern world, the seven wonders of the natural world, the seven wonders of the underwater world, and so forth and so on. There's a Wikipedia article that covers these and some others.

In keeping with this tradition, the Illinois Bureau of Tourism recently divided up the state into seven regions and held an online contest to name the seven wonders of Illinois. The Baha'i House of Worship in Evanston, Illinois won the distiction for its region. You'll find a description of this and the other winners here, and of course the House of Worship has its own web page.

Myself, I've always been partial to natural wonders, although I could never narrow down my list of favorites to only seven. Indeed, natural wonders can be transient. Right now, for example, a family of robins has taken up residence in an azalea just outside my bedroom window. We've been watching events unfold since the eggs were laid. Four baby robins are growing up right before our eyes, a wonder if there ever was one. It won't be long before they learn to fly and leave the nest, and we'll be deprived of their presence. But in the meantime we have a literal window onto a world most people never get to see. (Not to mention it gave me a great subject for a Planet Baha'i article.)

I think I am most drawn to natural wonders because they reveal the Names of God. They never cease to fill me with awe and wonder. How about you?

(Photos of the exterior and interior dome of the Baha'i House of Worship in Wilmette are provided by the Baha'i Media Bank. Reproduced with permission of the Bahá’í International Community.)

Living Art and the Art of Living

2007-04-30T15:02:00.000-05:00

A few years ago I began studying the art of bonsai. I'm still a novice, but I've learned quite a bit from reading, practicing, and talking with more experienced bonsai artists. Yesterday I created my first bonsai forest planting at a workshop held by the Baltimore Bonsai Club. I made a few errors along the way, but the overall results were pretty good and the experience (especially the errors) taught me something.

In bonsai we speak of training our trees. Trees are not merely grown. They are pruned, pinched, and bent (using wire and other equipment) to induce them to grow in the ways that we want. Because trees are constantly growing, we never truly finish training them. A bonsai that is not trained will not remain a bonsai for long. Indeed, a common misconception is that a bonsai is a dwarf variety of tree, genetically different from its full-sized cousins. But if you remove a bonsai from its tray and plant it in the ground, it will grow apace into a full-sized tree. It stays small only because its growth is restricted in the tray and because its branches and roots are periodically pruned. The late great Japanese-American bonsai artist John Naka called bonsai "living sculpture", and because it is living it is always growing and changing.

There are some obvious spiritual parallels here. It has been said that over time the bonsai artist is trained as much as the tree, and there is a lot of truth in this. For not only does one have to learn the horticultural and artistic practice of bonsai, one also has to learn certain virtues such as patience in order to succeed. More generally, just as a bonsai is always in training, so are all people (not just bonsai artists!). Baha'u'llah wrote:

O son of bounty! 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. Out of My loving-kindness, 'neath the shade of My mercy I nurtured thee, and guarded thee by the essence of My grace and favor. And My purpose in all this was that thou mightest attain My everlasting dominion and become worthy of My invisible bestowals. And yet heedless thou didst remain, and when fully grown, thou didst neglect all My bounties and occupied thyself with thine idle imaginings, in such wise that thou didst become wholly forgetful, and, turning away from the portals of the Friend didst abide within the courts of My enemy.
(Baha'u'llah, The Hidden Words, Persian 29)

The Baha'i Writings speak of the importance of training and education for children and of justice as the chief instrument for our training. They speak of tests and trials as means for advancement. It seems that all of life is essentially a training ground, and all the experiences we have are part of our training.

There is thus a sense in which art (or at least the art of bonsai) reflects life and life reflects art. There may also be lessons in that fact.

A Long Life or a Good Life?

2007-04-27T14:14:00.000-05:00

We recently found out that a friend of ours, a woman named Amy whose children have been good friends of our children since they were very young, has multiple brain tumors and is not expected to live very long. Kathy and two of our daughters flew out to Arizona on Sunday to spend some time with her. They returned on Wednesday. I and my two younger daughters held down the fort while they were gone, spending a lot of time with my grandchildren. (Two of them spent two nights at our house.) Then on Thursday our youngest daughter Elizabeth had to leave very early in the morning for a school orchestra trip, and will not return until Sunday. As you can imagine, we are all fairly exhausted by now.

Over the years death has claimed a number of people who have been important in my life or who were just a step away from those who have been important in my life. However, mostly these have been older people: my grandparents, a couple of aunts and uncles. Death came much closer to Kathy long ago. When she was 11 she lost her mother to cancer, and her father passed away only a few years after we were married (the same year our daughter Melissa was born).

But Amy is a different story. She is the same age as we are, quite literally. She was born only a month after Kathy. Events like this bring home the uncertainty of life and reenforce the fact that it is not the length of a life that is important, but the quality of a life. Baha'u'llah pointed out that the purpose of this life is to acquire spiritual qualities, not material benefits:

Say: If ye be seekers after this life and the vanities thereof, ye should have sought them while ye were still enclosed in your mothers' wombs, for at that time ye were continually approaching them, could ye but perceive it. Ye have, on the other hand, ever since ye were born and attained maturity, been all the while receding from the world and drawing closer to dust. Why, then, exhibit such greed in amassing the treasures of the earth, when your days are numbered and your chance is well-nigh lost? Will ye not, then, O heedless ones, shake off your slumber?
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, LXVI, p. 126)

The Manifestations of God have been sent to us to help us in this quest for spiritual distinction:

The Prophets and Messengers of God have been sent down for the sole purpose of guiding mankind to the straight Path of Truth. The purpose underlying Their revelation hath been to educate all men, that they may, at the hour of death, ascend, in the utmost purity and sanctity and with absolute detachment, to the throne of the Most High.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, LXXXI, p. 156-157)

Although we all wish for a long and healthy life, and these things are not in themselves bad, none of us knows how or when our end will come. Far more imoprtant that how much time we have is how we use the time that we have.

Shootings at the College, Acid on the Playground

2007-04-18T14:53:00.000-05:00

The shootings at Virginia Tech occurred on the heels of news from my own area that a 2-year-old child had been badly burned after someone coated playground equipment at an elementary school with an industrial-strength drain cleaner containing sulfuric acid.

The child's grandmother realized too late to stop him that a purple substance was on the playground slide. She snatched him from it and rushed to a nearby house to hose him off, but the damage had been done. The boy was taken to Johns Hopkins, where skin grafts were performed. Last I heard, he was in fair condition.

The perpetrators were caught the next day: a pair of 16-year-olds who had broken into the school, found the drain cleaner, and decided to see if it would melt the plastic on the playground equipment. When it didn't, they walked away, leaving their toxic mess behind them.

Events like this show us the ever-widening cracks in our society. We in the U.S. are fortunate in many ways. Our nation isn't a war zone. Armed factions aren't roaming the countryside, killing, looting, and raping. The government hasn't come anywhere near collapse. We aren't plagued by thousand-percent inflation, massive unemployment, or rampant disease. But neither are we immune to the forces of disintegration that are enveloping the world. Almost 70 years ago, Shoghi Effendi recognized these forces and the way they were going when he wrote to the American Baha'i comunity to offer encouragement:

Pregnant indeed are the years looming ahead of us all. The twin processes of internal disintegration and external chaos are being accelerated and every day are inexorably moving towards a climax. The rumblings that must precede the eruption of those forces that must cause "the limbs of humanity to quake" can already be heard. "The time of the end," "the latter years," as foretold in the Scriptures, are at long last upon us. The Pen of Bahá'u'lláh, the voice of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, have time and again, insistently and in terms unmistakable, warned an unheeding humanity of impending disaster. The Community of the Most Great Name, the leaven that must leaven the lump, the chosen remnant that must survive the rolling up of the old, discredited, tottering order, and assist in the unfoldment of a new one in its stead, is standing ready, alert, clear-visioned, and resolute. The American believers, standard-bearers of this world-wide community and torch-bearers of an as yet unborn civilization, have girt up their loins, unfurled their banners and stepped into the arena of service. Their Plan has been formulated. Their forces are mobilized. They are steadfastly marching towards their goal. The hosts of the Abha Kingdom are rushing forth, as promised, to direct their steps and reinforce their power. Through their initial victories they have provided the impulse that must now surge and, with relentless force sweep over their sister-communities and eventually overpower the entire human race. The generality of mankind, blind and enslaved, is wholly unaware of the healing power with which this community has been endowed, nor can it as yet suspect the role which this same community is destined to play in its redemption. Fierce and manifold will be the assaults with which governments, races, classes and religions, jealous of its rising prestige and fearful of its consolidating strength, will seek to silence its voice and sap its foundations. Unmoved by the relative obscurity that surrounds it at the present time, and undaunted by the forces that will be arrayed against it in the future, this community, I cannot but feel confident, will, no matter how afflictive the agonies of a travailing age, pursue its destiny, undeflected in its course, undimmed in its serenity, unyielding in its resolve, unshaken in its convictions.
(Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America, p. 13-14)

These words should not be taken to mean that Baha'is are superior to others or that they are not subject to the same forces wracking the rest of the world. Rather, they are a reminder that God has a plan for humanity, and that in spite of outward appearances we are moving in towards a destined end. They are words of encouragement not to succumb to despair, to continue working for what we believe, with confidence that in the end the world will be "recreated" and a unified global society will emerge.

Mapping the Baha'i World

2007-04-05T14:48:00.000-05:00

I recall when I first learned about the Baha'i Faith seeing a map or two that showed the countries in which Baha'is had National Spiritual Assemblies. Because the Baha'i Faith is still very much a minority religion, people may think it's some localized or regional phenomenon rather than a truly global religion. Such maps help to demonstrate that Baha'is are drawn from many national and ethnic backgrounds.

Today there are new ways of mapping the Baha'i world, which also demonstrate its global nature. A couple of years back, a member of the Planet Baha'i Forum set up a Frappr! map for our community, and since then something like 80 people from around the world have added themselves to it. (A snapshot of our map as of this date is at the top left.)

Another recent Baha'i map comes from bahainine.com, a service-in-the-making that aspires to gather Baha'i content, including blogs, podcasts, flickr pictures, and youtube videos, into a single portal. Their map currently shows self-registered Baha'i bloggers. You can access the blogs directly from the map. (And yes, this blog is listed there.)

There may be other Baha'i maps out there, although I haven't gone looking for them. If you know of any, please leave a comment with the URL so we can have a look.

Tsunamis and a World-Embracing Vision

2007-04-02T14:17:00.000-05:00

One of the first things I saw this morning was a headline about the earthquake and tidal wave that had struck the Solomon Islands. In years past, I probably would have had a somewhat limited reaction. Even those of us who have sympathy for people on the other side of the world tend to feel more strongly about what's happening close to home than what's happening far away. That's a normal human reaction.

But this time, I felt the disaster more keenly, because I happen to know someone over there, Simon Cameron, one of the Planet Baha'i forum hosts. Simon (aka Sam because his forum screen name is SamCat99) lives with his wife in Honiara, the capital of the Solomon Islands. Because I know him, even if only via the Internet, the event suddenly became rather more "real" for me.

Baha'u'llah writes, "Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self." (Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, XLIII, p. 94) 'Abdu'l-Baha elaborated on this in a talk He gave in Paris on November 24, 1911, He commented on a train derailment which killed 20 people:

I have just been told that there has been a terrible accident in this country. A train has fallen into the river and at least twenty people have been killed. This is going to be a matter for discussion in the French Parliament today, and the Director of the State Railway will be called upon to speak. He will be cross-examined as to the condition of the railroad and as to what caused the accident, and there will be a heated argument. I am filled with wonder and surprise to notice what interest and excitement has been aroused throughout the whole country on account of the death of twenty people, while they remain cold and indifferent to the fact that thousands of Italians, Turks, and Arabs are killed in Tripoli! The horror of this wholesale slaughter has not disturbed the Government at all! Yet these unfortunate people are human beings too.

Why is there so much interest and eager sympathy shown towards these twenty individuals, while for five thousand persons there is none? They are all men, they all belong to the family of mankind, but they are of other lands and races. It is no concern of the disinterested countries if these men are cut to pieces, this wholesale slaughter does not affect them! How unjust, how cruel is this, how utterly devoid of any good and true feeling! The people of these other lands have children and wives, mothers, daughters, and little sons! In these countries today there is hardly a house free from the sound of bitter weeping, scarcely can one find a home untouched by the cruel hand of war.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 114-115)

One good thing the Internet seems to do for us is to make it harder to ignore the plight of people in far-off lands. Just as radio and then television brought distant parts of the world closer to us, made them more real, so now the Internet is accelerating this process by bringing the diverse people of the world into direct contact with each other. Whereas before it might have been easy to ignore the suffering of people on the other side of the world, now many of us have friends there.

This is not to say that the Internet is a panacea. Like all tools, it can only do so much and can even be misused and abused. The real need, 'Abdu'l-Baha went on to say in the above talk, is for people to recognize God and hearken to His teachings. A world-embracing vision is a spiritual thing, not an electronic thing. But perhaps the Internet can help us work toward the attainment of that state of mind.

Baha'i Studies Conference

2007-03-27T12:31:00.000-05:00

Each year the Association for Baha'i Studies North America hosts a major conference. The conference location moves around Canada (where the ABS is headquartered) and the United States, and its themes vary widely. The 2007 conference will be held in Toronto (actually Mississauga), Ontario from August 16 through August 19. The conference theme will be "Scholarship and Community-Building".

Kathy and I first attended the annual ABS conference in 2004 when, on a lark, I submitted an abstract for a presentation to the Science and Religion Special Interest Group. I didn't expect at that time to be accepted. It was, after all, my first time doing something like that, but accepted I was, and so Kathy and I sold our children and traveled to Canada. (Okay, we didn't really sell the children, but it was kind of rough because we didn't actually have the money to make the trip!) My presentation, wordily titled "The Universe that Didn't Know We Were Coming and the God Who Did", went well, and I later wrote it up for Planet Baha'i.

We also attended the following year, 2005, when the conference was held in Boston. This was a bit easier since it's possible (but somewhat tiring) to drive from Baltimore to Boston in a day. That year I gave a talk, also for the Science and Religion SIG, titled "Cosmology and the Baha'i Writings". I wasn't as pleased with that talk largely due to environmental factors. The hotel placed us in a "room" that was really more of a tent covering a large area that otherwise would have been outdoors. The noise from the traffic and nearby construction was pretty bad. Worse, the SIG session ran behind schedule most of the day, and I felt rather rushed while giving the talk. Still, the audience was interested and raised some good questions for discussion afterwards.

We skipped the 2006 conference in San Francisco due to lack of funds and by all rights should be skipping this year's. But no, Kathy and I have jointly submitted an abstract for a presentation on the Planet Baha'i community. We think we have a fair shot at acceptance. We have also requested that our book Spiritual Telemetry be sold at the conference book store and might even be able to arrange to do a book signing if the organizers are willing.

If you can get to an ABS conference, I highly recommend it. Over the years they have become lively events with a wide variety of presentations, entertainment, and fellowship. We'd love to see you there some day.

An Evening with Thom Thompson

2007-03-23T14:33:00.000-05:00

Last night our Baha'i community held its bimonthly book club meeting in the Barnes and Noble bookstore in Towson, Maryland. We were privileged to have local author Thom Thompson talking about his book Questions from Christians, an excellent volume that explores similarities and differences between the Baha'i Faith and Christianity.

Thom is an interesting speaker. As he tells it, his book was 40 years in the making, although it was primarily written in the year before he published it. Back then, he was a theology student studying for the ministry, when he encountered the Baha'i Faith and realized that its claims could not be ignored. He had to determine if it was true or false. He found an answer in due course, and became a Baha'i.

The questions in the book are actual questions that Christians asked him in the ensuing decades. He answers them in the form of a dialogue, which makes the book far more engaging than you might expect. I was quite pleased to discover this, as I wrote in my review for Planet Baha'i. I highly recommend this book.

Intone the Verses of God

2007-03-20T12:33:00.000-05:00

The Baha'i Holy Writings contain numerous prayers revealed by the Bab, Baha'u'llah, and 'Abdu'l-Baha. Many have been collected into prayer books that have been published in a great many languages and gone through numerous editions. In every edition of the U.S. Baha'i prayer book that I have seen, the following passage from Baha'u'llah's Writings has appeared at the front:

Intone, O My servants, the verses of God that have been received by thee, as intoned by them who have drawn nigh unto Him, that the sweetness of thy melody may kindle thine own soul, and attract the hearts of all men. Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb. Though he may, at first, remain unaware of its effect, yet the virtue of the grace vouchsafed unto him must needs sooner or later exercise its influence upon his soul. Thus have the mysteries of the Revelation of God been decreed by virtue of the Will of Him Who is the Source of power and wisdom.

On the last day of the 19-day Fast, I happened to read this passage again, as I have many times, and wonder at its message. When I was growing up in a Methodist home, prayer was a staple of daily life. We said a prayer as a family at dinner each evening, and attended church services regularly where both silent and congregational prayer was used. But aside from these group events, I had always regareded prayer and reading from the Bible as a largely silent activity. There was simply no reason to read or pray aloud in private, and indeed sometimes there might be good reason not to if others were nearby.

As a Baha'i, I have generally continued this pattern. When called upon to read from the Holy Writings as part of group worship I do, but when reading or praying alone I do so silently. Yet the above passage encourages vocalizing the Word of God, indeed singing it. "Intone" means "to utter in musical or prolonged tones" or "recite in singing tones or in a monotone". Persian Baha'is have a custom of chanting prayers. I'm not sure of the rules for constructing a Persian chant, but the result can be at its best beautiful in a haunting sort of way.

Baha'u'llah tells us in the above passage that intoning the verses of God does something very special: it kindles the soul, attracts the hearts, and affords us a measure of God's grace that must in due course have an influence on us.

I'm not much on singing or chanting, but when I read the Sacred Verses I do try to read them in a befitting manner. I like to think that this is at least mostly as good as singing or chanting. But I seldom do so "in the privacy of my chamber." There I still tend to read silently. Not that I actually have much privacy, given that I have a wife, five children, three grandchildren, and enough pets to start a zoo.

But maybe it's something to try once in awhile in the coming year.

Other Baha'i Blogs

2007-03-16T15:21:00.000-05:00

An article on Baha'i Blogs has appeared at the official site of the U.S. Baha'i community. This blog has a mention in the article, and they used a modified form of the logo from the Planet Baha'i web site as a graphic.

I was actually interviewed for the article a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately they didn't give me a lot of space, because I don't think I had much to say that other people weren't already saying. However, Amy, one of my hosts at the Planet Baha'i Forum did get quoted in some detail. She has an amazingly beautiful blog called "Livin' In Harmony".

I don't have a great deal of time for reading other blogs, but I have compiled a list of Baha'i Blogs for the Planet Baha'i link library. The range of material presented in them is amazing. Have a look!

Prayer for Freedom from Afflictions

2007-03-13T12:42:00.000-05:00

It's day 12 of the 19-Day Fast. (One week to go.) Today I read "The Tablet of the Seven Questions", which is published in The Tabernacle of Unity. The tablet answers (as the name implies) seven questions that had been put to Baha'u'llah by Ustad Javan-Mard, a prominent early Baha'i of Zorosatrian background. The third question concerned how to deal with people of varying religions who all insisted that their religion was the right one and whose words and deeds might be oppressive. Baha'u'llah responds as follows:

O lion-hearted one amongst men! Regard the afflictions endured in the path of God as comfort itself. Every affliction suffered for His sake is a potent remedy, every bitterness is naught but sweetness and every abasement an exaltation. Were men to apprehend and acknowledge this truth, they would readily lay 60 down their lives for such affliction. For it is the key to inestimable treasures, and no matter how outwardly abhorrent, it hath ever been and will continue to be inwardly prized. We accept and affirm what thou hast said, for the people of the world are indeed bereft of the light of the Orb of justice and regard it as their enemy.

If thou desirest to be freed from affliction, recite thou this prayer which hath been revealed by the Pen of the All-Merciful: “O God, my God! I testify to Thy unity and to Thy oneness. I beseech Thee, O Thou Possessor of names and Fashioner of the heavens, by the pervasive influence of Thine exalted Word and the potency of Thy supreme Pen, to aid me with the ensigns of Thy power and might, and to protect me from the mischief of Thine enemies who have violated Thy Covenant and Thy Testament. Thou art, verily, the Almighty, the Most Powerful.” This invocation is an impregnable stronghold and an indomitable army. It conferreth protection and ensureth deliverance.
(para. 3.7 - 3.8)

This prayer is not in any previous book of Baha'i prayers as far as I know. It's short, to the point, and apparently given some significance by Baha'u'llah. I like it.

The Origin of Creation

2007-03-12T11:17:00.000-05:00

Continuing my reading of The Tabernacle of Unity, I ran across this in the Tablet to Mirza Abu'l-Fadl:

The entire creation hath been called into being through the Will of God, magnified be His glory, and peerless Adam hath been fashioned through the agency of His all-compelling Word, a Word which is the source, the wellspring, the repository, and the dawning-place of the intellect. From it all creation hath proceeded, and it is the channel of God’s primal grace. None can grasp the reality of the origin of creation save God, exalted be His glory, Whose knowledge embraceth all things both before and after they come into being. Creation hath neither beginning nor end, and none hath ever unravelled its mystery. Its knowledge hath ever been, and shall remain, hidden and preserved with those Who are the Repositories of divine knowledge.
(para. 2.48)

Being an amateur astronomer and interested in science and religion issues, I've had many discussions over the years on the relationship of cosmological theories to religious understanding. I maintain that there is no conflict between the best available cosmological models (the "Big Bang" model) and anything found in Scripture. The above provides a particularly clear view of why this is so.

The creation continuously emanates from God. Although it has neither beginning nor end, its origin is in God and not independent of Him. (Baha'u'llah makes this point in the following paragraph, which I am not reproducing here.) As part of the creation, we cannot adequately "get outside of it" to adopt a point of view that would enable us to understand its origin.

What we learn about origins, therefore, is necessarily the origins of components of the creation and not the origin of the creation itself. If we learn the origin of the Earth, for example, it doesn't tell us the origin of the creation. It only tells us how one part of the creation formed within the framework of some larger part of the creation. If we learn the origin of the universe itself, this also doesn't tell us the origin of the creation. It only tells us how one part of the creation formed within the framework of some larger part of the creation.

This implies that if we can learn the origin of something, it is not the whole of creation. Although the term "universe" is often used to mean "everything that exists", the universe that we speak of as being "created" in the Big Bang is actually not everything that exists. It is only one part of God's creation, and it formed within the context of something "larger". Indeed, the scientific description itself implies this.

Although this may not seem very important in the grand scheme of things, the war between science and religion is actually quite important to humanity. It hobbles both science and religion and prevents them from achieving their full potential. We need to see them as harmonious, allow them to each do what they do best, and bring them together at appropriate points of contact. Science can protect religion from superstition, and religion can provide science with a critical moral compass.

Put all your beliefs into harmony with science; there can be no opposition, for truth is one. When religion, shorn of its superstitions, traditions, and unintelligent dogmas, shows its conformity with science, then will there be a great unifying, cleansing force in the world which will sweep before it all wars, disagreements, discords and struggles -- and then will mankind be united in the power of the Love of God.
('Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 146)

The Fast, Day 8

2007-03-09T15:28:00.000-05:00

Continuing my reading of The Tabernacle of Unity, I was struck today by these verses:

Yet another question: “According to the teachings of the Mahábád and Hindu religions, should a person of whatever faith or nation, of whatever colour, appearance, character or condition, be disposed to associate with you, ye should show forth kindness and treat him as a brother. But in other religions this is not so: their followers ill-treat and oppress the adherents of other faiths, consider their persecution as an act of worship, and regard their kindred and their possessions as lawful unto themselves. Which approach is acceptable in the sight of God?”

The former statement hath ever been and will continue to be true. It is not permissible to contend with anyone, nor is it acceptable in the sight of God to ill-treat or oppress any soul. Time and again have these sublime words streamed from the Pen of the Most High, blessed and exalted be He: “O ye children of men! The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His Religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race, and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become a source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity”. This subject hath already been set forth and explained in various Tablets.

It behoveth him who expoundeth the Word of God to deliver it with the utmost good-will, kindness, and compassion. As to him that embraceth the truth and is honoured with recognizing Him, his name shall be recorded in the Crimson Book among the inmates of the all-highest Paradise. Should a soul fail, however, to accept the truth, it is in no wise permissible to contend with him. In another connection He saith: “Blessed and happy is he that ariseth to promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth.” Likewise He saith: “The people of Bahá should soar high above the peoples of the world.” In matters of religion every form of fanaticism, hatred, dissension and strife is strictly forbidden.
(paragraphs 2.33 - 2.35)

How different this is from the religious turmoil wracking so much of the world right now! Moreover, Baha'u'llah affirms that these teachings, which are so often abandoned by so many in all religions, are a foundation of every religion and have been taught by all of the Manifestations of God.

The Royal Falcon

2007-03-08T14:00:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite passages from Baha'u'llah's Writings is the "royal falcon" passage:

The Tongue of Wisdom proclaimeth: He that hath Me not is bereft of all things. Turn ye away from all that is on earth and seek none else but Me. I am the Sun of Wisdom and the Ocean of Knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding Light that illumineth the way. I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight.

This passage appears in the "Tablet of Maqsud", published in Tablets of Baha'u'llah Revealed After the Kitab-i-Aqdas, but it also is found in the "Tablet to Manikchi Sahib", recently published in the small volume The Tabernacle of Unity. In that same volume, a Tablet written by Baha'u'llah to Mirza Abu'l Fadl expounds upon some of the verses revealed in response to Manikchi Sahib's questions. We find the following with reference to the "royal falcon" passage:

Another of his questions: “Some maintain that whatsoever is in accordance with the dictates of nature and of the intellect must needs be both permissible and compulsory in the divine law, and conversely that one should refrain from observing that which is incompatible with these standards. Others believe that whatsoever hath been enjoined by the divine law and its blessed Author should be accepted without rational proof or natural evidence and obeyed without question or reservation, such as the march between Safa and Marwah, the stoning of the pillar of Jamrah, the washing of one’s feet during ablutions, and so on. Kindly indicate which of these positions is acceptable.”
Intellect hath various degrees. As a discussion of the pronouncements made by the philosophers in this connection would pass beyond the scope of our discourse, we have refrained from mentioning them. It is nonetheless indisputably clear and evident that the minds of men have never been, nor shall they ever be, of equal capacity. The Perfect Intellect alone can provide true guidance and direction. Thus were these sublime words revealed by the Pen of the Most High, exalted be His glory, in response to this question: “The Tongue of Wisdom proclaimeth: He that hath Me not is bereft of all things. Turn ye away from all that is on earth and seek none else but Me. I am the Sun of Wisdom and the Ocean of Knowledge. I cheer the faint and revive the dead. I am the guiding Light that illumineth the way. I am the royal Falcon on the arm of the Almighty. I unfold the drooping wings of every broken bird and start it on its flight.”
Consider how clearly the answer hath been revealed from the heaven of divine knowledge. Blessed are those who ponder it, who reflect upon it, and who apprehend its meaning! By the Intellect mentioned above is meant the universal divine Mind. How often hath it been observed that certain human minds, far from being a source of guidance, have become as fetters upon the feet of the wayfarers and prevented them from treading the straight path! The lesser intellect being thus circumscribed, one must search after Him Who is the ultimate Source of knowledge and strive to recognize Him. And should one come to acknowledge that Source round Whom every mind doth revolve, then whatsoever He should ordain is the expression of the dictates of a consummate wisdom. His very Being, even as the sun, is distinct from all else beside Him. The whole duty of man is to recognize Him; once this hath been achieved, then whatsoever He may please to ordain is binding and in full accordance with the requirements of divine wisdom. Thus have ordinances and prohibitions of every kind been laid down by the Prophets of the past, even unto the earliest
times.

This explanation sheds a somewhat different light on the passage than what I had previously considered. The range of attributes and functions it names, which are admittedly a bit confusing at first because they don't seem to be entirely related, are harmonized with each other through the simple observation that the Manifestation of God is the "perfect intellect" and possesses the "consumate wisdom" that alone can "provide true guidance and direction."

Light Pollution As Metaphor

2007-03-06T14:13:00.000-05:00

As some of you may know, I'm an amateur astronomer. I've been interested in astronomy since childhood and have an astronomy blog. One of the banes of my existence as an amateur astronomer is light pollution, a subject you can read about in said blog. The short version is that much of the light we generate at night via outdoor lighting is beamed up into the sky where it does nobody any good, gets scattered around by the atmosphere, and returns to Earth. This makes the sky look much brighter than it would naturally, washing out our view of the stars and possibly playing havoc with biological rhythms, including our own.

All that is another story. Here we're focused on spiritual matters. Toni, one of the members of the Planet Baha'i Forum, suggested to me that light pollution in the sky might have some metaphorical connection to the "pollution" of God's light by human influences.

In the Baha'i worldview, God periodically sends a Messenger, called a Manifestation of God, to teach us. The time when the Manifestation appears is compared to springtime. He delivers the teachings necessary for the times, His word begins to spread, and through its influence the world of humanity is "awakened" or "resurrected" rather as the increasing warmth and light causes new life to appear in springtime. Spring is followed by summer, when all things attain the height of their growth and powers, then autumn follows and all goes into a decline until winter overtakes them and renders them as dead. In due course a new springtime arrives.

The latest spiritual springtime arrived in 1844 with the declaration of the Bab and that of Baha'u'llah in 1863. The light of God was shed by these "twin Manifestations" in order to infuse new life into the world. But their message has only reached a small portion of humanity so far. The religious Luminaries of the past, such as Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Krishna, and the Buddha, also shed their light upon humanity and over the course of thousands of years reached billions and even billions. So the light of God ought to be permeating human life, just as the stars fill the sky with a blaze of light.

Or at least, the stars used to do so. Today they don't in many places, because man-made light is drowning out their light. Likewise with religion. We see a profusion of creeds, teachings, and interpretations, many of which are only partly based on the teachings of the Manifestations of God and some of which have nothing to do with them. Others have abandoned religion altogether, often because they could find no truth in it. Little wonder. People living under urban skies don't often bother to look up at the stars because the city's light has washed them out. What could they see up there? At most a paltry few unimpressive points of light fighting against the glow of the city.

Baha'u'llah effectively asks us to extinguish the man-made lights so we can see the light of God.

Veils as Tests, Veils as Mercy

2007-03-05T15:16:00.000-05:00

Last night I happened to be out shortly after moonrise. The moon was just past full, but the sky was blanketed in moderately thin clouds. The moon's light is bright enough that it can cut through such clouds, but its features are blurred or obscured. The effect can be rather ghostly.

I thought of the symbolism invoked in the Baha'i Writings regarding light and obscuring veils such as clouds. In some cases, such veils are portrayed as an impediment to attaining knowledge of God and spiritual growth. In other cases, they are portrayed as tests whereby our sincerity is judged. I started wondering, though, if there might not be a third meaning.

Baha'u'llah speaks of the gradual unfoldment of revelation in these terms:

Know of a certainty that in every Dispensation the light of Divine Revelation hath been vouchsafed unto men in direct proportion to their spiritual capacity. Consider the sun. How feeble its rays the moment it appeareth above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approacheth its zenith, enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light. How steadily it declineth until it reacheth its setting point. Were it, all of a sudden, to manifest the energies latent within it, it would, no doubt, cause injury to all created things.... In like manner, if the Sun of Truth were suddenly to reveal, at the earliest stages of its manifestation, the full measure of the potencies which the providence of the Almighty hath bestowed upon it, the earth of human understanding would waste away and be consumed; for men's hearts would neither sustain the intensity of its revelation, nor be able to mirror forth the radiance of its light. Dismayed and overpowered, they would cease to exist.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, XXXVIII,
p. 87-88)

Looking at the moon, its light dimmed and its features erased by the clouds, I considered that sometimes the Manifestation of God may not reveal the full measure of truth to us owing to our inability to comprehend it. Perhaps at a later time the "clouds" will part and we'll see much more. But maybe not today.

The Fast, Day 1

2007-03-02T15:04:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day of the 19-day Fast. It looked to be a rough day, as I didn't get enough sleep the previous night and have not been feeling entirely well of late. I've been fighting off one cold after another since January, with vestiges of the last one still hanging on. I had decided that I'd probably at least need to keep the fluids going during the day, and would have to see how the rest of it went.

Following breakfast, however, I didn't have anything until lunch time. Then I picked up a bottle of grape juice (for fluids and vitamin C) and had a few swallows of it. I was rather surprised how far this little bit carried me through the afternoon. But it may not have been only the juice. I preceeded it with a couple of short prayers and recitation of the Greatest Name, then accompanied it with a read-through of Baha'u'llah's first Tablet to Manikchi Sahib from The Tabernacle of Unity.

I've read this Tablet a couple of times before, but this time I was struck by the exhortations Baha'u'llah gives in the second half. A couple of these are already well-known, having been translated previously by Shoghi Effendi and appearing in other places. (The "royal falcon" passage is one of them.) I found the following particularly striking, perhaps owing to its use of a simple but profound image:

O children of understanding! If the eyelid, however delicate, can deprive man’s outer eye from beholding the world and all that is therein, consider then what would be wrought if the veil of covetousness were to descend upon his inner eye. Say: O people! The darkness of greed and envy becloudeth the radiance of the soul even as the clouds obstruct the light of the sun. Should anyone hearken unto this utterance with a discerning ear, he will unfurl the wings of detachment and soar effortlessly in the atmosphere of true understanding.

Here's another, which historians such as my wife will undoubtedly appreciate:

Say: O ye that have eyes to see! The past is the mirror of the future. Gaze ye therein and be apprised thereof; perchance ye may be aided thereby to recognize the Friend and may be not the cause of His displeasure. In this Day the choicest fruit of the tree of knowledge is that which serveth the welfare of humanity and safeguardeth its interests.

Individually these counsels all teach important truths. I have yet to consider how they are arranged and what, taken together as a whole, they might have to say.

Preparing for the Fast

2007-03-01T13:59:00.000-05:00

Each year, Baha'is observe a brief period of fasting from March 2 to March 20. During this time, we abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset each day. The fast is more than just a physical act, however. Its primary purpose is spiritual. 'Abdu'l-Baha put it this way:

For this material fast is an outer token of the spiritual fast; it is a symbol of self-restraint, the withholding of oneself from all appetites of the self, taking on the characteristics of the spirit, being carried away by the breathings of heaven and catching fire from the love of God.
('Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, #35, p. 69)

Just because one is not eating and drinking doesn't mean one is truly fasting. Indeed, just because one is eating and drinking doesn't mean that one is not fasting, because there are exemptions for illness, women who are pregnant or nursing, travelers, and so forth. It is possible to observe the fast even though one's physical condition precludes abstaining from food and drink.

Ayyam-i-Ha, the four-day celebration (five in leap years) that immediately precedes the Fast is, in part a time of preparation for the Fast. Often I have not given too much thought to this, but this year I'm considering it a bit more deeply. Partly the matter has come to mind because I may not be able to physically fast this year. I've spent a lot of time since late December being ill and have still not fully recovered. So I'm considering what the fast will be for me under those circumstances.

Ayyam-i-Ha has thus become a time for me to "gear up" for the fast, to consider how I can put into practice the above counsel from 'Abdu'l-Baha regardless of whether or not I can physically fast. What areas of my life need improvement? Where should my prayers be focused? Which Holy Book(s) should I commit to reading or studying during this time?

For most Baha'is, Ayyam-i-Ha is a time of celebration. We throw a lot of parties in the course of these four days! I'm not sure how many of us presently use the time to ponder and plan our approach to the coming Fast, however. I'm sure some do, but I've never heard much discussion of it. For me it's something of a new experience.

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha!

2007-02-28T13:35:00.000-05:00

Each year from February 26 through March 1, Baha'is celebrate Ayyam-i-Ha. This is a special time of the year for gift-giving, acts of charity, and preparation for the 19-day period of fasting that follows (March 2 through March 20). Then, on March 21, Naw-Ruz (New Year's Day) is celebrated.

Ayyam-i-Ha means "the Days of Ha", which sounds a bit odd to the western ear, where "ha" is thought of as a laughing sound. Actually, though, it's a letter of the Persian and Arabic alphabets, equivalent to "h" in English. The letter ha is associated with God, thus in one sense Ayyam-i-Ha could be thought of as "the Days of God". In any case, it's a time for remembering and celebrating God's bounty to us. We mirror this though gift-giving and the special acts of charity.

Another interesting aspect of Ayyam-i-Ha is its position in the Baha'i calendar. The Baha'i calendar consists of 19 months of 19 days each. Do the math and you'll find that this comes up four days short of 365. These four days, or five in leap years, are placed between the 18th and 19th months. The month of fasting is the 19th month. Since Ayyam-i-Ha doesn't belong to any month, it has sometimes been called a period of "days out of time", a symbolic expression of eternity.

Happy Ayyam-i-Ha!

Who Are These Baha'is, Anyway?

2007-02-27T12:28:00.000-05:00

The Baha'i Faith is a minority religion, both globally and in most localities where Baha'is live. There are somewhere in the vicinity of six or seven million Baha'is worldwide. Contrast that with the hundreds of millions (or in a couple of cases a billion or more) people who follow other global religions.

Yet for all that, the Baha'i Faith has a presence all around the world. Indeed, some years ago it was considered to be the second most widespread religion, with only Christianity having adherents in more localities. So chances are there may be at least a few Baha'is living somewhere near you.

Of course, our religion started in Iran, where the last I heard it was the second-largest minority religion. Partly due to the persecution of Baha'is in Iran, Iranian Baha'is have become scattered around the globe. In some cases, local Baha'i communities include significant numbers of Iranian Baha'is. But Baha'is are drawn from all nationalities, all ethnicities, all racial groups, all religious backgrounds (including atheism), and all walks of life.

If you happen to live in the United States (as I do), you can find information on the American Baha'i community here. At Planet Baha'i we also have assembled links to many local Baha'i communities in the US, Canada, the British Isles, and Australia/New Zealand. For those who hail from other countries, we've listed links to many other national Baha'i communities. Finally, in our International Reading Room you can find links to many other communities, plus Baha'i material in numerous languages.

As you can see, then, although we are still a small religion compared to many others, we are one of the most diverse groups on the planet.

The Colorless Winter

2007-02-21T11:58:00.000-05:00

Our daughter Elizabeth is a violinist about to graduate from high school. Recently we've been traveling with her to several music conservatories where she has applied so she can audition for admittance. Last week we drove from Baltimore to Cincinnati and back. During the drive, I was struck by the way winter had bled the color out of the world. The land, covered in snow and ice, was white, criss-crossed by gray and black shadows. The grasses and other low vegetation was at best a golden brown. The deciduous trees, barren of leaves, were dark skeletons. Even the conifers, which retain their foliage through the winter, were a grayish shade of green.

When the clouds cleared away, the blue of the sky arched over this grayed-out world, yet seemed to blend in with it. As evening came, the last rays of the sun lent a vaguely pink glow to the scenery. But aside from these, the only real color was provided by man-made objects, mostly road signs.

In the Baha'i Writings, the seasons are used as images to teach about the cycles of divine revelation. Winter, the dead season, is likened to the time when religion has grown old and its influence is weak, its principles forgotten and its followers clinging to outward forms devoid of real spirit. The colorlessness of winter offers an obvious parallel to this "spiritual death."

At the same time, I found the scenery possessed of a special beauty that is not present in the more colorful and "alive" seasons. It occurs to me that there must be some meaning in this, too, perhaps related to the value of quiet contemplation.

If you have any thoughts on the subject, feel free to leave a comment. I'd be interested in hearing them.

World of Matter, World of Spirit

2007-02-13T12:44:00.000-05:00

I'm a great beliver in the idea that the natural world is a huge metaphor for spiritual reality. Often in ancient religious Scriptures and traditions, the interaction between the physical and the spiritual is portrayed in very physical terms. Divine powers take on physical forms, and physical forces are direct expressions of divine powers. In the Baha'i Holy Writings, the relationship is more obviously metaphorical. The physical is used as imagery, and its qualities (rather than its substance) are invoked to portray the spiritual.

Kathy and I have sometimes written about specific examples of this metaphorical connection. She's often written about the lessons one might find in the life of the Earth, including cicadas, mallard ducks and mockingbirds. (Possibly a strange-sounding combination, but all three have been found outside our back door.) I've tended towards physics and astronomy in my musings: frames of reference, conversion factors, space exploration, and the act of observing.

Obvously we feel there is a lot to be learned about spiritual reality from physical reality. That's one of the reasons I put a Hubble Space Telescope photograph of the Sombrero galaxy in the Planet Baha'i site page header, coupled with a quotation from the Hidden Words:

O son of man! Wert thou to speed through the immensity of space and traverse the expanse of heaven, yet thou wouldst find no rest save in submission to Our command and humbleness before Our Face.
~Bahá'u'lláh

Someone once told me they thought it was a poor choice because dangerous cults have sometimes used space imagery on their web sites. The Baha'i Faith is not a cult, and I certainly hope nobody would mistake my sense of awe at the beauty and power of the physical universe and its ability to mirror spiritual truth for something cultish!

Being of Service

2007-02-08T13:56:00.000-05:00

Service to humanity is a cornerstone of Baha'i life. There are many ways to serve, from the small to the large. Baha'is around the world are active in social and economic development projects, but also in just lending a helping hand to others.

Because the Baha'i Faith is a minority religion, with something like 7 million members worldwide and 150,000 in the U.S. (these figures are a bit rough), we don't yet have the kinds of major charitable organizations that some other religions have built. Therefore, we sometimes become involved in interfaith organizations to provide services to those in need.

My own community is currently working with other local religious communities as part of the Baltimore Interfaith Hospitality Network (BIHN), which itself is a local affiliate of a nationwide organization called Family Promise. The organization provides temporary housing and services for homeless families to help them get back on their feet. The role of the religious communities is service of the most fundamental kind: to provide families with a place to stay, meals to eat, and fellowship.

I have heard of other Baha'i communities around the country taking part in this program, and undoubtedly there are many others.

How Many Religions Are There, Anyway?

2007-02-07T14:45:00.000-05:00

Gathering statistics on religions is a tricky business. Just trying to figure out how many religions there are can be a chore. How do you count them? Do you count the denominations and sects of major faiths? Or do you just count the major faiths? How do you factor in tribal religions?

From a Baha'i perspective, all religions are simply stages in the evolution of one "changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future". In this regard, Baha'is may sometimes say that there is in reality only one religion. 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself once wrote, "The religion of God is one religion, but it must ever be renewed."

Of course, labels can be useful even when one has this perspective. However, the last thing the world needs today is cause for division. Even while retaining our labels, we can and should recognize that all religions share common elements that make them more alike than they are different, just as people with different physical traits such as skin color, hair color, height, build, and so forth may look very different but are in reality much more alike than different.

In April 2002, the Universal House of Justice, the Baha'i Faith's international governing body, issued a statement to the leaders of the world's religious leaders on this subject. It's well worth reading and pondering.

2007-02-05T12:45:00.000-05:00

I don't get out much, but recently I've been setting up a list of blogs in the Planet Baha'i link library and discovered that the persecution of Baha'is in Iran is again in the spotlight thanks to a photo of a bookstand advertising books on recognition of the "devious Baha'i sect".

The persecution of the Baha'i Faith in the land of its birth is nothing new. It began in the very earliest years of the religion's history, resulted in the public execution of the Bab and the banishments and imprisonments of Baha'u'llah, and claimed the lives of many of its most noteable followers.

I have personally known Baha'is who came to the United states fleeing persecution, and a current member of my Baha'i community who came here to visit family years ago was forced to stay upon getting word that his name was on a list of Baha'is wanted by the Iranian authorities.

The time for an end to religious prejudice and intolerance is now. It is imperative that we recognize the common foundations of all religions and accept that whatever spiritual paths we follow, we all are seeking the same thing.

Gird up the loins of your endeavor, O people of Baha, that haply the tumult of religious dissension and strife that agitateth the peoples of the earth may be stilled, that every trace of it may be completely obliterated. For the love of God, and them that serve Him, arise to aid this sublime and momentous Revelation. Religious fanaticism and hatred are a world-devouring fire, whose violence none can quench. The Hand of Divine power can, alone, deliver mankind from this desolating affliction.
(Baha'u'llah, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p. 13-14)

Sickness and Health

2007-02-02T14:15:00.000-05:00

I've spent too much time being sick over the past month. I came down with the flu a couple of days before Christmas. Although the worst of it was over in four or so days, I suffered a bit of a relapse and was again down for the count the following weekend, too. This week I was sick again, just a cold this time but it knocked me out enough that I missed another day of work.

It's probably time to pull out the Long Healing Prayer.

I'd post it here, but it is, as the name says, loooooong. Long enough to be a little intimidating at first. Long ago one of my friends (who was not a Baha'i) referred to it as "the ten billion Names of God" because the bulk of the prayer consists of a recitation of a great many of the Names of God (not ten billion, but a lot).

But all levity aside, it is a very powerful prayer. It is hard to recite it (in my experience, at least) without by the end feeling God's presence. It's not merely about asking for physical healing. It's about coming into the presence of God and placing one's reliance in Him. That's really what all prayer is about.

Baha'is and the Bible

2007-01-31T13:24:00.000-05:00

Baha'is are often asked by Christians if they accept Jesus and the Bible. The simple answer is "Yes!" But as is often the case, the simple answer hides a fair bit of complexity.

Usually the question itself isn't so simple. In fact, it usually means, "Do you accept Jesus and the Bible in the same way that I do." It implies a set of beliefs that includes some interpretations of the Bible that Baha'is may not actually accept or excludes some that Baha'is may accept.

Better questions would probably be, "Who do you believe Jesus was?" and "What do believe the Bible means when it says X?"

At Planet Baha'i we have often sought to provide concrete answers to the "better" questions. Of course, our thoughts and opinions are only our own. We can't speak for other Baha'is and we can't make official pronouncements of Baha'i belief. But we have tried to base our answers in the Baha'i Holy Writings and in the Bible in order to demonstrate the deep unity of these two faiths.

If you have a question you'd like us to address in one of our articles, feel free to contact us.

Why A Baha'i?

2007-01-30T13:53:00.000-05:00

It may seem strange that someone like myself, born and bred in the American midwest, raised in a strongly Christian family, would end up in a little-known religion with origins in Persia. How did that happen?

Well, that's rather a long story. I told it in my article "Finding Faith". It had something to do with my wife Kathleen becoming a Baha'i, as well as some other curious happenstances. Whenever I look back on it (which doesn't actually happen too much, but sometimes it does), I ponder how a lot of my transformation from Christian to Baha'i had to do with a growing understanding of Biblical literalism and a broadening understanding of reality as I passed through high school and what little of college I attended. Although I never abandoned Jesus, I did find myself drifting farther and farther from the positions of many Christians. It was only when I was sufficiently detached from them that the Baha'i Faith presented itself to me and I was able to entertain it with an open mind.

[The seeker] must so cleanse his heart that no remnant of either love or hate may linger therein, lest that love blindly incline him to error, or that hate repel him away from the truth. Even as thou dost witness in this Day how most of the people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the immortal Face, have strayed far from the Embodiments of the Divine mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming through the wilderness of oblivion and error.
(Baha'u'llah, Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, CXXV, p. 264)

Others have taken different paths to Baha'u'llah. Christopher Anderson wrote about his journey for Planet Baha'i. Some have told their stories in our forum (although I'd be hard-perssed to dig up the links to them by now). Some are wild, some are rather plain and understated, but every story has some unique element in it. Of course. Because we ourselves are all unique.

I'd like to publish more such stories, if anyone out there is so inclined to write them up for us. Feel free to contact me if you're interested.

Just Say No To Campaigns

2007-01-29T15:50:00.000-05:00

Here in the U.S., the presidential election cycle is gearing up again. I'm already getting tired of it. I generally listen to NPR's news on the radio while traveling to and from work, so I get more than two earfuls of it morning and evening. Sometimes I have to turn it off because I can't take it anymore.

The problem isn't so much the individual candidates or their rhetoric. It's the system itself that turns my stomach. Ultimately most politicians would like to be known as bridge-builders and unifiers, but before they can even have a shot at such a role they must be dividers. There is no chance for bringing people together in a meaningful search for truth and optimal solutions. There is only partisan debate (laced with varying degrees of vitriol) and in the end compromise that falls short of the best solution or, all too often, that results in impasse.

In the early days of Planet Baha'i I wrote a few articles about Baha'i electoral practices (and here, too), particularly their lack of campaigns and the decision-making process known as consultation. It may be time to revisit them so as to avoid losing focus and composure! Looks like it's going to be a long campaign...

A Gift of Poetry

2007-01-29T09:32:00.000-05:00

Toni, one of the regulars in the Planet Baha'i Forum sent this poem as a gift on the opening of this blog. The first letters of each line spell out a message that you'll understand if you are familiar with the Baha'i Faith. But in case you're not, Baha'u'llah is the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, who Baha'is believe to be a divine Messenger like the Founders of all other major religions.

Thanks, Toni!

Beautious pathway to contentment and peace.
Adored One, my heart's desire.
Heavensent Messenger and Loving Father
Allahluya song of Angels, councilling us to
'be forebearing one with another'
Uniting all peoples of the world, teaching
'no one should exalt himself above another'.
Lord of all worlds, of all peoples
Love's Precious Gift of Glory to all mankind.
Allah'u'Abha, hear our prayers,
He who is manifest for eons of time.

Even'song, Dawning hymn, paean of
Virtue, Perfection Personified.
Everlasting and Eternal
Respendent in Thy rainbow robes
Lusterous beyond our comprehension
Art Thou. Make us worthy of Thee
Splendid and Praisworthy art Thy
Teachings, We open our hearts to Thy Council
Instructing us through Thy Hidden Words, the
Nightengale of Paradise is chantiing Thy
Glory, Oh Dearly Beloved of all mankind.

--Toni Edmonds

Planet Baha'i Blog Mark II

2007-01-26T16:27:00.000-05:00

This is the second time I've set up a blog in conjunction with Planet Baha'i. The first one didn't work out so well, but I was new at it. Maybe this time I'll have a better shot at getting it right.

In case you don't know about Planet Baha'i, permit me to introduce you to it. It started in 2000 as About.com's Baha'i Faith site, with yours truly as the "guide". In September of 2001, however, About dumped about one-third of its content sites, the Baha'i Faith site among them. In the aftermath, I created Planet Baha'i as an independent site to house the old About content and forge ahead.

It has been quite successful in the ensuing years. We've published some 300 articles on all aspects of the Baha'i Faith, built up an extensive link library, passed along news from the Baha'i World News Service, and built up a thriving discussion forum. My wife Kathy and I have even published a book, Spiritual Telemetry: Readings From the First Five Years of Planet Baha'i, and have a second one in the works.

So, that's Planet Baha'i. If you are not familiar with the Baha'i Faith, I invite you to have a look at the site and of course to follow this blog. (No pressure. We're here to inform the interested, not to proselytize and otherwise bug the heck out of the uninterested.) Thanks for stopping by!