Riding the new wind

"There's a new wind blowing . . ."
- Phil Lucas

"There's a new world coming . . ."
- Mama Cass

"This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius . . ."
- The Fifth Dimension

"I see you coming back again, summer sunshine."

A few months ago I was reading some of the writings of William Miller, Hermann Zimmer, and Ruth White. That's another tale I'll tell some other time.

Something came into focus for me that filled me with feelings that I associate with those songs. The new wind, the new spirit that came into the world with Baha'u'llah, can not be encompassed by any organization or theory.

I'm imagining that you can ride that wind, the way a bird ride on currents of air, by learning to trust Baha'u'llah.

I'm imagining it would help us all a lot to talk to each other about our experiences in learning to trust Baha'u'llah. I want to practice that with people in my life. I started with Tony, July 18.

Centering together

Yesterday I called TB and asked him on the spur of the moment if I could see him at 7:30 or 8:00 for about an hour. He agreed!

I talked to him about some of my personal experiences with Baha'u'llah and with His writings, and asked him to do the same. I talked for example about the passages about the true seeker, about the flower that has begun to bloom in the rose garden of changeless splendor, and the fathomless and surging ocean astonishingly near to us.

We both had fond memories of discussions like this with other friends, long ago . . .

----

Today at work, I asked someone, "What do you think it would take to have a better world?"

He said "Better people!"

I told him that I think people need to learn to put God at the center of their lives, and follow His guidance more, and he agreed. Then I told him about my idea of getting together with friends to talk about God, and to read things together that help us stay centered on what really matters in life. We had a good time together for a while, talking about God and God-centered living, and some of our memories of good times with other people, centered on God. I told him I'll keep him posted about my meetings with my other friends, and he said he might come in on it. That's the first time in eight years that I've had any discussion with him like that.

----

Where it began . . .

As part of walking with someone, I was reading a book by some Baha'is who turned against Shoghi Effendi. The thought came to me again, as it has many times before in relation to people who have turned away from Abdu'l-Baha, Shoghi Effendi, or the House of Justice: It looks to me like they had never really taken Baha'u'llah or Abdu'l-Baha seriously. If they had, then when they thought they saw something going wrong in the Faith, they would have gone to the writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha to get ideas about what to do in a situation like that.

The book I was reading lamented about the spirit of the Faith being stifled by the administration. I would agree. There are warnings about that in the writings of Shoghi Effendi and the House of Justice. In "One Common Faith," the House of Justice says that the awakening religious spirit needs desperately to be freed from the shackles that have prevented it from bringing to bear the healing influence of which it is capable. In my view those shackles would include some ways of viewing and using institutions which are still popular in the Baha'i Community.

Those two thoughts, about people who have turned away from Shoghi Effendi and the House of Justice not taking Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha seriously, and about the spirit of the Faith being shackled by popular ideas among Baha'is about administration, brought me back to a recurring feeling that there are still very few people, even among Baha'is, who take Baha'u'llah seriously enough to put Him and His interests at the center of their lives, and turn to His writings for guidance in everything they do. I've had that feeling many times before, and wondered what to do about it. This time, the idea came to me to ask people to get together with me to talk about Baha'u'llah and read His writings together.

Spreading peace, justice, beauty and kindness

I sent this email to a few of my friends who live nearby:

I'm imagining that there are all kinds of people
everywhere, in every part and every corner of society,
and at every level, working to spread peace, beauty,
justice, and kindness in the world.

I'm imagining that there are skills and capacities
that can be developed through training, that can help
people in that work, as there are in all the arts.

I'm imagining that programs for that training will
evolve, steadily improve, and become available to more
and more people in a variety of ways, including
organized courses, and mentoring.

I have some ideas about how to help that happen, that
I would like to work on with some other people. Would
you like to help me?

I also sent a copy of that to some family members and other friends, for them to see what I was doing.

Two or three nearby friends said they would like to work on that with me. One of the others I wrote to offered to be a sounding board. I sent him two emails about two of my projects. This is the second email:

I'll give you some more details now about the two
projects I wrote about last time.

Projects:

1. Helping to develop training programs and support
networks for people who are working to spread peace,
justice, beauty and kindness all over the world.

2. Helping to develop training programs and support
networks for people who are working to bring out the
best in people, and to arrange for every person to
have the kind of encouragement and support that really
helps, in what she's trying to do with her life and in
the challenges she's facing.

I'll list the strategies again, then give some details
for each.

1. Studying and practicing to develop and apply my own
capacities, using materials already available.

2. Helping other people develop and apply their
capacities.

3. Promoting and serving some programs and networks
already available.

4. Talking to other people about my visions and what
I'm doing.

5. Asking people if they would like to work with me on
these projects, and working with them if they agree to
it.

6. Writing accounts of my ideas and experiences.

Currently I don't see myself as one of the people who
will help design and organize training programs and
networks. I see myself as more of a technician,
tester, and troubleshooter. That's the way it's always
been in computer programming. I've always been much
better at making other people's programs work, than at
designing programs myself.

I do imagine that that my accounts of my ideas and
experiences might eventually be useful to people who
design and organize the programs and networks. I do
imagine that I can help promote the programs and
networks.

----

Details:

1. Studying and practicing to develop and apply my own
capacities, using materials already available.

I'm starting with some materials developed by Baha'is.
Some examples of capacities to develop: learning from
scriptures, individually and together, memorizing
scriptures, sharing what we learn with others,
visiting people, turning conversations to spiritual
topics, teaching children's classes, working with
children, responding to challenges encountered in
service, designing and implementing a personal
teaching plan, participating in a teaching campaign.

I have a document with ideas for activities to help
develop those capacities. I'm looking for someone who
will go through it and practice it with me.

For encouragement and bringing out the best with
people, I'm starting with two programs I found many
years ago. One is about helping skills, by Gerard
Egan. There's a textbook and a training manual.
Another program is about becoming an encouraging
person, by Losoncy and Dinkmeyer. I'm looking for
someone to go through those with me, too.

2. Helping other people develop and apply their
capacities.

If I find someone to go through those materials and
practice them with me, we'll be helping each other.
Then I could ask other people to go through them with
me, to enrich my experience. I imagine I'll learn more
each time, and different people have different
strengths that will help me develop different
capacities. I might suggest to each of them to go
through the materials with other people, too.

3. Promoting and serving some programs and networks
already available.

For now that will be:
- Baha'i programs and networks
- Evangelical works of a Baptist church in my
neighborhood
- Egan's helping skills
- Losoncy's and Dinkmeyer's encouragement skills

4. Talking to other people about my visions and what
I'm doing.

No details on that for now.

5. Asking people if they would like to work with me on
these projects, and working with them if they agree to
it.

I've sent emails about this to friends who live near
me, and talked to some on the phone or in person. Two
or three have said they'd like to work on those
projects with me, but we haven't started yet.

6. Writing accounts of my ideas and experiences.

I've done that a few times already, in two blogs. I
hope to do it more often. I might try to do it after I
send this.

Now I need to contact the people who said they'd like to work on it with me, to schedule our first time.