Kindness

This was a week of kindness

Of being thoughtful and considerate
Of developing a kindly tongue
And refraining from unkind words
Of curbing sarcasm
Of quelling anger
Of checking irritation
Of suppressing negativity
Of giving people the benefit of the doubt
Of acts of kindness
Of positive thought
Of making the heart one tiny bit bigger.

This was a week of kindness.

Non violence

At the recently held interfaith panel discussion on Religion and Non-violence, hosted by the Hindu Students Council, the Baha'i speaker made what I thought was a pretty remarkable point about the source of the concept of non-violence in the Baha'i faith.

Most religious philosophies typically make a distinction between good and evil. This is particularly true of Judeo-Christian traditions, but to some extent also exists in other schools of thought. Essentially there exists a dualistic concept of good and evil - an independent existence is accorded to each (often personified by God and Satan, or angels and demons, or devtas and asuras), and there is the idea of an eternal battle between good and evil. It is really the existence of an independent concept of evil that causes many people to ultimately resort to violence in certain situations - for if you truly believed that certain things in this world are evil, then it would make sense to adopt violence to combat them, once other options are exhausted. And of course, once one in principle says that certain things in this world could be evil, where the line is drawn becomes a subjective judgment. For I could justify my actions on the basis that I believed some thing or some person to be evil. And the combination of my judgment, and the idea that it is acceptable to use violence to combat what is evil would sanction an attitude of violence.

However, the Baha'i faith clearly talks about the non-existence of evil. There is no dual nature to Good and Bad - all of creation is essentially Good. More details on this can be found in a previous post here, but to summarize, Abdu'l Baha talks about how the perception of evil/bad comes about either from the absence of goodness, or from the incompatibility between two good things.

Once one adopts this perspective, believing that there is really no evil in this world, that all that is created is truly good, one loses a firm basis for violence. If one believed there were nothing in the world truly evil, that everyone had some good in them, one would not have to be violent.

Note that by violence I mean an attitude of violence - not necessarily a violent action. At no point should one ignore the value of justice - and therefore it might be necessary to have a police force, take action against criminals, etc. But these are to be purely social actions - and from the point of the view of the individual, the right thing to do is to always be forgiving and merciful - in one's heart. Holding on to the belief that everyone's soul has its own spiritual equation with God, and that we are all somewhere along the path of progress towards God, will enable one to achieve that state.

Religion and unity

"...if religious belief proves to be the cause of discord and dissension, its absence would be preferable; for religion was intended to be the divine remedy and panacea for the ailments of humanity, the healing balm for the wounds of mankind. If its misapprehension and defilement have brought about warfare and bloodshed instead of remedy and cure, the world would be better under irreligious conditions."

-- Abdu'l Baha at Stanford University, October 8th, 1912

The purpose of creation

"The purpose of God in creating man hath been, and will ever be, to enable him to know his Creator and to attain His Presence. To this most excellent aim, this supreme objective, all the heavenly Books and the divinely-revealed and weighty Scriptures unequivocally bear witness."

-- Baha'u'llah

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

-- William Henry Davies

The trials of man

The trials of man are of two kinds.

(a) The consequences of his own actions. If a man eats too much, he ruins his digestion; if he takes poison he becomes ill or dies. If a person gambles he will lose his money; if he drinks too much he will lose his equilibrium. All these sufferings are caused by the man himself, it is quite clear therefore that certain sorrows are the result of our own deeds.

(b) Other sufferings there are, which come upon the Faithful of God. Consider the great sorrows endured by Christ and by His apostles!

Men who suffer not, attain no perfection. The plant most pruned by the gardeners is that one which, when the summer comes, will have the most beautiful blossoms and the most abundant fruit. The labourer cuts up the earth with his plough, and from that earth comes the rich and plentiful harvest. The more a man is chastened, the greater is the harvest of spiritual virtues shown forth by him. A soldier is no good General until he has been on the front of the fiercest battle and has received the deepest wounds.

-- Abdu'l Baha

Seize thy chance

O MY SERVANT!

Free thyself from the fetters of this world, and loose thy soul from the prison of self. Seize thy chance, for it will come to thee no more.

-- Baha'u'llah

Thought vs. action

There are numerous places in the Baha'i writings where the value of deeds over words is highly exalted. Baha'u'llah says in the Hidden Words, "Say, O brethren! Let deeds, not words, be your adorning."

The word "adorning" is rather appropriately used here, and I'll let you muse about it on your own. Meanwhile, it seems like there are two ways in which we could slip into the tendency of making words, and not deeds, our adorning.

1. Doing some good deeds, but also talking a lot about them: This is where our ego comes into play - we do something good, kind, noble - but want to publicize it to everyone so the world can know how good, kind and noble we are. Unfortunately this thought process in itself pushes us backward along the spiritual path and in some subtle way reduces our goodness, kindness or nobility. Abdu'l Baha, in one of his Paris talks, says, "A man who does great good, and talks not of it, is on the way to perfection." Apart from making us proud and egoistic, talking a lot about our deeds with the intention of glorifying ourselves also prevents us from doing more good deeds - after all, we do have a finite amount of time in our lives, and a minute spent in the adulation of oneself is a minute lost in doing service to the world. It behooves us, therefore, to focus our energies on action, rather than speech. Of course, this does not negate the importance of communication - one does need to share one's ideas with others, communicate the need for good deeds and so on. However, the attitude with which this is done is of paramount importance.

2. Having great, noble and idealistic thoughts - but not translating them into action: This is the classical philosopher's stance - of one who thinks/says and lot and does little. Such an attitude is the result both of indolence and egotism. We like to think noble, idealistic thoughts - and feel happy in the knowledge that at least we are thinking good. But we often lack the motivation to actually go and do something that expresses the idea behind those thoughts/ideals - or other, more mundane things take priority and we just lose sight of the larger picture. Either way, we often theorize a lot without actually acting.

Abdu'l Baha beautifully summarizes how this serves as a true litmus test to distinguish the philosopher from the realized spiritual teacher. He says:

"To this class the majority of philosophers belong, their teachings being high above their actions. This is the difference between philosophers who are Spiritual Teachers, and those who are mere philosophers: the Spiritual Teacher is the first to follow His own teaching; He brings down into the world of action His spiritual conceptions and ideals. His Divine thoughts are made manifest to the world. His thought is Himself, from which He is inseparable. When we find a philosopher emphasizing the importance and grandeur of justice, and then encouraging a rapacious monarch in his oppression and tyranny, we quickly realize that he belongs to the first class: for he thinks heavenly thoughts and does not practice the corresponding heavenly virtues."

Fly high

O SON OF DESIRE!

How long wilt thou soar in the realms of desire? Wings have I bestowed upon thee, that thou mayest fly to the realms of mystic holiness and not the regions of satanic fancy. The comb, too, have I given thee that thou mayest dress My raven locks, and not lacerate My throat.

-- Baha'u'llah

The flowering of knowledge

O SON OF MY HANDMAID!

Quaff from the tongue of the merciful the stream of divine mystery, and behold from the dayspring of divine utterance the unveiled splendor of the daystar of wisdom. Sow the seeds of My divine wisdom in the pure soil of the heart, and water them with the waters of certitude, that the hyacinths of knowledge and wisdom may spring up fresh and green from the holy city of the heart.

-- Baha'u'llah