multi scale modeling - from "world embracing vision" to "inner life and private character"
Sigh. There is a lack of appreciation for spirituality in the greater humanitarian world.
I got stopped in the street by yet another one of those summer activists (they are ubiquitous and after my politeness started wearing off i mostly avoided having them see me by any means possible (including taking drastic detours)). Her organization was "save the children," and she had already seen me and said hello, so I decided to have a nice conversation with her. We talked about all the preventable deaths of children and the importance of public health initiatives - I mentioned the concept of nurturing/training/empowering certain individuals residing within suffering societies so that they can rise up and provide needed education and services to their kinsmen, albeit not in much detail, and we were just talking about very progressive concepts. But of course she had an agenda, and it got to the monthly membership, payments, etc. part of the encounter. It makes sense, I mean, it's her job to get me to give money... :( So I quickly realized the relatively pointless nature of what started as a relatively good conversation.
While politely refusing to lend my financial support, I mentioned that I really liked the aims of the organization and thought it was always good for humanitarians in public health and social/economic development to form connections and collaborate, sharing methods and insights as much as possible, like how the Baha'i International Community and its agencies try to do that. She replied quickly by saying how great it was that her organization was completely non-religious and didn't go around converting people, but just helped them by giving them access to medicine and birth control, which is what they're really in need of. I guess it made me a little sad because I know that a lot of religions proselytize by providing aid that is conditioned on conversion. :(
But how could I take the time to explain it all? How proselytizing is forbidden in the Faith? How the concept of empowerment through training has proven its effectiveness in every part of the planet? How there is a branch course of Ruhi completely devoted to public health? How communication, learning that happens in every locality, and widespread unity of action is crucial to the maximum effectiveness of any endeavor? That attempts to divorce human life in the world at large from basic spirituality has marginalized the values that are at the foundation of many beautiful societies and cultures? The bottom line was that I wasn't going to give her money at that time. Fortunately, the encounter gave me palpable reason to introspect on how my personal actions and resources could have a greater impact on the world than they are now. Interestingly, it comes down to this:
"Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, not by an organized campaign of teaching - no matter how worldwide and elaborate in its character - not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and skeptical age the supreme claim of the Abha Revelation. One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Baha'u'llah." - Shoghi Effendi
Living and trying to make a change in this world - it's very, very hard to effect a positive change in a system when you yourself are working within the system. Take, for example, politics. You may want to change the political system, but ultimately if you want to succeed, you have to play by its rules. Competition. Self-promotion. You need to spend ridiculous amounts of money to get your message out, even though that's the very form of pointlessness you might want to get away from. It's tough.
But then the same applies to other systems with harmful prevailing attitudes. Like the environment of ego and criticism within the scientific/academic community. Or, on the other hand, corporate sponsorship of research. When the system decides the direction of your work and then determines its value, you have no place to be individually effective. Anyone within such a system also becomes *highly susceptible* to its influence ... it's hard enough to maintain your own values and way of treating other people, simply because of the inertia of the status quo. Opposition of any sort makes it even harder.
What if you could be part of a system with noble motives and effective methods that could best harness your talents and strengths and sense of individual initiative? That would be really exciting.
A lot of people would prefer not to work in any system at all - the corruption of many systems lends credibility to the philosophy of individualism. But ultimately individualism is still ineffective. Collaboration makes possible so much more. "Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self."
Baha'u'llah's whole mission was to change the system, to heal its ills - on many levels, personal to global to cosmic. And to be able to proclaim it as fearlessly as He did required Him to be really, really, extremely brave and strong and self-assured. It required inspiration, and it required integrity. To exert transformative and lasting influence, it required Divine power. Well, thank God He had all that. And the ripple effect of that power now becomes the wind beneath the wings and the life within the breath of all people "laying foundations for a spiritual world."
More to come soon - I try to let deeds (not words) be my adorning, but I have had so many thoughts that I wanted to put into words that I started a slough of subjects all at once and when they're written I might as well publish them ... in rapid succession.
I got stopped in the street by yet another one of those summer activists (they are ubiquitous and after my politeness started wearing off i mostly avoided having them see me by any means possible (including taking drastic detours)). Her organization was "save the children," and she had already seen me and said hello, so I decided to have a nice conversation with her. We talked about all the preventable deaths of children and the importance of public health initiatives - I mentioned the concept of nurturing/training/empowering certain individuals residing within suffering societies so that they can rise up and provide needed education and services to their kinsmen, albeit not in much detail, and we were just talking about very progressive concepts. But of course she had an agenda, and it got to the monthly membership, payments, etc. part of the encounter. It makes sense, I mean, it's her job to get me to give money... :( So I quickly realized the relatively pointless nature of what started as a relatively good conversation.
While politely refusing to lend my financial support, I mentioned that I really liked the aims of the organization and thought it was always good for humanitarians in public health and social/economic development to form connections and collaborate, sharing methods and insights as much as possible, like how the Baha'i International Community and its agencies try to do that. She replied quickly by saying how great it was that her organization was completely non-religious and didn't go around converting people, but just helped them by giving them access to medicine and birth control, which is what they're really in need of. I guess it made me a little sad because I know that a lot of religions proselytize by providing aid that is conditioned on conversion. :(
But how could I take the time to explain it all? How proselytizing is forbidden in the Faith? How the concept of empowerment through training has proven its effectiveness in every part of the planet? How there is a branch course of Ruhi completely devoted to public health? How communication, learning that happens in every locality, and widespread unity of action is crucial to the maximum effectiveness of any endeavor? That attempts to divorce human life in the world at large from basic spirituality has marginalized the values that are at the foundation of many beautiful societies and cultures? The bottom line was that I wasn't going to give her money at that time. Fortunately, the encounter gave me palpable reason to introspect on how my personal actions and resources could have a greater impact on the world than they are now. Interestingly, it comes down to this:
"Not by the force of numbers, not by the mere exposition of a set of new and noble principles, not by an organized campaign of teaching - no matter how worldwide and elaborate in its character - not even by the staunchness of our faith or the exaltation of our enthusiasm, can we ultimately hope to vindicate in the eyes of a critical and skeptical age the supreme claim of the Abha Revelation. One thing and only one thing will unfailingly and alone secure the undoubted triumph of this sacred Cause, namely, the extent to which our own inner life and private character mirror forth in their manifold aspects the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Baha'u'llah." - Shoghi Effendi
Living and trying to make a change in this world - it's very, very hard to effect a positive change in a system when you yourself are working within the system. Take, for example, politics. You may want to change the political system, but ultimately if you want to succeed, you have to play by its rules. Competition. Self-promotion. You need to spend ridiculous amounts of money to get your message out, even though that's the very form of pointlessness you might want to get away from. It's tough.
But then the same applies to other systems with harmful prevailing attitudes. Like the environment of ego and criticism within the scientific/academic community. Or, on the other hand, corporate sponsorship of research. When the system decides the direction of your work and then determines its value, you have no place to be individually effective. Anyone within such a system also becomes *highly susceptible* to its influence ... it's hard enough to maintain your own values and way of treating other people, simply because of the inertia of the status quo. Opposition of any sort makes it even harder.
What if you could be part of a system with noble motives and effective methods that could best harness your talents and strengths and sense of individual initiative? That would be really exciting.
A lot of people would prefer not to work in any system at all - the corruption of many systems lends credibility to the philosophy of individualism. But ultimately individualism is still ineffective. Collaboration makes possible so much more. "Let your vision be world-embracing, rather than confined to your own self."
Baha'u'llah's whole mission was to change the system, to heal its ills - on many levels, personal to global to cosmic. And to be able to proclaim it as fearlessly as He did required Him to be really, really, extremely brave and strong and self-assured. It required inspiration, and it required integrity. To exert transformative and lasting influence, it required Divine power. Well, thank God He had all that. And the ripple effect of that power now becomes the wind beneath the wings and the life within the breath of all people "laying foundations for a spiritual world."
More to come soon - I try to let deeds (not words) be my adorning, but I have had so many thoughts that I wanted to put into words that I started a slough of subjects all at once and when they're written I might as well publish them ... in rapid succession.